Ten Rules to Bind Her Heart - Chapter 53
The afternoon sunlight filtered through the gauze curtains into tranquil shades.
The room should have been quiet.
Instead, the clamor outside continued discordantly all afternoon.
Boom! Crash!
Several more muffled impacts came from the back garden. As walls collapsed, even the floor of the white building seemed to tremble.
Then came the piercing grind of heavy excavator treads rolling over rubble, occasionally accompanied by an exasperated man’s roar.
“Careful! I said be careful!”
“Move those flowerpots over there first!”
“My Black Magic roses! The roots! Don’t damage the roots!”
It was Ji Chen. He sounded as miserable as a man watching someone dig up his ancestors’ graves.
Xia Zhiyao bit her lip and could not help feeling a little sorry for him.
It was being demolished.
Shen Yu had ordered its destruction, and that was that.
Beside this authoritarian man, life and death rested on a single thought.
Xia Zhiyao sat at the desk, listening to the noise while her fingers rested absently on the pages of the magazine before her.
She had changed into the dark green uniform dress.
It was exceptionally well tailored. Unlike the loose tactical clothing worn by the security team, its design gently followed the lines of a woman’s figure.
The fitted waist outlined her slender form, while the A-line skirt falling just below the knee allowed easy movement and looked dignified. The stiff fabric carried a tangible weight against her body.
Most conspicuous was the embroidery above her left breast.
Black and gold threads intertwined against the dark green background to form the head of a wolf howling at the sky.
That overwhelmingly possessive man intended to brand her as his.
Even through her clothing.
With so many people and so much noise outside, she decided not to wander today. What if she saw something else she should not…
She shivered at the thought.
Xia Zhiyao exhaled and forced her attention onto the English-language business magazine.
To an art-history student, the dry commercial data might as well have been an undecipherable scripture.
But aside from a few magazines, the room offered nothing to read.
In this cage without internet access or a phone, there was virtually no entertainment.
Besides…
Her gaze rested on an image printed inside.
It showed a beautiful collectible:
a European antique mechanical music box.
The walnut case looked warm and substantial. Vintage scrolling vines had been carved into its surface, while the center of the lid held a three-dimensional cherub relief. Its wings were rounded and its expression peaceful, like a well-behaved child guarding the music.
Neat rows of tiny metal gears lined the inside of the lid.
Xia Zhiyao found it unexpectedly adorable.
Apparently, art and machinery shared something in common after all.
While she studied it in fascination, the sound of the door handle turning abruptly broke the silence.
Click.
Xia Zhiyao sprang from her chair, instinctively hiding both hands behind her back.
There was no need to guess. Only one person entered without knocking.
Shen Yu opened the door.
He had clearly just returned from outside, carrying the searing heat of the sun with him.
A tight black T-shirt outlined his broad, powerful shoulders and back. Dark gray camouflage tactical pants covered his lower body, their cuffs tucked into combat boots, emphasizing the length and explosive strength of his legs.
Wild and hard, his aggressively masculine presence invaded the room.
The instant he entered, his gaze locked onto the girl beside the desk.
Then his deep, indifferent eyes darkened.
The girl wore a dark green uniform dress. Her long hair was loosely pinned with a wooden hairpin, exposing her slender pale neck. The uniform represented coldness and killing, yet on her it produced a strange transformation.
Austere, yet seductive.
She resembled a delicate white jasmine flower forcibly planted on a battlefield filled with smoke.
The dark green fabric made her pale skin glow. Its rigid severity collided violently with her natural delicacy and shyness.
The extreme contrast between softness and strength instantly satisfied the man’s desire to conquer.
His woman.
Shen Yu strode inside, sweeping his gaze over her without restraint.
From her slender neck, to the subtle curve of her waist, and down to the section of jade-white calf visible beneath the knee-length skirt.
At last, his eyes stopped on the muted gold Black Wolf emblem roaring above her breast.
His totem.
Branded on her body.
Like a pet he had raised finally wearing a collar engraved with its owner’s name.
“It fits well,” he said gently.
He stopped before her and raised a hand. His rough fingertips lightly caressed the emblem over her breast, as though confirming his territorial mark.
Xia Zhiyao did not dare move. She barely dared breathe as the heat from his fingers penetrated the cloth and reached her skin, making her heart pound.
“Mr. Shen…” she called softly.
“From now on, wear this if you want to walk around the base.”
He straightened her collar and casually pinched her cheek.
With the insignia on her body, the hungry wolves outside would understand that she was his property and could not be touched.
Xia Zhiyao nodded obediently. “Yes. I understand.”
Shen Yu withdrew his hand and glanced at the open magazine on the desk.
“What are you doing?” he asked casually.
“I… There were only these magazines in the room, and I had nothing to do, so I looked through one…”
Xia Zhiyao lowered her head and answered honestly, afraid he might think she had acted without permission.
Shen Yu raised a brow.
He turned the magazine around with two fingers and glanced at its contents.
It was an English analysis of art collectibles.
Beside it lay a pencil and a sheet of draft paper covered in lines.
He picked it up and looked at it in surprise.
She had copied the composition of the collectible onto the paper.
The foundational skill of an art student.
“Can you understand it?” Shen Yu asked.
“I can’t really understand the business parts…”
Xia Zhiyao honestly shook her head and pointed at the music box.
“But I understand the collectibles. I think this one is beautiful. I saw something similar in a textbook before.”
Shen Yu watched her earnest expression and smiled faintly, apparently amused by the answer.
“These few magazines aren’t much entertainment.”
He casually dropped it back onto the desk with a slap.
Then he turned and extended a large hand, its palm broad and fingers sharply defined.
“Come.”
Xia Zhiyao hesitated. She looked at the hand, then raised her eyes to his stern profile, her heart jumping.
“Where… are we going?”
“You’ll know when we arrive.”
Shen Yu’s answer was characteristically brief.
