Chapter 46: A Scoundrel

Fang Rui only sampled Shen Yu’s lips briefly and stopped without going further. He let go, stepped back two paces, and rubbed his thumb across his lips, somewhat still unsatisfied.

There is a sort of person in this world that behaved without fear not because they were unafraid to die or that they truly feared nothing in the world, but because they could do shameless things as long as their faces were hidden.

That person was none other than Fang Rui, who was standing in front of Shen Yu now.

Shen Yu stood there dumbfounded, mouth slightly open as if her spirit had flown away and not yet returned. The last time she’d been molested was after getting drunk. This time it happened while she was completely sober. It would be strange if she weren’t too stunned to react.

Shen Yu’s lips were pink and moist, and at one look Fang Rui couldn’t take his eyes away. Perhaps it was because he’d drunk the spiced stew Consort He had sent tonight, and seeing that blush-inducing picture book in Shen Yu’s room couldn’t exactly leave him calm. Besides, Shen Yu was so lovely that the more he looked, the more his body and mind ached and his heart stirred, which explained his earlier wantonness.

Seeing that normally composed Shen Yu was repeatedly provoked into losing control by him, Fang Rui felt very pleased. This at least proved he had entered Shen Yu’s sights.

He stepped two paces forward, raised his hand and waved it in front of Shen Yu’s face, teasing, “What, has your soul been taken away by the spirit-collectors?”

Only when she heard the voice did Shen Yu come to her senses. Looking at that annoying masked face and the waving hand, she couldn’t contain her anger and slapped the intrusive hand away.

The anger in her eyes didn’t lessen at all. After glaring at Fang Rui for a long time, mortified and furious she pointed at the window and said, “You! Get out, and never come here again!”

Fang Rui looked at Shen Yu’s palm-sized face full of anger, gave a light laugh and teased, “But you said you’d agree to my three conditions, the kiss just now was only my second condition. It was merely a kiss. If you feel your purity has been ruined by me, I can very well have you carried into my home in a grand sedan chair and make you my wife.” Fang Rui said this flippantly, but there was a hint of seriousness in his words that only he himself knew.

If Shen Yu agreed, he could summon not just an eight-bearer sedan but a hundred-man sedan too. As long as Shen Yu said “yes”, even if the path ahead was full of thorns he would cut them all down and escort Shen Yu into the palace.

“Get out!” Shen Yu grabbed the cup on the table and was about to smash it at Fang Rui, but he was quicker and caught her wrist, lowering his voice, “Do you want to attract others, let people know that in your room there’s not only…” He looked down at the cat, who was crawling at his feet, and continued, “a cat, but also a man wearing a mask, and moreover…” His gaze shifted to the bedside, he hesitated, then finally spoke the three characters, “the Fire-Avoidance Chart.”

Upon hearing the three words “Fire-Avoidance Chart,” Shen Yu’s face, which had been full of anger, flushed red in an instant. Fang Rui let go of her wrist, and Shen Yu did not continue with throwing the cup.

She slowly put the cup down without looking at Fang Rui, as if she’d done something that made her feel guilty, likely that Fang Rui had discovered her hiding the Fire-Avoidance Chart. Though Shen Yu didn’t know that Fang Rui had collected such Fire-Avoidance Charts before, some of which were even more decadent.

After a while, Shen Yu lifted her eyes and met Fang Rui’s gaze, but she averted them almost immediately, not daring to look him in the eye.

Having just been forcibly kissed, her disordered breathing hadn’t settled. It was hard to explain the feelings she had inside, but a sense of humiliation welled up from her heart, as if she had been disrespected and forced to do something she disliked.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and her tone was no longer as sharp as before. If Jia Ming hadn’t mentioned the matter of the three conditions earlier, the past month or so of peaceful coexistence would almost have made Shen Yu forget that such a thing existed. Even if the first condition and the promise made at the Court of Judicial Review were void, there were still two conditions remaining.

“There’s one more condition left.”

When Shen Yu spoke those words her eyes were closed and her face had completely no expression, so calm that Fang Rui couldn’t tell what feelings stirred in her heart as she said them.

Fang Rui suddenly felt he might have indeed gone too far, so he softened his tone, “Even without those three conditions, I’ll keep your secret.”

At his words, Shen Yu’s lips curled into a mocking arc. Opening her eyes she looked at Fang Rui with a slightly cold gaze. “Do you think your words are credible? As the saying goes, only the dead can keep a secret. Even if I were to trust a dead person, I wouldn’t trust you.”

Fang Rui knew he’d truly angered Shen Yu, so he stopped bantering and put away his roguish manner.

He tentatively called, “Shen Yu?”

Shen Yu ignored him, and he called again, “Ah Yu? Little Yuyu? Xiaoyu’er?”

When he said “Xiaoyu’er,” Shen Yu’s eyebrow couldn’t help twitching.

Seeing a reaction from Shen Yu, Fang Rui pressed his advantage, “Xiaoyu’er, Xiaoyu’er, Xiaoyu’er…”

“Shut up!” fed up with being called, Shen Yu snapped at him.

Shen Yu then fell silent and sat down on a nearby chair, not even glancing at Fang Rui, as if she were treating him as invisible.

Seeing Shen Yu pay him any heed, Fang Rui smiled, picked up the cat and held it in front of Shen Yu, speaking ingratiatingly, “Look how adorable this furry white ball is! How can you bear to be so angry?”

Shen Yu fumed. What a nerve he’s got! He’s the one who angered her, yet he shifted all the blame onto a cat.

The cat meowed, its paws waving forward. The paw pads were pink and so clean they made one want to run a feather across them to see if they were ticklish. Shen Yu’s expression softened slightly. The cat almost melted away her anger.

If Shen Yu knew the picture book had been discovered by Fang Rui because of this same cat, she would likely have harbored murderous thoughts toward the cat.

To prevent her expression from betraying her, Shen Yu looked away and did not look at the little white cat deliberately acting cute.

Fang Rui put it down and sat beside Shen Yu, trying to make his tone sound apologetic, “Xiaoyu’er, that was my fault. I shouldn’t, I really shouldn’t have lost control.”

Hearing that pet name that made her gooseflesh rise. Shen Yu didn’t look at Fang Rui, but she gritted her teeth and said, “I have no other demands of you, but please don’t call me that again.”

Fang Rui was taken aback for a moment and thought it over: Shen Yu was in a rage, and insisting on calling her Xiaoyu’er against her wishes would likely make her dislike him even more.

“Little Yuyu?”

The hand on the table rose and fell with a sharp smack.

Fang Rui paused. It seemed Shen Yu didn’t much like that name either.

“Little Yu?”

The hand on the table clenched tightly into a fist.

Fang Rui thought again. Still no? He couldn’t possibly call her Shen Yu or Young Master Shen like they were strangers, right?

This troubled him. Fang Rui suddenly thought being emperor was the best, since it allowed him to address her as his beloved or dear aide openly. That was much more fitting.

After thinking, he yielded as much as possible, “Ah Yu is the only one I can accept.”

This time Shen Yu didn’t react. ‘Ah Yu’ was certainly better than ‘Little Yuyu’ or Xiaoyu’er.’

After the atmosphere calmed for a while, Shen Yu remembered what she had intended to do, but because of Fang Rui’s hateful behavior she had completely forgotten that she was waiting for him to come so she could tease him for clues to his identity.

But given the current situation, Shen Yu had no desire at all to speak with him.

Moreover… she knew that a young woman shouldn’t let a man handle her lightly. Even a slight touch of the hand could be seen as improper, let alone being kissed, and not just once! He offered no explanation too! Did he really think Shen Yu was a fool who could be easily toyed with?

Just as Shen Yu was about to let the matter pass like that, Fang Rui beside her said, “Ah Yu, I’m not lying about this: from childhood until now, except for my little sister, I’ve only kissed you.”

At Fang Rui’s words, Shen Yu choked and coughed inwardly, nearly coughing up blood.

Who wanted to hear that!