How to Stop the Villain from Going Crazy
Translator: Fuyu
Chapter 28 - Who was the one being controlled and tamed (2)
Bo Li had him put on the black coat and the black wide-brimmed hat, and then they returned to the hotel.
There were a few gentlemen smoking outside of the hotel. They absent-mindedly glanced over when she and Erik dismounted before going back to talking nonsense.
Going to buy clothes was the right choice.
Bo Li didn't want to think how disdainfully these gentlemen would look at them if they hadn't gone clothes shopping beforehand and the terrible things that Erik would do if he was exposed to such looks.
She survived to see another day again. If this was a game, a window would have popped up for her achievement.
Bo Li wiped the cold sweat from her forehead. She found a hotel employee and opened a room. She originally wanted to open two rooms, but thinking of how dangerous Erik was, she decided it would be better to share a room.
The hotel had rooms specially set aside for bathing. The last guest had just finished bathing, and the water was still hot. The hotel employee said that if they didn't mind the used water, the bathing price could be cheaper.
Bo Li politely refused and asked him to boil two barrels of water.
Their room was on the third floor.
At the bottom of the stairs, there was a child handing out business cards. He looked no older than thirteen. He was wearing a suit like an adult, and his hair was slicked back.
"Gentlemen, an unprecedented spectacular exhibition will be held at this hotel next week. This is the curator Trique Terry's business card!"
Bo Li took the card and took a look. This one didn't look as refined as the one Trique had given them. It didn't have an address, but an intricate pattern was printed on the border. Underneath Trique's full name, the words "Spectacular Curator" was printed in a beautiful font.
Bo Li put the business card away, thanked the child, and headed to the third floor.
After the hotel employee brought them to their room, he told them the bathroom was next door. The water was still being boiled. Someone would come to inform them once the water was ready.
Bo Li thanked him.
After closing the door, she suddenly realized that she didn't know if Erik would be willing to take a bath. She knew that wild animal didn't like taking baths. Would he resist taking a bath…?
Bo Li turned to look at him. Before she could speak, the room spun, and she found herself pinned under him.
The floor was covered with a thick wool carpet, but she still almost yelped in pain.
"... You," she took a painful breath, "... What's wrong now?"
Erik silently looked down at her. The gaze behind his mask felt so tangible. It was as if something was rubbing up and down her throat.
She looked like she was in pain and very scared. Sweat was beading on her neck. Her skin felt satiny and hot to touch. His palm tingled as if he was touching silky burning charcoal.
And yet, even though she was terrified, she was still willing to let him touch her.
He didn't like what he was feeling. It made him feel… confused.
She seemed keen on touching him and having him touch her. No one had treated him like this before, including his mother.
In the past, the bodies he touched were usually dead.
In the Mazenderan Palace, he was responsible for killing people for the Shah's enjoyment. He would torture prisoners in the torture chamber or kill them with a rope in the arena.
He had touched all kinds of corpses: warm bodies, cold bodies, stiffened bodies, bloody bodies, and bodies that died with their eyes open.
When they were alive, they refused his touch. After dying, they were like docile animals that allowed him to carry and drag them.
He was a calm and rational person. He never fantasized about touching a living person.
And yet, he seemed to have touched her too many times in the past few days.
She kept hugging him, kissing his mask, and sleeping in his arms. She treated him like a large, harmless stuffed toy.
And now, she wasn't satisfied with only doing that. She had him change into new clothes, took him into a luxurious hotel room, and prepared for him to take a bath.
What did she see him as? A pet?
He had never felt so out of sorts. The blood vessels in his temples were wildly beating, and the aggression in his body was becoming restless.
He knew that she didn't have malicious intentions. She was just being nice to him as best as she could to preserve her life.
However, every time she looked at him, every time she hugged him, every time she kissed his mask with a subtle force, it felt like an invisible whip was beating him.
His scalp felt numb, and the veins on his neck were popping out. If he was an animal, his hackles would be raised. His instinctive self-preservation urged him to strangle her.
Otherwise, something… very bad would happen.
Bo Li didn't know what happened.
Erik seemed as if he was really considering killing her.
She couldn't figure out why and thought it was just the protagonist of a horror movie suddenly going crazy.
She breathed with difficulty, carefully propped herself up, put her arm around his neck, and kissed his mask. She felt chilled from head to toe when she noticed that move was ineffective.
He looked at her from top to bottom. There were no fluctuations in his eyes, and he seemed indifferent.
Bo Li: "..." F*ck, was this even something he could develop a resistance against?
Fear pressed down on her chest like a lump of cold lead. Perhaps, she was too nervous. She even heard a sharp white noise.
She saw a vein slightly protruding on his pale, sweaty skin. It looked like an angry, trembling snake.
Bo Li kissed that spot without thinking.
This was the first time that she kissed his bare skin.
He abruptly let her go as if he had been stung by a venomous bug.
Bo Li fell to the floor and gasped for air.
She closed her eyes. Her hair was wet with sweat. Her heart was beating so forcefully that she almost felt pain in her throat.
She made the right choice again. She really had a talent.
It was if she had developed some sort of weird conditioned reflex. Whenever she felt threatened, she would want to kiss him.
The only thing to be thankful for was that he had developed a corresponding reflex. When she kissed him, he would give up on killing her.
Bo Li couldn't tell which of these two conditioned reflexes was more messed up. It was hard to say who was the one being controlled and tamed.
T/N: Extra part to thank Zero_0000 for their NU review. Totally agree with your review.
Compared to Leroux's Erik, who is a cornucopia of personality disorders - histrionic, bipolar, psychotic, etc - I think this Erik is almost a model of sanity. For example, unlike Leroux's Erik, I never question this Erik’s perception of reality. I agree though that he's on a different wavelength than the standard webnovel yandere.
I have the mental image of Erik being ready to yeet himself off the deep end of no return (once he falls for Bo Li), but then he hears a clicking sound and sees that Bo Li has handcuff herself to him with a loving smile, which puts a quick damper to his more drastic impulses.