Once they were inside the room, Yang Yuting reached back and pushed her daughter straight out the door.
"Mom, what are you doing?" Zhang Ruoxi looked utterly bewildered.
Yang Yuting leaned against the headboard, looking astonishingly energetic, without a trace of her earlier weakness.
She lowered her voice, her tone urgent with frustration at her daughter's cluelessness.
"You silly girl!"
"I've created the perfect opportunity for you!"
"It's just you and Chen Lin in the courtyard, a man and a woman alone together. Surely I don't have to teach you what to do?"
Her eyes gleamed.
"Take the initiative! Be bold!"
"You have to seize your own happiness!"
Boom-
Blood rushed to Zhang Ruoxi's cheeks, making them burn.
Her mind went blank, leaving only her mother's words-"Take the initiative! Be bold!"-echoing madly in her head.
Her mother firmly pushed her out of the room.
The door behind her slammed shut with a bang.
That sound cut off every avenue of retreat.
Zhang Ruoxi turned around and stood alone in the courtyard.
Her gaze settled on that tall, straight-backed figure, and her heart began to race uncontrollably.
The setting sun stretched her shadow until it almost touched Chen Lin's feet.
Chen Lin was crouching on the ground, idly scratching the white cat Clear Wind under the chin.
Clear Wind narrowed its eyes in pleasure, a contented purr rumbling in its throat.
As a cultivator at the seventh level of Qi Refining, Chen Lin had no need to turn around.
He could sense everything with perfect clarity: the girl's erratic heartbeat behind him, her heated breathing, and the faint aura in the air that mingled nervousness with resolve.
But he neither turned nor spoke.
He was waiting.
Zhang Ruoxi felt as though her heart was about to leap out of her throat.