Happy Thanksgiving, Americans!
Chapter 36: By Force
Qi Mo nodded to himself satisfactorily at the sight of Li Xin eating the food she was given and turned back to Red Falcon. "How many of those devices have the Blue Clan manufactured? Have we figured out a way of countering them?" He wasn"t afraid of fighting with the Blue Clan; the two clans had been rivals for a long time and it was no secret that both parties wanted to drive the other into the ground. However, it was concerning and unforgivable that the other clan had come up with a technology that the Qi Clan was unaware of.
Red Falcon nodded. "No. White Falcon only caught on because of what happened. We"ve yet to come up with a way of intercepting the device."
The overlord"s face tightened. Next to him, Yellow Falcon shifted his glance to Li Xin, who had her head buried in her bowl and was busy eating. As if reading his thoughts, Qi Mo also turned towards her. Somehow, she had discovered the device that day. What was the point of searching far and wide for a solution when the answer was sitting right in front of them?
"Li Xin—"
"Don"t even think about it," she interrupted him without taking her attention off her meal. She hadn"t really been listening to their conversation, but she was still able to make out what they had been talking about and what Qi Mo wanted.
It turned out that he hadn"t only brought her here to eat. Clearly, he wanted her earring. She wasn"t against the idea of handing it to him, but she wouldn"t do so without bargaining.
Qi Mo"s face turned stone cold at her abrupt rejection. "Say that again," he said icily.
She huffed in annoyance and stared at him. "I don"t care how many times you ask. The answer is no," she clarified. "I"m not giving it to you. You refuse to even give me what I want to eat, and now you want my possessions? In your dreams."
Her outright abrasiveness shocked Yellow Falcon. He had been wondering where her sudden p.r.i.c.kly att.i.tude came from — turns out, it was all because of a meal. He couldn"t help thinking that she was being short-sighted.
Dark clouds of anger gathered in Qi Mo"s eyes, causing them to darken significantly. Li Xin felt the thunderous storm brewing in the man next to her, but despite that, she turned her head sharply to the side. She wasn"t going to relent, no matter how much he threatened her. All of the resentment and anger she had pushed down over the past few days suddenly bubbled to the surface, and she threw all pretenses of compliance out the window.
Suddenly, she felt a weight on her arm and she yelped as she was practically yanked out of her seat with such strength that she felt herself falling towards the ground. The movement had triggered the pain in her chest once again, and she sucked in a sharp breath.
She braced herself for landing on the floor, but then, her arm was yanked in the opposite direction and she was falling the other way. She found herself sitting in Qi Mo"s lap as opposed to on the ground. Her face was pale as pain shot up and down her arm, making it difficult to breathe.
Qi Mo looked at the woman in his arms with a frown. He had intended to throw her onto the floor, but at the sight of her face twisted in pain, he changed his mind unconsciously and pulled her into his lap instead. She was painting heavily with pain. After a moment of oppressive silence, he reached a hand out and placed it over her heart. "Does it hurt?" He asked quietly.
"Yes," she replied simply, nodding in affirmation. The pain wasn"t too bad to begin with, but Qi Mo was a physically strong man made of brute force. However, she felt some of her anger dissipate at the sight of his somewhat apologetic hand on her chest.
His frown deepened at her answer. He thought that perhaps he pulled her a little too hard just now; in respond, he pulled Li Xin closer to him and began unb.u.t.toning her blouse, wondering if he had reopened her wound.
Over the last few days, Qi Mo had been in charge of changing her bandages every day. Thus, Li Xin had gone from being angry to shy to absolute apathy in regards to the man unb.u.t.toning her shirts. This time, she didn"t react at his movements — she simply shifted her eyes to the side. Her wound had scarred anyway, there was nothing to see.
She suddenly threw a forced smile at the rest of the men at the table, an unreadable expression in her eyes. Instantaneously, she remembered that they could see her as well. As a result she felt her brain shut down and a blush spread across her cheeks. In one swift movement, she yanked her blouse closed and shimmied out of Qi Mo"s lap. How humiliating.
"What are you doing? Sit properly." Li Xin was fast, but Qi Mo was faster. The second he felt her leap off his legs, he pulled her back.
Her face was flaming hot. She struggled several more times, failing each time to get out of Qi Mo"s arms. Finally, she turned and buried her face in his chest. "I should be the one asking you what you"re doing," she muttered quietly.
He frowned. "Sit properly, stop messing around." He forced her to turn back around. He was just inspecting her wound… the woman was clearly losing her mind.
Li Xin grabbed the front of Qi Mo"s shirt and refused to let go. She felt him beginning to lose patience and decided to push her head forward and sink her teeth into his skin. "There are others here," she seethed.
At her comment, Qi Mo looked up at Red Falcon and the rest, knitting his brows together. He shifted his gaze back to observe Li Xin"s furiously blushing face and let go of her to wrap his arms around her back and began patting her rea.s.suringly. "Tell me," he said, "what it is you want."
She put her humiliation aside and eyed him suspiciously at his sudden change of topic. It took a while for it to dawn on her that Qi Mo was asking her the price for her special earring. She laughed to herself because this was the opportunity she had been waiting for. She pushed herself so she sat up straight. "I want to know where Sui Xin is," she demanded.
The overlord swept a cool glance at her, noting the return of her usual att.i.tude. "It seems like your strength is back to normal and it"s stopped hurting."
Li Xin took one look at the nonchalant expression on his face and stuck her arms out, pointing at the bruises. "It hurts, how could it not?" She smirked inwardly. She didn"t specify where it hurt; if he a.s.sumed wrong, then that wasn"t her problem. It was just that upon witnessing his flip-flopping att.i.tude towards her and his attention to her injury, she couldn"t help but take advantage — even if her injury was nothing n.o.ble and completely her own fault.
"If you say so," Qi Mo replied.
The look in his eyes was cold and stark, and his arms tightened around her waist. She cursed to herself, then smiled at the floor manager helpfully. "I"m not lying," she whined.
Qi Mo pointedly ignored her acting. "Neither am I," he said into her ear.
"What exactly do you mean by that? Mr. Qi, if you don"t tell me where Sui Xin is, then I won"t give the earring to you. His simple responses were infuriating. She glared at him.
Her sullen expression made Qi Mo feel somewhat indignant. "Don"t forget that you are mine," he reminded her sulkily. "Your things are my things and vice versa." After he spoke, he suddenly reached out and got a hold of her, keeping her beneath him as he used his other hand to grab the earrings Li Xin was wearing.