Aunt suddenly sniffed the air.
“Why does it smell like something’s burnt?… The ribs!”
Shen Xiyan rushed into the kitchen in a panic.
He spent all day trying to outsmart the hawk, only to be pecked in the eye by one.
In their previous lives, everyone had started from scratch. Girls matured faster than boys—it was understandable that she had taken the lead.
But now they had both been reborn… and she was still pulling the same tricks?
No one in this world knew Qin Sheng better than he did. Never fall for her gentle and kind facade—it only lasts until she gets what she wants.
“Bro, what’s going on?”
Shen Wen followed him into the kitchen, glanced at the two chatting in the living room, and lowered her voice.
Aunt might be clueless, but she wasn’t.
Qin Sheng’s words were full of holes.
“Did you piss her off, so now she’s here to gather intel… and eventually silence you?”
“Not exactly—”
“!!!”
Shen Wen spun around and saw Qin Sheng standing at the doorway with a sweet smile, but there was a chilling glint in her eyes.
“Qin—Qin Sheng-jie… What brings you here?”
“I already spoke with Aunt. You go sit in the living room, I’ll help your brother.”
“That’s right, Wenwen! You haven’t finished your homework—why are you wandering around?”
Aunt waved desperately behind Qin Sheng, signaling at Shen Wen to leave.
Shen Wen looked at her brother, then at her aunt. “I…”
“Go on! Go on!”
Qin Sheng ushered her out with playful insistence. Then she waved her hand in front of Shen Xiyan’s cheek.
“Isn’t it hot in here with the door shut? You’re sweating already.”
She tried to help wipe his sweat, but he dodged with a step back.
“Oh! I get it—you didn’t want the smoke to choke them out there, so you’d rather suffer in here. Right?”
“What exactly are you trying to do?” Shen Xiyan stared at her intensely.
There was no right or wrong between him and Qin Sheng. They just… weren’t meant to be.
Qin Sheng had many good qualities—she didn’t need to waste her youth on him.
She wasn’t like other women, who faced with hardship or frustration, would start blaming everyone: Blaming their husbands for being incapable, unromantic, or uncaring—Or worse… for being poor.
Blame is the most terrifying killer in love—crueler and sharper than time itself.
Qin Sheng blinked her big eyes and spoke with natural ease: “I told you already—I like you.”
“But we’ve only just met. Even if this were truth or dare, this would be too much, don’t you think?”
“Do I seem like that kind of person to you?” Qin Sheng’s eyes curved into a smile. “My reputation’s not that bad, is it?”
“I just thought you looked familiar, so I looked at you a little longer.”
“You another Jia Baoyu?”
The way that big flirt said to Lin Daiyu the first time they met: ‘This girl—I feel like I’ve seen her before.’
A master flirt, but a cold-hearted one who only kills and never buries.
“Maybe,” Qin Sheng grinned mischievously. “Jia Baoyu fell for Lin Daiyu at first sight—and I fell for you at first sight too.”
“I don’t believe in love at first sight. You don’t know anything about the other person—you just like the look of them. That’s lust, not love.”
“Of course it’s lust! Has anyone ever fallen in love at first sight with someone who’s butt-ugly?”
Qin Sheng’s righteous tone left Shen Xiyan momentarily speechless.
“Xiyan! You’re blushing…”
“That’s because it’s hot.”
“Ohh…”
Qin Sheng shyly looked down, but the corners of her mouth curled up again.
Shen Xiyan took a deep breath.
How could a grown man who had lived a second life be teased like this by a young girl?
He needed to reclaim his dignity.
Time to drop a bomb.
“I already have someone I like.”
“Is it me?”
Qin Sheng lifted her head. Her starry eyes sparkled as she leaned in closer, her gaze dreamy, the air between them thick with tension.
Just as she was about to reach him, Shen Xiyan suddenly said, “That girl I was with before… My neighbor. Her name’s Lin Ci.”
“Oh… her.”
Qin Sheng’s eyes shimmered under the light, her fair skin glowing. For a moment, jealousy and displeasure flickered in her gaze—but then it vanished.
“That’s fine.”
“…What?”
That’s fine? Was that really her line?
Wrong script, maybe?
“Do you even know what you’re saying?”
“Of course. I’m just lusting after your body. Just keep it a secret from her, no big deal.”
She looked up at him with a mischievous grin and lightly scratched his palm with her pinky.
A strange tingle shot up from his palm to his arm, then into his chest. Shen Xiyan instinctively stepped back.
“Are you insane?”
“I’m not! I like you—pure and simple!”
Qin Sheng took another step forward and locked eyes with him.
“No strings attached. Just you.”
There was something deeper in those words.
And just as Shen Xiyan’s thoughts began to wander, Qin Sheng suddenly tiptoed up, wrapped her arms around his neck, and gently bit his ear.
Then she whispered three words softly against it: “…I’m sorry.”
Shen Xiyan’s heart pounded violently—he couldn’t tell if it was from the bite or the words. A wave of tingling sensation spread from his ear through his entire body.
He shoved her away.
“Why are you apologizing?”
Qin Sheng didn’t answer.
Smack.
Catching him off guard, she tiptoed again, grabbed his neck, and kissed him.
Her lips brushed against his, and her soft tongue slipped in—as if entering her own home—until their tongues lightly touched and parted.
Seeing the shock, confusion, and faint rejection in his eyes, Qin Sheng’s gaze dimmed.
“That was my first kiss… and now, this was my second.”
“What is wrong with you? This isn’t like you at all!”
Qin Sheng gave a bitter smile.
“Do you really think you know me that well? Just from the rumors floating around school?”
“Qin Sheng!”
Shen Xiyan’s voice dropped into a growl.
Anyone who knew him well could tell he was really angry.
But Qin Sheng didn’t flinch.
“You were about to say it, weren’t you? That I’m being too forward, that it makes me seem cheap?”
“Well then,” she wrinkled her nose, eyes smiling again, “why don’t you try being more forward yourself?”
“…I don’t like you. Got that?”
“Hmm?”
Qin Sheng’s eyes glinted with a strange glow, her beautiful, pale face tilting in a half-smile.
A strange fear suddenly gripped Shen Xiyan.
It came out of nowhere—like he was sinking underwater, the world around him hazy, and all he could see was that lovely, radiant face.
Suddenly, Qin Sheng laughed—like sunlight breaking through fog.
“I don’t care. I really like you. Super-duper like you! Like-you-so-much-I’ll-die kind of like you! If I can’t like you, I’ll die anyway!”
Thud.
The kitchen door creaked.
Both of them turned to look—Aunt was holding an empty glass, wearing a guilty expression.
She mumbled to herself in a whisper, “Oh dear, must not have slept well last night… My head’s spinning… why does it sound like my ears are ringing? Buzz, buzz…”
Qin Sheng’s face flushed bright red.
She covered her face with both hands and peeked out from between her fingers to steal a glance at Shen Xiyan.
“I… I’m going to the bathroom!”
Shen Xiyan: “???”
You’re still pretending?
yeah, there is no love at first sight. If someone tell you that, call that bullchit
it always lust
Grabbed bros neck, wth bruh