Ji Ting stared at him without blinking, belated realization dawning in his eyes. "Oh, so you were just like me. All those excuses were to buy time so you could get these things ready to propose."
The words on Ji Yanzhi's lips were swallowed once again. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Ji Ear, could you stop worrying about the logic for a moment? I'm proposing."
Ji Ting's ears grew hot, and he immediately nodded obediently. "Mm. Go ahead. I'll listen properly."
Ji Yanzhi took his hand again, but with the mood he'd built up interrupted, he suddenly gave an embarrassed, rueful smile. "Now that you've thrown me off, I can't seem to pick up any of those very formal things I'd prepared to say."
"Sorry. I'll stop talking," Ji Ting apologized quietly.
"It's all right." Ji Yanzhi smiled at him. "You're perfect like this. The real Ji Ear makes this the most perfect moment."
After saying that, he took a deep breath. Instead of trying to recall those elaborate phrases, he laid his truest feelings bare before Ji Ting. "Ji Ting, I grew up in a family where emotions were twisted. For a long time, I even wore that as armor, never feeling I lacked anything. Because I never yearned for love. I even thought it was an empty affectation, a weakness that could be betrayed at any moment."
"Until you quietly appeared inside the high walls I'd built." He gazed deep into Ji Ting's eyes, as though looking back at that turning point in his fate. "You used your obliviousness to beat back my snide remarks again and again, turning the proud, arrogant Ji Yanzhi into a Tasmanian Devil who lost every round."
At that, Ji Yanzhi gave a self-deprecating smile, while Ji Ting's eyes quietly