“S-Senior Brother Lu, why are you here?”
Ye Ran looked at Lu Li, who was sitting in her room, and forced a smile that looked worse than a grimace.
Her deliberately clueless question made Lu Li’s expression instantly turn cold, the surrounding air growing thick and stifling along with it.
Ye Ran’s body trembled. All she wanted to do now was turn around and run.
But in the next moment, the door behind her slammed shut. Then a cold chuckle rang in her ears. When she looked up again, Lu Li had already risen and was walking toward her step by step.
Lu Li’s tall, imposing figure carried an invisible pressure that made Ye Ran instinctively back away.
Soon, her back hit the door panel—there was nowhere left to retreat. Lu Li reached her at that moment, a hint of cold smile still lingering at the corner of his lips.
“Why am I here?”
Lu Li raised his hand to stroke Ye Ran’s cheek. His cool fingers slid slowly down her face, brushed past her slightly parted red lips, and finally pinched her chin.
“If I hadn’t come, how could junior sister possibly have remembered me?”
He had finished his business before sunset and waited for Ye Ran to come to him. But nearly two hours later, she still hadn’t shown up.
Sensing something was wrong, he had come to find out for himself. Now, seeing Ye Ran’s guilty expression, he understood everything.
She had indeed completely forgotten about him.
“How could that be? I always remembered that I needed to apologize to Senior Brother Lu. I was just busy today and got held up. If you hadn’t come first, I would have been on my way to Wangxian Hall by now.”
Seeing Lu Li’s expression darken further, Ye Ran quickly scrambled for an excuse to make amends.
Though he knew these words weren’t very credible, Lu Li’s expression softened slightly. At the same time, he let go of Ye Ran’s chin.
Ye Ran immediately breathed a sigh of relief, her tense body relaxing.
But just then, a knock came from the door behind her, followed by Meng Xuan’s voice:
“Junior sister, I’ve come to apologize. I was impulsive earlier. Please don’t hold it against me.”
The moment his voice reached them, Lu Li’s expression—which had just softened—darkened again.
Sensing trouble, Ye Ran wanted to explain, but with Meng Xuan standing just outside the door, she opened her mouth and ultimately said nothing.
But Lu Li stepped forward at that moment, wrapped an arm around her waist, and pressed her directly against the door panel.
“This ‘business’ junior sister was so busy with—was it meeting with my junior brother?”
Lu Li’s voice was very soft, yet laced with anger.
Ye Ran broke out in a cold sweat. Fearing that Meng Xuan outside might notice something wrong, she mustered her courage and immediately covered Lu Li’s mouth to keep him from speaking further.
Then she turned toward the door and said, “Whatever it is, we can talk about it another day. I’m tired. Please go back, Senior Brother Meng.”
Ye Ran’s intention was to send Meng Xuan away. But Meng Xuan, hearing her voice so close to the door, was overjoyed. Instead of leaving, he grew even more excited.
“My feelings for you are sincere, junior sister. I truly like you. I—”
“Senior Brother Meng, say no more! I’ve already made myself clear. Please go back.”
With every word Meng Xuan spoke, the arm around Ye Ran’s waist tightened further, and the temperature around them dropped. Ye Ran quickly cut Meng Xuan off.
But Meng Xuan proved unusually persistent, showing no sign of leaving.
“Junior sister, give me a chance. Let me finish.”
Meng Xuan’s voice drifted in again, while Lu Li, pressed against Ye Ran, had already curled his lips into a cold smile.
Ye Ran’s guilt consumed her. She didn’t dare look at Lu Li at all.
She was about to continue shooing Meng Xuan away when Lu Li suddenly lowered his head and bit her earlobe.
A jolt of electricity shot from her earlobe through her entire body, making Ye Ran tremble.
Then Lu Li’s voice reached her ears.
“Let him finish.”
Lu Li nibbled at Ye Ran’s earlobe, gently grinding it between his teeth, but his tone was cold, tinged with a faint murderous intent.
The continuous tingling sensation at her earlobe made Ye Ran instinctively bite her lip to keep herself from making any sound.
Now, even if she wanted to drive Meng Xuan away, she couldn’t speak.
And Meng Xuan, receiving no response from Ye Ran, assumed she had given him silent permission to continue.
Overjoyed, his tone grew even more impassioned when he spoke again:
“The reason I asked to meet you today, junior sister, is because I couldn’t contain my feelings. And when I saw you, I got so carried away that I frightened you. But rest assured, I won’t overstep like this again in the future. Please, give me another chance.”
Meng Xuan’s voice drifted intermittently into the room, but Ye Ran had completely lost track of what he was saying.
Because Lu Li’s mouth had traveled from her earlobe down to her neck, where he was now sucking at her beating pulse, tearing at it with his teeth.
The faint pain seemed to flow through her bloodstream to every part of her body, leaving even her fingertips tingling.
Ye Ran bit her lip hard, refusing to let out a single sound. But Lu Li, as if deliberately opposing her, bit down even harder.
The sudden increase in pressure on her neck caught Ye Ran off guard. Her body trembled, and a moan accidentally escaped her lips.
The sound carried clearly outside the room. Meng Xuan’s voice halted.
He stared at the door for a moment before asking with concern:
“Junior sister, are you alright?”
“It seems my junior brother cares a great deal about you.”
Lu Li finally released Ye Ran’s neck and slowly lifted his head. His tone was gritted with anger, and if one listened closely, it even seemed laced with a hint of jealousy.
This surprised Ye Ran. But before she could dwell on it, Meng Xuan, receiving no reply, knocked on the door again.
“Junior sister? Are you okay?”
The crisp knock traveled through the door panel, making Ye Ran’s body tense instantly.
“I’m fine. Senior Brother Meng, please go back—mm—”
Before Ye Ran could finish, Lu Li’s lips came down on hers. His arms around her waist tightened, leaving no room for resistance.
Ye Ran could only endure, though inwardly she felt utterly helpless.
He had been the one who wanted to hear Meng Xuan’s nonsense, and now that he had heard it, he was unhappy.
The villain’s mind was truly difficult to guess.
As Ye Ran was silently lamenting this, Lu Li keenly sensed that her mind was wandering.
Annoyed, he bit her lip. When Ye Ran winced in pain, he stopped—not to let her go, but to look toward the door.
The knocking continued, growing more urgent.
The aura around Lu Li grew darker, and murderous intent flickered in his eyes.
“What a nuisance.”
No sooner had he spoken than a wave of powerful pressure surged from within the room, sending Meng Xuan flying backward to crash heavily onto the ground.
“Get lost.”
Meng Xuan had just gotten to his feet, preparing to approach again, when Ye Ran’s voice came from inside the room.
Though the voice was identical to Ye Ran’s, it carried an invisible pressure far beyond her usual manner.
A puzzled look crossed Meng Xuan’s face.
He knew that with Ye Ran’s level of cultivation, she could never produce such a strong pressure—unless someone else was in her room.
At this thought, Meng Xuan frowned, his expression growing even more urgent.
But the pressure seemed to sense his intent. Just as he prepared to step closer, it surged toward him again, forcing him back step after step.
Realizing that the person in the room was someone he could not afford to provoke, Meng Xuan’s face showed a trace of fear—but far more than that, it showed unwillingness.
He steadied himself, a flicker of malice passing through his eyes, then put on a proper smile.
“Since junior sister is not ready to see me yet, I will come another day to apologize. Please rest well.”
With that, Meng Xuan turned and left.
It wasn’t until his figure disappeared at the end of the path that Ye Ran finally breathed a slight sigh of relief. But no sooner had she relaxed than the hands around her waist tightened immediately.
Ye Ran’s face instantly froze.
It was over. She had gotten rid of one nuisance, but an even more troublesome one remained.
“S-Senior Brother Lu, I—”
Before she could finish, a cool finger pressed against her lips, silencing her.
The owner of that finger curled his lips into a cold smile.
“So it turns out junior sister forgot about me because you were too busy pouring your heart out to Meng Xuan.”
“Of course not!”
Ye Ran truly couldn’t understand Lu Li’s logic. Whether from her attitude or from Meng Xuan’s own words, it was clear that she had not only rejected Meng Xuan but had also given him no favorable response. How, then, did Lu Li turn this into “pouring their hearts out”?
How on earth did he figure that?
“I went to the back mountain to find out who wrote those letters. I never expected to see Senior Brother Meng. I was not pouring my heart out to him.”
“Now that junior sister knows the letters were written by Meng Xuan, does that mean you’ll be rewarding him from now on?”
Though there was still a hint of a smile at the corner of Lu Li’s lips, his tone sounded even angrier, and he couldn’t even suppress the murderous intent seeping out.
Ye Ran was stunned by his conclusion.
She felt as though she and Lu Li were on completely different wavelengths—and that he was being utterly unreasonable.
“Senior Brother Lu, don’t overthink this. I don’t like Senior Brother Meng, and I have no desire to satisfy his perverse fetishes. When I saw him at the back mountain, I already warned him to stop sending me those unspeakable things. I dislike them very much.”
“Is that so.”
Whether it was something she said that pleased him, Lu Li’s expression finally softened slightly. But his hands around Ye Ran’s waist did not loosen in the slightest.
“So junior sister forgot all about me because of this matter?”
“…”
Why did the conversation keep circling back to this?
Ye Ran’s confidence instantly deflated. She immediately smiled at Lu Li, guilt written all over her face.
“Of course not. I always remembered you, Senior Brother Lu. If you hadn’t come looking for me first, I would have already gone to apologize to you.”
As she spoke, she cautiously glanced at Lu Li. Seeing that his expression still hadn’t eased, her eyes darted around before she continued:
“Since you’ve come in person, why don’t I apologize to you right now?”
After all, apologizing was just a matter of saying a few words. For someone who had played the scapegoat in the workplace, this was second nature.
Ye Ran had already begun mentally drafting her apology, completely unaware that Lu Li’s gaze had darkened.
He finally released Ye Ran, swept his gaze around the room, and eventually fixed it on the round table not far from them. His dark eyes grew fervent.
“Alright.”
Ye Ran was delighted by this answer. She cleared her throat and was about to speak when Lu Li suddenly lifted her into his arms and carried her to the round table.
“Senior Brother Lu, what are you—”
Before she could finish, she felt her waistband loosen. Looking down, she saw that Lu Li had undone her belt!
Weren’t they supposed to be talking about an apology? What was he doing!
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