Wholeheartedly Willing Chapter 38 and Chapter 39

Chapter 38: Reward

The scene from just now kept repeating in Lin Xi’s dream.

A man dressed in ominous black clothing, with a radiant aura, descended from the sky like a deity. He looked down with an expressionless face at a wriggling mass of worms on the ground, and took out the black gun from his side.

“No…,” Lin Xi wanted to stop him, but it was too late. As the gunshot reverberated through the sky, she abruptly opened her eyes and found herself lying in the guestroom of Yu Xiucheng’s residence.

The sky outside the window was still dark, and for a moment, Lin Xi couldn’t distinguish between the dream and reality. Subconsciously, she opened the door and walked out.

She didn’t have many thoughts, she just wanted to see Yu Xiucheng.

The bedroom door of the man was slightly ajar, with no one on the bed. She tried calling out, “Yu Xiucheng?”

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Ls alprsdpl.

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“Ebs?”

Rv oyp Zw Dkwnbldt’p hsknl.

Nkd Dk kxxlekyvlzu altykdle bla pldplp, yde bla kdvwkvksd vsze bla vbyv psxlvbkdt oyp oasdt okvb Zw Dkwnbldt. Fbl iwknjzu psqvldle bla vsdl. “Rv’p xl, Nkd Dk.”

“Nkd… Dk.”

Rd vbl eyajdlpp, vbl xyd’p vsdl yp bl rasdswdnle vblpl vos osaep nsxrzlvlzu zynjle bkp wpwyz pbyardlpp. Ohld bkp prllnb, pzso yde byzvkdt, ekprzyule yd yojoyaedlpp vbyv bye dlhla clld plld kd bkx clqsal.

“Yes, I’m Lin Xi.” She turned around with her hands still raised and saw that his cheeks were almost completely wet with sweat in the dark.

“Lin Xi…”

He repeated her name again, and the pressure of the gun barrel against her waist loosened and was retracted.

“Lin Xi.”

“It’s me.”

Lin Xi reached out and touched the man’s face, only to find that it was covered in large beads of sweat. “What’s wrong with you? Did you have a nightmare? Why are you sweating so much?”

“I’m fine.” Once Yu Xiucheng realized that the woman in front of him was Lin Xi, his emotions began to stabilize. After a few deep breaths, he regained his usual tone and style of speaking.

He turned on the lights in the room and went straight into the bathroom. Lin Xi noticed that his casual clothes were already partially soaked, and there was a box of Guazopine on the bedside table.

This medication was usually used to control blood pressure, but Yu Xiucheng was obviously not at an age where he would have blood pressure issues.

When Yu Xiucheng emerged from the bathroom and opened the door, Lin Xi was still waiting outside, as if a cat was waiting for its owner to come out and cuddle with him. She had some fading marks on her face from the slap, but it was still swollen. The bruises on her neck had started to darken, forming a purplish-black circle that resembled a black rope, causing Yu Xiucheng to furrow his brow involuntarily.

“Are you sick?” Lin Xi pointed to the medicine bottle on his bedside table, knowing well what it contained. She asked the question even though she already knew the answer, but she needed a way to start the conversation.

Yu Xiucheng’s gaze remained fixed on her neck. Perhaps it was because her skin was fair that the marks stood out so prominently, making him hesitate to even touch them.

“Yu Xiucheng?”

“You did well today.”

It was as if the man couldn’t hear her question. He carefully lifted her up by her buttocks and placed her back on his bed.

“The phone call came at the right time.”

In fact, when Lin Xi saw Yu Xiucheng rushing in, she already guessed that she had dialed the wrong person in her blind panic. She didn’t want to explain any misunderstandings at this moment. She reached up and hooked her hand around Yu Xiucheng’s neck, intending to initiate a passionate kiss, but the bruise on her neck restricted her movement. Instead of extending her neck forward, she ended up in an awkward position and let out a soft whimper.

It felt somewhat like a dog preparing to rush out to greet its owner, only to be forcefully pulled back by its collar. At least, that was how Lin Xi thought of it. A barely audible chuckle came from beside her, and then Yu Xiucheng’s arm fell down, enveloping her completely beneath him.

The movement was typical of Yu Xiucheng—clean and decisive. But when the man’s lips descended, there was an unusual touch of tenderness.

He kissed her lips with light pecks and licks, instead of forcefully prying her mouth open as he usually did. Taking advantage of the moment when she couldn’t help but gasp for breath due to the pleasure, he took the opportunity to deepen the kiss.

“Mr. Yu, are you rewarding me now?” Lin Xi’s tongue instinctively danced with his. It was only after a tango-like exchange that she seized the moment when he took a deep breath to pull away and smiled at him.

But Yu Xiucheng’s response was a deeper and more lingering kiss.

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Chapter 39: Childhood

“Who changed my nightgown?”

Lin Xi remembered that her little dress had already been gloriously sacrificed. Yu Xiucheng’s hand followed the line of her nightgown, caressing her bare back, his warm palm pressing against her spine.

“It was me.”

A low laugh sounded in the man’s ear. “I didn’t expect Mr. Yu to do something like this.”

Of course, Yu Xiucheng wouldn’t, but at that time, the only rough men he had on hand were the likes of Jiang Ge.

These rough men were tough when it came to guns and fights, but Yu Xiucheng wouldn’t even let them near the building at times like these. He would send them away as far as possible.

He pushed the woman’s skirt up and took hold of her br*ast, tilting his head to place fiery kisses on her cheek and earlobe. With his other hand, he cupped her face and constantly rubbed his fingertips against it.

“Mr. Yu?”

His fingertips were trembling.

In this incredibly tender and intimate posture, his hand slid to her neck artery, and then there were no other movements. It was as if he was simply confirming if she was still alive.

“Do you have a bit of post-traumatic stress disorder?”

Previously, when Lin Xi was in the police academy, she learned that each type of criminal had their own characteristics. For example, most small drug dealers were involved in both selling and using drugs, while true drug lords would never touch drugs themselves. On the other hand, arms dealers often suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to the nature of their profession.

The calluses on the man’s hands were thick, and even when they grazed against Lin Xi’s skin, they felt slightly prickly. Lin Xi couldn’t imagine how many years he had been handling guns and what cruel experiences he had gone through.

“Mm.”

Yu Xiucheng’s thumb pad pressed against Lin Xi’s neck artery, and it took a while before he softly responded.

“Is this your shadow?” Lin Xi held the man’s wrist with her hand. “Don’t be afraid, I’m fine.”

“My mother was strangled to death.” He turned his head and lightly brushed his lips against the bruise on Lin Xi’s neck. “In front of me.”

Because his father had entered the arms trade, and his mother refused to live a hidden life away from his father, Yu Xiucheng had never experienced what it meant to live peacefully from a young age.

He always settled in a town for a period of time before moving with his parents to another place. By the time he was four or five years old, he already knew the entire map of Eastern Europe like the back of his hand.

He hadn’t even attended kindergarten. The only teacher he had before starting elementary school was his mother.

Yu Xiucheng learned a lot from his mother, including English, Arabic, and her native language, Chinese. His favorite thing to do back then was to sit beside his mother and listen to her tell ancient Chinese stories and legends.

He was full of curiosity about that mysterious Eastern country and would often ask her, “When can we go to your hometown?”

Then his mother would smile and tell him, “When your father has time, he will take us there.”

“When will Dad have time?” This question was basically a problem that troubled Yu Xiucheng during his childhood. “Bob next door said his dad has weekends off and takes them out to play. Why doesn’t my dad rest on weekends too?”

Whenever this happened, his mother would give him a helpless smile, ruffle his hair, and get up to the kitchen to make him a pancake tart as a consolation.

At that time, his father deliberately concealed his business and had no intention of letting Yu Xiucheng enter the trade to inherit his bloody craft.

However, Yu Xiucheng learned an ancient saying from his mother early on: “The one who wields the gun is the one who gains power.”

Soon, his father attracted attention because of an exceptionally successful deal in the local underworld. They engaged in multiple firefights, and the other party couldn’t gain any advantage but couldn’t let it slide either, so they resorted to playing dirty tricks.

On a certain evening, just like any other, Yu Xiucheng’s mother was in the kitchen preparing dinner when she immediately dropped what she was doing upon hearing the car alarm outside. She picked up Yu Xiucheng and hurriedly took him upstairs, hiding him in the bedroom closet.

“Xiucheng, listen to me,” his mother’s expression was unusually serious. “Mom is going to lock the closet door from the outside. Get inside and stay there until your father comes back.”

Yu Xiucheng, somewhat understanding his mother’s instructions, crawled into the closet. After the closet door was securely locked from the outside as planned, he peered through the crack and watched his mother leave the room.

In the next second after the bedroom door closed, the front door downstairs was kicked open with a loud bang. It startled six-year-old Yu Xiucheng, and the man’s cursing and the woman’s screams created a hellish melody that evening, akin to swiftly approaching lava closing in on the bedroom where Yu Xiucheng was hiding.

The bedroom door was kicked open, and a burly man dragged his mother in by her hair.

“Where’s the kid?”

The menacing man glared at the woman, and the pitch-black barrel of a gun was already pressed against her forehead.

“What kid?” The woman replied scornfully, curling her lips. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We’re a childless couple.”

“Are you fucking trying to deceive me?” The man slapped the woman’s face, then grabbed her by the throat, yelling towards the empty room, “Kid, if you don’t want to see your mother die, come out now, or I guarantee you’ll lose your mother.”

Before the man finished speaking, Yu Xiucheng couldn’t hold back any longer. However, his mother seemed to anticipate his actions and shouted desperately, “Don’t move! Darling, please, don’t move. I’ve already called the police. They will come to rescue us soon!”

“Fuck!” The man cursed, tightening his grip around the woman’s neck. The strong muscles on his arm bulged, “Bitch.”

Yu Xiucheng would never forget that twilight evening when, through the tiny crack of the closet door, he witnessed his mother gradually ceasing to struggle and understood the meaning of death.

It was only when sirens sounded from a faraway place that the man, being urged by his accomplice, prepared to flee the scene. Before leaving, he even lifted the submachine gun hanging from his neck and fired indiscriminately throughout the entire room. The closest bullet was a mere 3 centimeters away from Yu Xiucheng’s head.

“And… what happened afterward?”

Yu Xiucheng waited in the closet for a long time, but the police never arrived. That’s when he realized that his mother hadn’t actually called them; she was only afraid that he would dash out at that critical moment.

“It was only when my father returned home that he found me hiding in the closet,” Yu Xiucheng said. “Then, that night, he brought all his men and wiped out the gang leader’s stronghold.”

“Your mother is truly remarkable.” Lin Xi’s heart ached as she heard this story, especially in recent years. She reached out and embraced Yu Xiucheng’s neck. “Even in such a tense situation, she remembered to make you lie down and protected you so well. She’s truly amazing.”

The man’s large palm gently held the back of her head as he kissed her, pushing her back onto the bed.

“And so are you.”

Jiang Ge had been at the back door all day and hadn’t noticed the large number of police officers lurking around the front door. If Lin Xi hadn’t stopped him from drawing his gun, this matter would have become a very troublesome situation.

“Me?”

Lin Xi’s tone rose slightly, as if she had heard something incredible.

“I can’t be as great as that.”

She teasingly flicked open the buttons of the man’s pajamas, and her fingertip lightly traced his Adam’s apple, as gentle as a feather.

“But… I can help you with something else. It should be more effective than the sedative…”

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Translator’s note: I guess we can say that they’re two broken souls that found solace and salvation with each other. ♥️

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