The cold white light in the office was glaring.
The metal desktop reflected the light source above, creating a blinding white line.
On the wall hung a combat map of Canglan City and its surrounding areas, with several red marking lines crossing it, indicating the coordinates where the restricted areas had appeared in the past three months.
Apart from that, the entire office was so clean that it was almost dull, without any extra decorations.
Jiang Nuan stood at the door, her back pressed against the locked metal door.
The coolness of the door panel seeped through her thin clothes and into her back, making her a bit more sober.
Lu Shiyan stood with his back to her, near the desk.
He didn't rush to speak.
First, he raised his right hand, bit the edge of the tactical glove on the tip of his middle finger with his teeth, and slowly pulled it down.
The black glove slipped off his slender fingers, revealing his knuckle - jointed hand.
Then he did the same with his left hand.
The sound of the leather leaving his skin was especially clear in the quiet space.
Jiang Nuan stared at his fingers being exposed to the light one by one, and her heart seemed to be grabbed by those hands from a distance.
Obviously, he was just taking off his gloves.
The two gloves were casually thrown on the desktop, making two soft sounds.
It was like shedding some kind of disguise.
He flexed, clenched, and then relaxed his fingers.
He turned around.
"Come here."
Two words, neither too heavy nor too light.
Jiang Nuan curled her toes in her slippers.
Her throat was dry, and she began to frantically review in her mind where she had stepped on this captain's landmine.
She couldn't figure it out.
Forget it. If she couldn't figure it out, then don't think about it.
She moved her feet and walked towards him.
The slippers made a rustling sound as they stepped on the metal floor. Each step was very slow, as if she was measuring the distance from the execution ground to the guillotine.
She stopped a few steps away from the desk.
Lu Shiyan glanced at her.
"I said come here."
His tone remained the same.
But the hairs on the back of her neck stood up.
She took two more steps forward.
Lu Shiyan raised his hand, and his thumb and index finger pressed against her chin, forcing her to look up.
His fingers were cold. The strength with which he pinched her jaw was not heavy, but he didn't allow her to lower her eyes at all, forcing her to look up at him.
Up close, she could see what was surging in his eyes, a more dangerous emotion than anger.
"Spiritual defense training."
He spoke, his voice deep, with even intervals between each word, like reading a death sentence.
"When did it start?"
Jiang Nuan swallowed. "T - today."
"Who taught you?"
"Shen Wu."
"Who approved it?"
This question stumped her.
Approval? Did this thing still need someone's approval?
She just wanted to learn how to protect her own spiritual realm. Why did she need approval?
But obviously, Lu Shiyan wasn't going to wait for her to figure it out.
Lu Shiyan let go of her chin and retracted his fingers, then slowly unbuttoned the top button of his collar.
This action itself didn't have any special meaning.
But in this enclosed office at this moment, combined with the faint smell of blood mixed with his cold aura, it inexplicably made her scalp tingle.
She instinctively took a few steps back.
Lu Shiyan frowned.
He took a step towards her.
The boots made a steady sound as they stepped on the metal floor.
"The spiritual realm is the most core thing for an ability user."
Another step.
"Without reporting or applying, you directly opened your spiritual realm completely to an ability user with mind - reading ability."
Thump.
Another step.
The sound of the boots stepping on the ground was very much like a countdown to death.
Jiang Nuan's lower back hit the edge of the desk.
There was nowhere to retreat.
Lu Shiyan didn't stop.
He continued to move forward until the distance between them was reduced to the point where they could touch each other with just one breath.
He placed his hands on the desktop on both sides of her body, bent his arms, and trapped her between himself and the desk.
The cold aura pressed down from above.
"Have you forgotten - "
He lowered his head. His gaze swept across her eyebrows, the tip of her nose, and finally landed on her slightly trembling lips due to nervousness.
"Who is your captain."
Jiang Nuan's back was tightly pressed against the cold edge of the table, and in front of her was Lu Shiyan, like a human - shaped wall.
The arms he placed on the table blocked all escape routes. She didn't even have room to turn sideways.
She could feel her heart pounding wildly, like the crazy beating after being targeted by a wild beast, when adrenaline soared.
She had to explain something. She must.
"I didn't know I needed to report..." As soon as the words came out, she realized that her voice was trembling slightly.
She was telling the truth. She didn't even know there were such rules in this team.
"Didn't know?" Lu Shiyan repeated these two words, with a slight upward inflection in his tone, and the corner of his mouth moved almost imperceptibly.
But it didn't look like a smile. Instead, it was more like the release of a dangerous signal.
He took his hands off the desktop and pinched her waist with his five fingers.
"Captain Lu - " Jiang Nuan exclaimed. A sudden sense of weightlessness hit her.
Before she could even react, she had been picked up by him and placed directly on the cold metal desk.
Several documents on the desk were scattered by her back, and a pen rolled off the edge of the table and fell to the ground, making a clear sound.
Lu Shiyan took a step forward, forcefully spreading her knees that had drooped due to the weightlessness and squeezing in between them.
He leaned forward again, placed his hands on both sides of her body, arched his back slightly, and completely trapped her in his territory.
Overbearing and airtight.
She smelled his aura, a cold smell with remnants of gunpowder and blood, overwhelming her and scrambling her remaining sanity.
"Every training in the base needs my approval."
His voice came from above, deep and steady, like proclaiming an unbreakable law.
"Your spiritual realm is no exception."
"Who can enter and who can't - "
He leaned forward slightly, and his dark eyes met hers.
"I decide."
Jiang Nuan's breathing almost stopped.
A sense of suffocation welled up in her heart, and a slight tremor seeped out from her bone joints.
This man obviously didn't do anything too extreme, and he didn't even raise his voice.
But as he stood there, every word he uttered was like tying a new chain to her.
One by one, from her wrists to her ankles, from her breathing to her heartbeat.
And the scariest thing was.
She found herself trembling.
But it wasn't all because of fear.
That hidden string, which was so well - covered by fear that she didn't even dare to admit it to herself, was violently plucked the moment he said "I decide".
No.
This was not right.
Jiang Nuan clenched her back teeth, trying to suppress that inappropriate tremor.
She tilted her head slightly, meeting his condescending gaze.
Her voice was still trembling, but she didn't avoid his eyes.
"... Now I know."
She deliberately made her voice sound obedient.
"I'll come to you for approval next time."
"Come to me for approval?"
He repeated these words, with a dangerous and almost mocking tone.
"Jiang Nuan, since you understand that the rules are set by me, then let me tell you now—"
"The only person who can teach you and enter your spiritual realm can only be me."
He lowered his head, his breath brushing past her forehead hair.
"Are you sure you want me to go in?"
His voice was very low, so low that it was like a private whisper only audible to her.
Jiang Nuan's palms were tightly pressed against the cold tabletop beneath her, and she didn't answer.
But her increasingly louder heartbeat had already betrayed her.
