Chapter 189: Jin Shi Yue, I like you
Group messages and private messages flooded in, dense and numerous.
Lian Li’s social network was simple, and she didn’t have many people to contact daily. The constant stream of new messages felt like a zombie apocalypse.
She opened the latest chat page; Gu Sheng had sent her two messages.
“Didn’t expect you to be with the Second Young Master Jin.”
“Congratulations, I wish you both the best.”
Gu Sheng was part of Zhong Yang’s circle of young masters. When he asked Lian Li for her contact information, Lian Li, not minding adding a few more dormant contacts on WeChat, added him. After becoming WeChat friends, their chat history consisted only of Gu Sheng asking Lian Li what she was doing, and her replying that she was playing on her mobile phone, with no further conversation.
Lian Li was adept at starting conversations and equally skilled at killing them. Most of the time, she maintained an outwardly warm but inwardly cold demeanor. During the rare moments when she was with Jin Shi Yue, she couldn’t even figure out her own state.
At that moment, Xue Shufan’s message popped up: “Li Li, quickly check your Moments!”
Lian Li, feeling a bit lost, switched pages to her Moments feed. She scrolled down unhurriedly, and upon seeing something, her finger abruptly stopped.
Jin Shi Yue had posted on his Moments, with a concise and clear four-character caption: “Happy Graduation.”
The accompanying photo was of Lian Li wearing academic dress, speaking on stage at the graduation ceremony.
The woman stood before a mahogany podium with a black microphone, calmly and composedly looking up at the teachers and students in the audience. Her facial features were still those of a friendly and pretty younger sister, but her aura had transformed from gentle and soft to sharp and heroic.
Seemingly a soft girl, but actually a boss.
On WeChat Moments, one could only see likes and comments from mutual friends. Lian Li scrolled down with her fingertip and saw that almost all their mutual friends had liked, commented, and left messages, especially Zhong Yang.
Zhong Yang: “My Li Mei is too beautiful!”
Zhong Yang: “Wait, wait, wait? Are you showing off your affection???”
Zhong Yang: “Damn, some people are finishing their studies after graduation, some are finishing their single status, and some are starting to eat dog food.”
Someone else commented: “Sister-in-law, hello! Happy graduation, sister-in-law! Sister-in-law and Master Yue are so well-matched!”
There were too many comments, so Lian Li gave them a cursory glance. They were mostly blessings, flattery, and greetings.
Lian Li: “…” She wondered why so many people were suddenly contacting her; it turned out to be the Eldest Young Master’s doing.
Jin Shi Yue held her on his lap, his chin resting on her shoulder, and glanced at her phone screen: “Just saw it?”
It had been four hours since he posted on his Moments. Calculating the time, he must have posted it around the time he was returning to Xi Shang Yuan.
Lian Li hummed in response: “Where did you get that photo?”
“I bought it with money,” Jin Shi Yue replied concisely. As he spoke, his hot breath brushed against the skin of her side neck, causing a barely perceptible tremor.
Lian Li didn’t dwell on the photo’s origin. She immediately connected the matter of meeting Chen Shifei with his act of posting on his Moments.
Anyone with a brain knew that Jin Shi Yue was making an official announcement, letting everyone know that he and Lian Li were dating.
The internet has no memory, but it has archives. People are forgetful; words spoken face-to-face can be easily erased, but traces that truly existed cannot be wiped away.
Jin Shi Yue could organize gatherings and introduce Lian Li to the noble scions of his circle, having them call her sister-in-law, but this method of spreading news was too slow.
He could also take Lian Li back to the Jin Family, but he understood her; she wouldn’t go back with him at this stage.
Lian Li turned her head and looked at Jin Shi Yue thoughtfully: “Now that everyone knows we’re dating, you can’t lie to other girls anymore and say you’ve never been with a woman.”
“You’re just trying to anger me,” Jin Shi Yue said, amused by her. “Aren’t you tired of trying to trick me all day?”
“Not tired.”
Lian Li put down her mobile phone, turned sideways, and wrapped her arms around his neck: “I hate it when people lie to me, even trickery.”
Jin Shi Yue rubbed her head: “Do you know what I hate?”
“No,” Lian Li said, fully embodying the principle of “knowing what you know, and acknowledging what you don’t know.”
Jin Shi Yue said, “You exclude me from your world.”
Upon hearing this, Lian Li couldn’t help but freeze.
He knew everything.
For the past twenty-one years, Lian Li had been waiting, waiting for her mother, waiting for Jin Yan Ting. It wasn’t until last year that she ended some of her waiting.
And it was at this very moment that Jin Shi Yue appeared.
Lian Li didn’t wait for him, and Jin Shi Yue didn’t need her to wait for him.
He pursued her.
Jin Shi Yue, with his fervent and fierce emotions, swept Lian Li away like a surging storm, leaving her disoriented and unsure of the current time.
Being with Jin Shi Yue, she clearly understood how difficult intimate relationships could be.
Jin Shi Yue, usually cynical and carefree, frequently fell into low spirits after getting together with her.
She didn’t understand why he was like this. She wanted to make him happy, but no matter what she did, it seemed she couldn’t.
Lian Li could handle the outside world with ease but couldn’t cope with Jin Shi Yue, who forcefully intruded into her life.
He wasn’t satisfied with a superficial romantic relationship.
He wanted to enter her world, paint a vibrant stroke, and engrave an eternity that belonged only to them.
But for someone like Lian Li, no one had ever left a mark on her world before, and no one would enter it in the future.
Lian Li sat in Jin Shi Yue’s embrace, turned her head, and stared at him without blinking.
The ink-colored shirt on the man was luxurious and smooth. His bangs naturally fell on his brow bone, leading down to a high nose bridge. His raven-like eyelashes were long and dense, obscuring his deep, dark eyes, giving him an air of gloomy sternness.
Gloomy—a word that seemed utterly unrelated to Jin Shi Yue—yet it fit him perfectly at this moment.
Lian Li wrapped her arms around his neck, buried her face in his shoulder, and her voice sounded muffled: “Then do you hate me?”
He hated being excluded from her world.
This was equivalent to him liking being included in her world.
No matter how she looked at it, she couldn’t conclude that he hated her, yet Lian Li felt that him hating her was the correct interpretation.
Chen Shifei’s words did not affect Lian Li.
In terms of family background and status, she and Jin Shi Yue were not a good match, but being not a good match didn’t mean she felt she wasn’t good enough for him.
Lian Li simply felt that for her and Jin Shi Yue, liking each other was easy, but loving each other deeply was very difficult.
They belonged to two different worlds, with their own lives, like two non-intersecting circles.
The reason they had an intersection now was that his circle had expanded infinitely, forcefully and passionately expanding, first lightly touching hers, then creating an intersection, which gradually grew larger, eventually enveloping her completely.
It was he who transformed them from unrelated circles into two concentric circles.
“No one could bear to hate you,” Jin Shi Yue said, tightening his arm around her waist, holding her tightly.
“Is that so?” Lian Li said, “But I hate you.”
Upon hearing this, Jin Shi Yue thrust his knee upward, and Lian Li jolted on him unexpectedly.
Fearing she would fall, she quickly tightened her grip around his neck with both hands.
“Say that again, who do you hate?” Jin Shi Yue’s voice was clear and cold, with a dominant warning tone, as if she would die on him if she said she hated him again.
Lian Li was stubborn: “I’ll say it if I want to, who’s afraid of whom.”
She tilted her head and, just as he had done to her ear, she gently bit his ear.
“Jin Shi Yue.”
The words that came to her lips somehow changed: “I like you.”
