On the bed in the room, Yuan Shu, wearing a revealing nightgown, leaned languidly against Shen Qi.
The smoky-pink nightgown only covered her essential parts. Her tender, white arms and smooth, delicate shoulders were clearly visible beneath the thin gauze.
Shen Qi was wearing only trousers. His solid, muscular upper body was pressed tightly against Yuan Shu's back, his arms wrapped protectively around her waist.
Seeing him suddenly barge in, both of them looked up at him.
The difference was that Shen Qi's eyes were filled with coldness and hostility.
Yuan Shu, on the other hand, maintained a calm expression from beginning to end, as if being caught by him in this scene was the most ordinary thing in the world.
The air still emanated the lingering, intimate scent of post-lovemaking, mixed with the faint fragrance of pear blossoms from Yuan Shu's body.
Even if Shu Linyuan were a fool, he would still understand what the two of them had been doing!
"Sixth Senior Brother has already seen it, do I need to say it again?" Yuan Shu said indifferently.
Shu Linyuan's face flushed with anger, his eyes slowly turning red. He clenched his teeth tightly and glared at Shen Qi.
His eyes were fixed on Shen Qi, as if trying to bore a hole right through him!
After a moment, he took a deep breath, tried hard to steady his emotions, and asked Yuan Shu.
"Shushu, tell me, all of this is fake, right?"
"You... you guys were just careless... it was just because of cultivation that you accidentally ended up together, right?"
His voice trembled, and his whole body seemed to be shaking.
He didn't understand why Shen Qi would be with Yuan Shu.
Shen Qi clearly knew that Yuan Shu liked him, and had always liked him!
And hadn't Shen Qi's feelings for Yuan Shu always been nothing more than an Eldest Senior Brother's care for his junior sister?
Yuan Shu's brows twitched. She hadn't expected Shu Linyuan to find such a good excuse for her.
At this point, Yuan Shu didn't want to defend herself.
Some things were bound to come out into the open sooner or later.
Yuan Shu looked at him in silence, offering no explanation, no answer, and saying nothing at all.
Seeing that Yuan Shu wasn't speaking, Shu Linyuan suddenly stepped forward trembling and grabbed her hands resting on her knees.
He squatted by the bed, looking up at her humbly, as if clinging to a final shred of hope.
"Shushu, tell me, I want you to tell me yourself, this isn't real, is it? This is... this is an accident, right?"
Yuan Shu lowered her eyes to look at Shu Linyuan, reaching out to gently touch his face.
He was very obedient, keeping his head tilted up without moving, his eyes unblinking as he stared fixedly at her.
Behind her, seeing the gentleness in Yuan Shu's eyes, Shen Qi pressed his lips together and slightly tightened his grip around her waist.
He was clearly unhappy.
Yuan Shu raised an eyebrow and withdrew the hand stroking Shu Linyuan's face.
"Sixth Senior Brother, go back for now. I will explain this to you later."
Shu Linyuan was stunned, unable to believe that Yuan Shu was telling him to leave.
He had always thought that he was special in Yuan Shu's heart.
After all, back at the Repentance Cliff, she was the one who took the initiative.
Furthermore, Yuan Shu had given her primal yin to him.
He thought she truly liked him.
Liked him so much that even if she had to resort to any means, even if she had to put down her dignity, even if she had to use force, she wanted to keep him by her side!
Yet he never expected that at this moment, while being held in another man's arms, she would tell him to leave?
Why?
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something.
However, Shen Qi behind Yuan Shu seemed to already be declaring his sovereignty, turning his face to gently brush his lips against Yuan Shu's ear.
Then he bit her earlobe!
Yuan Shu's body tensed slightly, and an uncontrollable soft moan escaped her lips.
Shu Linyuan's heart suddenly clenched.
This sound was the very same one he had heard in the courtyard just now, and the sounds from earlier were even more excessive than this!
And Yuan Shu didn't resist Shen Qi's presumptuous actions at all.
Shu Linyuan's heart instantly sank to the bottom of a valley.
He swallowed hard, looking at the two people embracing each other, and suddenly felt like a joke.
It turned out he wasn't irreplaceable after all.
He gave a self-deprecating smile, stood up, and stumbled out the door.
The room's door closed again the moment Shu Linyuan left.
And this time, a barrier fell around the house, blocking out all the sounds from inside.
"Shushu..."
Shen Qi spoke in a hoarse voice, his magnetic and pleasant tone making one's heart tremble.
His hands firmly gripped Yuan Shu's waist, and he kissed his way from her earlobe down along her tender, delicate jawline, before finally landing on her lips.
It wasn't until Yuan Shu's breathing grew ragged that Shen Qi leaned close to her ear and whispered, "Shushu, you promised me. Tonight, you are mine!"
"Don't worry about him, okay?"
Yuan Shu didn't speak, because she was already too busy to say anything.
Her lips were captured in a kiss, and her small hands were pulled by Shen Qi to his chest, caressing his robust and alluring pectoral muscles.
Right now, nothing in the vast world was more important than the mission of advancing the Hehuan Divine Tree using the dark element spiritual root.
"Shushu, call me."
Yuan Shu said with a trembling voice, "El... Eldest Senior Brother..."
"Shushu, not like that. Call my name."
Shen Qi bit her earlobe, his low, husky voice carrying an incredibly sexy magnetism.
Yuan Shu's eyes fluttered slightly, "Shen Qi... Ah Qi!"
Stirred with passion, Shen Qi hugged Yuan Shu tightly and couldn't help but kiss her lips.
...
Shu Linyuan didn't know how he walked out of Yuan Shu's courtyard.
He only knew that by the time he returned to his own courtyard, it was as if all his spirit and energy had been drained away.
He looked like a walking corpse.
He sat in the courtyard, the scene he had witnessed in Yuan Shu's room echoing in his mind over and over again.
Like daggers, it pierced his heart with agonizing pain.
The night breeze was chilly, and just like that, the crescent moon above kept him company throughout the entire night.
Slowly, the horizon lit up with the pale white of dawn, and the earth warmed up under the sunlight.
It was actually...
The beginning of a new day!
When Yuan Shu pushed open the gate to Shu Linyuan's courtyard, it was already the afternoon of the next day.
She hadn't expected the gate to be unlocked and so easy to open; she had just given it a casual push.
She expected even less that upon looking up, she would see Shu Linyuan sitting blankly in the courtyard.
The table was covered with alcohol, and at his feet lay a pile of empty liquor bottles.
Yuan Shu raised an eyebrow, sidestepped the bottles, and walked to Shu Linyuan's side.
Seeming to sense someone approaching, Shu Linyuan turned his head and squinted upward.
When he clearly saw Yuan Shu's face, he looked startled, "Shushu?"
As if thinking of a certain possibility, his expression became agitated, and he grabbed Yuan Shu's arm.
He asked urgently, "Shushu, are you here to tell me that it was all just a misunderstanding?"
Yuan Shu was in no rush to answer him. She merely reached out and gently patted his arm, as if to comfort him.
Once his expression had calmed down a bit, she finally spoke, "Shu Linyuan, do you really like me?"
Shu Linyuan's Adam's apple bobbed. Even though the alcohol was going to his head, looking at Yuan Shu, his words were still spoken with absolute certainty, "Yes!"
"Shushu, I really like you!"
He had never had such a clear realization before.
But ever since he saw Yuan Shu and Shen Qi together last night, the fire of jealousy seemed ready to burn him to ashes!
Only then did he realize that he truly liked her.
Even after seeing her with another man, he still liked her and couldn't let her go.
He even opened his mouth to find excuses for her behavior.
As long as Yuan Shu told him just one sentence that it was fake, that it was an accident, that there was no love between her and Shen Qi.
He will believe it. He absolutely will!
