Ten Rules to Bind Her Heart - Chapter 42
The maid shook her head.
“Mr. Shen didn’t say. He only said he was taking you out. Please hurry, Miss Xia. Mr. Shen doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
Taking her out?
The words startled Xia Zhiyao.
She raised her head, and her eyes lit up for a moment. Then the light faded.
“If you can’t reflect properly, there’s no reason to keep you here.”
Shen Yu’s words from last night echoed in her ears.
She had fallen asleep last night. She had even drooled. That could hardly count as reflecting properly.
So…
Was he sending her away?
Where would he send her? To one of those compounds where people were devoured alive, or…
He had dressed her in such expensive clothes and jewelry. Could he be planning to make her beautiful, package her like a gift, and hand her over to some other powerful man?
Overwhelming terror swallowed her whole.
But she had no right to refuse.
Ten minutes later, Xia Zhiyao had changed.
The agarwood hairpin swept her hair high, leaving a few wisps beside her ears and exposing her long, pale neck.
The Peacock King ensemble hugged her body, outlining the graceful curves of her still-youthful figure.
Its tailoring was cunning.
The high collar buttoned all the way to her throat, lending her an austere modesty.
Yet the waist was drawn exceptionally tight, and a small slit opened at the back of the skirt. It revealed only her delicate ankles, but with every step, a glimpse of snowy skin appeared and vanished beneath the fabric.
The dark green made her skin glow. She looked every inch a precious beauty who had been meticulously raised and pampered.
She walked timidly out of the white building.
Shen Yu stood by the entrance to the hall, smoking.
At the sound of movement, he turned.
His gaze stalled the instant it touched her.
Behind the curling smoke, his deep black eyes narrowed slightly, filling with an inscrutable darkness.
The little thing usually resembled an unkempt puppy. But after a little effort, she truly did possess the makings of a devastating beauty.
Tears glistened in her innocent eyes, their corners rimmed red. Paired with the aggressively seductive outfit, her vulnerability created a contrast that made one want to ruin her.
On her, these clothes looked like a label he had personally stamped onto his own pet.
“Mr. Shen…”
Xia Zhiyao approached him and bit her lip, her voice trembling.
“Where… where are we going?”
Please don’t give me to someone else…
The words turned over in her throat several times, but she ultimately did not dare speak them.
Shen Yu stubbed out his cigarette and casually tossed it into the trash can beside him.
“Get in.”
Those two simple words cut off every avenue of retreat.
Ken had already opened the rear door of the black armored SUV.
Like a prisoner being taken to the execution ground, Xia Zhiyao stiffly climbed inside.
The heavy door closed. Shen Yu entered from the other side and sat beside her, bringing with him a suffocating pressure.
“Let’s go.”
Shen Yu gave the order coldly.
The vehicle started and slowly left the white building that had imprisoned her for more than ten days.
Huddled in the corner of the leather seat, Xia Zhiyao watched the scenery recede through the window.
The SUV passed through the compound gates, where the guards at their posts crisply saluted the license plate.
For the first time, she was leaving the cage.
The convoy of black armored SUVs rolled over the humid, muddy jungle road like a steel python.
Outside, the scenery raced backward, changing from dense jungle to scattered villages and then to deserted red-dirt roads.
The cabin was deathly silent.
The air conditioning kept it comfortably cool, shielding them from the heat outside, yet Xia Zhiyao felt as though she were sitting on needles.
Her hands were clenched together so tightly that her cold sweat dampened a small patch of the expensive Peacock King fabric.
Shen Yu lounged against the seat without speaking to her, apparently resting with his eyes closed.
But the calmer he was, the more frantic she became.
The farther the car traveled, the deeper her fear grew.
Where was he taking her?
She had made a mistake last night. She had not knelt properly, and she had fallen asleep.
Could he truly be giving her away?
Or was he going to abandon her in one of those depraved compounds and leave her to fend for herself?
Images from the compound flashed through her mind: people having their blood drained, being forced to receive clients, and finally being stripped even of their organs. Her breathing quickened and her eyes rapidly reddened.
She did not want to die.
And she certainly did not want a fate worse than death.
“Mr… Mr. Shen…”
At last, Xia Zhiyao could no longer endure the torturous silence.
Her frail voice carried a sob as she finally summoned the courage to speak.
Shen Yu’s tapping fingers did not stop. Nor did he open his eyes. He merely hummed an indifferent acknowledgment through his nose. “Hmm?”
The rising note held the languid ease of a man who controlled everything.
He clearly knew what she was afraid of.
Xia Zhiyao tightened her grip on the skirt, crumpling the costly silk between her fingers.
She looked at the increasingly unfamiliar world outside, and the immense panic shattered the last of her reason.
Turning her head, she timidly studied his hard profile.
“Where… where are we going?”
Shen Yu did not answer.
Xia Zhiyao’s defenses collapsed completely.
Large tears splashed onto the dark green skirt, spreading into deeper stains.
“You… you don’t want me anymore, do you?”
Her voice shook badly, thick with tears.
“I… I know I was wrong. I shouldn’t have fallen asleep while you were punishing me last night… Please don’t send me away. I promise I’ll kneel properly tonight…”
Shen Yu finally stopped tapping his fingers and opened his eyes.
There was no sleepiness in those dark eyes, only a trace of wicked amusement.
He turned his head slightly and leisurely regarded the sobbing little thing.
Her eyes were red and brimming with tears. Combined with her boldly glamorous dress, her fragility possessed a broken beauty that invited cruelty.
“Oh?”
He smiled ambiguously.
“You don’t want me to send you away? Then tell me, what use is there in keeping a disobedient puppy?”
“I’ll obey!”
Xia Zhiyao promised desperately, as if clutching at her final lifeline.
“I really will. I won’t go anywhere without your permission. I’ll do anything you tell me… Please don’t give me to someone else. I’m begging you…”
In her extreme terror, her thoughts had become tangled. All she could do was instinctively seize the only lifeline before her.
Even if that lifeline was a demon, it was still better than falling into an abyss from which there was no escape.
Looking into her terrified, dependent eyes, Shen Yu chuckled.
The brutal desire for control inside him was profoundly satisfied.
He reached out. His rough fingertip gently brushed the tear tracks from her cheek, the movement almost tender, though his words remained cruel.
“You want to stay with me?”
Xia Zhiyao nodded frantically, like a chick pecking at grain, afraid he would throw her out of the car if she were even a second too slow.
Shen Yu’s lips curved as his fathomless eyes locked onto hers.
“There’s nowhere you want to be except at my side?”
“Nowhere! I only want to stay with you!” the girl promised through sniffles and tears.
“You’re not afraid I’ll hit you anymore?” Shen Yu deliberately pressed.
Xia Zhiyao shook her head again and again.
“Mr. Shen is… my air and my water. Without Mr. Shen… I-I couldn’t survive even a second…”
“Mr. Shen’s punishment is… is a reward to me. Thunder or gentle rain, all of it… all of it is heaven’s grace.”
The Ten Commandments.
They had already been carved deep into her bones.
