Attention Sir, I Have Your Heart Handcuffed!-Chapter 481 - 346, Staring at her like a wolf (2 more 1)

Along the way, Shi Nian carefully observed her surroundings and discovered that aside from James, there was no one else on the yacht. Only then did she quietly breathe a sigh of relief, considering that she and Rosa, being two people, ultimately held the advantage.

Even if they were women and couldn’t match James in strength, the two of them were willing to risk everything if it came to that. It wouldn’t be easy for James to subdue both of them instantly.

With a smile, Shi Nian held Rosa’s wrist and stepped forward: "Mr. Fude, hello."

The yacht was moving at full speed, at this point leaving the dock and the expanse of white yachts far behind, rendering them invisible. The distant sea sky was as dark as ink, yet also quiet. James stopped the boat, making the white yacht the only speck of white amidst the ink-like sea and sky.

His shirt, previously puffed up by the wind, had also returned to its place, momentarily restoring a calm elegance after the reckless abandon.

Calm elegance, indeed, a trait passed down among the men of the Ford family.

Yet... beneath these aristocratic exteriors, is there not a concealed fervor?

James was seven years younger than Huangfu Huazhang, but he seemed much younger than that. He still bore a boyish passion, unlike Huangfu Huazhang and George who appeared detached and serene like old monks.

His hair, somewhat long, had been tousled by the wind, audaciously falling over his shoulders. As he walked back, he casually ran a hand through it. The white shirt clung to his strong body, and in his blue eyes was an unabashed intensity.

If George and Huangfu Huazhang were cut from the same cloth, James’s immediate impression was somewhat akin to Tang Yanqing.

"Call me Jamie." He casually grabbed a glass of wine from the passing cabinet and tilted it back, his gaze sweeping over the rim.

He fixated only on Shi Nian.

That gaze, like a wolf on a vast autumn grassland scorched by the glaring sun. His eyes dry, intense, yet focused and fierce.

This feeling made Shi Nian somewhat uncomfortable. Besides, today James invited Rosa, not her. She was merely accompanying Rosa, which felt a bit like coming uninvited, slightly abrupt. Shi Nian took a step back to stand alongside Rosa.

"Ok, Jamie. Let me introduce ourselves, this is Rosa, and I’m Shi Nian."

Rosa took a deep breath and then mustered the courage to meet James’s eyes: "I’ve come here, so tell me, what do you really mean?"

James’s gaze remained fixed on Shi Nian, circulating several times, as he softly curved the corners of his lips. It was clearly not the look of a stranger but rather with a keener interest in Shi Nian than in Rosa.

Shi Nian stared back, her gaze even more intense than James’s.

She remembered when she was young, her dad once stood alone against five thugs. At that time, the officers had to return their firearms after work, so her dad confronted those five men barehanded. But in the end, he alone apprehended those five men.

She helped her mom gently wipe her dad’s wounds by his eyes, and she asked her dad how he did it. One against five, it sounded like a martial arts master. But her dad was skilled in mental agility, reasoning, and solving cases; his hand-to-hand combat skills were ordinary.

Her dad told her to look into his eyes, saying that in every officer’s eyes burned two flames, the flames of justice, the belief that good would prevail over evil. So, even if not a master of combat, he could still intimidate the criminals.

So now facing James, even in this desolate sea sky with no aid in sight, she had to stare back just the same.

James chuckled, shrugged, and finally shifted his gaze to Rosa: "Hey, long time no see. You don’t remember me, do you?"

.

The three of them sat down on the curved sofa, James on one end, Shi Nian accompanying Rosa on the other.

Rosa stared intently at James: "Have you really met me?"

James smiled: "Fifteen years ago, I was just thirteen, still a child. Back then, although Huangfu Huazhang was also young, he was at least twenty. My father insisted that his illegitimate son should inherit, while my mother simultaneously faced the awkward situation of losing her marriage, her husband, and her son’s inheritance rights. My mother had us two sons, but unfortunately, at that time, I was also just a child and couldn’t help her much."

James raised an eyebrow and stared at Rosa with a smile: "So at that time, my great-uncle, who was the patriarch, became the person my mother and that illegitimate child were willing to do anything to win over. Rosa, have you forgotten my great-uncle?" As he spoke, he took out a photo from the pocket over his left chest and placed it on the table, pushing it in front of Rosa.

As soon as Rosa saw the elderly man who was also tall with platinum blonde hair, she couldn’t stop trembling all over.

Even though the old man in the picture smiled with kind eyes and a gentle face.

James lit a cigar and squinted as he took a puff. The smoke swirled upwards, covering his blue eyes: "My great-uncle loved children very much, Rosa, you know that best, don’t you?" 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Shi Nian, for some reason, felt a jolt in her heart and looked up to meet James’s eyes.

Even though the smoke veiled his eyes, she could still see a hint of sadness from his body language and those carefree expressions.

"...The old man loved children so much, and I was still young, so I was his favorite. In a moment of desperation, my mother was eager to get the old man on our side and had me accompany him. My mother said he was old, had been injured from horse riding, and had trouble walking, so she told me to stay by his side and support him while walking."

James was laughing, narrating as if he were telling a joke rather than recounting the past. Yet Shi Nian felt deeply saddled with sorrow.

James took a deep drag of the cigar and exhaled a smoke ring toward Rosa. The smoke ring expanded, wrapping around Rosa’s entire face.

"I accompanied my great-uncle to that house, and that’s when I saw you. Although I was small at the time, so you only saw the great-uncle in the flower bushes but didn’t see me hidden among the flowers."

Rosa’s face turned completely pale.

She had desperately denied her fear of clowns in the past, refusing to admit it even to Shi Nian and her mother, because she didn’t want anyone to know the truth about her experiences back then. She preferred to numb herself with beautiful lies, convincing herself that she simply went with the clown to escape her cold home, only listening to music, reading, and painting in that beautiful house. She only remembered the clown treating her well and never doing anything to upset her, yet forced herself to forget those later nights, to forget that old man.

However, Shi Nian eventually saw through it. Yet she hoped to keep the situation under control, allowing only Shi Nian to know. Therefore, she didn’t want Shi Nian to contact Tang Yanqing or involve Tang Yanqing and the police.

For a girl, it was the last bit of untouchable dignity.

But she never expected that this young man before her had also appeared during that time and had witnessed her during those days!

James was not surprised by her fear, but he didn’t care either. He continued to smoke his cigar and narrate his own story.

"...Did you know, after he saw you, he no longer liked me. From being inseparable to sending me home and not seeing me for many days. I was quite pleased with this, but my mother panicked. She was worried I had upset him, fearing that he might, therefore, favor that illegitimate child. My mother questioned me, asking what I had done wrong. Of course, I said I hadn’t done anything wrong."

"But my mother didn’t believe me; she thought I was lying. My desperate mother became increasingly hysterical, eventually even tying me to the attic, forcing me to say what I had done wrong. If I didn’t speak or satisfy her, she wouldn’t let me eat or let me out."

James bit his cigar, uncontrollably laughing, pointing at Rosa: "You could never have imagined this, right? It was because of you, because of your appearance, that I suffered so much."

He suddenly leaned closer, staring at Rosa with maximum proximity: "So I hated you, you know? I once even wished you were dead."

Rosa was startled and stepped back, Shi Nian quickly blocked James, coldly reminding him: "James, please control yourself! I feel saddened by what happened back then, but it wasn’t her fault! She too was trapped by an inescapable fate; she was even younger than you, only twelve years old then!"

James laughed, his gaze returned to Shi Nian’s face, slowly shifting.

"Yes, you’re right. I shouldn’t hate her. She was an innocent child too. So I don’t hate anymore; instead, I feel sympathy for her. Because that year, in that fate, we were actually fellow sufferers."

James sat back down, as if regaining his composure and elegance, but his eyes remained veiled behind the smoke.

He paused for a moment before slowly saying: "...Later on, I tried every possible way to win back the old man’s favor. That day, the old man took me to that house again, but there was no trace of you in the glass greenhouse. Only an empty chair where you once sat and some scattered books on the floor."

"In a fairy tale book, on the third page, I saw a clown drawn in colored pencils." He extinguished the cigar: "And after that night, you threw that fairy tale book into the trash, never retrieving it again."