Chapter 103: Does he look so guilty that he's hiding something?

Setting aside the questions that couldn't be answered for the time being, Pipa finally had time to look around her room.

Pushing aside the heavy curtains, one could see that the area was almost entirely filled with books.

This place seems more like a study than a bedroom, especially with those tall bookshelves, each one crammed full.

Pipa slowly got out of bed.

Fortunately, the injury on my leg wasn't as serious as I had thought.

He slowly walked past the rows of books, which were of an extraordinary variety, a truly diverse collection.

From serious astronomy, geography, and military history, to folk tales, strange phenomena, and esoteric arts, and then to—

Pipa pulled a booklet from the bookshelf that looked somewhat out of place.

It has no title and looks like a large-format picture book.

Pipa casually opened the book, and almost immediately closed it again.

...Is it just my imagination?

If he wasn't mistaken about what he just saw.

With a desire to verify, Pipa slowly opened the book again and found that she was indeed not mistaken; it was a well-made erotic picture book.

The lifelike illustrations are accompanied by relevant annotations and notes.

Page after page.

Some play solo acts for their own amusement, some involve couples indulging in unrestrained pleasure, and some even have more than two main characters across several pages…

Suddenly, Pipa's pupils contracted sharply, as if she had discovered something incredible, and her breathing became somewhat unsteady.

Her face was burning uncontrollably, and Pipa's mind was buzzing as she stared at the pages of pictures, but her hands kept moving.

Finally, Pipa gritted her teeth and hurriedly flipped through the entire picture book.

He exhaled deeply, feeling as if he had been boiled into a lobster.

Pipa finally confirmed one thing.

Those are the unseen protagonists in the picture book, each with a small mole below their collarbone, near their heart—inconspicuous, yet present on every single one…

Furthermore, he recognized that the annotations in the book were indeed written by Young Master Lan.

When Pipa first started learning calligraphy, the style of Lan Gongzi's calligraphy was what she saw most often and unconsciously imitated the most.

If he remembered correctly, Young Master Lan also had an extremely high talent for painting.

Although I have never seen him paint figure paintings, Master Lan's landscape, flower and bird paintings are indeed extremely exquisite and full of personal style, just like the pavilions and towers hidden among the flowers and plants in the background of the album.

I also remember that you had a small, adorable black mole near your heart...

The young man's smiling voice echoed softly in Pipa's ears.

Although I don’t want to believe it, maybe, probably, the protagonists in those paintings, half-undressed and in all sorts of moods, are indeed related to him, or even based on him.

Pipa's hand trembled, and she almost dropped the booklet on the ground.

He found it difficult to describe his inner thoughts at that moment.

I can't quite describe how shocked or disgusted I was; it was more of an incredulity. My mind went completely blank, as if I'd been hit on the head for no reason.

It took a while to recover.

Pipa opened the book again, this time skipping over the ambiguous pictures and carefully looking at the text.

In addition to annotations written in a familiar handwriting, there were also traces of another person's handwriting.

They've lost some of their composure and restraint, and gained more of the exuberance and unbridled spirit of youth.

Pipa carefully recalled the bright red wedding invitation from her dream. It seemed similar, but she couldn't be completely sure because so much time had passed and her memory had become blurry.

"Hey, what are you looking at so intently?"

The sudden sound behind him startled Pipa. He snapped the book shut, turned around, and hid it behind his back.

Then, to his surprise, he found a young man standing in front of him, smiling and leaning down to examine him.

It turned out to be Ah Liu.

"Mr. Liu..."

“It’s me,” Ah Liu said with a smile.

It was as if nothing had ever happened.

But the more she faced such young men, the more intimidated Pipa became.

"Shouldn't you—"

Pipa almost blurted it out, but she held back and forced herself to change the subject, saying, "I thought you had already gone back to rest."

"Oh, so you know about the punishment I received." Ah Liu looked enlightened, then nodded seriously. "It was quite a severe beating. I almost lost half my life because of it—all for you, you know~"

Listening to Ah Liu's frivolous words that distorted the facts, Pipa felt waves of nausea.

Saying it was for you—

It was clearly the young man who started it.

"Seriously, what's with that expression? Is she unhappy with me?" Ah Liu seemed a little displeased as he leaned closer to examine the expression on Pipa's face. "I was worried about her, so I made a special trip."

As Ah Liu spoke, he took another step forward, and Pi Pa followed suit by stepping back, but forgot that there was a bookshelf right behind them.

Taking advantage of his height, Ah Liu trapped the boy in a corner between two bookshelves.

"You seem so guilty, are you hiding something?" Ah Liu asked, drawing out his words, his slightly narrowed eyes appearing even longer.

Seeing that Pipa was guarding what was behind her without saying a word.

Ah Liu simply stopped asking and reached out to snatch it.

If it were just an ordinary erotic painting, it wouldn't be a problem; as a fellow man, he could simply look at it without any need to hide it. The issue is that one of the main characters in the painting might very well be himself.

Whether Ah Liu could tell or not, Pipa couldn't get over her own conscience.

So, in her panic, Pipa didn't care about anything else and almost instinctively rammed into the other side.

Pipa had already prepared herself mentally. Given Ah Liu's physical condition, it would be difficult for him to cause any real damage with this move, so she put all her strength into it.

That was perfectly correct, but he forgot... Ah Liu had just received his punishment in the torture chamber.

Ah Liu acted so nonchalantly that Pipa completely forgot about it.

Due to a series of unfortunate coincidences, the loquat's collision still deviated from its original target and landed in some unspeakable and unsuspecting place.

In that instant, Pipa seemed to hear the sound of something breaking.

Then I watched as that huge person fell straight down right in front of me.

As expected of Ah Liu, even in that state, he remained hunched over and silent, though cold sweat kept pouring down his forehead, threatening to turn into a waterfall.

"Are you... are you alright?" Pipa asked, feeling somewhat guilty even after she finished speaking.

He doesn't look like he's alright at all.

"Why don't you just call it out? It might make you feel better," Pipa suggested hesitantly.

But Ah Liu remained silent, staring intently at the loquat with his reddened eyes, as if trying to pierce two holes in the boy's face.

Pipa thought to herself, "Look, I'm no use."

"How about I go and call someone for you?"

Perfect timing, as Pipa didn't want to spend any more time with this person anyway.

Although I don't know how I offended this guy in the past, after all this trouble, the old and new grudges have only increased.

If not now, when?

But sometimes the difference between reality and ideal lies in a single piece of clothing—yes, it was the piece of clothing that A-Liu reached out and grabbed as Pipa turned to leave.

I must say, the quality of these clothes is really quite good.

It has to be said that loquats seem to be quite unlucky.

So it's not surprising that the two of them would fall down together, staring at each other.

"..."

"..."

There's really nothing to say to this person about loquat.

—But Ah Liu doesn't seem to be one of them.

His lips were deathly pale, and his face, a mixture of pale and bluish-white, could no longer maintain its usual smile.

Even so, the young man still managed to squeeze out, "You've made me suffer so much... Is this... is this another attempt to run away?"