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On the day Lu Miao breaks up with her boyfriend, a new male tenant moves into her home.
He’s tall and powerfully built, wearing a sweat-soaked black tank top, the muscles in his arms taut as he carries her up twenty flights of stairs in one breath.
“Your uncle left you in my care. From now on, you answer to me.”
When the pipes in Lu Miao’s house break, he fixes them.
When her bedsheets get stained, he washes them.
When she’s harassed by street thugs, he bites down on a cigarette, corners them in an alley with an iron rod in hand, and growls,
“My girl—how dare you touch her?”
—Everyone says Commander Fu of the Special Operations Brigade is ruthless and cold-blooded, decisive and merciless, his hands stained with the blood of countless enemies.
One day, Lu Miao gets drunk and confesses to him. “Want to give it a try?”
The veins on the back of his hand bulge as he restrains himself. “Have you thought it through?”
The young girl nods shyly.
That night, he slams the door and leaves without touching her.
The next morning, he returns and fastens a string of small-leaf red sandalwood beads around her slender ankle.
“I’ve killed too many in my life. If you stay with me, you’ll carry my bad karma.”
“Wear this. It’ll keep you safe.”
Only later does she learn that he had knelt at Lingshan Temple to pray for those peace beads—for her.
“I spent half my life in war protecting my country and its people. The rest of my years, I will spend shielding you from every storm.”
