Chapter 18: People Have a Thousand Faces

……

"Sister Ningxue, Brother Lv Cheng is fine; he'll be back in a moment."

At Lv Cheng's home, Ye Xinxia was sitting together with Mu Ningxue.

"Then I'll be going now." Mu Ningxue stood up.

"Wait a moment!" Ye Xinxia hurriedly grabbed Mu Ningxue.

"Sister Ningxue, you should really clear things up with Brother Lv Cheng."

Mu Ningxue's expression was somewhat unnatural. "I've already said it, and I apologized, but he didn't respond to me."

Ye Xinxia looked puzzled. "How did you apologize?"

"I told him that there's nothing between me and Mo Fan, that I was acting on impulse that night, and if he still wants to get engaged, I will agree to it," Mu Ningxue said.

"And then?" Ye Xinxia asked.

"That's it," Mu Ningxue said indifferently.

"……"

"That's it?" Ye Xinxia was stunned.

No, Sister, you call that an apology?

"Then what was your tone and attitude like at the time?" Ye Xinxia asked.

Brother Lv Cheng has a very good temper, and he responds to soft tactics rather than hard ones; as long as you speak to him properly, he generally won't hold a grudge.

"What tone?" Mu Ningxue asked in return.

"……" Ye Xinxia.

Great! I've already roughly guessed the truth of the matter!

With your icy attitude that keeps people a thousand miles away—if it weren't for the fact that I've known you were like this since you were a child, given Brother Lv Cheng's temper, the only reason he didn't beat you up was out of consideration for you being a woman!

……

On the way home, Lv Cheng got into Tang Yue's private car.

"How come I feel like you don't seem particularly bothered by this matter?" Tang Yue asked curiously.

To be stood up by one's fiancée at an engagement banquet—a teenage boy going through something like this would likely feel as if his world were shattering.

She had been fortunate enough to witness similar scenes before, and in those cases, it felt like they were about to cry on the spot.

After all, adolescents are very sensitive and fragile, especially regarding these kinds of naive feelings of love; the slightest setback can trigger a huge emotional backlash.

She wouldn't even find it strange if they became enemies because of it.

But looking at Lv Cheng, when he mentioned that matter just now, he didn't seem very angry; it was more like... helplessness.

Helplessness toward a child.

"Bothered by what?" Lv Cheng asked in return.

"Being angry at the time was my instinct as a man. As for after the fact, what's past is past. Only self-abased and fragile people would harbor resentment over a small setback. This kind of thing is supposed to be mutual consent; if the other party isn't willing, I naturally won't force it."

"Besides, do I look like someone who lacks girls who like him?"

Tang Yue looked puzzled, but she had no way to refute him.

Not to mention in a small place like Bo City, even if he were placed outside, Lv Cheng's looks and temperament couldn't be faulted in the slightest.

It's just, isn't this child an orphan?

Someone whose parents disappeared when he was five or six—his looks could be attributed to genetics, but this temperament...

"I'm really curious how you've spent these years," Tang Yue said earnestly.

"Your temperament is, one could say, completely out of place with your classmates."

Temperament is a special kind of feeling that requires a large amount of time to train and cultivate; it cannot be faked, and a discerning eye can tell at a glance.

For example, Mo Fan is a naive, boisterous blockhead who speaks and acts without thinking, only caring about momentary satisfaction. Furthermore, he has a sense of superiority, thinking 'everyone is drunk while I alone am sober,' and looks down on those ordinary people who bow and scrape to the Mu Family.

Although that kid has great talent, he rashly makes enemies for himself while he is still weak, and the reason for making enemies... is not only unreasonable but quite childish!

How should I put it? It's very much in line with the impulsiveness of that age.

But the feeling Lv Cheng gives her...

"How else could I spend them? Just living by myself," Lv Cheng leaned against the window.

I lived like this in my past life, and this life is no different.

No, wait, I was a poor wretch in my past life; at least in this life, I have money. I don't have to worry too much about what I want to eat or what I want to wear.

Being born is also a technical skill.

Tang Yue paused. "Although this might be a bit rude, it really isn't easy to have such a stable and self-disciplined personality in an environment where you grew up alone from a young age with no one to teach or manage you."

Parents and family have the most profound influence on a person.

Lv Cheng gives people a very independent feeling, without a shred of childishness. Because he has had no one to rely on since he was small, Lv Cheng always gives people a sense of being out of place in a crowd.

In fact, many times, Lv Cheng could be described with the word 'cold.'

"Stable?" Lv Cheng raised an eyebrow.

"It's not that I'm stable; it's that I don't have the qualifications to be unstable."

"I also want to be willful, I also want to do as I please, but I know I don't have the qualifications. No one will back me up, and no one will tolerate my willfulness."

"I can only live cautiously, like the coward in that great genius Mo Fan's words, terrified of taking a single wrong step."

Tang Yue looked bitter. "You really are mature enough to make one's heart ache."

A fifteen or sixteen-year-old child—at this age, in the prime of youth, one should be carefree and full of vitality, passionate like the morning sun.

But Lv Cheng is like the moon hanging alone in the dark night sky—quiet, lonely...

"Heart ache?" Lv Cheng turned his head back.

"Do you need me to help you massage it? I know a little bit about massage; my technique is still decent."

Tang Yue's eye twitched, "I really can't tell which side of you is the real one."

One moment you are a quiet, handsome man, and the next you are a flirtatious playboy.

Who told him to be so handsome?

When a handsome person says lewd things, it's called being a romantic; when an ugly person does it, it's just being vulgar.

Of course, it also depends on the occasion and the degree; Lv Cheng doesn't just go up to anyone he meets and say lewd things.

At the very least, in school, this kid hasn't said such things to other female students.

"They are all real," Lv Cheng shrugged.

"People are multifaceted; there is no such thing as someone who is always the same."

"People have a thousand faces, and hearts have a thousand changes."

"Just like the sincere heart I showed you before, that was real, but the human heart changes in an instant—true is false, and false is true."

"..."

"Then what about now?" Tang Yue asked.

"Is your heart still sincere?"

"Is a sincere heart still sincere once it's spoken aloud?" Lv Cheng looked toward the small villa getting closer; that was the small house his parents had left him.

"Besides, if I said it, would you dare to believe it?"

Tang Yue curled her lips, "I certainly wouldn't."

"Hm?"

Walking to the doorway, Tang Yue smelled a waft of hot, fragrant aroma.

"I remember your sister Xinxia has limited mobility, right? You actually let her cook?"

"She just can't stand up, it's not like she can't move; what is there that she can't do?" Lv Cheng opened the door.

Regarding the matter of Ye Xinxia's legs, he decided to keep it hidden for the time being. After all, although Ye Chang was Ye Xinxia's mother, that woman had gone completely insane after Wen Tai died. For safety's sake, he had Ye Xinxia maintain her previous appearance whenever she was outside.

As for the night he first tried using the Horse Talisman to help Ye Xinxia stand up, she had only walked a few steps on the small hill, and it was very stiff. Afterward, he had carried Ye Xinxia home on his back; even if someone had seen that scene, they wouldn't think too much of it.

Today, the Sub-dragon Summoned Beast he deliberately created was enough to attract the attention of the Black Vatican. It wouldn't be long before Ye Chang would likely come knocking personally. They hadn't seen each other in ten years; he wondered if this old sister would even recognize him...

"Just can't stand up..." Tang Yue's eye twitched slightly.

She had thought Lv Cheng would dote on Ye Xinxia in every way, but looking at this attitude, why did it feel...

"Pity is not respect," Lv Cheng turned around.

"I treat her as my sister, not as some pitiful little cat or dog on the side of the road."

"She is very good; she doesn't need pity."

"I am also very good."

(End of chapter)