Ji Yanzhi's brow furrowed even more deeply as he listened to those scholarly arguments. "Can you say something a normal person can understand?"
Lu Yanchu chuckled and set down his water glass. "Put simply, imagine someone whose abilities far surpass yours, someone who can even determine how far you'll ever get in life-and you've made an enemy of him. How would you feel facing him?"
Ji Yanzhi followed that line of thought, trying to understand. "You mean... Qin Zaiye doesn't like Ji Ting. He's afraid of him?"
"That's still not quite accurate." Lu Yanchu shook his head slightly. "Someone as proud as Qin Zaiye would never admit he was afraid. He simply can't stand being stuck in limbo. He would rather Ji Ting either favor him or reject him completely. Either would be better than this-his heart hanging in midair, an invisible, blunt knife grinding away at it, with no release."
"Favor him?" As though he had just heard the biggest joke in the world, Ji Yanzhi gave an undisguised snort. "Ha. With the way he's behaving? No normal person could possibly like him."
"Exactly." Lu Yanchu raised an eyebrow, getting to the heart of it. "Ultimately, deep down, Qin Zaiye still hopes Ji Ting will see him differently."
Ji Yanzhi thought the idea was utterly absurd. "He can keep dreaming."
"And precisely because it's a hopeless fantasy," Lu Yanchu continued, a hint of coldness in his voice, "when that dream fails, he becomes even more miserable and conflicted, and his arrogance only gets worse."
Ji Yanzhi couldn't be bothered to puzzle over Qin Zaiye. As long as he could be sure the man harbored no inappropriate, sordid intentions toward Ji Ting, he was satisfied. Whether Qin Zaiye was suffering inside was none of his business.
"All right, stay here