"Stop!" Li Zhen undid her seatbelt.
"Li Zhen, don't throw a tantrum!" Yu Sheng frowned as he pulled the car over. "With your injured hand, you can't take care of yourself. Do you want to lose your hand? Don't forget you are a hand model."
Yu Sheng always knew how to make Li Zhen fly off the handle. She gave a cold laugh, "Hand model isn't my dream job. I don't care if I have to quit!"
"Are you blaming me for getting you the job at Macro Ocean? I told you that you don't need to work. You said you couldn't stand staying home all day."
"Yu Sheng, I'm not..." your accessory!
Li Zhen lightly dug her nails into her palm, feeling a slight pain. The words stuck in her throat.
She wanted a life of her own, not contentment in a greenhouse under his protection.
But there was no need to tell him that now.
Li Zhen's emotions cooled in an instant. She got out of the car, "I'll go home myself, don't send me."
Conversations with him were fine until he started talking. A few sentences were enough to start an argument. Li Zhen couldn't be bothered to say more to him.
"Get in the car!" Yu Sheng's face was dark as ink. "It's raining!"
Li Zhen ignored him.
Yu Sheng's face grew stormy as he tried to restrain his anger. "It's raining. You can't get your bandages wet."
"We're divorced. You don't need to manage my affairs anymore."
Li Zhen's words clenched Yu Sheng's eyebrows into a straight line. He gave a cold laugh, "You need to learn a lesson."
He rolled up the car window and drove off in a roar of the engine.
Li Zhen called for a taxi on her phone but it would take five minutes to arrive.
She plopped down at the roadside, feeling her eyes grow moist.
She just didn't like the hand model job.
In the first two years they were together, she had told him she loved acting. He would always listen to her intently as she talked about plays and fantasized about becoming a big star in the future.
She probably repeated the same hundred stories a thousand times.
But he always listened earnestly.
Every time she finished, he would say, "That's good if you like it..."
What made him change?
It didn't matter. It was all in the past. She and him were over.
But she only had so many years in her life.
The rain grew heavy, falling on her head and shoe tips. The cool sensation made her still-swollen wrist sting.
Li Zhen sniffed as she felt even more miserable.
Suddenly, a pair of polished black leather shoes appeared in her vision and the rain seemed to stop instantly.
The next second, a suit jacket was draped over her shoulders, carrying the smell of wood and the warmth of its owner's body as it wrapped around her.
She looked up.
Lu Yanming stood tall above her, his face sculpted yet gentle, gazing at her coolly from behind his gold-rimmed glasses.
His long, straight right hand held a black umbrella, shielding her completely while he stood in the rain.
Raindrops eagerly slipped into his expensive shirt.
Lu Yanming held out his hand to her, "Aren't you going to get up?"
Li Zhen blinked, feeling her heart sink heavily. Her voice was soft and sticky, "I called a car."
"Cancel it."
"Oh."
Li Zhen placed her left hand in his. His hand was big and solid, giving her a steady sense of security.
With just a light pull, he brought her to her feet.
"Mr. Lu..."
"Hmm?"
"I'm hungry."
"I see."
-
A hungry person couldn't wait for a meal to be cooked. Lu Yanming took her to a Western restaurant and had the waiter cut up her steak into small pieces so she could eat easily with her fork in her left hand.
After their meal, Lu Yanming drove to the apartment building.
Sunflower Gardens was an old complex without underground parking. After searching for ten minutes, he found a small, undesirable spot in the corner that no one wanted to park in.
The spot was next to the wall so Li Zhen had to get out first and stand under a tree to avoid the rain.
Lu Yanming expertly parked the car in the tight spot.
He got out of the car, pressing the key fob. The Mercedes' expensive headlights flashed, lighting up half the complex.
"Let's go." Lu Yanming held the black umbrella over Li Zhen as they walked forward.
"Mr. Lu, don't executives like you get nicer company housing? Why are you staying in a place like this?" Li Zhen asked curiously. After all, the old complex was inconvenient in many ways.
They were close, with Li Zhen almost brushing against his arm.
She looked up at him. The aging lights in the complex flickered erratically, sharpening his facial lines.
What a gorgeous face.
Hopefully his good genes would be perfectly passed down to her darling baby.
"Is that so? I didn't know. I just picked a place randomly," Lu Yanming answered casually.
"Mr. Lu, why didn't you ask how I hurt my hand?"
"It's already spread around the company."
"Mr. Lu, how did you happen to walk by that road today?" Li Zhen asked again.
"I went to buy something over there." Lu Yanming glanced at her, amusement lurking in his light eyes. "Is today Li Zhen asks three thousand questions day?"
Li Zhen lowered her head bashfully, "I just suddenly thought of it and wanted to ask."
The two entered the apartment.
Lu Yanming changed his shoes and hung up his half-wet suit jacket at the entrance. He seemed to ask casually, "You got rained on today. You should take a shower. With your hand, do you need my help?"
Li Zhen, who had just reached the bedroom door, swayed in fright. "No need, no need..."
After their lingering intimacy the previous night, he had carried her to bathe when she was too tired. The mood and atmosphere made it seem natural.
But out of the blue like this, she couldn't accept a man she'd known only a few days helping her shower.
Lu Yanming brought the umbrella out to the balcony and opened it to dry.
She heard his indistinct voice float in from the balcony, "Weren't you quite open these last few days? Why so shy when you're sick?"
Li Zhen steeled herself and raised her voice, "Who's shy? I just..."
Lu Yanming put the umbrella away and walked back in.
With his long legs, he reached her in just a few strides. His height of six foot something faintly emitted a sense of masculine intimidation. "What is it?"
Li Zhen swallowed and looked up at him slightly.
His flawless facial lines, noble gold-rimmed glasses, alluring light eyes, and sexy lips enlarged limitlessly before her eyes.
She suddenly recalled learning in university that they had the perfect height difference for kissing.
"Li Zhen..." Lu Yanming bent down slightly, meeting her gaze evenly.
The woody scent on him rapidly approached her. Li Zhen's body instantly tensed up. "Ah?"
"Just now, you swallowed when you looked at me." Lu Yanming slowly moved even closer, nuzzling her nose with his. "Are you trying to seduce me?"
Li Zhen was so embarrassed she wanted to find a hole to hide in. She felt her brain instantly flush with blood and her ear tips burn hotly. "No, Mr. Lu..."
Amusement lurked in Lu Yanming's light eyes. He lightly kissed her flaming ear tip. "I think you are..."
Li Zhen's heart pounded like it would leap out of her chest.
When she took the lead, she could force herself to stay calm.
But when Lu Yanming wanted her, the intense feeling of being overtaken made her afraid.
Li Zhen's voice trembled slightly, "Mr. Lu...mmmph..."
Lu Yanming tilted up her chin and kissed her forcefully, not allowing any refusal.
He pushed her back against the wall.
The kiss was impatient, as if confirming something, yet also devoutly demanding. Her air was completely stolen away and her mind sank hazily.
Her legs turned soft from his kisses and she leaned powerlessly against the wall, only knowing to tilt her head back submissively.
Just as she started to slide down, Lu Yanming wrapped an arm around her waist, picked her up face-to-face, and carried her kissing towards the bathroom.
Li Zhen could only cling tightly to him.
His body was just as hot as hers. The hard, hot muscles under his shirt restlessly flexed and shifted as he walked.
Lu Yanming set her down on the bathroom counter, releasing her slightly swollen lips.
He raised his hand and loosened his pinstripe tie.
Li Zhen's mind cleared and she exclaimed, "Mr. Lu, shower play?"
