Amid the clamor of the bustling market, her mind went completely blank.
As if time itself had ground to a halt, Li Junwu froze in place as though struck by an immobilization spell.
Over the clatter of hooves from a passing carriage, a calm, lightly amused voice reached her ears, snapping her out of her stupor:
"What are you standing there for? Lead the way."
"……"
The bustling racket of pedestrians flooded back into her ears. Without any unnecessary hesitation, Li Junwu stepped forward, weaving past people dressed in all manner of attire, and muttered testily, "What's the rush? I'm thinking."
"……"
Xu Yuan was somewhat taken aback. He fell into step behind her. "Huh? Thinking about what?"
"You blurted out that I've been playing you. Naturally, I have to think about how I've been playing you."
Li Junwu's reply was completely matter-of-fact. True to her decisive, straightforward nature, she made no effort to dodge the subject. Instead, she shot Xu Yuan a sideways glance, her eyes curving into a smile laden with meaning. "That question of yours just now—seemed to carry quite a bit of subtext, didn't it?"
With that, she let out a soft sigh and shook her head.
"Then again, look at what time it is. You still have the mind to bring up things like this."
Xu Yuan retorted immediately, "Weren't you the one who brought it up first? Now you're turning around and blaming me?"
Li Junwu showed not the slightest panic. She merely twitched her lips and gave a low huff from the corner of her eyes. "It's been so many years. Why did you suddenly think to ask about this?"
*This.*
Though neither stated it outright, both knew exactly what she meant.
Xu Yuan tilted his head toward the azure sky above, where a faint blush of dawn still lingered, and murmured, "Your behavior during this reunion has been too strange. I'm just a little curious as to why."
"……"
Li Junwu did not answer right away, sinking instead into silence.
Xu Yuan quietly waited for her response.
Though it was barely a quarter past the hour of the dragon, the streets were already bustling with pedestrians.
The two walked in unbroken silence, a silence that persisted even as they entered Bima Court, rented a beast carriage, and set off toward the prefectural yamen.
After turning through several blocks, the carriage turned onto the beast transit lane.
Buildings on either side receded swiftly, yet inside the compartment, everything remained hushed.
Finally, Xu Yuan was the first to break.
The ambiguous, suffocating tension inside the carriage was making him thoroughly uncomfortable.
In truth, he had never deeply analyzed his relationship with this "bosom bro" of his.
Part of it was that she had always preferred women, but more importantly, the two of them were simply too familiar. Though they were childhood friends who had met halfway, their camaraderie had grown through years of fooling around together. A handsome man and a stunning woman with that sort of history—if they were ever going to end up together, their kid would probably be old enough to run errands by now.
Yet no matter how great a bro she was, no matter how ironclad their trust, it couldn't withstand her relentless flirting.
Xu Yuan wasn't blind, nor was he some hopelessly dense protagonist. He could tell full well that Li Junwu had been deliberately teasing and enticing him all along.
From her words to her actions, she had been finding every trick in the book to draw him in.
And when paired with her childish obsession with competing against Li Qingyan…
Taking a deep breath, Xu Yuan slowly broke the silence: "Did you really need half an hour to think over such a simple question?"
"……"
In the quiet, Li Junwu's slender figure gave a slight tremor. She turned her head toward the man beside her. A faint blush crept across her cheeks, and her lips parted, just about to speak—
*Smack.*
A crisp, light slap rang out in the pin-drop silence of the carriage.
Both of their eyes went wide at the same instant.
Staring at the hand that had instinctively struck her, Xu Yuan's mouth opened in disbelief at himself.
Li Junwu clutched her cheek, stunned for a beat before her face darkened completely.
The slap hadn't been hard, and it caused virtually no physical harm, but the insult was astronomical.
Under her murderous glare that looked ready to devour him alive, Xu Yuan gestured at the male human-skin mask on her face. "Hey, can you blame me? Making an expression like that while wearing a man's face?!"
"……"
Li Junwu inhaled deeply. With a single yank, she ripped the mask from her face, revealing her breathtaking, ethereal features. Grinding her teeth, she hissed, "Is this better now, Eldest Young Master Xu?"
"Uh… you can go on. That's… slightly better than before…"
"Xu Changtian! Do you really think this young lady doesn't have a temper?!"
"Huh?"
*Whoosh—*
Before the word fully left his mouth, his bosom bro threw an elbow toward his ribs, the strike cutting through the air with a vicious whistle!
From the sound alone, if that connected, even if it didn't snap his ribs, it would leave him aching for half a day.
Without a second thought, crimson flared in Xu Yuan's eyes.
The moment his technique engaged, the woman's movements slowed to a crawl in his perception.
He didn't dodge. If he dodged, this low-grade beast carriage would be blasted to pieces by the force of her elbow strike.
Catching her forearm, he used soft redirection to disperse the impact, while his other hand seized her collar and yanked violently.
*Rustle—*
The entire clash unfolded in the blink of an eye.
By the time Li Junwu came to her senses, she was already pinned across Xu Yuan's lap, her striking arm twisted behind her back and held firmly in his grip.
After a split second of daze, the humiliating reality of her posture dawned on her, and she snapped, "Y-You let go of me!"
Xu Yuan hastily lowered his voice. "I can let go, and if you want to slap me back, I'll let you slap me. But no more using Source Qi!"
"Let go first."
"Promise me first, then I'll let go."
"……"
Li Junwu bit her lip and began to struggle.
The speeding carriage rocked under her movements. Seeing this, Xu Yuan quickly pressed her down and said in a rush, "Hey, what kind of fit are you throwing? I already told you that you can hit me back!"
Li Junwu ignored him in sullen silence, straining with all her might to break free. Unfortunately, the gap in their physical strength was simply too vast. Even with everything she had, pinned over his thighs, she could only squirm faintly like a salted fish washed ashore.
Seeing this, Xu Yuan hesitated for a moment, a thought dawning on him. Uncertainly, he asked, "Hey… you're not mad just because I said you're only slightly better than a man, are you?"
"……"
The moment the words left his mouth, Li Junwu went completely still, limp as a dead fish. Her bound hair had loosened, spilling in a disheveled cascade.
Seeing her reaction, Xu Yuan suddenly felt as though ants were crawling all over his skin.
Pursing his lips, he ventured cautiously, "Did I hit the mark?"
"Like hell you did."
"Then why aren't you moving?"
"Do you really need to ask why I'm not moving?"
Li Junwu turned her face away, glaring back at him over her shoulder. Her pupils, turned a cold amber from channeling her cultivation technique, were icy. "Xu Changtian, you poked me once last night, and now you're doing it again!"
"Uh…" Xu Yuan blinked in confusion.
"'Uh' what?!" Li Junwu glared at him, eyes brimming with indignation.
"……"
In that beat of locked eyes, the sensations Xu Yuan had ignored in his distraction began to register: the taut, soft weight pressing down against his lap, and the firm, undeniable reaction surging from his lower abdomen.
Meeting the furious, handsome brilliance in Li Junwu's eyes, an odd, illicit thrill stirred within him.
A faint tingle of numbness.
Seeing that he didn't respond for so long, Li Junwu wanted to curse at him, but the increasingly hard sensation pressing against her bound chest instantly melted her indignation into a wave of tingling, sweet-and-sour longing.
A rosy flush gradually climbed from her fair neck up to her earlobes.
As the intoxicating fluster threatened to overwhelm her, Li Junwu bit the corner of her lip to shock herself back to reality and spat softly, "Even though I wasn't joking earlier, we have serious business to attend to today."
"……"
A few moments passed in total silence within the carriage.
The instant she felt his grip loosen, a fleeting sense of loss slipped quietly through Li Junwu's heart.
Yet she knew very well what to do at what time, what face to put on, and what words to speak.
After all, it had been so many years… She truly understood him.
Smoothing out her disheveled robes, she found the atmosphere in the carriage rather awkward.
After a brief thought, Li Junwu rubbed her aching wrist, cut her eyes at the silent man beside her, and teased, "Looks like those new beauties of yours aren't doing their duty, Changtian. Bursting with so much energy every single day—what, won't they let you touch them?"
Hearing that familiar crude banter, Xu Yuan rolled his eyes at her immediately and held his ground. "Has it ever occurred to you that it might just be because of my profound cultivation?"
"Tsk, tsk…"
Considering his past reputation, Li Junwu didn't doubt him. Clicking her tongue twice, she moved on as if nothing had happened: "Changtian, don't overthink what we talked about earlier. You know better than anyone what this young lady likes. Letting you take my body back then was only to fulfill my old man's wish."
With that, she extended a slender index finger, hooked it beneath Xu Yuan's chin, and tilted his face up with a curving smile.
"As for why I picked you instead of anyone else… well, probably because that skin of yours really is handsome. I don't find it repulsive, and any offspring we have won't turn out too ugly."
Xu Yuan smacked her hand away, his lips curling in annoyance. "Why do you talk as if my agreement was a given? You don't mind me, but I might mind you!"
"Oh, please—" Li Junwu drawled with a grin, a flash of mock disdain in her eyes. "Your body is far more honest than your mouth."
When the words fell, they looked at each other in silence. Pure, familiar amusement flickered through both pairs of eyes.
Only, unlike before, a faint trace of gloom and ache lingered in her heart.
Though he had never said it out loud or stated his stance directly, the moment that atmosphere-shattering slap had rung out in the carriage, his answer was already sealed.
How could she fail to see it?
After all, that was one of the very tricks he used to brag about to her and Wang Cheng'en whenever he talked about handling women…
So… let it stay like this.
Maintaining things this way wasn't bad at all.
At the very least, he wouldn't deliberately keep his distance.
Thinking this, Li Junwu swallowed the ache rising in her chest and rolled her eyes at him for no apparent reason.
*Hmph… Still the same scoundrel as ever.*
Chapter 630