"Holy crap!" Shi Tiexin nearly spat inside the Martial Heart Zen Lotus. "I'm telling you, Big Brother, that was way too sudden! Even if you wanted to pursue her, that's not how you do it. You'll scare her!"
Sure enough, Ling Xingjian froze mid-gorge, lifted her head, and stared at him in disbelief. "What?"
Shi Tiexin reconsidered. Iron Pillar, this old straight man, had barely dealt with women his entire life and completely lacked common sense. This reaction was understandable, so he quickly transmitted the beauty-pursuit strategies Rascally Fei and the others had compiled, carefully teaching him.
But Shi Tie Zhu paid no heed to any girl-chasing strategies or Thirty-Six Stratagems, utterly ignoring those tricks.
"Didn't hear me? Then I'll say it again." Shi Tie Zhu spoke slowly and seriously. "Do you have a partner? Are you married? Are you currently single?"
Ling Xingjian slowly straightened up, seeming to grow angry as she glared at Shi Tie Zhu. "Are you crazy? At a critical moment like this, instead of saying something important, you're asking that?"
"To me personally, it's very important." Shi Tie Zhu spoke with grave seriousness. "To avoid certain troubles in the future, and to prevent misunderstandings, I'd still like to get it clear first."
Shi Tiexin slapped his forehead. "You're... way too blunt, aren't you? Besides, you took a liking to her that fast? Prevent misunderstandings? You're something else."
But Shi Tie Zhu said something unexpected in his heart. "I wasn't asking those questions for myself. I was asking them for you."
"Me?"
"Yes. You already have a knot in your heart over this matter. I was afraid her appearance would have an even greater effect on you. To keep you from suffering a second emotional wound, and to stop you from forming fantasies and misunderstandings you