Chapter 23 – Stockholm syndrome

Jiang Zhen was taking a nap.

He recently developed the habit of taking naps. He fell asleep soon after lying down, and he slept particularly soundly.

Noticing this, Yang Jing, who was tied to a box by him, finally put his heart at ease. He could finally take a breath.

Before that, everything was a nightmare for him. How could he be so unlucky as to provoke such an evil star?

Yang Jing was no longer afraid, seeing Jiang Zhen sleeping so soundly. He inevitably raised his hopes up. He . . . Could he take this opportunity to escape?

He really didn’t want to stay with this man. He just wanted to run away and never come back.

As a yamen officer, Yang Jing often dealt with the villains in the county town and learned some skills from them, such as escaping from ropes . . . Of course, he was not particularly skilled.

It took him nearly half an hour to free one of his hands. When Yang Jing finally untied the rope on his hand, Jiang Zhen was still asleep.

As long as he could escape from this house, he could run away . . . Yang Jing slowly stood up and moved to the door . . .

At the same moment, he suddenly felt a cold wind blow pass by his ear, then a cold light flashed, making a bang sound, and a knife was stuck beside the hand he wanted to use to open the door.

Looking at the sharp knife, Yang Jing trembled uncontrollably. He slowly turned his head to look at the bed in the room. Sure enough, he saw Jiang Zhen, who had been sleeping in the bed a moment ago, his eyes open, looking at him, grinning like a demon. “Want to escape?”

Yang Jing’s legs turned soft, his body directly fell to the ground. It had not been easy to gather the courage to try to escape.

He didn’t dare to run; he would never try to run away again!

If he ran again, the man would stick the knife in his head!

Jiang Zhen, who revealed his unique skill of throwing knives, yawned and got up from the bed.

He looked lazy, but when he walked to Yang Jing’s side, he suddenly burst out, kicking Yang Jing directly to the ground and even kicking him several times in a row.

There were three reasons why Jiang Zhen never showed mercy when he hit Yang Jing. One of the reasons was that Yang Jing was not a good man. On one occasion, when Eldest Jiang went to deliver things to Jiang Chengxiang, he saw him extorting merchants and punching and kicking a farmer who went to the city to sell eggs.

The second reason was that this man was round and fat, making him resistant to beating . . . In ancient times, the medical conditions were not good. Old lady Jiang, who he had kicked before, was thin, making him afraid that he would accidentally kill her, but there was no need to worry about accidentally killing Yang Jing.

As for the third reason . . . After he beat this man so many times, he would certainly be afraid to cause him trouble in the future, but he would definitely try to cause trouble for the other members of the Jiang family.

Jiang Zhen was very happy to make some trouble for the Jiang family.

After leaving a lot of footprints on Yang Jing, Jiang Zhen pulled the knife off the door and patted Yang Jiang on the head. “Be obedient, okay?”

Yang Jing nodded repentantly.

Jiang Zhen had enough sleep. He found a clean set of clothes and put them on. Then he kicked Yang Jing again. “Stand up and go out with me.”

Yang Jing’s legs were so soft that he could not stand up after trying several times. Jiang Zhen frowned, lifted him up, and went to the patio of the Jiang family house.

The Jiang family went to work, and the rest of the villagers didn’t dare to wander in front of him. So now there was no one here . . . No, there were some people actually.

“Come out!” Jiang Zhen shouted towards the house.

There was no movement in the house, and no one came out. Jiang Zhen became impatient. “If you don’t come out, I’ll kick down the door!”

As soon as Jiang Zhen said this, someone came out of the room trembling. She called out with a pale little face, “Big-Big Brother . . .”

The person hiding in the house was Jiang Xiaomei. She thought that as long as she didn’t make any noise, Jiang Zhen would not find her. Unexpectedly, she was still discovered by Jiang Zhen . . .

Jiang Xiaomei lowered her head and trembled in fear of being hit by Jiang Zhen. Jiang Zhen didn’t hit her but said, “Go boil water!”

Hearing those words, Jiang Xiaomei breathed a sigh of relief and hurried off to boil the water.

Jiang Zhen knocked Yang Jing on the head with the back of his knife and let him lie in the corner. He found the fish he had traded for the hedgehog this morning and picked it up.

He scraped off the scales with the knife, dug out the fish intestines, and chopped them into pieces . . .

Seeing Jiang Zhen cutting fish with the knife, Yang Jing couldn’t help lowering his head and hunching his shoulders in fear that Jiang Zhen would chop him off after cutting the fish.

Jiang Xiaomei was also afraid. The water in the pot was boiling, but she didn’t dare talk or move. She continued to add firewood to the stove.

Jiang Zhen was very satisfied with the attitude of these two. He stood up and went to Yang Jing’s side, habitually kicking him again. Then he said, “Get up and wash yourself!” Yang Jing had peed in his pants after being scared by him, which made him stink.

“Yes!” Yang Jing nodded and became afraid again. This guy asked him to clean up. . . For what?

Yang Jing usually ate and drank well. Although he was not a big, fat man, he was still very big, but at this moment, he would do anything to make himself look small.

He hurriedly went to the kitchen to use hot water. He cleaned himself according to Jiang Zhen’s requirements, and at the same time, the more he washed himself, the more desperate he became.

The evil star suddenly let him take a bath. He couldn’t suddenly become so kind-hearted . . . Is it for the sake of skinning?

Yang Jing was so scared that when Jiang Zhen gave him Jiang Chengxiang’s clothes after he had washed, he had a sense of happiness that could last him for a lifetime.

Holding the clean clothes, Yang Jing was flattered and surprised to be allowed to wear them. Unconsciously, he felt a sense of gratitude.

Even though he was not tied up, Yang Jing did not dare to run away. After taking a bath and getting dressed, he even obediently came after Jiang Zhen.

“Go and wash your clothes!” Although Jiang Zhen didn’t know his thoughts, he didn’t take it very seriously.

Yang Jing immediately washed the clothes he had just taken off. He seldom washed his own clothes. At last, after several pots of muddy water, he finished washing and clumsily hung up the clothes.

“Come here. I’ll tie you up!” Jiang Zhen said after he saw he had finished cleaning himself up.

Yang Jing obediently come over and, without struggle, let Jiang Zhen tie him up.

Yang Jing is really very obedient, making Jiang Zhen not hate him too much. He even said, “Don’t worry. As long as you are obedient, I won’t kill you.”

As long as I obey, I don’t have to die! Yang Jing looked at Jiang Zhen and felt grateful.

Before, Jiang Zhen had not discovered Yang Jing’s feelings of gratitude but now he got a hunch.

He was either beating or scolding this man, but he was still looking at him gratefully. What was wrong with him?

It seemed that there was such a phenomenon? What was it called . . . Stockholm syndrome?

Humans could be tamed, raped, and might even develop feelings for the abuser . . . It seemed that there have been cases in which kidnapped people had helped their kidnappers in turn.

Jiang Zhen had only heard about this condition, but now . . . looking at Yang Jing’s clever performance, he suddenly found out that this man seemed to have this syndrome.

This man was really mentally ill! But it was still a good thing for him. Instead of hating him, Yang Jing was grateful to him, and it was estimated that he would work harder to cause trouble for Jiang Chengxiang in the future.

Jiang Zhen whistled and his mood became particularly good. Of course, he did not relax his vigilance or change his attitude towards Yang Jing because of this.

After tying up Yang Jing, Jiang Zhen asked Jiang Xiaomei to light a fire and began to cook the fish by himself.

Today, he didn’t have a chance to give Zhao Jinge fish, so he had to cook and eat it by himself . . .

“Little sister, do you remember? In the past when we cooked fish at home, I wasn’t even allowed to have the fish heads to eat,” said Jiang Zhen suddenly. “At last, when you had finished eating, there was still some fish soup left. I took the mixed rice and wanted to eat it. But second brother unexpectedly took the rice to feed the cat. I could only go hungry . . . Oh, I’m not even as good as a cat in this family.”

Eldest Jiang really had no place in this family. Even if his brothers and sister couldn’t eat well, they would certainly be able to eat enough. What about him? He often only watched his younger brothers and sister eat and pick up the rice they had dropped on the ground.

He lived with no dignity because no one had ever given him any dignity since he was a child.

Jiang Xiaomei lowered her head and didn’t dare to speak. She couldn’t remember the specific situation Eldest Jiang just described, but even if there had not been a hundred of them, there were at least 80 similar situations in all these years.

Old Madam Jiang hated Eldest Jiang very much. They didn’t like him. In fact, she didn’t like this big brother either.

“That’s my father and mother and I put up with everything, but a few days ago, I already died once, so I decided not to bear it any longer.” Jiang Zhen smiled coldly. “From now on, I am done with this family.”

Jiang Xiaomei lowered her head again, but Yang Jing remembered what Jiang Chengxiang said about Eldest Jiang before.

According to Jiang Chengxiang, his eldest brother was so stupid, he couldn’t even marry a wife, but according to what he saw today . . . it was clear that the old people of the Jiang family were so biased that they forced Eldest Jiang to be like that.

That damned Jiang Chengxiang, after driving his eldest brother crazy, he even pushed him into this firepit! Yang Jing hated Jiang Chengxiang even more. Jiang Zhen was satisfied to have a piece of fish to eat. The words he said were meant for Yang Jing.

That night, Jiang Zhen ate half a fish and two bowls of rice and took the extra rice and the rest of the fish back to his room.

The house he wanted couldn’t be built well for a while, so he took Yang Jing back to his room and decided to stay with him for a few more days.

Jiang Zhen didn’t give Yang Jing dinner. At night, he slept on the bed, and Yang Jing was thrown in the corner by him. However, Yang Jing didn’t show the slightest dissatisfaction.

If Jiang Zhen didn’t kill him, he would be grateful! Now he hated Jiang Chengxiang for being too slow to save him quickly!

If Jiang Chengxiang, who was working late at night, knew Yang Jing’s thoughts, he would feel very aggrieved. He was busy all the time without the slightest delay!

Jiang Zhen said that he would not let Yang Jing go until the house was built. People from Hexi Village had been working hard, building the house since that afternoon.

To build houses here, they needed to dig up several ditches first, hammer them with stone and mud so as to make a solid foundation, then put two boards, fill mud between the boards, and beat them constantly to make a mud wall.

Although the wall was made of mud, it was very solid because of its compactness. It would not be damaged for hundreds of years and would still keep warm in winter and cool in summer.

In fact, it took a lot of effort to hit the mud wall, but the whole village was working together, making the speed so fast that the house had already taken shape.

Zhao Jinge stared at the several walls and the busy people not too far away from his home for a long time. After making sure that his parents were asleep and no one noticed him, he turned around and disappeared in the night.

He was going to find Jiang Zhen to see if he needed his help.

Because of today’s events, people in the village said that Jiang Zhen was not easy to mess with. They all thought that Jiang Zhen turned into a madman, but he still thought that Jiang Zhen was not a bad person.

If Jiang Zhen was really a bad person, how could he share half of his food with him whenever he got something to eat? He was only pushed too hard by the Jiang family.

It was not long before Zhao Jinge came to the vicinity of the Jiang house. He went around the house and finally tapped on the window of Jiang Chengxiang’s house.