Ten Rules to Bind Her Heart - Chapter 50
Shen Yu did not immediately withdraw his hand.
His rough fingertips rested against the tender, uncovered skin and stroked it lightly. It was exquisitely smooth, like a piece of the finest warm jade.
Xia Zhiyao shuddered. She turned red from head to toe, flustered by mortification, and instinctively tried to close her legs.
But because she was straddling him, the movement only pressed them closer together.
Shen Yu’s unfathomable eyes settled on the trembling girl in his arms and carefully examined her.
Her makeup had already become a mess. Her earlier fright combined with her present embarrassment, spreading crimson beyond the corners of her eyes. She looked disheveled and fragile enough to inspire pity.
Stupid little thing.
She was not especially clever to begin with. After Ji Chen frightened her, she had somehow become even more foolish.
Shen Yu chuckled, but the pressure radiating from him did not diminish. Instead, it descended even more heavily around her.
He withdrew the hand resting on her lower abdomen and gripped her slender waist, pulling her deeper into his arms.
Lowering his head, he brought his nose almost against her trembling lashes. Warm breath brushed her face, and a heart-stopping sense of danger instantly enveloped her.
“It appears I wronged you just now.”
Shen Yu spoke unhurriedly. His large hand traveled slowly up the curve of her back and toyed with the bright red bow.
“Your taste leaves something to be desired, but I have to admit that you are obedient.”
Xia Zhiyao bit her lip. Tears filled her eyes, but she did not dare let them fall.
She relaxed slightly.
As long as he thought she was obedient.
If he thought she was obedient, then she had passed tonight’s test, hadn’t she?
But in the next instant, the man’s tone turned abruptly cold, bringing with it the bone-deep chill of a winter current.
“However…”
“The person you obey is never me.”
Xia Zhiyao stiffened. Her eyes widened with shock.
“No… that’s not true, Mr. Shen…”
She tried to explain in a panic. Instinctively, she straightened and reached out to push against Shen Yu’s broad chest.
But the instant her fingertips touched the taut fabric, remembered terror drained the strength from them. She could only rest her hands lightly against him, not daring to exert any real force.
She only wanted to survive.
She only wanted to make him happy.
Yet the humiliation of being seen through so completely caused the last scrap of her self-respect to tremble, wretched and exposed.
“Have you forgotten the lesson from last time?”
Shen Yu gave her no opportunity to explain. His voice was impatient and harsh.
As soon as the words left him, his large hand locked around her waist and crushed her against his body until she could barely breathe.
Before Xia Zhiyao’s muddled mind could grasp his meaning, the sudden force made her entire body rigid.
“Please… don’t… Please, Mr. Shen…”
She sobbed so hard that her body convulsed. Instinct urged her to escape the suffocating pressure, but his hand locked her from behind while his iron-hard chest blocked her from the front. She had nowhere to move.
It was the most hopeless position in the world.
The man she feared was somehow the only shelter she possessed.
Desperate to escape the crushing pressure, she could only shrink farther into Shen Yu’s arms. Both hands gripped the collar of his shirt, and she buried her face in his neck, her hot tears soaking the fabric.
“I won’t do it again… I truly won’t…”
As Shen Yu listened to her broken pleas, his grip around her waist finally loosened.
The skin that had been white as snow was now marked with an alarming red flush. Against the crimson dress, it possessed the beauty of something cruelly ravaged.
He lowered his eyes to the little thing in his arms, sobbing until she could scarcely breathe. Curled into herself, she trembled uncontrollably.
He slowly raised one hand.
Xia Zhiyao flinched and squeezed her eyes shut. Every muscle tightened and even her breath stopped, afraid that the punishment she imagined was about to fall.
But it never came.
His rough fingertip gently brushed the corner of her eye with impossible tenderness, wiping away the crystal tear clinging to her lashes.
“Do you know why I punished you?”
Shen Yu asked flatly, his voice returning to its unreadable laziness.
Reckless little thing. She was certainly eager to obey another man’s words.
Xia Zhiyao was still hiccupping with sobs, her mind reduced to pulp.
Why?
Pain had stripped away her ability to think, leaving her to answer on instinct.
She sniffled and raised her face slightly from his chest, revealing swollen red eyes. She nodded automatically and said through broken sobs,
“Because… because I entered… the greenhouse without permission…”
Shen Yu gave an almost inaudible scoff.
Incredibly stupid.
His large hand covered the burning skin, feeling it tremble beneath his palm.
“That’s not the reason.”
Shen Yu denied it without a second thought.
Someone had merely been killed. If she saw it, then she saw it. On his territory, she would have to become accustomed to the smell of blood sooner or later.
Xia Zhiyao’s heart leaped. Her mind raced, but the harder she tried, the more tangled her thoughts became. She truly could not understand. What else had she done wrong today?
If it was not because she had wandered off, then why?
Had she not done enough?
Was the dress too ugly?
Had she tied the bow crooked?
Countless possibilities flashed through her mind, but she could not find the point.
Before this unpredictable man, her meager intelligence was useless.
She had already tried so hard to please him.
She timidly raised her eyes to Shen Yu. Her lips moved, but she did not dare make another wild guess.
She feared that a single wrong word would anger him and bring another punishment.
The lingering discomfort continually reminded her that this man’s patience was finite and that she must never cross his limits.
At the sight of her hopelessly confused face, some of Shen Yu’s inexplicable anger dissipated.
He had picked up this foolish thing himself. That meant he had no choice but to endure her.
“I know you want to please me.”
Shen Yu seized her chin, forcing her to meet his deep black eyes.
“But I don’t need this sort of deliberate flattery.”
The people racking their brains for ways to please him could form a line all the way to the border. Women desperate to climb into his bed had tried every trick imaginable.
If he enjoyed that sort of interchangeable ingratiation, there would have been no room left in the white building long ago.
“And don’t try to be clever by guessing what I like.”
His finger settled against her reddened lips and pressed down slightly, his voice full of warning.
“If you want to know something, ask me directly.
“On this base, you don’t need to listen to anyone except me. Do you understand?”
Only he possessed the final authority over her.
Neither her body nor her thoughts could be tainted by anyone else.
Xia Zhiyao stared at Shen Yu.
Tears still clung to her lashes, blurring her vision.
She could… ask him directly?
Did she… have that right?
Yet as she looked into Shen Yu’s dark eyes, she detected a concealed trace of sincerity.
She sniffled, collected herself, and nodded obediently.
After hesitating for a long moment, she cautiously asked in a frail voice,
“Then… Mr. Shen… what sort of thing do you like?”
If he disliked the outfit and disliked this form of gratitude,
then what exactly did he want from her?
