Chapter 139 "Upon closer inspection, this face is really quite ordinary."

Whether by coincidence or not, Lan Yunzhi arrived shortly after the person who delivered the wedding invitations left.

Xuan Hong's note was placed on the table.

It looks very festive.

Pipa recalled that the last time she saw such a wedding invitation was in a dream. Li Nian personally delivered it to Lan, inviting Lan to her and Yu Qingzhou's wedding banquet.

That night, Pipa and Lan sat facing each other in that secluded house.

Because Lan promised that if Pipa could stay up until dawn, she would take Pipa to the wedding the next day.

The loquat did everything it could to keep itself from falling asleep in its dream.

At that time, he was unaware of the connection between himself and Yu Qingzhou. All he wanted was to see Shen Yingxue for himself.

Thinking to myself, if I knew that my senior sister was safe and well, I would have no other desires.

Now that the wedding invitation is in her hands, the person getting married is Shen Yun.

The man who initially caught Pipa's attention because of his striking resemblance to Shen Yingxue had repeatedly helped Pipa when she was in danger, and had also taken advantage of his drunkenness to pin the boy down and kiss and caress him wantonly...

Pipa once thought that the entanglement between the two should have ended the moment the contract was terminated.

—It was never a respectable relationship to begin with, so why dwell on it and keep thinking about it?

But Chen Yun didn't think so, so she specially wrote a note and sent it to someone, repeatedly reminding him to be on time for the appointment.

Perhaps Shen Yun did this to deliberately provoke her father, in order to retaliate against his shameful behavior of indulging in pleasure in his youth and ultimately driving his first wife to her death.

But that would be too unfair to the bride.

not to mention……

Pipa thought of Lu Qingyao, whom she hadn't seen for a long time.

I heard that Lu Qingyao was not only punished by being made to kneel in the ancestral hall because of him, but she has also been confined to her room and restricted from going out for the past few days.

You know, Old Master Lu is usually very fond of his daughter, so he must have been really angry this time to discipline her like this, which is unprecedented for him.

No matter how strict the rules are, it's impossible for the younger sister not to attend the wedding banquet when the older sister gets married.

If they were to run into each other again, given Lu Qingyao's temperament, she would likely find it difficult to ignore them, and this could potentially cause further trouble—

Wouldn't I have truly become a sinner in name and in fact?

Pipa was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't notice someone entering the house.

Until she caught a whiff of the delicate orchid fragrance and tried to turn around, she was already embraced from behind.

A gentle rubbing against the back of my neck.

A cheerful voice rang in my ears.

"What are you looking at so intently? You didn't even notice someone came in."

Judging from the person's words and actions, Pipa realized that the person holding him was Li Nian.

Pipa couldn't quite say whether she liked or disliked this person.

However, the other party's occasional childish behavior did remind him of Li Xiao from the past... Perhaps it was because they were both members of the Li family?

However, there is one thing I really can't stand about loquats.

That is, the other party seems to be overly enthusiastic about frequent physical contact.

While it's not exactly overly intimate, the fact that they hug each other from behind all the time, or insist on sitting shoulder to shoulder while eating, and the ever-present issue of sleeping together...

It's really annoying.

Especially since the person doing these things is clearly Li Nian, yet she always wears Lan Yunzhi's cold and aloof face, it creates a strong sense of disconnect.

In particular, when Lan Yunzhi suddenly woke up halfway through.

Even though it was Li Nian who started it, Lan Yunzhi's face made people feel like the wrong person had become Pipa.

It seems that the awkward situation arose because the boy failed to stop Li Nian's willfulness in time.

In reality, Li Nian wouldn't listen to a simple refusal, but if Pi Pa took more forceful words or actions, the other party might start acting crazy on the spot, regardless of the consequences...

Recently, in the relatively short time they've spent together, Pipa has noticed a significant improvement in her patience.

"Why aren't you saying anything? Are you feeling guilty?"

As Li Nian spoke, she stretched out her long arm and reached over the boy in her arms, hooking the wedding invitation onto her fingertip. She glanced at it casually, and then her eyes crinkled into a smile.

"Isn't this your ex-lover?"

"..."

Indeed, Li Nian's behavior was excessive, and his words were extremely offensive.

Pipa ignored the other person and raised her hand to take the invitation back.

But Li Nian deliberately raised that hand a little higher.

At the same time, he rested his head on the boy's shoulder, firmly securing the latter to the chair.

"Give it back to me," Pipa finally couldn't help but say.

Li Nian still smiled, leaning close to the boy's ear and saying in an ambiguous tone, "Beg me, I want to hear you beg me."

Upon hearing this, Pipa simply gave up struggling and quietly sat back down.

When Li Nian saw Pipa like this, the smile on her face immediately faded, and her previous smugness disappeared.

But he was still somewhat unwilling to give up.

He pretended to flick the invitation in front of his eyes.

"The groom prepared these wedding invitations with great care; they represent his heartfelt sentiments. Even I don't receive such treatment. Tsk tsk, it seems he really wants you to be there to witness this important event in his life."

Pipa remained silent, bowing her head to carefully wipe the inkstone on the table, then the paperweight, the brush holder... she meticulously wiped almost the entire table, even though these things weren't actually dirty.

Li Nian was completely disappointed. She pouted and pretended to tear up the invitation in front of the boy.

Pipa then spoke up: "It's good that it's torn up, since I don't want to go anyway. Tearing it up will give me a legitimate reason for being absent. But please make it clear, Your Majesty, that it's not that Pipa is deliberately not going, but that the invitation is destroyed and I can't go."

His words were spoken slowly and deliberately, but they were enough to make Li Nian's hands suddenly stop moving.

The latter glanced at the boy, then at the invitation in his hand, and suddenly smiled.

"Are you lying to me? You clearly still care, and you're saying all this just to prevent this post from being ruined. All this effort, could it be that you still have feelings for your lover and are playing this game of sending a message as if you were meeting in person?"

Not only did Li Nian speak rudely, but she also seemed to enjoy maliciously twisting the meaning of Pipa's words and taking pleasure in it.

This made Pipa think that this person was mentally ill, and at the same time, she was convinced that the other person must have some kind of strange quirk. So she just let the other person talk to himself.

Li Nian had previously said that she wanted Pipa to beg her.

In fact, the loquat did need something from the other party.

However, the person Pipa wanted to communicate with was Lan Yunzhi, who shared the same body, rather than Li Nian, who was somewhat afflicted with a serious illness.

Not getting the response she wanted, Li Nian muttered to herself for a while, then suddenly seemed to have a sudden realization and let out a strange "oh".

"I understand," the young man said with a soft laugh.

Upon hearing that tone, Pipa frowned, knowing that she was about to hear something unpleasant.

really……

"So, you not only have an affair with your young master Shen, but you also have a complicated relationship with that crazy girl Lu Qingyao. One is a proper groom, and the other is the bride's younger sister. They're all your ex-lovers. You're really something."

Li Nian spoke words of praise, but the sarcasm in her tone was already palpable.

"And then there's Ah Liu, who kept saying he hated you to the core and wished he could tear you to pieces. But what happened? He was the one who disobeyed orders to carry out a private punishment, and he was the one who couldn't resist running to find you despite his back being covered in whip marks. In the end, he ended up back to his original form."

Her chin was gently pinched, and Pipa was forced to turn her face to face Li Nian's scrutiny in a gentle yet unyielding manner.

The eyes that belonged to Lan Yunzhi slowly and methodically swept over Pipa's face inch by inch.

Eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth...

Seeing the obvious displeasure on the boy's face.

Li Nian smiled even more happily.

"How cunning! He clearly knows everything, yet he pretends to be completely oblivious. Is this the same innocent expression that Master Yu uses to bewitch a bunch of fools?"

He paused, then clicked his tongue in amazement and said, "Upon closer inspection, this face is really quite ordinary."

Pipa had no idea what was wrong with Li Nian today.

He felt very uncomfortable as the other person gently stroked his lower lip back and forth with their fingertips.

"My face is my own; Your Majesty need not concern yourself with how it looks."

Pipa spoke calmly, "As for Your Majesty, since you find this face mediocre, there's no need to torture your eyes like this—"

"You're not my eyes, how would you know if they're causing you trouble?"

Li Nian's rather unreasonable question successfully silenced the boy.

Seeing this, the young man became even happier: "But I'm still very happy to hear that you care so much about a part of my body."

The loquat really wants to ask the previous question: Is this your body?

Ultimately, reason prevailed, and he remained silent, instead saying, "I thought His Majesty would disdain associating with fools."

Li Nian raised an eyebrow slightly: "What do you mean?"

Pipa took a deep breath and slowly forced a smile onto her face.

"Didn't Your Majesty just say that only a fool would be captivated by this face? It's only been a short while and you've already forgotten it. Truly, noble people have such bad memories."

Upon hearing this, Li Nian's smile vanished.

He then stared at the boy's face for a long time, his gaze unwavering, which made the latter feel a little uneasy.

Then suddenly he broke into a big smile.

"Look at you, there are things I myself have forgotten, yet you remember them so clearly. Yu Qingzhou, so you still have feelings for me, right?"

The young man's voice suddenly revealed an unusual excitement.

It's like the harbinger of an impending storm.

Pipa sensed something was wrong. It wasn't even dark outside yet. Had it relapsed?

Did I just say something I shouldn't have?

Pipa instinctively tried to grab something to use as a weapon for self-defense, but her wrist was suddenly grabbed.

The fragrance of orchids grew clearer and clearer, lingering around my nose almost overwhelmingly.

Pipa finally started to panic.

However, he tried his best to remain calm on the surface, because he didn't want to provoke the other party and cause the situation to develop in a more uncontrollable direction.

"Li Nian, look carefully. I am not Yu Qingzhou, at least not the Yu Qingzhou you know. You can't—"

The words came to an abrupt halt.

When Pipa realized what body part she was touching and the current state of the other person, her pupils suddenly contracted, and an expression of disbelief appeared on her face.

"Can you feel it?"

Ignoring the boy's petrified expression, Li Nian continued unhurriedly, "How could I be wrong? Not only the eyes, but I remember every other part of my body perfectly."

"Clearly clear my foot! Clearly clear my ass!"

Even the loquat couldn't help but let out a sharp cracking sound in its head at this moment.

"You're blushing, that's so cute. Is it because you're still young? You weren't this straightforward before, and you always looked so awkward and like you were trying so hard to hold back when you were with me. But I like you no matter what..."

Li Nian was still saying something, but Pipa was no longer listening.

No matter how much she tried to convince herself, the person on the other end was Li Nian.

But what the eyes could see and the fingertips could touch was indeed Lan Yunzhi's body.

Even if I'm forced to touch my wrist while being grabbed, I still feel a strong sense of desecration.

It was as if she were taking advantage of Lan Gongzi's misfortune.

Pipa couldn't even imagine what kind of utterly shameful and desperate situation she would be in if Lan Yunzhi suddenly woke up at this moment.

"Not only were his face and neck completely red, but his entire body was also incredibly stiff, even through his clothes. This reaction—"

At this point, Li Nian paused deliberately, her beautifully shaped thin lips lightly touching the boy's bright red earlobe, her breath becoming increasingly scorching.

Feeling the subtle, instinctive tremor emanating from the other person, Li Nian couldn't help but chuckle.

"Hahahaha, could it be that none of those idiots have even touched you yet?"

"..."

Pipa gritted her teeth and remained silent, which was tantamount to acquiescing.

Seeing this, Li Nian's smile faltered slightly, and he looked down at the boy's expression.

Once they saw it clearly, the last bit of their smile vanished completely.

"Alright, it's no big deal, why are you making such a fuss?" Li Nian said.

When the young man said those words, Pipa hadn't even reacted until her wrist was suddenly loosened. The cool touch of his fingertips moved to her cheek.

He then realized that he was crying again.

—What a disappointment.

However, he cried not because he felt wronged, but because of a strong sense of humiliation.

He resented his own powerlessness and his helpless situation, where he was powerless to resist and could only be manipulated by others.

But in the end, those tears saved him...

After wiping away Pipa's tears, Li Nian seemed to realize that she had gone a bit too far.

"I hadn't thought you were still..."

He stood up, took a step back, looked at the loquat, and mumbled something, as if he wanted to say something but didn't know where to begin.

In the end, all he said was, "Get some rest."

He then turned and left in a hurry.

Hearing the click of the door closing, Pipa let out a sigh of relief and sat there for a while. Then she raised her sleeve and slowly wiped the spot on her face that someone else had just wiped.

One blow after another, until a burning pain shot through my cheeks.

Then, he bent down and picked up the bright red wedding invitation that had accidentally fallen to the ground.

When the book was finally opened, what came into view was not the names of the newlyweds, but a branch of dark plum blossoms.