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Fortunately, nothing turned into a brawl, so it was time to head home!

Tugging at his waistband, Zhu Bafu hummed a little tune as he prepared to head home. When a hand brushed against his belt, a crumpled piece of paper made him draw in a sharp gasp, and he finally remembered that his mission in entering the brothel was to deliver a love letter to Li Chenjing.

Good grief! He had been so captivated by the drama of two men fighting over a woman, his head entirely filled with the prospect of watching a good show, that he had completely thrown Lord Long's serious errand to the back of his mind!

Young Master Li Chenjing, please! Do not run too far just because you did not want to see your old lover embracing! Do him a favor and let him finish this task perfunctorily!

With a smack to his own forehead, he hastily reversed direction and bolted after Li Chenjing.

"Li... Young Master Li! Stay your steps, please! Young Master Li!"

"..."

"You must not ignore this scholar! J-just... just because I helped that young master bump into the door? Th-that wasn't what I intended, he kicked me!"

"..."

"You cannot ignore this scholar! T-turn back and look at me for a moment! This scholar has chased after you so bitterly, hey!"

"..."

"Li..."

"Thud."

"Oof! Ow, my nose! You could at least give a warning before stopping in your tracks!"

Halting his steps, Li Chenjing hurled a look of disgust right at him. "You are very noisy."

"That is because you kept walking forward nonstop, and I had no wish to shout at the top of my lungs outside a brothel! At any rate, I am a scholar myself."

"You have been following me all this time. What on earth is your intention?"

"No, no! You misunderstand, I have not the slightest interest in your personal private life, it is just that as bad luck would have it, I... saw just a tiny bit of it... hehe! However, I shall keep it a secret!"

"..." A glare, a cold glare, a fierce and chilling glare.

"Do not be so unfriendly! A great man has no cause to worry about finding no wife; as for women, you just need to look at it philosophically. I-I also know your mood must be very poor right now, and if I had any human decency, I should not provoke you at this time, but... I am also at my wits' end. Could you please bear with it a little and, against your better judgment, accept this?"

A crumpled piece of white paper folded into a small square was clutched in Zhu Bafu's hand. Lowering his head in guilt, he raised both hands to respectfully present the letter before him.

With fair, delicate hands and slender fingers, in Li Chenjing's eyes, he looked completely like a young boy who had not yet grown up. Aside from his eyes, all his facial features were clustered in a tiny heap upon his face. At the moment, he buried his head between his arms as though feeling shy, acting coy and awkward as he insisted on handing over a letter to him.

To be honest, he really was not in the mood to fool around with a young boy, nor did he want to know what was written in that seemingly important letter of his. It was bound to be nothing more than some profanity-laden, metrically flawed verses that the writer foolishly thought were well-written, and he probably gave it the high-sounding name of a love letter, didn't he?

"A love letter?"

"Eh? How did you know?"

A mocking, light snort spilled from his lips, and he was just about to raise a hand to push the offer away when he glanced up slightly and saw a paper window on the side wall of Chunfen Pavilion being gently pushed open by a delicate, jade-like hand.

A slender figure feigned laziness as she leaned sideways against the windowsill, poking her head out to look down the path he had to take to return to the estate. The candlelight from the inner chamber cast a flickering, uncertain glow upon her lovely face.

Liu Rongrong.

She was observing him, gauging his mood, and guessing whether this time would truly be, as he claimed, the very last time—the last time she used him as a tool for provocation.

A chilly breeze swept past, causing the lanterns hanging from the side eaves of Chunfen Pavilion to sway. The young boy before him could not resist the chill, letting out a soft hiss as he timidly raised his head. He instinctively bit his lower lip and pouted, the candlelight playing across his features and making him look exceptionally exquisite and alluring in the nocturnal gloom. A speck of candlelight danced within his large, dark pupils, his delicate nose turned up slightly, and his lips appeared sharply defined and haloed in the shifting light.

...Like a woman. Like a woman who was looking at her lover with tender affection, shy, coy, and uneasy.

Then why not treat him like a woman?

He admitted that he had lost his mind, for only then could he catch the feminine charm exuded by a young boy in the residual glow of a lantern. He admitted that, in desperation, he had turned to any available remedy, which was why he thought of such a method of resistance. He admitted that in order to detach himself and escape, he had stopped at nothing, pulling an innocent person into the water for no reason.

Yet at that moment, he simply could not bring himself to stop.

Leaning forward slightly, he raised a single hand, his wide sleeves flaring out in a magnificent arc, and pulled the fellow before him straight into his embrace, folding the entire person under his flowing sleeves and filling his whole chest.

"L-L-L-Li Young Master!!! Y-y-you, how is this proper! How can you hug-hug-hug-hug me! I-I-I also have a man's dignity, you are being s-s-so rash and reckless, this violates all propriety!"

"Shh. Shut up." Using a little force, he pressed Zhu Bafu even closer against his warm chest, leaning in to murmur a threat near his ear.

"I can shut up, but you do not have to hold me so tightly!" His face kept brushing against Young Master Li's solid chest, and this crossed the line entirely!

"I shall loosen my hold a bit." He eased his strength slightly, yet his arm still possessively circled the other's shoulders. Seeing the youth still trying to twist away and escape, he furrowed his brows and gave a cold reprimand. "Do not move. Otherwise, do not expect me to accept your love letter."

"What! You actually use this to threaten me? How can you, a grand chancellor's son, be so despicable and base!"

"..." A glare.

"F... fine! As long as you are willing to accept my love letter, a real man will swallow any indignity; if you want to hug, then hug away, a true hero fears nothing!"

Zhu Bafu finally accepted reality, raising his head with closed eyes and standing on tiptoe. Putting on a magnanimous expression of facing execution without flinching, he leaned his face forward. Before the other could dodge or evade, he brushed right against Li Chenjing's slightly parted lips like a reckless, clueless boy.

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Historical Romance

Cross-Dressing