The person wore a black-and-red dress, with two red ribbons spilling from her long hair, which was coiled at the back of her head. The style gave her an added air of carefree arrogance.
At that moment, she was pinning the person before her to the bed like a woman in a position of power, kissing him so passionately that neither seemed willing to part.
Her fair little hands rested boldly and casually on the man’s waist.
What reached their ears were the man’s involuntary, low moans.
Helan Zhao swallowed, instinctively turning his gaze away. But from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a familiar pair of shoes.
They were black satin shoes embroidered with entwined red lotuses, with several strands of tassels made from tiny gemstones hanging from the toes.
He had seen them before in Yuan Shu’s guest-retainer compound.
They were Yuan Shu’s shoes!
Yuan Shu?
As if suddenly remembering something, Helan Zhao whipped around. His eyes fixed on the petite woman’s back on the bed.
The slender, graceful waist, the round, full shoulders, the long, fair legs…
Could this back belong to…
The heavens seemed to have heard the outcry in his heart. The woman on the bed released the man before her and slowly sat upright, revealing a familiar, breathtakingly beautiful face.
Those familiar brows and eyes. That familiar person.
Who else could it be but Yuan Shu?
She… She was actually canoodling with some strange man in a mountain cave?
Helan Zhao exploded like a firecracker. He suddenly leapt out from behind the rock blocking his view and glared furiously at the two people on the bed.
“What are you two doing?”
The unexpected voice jolted the pair from their passionate haze.
Yuan Shu rose from Ying’s chest. Her gaze skimmed over his alluring, dazed eyes, and she reached out to stroke his handsome brows and eyes before slowly turning to look behind her.
When she saw Helan Zhao, a trace of surprise crossed her face. “What are you doing here?”
Ever since their last encounter at the hot springs, he had left and never returned to the guest-retainer compound.
Yuan Shu had assumed that he could not bear the blow and had already gone down the mountain.
Helan Zhao gritted his teeth in anger and glared at Yuan Shu with a flushed face. “Why can’t I be here? If I hadn’t come, would you already have—already have…”
“Yuan Shu, how could you do this with another man? How could you…”
His anger was boiling over, but his fine royal upbringing kept him from saying anything too offensive. All he could do was stare at Yuan Shu with reddened, wounded eyes.
His handsome, youthful face was now filled with hurt.
He had thought he was different in Yuan Shu’s heart.
Yuan Shu must have liked him too. Otherwise, at the hot springs, she would never have let him kiss her so thoroughly!
If his body had not developed that problem at the last moment, he might very well have gotten together with her then and there!
Yet now, he had personally caught Yuan Shu flirting with another man.
And the man’s exposed waist was especially glaring.
Yuan Shu had even touched him with her own hands…
He was furious. He wished he could rush over and beat this man who had seduced Yuan Shu to death!
Yuan Shu raised a brow and calmly looked up at Helan Zhao.
The prince of the Heavenly Dragon Dynasty possessed pure yang dragon aura. Before he married, he could not be intimate with any other woman.
After learning Helan Zhao’s identity, Yuan Shu had already made her decision: she would not provoke him.
She had even gone so far as to give him medicine that would make him “impotent.”
She had never expected him to follow her all the way here.
Yuan Shu began to wonder whether her rejection had not been harsh enough.
With that thought, the corners of her lips curved into a lazy, relaxed smile, and she slowly spoke.
“Helan Zhao, whom I like and whom I choose to be with has nothing to do with you, does it?”
“After all, you should know that I don’t like you!”
Yuan Shu spoke each word with unmistakable certainty. Her words caused Helan Zhao’s expression to change drastically.
“You—you said you don’t like me? That’s impossible! That day, that day you clearly…”
Yuan Shu let out a derisive laugh. “What? You didn’t really think I wanted to kiss you, did you? If you hadn’t grabbed hold of me and refused to let go, I never would have kissed you!”
Helan Zhao looked as though he had been struck by lightning.
That day at the hot springs… Had she kissed him only because he had held on to her and refused to let go?
She didn’t like him?
No. He didn’t believe it!
Helan Zhao shook his head repeatedly. “Yuan Shu, you’re lying to me, aren’t you?”
Yuan Shu said nothing. She merely looked at him in silence.
Sometimes, a cold gaze and a cold attitude could wound more deeply than words.
Sure enough, Helan Zhao flew into a rage.
His handsome face flushed crimson. He wanted to vent his anger on Yuan Shu, but he did not dare. In the end, he could only direct his fury at the person behind her.
“It’s you who seduced Yuan Shu? You damned man! I’ll kill you first!”
Pointing at Ying behind Yuan Shu, Helan Zhao shouted furiously. He gathered spiritual power in his hand and struck at Ying.
Yuan Shu’s brows drew together.
Ying had been affected by the medicine she had given him and had lost all his spiritual power. If Helan Zhao’s attack landed, the consequences would be disastrous.
Without the slightest hesitation, Yuan Shu rose to block the blow.
Helan Zhao had not expected Yuan Shu to attack him for another man. Afraid of injuring her, he hastily withdrew much of his strength. Yuan Shu’s palm struck him squarely in the chest, sending him stumbling backward several steps with a series of thuds. He clutched his aching chest.
“Helan Zhao, stop acting crazy!” Yuan Shu snapped coldly.
Hurt flashed across Helan Zhao’s face, but he stared unwaveringly at Yuan Shu. “Do you really like him that much?”
Yuan Shu said nothing.
Helan Zhao’s heart grew colder. He glared resentfully at Ying on the bed, then suddenly sent an attack toward Yuan Shu.
Yuan Shu instinctively raised her hand to block it, but Helan Zhao used the opportunity to slip around her and launch a surprise attack at Ying on the bed.
His father had told him that if there was something he wanted, he had to fight for it!
He had to win Yuan Shu. He had to!
Helan Zhao’s gaze hardened with determination. His figure shot forward like a violent gust of wind, and in the blink of an eye, he was in front of Ying.
At that very moment, Ying emerged from his passionate daze and slowly raised his head.
The instant their eyes met, Helan Zhao saw Ying’s face clearly and suddenly widened his eyes.
“Brother?”
The force of his palm attack scraped past Ying’s ear and slammed into the stone wall behind him with a bang.
Helan Zhao froze for a moment, then suddenly stepped forward and grabbed Ying by the arm, carefully examining him from every angle.
Only after a long while did he speak in delighted disbelief. “Brother, it really is you!”
“Helan Zhao, what did you just say?”
A moment ago, Yuan Shu had still been worried that Helan Zhao was losing his mind. Now, she frowned as she watched him apparently go completely mad.
Helan Zhao, however, was beaming with excitement. Pointing at Ying, he said, “My older brother, Helan Ying, disappeared five years ago. Didn’t you notice that we look very much alike?”
He pointed at his own face, then at Ying’s.
Yuan Shu studied the two men carefully and was astonished.
No wonder Ying’s brows and eyes had seemed familiar to her before. Only now did she realize that the two men actually looked four or five parts alike.
Helan Zhao seemed to have thought of something. He looked at Ying, then at Yuan Shu, and suddenly burst into laughter.
“Hahaha! Hahaha! Yuan Shu, the person you like is actually my older brother? Hahaha!”
“You said you wouldn’t be with me because I possess the pure yang dragon aura of the Heavenly Dragon imperial family. But what about him?”
“He’s my brother. He possesses the same pure yang dragon aura of the Heavenly Dragon imperial family. Yuan Shu, you’re willing to be with him?”
