Without Me

A cruel sight rolled through Li Ye Han's eyes before he grasped her lower jaw with his free hand and leaned in to kiss her.

Yao Xi opened her eyes wide, but it was too late. Aggressive Li Ye Han brutally sacked her lips. Her jaw tightened, not wanting to open her lips, which only enraged him more.

She didn't want to be kissed by him, but her body betrayed her, as she writhed under him.

Common sense reminded her to fight, so she tried to tear her head aside, so that she managed to get some fresh air.

Her actions only provoked the man.

He tore off the towel covering Yao Xi's body and threw it on the floor, then raised her leg and wrapped it around his waist.

Hearing the sound of a zipped fly, Yao Xi was as scared as ever. Even the knowledge that she would die wouldn't give her such fear.

She tried to take her leg off his belt, but Li Ye Han stopped her actions with another brutal attack on her lips.

At the corners of Yao Xi's eyes appeared tears when she understood what he was going to do, but the reaction of her own body shook her even more.

Every cell in her screamed for more, and her h.i.p.s began to rub against him in an e.r.o.t.i.c anticipation of satisfying l.u.s.t, but Yao Xi didn't want that!

She wanted to control her reflexes, but her weak will effectively blocked every attempt to resist.

It was like her body detached itself from the mind that desperately begged for mercy. It felt like her body belonged to someone else entirely, and her decisions were not taken into account. Like a passive spectator or helpless boss who can not bring his rebellious employees to order.

She wanted to die ...

When something softly touched her most intimate place, she s.u.c.k.e.d in a deep breath, opening her lips, which effectively helped Li Ye Han to plunder her lips.

***

Li Ye Han could no longer control his wild l.u.s.t. He had never felt so enslaved by a woman before.

Sudden rage and passion at the same time when he saw Yao Xi with another man made him no longer able to resist the burning feeling acc.u.mulating in the lower part of his body. It took him half a day to find her in this place. He didn't think twice, when he came to this place, ignoring all the red traffic lights.

He couldn't think of anything, but how to feel her under him, when he imagined m.o.a.ns of p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e escaping her throat.

It did not bother him that they were at the door and anyone passing by could hear the sounds coming from inside.

He lost all the rationality that remained.

The smell of her body, and the touch of smooth skin made him whole being filled with the woman he wanted to taste, absorb and kiss so that she would never forget his taste. He wanted to fill her with himself, so that she could never feel p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e with another man, remembering the feeling that only he could give her.

This last thought caused fury to fill his senses. He kissed her deeply and firmly, like a hungry predator; and at the same moment, without warning, he plunged into her body with one sure thrust, and the scream that escaped her lips didn't improve his mood.

He advanced for a second, only to plunge back into it with all his strength.

***

Pain pierced the senses of Yao Xi.

She bit her lip hard, tasting her own blood, as she tried to cope with the unexpected intrusion into her body.

Every move he made, every thrust was punishment.

He was like a cruel demon enjoying the ravages of his victim, and didn't retreat until he threw her into the deepest depths of the abyss.

***

Three months later, Yao Xi became paralyzed in front of the doctor's office.

Her empty eyes stopped in the black and white photo in her hand, and her mind drifted somewhere on the edge of consciousness.

Salty tears dripped down, staining the paper, but she did not realize it until a woman stopped by and handed her a handkerchief.

Yao Xi looked at her with dead eyes, but her mind didn't register the presence of a woman. Yao Xi was like an empty shell, without a soul. She didn't see, didn't feel.

Nothing.

Suddenly everything became dark and quiet. She couldn't breathe. Some voices shouted at her, but she missed her breath to answer. The cool darkness was slowly coming, until she completely lost in it, leaving the panicked voices of the medical staff behind.

***

A curtain of heavy clouds stretched over the city, as far as the eye could see. The waves of rain fell like lazy gray curtains.

The fenced part of the land belonging to the Li family was surrounded on three sides by a thick oak forest.

A single thread of lightning lit up the face of a man standing by a high window for a few seconds, with a cigarette in his thin lips.

He was looking far away, but his gaze was not focused on anything specific. The expression on the man's face was inscrutable when the images of an eight-year-old girl with hypnotic emerald eyes and amber hair were flashing in front of his eyes.

Her wide honest smile warmed Li Ye Han, whose teenage heart had long ago closed to all human emotions.

Despite his young age, Li Ye Han's hands were stained with the blood of countless people who stood in his way to succession.

The world of rich and powerful people was thoroughly imbued with death and conspiracies. From an early age he was taught how to deal with them in the most merciless way possible.

He has always been taught to crush anyone who could jeopardize his magnificent future in some way without hesitation.

He believed it.

How could he not believe something that had been put into his mind from the moment he only began to understand human speech?

- Compassion is a sign of weakness. Show me a bit of compassion and you'll end up dead. And you will not even know when.

- No feelings! There is only power! Those who love are too stupid to maintain power. And without power - you are dead!

He heard these sentences so often, that they burned in his brain without being able to forget about them.

He never allowed himself any weakness. He never revealed any gaps in his titanium shell.

Until the day he met the child.

An eight-year-old girl, helpless and innocent, but she shook the whole world he knew. It destroyed solid walls that had been built around his heart from birth, to make him a ruthless machine capable of destroying everyone in a world ruled by money and power.

One sentence from the mouth of an innocent child was enough for his entire worldview to collapse, like a house of cards.

He will never forget this sincere, innocent look and the words that left this small mouth when she answered his cruel question

- Why would you help me? What can a child like you do? You have nothing, you are an orphan and you think you can help me? Do not make me laugh! Get lost, before I kill you!

But she remained impassive at his cruel words. He wanted to get rid of her, he was sore and tired, he lost a lot of blood, and still had to endure a child who had barely grown to the ground.

- But who will take care of the older brother? If Xixi goes away, big brother will die.

Young Li Ye Han lost his speech. A simple sentence from the girl's mouth, but he could not refute it.

He let her clean his wounds and bandage them.

He could'ot stop wondering how a small child might know about correct wounds, but her answer surprised him: - Xixi often has to bandage her cuts when other children are teasing Xixi, but Xixi is big and can take care of herself.

She said it so simply, with such a radiant smile on her lips, as if it was her greatest achievement in life.

She didn't regret that other children beat her, but she was proud of herself that she could take care of herself.

How old did it take him to reach a similar stage? Ten? Twelve?

Li Ye Han was subjected to cruel training. He was often beaten and humiliated. Everything to make him stronger.

But it took him a long time to come to terms with his fate. At first he was constantly wondering why him? Why, although his family is the ric.h.e.s.t in the country, cann't live a life similar to other young masters of influential families? Why did he have to endure hell every day?

And here he suddenly meets such a small chicken, which can barely be seen from the ground. And she talks about it, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"It's impossible for me to be weaker than this chicken."

He spent several days hidden in the shed at the orphanage, but the little girl visited him every day.

She stole food to share it with him, and changed his bandage every day.

Li Ye Han guessed she had stolen them and quietly admired her clever mind. You have to be really creative at this age, not to get caught.

During these few days he didn't learn much about her. Only that her name is Xi, and she does not know her last name.

It seems that someone left her at the orphanage door after birth. Without any notes.

In a sense, Li Ye Han felt they were similar. What's more, he began to believe that this strange child has even more than him.

Despite the wealth of his family, he had nothing. Even his own will. He did what he was told. Because they need it, they want it. He even lost the ability to smile, as if the muscles of his face were paralyzed.

When he asked Xi one time, why is she smiling so wide, although her life is so hopeless, she just looked at him as if he were an idiot and replied: - But it will not always be bad, right?

Again he felt like he got a hammer in the head from the chicken.

And he stopped asking. If she had answered him in a similar tone a few more times, he wasn't sure if he would manage to refrain from break a neck this brazen chicken.

But he thought about it.

These words were as simple and honest as it was the most obvious thing in the world.

She can smile because she believes that she will not always have to climb uphill. Sooner or later, there will be a day, when everything will be easier.

And although she annoyed him with her attitude, he promised himself that as soon as he recovered, he would take that strange child out of this place so that she would not have to wait for those better days. He will give her everything she wants.

It took him a few years before he was strong enough to create her home she deserved.

He fought countless battles for power until he came to a position that no one could threaten, but when he returned to the orphanage, Xi was not there.

Nobody even knew which family could adopt her.

It was not too strange. As for orphans, such as Xi, without any family. Who would care about any trinkets in the doc.u.mentation?

For management, the most important thing was that someone took her, and they had one mouth to feed less.

Was something more important? Who cared who took her, or if she is treated well?

A few years passed and he never gave up searching for her. He wondered how she could look, whether she was alive and whether she remembered him at all.

So many years, until she found him one day.

It turned out that she was always with him, but he did not realize it. They both didn't know.

As he suspected, she didn't remember him.

He examined the exact origins of Ruo Yan, and in fact it turned out that she was in the same orphanage and was adopted by the Ruo family when she was eight years old.

She told him that she was once called Xi, but her new parents gave her a new name.

Although Li Ye Han couldn't resist the impression that she looks different than in his memory, he was so happy that he finally found her, and that he could fulfill his promise ...

But that's when his grandfather had to jump out of this stupid marriage!

***

Li Ye Han broke free from memories, when loud thunder hit somewhere nearby.

The bang was so loud, that he jumped.

At that moment there was a knock at his office, and an older man walked in, with his tail curled up, which looked like his life was about to end.

"Young master," the servant stammered, shaking like a jelly. "We know who's behind the murder of Elder Li."

Li Ye Han turned his murderous look at him.

For two months, they have been looking for someone who dared to kill his grandfather. Finally he will find out who it was.

Li Ye Han swore to himself that the fate of whoever did this would be worse than death. No one could attack members of the Li family with impunity!

"Speak!" He growled, and the old servant felt the sound echo in his guts.

"That was... Yao ... Xi ...."