Chapter 99: Sooner or Later, You'll Admit You Have Fallen for Me

After eating and drinking her fill, An An dragged Li back to the hot spring with her. The two of them soaked in the warm water, tilting their heads back to gaze up at the star-strewn night sky.

Li also had someone bring a pot of warmed sake.

“Want some?”

“Sure.” An An took a sip. “Not bad. Do you like this plum wine? I’ve seen you drink it a few times.”

The instant she finished speaking, something flickered in Li’s eyes. The next moment, he seized her arm and pulled her onto his lap.

The sudden move nearly made An An throw the cup in her hand.

Once she had steadied herself, she shot him a reproachful look. “What are you doing? You always startle me like that. Can’t you just talk properly? Does it have to be this way?”

Besides, with how little they were wearing and how close their skin was pressed together, it would be all too easy for sparks to fly.

She did not particularly want a hot-spring tryst just yet.

“You said you remember that I’ve drunk plum wine a few times. Why do you remember it so clearly?” Li pinched her slender waist and drew her into his arms.

An An froze for a moment, then felt a little guilty.

She looked away.

But Li tipped her chin up, forcing her to meet his gaze.

“What’s there to be afraid of admitting?”

“I— I just have a better memory than most people, that’s all.”

“Then tell me, when we went to the first fruit shop this afternoon, what color was the shopkeeper’s wife’s clothing?”

“...Are you sick?”

“Didn’t you say you had a good memory?”

“Then you tell me if you remember!”

“The shopkeeper’s wife was wearing a floral shirt. Red floral print.”

“...”

At Li’s words, An An remembered too. It had actually been her who told him that the shopkeeper’s wife was wearing a floral shirt, the kind older women in the countryside used to wear all the time.

How could he remember even some offhand remark of hers so clearly?

In the end, An An simply leaned against Li’s shoulder, too ashamed to face him.

Li seemed amused by her reaction. The corners of his lips curved, and a faint smile touched his brows.

“So what you’re paying attention to isn’t the plum wine, but...”

“No, it is the plum wine. I like plum wine!” An An grabbed the plum wine beside her and drank it in big gulps.

One had to know that warmed plum wine still packed quite a punch.

Before long, An An was drunk and melted into Li’s arms.

Looking at her flushed little face, Li gave a soft laugh, though his eyes were filled with an indulgence so deep it seemed impossible to drain away. He bent down and kissed her cheek.

“Fool. Did you really think that if you could escape for a while, you could escape forever?”

“Sooner or later, you’ll admit you’ve fallen for me.”

Afraid the sleeping An An might catch a chill, Li lifted her up, but she was wearing nothing at all, her whole body soft and pale, nearly making him lose control. He hurriedly grabbed a bath towel and wrapped her up.

Li sighed. “What a little temptress.”

“This debt, I’ll collect with interest tomorrow.”

After settling An An in, Li went for a cold shower. When he came out, he received a call from a friend.

“You’ve got five minutes. You’d better have something important to say.”

Qi Xize hurriedly said, “Wait, wait. I was wrong about last time, all right? I’d had too much to drink, so I heard wrong. But didn’t you later go on the show to protect your wife? You made everyone else suffer horribly while the two of you stayed cozy in your room.”

“Need your brother to recommend some tonic for you? Young people should still be moderate.”

Li clicked his tongue. “Some people are no good, so they assume everyone else is no good too.”

Qi Xize panicked on the other end. “Who’s no good? Don’t talk nonsense! Come over right now and I’ll prove it to you!”

“Last minute. Say it or forget it.”

“All right, all right. Is your precious girl planning to enter the entertainment industry? She’s still a hot topic right now, and a bunch of influencers are doing makeup looks inspired by her to ride the buzz.”

“She probably doesn’t have that idea right now.” Li knew that quite a few agencies had approached the magazine office, but An An had turned them all down.

Even if they were best friends, Li would absolutely never make An An do something she disliked.

Qi Xize was disappointed. He had been planning to turn her into a huge star. After all, his rival was riding high at the moment, and every time they ran into each other at major galas, he always came up short.

“If we’re really brothers, then... set up a meeting for the two of us.”

“What, so you can stab me in the back? Fine. I’ll come find you tomorrow with a forty-meter-long blade and let you run thirty-nine meters first.”

After grumbling, Li hung up.

It was rare to come across someone heaven itself seemed determined to feed with a silver spoon: a natural-born star. Qi Xize was not about to give up so easily.

He was deeply troubled. “Who can get in touch with An An?”

“An An? Why are you looking for my sister?” Wanwan had been bored stiff at home, so she had come to the bar to kill time.

Qi Xize narrowed his eyes slightly, then recognized her.

Realizing he had mistaken the person, he felt a little embarrassed and angry at himself. He could not understand how Wanwan could be so shameless as to enjoy things that did not belong to her.

Didn’t she have at least some idea of what was and was not arranged for her at home?

Still, he did not blow up for the moment. Instead, he asked Wanwan to give him An An’s contact information.

Wanwan took the opportunity to sit down. After all, Qi Xize was very handsome. Though still a bit inferior to Li, she was single now!

“You want my sister’s contact information? Why? She isn’t single, you know.”

“I know.” Qi Xize thought to himself, she’s fooling around with Ah Li, isn’t she!

“Since you know that, why do you still want her contact information? Or are you also planning to become one of my sister’s suitors? Fair enough, my sister never turns anyone away. Her male confidants have long since lined up all the way to the Far East.”

Wanwan deliberately smeared An An’s name.

Qi Xize was surprised, but more than that, skeptical. “Really?”

Because he did not think Li was an idiot. How could he possibly be handled by some woman who collected lovers like a sea king?

Wanwan nodded repeatedly. “You probably don’t know this, but my sister is even engaged to the young master of the Jiang family! But she never takes it seriously and has been fooling around behind Young Master Jiang’s back.”

“Wait—you said your sister is already engaged to Young Master Jiang?”

Qi Xize’s voice suddenly rose.

Then hadn’t his good brother gone and poached his own nephew’s woman?

That was absolutely thrilling!

Seeing how shocked he was, Wanwan secretly laughed and was about to continue bad-mouthing An An when she noticed Qi Xize growing even more excited.

“Quick, quick, tell me more. Tell me about your sister and Jiang Yu.”

Wanwan’s mouth twitched hard.

What kind of lunatic had she run into?

She forced out a dry laugh. “Actually, I suspect my sister betrayed Young Master Jiang a long time ago and has been sneaking around with some other man.”

“Mhm, and then?”

“Uh, she even knows the young master of the Gu family!”

“Really? Got photos? Proof?”

“Not exactly...”

“Then why are you talking nonsense?”

“No, no. A while ago, wasn’t my sister trending online? A reporter secretly photographed her going to a hotel with the young master of the Gu family. I recognized the man at a glance as the young master of the Gu family. The trending topic afterward was probably handled by him.”

All night long, Wanwan was cornered by Qi Xize, who kept prying into all sorts of private matters about An An and her admirers.