And on top of that, Lu Li had personally handed it to her!
She hadn’t imagined Lu Li would be so bold as to slip her something so indecent in broad daylight, all while pretending she had simply dropped it.
He probably just wanted to see her panicked and frightened expression.
Ye Ran glanced down at the letter again.
Good grief!
He wasn’t into whips this time—now he liked candles. The kind you drip onto someone’s body.
Her hands trembled as she held the letter. She didn’t dare read any further. She quickly folded it back up, stuffed it into the envelope, then walked over to a display shelf and took out a wooden box.
Opening the box revealed an identical letter lying quietly inside.
Ye Ran felt a deep wave of helplessness wash over her.
“System, do you think the great villain only dares to torment me like this because he sees me as a pushover?”
[Host, isn’t it obvious?]
“System, come out here for a second. Let me reset your language settings.” Ye Ran put down the wooden box and began flexing her wrists.
[I was wrong, Host! Please don’t hold it against a cute little cat~]
The system immediately caved, its voice turning sycophantic.
But Ye Ran hadn’t really planned to take it out on the system. Her biggest headache right now was these two hot-potato love letters.
She had thought Lu Li would stop after sending one letter to harass her. She never expected him to continue—and to do so even more blatantly.
Ye Ran sat at the table, frowning at the wooden box in front of her, sighing over and over in her heart.
“Host, why don’t you just take the letters and go confront the great villain?”
Just then, the system transformed into a large, fat cat and came over to rub against Ye Ran’s arm.
But Ye Ran extended a single finger and pushed against its head. “Are you trying to send me to my death?”
This was a merciless, bloodthirsty villain. If she exposed him, he might fly into a rage and just kill her outright.
Even if he let her live, given how this kind of explicit novel played out, she’d probably trigger something like a dark-room imprisonment play.
And judging by the current situation, the great villain was definitely into some twisted stuff.
She didn’t dare walk right into his trap.
“So what are you going to do next, Host?” The system continued to sycophantically rub against her arm.
Ye Ran’s gaze fell on the envelopes inside the wooden box.
After a moment, she sighed, closed the box, and put it back in its place.
“I’ll just have to keep pretending nothing ever happened.”
Right now, she was too passive to make any rash moves. That way, Lu Li might find her boring and stop harassing her.
Besides, her most important task wasn’t dealing with Lu Li—it was avoiding the plot.
Now that she and the male lead had already met, it meant the storyline of this explicit novel was about to unfold. She had to find a way to steer clear of it.
But just as Ye Ran had made up her mind, the plot seemed determined to spite her.
A knock suddenly came at her door, followed by Meng Xuan’s voice:
“Junior Sister, are you there?”
The next moment, Ye Ran sensed a spiritual probe reaching inside. Detecting that she was there, the probe quickly withdrew.
Now she couldn’t even pretend to be out.
At the same time, she couldn’t help but marvel at the power of the plot.
She and the male lead had only met once. Yet in just one day, he had already found out where she lived and come looking for her.
Seeing no way to avoid him, Ye Ran reluctantly opened the door.
“Senior Brother, is there something you need?”
“I heard that you and Senior Brother Lu didn’t come back yesterday. I was worried you might have run into danger, so I came specifically to check on you.”
The moment the door opened, Meng Xuan’s eager gaze immediately latched onto her.
His overly familiar demeanor made Ye Ran uncomfortable.
She stood inside the doorway, not stepping out, with both hands on the door frame, ready to see him out at a moment’s notice.
“Thank you for your concern, Senior Brother. Senior Brother Lu and I were just trapped in a barrier for the night. We didn’t encounter any danger.”
“I see.”
Meng Xuan nodded, but he still seemed to have something on his mind.
Seeing that Ye Ran didn’t take the initiative to continue the conversation, he hesitated for a moment before finally speaking up:
“Junior Sister, have you and Senior Brother Lu known each other for a long time?”
What kind of question was that?
Ye Ran looked puzzled and studied Meng Xuan carefully.
He appeared somewhat nervous, as if he really cared about the relationship between her and Lu Li.
Was this the male lead’s innate possessiveness toward the female lead?
“No, Senior Brother Lu and I have only met a few times.”
Ye Ran wasn’t lying. Leaving aside the love letters, she and Lu Li really were just acquaintances who had crossed paths a handful of times.
As soon as she said this, a clear flicker of joy appeared in Meng Xuan’s eyes—and if she looked closely, it seemed he also breathed a small sigh of relief.
But before she could probe any deeper, Meng Xuan’s gaze grew intense.
“I heard the peach blossoms down the mountain are in bloom. I’ve invited a few fellow disciples to go boating and enjoy the scenery tomorrow. Why don’t you come with us, Junior Sister? It would be a good chance for us to get to know each other better as sectmates.”
“No, I still haven’t finished the task our master assigned me. I really can’t get away.”
Ye Ran refused almost immediately.
The moment she heard “boating,” she instantly thought of the plot in the book.
There was a scene where the male lead invited the female lead boating, only for a flood dragon to capsize their boat, leading to a classic hero-saving-the-damsel moment that made the female lead’s heart flutter for him.
But that happened after the male and female leads had gotten to know each other.
Now, she and the male lead had only met once, and he was already inviting her boating. It was just too strange.
Could it be that she had already altered the timing of their first meeting, causing the plot to advance early?
Whatever the reason, she couldn’t agree to it.
“What a shame. But since Elder Li has assigned you a task, I won’t disturb you further, Junior Sister.”
Meng Xuan’s disappointment was obvious.
But he couldn’t very well urge Ye Ran to abandon her master’s assignment and go out with him instead—that would hardly befit the image of a sect leader’s disciple.
Finally, he turned and left, looking dejected.
Ye Ran did, in fact, still have an unfinished task from her master.
She needed to brew wine for her.
Since the flavor and potency of wine made from Drunken Immortal Fruit were hard to control, Ye Ran simply shut herself in her room to focus on her research.
This also helped her avoid the male lead and gave her time to practice the sword manual her master had given her.
But what she didn’t expect was that, although she succeeded in avoiding contact with the male lead, the great villain came after her instead.
On the second day of Ye Ran’s wine brewing, another familiar love letter arrived.
At first, Ye Ran didn’t dwell on it. She continued to pretend nothing was happening, waiting for the great villain’s interest in her to fade.
But instead of losing interest, the great villain sent love letters more and more frequently.
Almost one every day.
By the day Ye Ran finished brewing the wine, there were already seven or eight love letters in the wooden box.
Every single one was an unrestrained, thorough harassment.
Ye Ran was so worried she couldn’t even muster the mood to deliver the wine to her master. She was almost tempted to pour herself a cup to drown her sorrows.
But she wasn’t much of a drinker, and this wine was potent. She was afraid that if she drank it, she might lose her senses and go straight to the great villain with the letters in hand.
Just as she sat there frowning, a crane’s cry suddenly rang out from the sky.
Ye Ran jolted, terrified that another love letter was on its way.
Fortunately, when the crane landed, she breathed half a sigh of relief.
What arrived this time wasn’t a love letter—though it was tangentially related, because what came was the great villain’s sword.
Well, at least it’s better than a love letter, she thought.
Ye Ran resignedly accepted the sword, sat down, and set to work on repairs.
After all, as an artifact repair disciple, she had assessments to pass. Refusing to repair a sword would earn her a bad review.
Repairing this sword still came easily to her. In just a quarter of an hour, the damaged formations were fully restored.
She placed the sword on the stand and turned to deliver the wine to her master—only to find the system, in its large fat cat form, with its butt in the air, sneakily eating something on the table.
“System! You’re stealing food again!”
Ye Ran grabbed the fat cat’s upright tail, but upon closer inspection, she realized the system hadn’t been stealing her pastries—it had been drinking the leftover wine in a cup.
She immediately let go of the system’s tail and guiltily patted its head.
“Sorry, I misunderstood you.”
“Meow~”
To her surprise, the system wobbled as it turned around and rubbed its head against Ye Ran’s arm.
Completely drunk, by the looks of it.
Ye Ran picked up the wine cup and saw that only a small sip was missing.
But she knew the system had a good tolerance for alcohol. Last time she brewed wine for her master, the system had downed an entire small jar without getting drunk.
Now, just a few sips had left it in this state—it seemed this wine was indeed potent.
Ye Ran set the system aside and was about to pour out the wine when her gaze fell on the sword stand.
She looked down at the wine cup in her hand, and a bold idea suddenly popped into her head.
Since this wine was so strong, if she got Lu Li drunk and then questioned him, could she finally find out what his real intentions were?
Ye Ran thought the idea was very feasible.
She immediately went over to the sword stand, picked up the wooden tag hanging from the sword, and left a voice transmission inside.
Soon, a crane arrived to retrieve the sword. After handing the sword over to the crane, Ye Ran added some Confusion Herb to the wine she had prepared in advance.
This herb could bewitch the mind, causing a person to unconsciously reveal their deepest true thoughts.
With this plan in place, she was confident she could get answers out of Lu Li.
When Lu Li appeared, Ye Ran was sitting under a tree, holding the dead-drunk fat cat in her arms, with a faint aroma of wine lingering in the air.
Ye Ran clearly hadn’t noticed Lu Li yet. She was taking advantage of the system’s drunken state to freely pet and squish it.
It wasn’t until a shadow blocked out the sunlight that she stopped and looked up.
Lu Li was standing just two paces away. Today, he was still dressed in a white robe, but his inner garment and sash were bright red—like red plum blossoms in the snow, accentuating his cold, ethereal demeanor.
When he spoke, however, his voice was as gentle as ever:
“What did you need me for, Junior Sister?”
“I recently brewed some fruit wine. As a thank-you for your help the other day, Senior Brother, I wanted to invite you to try some.”
Even though this excuse was one Ye Ran had thought up long ago, saying it in front of Lu Li still made her feel a bit guilty.
After speaking, she unconsciously looked away, her heartbeat beginning to quicken.
“Then I thank you, Junior Sister.”
Fortunately, Lu Li didn’t refuse.
The shadow blocking the sunlight from Ye Ran’s face disappeared. When she looked up again, Lu Li was already seated across from her.
“This is what I just finished brewing today. Please try it, Senior Brother.”
Ye Ran hadn’t expected the plan to go so smoothly. She quickly stood up and eagerly poured a cup of wine for Lu Li.
As Lu Li took the cup, Ye Ran’s gaze grew increasingly intense.
But Lu Li didn’t drink immediately. His eyes swept over the wine cup before settling on Ye Ran.
“Won’t you join me, Junior Sister?”
“I have a low tolerance for alcohol. I really can’t drink much. How about I substitute tea for wine instead?”
With that, Ye Ran poured herself a cup of mint tea. Afraid that Lu Li might object, she quickly raised her cup to clink against his, then took a symbolic sip.
“There, Senior Brother, I’ve had mine. Now please, go ahead.”
Ye Ran set down her cup and stared intently at Lu Li.
But just then, a noise came from behind her. She instinctively turned to look—it was just the system falling off its stool.
What Ye Ran didn’t know was that in the moment she turned her head, a flicker of spiritual energy passed through Lu Li’s fingertips. In an instant, the wine in his cup diminished slightly, while a wisp of fragrance appeared at the rim.
By the time Ye Ran had settled the system and turned back around, Lu Li was already drinking the wine.
When he set the cup down, it was empty.
His slender fingers traced the rim of the cup, and a smile appeared at the corners of his lips.
“I’ve finished it. Now, shouldn’t you show me something in return, Junior Sister?”
Leave a Reply