Woman, You're Playing Hard to Get

Cluster after cluster of fireworks rose into the night sky, blossoming like flowers before scattering with long trailing tails, like multicolored shooting stars streaking across the celestial river, hazy and beautiful as a dream...

Only Ning Xiang was reflected in the young boy's eyes, and even his features seemed alluring and full of tenderness.

When he gazed at a girl with such gentle eyes, surely no one could help falling for him.

Could Yu Chao, the character Bai Yueguang wrote about, actually be my junior brother? Goodness, he's far too delectable! If I really were Xiang Ning, how happy would I be, with so many gorgeous men fighting over me?

Ning Xiang felt rather pleased with herself again.

To stand firm in the face of such a devilishly handsome boy-surely I'm the only one under heaven who could manage that?

Ah, I really do admire myself.

Yu Tingchao nearly laughed at these thoughts of hers.

His senior sister's little musings were truly novel and amusing.

Yu Chao? When had this new character appeared?

Yu Tingchao quietly made a note of it. Once they returned, he would read Bai Yueguang's posts.

"Look, there's an acrobatics show up ahead!" A group of children chased one another through the gap between them, laughing and playing. More people surged forward, and the crowd actually swept the two of them apart.

Jostled along by the crowd, Ning Xiang unwittingly found herself before a stall laden with lanterns of every shape.

"Young lady, would you like to solve some lantern riddles? Answer nine in a row correctly, and you can choose a lantern." The stall belonged to an elderly couple, and the old man spoke kindly.

The old woman nudged him with her elbow, then smiled and said, "How could such a lovely, delicate young lady be solving riddles alone? Of course she should have her sweetheart win one for her."

Ning Xiang was just about to say she had no sweetheart when a sleazy voice came from behind her. "Well, well, what a fine figure this little lady has. Such a slender waist!"

Ning Xiang turned and saw a young gentleman in sumptuous brocade approaching, followed by dozens of guards.

The young gentleman was not exactly ugly, but his face was far too frivolous, his gaze lewd and insolent, making him unpleasant to look at.

At the sight of Ning Xiang's face, his eyes lit up, amazement flashing across his features. "Someone, buy Us... buy every lantern at this stall for me, and give them all to this young lady."

He opened his fan and, feigning charm, extended an invitation to Ning Xiang. "Young lady, would you do me the honor of joining me on the lake to admire the moon?"

Before Ning Xiang could speak, Yu Tingchao's cold, cutting voice rang out. "She doesn't want to."

The young gentleman did not even look at Yu Tingchao, continuing to ask Ning Xiang, "Young lady, what do you say?"

Ning Xiang smiled and politely refused. "First of all, thank you very much for acknowledging my beauty and charm. I thoroughly approve of your taste. However, my mother told me that a girl mustn't just go off with a strange man, so I'm sorry, but I'll have to disappoint you."

"Woman, you're playing hard to get, but as you wished, you've successfully caught my interest." The young man revealed a confident, oily smile. "I've seen plenty of women like you. You all enjoy playing these little games. Still, it just so happens that they're to my taste."

"Sorry, but you're not to mine."

Ning Xiang was about to turn and leave, but the young gentleman barred her way with his folding fan.

He swept his fringe aside, pretending to be suave. "Woman, I advise you to know when to stop. A little coyness adds spice between a man and a woman, and We are happy to indulge you. But if you keep refusing to appreciate Our kindness, don't blame Us for forgetting to cherish a delicate flower and getting rough with you."

Vile!

Yu Tingchao shielded Ning Xiang behind him. This man actually dared to look at his senior sister with such a clinging, brazen gaze. He must have grown tired of living!

The young man was about to order his men to drag this ungrateful brat away and beat him to death, but once he saw the boy's face, he immediately commanded them to stop.

Practically drooling, he said, "This little fellow looks like an immortal child, too. Bring him back as well. Tonight, We shall favor the little beauty first, and tomorrow..."

Before his words had fully faded, the young man let out an agonized squeal like a pig being slaughtered. Who knew what sinister art the boy before him had used? He had not visibly moved at all, yet the young man felt a searing pain in his wrist bones, as though someone had crushed them. His face turned paper-white with pain, and beads of sweat kept breaking out across it.

Yet when he looked again, there was not a single mark on his wrist.

A shadow of dark, icy ruthlessness showed in Yu Tingchao's eyes, sending a chill through anyone who saw him.

"You think you're worthy of coveting my senior sister?" His voice, too, seemed tempered in ice. He looked at the young man with contempt and disdain, as though looking at a homeless cur.

The boy had red lips and pearly teeth. Usually, when he acted sweet before Ning Xiang, he seemed docile and obedient-but only because it was Ning Xiang.

He had been born the young lord of the Eastern Twelve Isles, unfettered by worldly affairs or convention. Little was worthy of his notice. He neither held anything in particular esteem nor found anything capable of angering him.

Ning Xiang vaguely sensed that something was wrong, but could not say what.

The young man felt an immense pressure bearing down upon his head. He could barely withstand it; his knees buckled, and he collapsed onto them.

Wretched and ugly.

The young man's back kept bending lower, his upper body nearly lying flat against the ground.

Ning Xiang hurriedly sent Yu Tingchao a voice transmission.

"Tingchao, stop. He has dragon aura protecting him. If you truly hurt him, you'll suffer for it afterward."

Had it not been for that concern, Ning Xiang would have beaten him herself the moment he started harassing her.

Mortals and cultivators looked no different on the outside, but a strict barrier stood between them.

Though they were human cultivators, they could not interfere in mortal affairs under any circumstances, save to slay demons and subdue fiends.

The moment this man appeared, Ning Xiang had seen the True Dragon Aura upon him. He belonged to the mortal imperial family.

Attacking him would only be pulling up grass to hunt for snakes, inviting disaster and calamity. Such calamity descended from heaven itself, and they could not escape it. Otherwise, given Ning Xiang's temper, if a cultivator had harassed her, she would have blasted him into oblivion long ago.

Yu Tingchao replied, "He insulted you just now."

"Who could possibly bully me? I simply couldn't be bothered to deal with him. Tingchao, let's go. We so rarely come out to have fun. Don't let a little shrimp like him spoil our mood."

Only then did Yu Tingchao withdraw his spiritual power. Disdaining even a glance at the ants on the ground, he took Ning Xiang's hand and walked straight away.

The young man clutched his chest and spat out a great mouthful of blood.

"Your Highness-"

"A bunch of useless fools!" the young man snapped, aggravating his injury and grimacing in pain. "Hurry up and bring them back to Us!"

But when his guards gave chase, there was no trace of the pair anywhere on the street.

They seemed to have vanished into thin air, as though they had never existed at all.

A chill ran through everyone. Just what sort of sinister beings or demonic creatures were those two?