Yin Luoling was overjoyed.
She knew some people liked to court death, but she never expected someone could seek death this spectacularly.
Her heart pounded in excitement.
Heh, she didn’t believe it—after what Ling Huan just said, how could Jiang Yue possibly have any good feelings left for him?
No matter what mistakes had happened before, Jiang Yue’s favorability now would surely become just like in her previous life!
Ling Huan, just wait for your doom!
Ling Huan’s own heart was no less filled with despair, no less wracked with grief.
He’d worked so hard to maintain the image of a model student, and now it had all been destroyed by that damned system!
But he was clear-headed enough to know what patience meant—where there’s life, there’s hope!
Instead of trying to be sisters with her, why not let the favorability drop to zero, and then start over to win her heart again?
Ling Huan had already thought it through: rather than becoming someone rootless, he’d rather burn his bridges and gamble everything, to see how Jiang Yue would react—after all, he was only ten.
Surely she wouldn’t hold it against a ten-year-old child?
At this point, if he didn’t want to lose everything, there was one thing he had to do!
And that was to be completely sincere.
Whatever he said, it couldn’t be shifty or evasive—no matter how filthy, no matter how unbearable, he had to say it boldly.
He had to look at Jiang Yue with the clear eyes of a ten-year-old, tell her everything he’d been feeling, his big eyes shining.
The key was to turn himself from a pervert into a victim.
Of course, not a victim in the sense of being persecuted.
There’s a kind of victimhood—a kind of state, really—called “innocence through ignorance.”
He was Jiang Yue’s student, a student who had been with her for ten years.
For someone who’d been with him longer than his own parents, though she couldn’t replace them, she could certainly take root in a ten-year-old child’s heart and become the woman he could never forget in his life.
And that feeling—could be called budding affection.
What Ling Huan needed to do was to put that budding affection, and all the actions, emotions, and impulses it brought, into words.
But he had to sound lost enough, regretful enough, to make himself look like a pitiful child who’d done something crazy out of confusion.
After all, he was only ten—what did he know?
If he could plant this idea in Jiang Yue’s heart, then, relying on their decade-long relationship, no matter how bad things were before, this time they could definitely pull through!
Complete that damned system’s task!
So Ling Huan went all in.
His determined expression gradually turned confused, a faint sadness appearing in his eyes as he stared at Jiang Yue’s veil, as if he could see her face through it.
His voice trembled slightly as he stammered, “Teacher, I…that’s really how I feel.
I don’t know when it started, but Teacher, everything you do, everything you say—it all tugs at my heart.”
At this point, Ling Huan’s voice softened, tinged with a hint of delight: “Shh…Teacher, I’m so afraid, afraid that in this lifetime I’ll never get close to you.You said I have no talent, and after I finally learned I do, there’s only this way to get near you, I… I just couldn’t help it.”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I… I just want to hug you, Teacher, I want to be close to you, I want… I want…”
His voice grew smaller and smaller, almost inaudible at the end.
“I want to hug you, Teacher. I just want to be close to you! No matter what others say, I want to do this! I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I just can’t control it!”
Teacher, aren’t you versed in the ways of heaven and earth, and worldly affairs?
You understand human nature!
“Can you tell me, what’s wrong with me? I’m so scared, how could I do something so outrageous to you, Teacher…”
At this point, Ling Huan’s voice was already choked with sobs, and the sound of quiet crying could be heard in between.
It was clear his small body was trembling slightly.
Listening to all this from the side, Yin Luoling snorted in contempt.
She silently finished getting dressed, listening to Ling Huan’s excuses.
When it was over, she almost laughed out loud.
What a pile of bullshit excuses—just plain stupid.
Was this the best Ling Huan could do?
This was the so-called clever way to smooth things over?
What a blunder.
The person she’d longed for, for over a thousand years, turned out to be such a fool, making excuses like this at a time like this.
Hmph, Ling Huan was finished, utterly finished.
From this moment on, he would lose the protection of a Nascent Soul cultivator—he’d be left to her!
Yin Luoling was just waiting to see Ling Huan make a fool of himself.
She couldn’t stop shaking with laughter, barely able to hold back, desperate to witness Ling Huan’s total social death.
If Ling Huan could still patch things up with Jiang Yue after all this, Yin Luoling would flip this table on the spot…
Just as Yin Luoling was swearing vengeance in her heart, it was as if the world was conspiring against her, slapping her in the face at every turn.
She heard Jiang Yue’s voice—there wasn’t the slightest hint of anger.
“Instead, Jiang Yue gently said, “Is that so? So that’s how you see me.”
Ling Huan instantly felt a sense of doom—what was this?
Why wasn’t Jiang Yue angry?
Why did she sound gentle instead?
Shouldn’t she be furious right now?
Shouldn’t she be calling Ling Huan a pervert?
Shouldn’t she scold him for wasting ten years of her teaching?
He’d just admitted he harbored improper thoughts toward his teacher—how could Jiang Yue react as if she was pleased?
What kind of magical world was this?
Yin Luoling immediately felt dizzy, a sharp pain stabbing at her temples.
How was it that in this second life, the world felt like it had gone completely mad?
At this point, Yin Luoling couldn’t be bothered to maintain the Sword Emperor’s dignified bearing or care about any plans!
She just wanted to shout at this crazy world and the lunatics in it, “Teacher Jiang Yue! He’s trying to take advantage of you! And you… just accept it like that?”
“Nonsense!”
Jiang Yue immediately rebuked Yin Luoling: “I’m not accepting it! I just came to understand the trouble in Ling Huan’s heart, to understand why he did what he did. If you know the reason, you can help him change—what do you mean, accept it? Of course something like this can’t be accepted.”
Hearing Jiang Yue’s tone and her words, Yin Luoling didn’t believe a single comma of it.
No matter how little she, Yin Luoling, understood social interactions, even she could tell that Jiang Yue seemed…happy!
Why?
What kind of poison did Ling Huan give her, what drug did he use to make Jiang Yue defend him to this degree?
Or could it be…
Yin Luoling glanced at Ling Huan, and began to wonder: Could this really be the legendary “move someone with your sincerity”?
First offend someone, then sincerely apologize, explain your confusion, express your regrets—and that’s enough to be forgiven, enough to close the distance between you?
Should I try it too…next time?
Actually, Yin Luoling realized that last time, she really hadn’t understood human relationships, which led her to offend so many people and bring herself a lot of trouble.
Maybe this time…she could learn?
After all, “learn from the barbarians to control the barbarians”…
Yin Luoling realized—bad people really were the best at lying and fooling others…
Look, a dignified Nascent Soul master, being strung along to the brink of death by a ten-year-old little liar… How is that fair?!