Chapter 1: The Kidnapped Bride
"Awake?" Hearing a man\'s low voice echoing in the darkness, Ding Manman sees some sparks flickering in the corner of the dark room.
"Who are you?" She looks around and sees nothing but the sparse moonlight outside the small window.
The man over there doesn\'t utter a word. But she feels that the man, hardhearted and callous, rises to his feet and strides over towards her. Ding Manman is so frightened that she steps back and bumps against the cold wall.
The tactile impression of the soft wedding dress reminds her that it is her wedding day today. The wedding car was stopped on the way to the wedding venue, and she was dragged out of the car and lost her consciousness immediately afterwards.
With no space to hide, the only thing she can do is strive to see clearly the face of the man standing in front of her with her eyes wide-open. "What do you want to do?"
"Fuck you!"
The man steps forward, ruthlessly pinches her chin and ravishes a kiss.
With the tobacco ordor diffusing into her mouth, Ding Manman struggles fiercely and bites hard at the man\'s lips.
The taste of blood, instead of stopping the man\'s brutal actions, arouses his sexual desire. Roughly he tears at Ding Manman\'s wedding dress, which sends her into screaming, "Let me go!"
The man, turning a blind eye to her struggles, grabs her hair and pushes her against the wall. Feeling a sticky liquid sliding down from her forehead, she opens her mouth widely and the gnawing pain from the wound wrenches her unable to utter a single sound.
"Painful?" The man\'s voice rings again in her ears.
"Yeah..." Ding Manman is pinned against the wall with her back to him. She cannot see his expression, which makes her feel more terrified.
The man\'s hot lips sink into the snow-white skin on Ding\'s shoulder. "Compared with the deadly pain he suffered from, the pain you are suffering is nothing!"
Then, the man lifts her wedding dress and harshly thrusts his waiting erection into Ding\'s lower body regardless of her tenseness and dryness, the pain caused by which sends tears flowing down her face.
Her eyes are full of despair. On the very day of her wedding she is kidnapped and raped in the most humiliating way in the darkroom.
Feeling the existence of hymen hindering him from going further in, the man is taken aback and confused. "Hasn\'t Fang Hao had sex with you?"
Hearing the name "Fang Hao", Ding Manman, who had given up resisting, suddenly starts to struggle fiercely. "You are not allowed to mention his name." It is the most embarrassing thing for her to hear her fiancé\'s name mentioned at such a humiliating moment.
Zhong Shaoting\'s last bit of pity disappears after hearing Ding Manman\'s words, and he penetrates through her hymen with force mercilessly.
"Zhong Shaoting." The man bites at her earlobe and utters his own name. "Remember, this is just the beginning."
When Ding Manman wakes up once again, she finds herself still in the darkroom, but Zhong Shaoting has been gone. A scent of Eros permeating in the air makes her feel so sick that she almost throws up. She huddles up into another corner, trying to keep herself from thinking about what has happened. All of a sudden, she feels the pain in her ankles which she finds her ankles are shackled with a thick iron chain. A strong sense of shame crowds into her mind. "Is Zhong Shaoting treating me as a slave?!"
Just then the door is opened, and Zhong Shaoting, a tall and upright figure, shows up at the door.
"Come out," he orders
Ding Manman, biting at her lips, remains motionless.
An impatient voice sounds over there. "My words, once said, won\'t be repeated!" Ding Manman tightens her fists and remains still. Zhong Shaoting, with his grim and cold eyes, strides forward to drag at her.
Ding Manman quickly steps back. Unfortunately, her hair is violently gripped by Zhong with great force. "Can\'t you hear what I say?"
"Let me go." She says, "Otherwise, the Fang Family and the Ding Family won\'t let you off anyhow."
"The Fang Family and the Ding Family?" As if he hears something funny, a cruel smile crawls onto his lips. "Do you think that the two families dare to make a stand against the Zhong Family Group? One call from me will get them out of City A!"
With brows knitted, Ding Manman suddenly gets the answer why she hasn\'t been found for so long. The man in front of her wields so much power that no one can contend against.
Seeing her preoccupied, Zhong Shaoting grows more impatient. He pulls her out of the dark room. The resounding clash of the chains rings along the way, warning her of her present identity.
Zhong Shaoting takes her to the parlor and throws her some loose garments.
Staring at Zhong Shaoting, Ding Manman doesn\'t know how he will humiliate her next.
"Don\'t dream to escape! The only key to your anklet is here in my hand." Zhong hugs his shoulders and looks down upon her. "Go and pick 50 roses for me... with your BARE hands."
Ding Manman tugs at the corner of her clothes, understanding his deliberate intention to hurt her. The servants hurry by around her. No one dares to steal a look at her.
Seeing her hands punctured by the thorns of roses, Ding Manman grits her teeth.
Since no one will save her, she has to snatch at a straw to save herself.
On entering the parlor with the roses, she sees Zhong Shaoting in the sofa with a glamorous woman snuggling at his side. While seeing the roses in Ding\'s hands, the woman gets up to fetch them.
"Shaoting, are these roses for me?"
She speaks with a high-pinched voice which sounds very charming and cloyingly sweet. The woman looks at Ding up and down until she sees the chains on her ankles. A smile broadens on her face. The moment she touches the roses, she drops them to the floor.
"How do you do your work, maid?! Why haven\'t you cleared up the thorns?"
With these words, she slaps Ding on the face.
A crisp and loud sound of slapping is heard. The slap turns Ding\'s face to one side. With her ears still buzzing, she catches a glimpse of Zhong watching with cold eyes. Ding Manman bites at her lips and turns her head back without uttering a single word.
"Are you new here? How dare you be so rude!" Lin Xi\'er raises her tone and snuggles into Zhong\'s arms. "Shaoting, look at your servant! She doesn\'t even know how to behave herself."
Zhong Shaoting twines his arms around Lin Xi\'er and coaxes her. "All right, all right. Come on, let\'s go upstairs."
Lin Xi\'er takes his broad hint immediately and bursts into a huge smile, alluringly and flirtatiously.
A trace of contempt flashes across Ding Manman\'s eyes, which is noticed by Zhong whose eyes harden with heartlessness and insensibility.
"Ding Manman, you, come with us."
Even though not knowing what Zhong Shaoting is going to do, Ding Manman has sensed something terrible. While seeing the motionlessness of Ding, Lin Xi\'er turns to scold her, just as the hostess. "Are you deaf?"
"I see!"