Tangling with the Western Commander

Chapter 96: Chapter 93: Can’t Control It

“This is nature, survival of the fittest, where no animal can escape.”

Lu Xiao’s voice rose by her ear.

Yet, after his words fell, Wen Xian remained motionless, stiff in her place.

“Why stand there so foolishly unmoving, you…”

However, when Lu Xiao’s gaze fell upon her face, he paused for a brief moment at what he saw.

Wen Xian stared unblinkingly at the scene before her, her face showing little emotion, but her eyes seemed veiled by a mist.

Lu Xiao looked down to see her hands clenched tight, the veins on the back of her hand standing out sharply.

“Wen Xian?”

His gaze was complex.

Wen Xian’s eyelashes trembled lightly, and finally, she lowered her gaze, a silent self-mockery spilling from her lips.

“It’s nothing.”

Though she said that, her fist tightened further, with a mix of restraint and struggle.

Suddenly, her hand was grasped by a larger one. Startled, Wen Xian saw through her blurred vision, the fingers she had been clenching as if she wanted to dig deep into her palm being pried open, one by one, by him and straightened out.

“You’ll bruise the palm of your hand like this,” Lu Xiao didn’t ask what was wrong, simply prying them open; his actions were forceful, yet gentle.

Wen Xian’s heart quivered, the tip of her nose tingled, and suddenly her eyes grew warm, “…”

She felt particularly averse to being seen like this by others, especially by Lu Xiao. She pulled her hand back stiffly, turned her gaze away, and forced a feeble smile, her voice thick with nasal tones, “Don’t worry about me, it’s nothing, it will pass in a while.”

Having said that, she turned to leave.

She didn’t want him to see her crumbling emotions, but she couldn’t hold back, nor could she bear to.

Her wrist was suddenly gripped by someone.

“Do you realize you have a physical issue?”

Lu Xiao suddenly spoke, his tone deep.

Wen Xian’s body stiffened, and as she slowly turned back, her eyes were moist, yet her lips carried a smile, “I know, I don’t have a spleen, it was removed.”

At these words, Lu Xiao’s expression changed dramatically.

“It’s fine, it’s not fatal, it was removed when I was a child, it’s been a decade.”

She spoke as if discussing the weather, as though she was speaking about someone else.

With that statement, the hand holding onto her wrist suddenly tightened, a dark cloud spread in the depths of his eyes.

“How did it happen?”

He asked.

The spleen is important for blood production and immune functions in the human body. For an adult, the loss might not be significant, other organs can compensate for these functions, but she had it removed since her teens? She was still a developing child!

Wen Xian lowered her gaze, her toes scuffing the golden lawn a couple of times before she spoke again, her voice soft, “I was kicked.”

The light words landed heavily onto the tip of his heart.

Lu Xiao’s breath halted, “Who kicked you?!”

Wen Xian bit her lower lip, seemingly finding it difficult to begin speaking, her eyelashes trembling. At last, she said, “My father.”

Lu Xiao: “…”

What…?!

Although he was clearly shocked and had guessed that she might have been bullied as a child, he had never imagined that the perpetrator was her own father!

“The man was abusive at home, a loser outside who took out his frustrations on my mother and me. When he got into trouble outside, my mother discovered it, and in his anger, he lashed out at her. I tried to intervene, but he grabbed my hair and slammed my head against the wall, cursed me as a loss-maker, and finally gave me a vicious kick to the abdomen. Afterward, I was in so much pain I could hardly stand it, almost fell into shock. My mother rushed me to the hospital in the middle of the night, where the doctor said my spleen was ruptured and bleeding too severely, and it had to be removed entirely.”

As she finished, Wen Xian hung her head low, her fingertips seeming to tremble, something uncontrollable falling from her eyes, yet she cursed, “To hell with it, that’s why I detest seeing this sort of thing.”