Xia Ya's Teasing 2

Mu's face gradually turned pale. His jaw muscles tightened as he stared straight at Xia Ya.

"You... were spying—" He lowered his voice, practically grinding out those three words through clenched teeth, every syllable filled with suppressed fury.

Xia Ya's smile widened further. He tilted his head, looking thoroughly unconcerned.

"It was keeping watch. Calling it spying is far too rude. My brother, please don't use such crude words to describe my well-intentioned actions."

He corrected him casually, yet his tone carried an unquestionable certainty.

Mu's breathing grew heavy.

Xia Ya's words pierced his disguise like arrows, and Mu finally understood that he had been seen through completely.

His thoughts spun like pebbles swept along by a raging current.

Yes, keeping watch.

From beginning to end, Xia Ya had been somewhere Mu could not see, watching every scene that had unfolded between the two of them—or rather, every scene Mu had "directed and performed" himself. None of it could possibly be called a private conversation.

Mu's Adam's apple bobbed, and his eyelids trembled faintly. The conversation he had just had with Natarle, along with that final scene that had felt like a confession—Xia Ya had seen it all.

Every word and every physical contact had, in Xia Ya's interpretation, become Mu courting Natarle. And Natarle had shown no displeasure at all; she had even seemed shy and pleased.

Mu knew that Xia Ya's judgment was almost perfectly aligned with the truth.

Or rather, Xia Ya had stated, in his own way, the "truth" Mu had buried beneath his subconscious.

Worse still, that truth had been laid bare before Xia Ya, the person who understood Mu's nature better than anyone.

"Mu."

Xia Ya's smile faded slightly. His tone returned to calm, but the insight in his eyes did not weaken in