Lin Muqian was momentarily stunned, unable to grasp the situation.
Lu Tu calmly said, "The young miss doesn't like entertaining guests. Please don't come here anymore."
Lin Muqian finally caught on to Lu Tu's attitude and asked in disbelief, "What do you mean? Weren't you... Weren't you the one who wanted to be eliminated in the first place?"
"So did you," Lu Tu replied nonchalantly.
Lin Muqian suddenly realized that his thoughts had been completely exposed. His face darkened as he tried to explain, "I just didn't understand the young miss. I had preconceived notions based on unfavorable rumors..."
"There's no need to understand her now. Please leave," Lu Tu said, showing no interest in hearing his explanation.
Having been repeatedly asked to leave, even Lin Muqian, thick-skinned as he was, couldn't stay any longer. Still, he couldn't help but ask, "Then, what about you? Now you're..."
"Delighted to be here."
As Lin Muqian looked back with a complex expression, Lu Tu raised his hand in a gesture of farewell.
Lin Muqian hung his head and finally left. The timing was wrong, the place was wrong, the way he expressed himself was wrong. His so-called affection was built on presumptuous blindness. From the very beginning, it was all wrong.
So every step he took was misguided.
...
Lu Tu's lips curved slightly as he watched him leave. In his mind, he analyzed the differences between himself and Lin Muqian. They had their first encounter in the same place, shared the same type of initial rejection, and even their feelings of affection began at almost the same moment.
The biggest difference between them, in fact, lay in their relationship with the young miss.
From the very beginning, the young miss had chosen him.
Having reassured himself, Lu Tu turned back to find the young miss.
However, Jiang Yan still hadn't figured out why Lin Muqian had come, and casually asked Lu Tu, "Why did he come here?"
At that moment, a vintage record player was filling the room with soft music. Jiang Yan was curled up in a shell-shaped bean bag chair, fiddling with scented wax melts.
Lu Tu, who was about to turn a page in his book, paused and replied, "Just a toad trying to eat swan meat."
"Are you saying I'm the swan?" Jiang Yan quickly caught on, then asked mischievously with a smile, "Then who are you?"
Lu Tu, sitting on a high stool, placed the book on the table. His long legs stretched to the floor as he spun around in the chair twice, very seriously, before finally coming up with a satisfactory answer: "I'm the Frog Prince."
Because it was the princess who turned the frog back into a prince.
Jiang Yan, unfamiliar with this fairy tale, asked what it meant.
Lu Tu walked over and sat in front of Jiang Yan to tell her the story. Warm sunlight streamed through the window, and the record player continued its gentle rotation.
Because they were so close, Lu Tu spoke in a low voice, earnestly recounting the childish fairy tale: "Once upon a time, there was a king who had a daughter as beautiful as an angel. Even the sun, having seen so much, was amazed by her beauty. One day, the little princess was playing with her ball by a pond..."
"So, the prince was under a spell..."
As the story neared its end, Jiang Yan responded with disinterest, "Oh. I thought it was the princess's kiss that turned him back."
A small flame suddenly flickered in Lu Tu's heart, and he murmured softly, "It could be that way too."
Jiang Yan, lying on the sofa, paused for a moment. She bit her soft lip with her small sharp teeth, still feeling that Lu Tu was trying to seduce her. After a moment of internal struggle, she couldn't help but ask quietly, "Do you want to become a prince?"
Lu Tu's Adam's apple moved slowly up and down as he squeezed out a single word from his husky throat. He said, "Yes."
The young miss's eyes were as dark as ever, but her upturned eye corners betrayed her mischievous intentions. She couldn't see Lu Tu, but she could sense his intense, burning gaze.
Lu Tu's eyes were fixed on her, yet he found himself in a passive position. At some point, he had straightened up from his sitting position and was now kneeling. Though he was much taller than Jiang Yan, in this posture, he was looking up at her.
Jiang Yan's fingers tapped on the leather surface of the sofa. Finally, she spoke, her imperious tone barely concealing a hint of shyness: "I command you to kiss me."
Without hesitation, Lu Tu moved forward on his knees, placing his hands on either side of the sofa—a gesture that trapped her, making it impossible for her to escape.
But when he got close to Jiang Yan's face, he hesitated to take the next step. In a last-ditch effort before succumbing, he pondered: What does this mean... Why am I kissing her? Does the young miss really know that I like her...
He took the initiative only because Jiang Yan couldn't find the right direction. Once he presented himself, Jiang Yan didn't hold back.
She kissed him during his moment of hesitation.
And so, the doubts in Lu Tu's heart were forced into silence, like ice melting and then evaporating in the sunlight.
He had finally been captured by the young miss.
