CHAPTER FOURTEEN — I DARE YOU
Not because of the threat of being carried — though that was alarming enough — but because of the tone he used. Tender. Intimate. Almost… affectionate.
What on earth did he mean by that?
Her heart tightened. This man was sometimes bright, sometimes dark; sometimes sincere, sometimes false. He was impossible to read — and that was precisely what made him dangerous.
But one thing she knew with absolute certainty:
He would not let her go easily.
So she turned back and stepped into the carriage.
What is there to fear? she told herself. What is there to fear?
Nangong Yi's smile deepened, as though her decision delighted him.
"Since Miss Tang is no longer a fool," he murmured, "why did she pretend to be one so desperately in the Zen Hall? And the day before yesterday, during Sir Lin's case?"
His voice was light, but the pressure behind it was suffocating.
"Master Hui Yuan cured my illness when he treated my injuries," Tang Kexin replied evenly. The implication was clear: during the meditation hall incident, she had still been a fool.
"Is that so?" His gaze drifted — deliberately — to her left shoulder.
Tang Kexin's heart lurched.
Does he know?
Is it coincidence?
Or is he truly the man from that night?
"You dare say you have nothing to do with Sir Lin?" he murmured, leaning closer. His chin brushed dangerously near her shoulder, his breath warm against her skin.
His voice dropped, low and intoxicating. "Beautiful sister…"
Tang Kexin reacted instantly.
"Why does Beautiful Sister care so much about Sir Lin?" she blurted, her voice sharp with forced innocence. "Could it be that Beautiful Sister had a deep relationship with him? Beautiful Sister seems very fond of Sir Lin."
She had done it deliberately — to provoke him, to distract him, to break the suffocating tension. Anything was better than letting him continue whatever he had intended.
But Nangong Yi only smiled.
Slowly, deliberately, he reached out and brushed a strand of her hair. His long fingers curled around it, winding it gently, then tightening ever so slightly.
"Are you doubting my preferences?" he asked softly. "Why don't you give it a try?"
His face drew closer.
His lips hovered near hers.
His breath mingled with her own.
The air thickened — charged, dangerous, intoxicating.
Tang Kexin felt her heartbeat stumble.
She had dug a hole.
And she had fallen straight into it.
His presence enveloped her, warm and perilous, like velvet wrapped around a blade. The faint fragrance of her skin drifted between them, and his teasing gaze darkened into something deeper — something far more unsettling.
Tang Kexin's pulse quickened.
She had wanted to distract him.
Instead, she had awakened something far more dangerous.