Chapter 75 - 075, This confession is very hardcore (Second Update)

"Madam, there’s a call from home," Jukama announced, standing by the landline with the phone in hand, calling out loudly.

Madam Jiang was chatting with Ye Jiuliang about Li Mochan’s childhood; she casually replied to wait a moment and then turned to Ye Jiuliang again, "Xiaojiu, Jukama has prepared some desserts for afternoon tea—go upstairs and call Ahan down to join us."

Ye Jiuliang nodded obediently, "Mm."

Madam Jiang got up to answer the phone; Ye Jiuliang finished off the last segment of her orange and slowly made her way upstairs.

On the second floor, the door to the study was open.

Wei Bei exited the study with documents in hand and greeted Ye Jiuliang with a smile upon seeing her ascend the stairs, "Miss Ye is looking for my master?"

Ye Jiuliang hummed in acknowledgment, "Is he busy?"

"Not busy," Wei Bei warmly directed her towards the study, "Master is in there, Miss Ye can just walk in."

After speaking, he quickly slipped away.

Ye Jiuliang watched the man fleeing downstairs with a strange look in her eyes—was she a flood or a ferocious beast?

Was there a need to run so fast?

Standing at the study’s door, she felt her steps grow heavy as if her feet were weighted with lead and couldn’t move.

On the sofa, the man had changed into home clothes, the thin fabric loosely revealing the well-defined muscles beneath.

Specks of golden light filtered through the window, painting his delicate features, and those tranquil, deep-set eyes were lightly closed, veiling his thoughts.

Yet at that moment, the man held a cigarette between his fingers, its faint glow flickering, with wisps of smoke unfurling in the air.

It was the first time Ye Jiuliang saw Li Mochan smoking, and she was momentarily taken aback.

By the time she collected herself, the man had already opened his eyes; their gazes collided unexpectedly, and the flash of surprise that crossed the girl’s face fell entirely into the man’s deep black eyes.

Leaning forward, Li Mochan pinched out the cigarette butt and tossed it into a nearby wastebasket.

In that time, Ye Jiuliang had already stepped in, a teasing smile curling her lips, "Who would have thought Master Li would smoke?"

"I don’t," Li Mochan shook his head.

Hearing this, Ye Jiuliang inquired with interest, "Then what was that in your hand just now?"

She had seen it all; yet he denied it.

He said, "I lit it but didn’t smoke."

He disliked smoking. Only when he was agitated would he light one, watching until it burned out to throw it away—that was all.

"It’s no big deal to smoke—you don’t need to explain," seeing him earnestly explaining, Ye Jiuliang oddly found him a little adorably contradictory.

"But the smell of smoke isn’t nice. You should smoke less since it’s bad for your health."

Detecting her disbelief, Li Mochan stood up and approached her; a hint of shadow crossed his eyes,

"I haven’t."

The two dry words carried a trace of stubbornness.

Ye Jiuliang looked at him with amusement and glanced at the cigarette box on the table, diverting the topic casually, "Is this brand of cigarettes any good? Why do you all seem to like them?"

It seemed like every time she saw Aqian and Achen smoking, it was always this cigarette box.

You all?

Li Mochan’s inner alarm sounded, catching the key word in her sentence, his first instinct to think of Ji Mingqian.

"Are you referring to Ji Mingqian?"

Ye Jiuliang nodded, a faint smile appearing on her lips, "He smokes a lot, so he often gets beaten by me." She and Anuo both hated the smell of smoke, so whenever Ji Mingqian and Chu Chen smoked in front of the two of them, they were sure to be punished.

The words she didn’t say entirely were easily misunderstood when they reached Li Mochan’s ears.

Instantly, frost coated the picturesque brows of the man, "Are you very familiar with him?"

Unaware of the man’s displeasure, Ye Jiuliang hummed in acknowledgment, reaching out to fiddle with the cigarette box.

"More familiar than me?" his deep voice grew colder.

Ye Jiuliang looked up at him and asked while holding back a laugh, "Are we very familiar?"

Li Mochan’s brows furrowed, answering a question with a question, "So, Ji Mingqian is more familiar with you than I am?"

"Hehe."

Unable to hold back her laughter, Ye Jiuliang mimicked his questioning tone, "I’ve known Ji Mingqian for many years, and I’ve only known you for a month. What do you think if you were in my shoes?"

Upon hearing this, a sting pierced Li Mochan’s heart, as if he’d bitten into a lemon, sour and astringent.

"Li Mochan, what’s wrong with you?" Seeing the man’s aggrieved expression, Ye Jiuliang asked, puzzled.

Li Mochan lowered his gaze to look at her, his eyes deepening, then suddenly asked, "Is Ji Mingqian a very good friend of yours?"

"Mm," she nodded.

"What about me?" His indifferent voice was very soft.

Ye Jiuliang paused, a smile touching her lips, "A friend."

"Is that all?" he pressed.

"What?" Ye Jiuliang belatedly realized something was off about him and looked up into his deep, unfathomable cold eyes, vaguely hinting at a sense of loss.

But before she could peer closer and inquire, those cold eyes had already returned to their usual indifferent calm.

Ye Jiuliang touched the tip of her nose, wondering if she had said something wrong.

Reflecting on the conversation they just had, Ye Jiuliang was still confused, unable to grasp his thoughts.

Unable to make sense of it, she didn’t want to guess blindly, "Li Mochan, you..."

"Just friends, is that all?" his husky voice interrupted her, and Li Mochan’s eyes softened, tugging at complex emotions.

Ye Jiuliang was taken aback by his question and met the depth of darkness in his gaze as if something was about to burst forth from the depths of her heart.

Before she could understand, Ye Jiuliang instinctively suppressed the unfamiliar emotions in her chest, cracked a smile, and patted his shoulder, "Of course not, at the very least, we should be drinking buddies, right?"

Her slender wrist was suddenly caught, and Li Mochan fixed his eyes on her, "You know that’s not what I mean."

Friend, drinking buddy...

He didn’t want either.

What he wanted was just her.

Ye Jiuliang frowned, attempting to pull her hand back, but found it gripped even tighter by him. Her smile faded, and her tone was cool, "Master Li, I don’t know what you mean, please let go."

Before she finished speaking, the atmosphere instantly chilled.

Carrying a subtle awkwardness.

Ye Jiuliang dangerously narrowed her eyes, about to shake off his grasp, but then she heard the man’s hoarse voice.

"Feng Yi said I like you, grandma said I like you, even Asheng thinks so, they all think I like you."

He spoke very slowly, somewhat bewildered, yet also stubborn.

"..."

Ye Jiuliang stood frozen, her clenched fist unwittingly relaxing.

Her mind went blank, thoughts scattered.

The man’s earnest expression was reflected in her eyes, and she moved her lips only to find her voice blocked, unable to make a sound.

Like?

Is Li Mochan’s brain circuit abnormal today?

Is he confessing to her?

Startled, she quickly withdrew her hand and took a step back, regaining her voice, "Li Mochan, you should save this kind of joke for April Fool’s Day."

As she retreated, he advanced.

He took one stride forward, and she took two steps back.

It wasn’t until she was cornered against the wall that both of them halted their steps.

With the thin fabric of clothes between them, her back pressed against the cold wall, Ye Jiuliang felt a headache coming on, "Don’t come any closer to me, or I’ll leave right now."

As she spoke, the light in the man’s eyes dimmed, and his tall figure stiffened.

Seeing that he wasn’t moving closer, Ye Jiuliang secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Gathering her thoughts, she lifted her head, meeting his dark eyes that resembled black holes, "Li Mochan, like is not a word you can just throw around lightly, do you even know what like is? Do you know what it feels like to like someone?"

The decisive master of Dark Hall could fall in love?

Forget about it, others might not believe it, and neither would she.

If one day he found out that she was the one who had been opposing him in secret time and again, he would probably regret knowing her.

Li Mochan’s lips were pressed into a thin line, "I don’t know."

His brief answer suddenly made Ye Jiuliang feel a wave of relief wash over her.

See, he doesn’t even know what liking is.

Li Mochan today must be speaking nonsense due to a momentary fever of the brain.

The understanding smile she had begun to form didn’t last two seconds, as the man’s following words inexplicably warmed her ears.

"I want to protect you, to embrace you recklessly, to hide you away, to have you smile only for me, and to spoil you rotten."

His fervent tone, phrase after phrase, echoed in the corner.

Her pale face slowly turning red under his intense gaze, Ye Jiuliang’s heartbeat missed a beat, the cold, unique scent mixed with a faint smell of tobacco almost occupying her entire mind, throwing her reason into disarray.

She pushed him away in a panic and turned to run out.

Master Jiu, who feared nothing in the world, fled in disarray for the first time in her life, and it was after a confession. In the past, she might have flirted back.

However, this person was Li Mochan.

So she chickened out.

Right now, all she wanted to do was get as far away from this place as possible.

To be more precise, to get away from Li Mochan.