133. Buddha, are you messing with me?

She still had the mood to laugh! Guan Shiyin was so furious that he felt as if his soul was about to leave his body.

"You had better wipe that smile right off your face!"

He growled in a fierce, low voice, which only earned him an even wider smile from Fang Rulai, her eyes curving like crescent moons, the tips upturned like hooks.

This expression stoked the fires of his nameless anger even higher.

With a flick of his hand through the air, he released the pressure points on Fang Rulai, leaving only her mute point sealed. "Speak, why are you laughing!" If she dared to say she found it funny to see him looking so disheveled and out of control over her, she would undoubtedly be dead meat!

Fang Rulai's gaze was brimming with affection. "Come closer to me, and I'll tell you."

"I won't! Just say it like this." Guan Shiyin stubbornly averted his gaze to the other side. Even though he knew that after this cooling-off period of emotion, he would inevitably treat her just as he always had, a man's inherent pride forced him to salvage whatever scraps of face he had left.

Fang Rulai remained nonchalant. "Then I won't say it. Anyway, you're the one losing out by not hearing it."

"You!" Guan Shiyin abruptly whipped his head back. Was she completely certain she had him wrapped around her finger? After a moment of thought, he shifted his weight to one hand on the bedpost, straightened his arm, and slowly leaned his head toward the reclining Fang Rulai.

"You'd better make sure what you're about to say is enough—"

"I love you!"

Fang Rulai's voice was too fast, too light, like a weightless flame that suddenly brushed against his earlobe. First his ear grew hot, and then his head grew hot as well. A giddy, foolish grin spread across his face, though he immediately began to wonder if he had just suffered an auditory hallucination.

"Say it again."

"Get closer."

Guan Shiyin immediately straightened his arm further and leaned his head down even closer until his earlobe brushed against Fang Rulai's lips.

"You... mm..."

The words he had intended to urge out suddenly and uncontrollably transformed into a soft moan.

The reason was simple: his earlobe had just been taken entirely into Fang Rulai's mouth.

One of his hands still had to support the bedpost to keep it from collapsing, and his awkward, tilted posture made it impossible for him to see Fang Rulai's expression. As a result, the sensation of someone cherishing his earlobe as if it were a precious treasure became all the more intense.

Something wet traced the outer edge of his earlobe. Just as he shivered, Fang Rulai's soft voice drifted into his ear: "I said..."

He did not know whether to concentrate on listening to that fleeting moment he had just missed—the words that had made him feel as though he possessed the entire universe—or to focus on the agonizingly sweet, itchy torment that left him daring not to make a rash move, forced to wait in careful suspense.

"I..."

It was like standing beneath a tree draped in blooming hibiscus flowers as catkins danced through the air. A breeze would blow, and the petals would fall, slipping into the collar of his robes, bringing a gentle warmth while goosebumps coldly rose across the surface of his skin.

"Love..."

The hibiscus petals pressed against his skin suddenly burst like fireworks, and a riot of brilliant colors bloomed before his eyes. Amidst that dazzling blur, Li Yincheng’s apologetic smile no longer looked quite so offensive. Well, he supposed he would leave the man a complete corpse. Ah, excluding the hand he had already sliced off, of course.

The fire within his chest was becoming impossible to suppress. He released his grip on the bedpost and braced his weight on four fingers instead, leaning himself just a fraction lower. His earlobe was being tended to exquisitely, and this slight shift caused an even larger portion of it to be taken into her mouth. Yet he truly was not doing this merely to receive more kisses; at this moment, he was waiting for nothing less than the final, missing word that would make the entire sentence complete.

He held his breath, straining to listen. The next moment, however, what drifted into his ear was: "Little Qiu! What's wrong with you?"

It was Shan'er, who had run back to Lifang Studio with the token, only to discover Little Qiu paralyzed by acupressure points.

The passionate fire in Guan Shiyin's eyes vanished instantly, and with a swift *whoosh*, he bolted out of the inner chamber.

Lacking his support, the canopy frame of the bed came crashing down with a loud *clatter*. The noise startled Shan'er in the outer room. The moment she raised her head in shock, Guan Shiyin swept across the space like a gale of wind. With another flick of his finger, another person was immobilized. Spotting the token in her hand, he snatched it effortlessly into his palm. Spinning in mid-air, Shan'er didn't even have a chance to catch a glimpse of the face of the man who had flown in and sealed her points before realizing he had vanished just as quickly as he had appeared.

The speed of his flight back was evidently even faster than when he had departed. Reaching the bedside, he immediately began frantically tossing aside the layers of canopy netting that completely blanketed Fang Rulai. He hadn't heard the whole sentence; she had to say it again.

She had been fortunate enough to escape being crushed by the bedpost, but she had nearly suffocated under the netting. When Guan Shiyin tore away the heavy layers covering her face, the very first thing Fang Rulai said, with no small amount of annoyance, was naturally: "Quickly release my acupoints."

If she could move even the slightest bit, how could she have almost been suffocated to death?

Guan Shiyin leaned down over her, pressing his nose against the crook of Fang Rulai's neck and behind her ear. "I didn't hear it! Say it again!"

"No! Good things don't happen a third time, I'm not saying it."

When she said "I love you" the first time, it had been driven by genuine emotion. Although his declaration—“I am your man”—showed he was clearly furious with her, he had still prioritized her by slicing off Li Yincheng’s hand first. He hadn't said "You are still you, no matter what"; his hesitation and reservations were entirely real, which only made her touch all the more. Even as a modern person who had experienced the thoroughly enlightened, high-concept philosophy of "if a relationship is good, stay; if not, part ways," how many could simply turn the page on such a sudden, monumental event as if it were nothing more than a diary entry? Not to mention that the person before her was an ancient individual thoroughly indoctrinated since childhood with the obsolete ideology that a woman must guard her chastity with her life.

When she said "I love you" the second time, it was an overwhelming impulse. His internal conflict had been so obvious, so palpable, that it began to prick at her conscience, making her feel that she shouldn't have probed him like some brainless, naive girl. Fine, she was now starting to think that her inexplicably sparked urge to test him didn't really align with her usual style either. However, she couldn't take her words back now. If he was willing to spend the rest of his life with her even while believing she was no longer pure, then once this ordeal was over, she was more than willing to proactively offer him the very gift he desired most to make it up to him. Until then, rather than wasting time explaining, it was far better to please him first and set his mind somewhat at ease.

The second attempt had been accidentally interrupted before it could be successfully finished, and now he wanted her to say it a third time? How could she possibly have the nerve! Fang Rulai's gaze fixed on a spot on the ceiling where a patch of light from the slanting afternoon sun cast a bright reflection. That spot of light was as clear as a mirror, and she could distinctly see her own flushed face, reddened ears, and the ripple of bashful, amorous longing reflected there—what could possibly make life feel more wonderful than having a devoted young lover who refused to let go of her no matter what?!

Guan Shiyin, buried in the crook of her neck, could not see her expression. He only knew that simply turning her face and neck this shade of crimson was nowhere near, absolute *nowhere near* enough—after all, he had scorched his entire body over her just moments ago!

Recalling the way she had kissed his earlobe earlier, he opened his mouth and gently took Fang Rulai's earlobe between his teeth. Instead of "tending" to it with the tip of his tongue first, he kept his tongue back and lightly closed his upper and lower teeth together in a soft bite.

First, he was biting her for her maddening tendency to let her wits fail her at the most crucial moments. Second, he was biting her for seeing right through his inability to let go, and instead of being moved to offer herself in return, having the audacity to brazenly mock his sense of triumphant self-satisfaction.

*Bite, bite, bite*—it would be best to bite this little bald-headed tormentor to death, lest she end up angering him into an untimely grave one day!

"Ah, Guan Shiyin! You... mm, don't... this isn't the time... you, ha—"

Fang Rulai first gasped in pain, but soon her breathing turned ragged and her words dissolved into incoherent sounds beyond her control. And the moment Guan Shiyin sank his teeth into the left side of her neck over her carotid artery, she instinctively sucked in a sharp breath and cried out.

Only after that soft "ha" did Guan Shiyin suddenly freeze, halting all movement.

Fang Rulai did not dare to speak, because the physical reaction of the man pressed heavily against her was certainly no joke.

Guan Shiyin clenched his fists as he braced himself beside Fang Rulai, thinking: *Must every single wave of passion strike at the absolute worst possible time? Buddha, are you messing with me?*

Unable to move, Fang Rulai could only squeeze her eyes shut tighter and tighter. *Damn it! Why won't my period just end already?!*