UNDER MY CONTROL ✔ (Under Heavy Editing)

Chapter : 1

Fear.
No other word could ever define the man.

Nervousness.
That's what he planted in others, effortlessly like a sickness that spread just by the mention of his name.

Helplessness.
That's what lingered after he left, a suffocating silence, a void that devoured every last piece of courage.

Humiliation.
That was the language he spoke. Fluent. Precise. Cruel.

Torture.
His form of art.

Control.
His only religion.

Xiao Zhan wrote those words with a trembling hand, the ink bleeding into the damp paper of his diary. His teardrops smudged the lines until his handwriting blurred into sorrow. The sound of the train rattling beneath him became the only reminder that he was still moving or just trying to move maybe, somewhere, anywhere away from him.

Probably.

He paused, staring at the half-written page, his chest heaving with quiet sobs. The letters looked fragile, as if they might dissolve at any moment, just like his hope.

Would I survive this?

Would I live long enough to find out?

He didn't know.

All that mattered was her, Amy. She would remain safe.

His love. His light. His undoing.

Letting her go had been the hardest decision of his life. He hadn't done it out of choice but out of necessity. Zhan couldn't drag her into the abyss that had swallowed him whole. She deserved skies untouched by storms, mornings free of fear, laughter unchained by sorrow. He wasn't her happiness anymore; he was the shadow that threatened to devour it.

She was moving on. He'd heard the news through media, her engagement to a man the media adored, a man of class and success, known for his soft-spoken charm. It was a relief to know that he was not like him.

Not like Wang Yibo.

That name alone felt like a curse carved into his soul.

Now, at least, Zhan could breathe. She would be safe, far from the monster who ruined their lives. Yet, every time he closed his eyes, memories clawed their way back to his mind. The warmth of her arms, her smile, her trembling plea not to leave. He had torn himself away from her crying face, leaving behind everything that once made his life worth living.

That tiny apartment they shared for three fleeting months had been their world which was cramped, noisy yet full of cheap laughter and stolen moments. Now it was just a place haunted by ghosts of tenderness and regret.

He wiped his face roughly and continued writing.

"I'm sorry, Amy. You'll hate me forever, and maybe you should. But it's better this way. I remember how you begged me not to leave, how your voice cracked when I turned my back. I'll never forget that sound. It still tears me apart."

Zhan took a shaky breath before continuing,

"If he hadn't freed us that night... you wouldn't be alive. I can't risk that again. You're safe now, and that's all that matters."

Yibo had already destroyed the rest.
The company where Zhan worked went bankrupt overnight. His reputation was ruined. His name got stained with false accusations of greed and deceit. Every job interview ended in rejection, sometimes humiliation. Employers whispered behind closed doors, too terrified to even think about hiring someone blacklisted by Wang Yibo himself.