Chapter 31 — To the Imperial Tournamen (1/2)

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“Then… can I be your friend?”

Alas, he was bluntly turned down.

“You, you also resent me for being ugly, right? I know I don’t deserve to be anyone’s friend, and no one is willing to be my friend either. Compared to how good-looking you are, I…”

Under the bombardment of his self-inferiority and spluttering, Yun Wu opened her eyes again and sat up in frustration. She swatted aside his face veil and looked him in the eye, “A person’s appearance depends not on their face, but their mentality. As long as you believe you’re handsome, then that’s what you are. Black ball, I’m begging you, stop prattling like you’re Tang Seng1, okay? It hurts my head.”

Yun Wu felt like she could finally sympathize with Hou Ge2, as she almost couldn’t resist the urge to feed the black-clad man a needle and henceforth shut him up.

Tang Seng? Who?

Black ball? Was that referring to him? Long San fell into a visible daze, but he recovered quickly, and a grin appeared on his hideous face. A nice set of beautiful white teeth was revealed.

“I just knew you were a good person, that you would agree to be my friend! My name is Long San. I’m Long Xu Kingdom’s third prince, but when I was a child, I came to Zhou Dynasty and became an exchanged prince. Though I’ve been alive for 25 years, this is my first time having a friend, I’m so happy…”

With that, his entire person fell on Yun Wu. His arms wrapped around her body, tightly hugging her as tears of joy fell from his eyes. Then, in a show of extreme “excitement,” he rubbed his face against the center of her underdeveloped chest.

Muddled by the sudden assault and weight on her body, for a moment Yun Wu forgot to react.

When did she say she wanted to be his friend? She’d intended to push him away, but hearing him say that he was already 25-years-old, and yet she was his first ever friend, she couldn’t help but hesitate.

Forget it, she’ll leave him be. They wouldn’t have much interaction afterward anyway…

But it wasn’t long before she realized she couldn’t have been more wrong.

Since that day, Long San practically stuck himself to her. As long as it was daytime, no matter where she was, they would “coincidentally” bump into each other. She actually wouldn’t have minded if it was just the “coincidences,” but that wasn’t the end of his clinginess.

Regardless of what she was doing, he would also relentlessly tag along. Eventually, everyone in Yun Manor learned of their “friendship,” and the looks of ambiguity, ridicule, scorn, and jape piled up.

Yun Wu didn’t care about what they thought, but she was truly annoyed to death by the man in question.

…..

Morning of the imperial hunting tournament!

Long San, dressed in his usual black attire and face veil, once again showed up in Yun Wu’s Ning Courtyard, and he even went as far as to unashamedly lie down on her bed before expressing his desire to watch her disrobe.

Of course, he was ruthlessly kicked out by an enraged Yun Wu. Only after she finished changing did she walk out, and as soon as she caught sight of his face-veiled figure, she grew ill-tempered and threw him a contemptuous look.

“What do you think you’re staring at? Go already!”

“Friend, today, you… really pretty.” Long San complimented, as though pleasantly surprised.

Yun Qi had commemorated Yun Wu’s move into Ning Courtyard with gifts of silk and brocade, precious pieces of jewelry, and not to mention, an endless supply of servants and guards. Since Yun Wu disliked having servants flock around her all day, she’d dismissed them before they even had the chance to step into the courtyard.

As for the clothes and jewelry, she’d accepted them without standing on ceremony.

Currently, she was in violet attire; gorgeous yet simple and unfettered. The dress was very plain compared to the other magnificent clothes she had received, but worn on her body, it appeared drastically more beautiful.

Clothes make a man just as a saddle makes a horse—this saying wasn’t unjustified.

Paying no heed to Long San, Yun Wu spun around and headed for the entrance, but the sleeve of her right arm was promptly seized by a large hand.

“Friend, don’t be mad. I’m just afraid if you get lost later, I won’t be able to protect you.” Under her piercing gaze, Long San broke into a wide and sincere smile.

Yun Wu really wanted to give him a kick and tell him to go to hell, but every time she was angered to the point of doing just that, he would flash a brilliant, “naive” smile at her. It was the kind of smile that rendered her incapable of raising her hand against him.

“Let go of me, and stop rambling,” Yun Wu frowned, trying to shake his hand off. He stubbornly held on. “Don’t be like this. Friend, you don’t know, but this year’s tournament is held in the palace’s own exclusive Beast Forest. The magical beasts inside are very fierce. If you don’t have my protection, you will definitely be injured.”

His protection?

With his strength… who would be protecting who, exactly?

…..