Xu Jingming rose from the sofa and was about to step forward.
Ye Lan suddenly spoke as if possessed by some impulse. "Junior Xu... do you think I'm dirty?"
"Dirty? Why would you say that, Senior?"
The sudden question halted Xu Jingming in his tracks. He turned around with a puzzled expression.
"I mean... that well-known trait of Succubi..."
A complicated look flashed through Ye Lan's violet eyes as her slender fingers twisted together unconsciously.
Her voice grew lower and lower, until it was almost inaudible.
As Noah Holy Land's renowned icy beauty, she had never shown such vulnerability before anyone.
Xu Jingming was initially stunned, but once he understood what Ye Lan meant, he could not help but laugh.
"What is there to care about?
Just from your condition earlier, Senior, I could tell you hadn't used that method to resolve it. Otherwise, why would you have been in so much pain?
And even if you had, it wouldn't have been a big deal."
Ye Lan raised her eyes slightly, surprise flickering within them.
"In a world where strength rules, it's not as if you'd done anything evil."
Xu Jingming spoke casually, smiling as he said:
"The men chosen by you, Senior, would probably be overjoyed. As for what everyone else says—"
A defiant curve lifted at the corner of his lips. "Why care so much? Do I need to worry about the opinions of a bunch of strangers whenever I do something?"
Those words were like a bolt of lightning that split apart the haze in Ye Lan's heart.
She stared blankly at the junior standing before her, who was so much younger than herself.
All of a sudden, the knot that had troubled her for so long seemed utterly ridiculous.
"Although I'm much older than you..."
Ye