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Why was he deliberately ignoring her? Was he unhappy that she had spoken up for women everywhere? She had only told the truth. Women had suffered plenty because of these stinking men. Every fellow studying at Dongxu Mansion, and every one of those men outside taking the civil service exams, surely had more than a few unpaid debts of love: a sweetheart waiting faithfully at home, a young woman in a brothel waiting to leave that life behind, not to mention their three wives and four concubines...

Unable to bear his inscrutable silence any longer, she blinked uneasily and decided to ask first. "Well... did I get the question right?"

"Do you have a taste for Cut Sleeve?" Was that why he had no manly bearing, why he smelled so strongly of Rouge and had no more masculine vigor than a woman? The man was like that, and so was his poem. Its lines held no ambition or integrity, spoke neither of loyalty to sovereign and country nor of friendship reaching the clouds. Instead, they brimmed with tender affection, soft as water, like a winsome woman sighing out her sorrows.

"...Huh?"

What? What kind of comment was that from her examiner? Had she heard him wrong?

"My answer to the question..."

She tried to steer the conversation back on course, but the examiner, his mind already teeming with wayward notions, would not let her. "If that's so, why don't you give me a try?"

"...Hah?!" Her pupils widened abruptly.

Give him a try? Try... what? What could a man and a man try together? Her mind held no sordid, shameful acts that two men could do.

"Try liking me."

"..." Hey, brother, why did you sound as casual as if you were asking, "Want to take this puppy home?"

Zhu Bafu's face turned ashen. Facing an examiner who was abusing his authority to sort out his love life, she swallowed with difficulty.

How was she supposed to turn down the examiner's invitation tactfully? Say outright that she was not interested in men? That would be absurd. If she was not interested in men, was she supposed to marry a woman and spend her life with her? Say she was not interested in him? That would be even more absurd. As if she did not know how corrupt

officialdom

was, how dark the examination hall could be. A man like him, using his position to threaten a candidate, said, "Try liking me," but the warning beneath it was plainly aimed at her, this pretty boy.

"Hmph. If you know what's good for you, you'll submit to me and become my kept boy, mine to enjoy. Otherwise, hmph, you can forget about ever entering officialdom for the rest of your life."

Sweat poured down her like rain. She fretted and agonized. This was all because she could not resist showing off and had recited a love poem to him. Well, look where that had got her. He had taken it the wrong way.

"My lord, you, I, we..."

Seeing her troubled expression, Li Chenjing raised a brow. "What? Is liking me so difficult? Or... do you dislike me? Am I really so hard for you to like?"

"No, no, no! My lord, you're as lovely as a flower and fair as jade, beautiful as a celestial maiden, the loveliest of them all. It's I who am unworthy of you!" Flattery never failed. Enough talk; she would butter him up first.

"Unworthy?" He gave a cold snort. "That is the excuse I hate most in this world."

"Huh?" Had her flattery landed a kick on the horse's leg?

"If you're unworthy of me, then whom do you hope to be worthy of?"

"I, I... at the very least, it ought to be a female."

"What are you mumbling? Speak up."

"I said that I'm the only son in my family for three generations. They're still counting on me to carry on the Zhu Household's line. So please, my lord, see reason and let me go find a wife." Xiaojiu really was the only son in his family, so that did not quite count as a lie, did it?

"Children?" Li Chenjing paid no heed to her far-reaching concerns. He merely flicked an almost imperceptible glance toward the Imperial Guard stationed outside the door, then abruptly lowered his voice and promised, "I have no intention of stopping you from having children, nor do I intend to do anything improper with you. Marry whomever you please. All I ask is that you give me a try." All he needed was for her to behave and put on a good show with him for that fellow to see.

Huh? Did he take her for a three-year-old? What good was a flimsy promise like that? Generally, when a man promised a woman, "I'll just hold you. I won't do anything else," he was already undressing her and tugging at her waistband in his head!

But how could a man and a man... do anything improper? She had only ever studied erotic pictures of men and women. Men with men? That was a bit too much for her tastes, wasn't it?

She shook her head hard. What was she thinking? She was a woman through and through. Why should she care how two men did it?

Her cheeks burning, she cautiously raised her head and stole a glance at Li Chenjing in the hall. Unlike her, he was perfectly at ease, leisurely sipping and savoring his tea, as though what he had just said were no more than the simplest exam question.

This was too strange. She had to ask. "Wh-why has Lord Li suddenly taken an interest in me...?"

"You once sent me a love letter. I want to find out what it feels like to be liked."

Why did he make it sound so pitiful, as though no one had ever liked him before? Had he not been involved with that Courtesan...?

"Even, even so, you don't have to choose a man..."

"Women are too troublesome." Those creatures spoke of love one moment, then the next lamented their fate, railed at heaven, and wept about how bitter their lives were and how impossible it was to be together. He had no wish to puzzle them out.

Zhu Bafu's eyes went wide. What kind of logic was that? Women were too troublesome, so he would settle for a man instead?

"If you're unwilling, then forget it. You may go." Seeing how torn she was, he did not press her. With a wave of his sleeve, he made to send her away.

"Wait!" Zhu Bafu craned her neck. "If I don't agree, will you use your position to settle a personal grudge and make me disappear?" That was what she was really worried about. Losing a degree and a career was one thing. Having no money to feed her family was far worse!

He raised his brows with official composure, took a sip of tea without committing himself, and gave a teasing reply. "You could try and find out."

A note from the author: