Ruoxi's heart trembled, this scene reminded her of those oaths made in a wedding ceremony when the groom and bride spoke their fealty for their partner and promised to take care of each other for a lifetime. She used to mock those superst.i.tious pacts because they failed to prove any influence whatsoever toward these people's marriage; the man who slept on the white bed behind her not even once fulfilled his duty to his wife, her acquaintance just married a couple months ago yet now they already submitted a divorce paper, and many other marital issue.

She lost for any words, if he delivered this oath only in a string of words, she won't take it seriously no matter how romantic it was, because she regarded this as his effort to honey talk her. Albeit her understanding of his character, she found it hard to believe that anyone would willingly stakes their own life in changed for other people's comfort outside of their duties. Then she saw magnificent view of him drawing sort of circle in the air, after a while, that circle split into two before making its way toward them and planted its form inside their palm. This situation resembled a magical ritual when they made a death pact out of it, the things that only supposed to happen in movies and novels.

Her body tensed at the thought of this oath's authentic, wasn't it mean that once she felt alone one day the price would be his life? Even if she didn't really mean it, his life would be in peril danger! Beside she ended up alone anyway if he died!

"You cruel..." She honked her mouth in discontent.

He grinned, his eyes smiled along, "How come?"

"You basically forcing me not to feel lonely..." she pouted her s.e.xy lips and held her hand while rubbing the back of her palm.

Laughing his a.s.s off, Naruto raised his hand and rubbed her head, "How does it feel to have someone's life inside your hand? Literally."

"Not fun, annoying, and uncomfortable. I felt like a great burden just place on my shoulder," her head moved in accordance to the movement his hand.

Naruto opened his eyes and stared at her in a gentle light, "Well, my princess Ruoxi, my life is now in your hand, whether in accident or incident, please try not to kill me, okey?"

"No Kidding!" With blus.h.i.+ng face, she put her hands on his shoulder, "don't you dare play your life like this anymore, is not a toy you can put in anyone box!"

"I'm not," he caressed her cheek, "I'm putting it in yours, my family!"

She widened her eyes before closing them, a pair of curve manifested on the corner of her lips, Yes... we are family.

Silent visited the room, in a beat of the clock, ticking their way into another hour, two young people enjoyed the warm transmitted by the opposite party.

At this time, Naruto wrinkled his eyebrow, "By the way, how do you know about Jiang Wei?"

Ruoxi eyelids jumped open, her pupils stared at him in a shock, "Jiang Wei? Who's that?"

His wrinkle's getting deeper, "My girlfriend, the one we just talked about..."

Her eyebrows drew together, "Your girlfriend name is Jiang Wei?! Then who's Jeanne?!"

Thunder launched their zap against his mind along with the change of his complexion, his eyes widened to their limit, "How... how do you know that name?"

Looking at his unusual change in expression, a strange feeling rose within her guts, then she buried her face onto her bosom while red smeared her face like a ripe apple, "I... I heard you mentioned her name... while you talking... in your sleep... yesterday..." Her voice closed to mosquito buzz by the end of her sentence. The deep shame she felt after exposing her eavesdrop's venture to him.

Naruto expression lagged for a while, his face akin to someone who just lost his soul, then as if something triggered inside him, his face became red and mouth opened as large as possible.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

He threw his head backward, smacking the wall behind him yet this unable to obstruct the roaring laughter coming from his mouth. Ruoxi jumped in fright, she put her hands on his mouth, "Naruto, what's wrong with you?! This is a hospital, stop laughing so loud!"

"Pffft, I'm sorry, I just... I just..." He paused for a while before continued his onslaught on the hospital quiet environment, "HAHAHA!"

Gooseb.u.mp reigned all over her chest, her slender hands on his mouth unable to block any incoming loud tune he let out, she turned her eyes toward the door, fearing anyone came inside at any time now, then she faced him back. She gritted her teeth while her face flushed red, she held his cheek together, then she leaned forward.

The world as if ceased to rotate at this very exact moment, his eyes startled as they saw her closed eyes reached closer almost within a hair's breadth length.

The moist texture he felt on his lips resembled a pair of pink tofu steamed in a half-boiled water. It soft and delicate, he even a.s.sumed they'll be crushed if he ever put on the slightest pressure on it. The kiss only lasted for a few seconds but they experienced it like countless hours already pa.s.sed, especially for Lin Ruoxi. She crept backward with eyes still closed and peace crowned her face as if she within a realm of her own. His lips might be soft, but it filled with wild intention and thick male aura that overwhelmed her consciousness and trapped her inside the bliss she never experiences before.

She opened her eyes and find a dazed expression masked his face, tons of brush swooped down upon her face and painted it all in a red color, she abruptly gaze downward with her hands still on his cheek, "D-don't... don't get any... any wrong idea, I-I just tried to s-stop... stop you from b-bothering... f-father and other patient... so it's... it's not like... I-I wanted to k... k... kiss you.. or s-something... "

Naruto awoke from his trance-like state and set his gaze at the red face Ruoxi who talked akin to a transferred student from another town. He looked taken aback before a crafty smile lifted his lips, "So if I laugh again, another kiss shall be delivered?"

"D-don't you dare, you rascal!" She slapped his chest but her pair of eyes feared to look at him.

"But I want to laugh, you do know that holding a laughter is dangerous for health right?"

"You're lying! I never hear such a thing!"

"But it's true, if you hold too much it can cause diverticula, pouches in the wall of the colon, to form and these can easily be infected."

"Really?" she frowned.

"MmHmm," he nodded, "so I have to continue my laughing now." He took a deep breath.

"No, no, Stop! The hospital management could kick you out!" She brought her hands and closed his mouth.

"I don't care, better be kick out than becoming sick," he said in a m.u.f.fled tone, he whisked her hands, "HA..."

"No!" She leaned forward and closed his mouth with another kiss.

"mm... mmp... mm..."

Unlike the first attempt, his lips failed to stay idle, he moved his underlip and provoked her upper one, gave it a gesture to lift a little, she hesitated for a while before awkwardly opened her lip twas letting him enjoyed by placing it between his lips, he sucked lightly before moving to her underlips and gave it the same treatment. The scene turned quite amusing, her hands the one who held his cheek yet his lips that remained active. He leaned back a little only to dash out his tongue and struck the small gaping hole between her lips, licking anywhere it can like a playful child. He took back his pink soldier and focused on smothering his lips on her upper one, their nose grazed against each other proving his wild movement.

Once a while, Naruto retreated and advanced again for another kiss, time pa.s.sed for a five minutes yet they still engaged in amorous activity, his rhythm allowed her to take a breath for a while before resuming the heated session, her hands no longer take a hold of his face and placed them on his chest instead, she sensed his firm muscle through the thick of his white jacket, giving the pectoralis a push with a small force. Naruto removed one hand from her waist and placed it on the outline between her jaw and side neck, he helped her move to stay on his movement.

He bit her underlip and pulled the thin layer lightly. He lashed out his tongue and licked her upper lip.

Ruoxi resembled a student followed her teacher footsteps; she mashed his lips, covering it with her sweet liquid before she proceeded to suck on it.

After a while, they separated with both eyes closed and face full of ecstasy, forehead remained glued together while flamming gasp steamed on each other surface.

As if a magical magnet exist between them, the reddish wet lips approached one another, intending to melt into becoming one.

*Thud!*

"Excuse me, routine checkup... oh my!"

A cheerful tone disturbed the mystical territory created by this two youngster, their eyes wide opened and glanced at the same time toward the room's door, a nurse in a white uniform stood in the gate with flushed face, she appeared older than them, around thirty years old or so.

"I... just probably come back later... yeah, maybe 5 or 7 minutes..." She grabbed the door's handle and pull it slowly, "try not to be so loud though and not creating any mess."

In the narrow hall, behind Lin Kun room's door, the nurse let out a sigh before she waved her head with a faint smile, "Youngster these days, well, it's not like I never done that before, hmm... patient archives room... that new guy firm a.s.s."

Ruoxi looked at the nurse previous spot with a dazed countenance, on the other hand, Naruto just chuckled before he leaned into her ear, "Did you hear that? The nurse only gives us 7 minutes, so let's make it worth every second."

Ruoxi turned her head toward him in a robotic manner, her face still basked in absentminded light, Naruto closed his eyes, advanced forward to gain another taste of her sweet cherry lips. Unknown to him, a hand raised above them and swung downward in a hand chop style.

*Pa!*

"Or not..." Naruto shrugged with slight reddish line separated his face in the middle. Ruoxi snorted while fixing her clothes.

She stood not far away from him with a trace of ruddy still lingered on her smooth skin, "You embarra.s.sed me in front of the nurse!"

"It's not like you hated it."

She swept her glaring eyes toward a single blondie object in the room.

"Fine, fine, I'm sorry," Naruto with a careless face, raised both his hand in surrender.

"Humph!" She threw her face away from him and walked toward another desk with a bottle of water on it. She grabbed the bottle and drunk on it till the quarter portion of water inside entered her throat.

"Someone thirsty," a chuckle breeze from his mouth.

She put down the bottle and grabbed a tissue to wipe her lips, "Don't pretend to be innocence, this is your fault to begin with!"

Naruto shrugged again, neither denied nor approved her accusation. She pouted before occupied the seat beside the Lin Kun's bed, "By the way, why you suddenly laugh like that?"

Naruto chortled as he shook his head, "It just ticks me that even though she's been long gone yet still able to cause me a trouble."

"She? You mean this Jeanne?" Ruoxi frowned.

"Yup."

Her eyebrows jumped in a sudden, "What do you mean by long gone?"

"She's no longer alive," Naruto said with a deadpan expression.

She stood up immediately, her face turned sour, "Naruto, I'm so sorry, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to remind you of a sad event like that."

"Eh, it's fine," Naruto waved his hand, "I already deal with it, so no sweats..."

She sat back but her face doomed with a depressed expression. Naruto sighed, he stood and walked closer to her, he raised his hand and rubbed her head, "Hey, I'm truly fine, it's sad indeed but I'm not letting it drowning me."

Her eyes stared at him in meaningful way before she nodded afterward, she set her face downward, "So Jiang Wei... is your girlfriend now?"

"Yeah," he scratched his cheek, "actually I have another one too."

"What?!" She snapped her head upward, her face filled with an anguish, "you have two girlfriends?!"

"Yup."

"What the h.e.l.l..." Bitter clouded her face, "how many do you plan to have?"

"No, there is no plan or such a thing," he twitched his lips.

"Then you just going to accept any woman that confess to you?" She sneered.

He rubbed her head, his eyebrows drew together, "Of course not, what are you thinking?! I'm not an easy man or man-wh.o.r.e who just casually take in any woman I meet!"

Her heart jumped in her place by his sudden spat, she declined her face and stared at her thighs in a pitiful manner, like a tod scolded by her pop's for any mischief behavior, "I'm sorry... I'm just feeling... so irritated."

Naruto sighed, he kneeled and grasped her hands, he tilted his head to look at her face, "Look, these girlfriends of mine? I accepted them not just because they have a face like a fairy or a body like immortal," their gazes lined up, "Ruoxi, they have wounded souls, charred by a past that no much people ever experienced, least not in my knowledge. They offered their feeling for me, hoping they would receive a better end for their suffering, and I know if I rejected them outright, it might devastate them, no, I'm not going to be a person who mixed a trouble into a chaos, adding a black tint into a murky water.

He squeezed her hands, "I'm not going to be a hypocrite or pretended to be a saint by saying I have no desire for them, h.e.l.l, I'll be in deep regret if one of them find a better man than me one day and decided to live their life with them instead. I'll admit I'm a selfish jerk and pervert a.s.shole who always l.u.s.ted for other women despite what I have.

Unlike other men, I won't speak any honey words to trick them any comfort, I unable to give them my full attention or my whole heart, I'm not a billionaire who have thousands of cash to support their living, I'm not an artist who make tons of art filled with love just to make their heart flutter, I'm just a man who tried my best to make them happy, no matter what the cost I have to pay."

Ruoxi stared at his eyes, she frowned a while before letting out a sigh, "I know..."

"I'm not someone who have the right to tie you down but as my prespective as a woman, I hope you won't overdo it. We might agree to share you but it doesn't mean we happy about it. I understand your intention but if you kept adding a woman into your arm, I fear one day you bound to hurt us instead, or worst, you hurt yourself, way more than you prepared too."

"Alright..." He rubbed her hands, "thank you."

She shook her head, "Don't thank me, I'm neither happy about this or approve your way of thinking but at least I won't make it difficult for you."

Naruto nodded, he rose on his feet, "had I said how lucky I'm to have you?"

"Who is yours, we just partner in crime..." She curled her lips and threw her face from him.

A chuckle came out from his mouth, he moved her head lightly, "You right, we're like Bonnie and Clyde."

Copying his style, she let out a chuckle, "Shall we heist a bank and rob all of their gold?"

"Well, if you up to it I won't reject, though that not exactly their forte."

"Really?" Her eyebrows wrinkled, "What they would do?"

"Robbing gas stations and grocery stores."

"No way, how much they looted from such a place."

Naruto rubbed his chin, "Not really fruitious, most of the times they ate only plain bread."

She startled before she t.i.ttered, "You talked as if you know them."

"Well, bird tend to flock together, I also watched their wedding," Naruto shrugged.

"You mean in the movie right?" Her forehead furrowed.

"Duh of course, where else?" Naruto waved his hands after a slight twitch on his lip, then his seemed startled, "oh, yeah! Speaking about crime..."

Naruto walked toward one of the desks and grabbed a blue good looking folder. He went back to Ruoxi and handed the folder to her, "You might want to read this."

With a wrinkle on her brow, Ruoxi accepted the folder and flipped it open, her eyes soon widened in shock and glanced them toward Naruto, "T-this, how possible?!"

He took a deep breath as he crossed his arm, "this is actually connected with my second girlfriend, so..." Naruto started telling Ruoxi this afternoon event in Flowing Cloud Hotel with Liu Mingyu and Department Head Ma, of course, he only told what he needed to tell like how Mingyu circ.u.mstance by the time he arrived there, or how Ma had helped from the hotel manager to prepare the setting.

"That rapist!" Ruoxi face turned frosty with pair of glacier as her eyes, "I should just fired him immediately, Yu Lei don't need the type of sc.u.m like him."

"While I agree with you that he's a sc.u.m," a smirk curved his lips, "it will be better if we kept him around, he is expandable, you can fire him anytime you want without giving him a compensation, you can cut his wage without care, or you can force him to do your bidding and blame all the mistake on him."

Ruoxi hung her head while putting her arms below her heaving breast, "You have a point, I also can send him to snoop around Yu Lei and company branches to unfold any corruption."

Her eyes glittered with sparkling stars, "Flowing Cloud income each month on average could reach 30-40 million, if we cut 20% from it that would be 6 million at the minimum, though not enough to increase Yu Lei's fund in large scale, we can still put it into other use. Also, these free facility commodities really helped us a lot, especially for incoming exhibition with Xu Zhihong company, we can pretend to share the rent's payment for the hotel grand hall even make them pay a large portion of it, making look like our finance has some trouble, also..."

Looking at her spoke in full spirit, he shook his head before rubbing her head again, "Alright, don't get too excited, we wouldn't want to break the toy before we satisfied."

She startled as her cheek burned in embarra.s.sment, she spat her tongue, "Sorry..." She looked at Naruto with elation in her eyes, "Thank you, I really do..."

"Of course, what I wouldn't do for family," he chuckled as he caressed her lovable dimple, she closed her eyes enjoying his gentle touch.

Naruto took back his hand and strolled toward his previous chair, he placed his bottom on it, "By the way, do you know anything about Liu Corporation's banquet tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I received one of their invitations," she nodded before she wrinkled her eyebrows, "wait, how do you know about this?"

"It doesn't matter how I know..." He waved his hand, "is it true they also hold an auction?"

"Yup, the banquet's most prominent agenda."

"Can you partic.i.p.ate to buy one of their items for me?"

"What item?"

"An antique blade, like a knife or a sword."

She looked at the ceiling and put one of her finger on her chin, then she gazed back at him, "Sure!"

Naruto raised his eyebrows, "You not gonna asked me what do I need it for?"

She shook her head, "I trust your judgment, you won't ask me such a thing unless it's important for you..."

Naruto took a brief pause, "Actually, if the price went too high you don't have to insist on buying it."

"Are you sure?"

"Yup, I fear the quality not worth your money."

"..." Ruoxi gave him her stare before she sent her pair of crystal eyes to the sleeping Lin Kun, a strange light reflected on them.

(***)

Somewhere on the west part of Zhong Hai city, between the store and other kinds of building, a Land Rover raced on the road, bypa.s.sed any other car in a gusto, arousing some irritation within the drivers. The car took a sharp corner before it slowed down and pulled over in front of a convenience store. The store decoration appeared normal without any fancy or unique ornament, although its illumination on the area made it stand out like a sore thumb. The car's door on the pa.s.senger front seat swung open and revealed a man in his twenty clad in a leather jacket, trousers, and baggy pants. He went to the door of the pa.s.senger behind his seat and opened it in a respectful manner.

Slender legs landed upon the concrete cement, the figure that came out from the car revealed to be a young woman with rosy healthy skin and charming diamond shape face. Her cheongsam clothes came in yellow color with golden flowers pattern all over it, her white pants stretched till her base of feet, above a pair of black heel she wore. Her hairs combed in a bun and she tucked them on her head in diagonal position.

Two other men came down from the car with more or less same appearance with the first man, they stood respectfully on the side, the woman nodded her head, signaling her men to carry on as they entered the store together.

"May I help you?" the shopkeeper said as soon as one of the men came over to the cas.h.i.+er.

"We want to buy Silver Heights Red Wine."

"Sorry, we currently out of stock, we can deliver it to you as soon as we restock, under what name we later send it to you?"

"Jiang Wei from Red Thorn Society."

"Wait a moment," he accessed his computer and typed something on the keyboard. Less than a second, he looked back at the man with a smile, "name registered, by the way, we have new wine product just came in this noon, would you be interested in looking at it?"

"We do."

"Please, follow me." The shopkeeper walked out from the cas.h.i.+er, followed by this group of people. They crossed over shelves of items before went into a door led them to a hall. The wall and floor painted in all grey with lights flickered occasionally, giving it a quite bit of dread impression. They strolled toward their right and three seconds later they went left at the intersection. The path turned a little problematic with constant turned in right or left, like traversing down a maze. If not for the guide in front of them, they pretty much lost their way already.

Soon they took another right turn at the corner and a door painted in black entered their sight. The Shopkeeper took out a key from his pocket and inserted it inside the keyhole on the k.n.o.b, he twisted it and grabbed the handle before pushed the door open.

"Please, your destination lay ahead," he stood at the sideline and smiled at them.

The group strolled forward and entered the door. Their eyes caught a place in square outline with a pair of emergency lamps shone a red lighting, in the middle of them, white curtains block the entrance, they sway toward their direction as if something blew them from the other side. Their ears sensed a remote sound of rap music. The men glanced to each other before glancing at the young woman, she ignored the pair of eyes that observed her, nodding her head, she said: "let's go."

They went through the curtain and traversed a short hall before reached another room with two people in black s.h.i.+rt stood in front of a double leaf door. Perhaps because the door not tightly shut, a speck of wind and a glimpse of sound sneaked pa.s.s its gap. They saw various colors s.h.i.+fted constantly behind the door.

"Identify yourself and state your business!"

The man on her right took a step forward, "We from Red Thorn Society, here to meet your boss."

One of them pressed the tool that stuck on his ear, "boss, Red Thorn Society here."

A slight paused visited the man's face before he nodded his head toward the group, "leave out your weapon on the basket over there." He pointed his hand toward the desk at the right side of the room.

The men in the group separated themselves and strolled toward the pointed destination, they took out two handguns, one uzi, two grenades, one flashbang, three tactical knives, and one hatchet.

"You guys really came in prepared, huh?" The man twitched his lips when seeing stuff they put inside the basket. They just shrugged their shoulder and rejoined with the young woman.

"You," The man pointed his finger at her, "why you didn't take out your weapon?"

"Because I bring nothing," she said with a fixed face.

"I don't trust you," the man curled his lips, "based on our procedure, you must let us inspect your body for any possible weapon."

The men in the group changed their countenance, with the same gesture they walked closer toward the young woman in the middle, their eyes coldly stared at two people who leered their eyes at her. The pair of onyx eyes shut down while chuckle punched through her enticing natural lips, "Sure, take out your lady comrade, I let her inspect my body."

The man startled before sneer hooked his lips, "Sorry, they busy serving our customer, you only have me or my partner here."

She shook her head, "Then forget about it, I won't allow your fingers to touch me, not even a single one."

The man face turned cold, "Don't think yourself to highly darling, just because you're the leader of a second-rate gangster, it doesn't turn you into an empress all of the sudden."

The young woman shrugged, "Don't know about being an empress but I'm sure not lack any basic education."

"What do you mean?" His face darkened.

"You see, I may not sit on a golden chair, or diamond if you prefer..." She chuckled, "but compared to you, who stood in front of the door, all day, taking orders from your boss, fetching him water, fetching him food... I'm still waaay above you..." She lashed out her smirk at them, "so why don't just open the door like an obedient puppy and let us in? Maybe I'll speak good about you and he gave you an extra bone."

"d.a.m.n b.i.t.c.h..." The man eyebrows drew together but he unable to refute her word, no matter what he just a doorkeeper, compared in status she indeed higher than him.

He grabbed the k.n.o.b and pulled the door open with a gloomy expression, he glanced at them, "fine, come in!"

The group chuckled as they strolled toward the room, the young woman glanced at the man, she curled her lips, "good dog."