O'Hara seemed completely oblivious to the troubled expression on Qin Ran's face.
With a gentle smile, she walked up to him.
She stopped just before Qin Ran's tightly furrowed brows could draw together any further.
"You scared Eisind and the others."
O'Hara spoke calmly.
"I just hate the way they look at me!"
As Qin Ran spoke, he inconspicuously shifted another step backward.
"You're exactly the same as before!"
"You would rather temper yourself amid ice and snow than enjoy honor beneath everyone's gaze... As expected, even if the body has changed, the soul's continuation still remains!"
O'Hara sighed.
Then she stared at him with a gaze that Qin Ran found increasingly heated.
I just don't like being treated like a clown.
But I never said I disliked enjoying honor!
Qin Ran grumbled inwardly.
Yet he said nothing more.
During his time with O'Hara, Qin Ran had not found any effective way to deal with her, but being cold and remaining silent had become his habit.
He truly could not communicate with a woman who regarded him as someone else.
Especially when that woman revealed such tender affection right in front of him, Qin Ran's scalp went numb.
Qin Ran had never imagined he would encounter something like this.
It was different from enjoying the respectful gazes of others.
Being watched with adoring eyes, yet knowing that affection existed only because of a misunderstanding, because you had been mistaken for a substitute—
That feeling was truly unpleasant.
Those who had never experienced it might feel envious.
But for those who had, what was there besides a sigh?
Qin Ran was even more unusual.
Because the O'Hara before him was merely a native.
A real native whom he might never have the chance to see again.
Under such circumstances, Qin Ran,