Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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Su Xi’s cheeks were burning hot, and she was internally frantic. Hadn’t she made herself clear enough? How much clearer could she possibly be?! Did she have to use a megaphone to announce it to everyone?!
But since things have come to this, we might as well go all out.
Su Xi gripped her pajama bottoms with both hands and whispered as if she were going all out, “What I mean is… Lu Huan, I think I like you too!”
….
Lu Huan held his breath, and finally hearing her words, his mind exploded. It was like a parched person who had been waiting for a very long time, whose lips were cracked from thirst, finally finding his oasis.
His eyes involuntarily reddened, but the corners of his mouth involuntarily turned up.
….
There were very few equal relationships in the world; most were unrequited. Lu Huan had always understood this principle.
Therefore, although he tossed and turned, longing to be closer to her one day, he also knew in his heart that there was absolutely no reason why she should reciprocate his feelings just because he loved her.
Whether she treated him as a virtual character in a game or as a friend who had been with her for a long time, he was disappointed and sad, but he never had the heart to urge her or blame her.
He simply thought that as long as he was patient enough and waited day by day, one day, his sincerity would eventually move mountains.
Before the curtain disappeared that day, he noticed that she was deliberately avoiding him, and he felt a little flustered.
He also had something on his mind these past few days that he hadn’t had a chance to tell her— he originally wanted to tell her that he had found a way to refuse the Empress’s arrangement to select a concubine, but only because he had no intention of getting married and having children at the moment, and hoped that she wouldn’t feel any psychological burden.
But to his surprise, she stood before him and told him that she liked him too.
….
Like a child who had been eagerly waiting for a long time and had finally received his beloved candy, Lu Huan stared intently at Su Xi with reddened eyes, unable to help but beg for more: “Does this mean that you also love me?”
The obedient Su Xi lowered her head shyly and whispered, “Yes.”
Lu Huan then asked, “Does that mean you won’t go on blind dates with people like Huo Jingchuan anymore, and you won’t accept movie tickets from men other than me?”
Su Xi felt something was off, but when she looked up and saw Lu Huan’s expectant eyes, she still agreed, “…Yes.”
Lu Huan’s face lit up with joy. He tried his best to keep his expression in check, but the joy and radiance in his eyes and brows were impossible to suppress.
He then asked in a hoarse voice, “Does that mean you will become my princess consort and I won’t be allowed to look at other women?”
Su Xi: “…” Ninth Prince, aren’t you being a little too presumptuous?
And why are you so determined to force me to become a jealous woman?!
Su Xi couldn’t help but explain, “Lu Huan, you might not know this, but the legal marriage age for women here is twenty, which is different from where you are…”
Lu Huan’s eyes dimmed instantly: “I understand what you mean, Xiao Xi. You mean you love me, but you don’t want to marry me in the future.”
“So, how is this different from the ‘manipulation’ or ‘PUA[1]‘ in your world?”
Su Xi: …???
Su Xi asked, bewildered, “Who taught you about PUA?”
Lu Huan said, “Huo Jingchuan.”
Su Xi wanted to beat Huo Jingchuan to death.
Seeing the boy in front of her growing increasingly dejected, with his shoulders slumped, looking utterly heartbroken and like he’d been played, Su Xi could only quickly say, “Marry you, marry you, but, but these things should be discussed later, right? Who can say for sure right now…”
However, Lu Huan seemed to have only heard the first three words.
He stared intently at Su Xi, his chest almost overflowing with joy: “When we make a promise, it’s for life, Xiao Xi, you can’t go back on your word.”
Su Xi said softly, “I won’t go back on my word— but let’s make a deal. You have so many women over there, they’re everywhere in the market. If I don’t let you take a second look at other women, wouldn’t I have to gouge your eyes out?”
Su Xi didn’t expect that after she said those words, Lu Huan seemed to be bursting with excitement.
Su Xi could hear his wildly beating heart even though they were so close.
He turned around hastily, took a deep breath, and tried to calm himself down before turning back and saying in a hoarse voice, “If you really want to dig it out because you’re jealous, I’d be very happy.”
Su Xi: …
Just as Su Xi was about to bargain, wondering if it meant she could never go to the movies with Huo Jingchuan again— Huo Jingchuan could probably be ruled out as a male, right?— she suddenly heard the master bedroom door open.
Mother Su wanted to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but heard whispering coming from Su Xi’s room. She couldn’t help but come over and knock on the door: “Xi Xi, are you still awake? Are you staying up late watching movies again?”
Su Xi shuddered, terrified that her mother would open the door and come in at any moment. She hadn’t locked the door before going to bed, and if her mother came in, there would be no way to hide under the table. She couldn’t very well sit at the table in the middle of the night, especially since the closet was full of clothes—
Her heart pounded wildly, and she felt like a thief. She looked around frantically, and in her panic, she could only push Lu Huan onto the bed.
Lu Huan obediently curled up, grabbed a large pile of blankets from the corner, and covered himself with them.
Then Su Xi, barefoot, quietly grabbed a bear and placed it on the headboard, creating a pile of blankets filled with bears.
“Xi Xi?” Hearing no response, Mother Su stood outside the door again and asked, “Still watching TV?”
“No.” Su Xi was so frightened that she jumped onto the bed and said to the door in a groggy voice, “No, I’m asleep. Mom, you must have misheard. It must have come from upstairs.”
Mother Su was a little suspicious, but she also suspected that she was hallucinating. She told Su Xi, “Go to sleep quickly. School will start soon. You’re in your senior year of high school, so don’t stay up late.”
Then she turned around and went to the bathroom.
Mom didn’t come in?! Su Xi breathed a sigh of relief and quickly said, “Okay!”
Su Xi didn’t dare to breathe loudly, and Lu Huan, who was pressed under the quilt, also held his breath. Only after Mother Su came out of the bathroom, returned to the room, and closed the master bedroom door did the two of them breathe a sigh of relief.
But then, the room fell into a deathly silence, and as if their hearts were pounding.
….
Su Xi’s bed wasn’t big, only 1.4 meters by 2 meters. So when she reached out, she touched Lu Huan’s body.
Lu Huan had just been pushed onto the bed by her. In the chaos, he couldn’t care about anything else and his long robe was crumpled up. He slowly removed the blanket covering his face, held it in his arms, and looked at Su Xi.
It was at this point that Su Xi clearly realized that boys and girls were different.
She usually felt this bed was big enough that she wouldn’t fall off no matter how she turned over, but when Lu Huan lay down next to her with the blanket, even though the boy was tall and slender with lean, well-defined muscles and didn’t appear muscular, the bed suddenly seemed small…
It was only at this moment that Su Xi realized that the boy beside her was not only very tall, but also had very broad shoulders. He could draw a longbow, and when he lay down next to her, he suddenly became very aggressive. How could she have always treated him like a short-armed and short-legged cub? The game system was really misleading her!
In addition, her cheeks were burning, and she didn’t know if it was her heart pounding as if it were about to jump out of her chest or Lu Huan’s, which made the bed seem even smaller.
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[1] In Chinese internet slang, PUA has evolved far beyond its original English meaning of “Pick-Up Artist” to mean emotional manipulation, gaslighting, or psychological control.
