Volume One Chapter One Let Me Lift You High in My Arms

On the day Meng Huaijin went to Nancheng to fetch Shu Wan, the city was engulfed in a torrential downpour.

“How long has she been like this?” the orderly beside Meng Huaijin asked.

By the window, the girl sat hugging her knees in a posture of self-protection, quietly watching the rain outside. A breeze brushed her hair, revealing a delicate yet lifeless face; she seemed oblivious even as the hem of her white dress was soaked by the rain.

The only remaining steward of the Shu family sighed deeply. “Miss has been like this for a week now. She witnessed her parents’ suicide with her own eyes, and since then, she hasn’t spoken a word.”

“Is it still possible to send a girl her age to the orphanage?” The deep, authoritative male voice was different from the orderly’s.

Hearing these words, Shu Wan’s gaze, which had been fixed on the sky, shifted minutely. Mechanically, she sought the source of the voice.

The man was very tall, his long black trench coat open in the storm. His presence was powerful and oppressive. In his slender, pale hand he held a black umbrella. Beneath it, his face was sharply defined, his eyes colder than the rain.

Shu Wan had seen him before.

When she was younger, she had once visited the Meng family in North City with her mother and had accidentally wandered into his room.

Back then, in her childish ignorance, she’d seen a man in military uniform sleeping with his arm over his eyes and thought he was her father. She’d climbed onto the bed and laid her head on his arm to sleep.

When she awoke, she saw this very face—a man handsome, much younger than her father, but even more forbidding. Especially those eyes, as cold as a winter’s blade, sharp and unyielding, making him seem less like a soldier and more like a formidable outlaw.

Little Shu Wan had been so frightened she burst into tears.

The fierce man had frowned in annoyance, his voice even more unfeeling than his gaze: “Cry again and I’ll set the dog on you.”

Tears welled in her large, beautiful eyes, but she dared not make another sound.

It was then Shu Wan learned her mother was actually an adopted daughter of the Meng family.

And that terrifying man was her mother’s nominal younger brother, the Meng family’s second young master—Meng Huaijin.

After her mother married, she severed ties with the Meng family; that visit had been their first contact, and this entrusting of an orphan, the second.

Shu Wan felt she was nothing but a nuisance to Meng Huaijin. Otherwise, on the day she became an orphan, he wouldn’t have suggested sending her to an orphanage.

He’d scared her as a child, and now he was scaring her again. What kind of place was an orphanage? Would there be any future for her once inside?

These past days, the overwhelming events had pressed Shu Wan to the point of suffocation. Meng Huaijin’s words were the final straw.

Unlike her childhood wailing, this time she cried silently, tears spilling from her reddened eyes, tracing down her delicate cheeks and staining the hem of her white dress—utterly broken.

The old steward fell to his knees with a thud, pleading, “Director Meng, for the sake of her mother, please don’t send her to the orphanage. She’ll be a senior in high school after the summer; all you need is to grant her shelter and let her finish university. Once she’s able to support herself, you need not care for her further. But now…”

Meng Huaijin seemed not to hear. He handed his umbrella to the orderly, stepped inside, and looked down at the girl for a moment. His tone was indifferent: “Don’t know how to greet your elders?”

Shu Wan raised her reddened eyes, meeting his intimidating gaze. After a moment, she softly called, “Uncle.”

He gave her no reply, his attention shifting to the once-glorious, now sealed-up Shu family mansion—he’d watched its rise, watched its grand gatherings, and now watched its ruin.

Politics was a battlefield. Yesterday’s power was today’s disgrace.

Shu Wan’s gaze also fell on the seals, sorrow overwhelming her when the cold male voice descended from above: “Are you still waiting for me to lift you up or bribe you with candy?”

She’d heard adults speak of her uncle’s illustrious deeds.

Meng Huaijin had joined the army at sixteen, entered the National Defense Science and Technology University at eighteen, spent five years at a top-secret base after graduation, earned countless merits, and had recently been transferred back to North City to a central government post.

He was a harsh man, decisive and forceful. Those who worked with him, or drew his attention, all feared him.

Shu Wan was still reeling from blow after blow, but the old steward understood the hidden meaning, tugging her upstairs: “Miss, your uncle means to take you away. Hurry and pack your things.”

As much as she hated to admit it, Meng Huaijin truly was now her only relative, and her mother’s dying wish had been clear—none of the Meng family could be trusted except this uncle.

“What about you, Grandpa Chen? Where will you go after I leave?” Shu Wan asked, her nose stinging as she watched the old man bustling to pack her things.

The steward closed her suitcase, smiled, and said he could return to his rural hometown, finally rest after all these years, and enjoy his twilight years in peace.

He earnestly advised Shu Wan that, once at the Meng family, she must put away her spoiled young lady’s temper, be accommodating, yield when possible, endure when necessary…

As he spoke, his old eyes filled with tears. He had watched her grow from a baby to a graceful young woman; she had been the Shu family’s precious treasure.

Who could have foreseen that overnight, the budding flower would be struck by frost, and now she must depend on others, watch for every change in their expression…

At their parting, the old man’s weathered face and longing gaze soaked through Shu Wan’s heart.

Sitting in the black car, she watched the hunched figure of her old steward, tears soaking her collar.

At last, she turned to the man beside her and pleaded, “Uncle, could you take Grandpa Chen with us? He can do everything, he could—”

“I don’t need servants.”

Meng Huaijin leaned lazily against the seat, his eyes falling on the girl’s pink backpack, the ostentatious white rabbit keychain dangling from its zipper, and the live cat in her arms. His brows furrowed deeper.

“Please…”

“Do you need me to remind you that you can hardly protect yourself?”

Meng Huaijin’s gaze rested on her tear-stained eyes for a moment before he said, expressionless, “Either come with me, or get out and fend for yourself. You have three seconds to decide.”

Through the rearview mirror, the orderly glanced at his boss—hard as iron, heartless as death—then at the weeping young girl. Coughing discreetly, he started the car before the three seconds were up.

Shu Wan decided not to plead with this cold-hearted man any longer. She made up her mind that once she earned money, she’d come back for Grandpa Chen as soon as possible.

She had endured so much in these past days.

Her parents’ tragic end, the confiscation of their property, the sealing of her home, the endless interrogation in the interview room—all disasters no one her age should have to bear.

Perhaps exhausted by grief, the girl soon fell asleep.

At first, she kept her distance from the grim-faced man beside her, but as she drifted deeper into sleep, her body unconsciously leaned toward him…

Suddenly, her leg bumped lightly against him, her sweet, soft breaths seeping through his trousers, spreading warmth that soon reached a sensitive spot.

A surge of heat rose in him. Meng Huaijin frowned heavily, his face dark as he glanced at the head leaning against his thigh, ready to brush her aside—when a long, drawn-out sob escaped her.

It was a sob from her dream. Whatever she dreamed, it left her so heartbroken that her small face wrinkled in pain.

Not only did she have an exceptionally round head, she was still a little crybaby.

Girls at this age were sensitive and complicated—a real headache.

“Captain, are we going straight to the airport to fly back to North City?” the orderly asked from the front.

The man glanced at the live cat in the girl’s arms. “If you can convince the airline to change their policy on animals, I’ll call you Captain.”

The orderly, used to his volatile temper, quickly thought of an idea. “How about we quietly give the cat away?”

“And will you be the one to comfort her if she cries?”

Meng Huaijin placed a pillow under the girl’s head to separate her warm breath from his thigh, then took out a cigarette, holding it between his fingers as he leaned back coldly, “Enough nonsense. Drive.”