Chapter 172 Flightless Butterfly

Holding back her discomfort, Xia Ling sang the third line: "As if the iris on the roadside/lost in time/can't tell whether/that gentle you/is real or a dream..."

Tears fell without warning. A fragmented vision flashed before my eyes. I don’t know where and when in the summer, large bushes of irises bloomed wildly on the roadside in the wind. There was a young, tall man who smiled against the light and stretched out his hand to the girl in front of him. Come - Xiao Ling, come home with me.

Xiao Ling, come home with me...

The voice was low and distant, like a curse, making her choke up.

More images flooded into my mind. Among the luxurious villas in the mountains, the man held the girl's hand and announced to many tribesmen: "This is Xia Ling, my adopted child. I hope you will treat her well."

In the quiet study room, the man held the girl on his lap and taught her handwriting.

In a garden full of roses, the man knelt down to pick the thorns from the soles of the child's feet. His eyes were slightly lowered, gentle and focused...

Tears blurred her vision. Xia Ling thought of many past events, and her singing voice gradually changed its tone: "...you gave me the crystal sky/the perfect dream..."

During the song, she seemed to go back in time and become that little girl again, with a graceful figure and stunning appearance. She jumps and spins lightly in the practice room, singing with a heavenly voice, year after year.

Pei Ziheng came to see her. It was snowing outside the floor-to-ceiling window. He took the soft woolen coat from his entourage and put it on her thin shoulders. He said: "It's cold. Please keep warm if you sweat."

She put her hands around his neck, tilted her head up and kissed him affectionately.

There was a faint scent of tea on his body, as well as the smell of sandalwood mixed with paper and ink in the study. Putting his arms around her waist, he pulled her closer and plundered her until I almost suffocated.

"Xiao Ling," he murmured hoarsely, "my butterfly..."

Such an unforgettable voice.

Xia Ling's heart ached and she felt dizzy. She was on a smoky stage. The hand holding the microphone was trembling, and her singing voice was also trembling: "...turn into a butterfly/a butterfly that belongs to you..."

In a trance, the stage turned into another one, a starry open-air square with 100,000 people. She wore a pure white silk dress, light gold wings, raised her chin high, and sang arrogantly.

Deafening cheers came from all directions—Xia Ling! Xia Ling! Xia Ling!

Deep in her heart, something shattered, and she stared blankly into the void. Where... is this place? who is she? Is it the past life or this life? Tears flowed uncontrollably. Xia Ling walked in vain, unable to stand anymore. She staggered to the edge of the stage and held on to the microphone stand fixed there.

"For you...to bloom for you..." She was crying, her voice was intermittent, and those tearful lyrics seemed to be engraved in the depths of her soul, "For you alone...just for you..."

"...until that moment/The sky falls apart/You tear apart the illusion/Push me into the cruel abyss..."

A newspaper appeared in front of me, with a shocking front page headline - Pei Ziheng, the head of the Pei family, was engaged to Wang Jingwan, the daughter of the yacht tycoon Wang family. Xia Ling couldn't believe it and rushed to find him like crazy. He held a very important board meeting at the emperor's headquarters. Big bosses gathered in the room and the atmosphere was solemn.

She threw the newspaper in front of him.

"Nonsense." An unknown old man said in a low voice.

Xia Ling turned a deaf ear and asked Pei Ziheng angrily for an explanation. He was silent for a moment, with the wrinkles between his eyebrows like a knife carving: "Xiao Ling, this matter has nothing to do with you."

She was shaking with anger and making a fuss. The board meeting that day failed to continue, so Pei Ziheng dragged her home, threw her into the bedroom, and took possession of her tyrannically, but did not mention a word about the engagement.

No matter how she pressed him, he always said "it has nothing to do with you."

She sought comment from many people, but none of them dared to get involved in the dispute between her and Pei Ziheng, so they just hesitated. Only Feng Kun and Chu Chen persuaded her: "Xiao Ling, what the boss means is that whether he is engaged or not, it is a political marriage and will not affect your relationship."

Doesn't it affect your feelings? joke!

She scolded them, and then she quarreled even more fiercely with Pei Ziheng, and even negotiated with Wang Jingwan... until Wang Jingwan died in an accident, and Pei Ziheng couldn't bear it anymore and imprisoned her.

"You raise your finger slightly/and remain calm/break my wings..."

In the cold villa, he pressed her on the bed, ignored her fear and struggle, and humiliated her wantonly...

"Crystal Sky/Shattered Dreams..."

He locked her in a dark and narrow confinement room without a trace of light or sound. She wanted to shout but couldn't open her mouth. She wanted to struggle but couldn't even move a finger... The long dead silence was like passing by. For trillions of years, she didn't know whether she was dead or alive. She heard her weak heartbeat, the sound of blood flowing, saw huge monsters and spider webs, the scythe of death, and countless hallucinations...

Then the door opened, and the man walked in with light, like a god.

"Xiao Ling," he whipped it off, and the severe pain and pleasure made her tremble. He leaned forward and touched her face, his tone was cold and gentle, "All your joy and pain are given by me, everything you have belongs to me."

Xia Ling cried out and sang with difficulty: "The butterfly in the cage..."

"Flyless butterfly..." The body slid down little by little, half-kneeling on the stage. She felt the burning pain in her ankle, and there was a wound there - a bloody wound worn out by the gold chain worn by Pei Ziheng himself over the long years.

"The flightless butterfly..." She tried her best to control herself so as not to burst into tears, "The spreading spider web...

“Blooded wings/Ashes’ wishes…

“Flightless butterfly/imprisoned in a spider’s web…

"Can't escape the prison...

"wait……

"die……"

The last line of lyrics falls.

She sat on her knees on the stage, her body numb, and she couldn't stop crying intermittently. For a brief moment, my mind went blank, as if the wind from the fall that day kept passing by. No, that's not right... It's not blank, but there are many memories roaring, rolling, clamoring, lightning, and overwhelming.

All, all tenderness and pain.

When they first met, that summer in the orphanage where iris flowers were blooming, he held her hand and took her home; when they were together at the age of thirteen, he said that he would be good to her throughout his life; at the International Music Awards, he Sitting in the guest seat, he listened with all his attention to her singing the song "Perfect Dream" written for him...

There was also the fateful day when he slapped her to the ground in the entrance hall of his home and angrily asked her why she wanted to murder Wang Jingwan. Cage, despair, madness, collapse...

Xia Ling didn't dare to dwell on the nightmare of the last year. She only remembered that she jumped off the stage and then was reborn.

Say goodbye to Xia Ling's life and become Ye Xingling.