Chapter 224 Swollen and Bruised
"If you did not have any good intentions towards me from the start, why can't you just let me go? Why can't you let me leave so that I can go to another who will properly cherish me!" She shrieked, continuing to fight against him, even when his iron grip was not letting her prevail.
Yang Feng saw red. Another man? Like hell he would! The way she spoke provoked him. "There is no one on the face of this earth who will cherish you more than I do." He scowled, one arm coming loose to force her to look at him. "Who is it?!" He spat out the words like it was poison. "It seems you already have an escape plan, a rebound in mind."
Her breath hitched when it came in contact with his fury. He regarded her as if she was his greatest nemesis, the bringer of his misfortune. There was so much enmity in his eyes, he resembled a ferocious beast who was out for blood, to be more specific, hers. The toughest men in the world would drop to their knees if they ever came in contact with his glare. His wrath and eyes alone could tame the wildest of creatures into submission.
"You ugly, horrendous, hideous brute and buffoon of a man! Release me! Why do you even care if I go off with another man?!"
He let out a cruel, spine-chilling laughter. She shivered at the sound, as goosebumps formed on her arms. "You're bold aren't you?" He mocked, "Being spoiled to the bone, you must've thought you could get away with such insults."
She snarled, "You're the one who spoiled me rotten and now you're blaming me for my behavior and words? Why don't you take some responsibility first?!"
"I will take some when you begin taking responsibility for crashing into my life, muddling my brain, confusing my heart—"
"Don't accuse me, I did no such thing—mmph!" He roughly captured her lips.
He was forcing her into submission. He pressed their bodies together until he felt every curve of her body against his, with his hand holding her face in place. He pried her mouth open with his tongue, diving in to taste her, even when her tongue stubbornly fought against him, he was able to dominate her. When he pulled back for air, she saw his eyes, hot and riddled with passion, but hostility was the most prominent emotion in them.
He kissed her again, harsher and rougher than before, filled with pure acrimony while he bent her to his will, nipping and biting at her lips, causing her to cry out in pain, only for him to soothe the area with his lips that felt soft and warm, nothing like his current behavior. His lips sealed over hers, silencing her protest.
Zhao Lifei could feel her body responding to him, even if her heart was unwilling. She could not think properly as her mind became consumed with the kiss, turning hazy and becoming mush. She wanted to fight against his lips but did not have the power to resist his temptation and eventually succumbed to it, leaning into him and responding to him.
He pulled back for the briefest second so that she could breathe and then he crashed his lips down to her, again and again, as if punishing her. Even then, she did not back down as her lips hungrily molded over his with the same passion and roughness.
When he pulled back to let her properly take a gasp of air so that she would not pass out, he saw how swollen and bruised her lips were. Ruby red, it was a tempting color. When he realized how much force was used on her chin, he hurriedly loosened his grip in fear of leaving a bruise behind on her perfect complexion. He had hurt her and he regretted it more than ever.
Zhao Lifei looked away from him, her head turning to the right as pure hatred filled her eyes. She despised him.
"Look at me." He demanded.
She did not. She continued to stare at the wall, her blank expression bothering him.
Yang Feng felt stabs of pain spread through his chest upon seeing the side profile of her face. She looked so hollow, so broken, he could not find the words to comfort her. His heart was hurting, something he did not know was possible until he met her. A knife was being twisted deep into his beating flesh.
"Look at me." He repeated, this time, his voice was a lot softer. His fingers brushed against her chin, massaging the area that he had painfully held.
He thought over their conversation carefully. He did not know why she was so angry and where her sudden determination to leave him came from. Regardless, his heart was still consumed by rage that she could even fathom such a horrible idea.
He was a greedy and stubborn man.
Once his heart was set on something, he would devote himself entirely to it and now it was devoted to her alone. Even if she wanted to leave, he would not allow it. His possessiveness towards her was unhealthy, but she brought that side out of him. It was cruel of him to think this but he could not help himself, he had fallen too deeply in love with her to let her go.
Just then, he thought back to her original words. 'Stop playing with me!' What did she mean by that? He was playing with her? Since when? The thought had never crossed his mind.
Ever since he laid his eyes upon her, he had only one intention towards her: marriage.
He wanted to make her his wife, one that would be dearly loved for the rest of her life. He planned to shower her with all the love in the world, pamper and spoil her to no return, and when she would protest, he would continue to adore her.
"I never intended to play with you."
Her head sharply turned towards him, causing him to become fearful that she would get whiplash.
"From the very beginning, I planned on having a future with you. I just want you to be the sole mother of my many children, the love of my life, and as horribly and utterly cheesy as it sounds, I want to grow old with you, sit by the seashore as we reminisce about our youth." He whispered, cupping her face as he leaned his forehead against hers, staring wholeheartedly into her eyes.
"You're right. I am as unfair as I am greedy." He stroked her cheek, "I can never let you go, not after you became my only source of happiness. It pains me to even think about seeing you leave and if you do, I don't think I can humanly function anymore."
He kissed her forehead, his heart thudding in fear that her sudden obedience to listen to him would disappear if he made the tiniest mistake. "I could never adore another as much as I adore you."
"I love you Zhao Lifei, god damn it, why can't you see that? I love you so much, I'm willing to turn the world into a battlefield if it means I can have you." He had never professed his feelings openly before, the action was very foreign to him. But when it came to her, all of it came out naturally.
Zhao Lifei was stunned. 'He... He loves me?'
If it was not for what she heard in the recording, she would've believed him. She would've convinced her foolish little heart to listen, but unfortunately, she did hear the recording and she did hear his true intentions towards her. However, a part of her did not want to believe in it. Audio manipulation was a possibility, and it was something she had encountered it in the military. This was why she decided to give him a chance. She did not want to be a coward and run away from her problems.
She opened her mouth to respond but he pressed a finger upon it.
"I'm not done yet, my dear." He breathed in deeply before saying, "This morning, I had a discussion with my grandfather."
She blinked, surprised he was even going there. What was going on? What were his intentions here?
"In order to keep you safe from his clutches, I lied to him." He brushed away the locks of hair covering her eyes, it had presumably become messy in her struggle against him. "I lied about my intentions towards you, I lied about how I felt, and I lied to keep you safe."
It was all starting to make sense now. Zhao Lifei purposely neither hinted at the recording nor the discussion in fear that he would try to convince her otherwise. But right now, he did not know. He did not know why she was so angry, why she was bent on leaving him, or why she wanted to run from him. He did not know.
He was speaking from his heart.
"My grandfather is a ruthless man. Just to groom me into the perfect and cruel leader, he wanted me to be heartless. He never wanted me to fall in love, to experience emotions that he deemed to be weak." Yang Feng did not favor his grandfather's ideals, but he became the very definition of it. He could not help it anymore, it had become a part of his nature to be cold and brutal, even when his enemy was pleading for dear mercy.
Yang Feng could not blame his grandfather, for a part of him heavily knew, even without the influence of his grandfather, he would turn out to be the same way he currently is. He was a quiet child growing up, too detached from the world to care about emotions. His grandfather only amplified his behavior.
"I thought I could do it. I thought it would be easy to not fall in love, but the second you crashed into my life, ruining my plans, and creating a spot within my heart, I knew I could never follow his wishes."
His thumb brushed against her lips in hopes of easing any pain she felt. "I love you and because of that, I had to keep you safe."
"And what did you say to him?" Zhao Lifei decided to test him. If he did not lie to her, she would stay. If he did, she would leave.