Chapter 231

Yun Jiao was completely stunned. Her mind, which usually operated at high speed, went blank for the first time. Before she could react, she heard the other person’s slightly pleased voice beside her ear.

“…Sweet.”

The man who was always indifferent now had a faint look of satisfaction in his eyes—along with a restless desire to have another taste.

Yun Jiao finally realized what had just happened. Her face instantly darkened. She restrained the urge to hit him and asked solemnly, “Patriarch, are you teasing me?”

“Hmm?” Ye Yuan still kept one hand cupping her face. His cool, clear gaze was calm and open, completely unlike someone who had just taken advantage. With a studious expression, he asked, “What does teasing mean?”

Crack. Yun Jiao’s perfect serious expression shattered for a second. She ground her teeth and explained word by word, “If you kiss someone without their permission, that’s teasing!”

Don’t get mad. Don’t get mad. This was her own ancestor—she couldn’t castrate him.

Ye Yuan frowned slightly, a trace of confusion flashing through his eyes. He answered with honest seriousness, “But you’re very sweet.” He had only followed his heart.

The corner of her mouth twitched. “That doesn’t mean you can just kiss people!” Sweet? What kind of nonsense was that?

Ye Yuan’s brows furrowed tighter, clearly dissatisfied with her answer. After thinking for a moment, he finally nodded heavily. “Then it counts as teasing.”

After saying that, he leaned even closer, nearly wrapping her entirely in his arms. His lips, which had just left hers, came down once more—precisely.

He liked it. He wanted to taste it again.

Damn it!

The corner of Yun Jiao’s mouth twitched. This time, prepared, she quickly covered his face with her hand before he could kiss her again. Never in her life had she seen such a shameless patriarch—yet he still looked completely righteous about it.

“No!”

“Why not?” Ye Yuan’s eyes showed genuine confusion as he tried to pry her hand away.

“Sit properly first!” Yun Jiao was startled by the directness in his eyes. She pressed a hand against his chest, trying to push him back, but couldn’t move him at all. “Sit down, let’s talk about this properly!”

Ye Yuan glanced at the small disciple in front of him who looked full of resistance. For some reason, his heart ached. Still, though reluctant, he sat back down and released her. His eyes were full of silent accusation—his little disciple had never refused him before.

Yun Jiao took several deep breaths, suppressing the shrieking groundhog in her heart. Looking at the man who still seemed completely oblivious to the gravity of his actions, she asked in a low voice, “Patriarch, do you know what you’re doing?”

“Kissing you,” he answered without hesitation, not a trace of shame in his eyes. Then, as if to emphasize, he added, “It’s sweet.”

“…” Sweet, my ass! Even with her usually stoic face, Yun Jiao’s expression twitched. Seeing that he still looked entirely unaware that he’d done anything wrong, she sighed and tried again. “Calm down… Patriarch, let me put it this way—have you ever had a girlfriend or liked any girl before?”

His eyes instantly showed disgust. “I don’t like women.”

“…” Okay. So he was, in fact, a sister. Not straight.

She had just started to relax when he added another sentence.

“I only like you.”

“…”

——————

Bai Yu felt that the atmosphere in the sect had been strange lately—somehow lighter, easier. The girl no longer nagged him about his homework every three days, and even the Patriarch had been coming down from the tower far less often. In fact, when mealtime came around, the Patriarch was nowhere to be seen.

At first, Bai Yu thought the Patriarch must be busy with something important. He was even a bit happy—finally he could enjoy his meals in peace, without worrying that taking an extra piece of meat would draw a glare. He’d been eating two extra bowls per meal these days.

But after one day… two days… still no sign of the Patriarch. Three days, four days… nothing.

Panic began to set in. By the time their weekly “training”—ahem, beating—session came and went with no Patriarch in sight, Bai Yu realized something was seriously wrong.

That had never happened before. Something was off!

Yet the girl just kept her head down, writing her plans, not once telling him to go up the tower to look for anyone. Her expression even said she already knew the Patriarch wouldn’t come.

The more Bai Yu thought about it, the more anxious he became.

Could the Patriarch be deliberately planning something? Maybe he knew Bai Yu had been slacking off lately and was preparing some unforgettable punishment?

“Girl, I was wrong!” Bai Yu couldn’t bear the psychological pressure anymore. He confessed everything in one breath. “I shouldn’t have stayed up at night reading storybooks instead of doing my papers. I shouldn’t have lied about being injured to skip class. I shouldn’t have sneaked the Patriarch’s snacks when I went to the market for ingredients. Oh—and I also tricked Ying Lun into giving me several bundles of garlic to sell, and hid three taels of silver as private money…”

Yun Jiao: “…” What the hell?

“What are you doing? Get up!” Her face darkened.

“No! Girl, unless you make the Patriarch forgive me, I won’t get up!” Bai Yu was wailing with tears and snot running down his face.

“What does this have to do with the Patriarch?” She’d just been too busy to supervise his studies lately.

“Huh?” Bai Yu froze. “The Patriarch hasn’t come out for so many days—he’s not mad at me?”

Yun Jiao gave him a sidelong look and said seriously, “Do you really think you have that much influence?”

“…”

Crack. That was the sound of his heart breaking.

He stood there stunned for a while, then quickly pulled himself together. In an instant he straightened up, wiping away the tears and asking, “Then why has the Patriarch been locked up in the tower for seven days without coming down? Even skipping meals—that’s against all principles!”

“Oh.” Yun Jiao instinctively looked up at the tall tower not far away and replied solemnly, “Probably heartbroken.”

“Heart… what?” Heart what? Did the Patriarch lose a magical artifact or something? The old man didn’t get it.

Yun Jiao sighed, remembering what had happened that day, and said, “After we came back from the Celestial Master Hall, wasn’t the Patriarch very angry? I talked with him for a bit.”

“Yeah,” Bai Yu said. Angry was an understatement. He hadn’t seen the start of it, but when the Patriarch came back, who knew what nonsense Ying Lun had done again—he was almost beaten to death! Half the mountain behind the hall got blown apart. He’d only stopped by nightfall. Feng Xiaohuang was still patching the mountainside and planting new crops for Ying Lun even now. It was right after that day that the Patriarch stopped leaving the tower.

“And then?” Bai Yu asked curiously. “What did you talk about with him?”

“And then…” Yun Jiao frowned slightly, as if troubled, before saying after a moment, “He confessed to me.”

“Confessed? What’s that?” The old man didn’t understand.

“Oh, it means he said he likes me.”

“…”

Crash!

The old man tripped and fell straight to the ground, knocking over Yun Jiao’s ink and brushes. The tableware clattered loudly to the floor.

What the hell! Did he just go deaf?!

The Patriarch… and the girl?!!

w(Д)w

“And then…” Yun Jiao added, “I rejected him.”

“…”

Pfft~

(`」∠)

(End of Chapter)