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

The man brought his right hand towards his daughter's head to pat it but he changed his mind.

'Her hairstyle will get ruined.' Thus he dropped his hand a little lower and nudged her shoulder lightly.

"Take daddy's hand and don't be so serious. My Sarah is already a good girl, you don't need to pretend to be one." The girl listened to her father but didn't change her face though she had already taken his left pinky finger and wrapped her hand around it tightly.

Ding~

The lift stopped at the 20th floor and the door opened. Both of them walked before one of the doors of the penthouse. He tapped the calling bell's switch for two times straight and waited for someone to come. 

Meanwhile, Sarah stood before her father. She had already loosened her grip and took away her hand to adjust her dress again. He didn't say anything as he saw her preparing seriously to greet someone and it was the first time he had seen her so 'serious' that he wanted to laugh. Her face hardened a lot as she intensely stared at the door knob; waiting for it to twist and open...

*** ***

At 7pm…

Luo Lixi slowly opened her hazy eyes as darkness greeted her. Those beautiful black eyes were filled with water. 

The room's lights were turned off while the beautiful lights of various tall buildings came through the open windows. 

She turned sideways and shifted her body while rubbing her eyes. "Ruming…" 

Subconsciously, the first thing she thought of and searched for was the man but Sheng Ruming was nowhere in the room. A soft blanket was covering her body until her chest area. It had turned warm due to her body temperature.

Luo Lixi turned her head and stared outside. The building they were living in was very tall. Thus the gentle breeze kept entering and going out. 

When Luo Lixi shifted her head, she noticed the vaguely showing silhouette of the moon that had been hidden by another building, which was very tall.

As sleepiness left her, she sat up on the bed. Her hairstyle was messed up while  the weight of her braids sifted sideways and it hurt the scalp because only some locks of hairs were supporting the weight.

"Offo!..." She gripped her hair, took away the hair bands and put them on the bed. 

She swiped her bare hands through her thick and long black hair to unbraid them; placed them on her back. 

While adjusting her dense hair, she felt something on her left fourth finger and knew right away what that was. There was no one to see her smile in that dark room. 

Luo Lixi stood up and walked to the balcony. The lights from the outside were enough for her to see everything clearly.  Her long hair swayed from side to side as she walked there barefooted.

From childhood, she liked the feeling of the cold tiled floor against her feet and many people didn't know the feeling of it. 

After she had walked there, Luo Lixi put her two hands on the railings of the balcony as she looked underneath. 

Various vehicles were on the roads; going to their destinations. She looked up at the crescent shaped moon and admired it for a while. After that she closed her eyes and took in a large amount of air.

*** ***

Earlier Sheng Ruming went into another room. He came to place the books in the bookshelf. While putting them in their place, suddenly his phone rang out aloud. 

After he had finished placing the books in their place, he took out his phone and saw the word 'Ma' on the phone screen. It was a call via the Internet. His mother wasn't like those mothers who have difficulty using various functions of modern cell phones. (Thanks to her two best friends.)

He received her call right away. 

Wei Airan was happy when he received her call on the first attempt. In the past, she had to call him more than two times for him to receive or call back as he was always busy with his work. 

"Hello, ma."

She wasn't prepared to reply at first because she thought he might receive her call after she had made some calls to him or he would call her back. 

"Ah! Son… have you already landed there?" She thought to ask him this question first. 

"Yes. Many hours ago." While talking Sheng Ruming walked out of the room and started to go towards the living room.

"Oh… Have you eaten your dinner then?"

"Not yet. Too early to eat. Have you?" He asked her back. Wei Airan was talking with him while she unpacked a little container of fish food. It was of an expensive brand, more than costly than one week of food expenses of a middle class family of four people.

"I'm waiting for your father. We will eat when he comes home." She took some fish food in her right palm and threw them in the large aquarium of the living room. 

The extra fat, various colours of betta fishes lazily swum up to the surface of the water and ate the tasty fish food in equal laziness. She touched lightly the head of the one with red colour but the fish didn't shy away as it was familiar with the finger before her.

Sheng Ruming waited for her mother to talk ahead and entered 'their' bedroom, his and Luo Lixi's. When his sight fell on the empty bed, he glanced around and saw the opened door of the balcony.

"Xiao Ru, I wanted to ask if you have hired any chefs to cook for you. Also the matter concerning your treatment…?"

The man stood still as he stared at the opening of the balcony. He felt ashamed when she brought the matter of his treatment, which in reality didn't need any...

"Don't worry about me. I have taken care of everything. Also, I will go outside to eat later…" Sheng Ruming talked very softly. Wei Airan noticed the drop in the volume of his lines. 

"Ma, let's talk later. I will call you."

"Okay. Ma will wait for you then." 

After that both of them cancelled the call at the same time.

'He must be shy to talk about the matters.' Wei Airan thought. When she was talking her hand was subconsciously scattering the fish food in the aquarium. 

Those betta fishes were still eating. One of them nearly turned the shape of an egg. They were trying very hard to swim in the water. Some of them even went to the bottom and began to rest on the colourful rocks as they opened and closed their mouth repeatedly to breath.

"Ah! Aunt Lin! Today I have again fed my little babies too much!" Hurriedly Wei Airan crouched down to the floor and opened the little wardrobe. She took out a little fish net and stood up at lightning speed. She scooped out the remaining fish food from the aquarium.

Aunt Lin walked out from a room and went to stand beside her. She glanced at the fishes with pity. Those poor ones were fed till they couldn't even move.

"Madam, don't love them too much. One day they will die due to the overdose of love you are giving them." Aunt Lin walked back  a little distance after she had finished what she wanted to say for a long time.

"Or are you fattening them to eat?" When Wei Airan heard it, she glared at the other woman.

"How could you say that?!" Wei Airan exclaimed out as she turned her head towards the aquarium. "These are my little sweeties~" Her eyes turned soft when she looked at the bloated fishes. One of them even vomited out when she finished talking.

"..."

"..."

A few seconds later, Aunt Lin walked away, she didn't want to embarrass Wei Airan anymore. 

Wei Airan looked at the fat fishes but her mind failed to register the problems with them. Even the last one stopped swimming and went down to join his/her friends. 

"Too lazy~" She muttered in distress and went to the other aquarium with another food container. This one was filled with regal angelfishes.

But the tragedy happened yet again.

'I won't feed them for the next twenty four hours…' Wei Airan had a defeated look when she murmured in her mind.

*** ***

"Why are you here?" Suddenly Sheng Ruming came behind Luo Lixi and wrapped his hands around her waist as he pulled her against his broad chest. He left a soft kiss on top of her neck. She felt ticklish at that and twisted her head sideways.

"Don't." She turned her eyes and lifted her face to meet his eyes. "Where were you earlier?" 

"In another room." Sheng Ruming answered as both of them turned their gazes towards the sky. "Lixi?"

"Hmm?" She was seizing up the various tall buildings in front of her when he placed his head on her shoulder and asked her in a sexy yet husky voice.

"Do you like the ring I have given you?" At his reminder, Luo Lixi brought the left hand before them. The light of various buildings was enough for them to see it clearly. 

It was a beautiful platinum ring with purple diamond. 

"When did you buy it?"

"When you were asleep, I went to a nearby famous jewellery shop to buy it in the afternoon. Just took thirty minutes... " 

Luo Lixi nodded her head.

"It's very beautiful. I like it… but what about you?"