Ten Rules to Bind Her Heart - Chapter 28
# Chapter 28: Principles
Cigar smoke curled through the study’s dim yellow light.
Shen Yu sat behind the broad desk, half a cigar between his long fingers while his right hand played with a metal lighter. His posture was lazy.
Several newly updated maps of the border routes lay open before him, but his attention seemed elsewhere.
Anya sat in the leather chair opposite him, turning a medical penlight in one hand. Her eyes roamed over Shen Yu with curiosity and amusement.
“So that’s the girl you brought back from the compound?”
Anya broke the silence, sounding incredulous. “She is pretty and cute, and she certainly has the sort of personality people want to protect. But I never thought you’d break your principle of leaving no survivors and carrying no burdens for one little white rabbit.”
“After all these years of never seeing you touch a woman, I thought you were like me.”
“Not interested in the opposite sex,” Anya finished with a snort.
Shen Yu exhaled a smoke ring, the haze blurring his hard features.
“She knows how to polish shoes,” he said suddenly in his deep voice.
“What?”
Anya froze, nearly dropping the penlight.
For a moment, she wondered whether she had misheard him—or whether Shen Yu’s Mandarin had deteriorated.
“Polish shoes?”
The corner of Anya’s mouth twitched.
“Mr. Black Wolf, are you short on shoe shiners? Say the word and the line of people eager to kneel and polish your soles will stretch clear across the Mekong.”
Shen Yu scoffed. He tapped the corner of the desk, a faint smile stirring in his eyes.
“I’m not short on people who polish shoes.”
“But she’s the only one who does it with art-conservation techniques.”
Anya stared at him, then understood.
She remembered Xia Zhiyao’s long, deft, snow-white hands.
They were an artist’s hands, made to hold brushes and delicate tools.
The image returned to Shen Yu’s mind.
The fragile little thing had knelt obediently at his feet, holding a soft cloth and carefully cleaning every speck of dust from his boot as though tending to an unearthed relic.
Focused. Reverent. Trembling slightly with fear.
She had clearly been terrified, yet she had done the job beautifully.
The contrast had pleased him for reasons he could not explain.
When he had asked whether she had been trained to polish shoes, she had trembled and answered an entirely different question, explaining with complete seriousness that she had studied artifact conservation.
The memory alone was strangely amusing.
She had tried to find an escape route on a map, yet studied it so intently she failed to notice him standing there for ten minutes.
Thinking of her adorably foolish expression, Shen Yu’s lips curved before he could stop them.
Anya rolled her eyes, her face plainly saying he was beyond saving. “Pervert. You just haven’t seen enough of the world.”
“You just haven’t met anyone who polishes shoes with art-conservation techniques,” Shen Yu countered as though it were perfectly reasonable. There was even a trace of pride in his voice.
Anya shrugged and dropped the subject. Her joking expression faded. Her professional duty as a doctor compelled her to offer a warning.
“By the way, you controlled your strength well, but for a sheltered little girl with skin that delicate…”
“You were still too harsh yesterday.”
“A stupid puppy that refuses to obey has to be taught submission the first time.”
Shen Yu’s face remained indifferent.
“Fine, fine. You and your twisted logic.”
Anya shrugged again. “Also, judging by her injuries, she’ll probably run a high fever tonight. She’s showing signs of an acute stress response too. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. If the fever cooks her brain, no one will be left to polish those shoes.”
Shen Yu said nothing. He simply took a deep pull from his cigar.
“Come to think of it…”
Anya rolled the penlight between her fingers, her gaze turning meaningful.
“I quite like this little rabbit too. She’s so well behaved. If you ever get tired of keeping her, remember to give her to me. I happen to need an assistant to organize specimens.”
Snap.
The lid of Shen Yu’s metal lighter slammed shut with a crisp report.
He raised his eyes. A cold gleam flashed in those hawklike black pupils, and the air froze.
“Don’t even think about it.”
The four words landed with absolute force.
Anya snorted. “Stingy. She’s yours. All yours.”
After a moment, she added, “Then I can take her out in a couple of days, can’t I?”
“You can’t keep her locked in one room forever. Even if you don’t frighten her stupid, the confinement will.”
“If you really kept a puppy, you’d still have to walk it twice a day.”
Shen Yu considered it. “Fine. I’ll have people follow you for protection.”
“Oh? How come you never send anyone to protect me when I go out alone?” Anya teased.
Shen Yu gave a cold snort. “You’re more likely to kill someone else. What protection do you need?”
“Tch.”
Anya gave him a knowing look and changed the subject.
“My father says one of his friends urgently needs discreet transport arranged for a shipment of high-end collectibles.”
Anya’s father headed the Sharma family, one of South Asia’s foremost business dynasties. He controlled key regional transport networks and luxury commercial channels and had long maintained a mutually beneficial alliance with Shen Yu.
“Understood.” Shen Yu drew on his cigar, tapping a finger against the armrest.
“No problem. But tell him I want the western transport corridor for three months. Have him arrange the permits.”
“Three months?” Anya frowned. “What do you need the western route for?”
Shen Yu looked out the window.
“I have a use for it. Tell him I’ll give him a twenty-percent discount on all his contracts. How does that sound?”
“I’ll ask him.” With business concluded, Anya rose to leave.
At the door, she paused and glanced back.
“And restrain yourself for the next couple of days. She can’t take much more from you.”
Then she shut the door behind her.
Shen Yu stubbed out the cigar in the ashtray and leaned back in his chair.
