Chapter 187: What’s the Deal Between You and Zhang Ning?

“Stop talking!” Yun Huizhou said, having reached the end of his patience.

“Mmph mmph… mmph mmph mmph!” Lian Li didn’t struggle much; instead, he deliberately made muffled noises to indicate he still had more to say.

Yun Huizhou couldn’t keep pinching his mouth forever. After his expression shifted through several stages of internal struggle, he spoke again: “You are not allowed to say those things that give people goosebumps and make them want to vomit anymore.”

Lian Li blinked and nodded in agreement.

Once Yun Huizhou withdrew his hand, Lian Li didn’t pull away. Instead, he continued, “Under normal circumstances, shouldn’t the way to stop me from talking be…”

“Should be what?” Hearing Lian Li stop halfway, Yun Huizhou couldn’t help but press for an answer.

“Shouldn’t you use your mouth to block mine?” Lian Li said earnestly.

Yun Huizhou: “…If you want me to kiss you, just say so. There’s no need to go such a long way around. I am quite generous, after all.”

Lian Li chuckled twice, his eyes fixed intently on Yun Huizhou.

Yun Huizhou pulled him into his lap to sit, then cupped the back of his head, forcing him to lower it.

After being gnawed on like a dog by Yun Huizhou for a while, Lian Li climbed off him and ran to the side, using his sleeve to wipe his mouth.

Yun Huizhou followed him and said deliberately, “Still wiping your mouth? Do you find me that repulsive?”

Lian Li glared at him and cursed, “Are you a dog? You actually bite.”

“Didn’t you bite me too?” Yun Huizhou pointed to his own lip, where a clear tooth mark was visible.

Lian Li: “You bit me first, so I bit back.”

Seeing Yun Huizhou approaching again, Lian Li hurriedly dodged backward. Don’t think he hadn’t noticed—this man had started wandering his hands while they were kissing just now.

“I have something to ask you. Be serious.” Lian Li bypassed Yun Huizhou and found a chair to sit down.

“What is it?” Yun Huizhou asked.

“What’s the deal between you and Zhang Ning?” Lian Li asked. “It’s rare to see you so bluntly repulsed by someone. You weren’t even like this during the bandit suppression or when you killed Feng Man.”

Hearing Lian Li bring this up, Yun Huizhou subconsciously frowned, as if even mentioning her was a nuisance.

Seeing this reaction, Lian Li’s mind began to uncontrollably fill in the blanks.

This was a novel world. Yun Huizhou was a male supporting character here, and Zhang Ning was a woman—a woman with high martial arts skills who was around the same age as Yun Huizhou.

And Yun Huizhou’s attitude toward her was clearly different from how he treated others.

Although this “difference” didn’t mean he was particularly good to Zhang Ning, but rather that he found her incredibly annoying.

But that could still be considered a special kind of feeling.

An alarm bell instantly rang in Lian Li’s head.

In real life, it was generally rare for someone to be genuinely annoyed by a person only to end up falling in love with them because of that annoyance.

Then, while still annoyed, they would do many things to hurt the other person until their heart was completely broken, leading them to decide to stop pestering the man.

At that point, the man would suddenly find himself unaccustomed to the lack of pestering. He would then have a sudden epiphany, realizing he had fallen in love with her long ago during the process of being annoyed.

Finally, it would play out as a “wife-chasing crematorium” trope.

Normal people in real life usually weren’t that sick.

But again, this was a novel.

Could it be… that this Zhang Ning was Yun Huizhou’s original hidden love interest!

Moreover, seeing how annoyed Yun Huizhou got just by the mention of her, it certainly wasn’t the result of just one or two encounters. They must have been in contact for a long time.

Thinking of this, Lian Li subconsciously sat up straight, his whole body tensing up.

Damn it. He had been so preoccupied with the “World’s Number One Beauty” business that he forgot to check if Yun Huizhou had any childhood sweethearts.

“Quick, confess honestly. What exactly is going on between you and her?” As soon as Lian Li said this, he realized his tone was off.

It sounded like he was interrogating Yun Huizhou.

So, he immediately added: “Did something happen between you two? Did she do something bad? To make you have such feelings toward a girl…”

Yun Huizhou’s brow had been furrowed, but upon hearing Lian Li’s transparent attempt at a follow-up, his expression instantly smoothed out.

He stared at Lian Li with a half-smile.

One look at him and Lian Li knew his little scheme had been seen through.

His face heated up, but then Lian Li became righteous again. So what if he asked?

Asking directly like this was better than keeping it bottled up and letting his imagination run wild.

How many young couples in TV dramas and novels lacked communication, keeping everything in their hearts until the conflict escalated and led to some nonsensical angst?

He was doing this for the sake of their relationship, not just out of random jealousy.

“Speak!” Lian Li said to Yun Huizhou, feigning ferocity.

Seeing him like this, Yun Huizhou played along by deliberately shrinking back, putting on a pitiful expression.

To be honest, seeing Yun Huizhou with such an expression for the first time, Lian Li really couldn’t handle it.

“You… don’t make that face. You’re making it look like I’m bullying you.” Lian Li turned his head away, refusing to look at Yun Huizhou.

Yun Huizhou moved a stool to sit beside Lian Li, gave a soft sigh, and then said, “But I really was bullied back then.”

“What!?” Lian Li suddenly cried out. “She bullied you before?”

Having said that, he didn’t wait for Yun Huizhou to speak but slapped his own thigh hard. “Agh! I really went too easy on Zhou Yu. If you had said so earlier, I guarantee I would have beaten Zhou Yu so badly even his own mother wouldn’t recognize him.”

Seeing this protective reaction, a warm current flowed through Yun Huizhou’s heart. He said, “Aren’t you going to ask how they bullied me? Aren’t you afraid I was the one who started the trouble first?”

Lian Li patted his shoulder and said, “Don’t I know what kind of person you are? If others don’t provoke you, you hardly spare them a glance. And if others do provoke you, you aren’t some soft bun that lets people knead you as they please.”

“You! You’re great! So, it must have been the other side being unreasonable and provoking you first. I’m certain that if they only bothered you once or twice, you’d basically stop caring once you got your revenge. But the fact that you’re so annoyed the moment she’s mentioned means she must have disgusted you many times.”

“And look at them—bringing such a huge crowd just for a duel, making it look like they’re starting a gang war. They probably had plans to gang up on us in private if they lost.”

“Even if they didn’t plan to jump us, look at all the other messy things they did. All that advance promotion and marketing, finding people to record the event… I bet if I had lost, positive PR for Zhou Yu and smear pieces about me would have been flying everywhere the next day.”

“They were probably planning to step on me to boost their own reputation. They really aren’t honorable people.”

“In conclusion: You! Good person! Them! Bad people!”

Listening to Lian Li’s elaborate reasoning, one could tell upon careful consideration that it wasn’t actually that logical—it was even a bit of a stretch.