Ten Rules to Bind Her Heart - Chapter 33
Xia Zhiyao turned toward the voice.
Anya strode in from the entryway with a folder in her hand. She wore combat fatigues and black ankle boots. With her neat buzz cut, sun-browned skin, and the black obsidian stud in her left ear, her mixed-race features had a strikingly androgynous handsomeness beneath the sunlight. She looked sharp and effortlessly dashing.
She shot Ji Chen a disdainful look. “Never serious for a minute. You’ve terrified my little rabbit.”
“Dr. Anya!”
Xia Zhiyao sprang up as though she had seen her savior, eyes reddening.
In this place full of madmen, Anya was the only person who felt genuinely human.
Anya came over, examined her complexion, and nodded. “The fever is gone. You’re recovering well.”
She tossed the folder onto the coffee table, neatly covering the pile of dollars and daggers.
Then she raised an eyebrow at Ji Chen. “What are you doing here?”
“What else? Working.” Ji Chen looked helpless.
“I’m waiting for Jackal. He should be here soon,” he added.
“Fine. Wait here.”
Anya dismissed him coolly, then turned to Xia Zhiyao. Her voice immediately softened.
“Can you walk, little rabbit? Want me to take you out for a look around?”
Xia Zhiyao blinked. “Where?”
Anya smiled.
“Only around the base today. With Shen Yu away, even I wouldn’t dare take you beyond it without permission.”
“Coming?”
“Mm!” Xia Zhiyao nodded eagerly.
Even a walk around the base was better than nothing.
She wanted to understand more about the place imprisoning her.
“Be careful, sister-in-law,” Ji Chen called after them.
“That woman eats people. A little white rabbit like you would be one bite for her.”
Xia Zhiyao stared at Anya with wide eyes.
Anya rolled hers. “Ignore him. Let’s go.”
They left through the white building’s rear entrance and stepped into dazzling sunlight.
It was the first time Xia Zhiyao had gone out through the back.
She followed obediently behind Anya, picking her way along a gravel path.
Even through the soft-soled shoes, every stone pressed against her feet. But this was a rare taste of freedom, and she made no complaint.
They passed through two heavily guarded archways beside the white building, and the view suddenly opened.
A vast garden lay hidden there, startlingly out of place amid the base’s lethal severity.
Artificial hills rose over running water, and winding paths disappeared into secluded greenery. Great banana leaves gleamed a lush green while unfamiliar tropical flowers competed in a riot of color, filling the air with perfume.
Xia Zhiyao felt dazed.
If not for the heavy machine gun mounted on the distant watchtower, she might have imagined herself back in a classical garden south of the Yangtze.
Beyond the dense flowers lay an enormous koi pond, its water perfectly clear.
More than a dozen plump koi drifted lazily through it. Each was as long as a forearm, their scales flashing extravagantly beneath the sun.
“Wow. They’re beautiful…” Xia Zhiyao breathed, her tightly strung nerves finally loosening a little.
“That one is a Loulan, an exceptional kohaku worth as much as a house outside. These fish eat better than people.”
Seeing Xia Zhiyao stare, Anya casually explained, “Shen Yu doesn’t keep useless things. A feng shui master he knows insisted on adding the garden and pond to suppress the murderous energy here.”
Xia Zhiyao hunched her shoulders.
Suppress the murderous energy?
There certainly was plenty of it. She doubted even the Dragon King could contain it.
“What’s that…?”
A glass building in one corner caught her eye.
It was a fully enclosed greenhouse constructed from transparent tempered glass, polished spotless and glaring beneath the sun. Through the panes, she could make out dense, strangely shaped plants in brilliant colors.
“The greenhouse. Ji Chen built it.”
Anya followed her gaze but did not slow.
“A greenhouse?” Xia Zhiyao asked curiously. “Mr. Ji… likes growing flowers?”
That careless, unserious Young Master Ji had such a tranquil hobby?
Anya turned her head. Her dark brown eyes gave Xia Zhiyao a meaningful look.
“The flowers inside are certainly beautiful…”
Her tone shifted into warning.
“But little rabbit, I strongly advise you not to go near it.”
“Why?” Xia Zhiyao looked confused.
Anya’s lips curved. She suddenly leaned close and tucked a stray lock of hair behind Xia Zhiyao’s ear.
Her cool fingers brushed the rim of Xia Zhiyao’s ear and grazed her earlobe, while a compelling androgynous scent made Xia’s heart quicken.
The sudden intimacy stiffened Xia Zhiyao, and a blush warmed her cheeks.
“Because the fertilizer Ji Chen uses for his flowers… is rather unusual.”
“Trust me. Your little heart could never withstand what you’d see inside.”
“If you wandered in by accident…”
Anya paused. One long finger passed before Xia Zhiyao’s slender throat in a cutting gesture.
“You’d have nightmares for the rest of your life.”
A breeze passed, and Xia Zhiyao shivered for no apparent reason.
Unusual… fertilizer?
A horrifying rumor she had once encountered in a book flashed through her mind. All color drained from her face, and she never dared look at the glass building again.
“All right, I won’t frighten you anymore.”
Anya hooked a finger under Xia Zhiyao’s chin as if teasing a puppy, then naturally slid an arm around her narrow shoulders and turned her away.
“Come on. I’ll show you my territory.”
Anya’s arm was not bulky, but it was strong, carrying a reassuring steadiness.
Xia Zhiyao instinctively leaned closer, drawing a trace of courage from it against the vast unease that had plagued her for so long.
They circled the white building and reached the front entrance.
A modified military-green Jeep Wrangler waited at the curb. Scratches and mud covered its body, giving the machine a raw, untamed beauty.
Anya opened the door, braced one hand on the roof, and vaulted stylishly into the driver’s seat. She tilted her chin at Xia Zhiyao. “Get in.”
Xia Zhiyao clambered into the passenger seat on hands and knees. She had barely fastened her seat belt when the vehicle shot forward like an arrow.
“Ah!”
The acceleration shoved her back, drawing a cry from her as she grabbed the overhead handle. Wind roared through the window and tangled her long hair.
Anya steered with one hand, the other resting on the window frame, a reckless smile on her face.
In this lawless land, she was a wild horse freed from every restraint.
Once the vehicle left the residential area, the landscape turned grim.
Tall watchtowers. Alert patrols. Row after row of cold wire fencing.
“Look over there!” Anya shouted above the wind.
She pointed toward a vast complex of gray buildings in the distance.
