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Phoenix eyes, luxurious brocade robes, a long and thick black hair braid, and a pure silver, phoenix-carved smoking pipe. Wasn't that precisely the... Young Master Long who had insisted yesterday on having her deliver a love letter to Li Chenjing? So he had indeed seen her somewhere before—looking thoroughly masculine and flat-chested.

The corners of his lips curved into an arc, his phoenix eyes slightly narrowed, and right now he was sizing her up with unmasked, flirtatious interest. With a looseness of his arm, he intentionally let her drop from mid-air, then met her with a knee-thrust, catching her by the waist at just the right height. He took advantage of the momentum to pull her tighter into his embrace. The strange and ambiguous posture made him raise a brow in satisfaction, and his alluring voice hummed.

"When did this lord ever say he wanted to discuss matters of the heart with you? Little Mother."

"Huh?" Half-lying across his knee, she blankly gazed upward at the seductive smile looming over her. Li... Little Mother?! Wasn't this the standard form of address rakes used when plotting to push down innocent women? Was he barefacedly flirting with her?

"Mmm... It seems you are quite eager to discuss matters of the heart with this lord? Such a proactive Little Mother..."

"Then, let us discuss it. Matters of the heart." His bewitching dark eyes blinked. The emphasized focus fell upon the final four words.

Zhu Bafu lay flat on her back, forced to meet Young Master Long gaze-to-gaze.

He looked utterly delectable; every lift of a brow and squint of an eye radiated the fresh flavor of peach blossoms, and even his close-range posture was brimming with enticement. It made her swallow hard, yet she dared not relax to enjoy it at all. She only hoped he would quickly move those phoenix-like eyes away from her and fail to discover the masculine aura on her person...

Xiaojiu had said that ever since she wore men's clothing, she had carried an unmaskable, masculine stench. Yet today she was bare-faced, completely untouched by cosmetics. That stench might just drill its way right into his nose...

"Little Mother, you called out my surname just now. How did you know my last name is Long?"

"I, did I call it out?"

"You did. And quite with certainty. Speak, when did we meet? Have you been hiding somewhere secretly watching me? Hmm?"

"S-Se... Secretly watching? I secretly watched you?"

"Isn't that so? Otherwise, how would you know who I am, while I find you so familiar—familiar to the point of being a bit an eyesore."

"A-An eyesore..." Ordinary people wouldn't use "eyesore" to describe an acquaintance, would they? Could it be that he had sensed some clue? Please, absolutely not! Whatever he said went; being caught peeping at her was nothing big. As long as she could muddle through this hurdle, she'd let him say she peeked at him bathing! "Right, right, right! I'm just the woman who frequently hides in corners to secretly watch you! Craving your handsome looks and tailing you—all of that, every bit of it, I did!"

Seeing her frankly admit it, he snapped his fingers, as proud as a peacock. "Ha! Indeed. There are simply far too many women following by my side, and it is utterly impossible to remember them all. Tell me, how long have you been enamored with this lord of yours?"

"Eh? E-Enamored?" Wasn't the emotional content of these two words a bit too high? The craving she spoke of stopped strictly at the physical stage, excluding his swaggering young master airs, his rogue's charismatic appeal, and so on. Yet right now... she decided to abandon the struggle of female self-respect and indulge Young Master Long's peacock psychology. Let her be categorized as a fangirl stalking a man; that was far better than being discovered as an impostor woman dressed as a man running a street stall. "Yesterday."

"Yesterday?"

"That's right, starting from yesterday, I carelessly began to be enamored with you. Is that not allowed?"

"Love at first sight?"

"Yes, exactly love at first sight!" Good grief! Just how narcissistic did someone have to be before stopping?!

"What do you like about me?"

"Just the way you curse people out is very handsome, your expression when intimidating people is very sexy, and you're terribly dashing when you're being unreasonable and playing the rogue!" Those were all the merits she could squeeze her brain to think of. Um... why was he staring at her with such a solemn expression? Was he going to back her against a wall and curse her out like yesterday, intimidating her just to show off how handsome he was?

"You woman... Tell me your surname and given name."

"W-W-What are you going to do?" The hand locked around her waist tightened, and she felt herself drawn even closer to him. The tips of their noses were practically about to brush against one another.

"I am going to marry you."

"What?" Has he lost his mind!

"I am going to wed you!"

"Why!?" Mar... Marry? Are you kidding me!? He wants to get married!? What kind of auspicious day was today, for two different men to unhesitatingly demand she become a married woman? Had her aura matured that much?

"If a woman loves all of my flaws, then I will marry no one else!"

"ோவின்... Who taught you such warped logic!?" Was she being rewarded for being too specifically perverted? Who on earth would casually want to love all the flaws of a single man?!

"My Mother." He hitched a thumb toward himself and shrugged matter-of-factly. "She said a woman like you is the true destined maiden I ought to bring home. Even after we're married, no matter how many women I have outside, you'll turn a blind eye and close one ear. You won't throw jealous tantrums; you'll simply quietly manage the household chores for me. After all, since you even love my worst parts, that's true love!"

"..." Good grief, what kind of cursed day was today, with two men treating her like a garbage disposal recycling station! Who wanted to quietly help him handle domestic chores like a withered yellow-faced wife, just so he could go out and wildly toy with other innocent maidens!

"Don't you worry! At fifty-five—no, at most sixty years old—once I've had my fill of romance, I will obediently return to your side. How about it? Let's get married?"

The corners of her lips overflowed with a brilliant smile. Her hand groped onto his chest, patting it affectionately just a moment before, but the next moment she suddenly gave him a vicious shove. To finish it off, she dusted her hands as if finding him unclean enough. "Your Mother is truly formidable. My Father said the exact same thing, too. If I ever found a man who liked even the way I looked when I had a bad stomach ache and went to the outhouse, I should marry him."

"You're telling me to go watch you use the outhouse?"

"No need to trouble yourself. My Father has already helped me find the man who likes me even when I use the outhouse. We're engaged."

Rankings List

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Historical Romance

Woman Dressed as Man