Chapter 94: The Scheming Eldest Young Master
Lian Li: 「My friend is a woman.」
Xue Shufan: 「A woman, so the man was a virgin? How do you prove he was a virgin, he’s lying! If a woman wants to sleep with a man, and the man doesn’t agree, he definitely can’t sleep with her. Either they are mutually in love, or the man is interested in the woman! If it’s the former, don’t worry about it. If it’s the latter, that man clearly slept with the woman he likes, so how can he ask her to take responsibility after getting such a great deal!」
Lian Li’s eyes reflected this message, lost in thought.
Xue Shufan: 「Wait, you slept with Jin Yan Ting and don’t plan to take responsibility?!」
Upon seeing this, Lian Li suspected her Senior Sister had typed the wrong name.
Lian Li quickly typed: 「Don’t talk nonsense, I don’t have those dirty thoughts about Jin Yan Ting.」
As soon as she sent it, Xue Shufan called her via video. Lian Li touched Jin Shi Yue’s forehead to confirm his fever had subsided a bit before going to the living room to answer the call.
Lian Li sat cross-legged on the sofa, while Xue Shufan in the mobile phone was seen wiping coffee spilled on the floor.
“It’s normal for you to like Jin Yan Ting and have those kinds of thoughts about him, what’s so dirty about it?” Only Xue Shufan’s voice could be heard, not her person.
“When I liked him, I was young. My liking was on a psychological level, it didn’t escalate to a physical level,” Lian Li explained.
“Then who did you sleep with?” Xue Shufan’s face appeared on the screen.
Lian Li paused, then turned her head to look towards the bedroom. Xue Shufan was immediately shocked: “You just finished? And he’s still at your home right now?”
Another reason her junior sister was called “too much of a golden star” was that she wasn’t interested in handsome men, even if they had abs.
Xue Shufan couldn’t imagine Lian Li would actively sleep with a man, and it wasn’t even Jin Yan Ting.
Lian Li pondered for a moment and gave Xue Shufan a simplified version of the incident where she and Jin Shi Yue got drunk and hooked up.
When Xue Shufan heard Jin Shi Yue’s name, she spat out a mouthful of water onto her mobile phone. While wiping the screen with a tissue, she said, “Junior Sister, Li Li, you, I…”
She was so shocked that she had difficulty forming sentences.
After a long while, Xue Shufan finally asked, “Does he like you?”
“Probably not. I had that illusion before, but when I told him that the person I liked was Jin Yan Ting, he didn’t give up on making me take responsibility. He’s probably just teasing me and is interested in my body.”
If Jin Shi Yue liked Lian Li, he wouldn’t have been indifferent upon hearing she liked his brother. But if he was merely interested in her body, it wouldn’t matter who she liked.
As Lian Li was thinking, Xue Shufan suddenly asked, with a shocking statement, “Li Li, do you actually like him a little?”
“How is that possible!”
“You rejected Zhao Lizheng and other men with a smile but a hidden dagger, never holding back, you even resorted to violence,” Xue Shufan said logically. “You want to stay away from Jin Yan Ting, and you don’t show it when you refuse, and most importantly, you actually let Jin Shi Yue sleep in your room!”
“That’s because other men aren’t as domineering and capable as Jin Shi Yue. Even if I fought, I still couldn’t beat him,” Lian Li said unhurriedly. “As for sleeping in my room, he was sick, the sofa is small, and the second bedroom isn’t prepared. I couldn’t just let him lie on the floor, could I?”
Lian Li didn’t tell Xue Shufan that Jin Shi Yue had repeatedly kissed her after they hooked up. If she had, Xue Shufan would have surely come up with a wild array of analyses.
Xue Shufan pinched her chin and after a moment of thought, said, “The Jin Shi Yue you’re talking about is actually not the same person as the Jin Shi Yue I know and have heard about.”
“How is he different?” Lian Li asked, taking a sip of water to moisten her throat.
“Second Young Master Jin is extremely cold and indifferent, but not a scoundrel. He’s surrounded by scandals, but in reality, he has no interest in women at all,” Xue Shufan recalled carefully. “I even thought he liked men before, but later found out he wasn’t interested in men either.”
“Extorting you, blackmailing you, helping you in New York, relentlessly pursuing you to take responsibility… the things you’re saying are hard to imagine Second Young Master Jin doing.”
Lian Li fell into thought.
Last year at Rui Kong Ju, Jin Shi Yue helped her for the first time, and she was grateful. But afterwards, whenever she encountered him, accidents would happen; either she bumped into him, or he caused her to almost fall.
She wasn’t usually someone who bumped into people easily or fell down. Jin Shi Yue was like a jinx.
Who would have a good impression of a jinx.
“Let’s switch perspectives,” Xue Shufan guessed boldly. “Is it possible that he’s deeply calculating and deliberately made you approach him?”
Lian Li: “…You dare to imagine.”
At this point, Lian Li knew she wouldn’t get any useful advice from her Senior Sister.
“Let’s not talk about him anymore. I’ll think of a solution,” Lian Li said.
“Are you really not considering going to Princeton?” Xue Shufan took a sip of coffee. “Two years of further study and then coming back won’t affect you finding your mother in the Capital City. Besides, I’m here, I can keep an eye out for you while you’re away.”
Lian Li pondered for a few seconds and then said, “What I’m struggling with now is whether to give up mathematics and focus solely on the cello.”
To reach the highest stage in cello, she would inevitably have to give up something, such as her major.
“Why not give up the cello?” Xue Shufan countered.
Lian Li shook her head.
The cello was one of the ways to find her mother; she could never give it up.
Xue Shufan understood: “Going to Princeton won’t affect your cello playing. Li Li, we should think more about ourselves in life, don’t be bound by potential events.”
Lian Li worried that during the two years she was away from the Capital City, her mother might appear, and she would miss her, leading to lifelong regret.
If she gave up mathematics and didn’t go to Princeton University, she would also have lifelong regret.
The difference between the two choices was simply that the probability of regret in the former was 50%, while in the latter, it was 100%.
Xue Shufan said earnestly, “Li Li, the most important thing right now is to grasp what you can grasp.”
Her mother might never be found, but mathematics was within her reach.
After hanging up the phone, Lian Li lay on the sofa, burying her face in a pillow, and only lifted her head when she could barely breathe.
The reasons she couldn’t refuse Jin Shi Yue were obvious: first, he was extremely domineering and unreasonable, while her logical thinking was more rational and practical; second, she couldn’t say vicious words, nor could she do things against her conscience.
Her good upbringing and the harm caused by her mother’s heartless abandonment of her and her father did not allow her to maliciously harm others.
Lian Li opened her mobile mailbox to check the offer from Princeton University.
The admission ticket had been obtained; would she enter?
Her thoughts were currently like a tangled ball of yarn, very messy.
Both her studies and men were a mess.
Lian Li lay there for a while, took a deep breath, exhaled, and got up to return to the bedroom to check on Jin Shi Yue.
She took his temperature; it had gone down, so she removed the fever patch and threw it into the trash can.
Lian Li watched him for a moment, then turned to leave, but her wrist was suddenly grabbed.
She turned back and met Jin Shi Yue’s gaze.
He asked in a hoarse voice, “Where are you going.”
