"Now hurry up and untie me, and then... hey, are you listening to me?!"
Yelan saw that Shen Luolun was staring at her in a daze, his gaze fixed on her without any sign that he was listening. She was immediately displeased.
She had said so much, but this man clearly had no idea how serious the problem was.
She really wanted to punch him (▼ヘ▼#).
But her entire body was wrapped in the quilt, and sitting on the bed, she could barely move, like a roly-poly toy. Yelan had no choice but to headbutt someone in the stomach.
"Wah-"
That woke him up.
Shen Luolun clutched his stomach and grimaced.
"I'm listening, I'm listening."
My god!
He had actually felt sexual desire for his bro just now. That was so perverted!
A bro was someone you would take a knife for, not someone you would stick it in!
"If you were really listening, you wouldn't have that attitude!"
Yelan mercilessly exposed his lie.
"Now, untie me! Then give me an honest account of your crime!"
Shen Luolun still wanted to argue, but one look at the dangerous glint in the woman's eyes forced him to submit.
After unwrapping the quilt from Yelan, Shen Luolun raised both hands above his head and said earnestly:
"Let me make one thing clear. I didn't bring that woman home to satisfy my personal desires. I did it purely to save her, in keeping with society's humanitarian values."
"Although that woman has curves in all the right places, fair skin, a beautiful face, long legs in sexy black stockings, and even white hair, which is very attractive, I-mmph!"
Before he could finish, Yelan grabbed his head and smiled with great "kindness."
"Mr. Shen Luolun, has no one ever told you not to casually include your motive for the crime when pleading your own innocence?"
Curves in all the right places, fair skin, a beautiful face, long legs in sexy black stockings, and even fucking white hair?
Are you ordering off a menu here?!
(▼ヘ▼#)
Was this man's head full of nothing but smut?
He still didn't realize he was wrong.
She began to wonder.
Could this guy really have gone and picked up... a corpse?
If he did, what should I do? I can't really send him to prison, can I?
She didn't want to become a grass widow while she was still young.
"I'm innocent!"
Master Shen held his head high and puffed out his chest, trying to salvage a shred of masculine dignity under the woman's oppression.
"Hm?!"
Yelan glared at him.
Under that piercing gaze, Master Shen lowered his proud head.
He defended himself in a small voice:
"That was pure, untainted appreciation for beautiful things. How can you call it a motive for a crime?"
Who wouldn't be dazzled by huge breasts and long legs in black stockings and offer a compliment or two?
Shen Luolun was no unfeeling, desireless sage. On the contrary, he was terribly repressed and longed to perform the rites of Duke Zhou with Sister Yuan'er every day.
But even pleasure had its limits.
He would never do anything that crossed the moral bottom line.
Because desire was like a rock rolling down a mountain: once it started, it could never stop.
There was no need to ruin his life over a little lust.
What if he couldn't play Genshin Impact anymore?
Wah, I don't want that!
"Don't put your appreciation in your plea of innocence. That'll only speed up your trip to prison." Yelan shook his head and said irritably:
"Tell me everything that happened, right now! Stop trying to fool me. I don't have the patience to listen!"
"Ow, ow, ow! Let go, let go first! My hair's going to break!" Shen Luolun whined.
Didn't this woman know how important a man's hair was? Pulling so hard.
A hairline was a man's dignity, and every strand of hair was a soldier defending the nation's borders to the death.
She didn't care for his soldiers at all.
Next time, he would definitely ask Lan Yan for a little effigy, put Yelan's name on it, and stick needles in it like Nanny Rong.
Make her hurt to death!
Yelan let go, though her expression remained unfriendly.
"Talk!"
Shen Luolun rubbed his head and said:
"As for the woman in the west wing, I only met her tonight. It was on that little path through Chihu Rock that I often take home. You know the one, right?"
Yelan nodded.
"Go on."
"She was lying there alone on the ground, unconscious, with blood at the corner of her mouth. She looked badly hurt, and there weren't any Millelith nearby. I couldn't bear to leave her, so I carried her home and settled her in the west wing."
"And then?"
"Then I went out."
"Where?"
"To have fun, of course. I'd just been paid for my writing, so I had to eat, drink, have fun, and listen to songs at the pleasure houses. Where else would I go?"
Yelan knew this guy liked spending money at Wanmin Restaurant and the Yun-Han Opera Troupe, so she didn't have many doubts.
However.
"What about you flirting with a young lady?"
Tch, why are you focusing on that?
Shen Luolun swallowed.
It would have been fine if she hadn't mentioned it, but now that she had...
He couldn't help recalling the wonderful time he had spent with Sister Yuan'er, those soft, warm lips...
His little head was heating up again.
"Ahem, I told you, it was a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding. The young lady herself didn't mind, but here you are making a fuss. Honestly."
Yelan snorted.
"Who knows?! If I don't get to the bottom of it now, how am I supposed to clear you of suspicion later? Do you really want to go work a sewing machine at the Ministry of Civil Affairs? Do you even understand, you idiot?!"
Her slender finger jabbed the man hard in the forehead, as though frustrated that he wouldn't live up to his potential.
Shen Luolun was very sad.
Especially sad.
He didn't understand why Yelan, his "closest friend, bestie, white moonlight, adoptive mother, rich lady, and biological older sister born of different parents," trusted him so little.
After all, he was a successful man who had been named one of Liyue's outstanding major taxpayers for several consecutive years.
His integrity was beyond question.
Smack-
Yelan struck him with a knife hand.
"Stop letting your thoughts wander all over the place and get back to the point."
"Was there anything improper between you and that girl or not? If you don't confess now, don't make me clean up your mess later. I'll make you kneel on a washboard for a whole year!"
Hey!
Are you my wife, telling me to kneel on a washboard?
Little Yelan, you don't know your place.
Shen Luolun hugged Yelan's long legs and pleaded tearfully:
"My queen, I'm really innocent. Please believe me. If you still won't, I can only prove my innocence and resolve with my death."
"Then go die!"
Yelan said mercilessly.
"What?!"
Shen Luolun shot to his feet and pointed at her in shock.
"You actually told me to die?"
"Ha! Damn you, Yelan!"
"Have you been coveting the two hundred million I saved for my bride price all along, and now you want to use this as an excuse to kill me for my money?!"
"Let me tell you, I'm not some laborer you can push around. I know a thing or two about fighting myself. Hoo-ha~"
As he spoke, he struck a pose as if controlling cranes and subduing dragons, as though preparing to unleash the legendary, invincible Piao Piao Fist, the bane of scumbag women.
Was this guy's brain made of concrete?
Who would go to all that trouble to swindle him out of a child's pocket money?
Heavenly Queen Ye, one of Liyue's wealthiest women, curled her lip in disdain.
"Take my Piao Piao Fist!"
Shen Luolun shouted and charged.
And then...
Threads, bind!
"Aagh."
With a scream, Shen Luolun's swagger was extinguished in an instant. Bound up like a zongzi by Hydro threads, he sprawled miserably at Heavenly Queen Ye's feet like a small fry, unable even to raise his head.
KO!
Shen Luolun was shocked and furious.
"Damn it! How did you get so much stronger?!"
"Before, you clearly-"
His pupils contracted sharply, as though he had guessed the truth.
"Could it be..."
"So that's it, Yelan! You actually pulled for C6 behind my back!"
"Despicable!"
Shen Luolun ground his teeth in hatred.
No wonder he and she were evenly matched when they fought some time ago, but now she took him down in one move.
She must have secretly pulled for her Constellations and unlocked C6 to become so strong.
How devious, Hajilan.
Did you wait for this day just to humiliate me?
"Aaah, I refuse to accept this! If you've got the guts, let's go again!"
Seeing that the "small fry" at her feet not only refused to surrender but even dared to keep shouting, Heavenly Queen Ye smiled coldly.
"Have you considered that I've always been much stronger than you?"
"Before, I was just playing along with you. Don't get the mistaken idea that you're strong too."
Sometimes, Yelan's identity as an intelligence agent really could mislead people.
In Liyue, only a very small number of people knew Yelan's true background.
Not only was she the commander-in-chief of Liyue's Brocade Guard and the head of the Eastern and Western Depots, she was also a peerless genius seen only once in a century in the Ye Family, a clan that carried on a Daoist tradition.
Among Liyue's younger generation, she stood alone at the very pinnacle of combat strength!
If she could fight evenly with a certain weakling, or even let him pin her beneath him, it was because she was willing.
Otherwise, hmph.
But that indulgence had only fueled someone's arrogance.