Chapter 80: Scene 22: Engagement

Ruan Chao never expected that Chu Xinglan would react like this after he exposed his biggest secret.

He blinked, a little confused about the current situation, and could only repeat in a dry voice, "Didn't you hear what I said clearly?"

Chu Xinglan nodded seriously, "Very clear." He heard every word clearly.

Ruan Chao frowned and looked at him with some doubt: "So... you don't mind at all?"

Chu Xinglan lifted Ruan Chao's chin and pressed his thumb on his mouth. After feeling the softness of his lips, he subconsciously softened the movement and turned it into a slight caress... His eyes were fixed on Ruan Chao's lips, as if he would not be able to resist the temptation and kiss him in the next moment.

"Why should I care about something I already knew?"

Ruan Chao couldn't help but widen his eyes.

Chu Xinglan had already kissed her.

Another hand covered his eyes tightly, and his vision fell into darkness.

The boy's cold voice rang in his ears at the same time, mixed with his slightly warm breath, all of which sprinkled on his sensitive face.

He said, “I knew it the first time I met you.”

It was as if a brilliant firework exploded in Nguyen Chao's mind, leaving him at a loss as to what to do.

Chu Xinglan kissed him hard and fast like a hungry dog. In just a moment, he hit his teeth and kissed into his wet mouth... He didn't push him away like last time, biting his tongue to prevent him from licking.

From the first moment he saw Ruan Chao, Chu Xinglan knew that the person who fell into his arms in the bustling street market was not a real little girl.

He was wearing a dirty skirt, his hair was messy, and his face was black and white, as if he had just rolled in a pile of mud. His still young facial features were beautiful and eye-catching, and his voice was soft and tender. Others could not tell his true gender and just thought he was a little girl who had suffered misfortune for no reason.

But only Chu Xinglan had a strong intuition in his heart, telling him clearly that the child in his arms was not his real face, but a disguise.

Chu Xinglan withdrew from between Ruan Chao's lips and teeth, and there was an ambiguous silver thread slowly pulling apart. He licked the slightly swollen lip beads that were sucked and bitten, and gently bit it with his teeth. He was reluctant to use too much force, and the person in his arms trembled slightly, and let out an unbearable moan.

Lu Ding has a very sensitive constitution.

Any intimacy that is slightly stimulating will trigger a strong reaction.

Chu Xinglan did not continue. He slowed down and continued in a hoarse voice, "I always thought you liked to dress up as a girl, so you wore a skirt and jewelry to dress yourself up as a pretty girl."

Ruan Chao's legs became a little weak from being kissed, and he only managed to avoid falling into the boy's arms by clinging to his strong arms.

When he spoke, he couldn't help but have a slight nasal tone.

"No... no." He denied Chu Xinglan's guess and told him the truth, "It was the head of the Ruan family who coerced and bribed me, intimidated and frightened me, saying that only a female's furnace tripod would be worth selling, and a male's furnace tripod would not please anyone and would only attract disgust."

"He told me that if I wanted to live peacefully in this world, I must not reveal this secret to anyone. Otherwise, I would be treated like a kitten or puppy for the rest of my life, locked in the backyard and never able to come out."

"Later, I was kidnapped by bad guys. After I escaped, I met you. You saved me from those bad guys... I also thought that you took me back to the Chu family because you thought I was cute and wanted a little sister."

Chu Xinglan listened to Ruan Chao's explanation silently, but at this moment he stretched out his fingers and gently pinched his cheek. The soft flesh between his fingers was tender and smooth. He seriously echoed Ruan Chao's words: "You were really cute when you were a child, like a soft glutinous rice ball."

"I was wondering how someone could be so cute... When you looked at me with tears in your eyes, my heart melted and I couldn't bear to refuse any of your requests."

So when Nguyen Chao said he wanted to go with him, he couldn't wait to take him home.

Even a dark thought flashed through my mind.

I want to hide him and not let anyone see him.

Only give him one brother.

Not only when he was a child, Chu Xinglan also has such thoughts now.

Especially when Ruan Chao stared at him with his light eyes without blinking, the unspeakable dark desire reached its peak.

On the surface, the young monk seems to be bright and innocent, but he relies on Tao Te Ching and Purifying Heart Sutra to suppress his inner thoughts and maintain the illusion of being aloof and noble.

Ruan Chao was caught off guard and was pinched on the face by Chu Xinglan. He dodged backwards, but Chu Xinglan caught up with him again... He had no intention of letting go, so he could only let him pinch him, but his words were inevitably a little unclear.

"What about me now? Am I not lovable now?"

Chu Xinglan whispered: "... also cute."

It's just cute in another sense.

It's the kind of cuteness that makes him want to kiss, hug, and... want to do something even more excessive.

When Ruan Chao heard Chu Xinglan praising himself, he narrowed his eyes with satisfaction. He stretched out his arms to hug Chu Xinglan's waist, buried his face in his chest, and heard the boy's rapid heartbeat.

"…I was too young at the time and didn't understand anything, so I naturally believed whatever the adults said. I didn't mean to hide it from you."

Later, when I was a little older and knew what my fiancée really meant, I was even more afraid to say it.

He had no ability to protect himself, and was able to live safely in the Ruan family only with the protection of Chu Xinglan. He also relied on the prestige of the Chu family in the upper realm to avoid being coveted by others. He didn't dare to gamble his life on the fact that Chu Xinglan wouldn't mind.

So he had no choice but to make the best of a bad situation and lie to him.

But fortunately, this incident was a beautiful misunderstanding from the very beginning.

There are many twists and turns, but they all lead to the same destination.

Ruan Chao: "Brother, I'm sorry, I should have told you earlier."

"It's okay. It's not too late now. And I'm also wrong for not noticing your concern earlier." Chu Xinglan tucked Ruan Chao's scattered hair behind his ears and soothed his emotions in a gentle tone, "Whether it's Chao Chao wearing a skirt and a hairpin, dressed as a girl, or wearing my clothes and my hair crown... Chao Chao who has restored her true gender, I like them all."

Love it so much.

Ruan Chao lowered his voice: "I like you, too."

"...I like Chu Xinglan very much."

This was the first time Chu Xinglan heard Ruan Chao say frankly that he liked her.

The young man's body stiffened slightly, and his breathing seemed to stop at that moment.

A kind of exciting emotion exploded in his chest, causing him to subconsciously tighten the strength in his hands, his fingertips sinking into the soft flesh of Ruan Chao's waist.

Ruan Chao tried to hold back, but still couldn't help but complain in a low voice: "Be gentle, you're hurting me a little."

Chu Xinglan hummed and restrained his strength.

They hugged each other for quite a while before letting go.

"Since we are in love with each other and have no secrets from each other..." Chu Xinglan asked tentatively, "Can we set a date for the wedding?"

...As expected, it finally came.

Having resolved the only obstacle between the two, Nguyen Chao felt much more relaxed and was no longer so averse to getting married.

He blushed and said, "...then let's do it next month."

"Didn't you say that the 16th of next month is a good day for marriage?" Ruan Chao began to make demands, "But you are not allowed to tell this news to others. I don't like crowds, nor do I like a lot of people around me, and I don't like those messy ceremonies. I don't know anyone in Guiyun Sect, and I would be embarrassed if they all came to watch the ceremony... It would be better if it was just the two of us when we got married."

People in the world of cultivation seem to respect their teachers very much. They respect and value their masters very much.

Ruan Chao considered Chu Xinglan and added, "At most, you can add your master."

Chu Xinglan naturally agreed without hesitation.

The atmosphere between the young couple is very sweet, and their gazes towards each other are so sticky that they seem to be able to pull out threads.

However, the system coughed twice at an inopportune moment, each cough louder than the last, as if to remind Nguyen Chao not to forget their mission.

Together we can

Getting married is also possible.

Even if they leave marks on each other's souls, under the witness of Heaven, it is not impossible for them to become a couple who will accompany each other for life.

But before that, please make sure to break up once.

Ruan Chao's expression froze slightly.

Trying hard to act as if nothing happened.

"Before that, you have to agree to another condition of mine."

Chu Xinglan: "You say."

Not to mention one condition, even if there were ten, a hundred, a thousand, he would agree to them all without blinking an eye.

Ruan Chao had prepared himself mentally, and then, under the system's subtle urging, he spoke with some difficulty, his eyes dodging, "Before we get married... can we break up first?"

Chu Xinglan: “…………”

"Um?"

He thought he had heard wrongly and checked with Ruan Chao again.

"Is this what I think you mean by breaking up?"

Ruan Chao squeezed out a word "...Yes."

He glanced at Chu Xinglan carefully and saw the deep depression suppressed in his eyes and his brows were tightly wrinkled together.

The boy's expression turned ugly. He probably felt that Ruan Chao was playing a trick on him and was teasing him on purpose. He had just agreed to marry him, but then he broke up with him out of the blue... No one could accept this.

"I don't agree." Chu Xinglan's voice turned cold, "Don't even think about it."

"Don't be so quick to refuse. Listen to me first." Ruan Chao pulled Chu Xinglan's sleeve and shook it slightly as if to act coquettishly. He said in a soft voice, "We just need to pretend. We don't really want to break up. We can get back together right after breaking up."

Chu Xinglan's frown relaxed a little, but she still couldn't help asking, "Then is there any point in us breaking up?"

Nguyen looked away.

He couldn't reveal the existence of the system, so he could only put the blame firmly on himself: "Just think of me as...having a craving for acting and wanting to put on a show."

No matter how reluctant Chu Xinglan was, he had to accept this answer reluctantly.

Started to perform with Nguyen Dynasty.

The system had already formulated a series of plans, just waiting for the Nguyen Dynasty to implement them.

It flipped open the small notebook and read in a serious tone: [What we need to do now is to trample on Chu Xinglan's personality, insult his feelings, make him hate you, and then separate in a reasonable way.]

Ruan Chao frowned: […But that’s not what you said before. ]

System: [When acting, you have to act more realistically and reasonably. Even if you are pretending, you have to act completely, so that it is easier to fool people.]

Ruan Chao: [...Okay.]

【What should I do then? 】

[Be willful, act like a demon, act recklessly, and be unreasonable. No matter what Chu Xinglan does, you are not satisfied. No matter what he does, you can always find fault. Do whatever makes you annoying. Repeat this six, seven, or eight times. If Chu Xinglan shows a little impatience, you can break up with him.]

…

They performed the play for three days.

The Nguyen Dynasty was always making trouble and acting unreasonably.

Halfway through a meal, he would slam his chopsticks down on the table, with a sullen look on his face, and say that he would not eat the meal unless a certain dish was available.

Chu Xinglan also got into the role at the right time and coaxed him to make this dish next time.

“But I want to eat now.”

Chu Xinglan lowered his eyes and compromised, "Then I'll go down the mountain to buy it. You wait for me. I'll be back in a quarter of an hour."

Ruan Chao frowned his handsome eyebrows and secretly winked at Chu Xinglan, who understood and moved all the food on the table somewhere else.

The next moment, Ruan Chao overturned the entire table with a bang.

The wooden tabletop rolled over and over on the ground several times before finally coming to a stop near the door.

Ruan Chao said coldly: "Since I can't eat what I want, then no one should eat."

…

He would wake Chu Xinglan up in the middle of the night, saying that he was going to practice swordplay down in the valley. After they reached their destination, he would change the subject and say that he wanted to go back to sleep. After repeating this two or three times, Ruan Chao became so sleepy that his eyelids were stuck together and he couldn't open them.

Finally, he lay on Chu Xinglan's broad back, and in a half-asleep and half-awake state he heard the other person's somewhat helpless words.

"Why torture yourself when you can just torture me..."

Ruan Chao tightened his grip, and as if he felt insecure, he hugged him tighter, his slender arms completely around his neck.

…It’s all the system’s fault.

They had to come up with such a task to torment them, making them unable to sleep well and having to do it late at night.

Forget it...it doesn't want to.

This is not the situation it wants to see.

Still don't blame it.

Ruan Chao put his face against Chu Xinglan's back and heard the tiny chirping of insects in the jungle.

Under the frosty moonlight and with the boy's steady footsteps, they went home together.