Lu Yan felt that the situation was going incredibly well. Spectacularly so. The righteous Jiang Ci had been cajoled and cornered into a wall by his villainous self, curled up there and blushing so furiously she looked like she was cosplaying a boiling teapot.
Watching her flustered state, her darting gaze, and even her uneasy breathing, he couldn't help but feel a surge of secret glee. It seemed he really did have a talent for lying.
Yoshi... The next step should be... be, be... what was it again? He tried to search his mind for the "resources"... ahem, materials he had studied in his previous life.
But he quickly realized that whether it was Western tactics or East Asian dating guides, none of them seemed quite applicable here. After all, he wasn't actually after her body.
His real goal was just to get her a little closer to him to raise her affection level, not to input a cheat code—up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, B, A—to unlock a special CG. That wasn't how a pure-love dating sim was played, you bastard!
Besides, this girl's state seemed a bit off... why did she look like she was having an allergic reaction?
Jiang Ci slowly slid down the wall, sinking inch by inch until she was sitting on the floor. Her back pressed against the wall, as if even the strength to keep herself standing had been completely drained away.
She kept her head lowered, her silver-white hair falling to obscure most of her face, leaving only the slightly reddened tip of her ear visible.
Pulling her knees to her chest, she curled herself into a tight little ball. Her gaze was vacant, her pupils unfocused. She didn't dare look at Lu Yan, nor did she even dare to look around the room.
How could I have made such a request? she asked herself over and over in her head.
I can take responsibility, but how am I supposed to compensate him? With what? Her thoughts kept spinning in a dead end. Mist gradually welled up in her gray, glass-like eyes.
She had absolutely no idea how to respond to Lu Yan's pressing demands—or rather, she had never imagined she would ever find herself in such a situation.
Taking responsibility was unavoidable, but what was she supposed to do after that?
What could she do? She curled herself even tighter, her fingers gripping the hem of her robe so hard her knuckles turning white.
Reason told her that this was useless. She should stand up, face Lu Yan bravely, and take responsibility for her actions.
But she couldn't lift her head. She was terrified of seeing the look in Lu Yan's eyes that she had so often seen in the eyes of other cultivators—disgust, resentment, and the belief that she was someone who didn't know her place.
She was even more terrified that she would never see him again. She feared that he would look at her with those same eyes, turn around, walk away, and never speak to her again for the rest of their lives.
He already dislikes me as it is. Indeed, Jiang Ci had mistaken Lu Yan's recent distance and coldness for outright aversion.
In the past, that was exactly how she had treated the male disciples who tried to force their way into her presence.
They would try to get close to her by any means necessary, speaking with frivolous words while failing to hide the muddy, naked lust in their eyes.
If the roles were reversed and someone like that had gotten drunk and climbed into her bed at night, she would have been exceptionally merciful not to hack them to pieces on the spot. Yet, according to Lu Yan, she hadn't just climbed into his bed—she had done things far worse, things that were utterly shameless.
A thin layer of mist condensed over her vacant eyes, making them look like a lake on a cloudy day, rippling with delicate waves whenever the wind swept past.
Her lips trembled slightly, pressed so tightly together that they lost all color. She couldn't say a single word, only burying her head even deeper.
What's going on? Looking at the curled-up Jiang Ci, the smugness in Lu Yan's heart instantly cooled by half.
He squatted down to match her eye level, putting away his thoughts of teasing her, though the smile on his face hadn't completely faded yet. “What's wrong?”
He couldn't see her face because she had buried it completely. He could only strain his ears to catch any sound she made, and then, his smile froze on his face.
Lu Yan heard it—a broken, trembling “I'm sorry.” She repeated those words over and over, refusing to stop. He finally realized that her body had been trembling ever since she slid down to the floor.
A wave of frustration surged in his chest. What the hell have I done? Was pushing this girl to such a state really what he wanted?
He opened his mouth, wanting to tell her, “I was just joking,” wanting to admit that everything he had just said was a lie.
But he didn't dare. He was terrified of how Jiang Ci would view him if he confessed. Would she calculate their accounts even more strictly, repay him bit by bit, and then completely cut ties with a liar like him?
Lu Yan lowered his eyes, his gaze clouded with deep regret. How had he managed to play such a good hand into such a terrible mess? He absolutely couldn't back down now. If he did, a bottomless abyss awaited him.
Sometimes that was just how it went. A small, casual lie required countless more lies to cover up, until in the end, one even forgot why they had told the initial lie in the first place.
He really wasn't cut out to play the bad guy. Look at the karma coming back to bite you now. Lu Yan forced the corners of his mouth upward, trying to put on a relaxed expression, but it only resulted in a bitter, strained smile.
He tentatively reached out and gently patted the shoulder of the still-trembling Jiang Ci.
Feeling Lu Yan's touch, Jiang Ci's apologies abruptly ceased. She slowly lifted her head, her eyes gradually focusing through her tears as mist swirled within her light gray, glass-like pupils.
Through that veil of tears, Lu Yan saw so many things: profound confusion, helplessness, and fear.
She released her tightly bitten lower lip, leaving behind a few pale teeth marks. She opened her mouth, but after a long pause, she could only squeeze out another:
“I'm sorry...”
The dark clouds gathering in her eyes seemed to find a focal point with the utterance of those three words. A tear finally spilled from the corner of her eye, tracing down her jawline and sliding along her neck before disappearing into her collar.
Lu Yan felt as if his heart had been violently wrung. A bitter, aching regret spread through his chest. He was the sole culprit behind that tear.
To tell the truth was something he didn't dare to do, but keeping it hidden only made him feel worse.
Driven to desperation by Jiang Ci's relentless apologies, he had a sudden stroke of inspiration. Disregarding any awkwardness about physical contact or intimacy, he placed his hand on her small, snowy-white head. “Don't cry.”
The warmth of his palm settled over her head. “I won't make you take responsibility anymore, okay?”
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