The sound of the silk tie being yanked loose echoed sharply in the silent obsidian chamber.
Shen Huai'an's breath lost its rhythm completely in that instant. As the last restraint around his neck came undone, the bitter gasp long suppressed in his throat finally spilled out uncontrollably.
Lu Xiao's hands were steady and ruthless. He gave the CEO, who was used to controlling everything, no time to adjust. His rough knuckles seized the lapel of Shen Huai'an's suit jacket and stripped it downward along the shoulders.
The expensive black-gray wool fabric fell onto the marble floor with a soft thud.
「Mmm……」
Without the jacket's protection, the three-degree cold air in the chamber pressed directly against Shen Huai'an's thin shirt. The Cold Marrow Toxin raged wildly inside him; the excruciating pain of bones being frozen inch by inch made his body shudder violently. Almost instinctively, he leaned forward, his forehead resting weakly against Lu Xiao's iron-hard chest.
Through the thin black undershirt, the scorching, intense pure-yang energy and blood from Lu Xiao's body instantly transmitted through the skin.
It was not warmth, but a searing heat that could burn the spirit.
「President Shen, you're trembling quite badly.」
Lu Xiao's low voice sounded above Shen Huai'an's head, carrying a barely noticeable rasp. Instead of pulling away, he extended his other large hand and pressed his palm against Shen Huai'an's sweat-dampened back.
「Let go……」 Shen Huai'an's forehead rested against Lu Xiao's chest, his voice as faint as a wind that could snap at any moment, yet the icy tone still lingered like a thorn.
「Follow…… follow the procedure.」
「Procedure?」
Lu Xiao chuckled softly. The laugh held none of the usual deference of a security captain; instead, it was filled with wolf-like aggression. The large hand on Shen Huai'an's back suddenly exerted force, yanking the frozen-stiff body tightly against himself so their chests pressed together without a single gap.
「President Shen, the thunderstorm outside has pushed the yin energy between heaven and earth to its peak. The Cold Marrow Toxin in your body has already invaded your heart meridians.」
Lu Xiao lowered his head, his scorching breath spraying over Shen Huai'an's pale, cold ear. 「Relying only on hand-transfer cultivation won't get you out of this door tonight.」
「You—」
Before Shen Huai'an could finish, Lu Xiao's large hand had already slipped straight under the hem of his shirt.
The fabric was roughly pulled open, and the callused palm pressed directly against Shen Huai'an's flat, cool abdominal skin.
「Ah—!」
A low moan laced with intense pain and extreme relief burst from between Shen Huai'an's clenched teeth.
It was a violent collision of two extreme temperatures. The pure-yang domineering energy and blood contained in Lu Xiao's palm, like a stream of molten lava, forcefully poured into Shen Huai'an's already frozen meridians. The extreme stabbing pain made Shen Huai'an's gaze instantly lose focus. His hands instinctively clutched the bulging muscles on Lu Xiao's back, fingernails nearly piercing through the undershirt into flesh.
「Look clearly who I am, President Shen.」
Lu Xiao's tone carried a near-punitive force. One hand gripped Shen Huai'an's waist while the other precisely pressed, pushed, and kneaded along his abdomen and under his ribs, forcing the boiling yang energy inch by inch into the spasming acupoints.
Shen Huai'an's gold-rimmed half-frame glasses had already slipped to the tip of his nose amid the chaos. Those usually emotionless black eyes now shimmered with a large area of physiological moisture. His originally pale lips were bitten deeply, stained with an eerie, contrasting crimson.
He was forced to tilt his head back, enduring this near-invasive treatment. Every time Lu Xiao's palm pushed through a meridian, the melting cold qi did not bring relief, but rather an indescribable numbness and emptiness rising from deep in his lower abdomen.
The excessive circulation of pure-yang energy and blood within his body brought side effects.
「Enough…… Lu Xiao…… stop……」 Shen Huai'an's voice carried a faint sob and heavily suppressed panting. He tried to push away the man before him who was like a furnace, but his arms had no strength at all; the pushing motion only resembled a powerless caress.
「Not enough, President Shen.」
Lu Xiao looked down at the man who was usually high above, able to decide hundreds of lives with a single document, now trembling and gasping in his arms like a fish out of water. The long-suppressed desire for control in his eyes finally tore through its disguise.
He unfastened the tactical buckle at his own waist with one hand, then covered it over and bit down on the vulnerable neck that Shen Huai'an had arched high from pain.
「Tonight has only just begun.」