It was around five o’clock in the evening when they arrived. The sun was shining soft, and the air was a little cool in the early spring. The car stopped at the villa in the city center, right in front of what used to be the mayor’s mansion, now Patrick’s mansion. The military policemen were standing outside the gate. In Freedom City, the mercenary controlled the sky, and the military police kept the order on the ground. Emerald followed Harvey along the lawn to the brown villa. She saw several military policemen she knew, all smiling at her in surprise. The gate to the first floor was open, and she could hear people talking. After walking through the hallway, Emerald entered a bright, big living room. The sun shone through the floor-to-ceiling glass window and on the small bridge and the stream under it. A few tall men were sitting casually on a big, black-leather sofa. They stopped talking and looked at Emerald when they saw her enter. Emerald clenched her fists in her pockets. Bruce Green, Harrison Gates, and three other men whom Emerald didn’t recognize were staring at her. The most handsome and coldest one of them was sitting in the middle. He looked at her quietly for a few seconds, then said casually. “Sit.” He then turned to Harrison. “Go on.” Harrison had been sitting left to Patrick. He smiled and stood up to offer his seat to Emerald and went to the sofa opposite him. All the other men were smiling politely, except Harrison, who was talking about the resource exploitation of their recently acquired plane. Emerald’s palms were covered in sweat, Patrick looked at her. She immediately looked down and went to sit beside him. Patrick had his legs crossed and stopped looking at Emerald. He was focused and carefully listening to Harrison. After Harrison finished talking, he leaned back and placed his hand on the sofa behind Emerald. Her back was stiff, and she felt uneasy though he didn’t touch her. He then raised his eyes, drank some water, and started talking. His masculine smell wrapped her up so tightly that she couldn’t move. Once Harrison turned on the holographic projection, The floating images soon attracted Emerald’s attention. Huge machines were digging deep into the ground, looking for minerals in the planet, and the plants and crops from Chang’an City were compressed to extract their nutrition by machines. Once the machines were done, the feculent residuals were thrown into the ocean. Every scene had several dead bodies lying on the ground, discarded in the dirty corners without any care. In some videos, curious mercenaries cut open the dead bodies to see the internal structure of the robots. Emerald remembered Yearwood’s black eyes and red face and couldn’t help but feel sad. After one hour, the report was finally finished, and everyone was talking casually. Hungry, the others stood up and asked to leave respectfully. They all seemed to smile ambiguously at Emerald, and Harrison, who had offered Emerald the seat near Patrick, said. “Boss, don’t spend all your energy. Remember to take care of yourself.” Emerald felt awkward and offended, but Patrick was calm. When Harvey was about to leave the villa, he instructed him. “Before 12 o’clock at noon tomorrow, don’t disturb me unless there is a military emergency.” Harvey was surprised at that order and answered loudly with a smile on his face. “Yes, sir.” **** After Emerald realized what Harvey was referring to, she was stunned. The calmness in which Patrick talked made her moony and nervous. As if he didn’t notice her embarrassment, he looked at her pale face, frowning, “Do you really feel so sorry about those robots?”Obviously, he had noticed her mood swing. Before she answered, he placed his arm around her waist. “Let’s eat.” Emerald didn’t feel like eating when looking at the lite, nourishing food on the table. From the second she had stepped into this room, she had felt nervous. Before 12 o’clock at noon tomorrow? 12 o’clock? It was 7 o’clock in the evening now, which meant that he had 17 hours. It seemed he wanted to show everyone that Emerald belonged to him unmistakably. The food was tasteless, and Emerald kept silent. Patrick didn’t talk either. When Emerald stopped eating after finishing only half her plate, he said unhappily. “You eat too little.” Reluctant, she continued eating a little more. Finally, she pushed her plate back and looked at him anxiously after she finished. “Go have a shower.” His voice was low. That simple sentence made Emerald’s heart skip a beat.He didn’t come to shower with her as she had expected after the servant filled the tub with hot water for her. When she closed the door of the bathroom in the main bedroom, he just sat silently on the sofa in the darkness with the lights off. She took a long shower until the hot water made her skin red, yet he didn’t come in. There were no clothes for her in this room, and the servant took the clothes she had been wearing. She wrapped the bath towel around herself and opened the door. A soft orange light by the bed lit up the spacious bedroom. Patrick was sitting at the bedside, also freshly showered. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, exposing his strong, ripped chest and big shoulders. His black hair was wet, clinging to his gritty, handsome face, making him look several years younger. His firm shoulder, brawny arms, and long legs looked dark and tan under the dim light. He also was only wearing a white towel around his waist, with no clothes in sight. He was holding a burning cigarette between his fingers, and the cigarette buds in the ashtray on the bedside cupboard revealed that he had been waiting for her for a long time. His eyes, dark as the night, were staring at her through the smoke. Emerald could feel the aggressiveness in his eyes, even though he didn’t say anything. “Come here.” He put out the cigarette between his fingers in the ashtray. Emerald walked to him. He was tall and strong and had an imposing manner even when he was sitting. He reached out with his arms, grabbed her waist, and put her on his thigh.