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

'Did I pamper you so much? For a man who has betrayed you, you are willing to go against me?! Such a disappointment!' Luo Qintian thought as he sighed. The pain on his chest wasn't any near to his tensions. He feared, one day, this grandchild of his would-be sold but she wouldn't even know!

The old man's eyes turned red, and he no longer bothered to look at her. After Zhao Yichen helped him to eat the medicines, he went to rest and fell asleep. 

Zhao Yichen was unmoved at first. But when the clock crossed two hours and her complexion turned pale, he couldn't stay unmoved. The man went beside her and muttered, "Miss, don't be stubborn. Your grandfather always thinks good for you."

"You don't have to remind me. I know... what I am doing." Luo Lixi spat out angrily with misty eyes as she glared at him. The old man didn't know her thoughts and wanted to reform jet life. 

'I can't bear to leave him. If I do, I won't be able to live happily...' Her heart clenched in pain just by thinking of leaving Sheng Ruming. 

When another thirty minutes passed, she could no longer endure and continued to kneel upright. In the end, she fell to the ground. Hearing the thud sound, Luo Qintian opened his eyes. She was lying on the floor breathing heavily, exhaustion was visible in her eyes and the paleness of her face said it all.

Zhao Yichen hurriedly went ahead to help her get up, seeing her in that state made him concerned, yet she refused fiercely. "Don't touch me!"

"Rather than venting your anger on other people, you should reflect on your actions." Luo Qintian said as he sat up. Right at that moment, a nurse came in. 

Looking at the tension in the room, she paused and hesitated. "Should I come later?"

"No, enter." Luo Qintian replied. The nurse nodded and hurriedly started to note down his body condition and did some regular checkups. While going back, she glanced at Luo Lixi. 

Her face was pale while beads of sweat were falling by the skin. Many places of her dress turned damp because of this reason. The nurse paused and whispered, "Why is she kneeling? Moreover, her condition doesn't look good."

"I… I'm fine…" Luo Lixi huffed as she answered. Even though she couldn't feel her legs and felt terrible, she refused to stand up. 

Luo Qintian realized that at this rate, they would go nowhere. To break one's resolution, one needs to throw a big shock. Luo Qintian steeled his heart and turned to Luo Lixi as he ordered in a hoarse voice, "Except Xixi, others leave."

Zhao Yichen gave Luo Lixi another glance as he turned around and left with the nurse. Afterwards, the room quieted down. Luo Qintian stared at her intensely and murmured, "Xixi…"

"Yes, Grandfather."

"Do you know how your parents died?" Luo Qintian's face turned pained whenever he recalled the scene of his son's and daughter in law's dead bodies. 

"...In a car accident." Luo Lixi lifted her eyes and glanced at him in confusion as she asked in puzzlement, "Grandfather, why are you bringing up this matter suddenly?!"

"You never knew the whole thing. I didn't want you to have resentment in your heart and live a life in darkness." Luo Qintian told her with a wry smile. 

"Grandfather, there is more to that matter?" Luo Lixi clenched her hands tightly as she looked ahead in shock. She had the feeling that the thing he would say would become something painful for her. 

She wasn't expecting this yet she felt like there was more. And at this moment, her grandfather using this very incident and comparing it with hers made it worse!

She wasn't ready for it!

"Sheng Haotin…" Luo Qintian breathed in deeply and threw this word with endless malice. 

"Your father in law. Back then, his company was on the verge of bankruptcy and collided with someone." Just these words from Luo Qintian and Luo Lixi froze. At that moment, she finally realised what it meant by 'thunder out of the blue'. 

"Why didn't you tell me before?!" Luo Lixi asked in disbelief. 

"Even if I had said, what would have happened? There was no clear evidence of his crime and in no time, he rose from the pit. Not to say, they lived in another city where my power barely reached." Luo Qintian said as he glanced at Luo Lixi. 

Even though he felt sorry watching her in such a bad state, he didn't show the soft side on his face. He wanted to seem tough to make sure she would witness what he wanted her to see and realize.

"I left the enmity aside so that it wouldn't block your path to rise. Who knew… his damn son  came after you!" Luo Qintian added angrily. 

Luo Lixi touched the ground as she felt a stinging pain in her head and tried to lessen the pain by breathing, despite being ragged and deep. Then, while staring at the ground, she whimpered and spoke, "He knew? Ruming, did he know all of this?"

"Why do you think he disappeared back then?'' Luo Qintian raised a question as his eyes flashed. 

At this moment, Luo Lixi could no longer hide her grief. She covered her face with her two hands and broke down in tears. One person wanted well being for the other person and in the midst of these, they had hurt each other unintentionally by hiding huge matters. 

Glancing at the girl who was crying on the floor silently, Luo Qintian felt guilty for disclosing all those incidents. For a moment, he wanted to go down and comfort her. But recalling that he was the reason why she was crying, he couldn't muster up the strength to do so. 

"Xixi, don't cry. If you are my granddaughter, a member of my Luo family, you won't cry for the people who made you… orphan." Even though Luo Qintian knew it was cruel of him to say such words to her, he let out forcefully. 

Hearing him, Luo Lixi paused. She removed her hands from her face and peered up at him. Luo Qintian didn't notice her eyes which had turned extremely red. The bone-eating pain spread all over her body as Luo Lixi shuddered. Only she knew how painful it was, she hated being this vulnerable. 

"Yichen!" Luo Lixi cried out the man's name as she tried to stand up. But the unbearable pain was eating her inside. 

As the door opened, beside Zhao Yichen, Aunt Zhu also entered. Her heart froze in fear when she saw the messy Luo Lixi on the floor. 

Both of them went forward to help her to get up. Luo Lixi couldn't bear the pain for so long. She shakily turned to Luo Qintian and uttered, "Haa...Grandfather… I am going… back… Haa…"

"What is your decision?" The old man interrogated with a frown. 

"I don't… know. Yichen, take me… back." Luo Lixi murmured as she tried very hard to ward off the effect of the drug in her body. Zhao Yichen saw her biting her lips so much that blood nearly came out from them. 

While helping her to go outside, he inquired in worry, "Miss, are you alright?" 

"No… bring me… back… my medicine…" Luo Lixi mouthed some words and he got them. 

"Medicine? Why don't you tell me the name? I will buy it from here."

"BRING ME BACK! Please!" Luo Lixi couldn't bear to handle it as she clutched his arms tightly. Her nails dug in his skin and the man flinched in pain. He realised that something was terribly wrong with the lady. 

Without wasting time, he picked her off the ground and carried her bridal style running away making sure she was fine. Aunt Zhu paused when he did that. She didn't leave and saw them going out of sight. After a while, she came back into the room. 

"Cough! Zhu, I am such a jerk." Luo Qintian confessed as he rubbed his chest. Even though he should be happy that the years of burden finally came out of his mind, the result wasn't something he preferred. 

"Old master…" Aunt Zhu asked worriedly, "What did you say to Young Miss?" 

"About how Luo Baiyun and Sun Xumei died… No, the involvement of Sheng Haotin in their accident."

"But, didn't you let it go in the past?" Aunt Zhu asked. 

"Yes, I let it go even though I didn't want to. He killed my son, it was justified to kill his son in return. But who knew that Ruming guy is Xixi's classmate?!" Luo Qintian remembered the past and felt bitter. 

...

One day Luo Lixi brought Sheng Ruming into their house and he had a favourable expression of the quiet and well behaved kid. 

Never had he imagined that the next time, he would see that same kid, dyed in a pool of blood and motionless on the ground. 

Luo Qintian instructed Hua Xiamin to kill Sheng Haotin's son in one shot but that crazy butler went on his way and tortured Sheng Ruming so badly that the young boy nearly became paralyzed. 

When Luo Qintian saw the dreadful deep cut on Sheng Ruming's back, he couldn't bear to kill the innocent child and sent him back to the Ming city with the condition that he would never appear in front of Luo Lixi again.