Ten Years of Yearning. My Love, Let Me Protect You.

"Don\'t just kiss me whenever you want!" Luo Lixi told him while she glared at him. She was talking with him earlier but he suddenly started to kiss her. If he did that every time, what would she do then? 

"Okay. Next time I will ask you before I kiss you." He told her and turned around to walk to the living room. She went there after she had stabilised her breathing. When she went to the living room, she saw he was sitting on a sofa, with his legs crossed.

Luo Lixi looked around the area and soon noticed the open kitchen.

"I need to drink water. Will you have some?" Her voice was soft. It seemed her anger got down a little.

"Thanks beforehand." He replied with a light smile.

Luo Lixi walked towards the kitchen. At first, she wanted to drink cold water. But when she saw the electric water filter, she changed her find. She took two glasses and poured water in them.

After that she returned beside her and gave him a glass.

"Thank you." He thanked her again and received the glass.

She sat beside him and told him, "Even though it\'s rare to receive two thanks from Mr. Sheng for this kind of matter, I gladly accept your \'thank you\'." She turned towards him, "You are welcome." 

After finishing her lines, she brought the glass before her mouth and slowly drank her water.

Sheng Ruming had a pleasant smile as he drank only two sips and placed the glass on the glass table. After she had finished her glass, she put down hers beside his glass.

After that, they remained quiet. Luo Lixi waited for him to say something but he was silent.

\'Why isn\'t he saying something? Should I say first?\' She thought and coughed to clear her throat.

At that Sheng Ruming turned towards her.

"Why are you silent? Don\'t you have anything to say?"

"No. I\'m thinking about surgery." 

"Surgery?" She voiced her doubts as she didn\'t understand. Sheng Ruming turned towards her.

"Lixi, tomorrow we will go to a hospital to get surgery on your right hand. Yanli has already sent your hand report to the hospital. You should mentally prepare yourself…"

At the mention of the surgery, Luo Lixi\'s face withered a little. The memory of pain resurfaced in her mind space, also those days where she had to depend on the maids to help her came back. If she had a choice she didn\'t want to get surgery. But there wasn\'t a choice in the first place and due knew more than anyone.

Whenever she tried to lift heavy things, her right hand became stiff. Also now, when she had brought the glasses, she felt stiffness. She was worried Sheng Ruming would see but he didn\'t.

\'I would have died back then. But if I had lost my power to use my hand, it was no different from death to me. I would rather die than to be a handicap.\' Her mind went back to the memory when Luo Lixiang had cut her nerves. Just thinking about that feeling made her shiver.

Sheng Ruming saw her painful expression. He shifted towards her and hugged her from the sideways. Then he took her left hand in his left hand and squeezed it lightly.

"Don\'t worry. I will be there. It will be a small surgery and you won\'t even feel much pain…" She cut him off midway without looking at him.

"I\'m not a child, Ruming. I need this surgery more than anything and… I know this."

"It\'s good that you know." Sheng Ruming told her and they became silent.

Luo Lixi stopped talking any longer. Currently, she was feeling sleepy. The long hours of journey and the lack of sleep worked out her energy and made her bone-tired. While she was hugged by the man, her body relaxed and sleepiness struck her eyes.

Sheng Ruming saw her eyelids were dropping down while her head started to lean against him.

"Lixi, don\'t sleep here. Let\'s go to the bedroom. You shall change your clothes to a more comfortable one before sleeping." He told her gently.

Luo Lixi came back from her momentary daze, she brought her right hand before her lips and yawned.

Sheng Ruming stood up and walked before a room. Luo Lixi followed him closely. He opened the door and both of them entered the room.

Luo Lixi saw the room was very big. 

\'Too much empty space. Waste of place…\' She thought and tsked in her mind while Sheng Ruming went to the closet of the room. He opened it and took out two pieces of clothes.

Luo Lixi went to him and took them in her hands. 

"I have asked someone to prepare some normal clothes for us before we come.  They have prepared these. We will go later for shopping after the matter related to your hand gets over."

"Understood." 

Luo Lixi replied and walked into the washroom. Sheng Ruming came before the windows and opened them all. Then he turned off the room lights. The natural light was much more pleasant than the electric lights.

Luo Lixi locked the door behind before she had put off her dresses. When she came, she saw the washing machine. She placed her clothes inside the washing machine and nodded in satisfaction. But she didn\'t turn it on. Then she took a towel and wet it with water. She wiped her body with it. Even if her mind wanted to take a shower, her body wouldn\'t give consent to it. She was dog-tired and didn\'t have the luxury to take a bath.

\'I just need my sleep…\'

When she was wearing her clothes, knocks came from the door.

"Lixi, are you okay? It\'s already been five minutes. Why are you taking so long?"

"I\'m coming. Just give me some seconds…" She replied as she hurriedly wore the white  v-line t-shirt and the knee-length grey pants.

"What is this?!" She murmured as she saw the v-line of the shirt barely covered her cleavage. Also, the pants hardly reached her knees. She tried to adjust the shirt so that it would cover till her neck but then her whole back became exposed.

"Troublesome!" She exclaimed in frustration as she took the spare towel and hung it around her neck. It covered her neck. She slowly opened the door and entered the room but Sheng Ruming wasn\'t there. But his clothes were placed in a plastic box.

"Uh! What a relief!\' She sighed in relief as she walked towards the white bed. She found a comfortable position in the bed and laid down her head on the soft pillow and hugged a large one between her arms. On a few seconds, the woman drifted into the dreamland.

••••••

After Luo Lixi had entered the washroom, Sheng Ruming had taken out clothes for himself. He changed in mere twenty-second and waited for her to come out. But even after five minutes, she didn\'t. So he went before the door and knocked on it to check if she was okay. After the confirmation, he waited for another minute but she didn\'t come out. 

So he thought she might need more time. Thus he went to another room. There was a bookshelf placed at a corner.

He had to come several times abroad for business-related matters. He found these when his company bought a huge library building. He took some storybooks and placed them here on the thought that if he came again he would read them then.

Sheng Ruming took a book which he didn\'t finish last time. When he returned to the room, he found a deeply asleep Luo Lixi on the bed.

He chuckled as he muttered.

"You didn\'t even wait for me, huh?"

The man walked towards the bed. He sat on it, leaned backwards at the bedframe, placed his legs on top of the bed and crossed them.

He opened the book and found the page he had folded back then. He started to read from where he left while the room became silent; as if there wasn\'t anyone.

...

The elevator of the building was going upwards. A man was wiping his left hand with a tissue. There was a bloodstain on it. 

If anyone was there beside him, he or she would have pissed on his or her pants. He was giving off sinister killing intent. 

The man was 6\'4" tall, he had blue eyes and black hair, his facial features gave away his identity as an Asian. He had worn black from head to toe.

After the lift had reached the 19th floor, he stepped down on it. While going towards one of the two doors, he threw the blood-stained tissue in the trash bin at the corner of that floor. Just like the upper floor, it was also a penthouse which had two doors.

The tall man walked in front of the door and before he tapped the calling bell, he safely put the hidden gun in the back pocket of his pants. After the calling bell rang, some strange noises came from behind the closed door. He waited for the door to open, meanwhile he took out his mobile phone from his front pocket.

When he turned it on a series of messages came, flooding his phone because it was turned off the whole day. He saw a message from someone. It was called \'pulpy\'. He laughed without a sound when he saw the name for the Nth time.

The message he received was \'All done.\'