Chapter 69 Your life is more important than anything else.

Yan Tingnan kicked open the heavy soundproof door to the lounge while holding her, then locked it behind him.

Su Ruan was placed on a huge leather sofa.

"hiss……"

My back hit the leather, and the injury on my shoulder blade was rubbed hard.

Su Ruan finally couldn't hold back and let out a painful groan, cold sweat instantly beading on her forehead.

Yan Tingnan had already opened the first aid kit.

He took off his cumbersome suit jacket and tossed it casually on the ground.

He roughly rolled up the cuffs of his shirt to his elbows, revealing his well-defined forearms.

He knelt in front of the sofa, his shadow completely enveloping Su Ruan.

"Don't move."

He picked up the sterilized scissors, his voice completely flat.

Sizzle!

The scissors cut and peeled away the blood-stained fabric behind her shoulder along the edge of the wound.

His shoulder was covered in a mess of skin.

The abrasions were mixed with bruises, and a long gash was oozing blood.

"You're lucky you didn't break any bones."

Yan Tingnan paused for a moment.

He unscrewed the hydrogen peroxide bottle, his voice deep and hoarse.

"Bear with it."

Three words, slammed down hard.

He gripped her uninjured left shoulder and poured the icy liquid onto the wound!

Su Ruan shuddered in pain, instinctively tensing her back and clenching her teeth.

With his other hand, he used tweezers to pick up a large piece of sterilized cotton and carefully cleaned away the fibers and dirt embedded in the skin.

"pain……"

Su Ruan arched her back in pain and couldn't help but let out a low groan.

Yan Tingnan suddenly loosened her grip on the tweezers.

"Now you know what pain is?"

He gritted his teeth, his tone heavy and somber.

"Your bones were quite hard when you pounced on them?"

Despite the harsh words, the cotton ball he used to wipe the wound slowed down slightly.

The pungent smell of disinfectant filled the air, and the blood-stained cotton balls were replaced one after another.

As he covered the wound with gauze, he bent down and bit off the tape with his teeth, his warm breath brushing against the back of her ear.

Su Ruan's tense back finally gave way, and cold sweat soaked her temples.

Why did you pounce on him?

He pinched her chin, forcing her to turn her head, his voice low and deep, like thunder rolling through the clouds.

"The painting must not be damaged."

"painting?"

Yan Tingnan's eyes suddenly darkened.

It felt like a needle pricking his heart.

"Is the painting more important or human lives?"

Su Ruan grabbed his blood-stained hand with her other hand; her palm was burning hot.

"You are more important."

"Because that's your mother's painting."

These two sentences struck Yan Tingnan's ears, both lightly and heavily.

My heart felt like it was being gripped tightly by an invisible hand, suddenly stopping beating, only to start pounding wildly again in the next second.

Su Ruan looked at him, her voice very soft.

“I’ve read the information. I know who JY is and what she’s been through.”

"That's not just a painting; it's a ray of light you're desperately trying to protect, something you hold dear in your heart."

The self-inflicted injury was a tactic and a calculation, but protecting the painting was a matter of genuine feelings and instinct.

He grew up under the oppressive weight of the Yan family, and this painting is the only unpolluted pure land left in his heart.

She couldn't bear to watch his sanctuary be destroyed.

“You entrusted it to me, so I can’t let it be destroyed in front of me.”

"What you want to protect, I also want to protect for you."

Yan Tingnan's hand, which was pinching her chin, suddenly tightened.

In that instant, he felt a suffocating sensation as if his heart had been squeezed.

There was still a hint of helplessness.

Over the years, he has been adrift in the bottomless cesspool of the Yan family.

Yan Hongyi used the power of social class to break up his parents, forcing his mother, Jiang Ya, to carry him through a life of hardship and suffering.

When they were nine years old, the Yan family's henchmen finally found them.

What Yan Hongyi wanted was the Yan family bloodline; as for that lowly art student?

These are stains that must be removed.

The mother was subjected to a barrage of slander, and the noose of public opinion tightened ever more.

He watched helplessly as the light in his mother's eyes gradually faded away.

In the end, she jumped from the high building in front of Yan Jibai, her blood staining her father's world.

The father broke down on the spot, holding the mother's body and wailing, and eventually followed her in death.

In the mourning hall, Yan Hongyi spoke to him with that cold face.

"What are you crying for? You're useless."

"The Yan family does not need a weak heir."

He was forcibly dragged away and locked in the cold cage of the heir.

In those years, he was like a young animal whose sharp teeth had been pulled out.

Under Yan Hongyi's control, he learns how to become a more cold-blooded and powerful monster.

He was used to fighting alone and carrying everything on his shoulders.

Silently and patiently maneuvering and scheming under Yan Hongyi's nose, accumulating strength.

He lived his life like an isolated island, a moving iceberg, impenetrable and invulnerable.

He used every means at his disposal to gradually wash away the stain that Yan Hongyi had smeared on his mother's paintings and reputation, restoring their innocence.

They were enshrined on the altar, and were his most untouchable taboo.

Yet they still couldn't escape the covetousness and exploitation of the Yan family, a cannibalistic hell.

They have become an excellent tool for money laundering and a glamorous link in the Yan family's vast chain of interests.

He hates it.

An overwhelming hatred gnawed at his very bones day and night.

Wearing sandalwood prayer beads around the wrist is not for Buddhist practice, but to lock one's heart.

Lock away the madness in his bones, lock away the overwhelming hatred for Yan Hongyi, lock away all the weaknesses that might make him lose control!

Over the years, he has been wearing the skin of Qingyan's successor, practicing Zen with strict rules and regulations, like a living dead.

He thought that no one in the world understood the festering sore in his heart that had never healed.

But Su Ruan, that little fool...

She risked her life to protect his glimmer of light with her slender back!

Her appearance pierced through his rusted heart, reaching the desolate ruins of his heart that had never given up struggling.

Yan Tingnan felt as if something was tightly choking her throat, and her breath caught in her throat for a moment.

His fingers, which were pinching her chin, unconsciously traced the red, swollen marks on her cheek.

It was left behind by that thug.

She was beaten and bled while trying to protect his things.

"Absolutely stupid."

Yan Tingnan's voice was hoarse and out of tune.

"Su Ruan, listen to me."

"Nothing in this world is worth risking your life for."

"The things my mother left behind are inanimate objects."

“You are alive, Su Ruan.”

"The living should have the weight of the living."

"I, Yan Tingnan, have lived to this day, and there are too many things I can't protect."

"Your life is more important than anything else."

The next second, the shadow completely enveloped everything.

He took her slightly swollen lower lip into his mouth and sucked on it deeply and forcefully.

Unlike the robbery in the elevator, and also unlike the punishment in the car yesterday.

It's out of control, it's confirmed.

There was no stirring of lust, only the solace that came from the deepest part of the soul being moved.

The movement was clumsy yet fierce, but it suddenly softened the moment it touched her lips.

I was afraid of hurting her again.

He sucked and sipped, taking in her faint breath and the sweet scent between her lips and teeth.

The air was ignited.

Gasps of breath mingled.

He kept one hand protecting her injured shoulder, and the other hand held the back of her neck, pressing her deeper into himself.

The kiss deepened, then slowed.

Finally, it turned into light pecks.

Their lips brushed together, their hot breaths spraying onto each other's faces.

"Su Ruan..."

His forehead was pressed against hers, his voice hoarse and incoherent.

"You can't do that again next time."

Yan Tingnan's lips were still pressed against the corner of her mouth.

Their breaths were burning and intertwined.

"Bang--!"

Huo Siyue rudely flung open the door to the lounge.

The two paused.

Yan Tingnan was the first to straighten up.

Su Ruan quickly turned her face away.

"Brother! The ambulance is downstairs..."

The last syllable was stuck in his throat.

Huo Siyue stared wide-eyed, frozen at the doorway.

Holy crap!!

What did she see?!

Startled by Huo Siyue's shout, Su Ruan abruptly turned her head away, her ears burning instantly.

Yan Tingnan released his grip on Su Ruan's nape without making a sound, and straightened up, his expression turning cold and stern.

"You guys continue! Pretend I wasn't here!"

Ambulances are nothing! Let them wait!

He was about to turn around and close the door.

The door was suddenly blocked by a hand!

Yan Yunye stood behind Huo Siyue.

He had clearly run there; his forehead was damp with sweat and disheveled, and he was breathing rapidly.