"Junior Brother Chu Feng, the misunderstanding between you and Senior Sister Yan is exactly that—just a misunderstanding. I really hope you two can talk it out and clear the air."
"For the sake of both our Sect Masters, please? After all, they both truly want you and Senior Sister Yan to be together." Bai Xi held Chu Feng's hand tightly in one hand while the other gently stroked his palm.
"Lead the way then. I'd like to see what kind of tricks you two are playing."
Chu Feng pulled his hand free from Bai Xi's grasp. It wasn't that he'd been bewitched by her beauty, nor that he'd developed feelings for Yan Ruyu. He was simply bored out of his mind, and since he had nothing better to do anyway, he might as well follow Bai Xi for a bit.
"Junior Brother Chu Feng, you're too kind. You'll see that the decision you're making right now is the right one." Bai Xi flashed a sweet smile and began walking toward the Jade Maiden Palace. But Chu Feng didn't see the eerie grin that twisted across her lips the moment she turned away.
Under Bai Xi's guidance, Chu Feng quickly arrived at the residence where the Jade Maiden Palace's beautiful female disciples and elders lived. When the beauties caught sight of Chu Feng, they all offered sweet smiles as a show of goodwill.
Chu Feng paid little attention to the sudden change in attitude from these female disciples. On the way here, plenty of Jade Maiden Palace girls had already been fawning over him.
Bai Xi, however, had turned cold. She kept casting threatening glares at the friendly female disciples, scaring off every one of them who had been thinking about approaching Chu Feng for a chat.
"Hey, isn't Chu Feng Senior Sister Yan's fiancé? Why is he following Bai Xi to her residence?"
"Who knows what that vixen did, but she's shamelessly trying to seduce Senior Sister Yan's fiancé right in broad daylight. How disgusting."
"Exactly. Senior Sister Yan treated her like her own sister, and this is how she repays her. What a shameless woman." After Bai Xi and Chu Feng left, the female disciples gathered together, whispering among themselves.
Since Chu Feng wasn't familiar with the Jade Maiden Palace dormitories, he naturally didn't realize that Bai Xi had brought him to her own place.
However, Chu Feng had never trusted Bai Xi in the first place. After she stepped away, he extended his Mental Power to scan the room. Only after confirming that the fruits and pastries on the table were clean did he boldly grab the food and begin munching away without a care.
"Junior Brother Chu Feng, thank you for still giving me the chance to meet with you here." Suddenly, an extraordinarily soft voice drifted over—one so gentle it seemed to seep into one's very bones.
Chu Feng looked up to see Yan Ruyu stepping out from the inner chamber. Today she wasn't wearing the Azure Dragon Sect's Core Disciple uniform. Instead, she had on a flowing pink dress.
The dress was lovely, but its design was rather skimpy—cut in such a way that looking from above, one could catch a generous view of her two snowy-white mounds and the deep, seemingly bottomless valley between them.
Glancing further down revealed a pair of flawless, snow-white legs—smooth and lustrous, tinged with a soft pink glow. Combined with Yan Ruyu's sweet face, the whole sight nearly set Chu Feng's blood on fire.
Truth be told, Yan Ruyu was genuinely beautiful—enough to catch Chu Feng's eye. If she'd been willing to marry him from the very beginning, he might have actually taken this beauty as his wife. But things were different now. Even if this girl was pretty, there was absolutely no way he was going to marry her.
"If you've got something to say, spit it out. My time is limited." Chu Feng didn't want to fall for Yan Ruyu's beauty trap, so he quickly averted his gaze, shot her a harsh glance, and turned his head to look elsewhere.
"Junior Brother Chu Feng, what happened back then was truly my fault. But please believe me—I, Yan Ruyu, am not the kind of person you think I am." Yan Ruyu sat down across from Chu Feng, and a waft of her delicate natural fragrance drifted toward him, making his heart skip a beat.
"What kind of person? Do you even know what kind of person you are in my eyes?" Chu Feng sneered.
"If I'm not mistaken, Junior Brother Chu Feng must think that I, Yan Ruyu, am a vain woman who once looked down on your low cultivation and deliberately refused to see you, intentionally trying to break off our engagement. Now that I've learned of your exceptional talent, I'm trying to curry favor with you so I can marry you." Yan Ruyu spoke in a timid, meek tone.
Hearing this, Chu Feng let out a cold laugh. "And isn't that exactly what you are?"
"Of course not! I avoided you back then because I wanted to make you angry—so you would go to the Sect Master and request that our engagement be canceled."
"I asked you here today to apologize for what happened. I don't expect you to forgive me, and I'm not trying to make you like me—even now, I still don't want to marry you." Yan Ruyu's face was filled with genuine remorse.
"What the hell—do you have some kind of problem? You dragged me all the way here just to humiliate me? Let me tell you, you've got it wrong, because I've never had any interest in you. You don't want to marry me? Well, I never planned on marrying you either." At this moment, Chu Feng grew genuinely angry. He simply couldn't stand Yan Ruyu putting on this act and saying things like that.
"Junior Brother Chu Feng, please don't be angry. I didn't mean anything by it. I just want you to know that I, Yan Ruyu, didn't refuse to marry you because I looked down on you. It's because I made up my mind—I will never marry anyone in this lifetime."
"I asked you here today just to say I'm sorry. To offer my apology." As she spoke those words, Yan Ruyu's eyes reddened, and two streaks of hot tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Damn it—you've definitely got something wrong with you." Chu Feng was utterly exasperated and turned to leave. With his extremely powerful Mental Power, he had just been shocked to discover that Yan Ruyu's display wasn't some calculated act—it was genuine emotion.
But why would she do this? Chu Feng couldn't figure it out. All he knew was that he absolutely couldn't handle this version of Yan Ruyu, so he decided to simply walk away.
"Junior Brother Chu Feng, don't go!" Just then, Bai Xi stepped forward and blocked his path.
"What do you want?" Chu Feng's expression was anything but friendly.
"Junior Brother Chu Feng, since you never wanted to marry Senior Sister Yan anyway, why get upset just because she doesn't want to marry you? She only feels guilty about how she acted before. If you're not truly angry, then just accept her apology, alright? That's the only way she'll ever find peace of mind." Bai Xi tried to coax him.
"Junior Brother Chu Feng!!" At that moment, the tearful Yan Ruyu had already shuffled over with a pitiful look on her face. In her hands she carried a pot of fragrant tea, which she offered to Chu Feng. "Please accept my apology."
"Fine, fine. I forgive you. I've never met a woman as crazy as you." All Chu Feng wanted at this point was to get out of here. He simply couldn't endure Yan Ruyu's pathetic act any longer, so he took the teacup and downed it in one gulp.
"No—this is bad!!!" The moment the tea touched his stomach, Chu Feng's expression changed dramatically. A wave of shock crashed through him as he realized with horror—the tea had been drugged.