Who would have thought that Lian Li had originally intended to keep the item hidden beneath him? Seeing Yun Huizhou reach out to grab it directly, he suddenly found himself unwilling to let Yun Huizhou just pull it out.
He immediately pressed his body down, pinning the hidden object along with Yun Huizhou’s hand. Fearing that Yun Huizhou would simply yank it out once he caught hold of it, Lian Li even used his arm to clamp down on Yun Huizhou’s forearm, preventing him from moving.
Yun Huizhou’s arm remained still, but his fingers shifted slightly.
“If you don’t want to see it, then don’t,” Lian Li said, pressing down even more firmly. “Don’t make it seem like I’m forcing you to look.”
“I’m not,” Yun Huizhou replied. “I want to see it. Really, I want to see it very much. Hurry and tell me, what good thing did you find?”
Lian Li stared at Yun Huizhou’s face. Seeing that his expression held a hint of helplessness but no impatience, Lian Li lowered his head.
From an angle Yun Huizhou couldn’t see, Lian Li’s eyes were filled with hesitation, and the movement of his Adam’s apple betrayed his current nervousness.
Lian Li remained silent, and Yun Huizhou didn’t withdraw his hand, maintaining their current posture.
After a long moment, Lian Li blinked rapidly several times. Having composed his expression and emotions, he looked up at Yun Huizhou and said, “Fine then, I’ll let you see.”
As if afraid he might suddenly regret it, he sat up abruptly, scooped up the book hidden beneath him, and flipped it open with frantic haste.
From this angle, Yun Huizhou could only see the cover of the book. Unfortunately, there were no words on the cover, which reminded him of the book currently tucked against his own chest.
That one also had no words on the cover.
Convinced in his heart that what Lian Li held was certainly a book of Spring Palace pictures, Yun Huizhou blinked and quickly adjusted his expression, waiting for Lian Li to speak.
Lian Li flipped the book open. Upon seeing the illustrations inside, he forced a smile of excited sharing onto his face and said to Yun Huizhou, “You’ll never guess what I found.”
“Spring Palace pictures! There are Spring Palace pictures in our Book Pavilion! You didn’t expect that, did you?”
Yun Huizhou put on a timely expression of shock. “You found them in our Book Pavilion? I’ve never seen them before.”
Lian Li gave a smug laugh. “Haha, Master wasn’t wrong when he said you don’t like going to the Book Pavilion. But even if you did, you’d probably only look at various martial arts and mental cultivation methods. You definitely wouldn’t have found this.”
Yun Huizhou replied with a stiff smile, “I suppose that’s true.”
Lian Li didn’t look at Yun Huizhou’s expression; he didn’t dare to look now. He was afraid that if he took one more look, he wouldn’t have the courage to say what came next or do what he intended to do.
He was even more afraid that after saying those words and doing those things, he would be even less brave enough to face Yun Huizhou’s reaction.
He turned the book in his hand over, letting the inner pages face Yun Huizhou while the cover faced himself. Pointing his finger at the page, he continued, “You definitely wouldn’t imagine it, but these aren’t ordinary Spring Palace pictures. Look closely.”
As the book was turned over, Yun Huizhou didn’t want to look at the content at all. He instinctively wanted to avert his gaze, as if as long as he didn’t see it with his own eyes, he could pretend that what Lian Li was looking at wasn’t erotica.
But Lian Li had already said so much, and his finger was pointing right at the page.
He could only follow Lian Li’s finger and look. He was afraid that if he didn’t look, Lian Li would want to discuss it with him, and if he couldn’t say anything, Lian Li would realize he hadn’t looked at all. Then Lian Li would be unhappy, thinking he was just humoring him.
But with that one look, his pupils suddenly contracted in shock.
At that moment, Lian Li’s voice rang out again. “This book of Spring Palace pictures actually doesn’t depict a man and a woman, but a man and another man!”
Fearing his intentions were too obvious and might be detected by Yun Huizhou, he immediately added another sentence after saying that.
“Besides men with men, I also saw women with women in the Book Pavilion.”
For a long time, Lian Li heard no response from Yun Huizhou. He hid his face behind the book, blinking his eyes frantically in his nervousness.
He wanted to see Yun Huizhou’s expression, yet he didn’t dare. He wanted to pretend he simply found it interesting and ask for Yun Huizhou’s opinion, yet he didn’t dare.
For a time, a deathly silence filled the room.
The moment Yun Huizhou saw Lian Li take out this book, he had felt a sense of joy. He felt that Lian Li, at the very least, shouldn’t be repulsed by such things; otherwise, his first reaction upon discovering such Spring Palace pictures wouldn’t have been to find it interesting and share it with him.
But because of this, he felt all the more that Lian Li was being completely open and candid. If Lian Li had even the slightest inclination toward such things, he probably wouldn’t have directly brought this item out to show a close male friend.
It was too easy to cause a misunderstanding, just like how he himself worried about the other person overthinking things.
Furthermore, even if Lian Li could accept it, Yun Huizhou hadn’t even figured out his own situation yet.
After a long while, Yun Huizhou felt that continuing the silence wasn’t an option, so he spoke up. “It is quite interesting. I didn’t expect our Book Pavilion to have such books. It seems the variety in our collection is quite extensive.”
Hearing Yun Huizhou speak and even play along with him, Lian Li felt his heart, which had been about to leap out of his chest, steady itself slightly.
Although he felt that Yun Huizhou’s words sounded a bit like forced small talk from someone who didn’t know what else to say, at least the words didn’t express any sense of disgust.
Hiding his face behind the book, Lian Li pursed his lips and then lowered the book.
He didn’t close it; instead, he left it spread open between himself and Yun Huizhou before looking at him again.
He noticed that Yun Huizhou’s gaze actually followed his hand downward, staring intently at the book.
Though his expression hadn’t changed much, he didn’t look overly serious or unhappy.
Lian Li thought for a moment and decided to probe a bit deeper.
He spread his palm and pressed it down on the book, completely covering the illustrations.
“Hmm?” Yun Huizhou looked up, letting out a confused sound.
Lian Li raised an eyebrow at him and said intentionally, “Staring so intently? Don’t you like girls? Why are you still staring at this?”
Hearing him say this, Yun Huizhou’s eyes darkened slightly. He replied, “Didn’t you bring it for me to see? You’re unhappy if I don’t look, and now you won’t let me look when I do.”
He paused for a moment and then added, “Just because I like girls doesn’t mean I can’t look at this. Besides, you’re the one who brought it out to share. Could it be that you don’t like girls anymore? I remember you telling me before that your brother and sister-in-law were unwilling to spend money to find you a wife.”
Lian Li touched his earlobe, thinking to himself that those were things from a long time ago. Furthermore, the original owner’s brother and sister-in-law indeed hadn’t been willing to spend money on a marriage for him.
At that time, he had complained about it to Yun Huizhou, but that was only because the topic had come up naturally. He had just been venting; it didn’t necessarily represent his actual thoughts.
