Chapter 578: A Blunt, No-Nonsense Declaration

Chapter 578: A Blunt, No-Nonsense Declaration

Psychological motive?!

Actually, Xia Jinyu already had an answer before Wu Chen asked. “Taking advantage of me” might seem too simple, too ordinary, but that was precisely why it was the most common answer—and the most reasonable one.

What man would dare claim that kissing a beautiful woman he barely knew had nothing to do with taking advantage of her?

Even if he came up with some high-minded excuse, reason, or motive afterward, that wouldn’t mean he hadn’t wanted to take advantage of her.

“First!” Xia Jinyu narrowed her eyes slightly, the corners of her lips curling into a faintly cold smile. She looked as though she had seen right through Wu Chen. “You interrupted me just now because you didn’t want me to say something that couldn’t be taken back. Clearly, you don’t want to establish a negative relationship with me, one filled with hostility.”

“Mm-hmm.” Wu Chen raised his eyebrows and shrugged, as if to say she was right.

Wu Chen knew Xia Jinyu extremely well. He understood that when she adopted the attitude of someone who had seen through another person, she had entered what could be called combat mode. She might not actually have seen through her opponent, but she would use her bearing to make the other person uneasy and provoke a mistake.

In that state, she sometimes deliberately slowed her speech; at other times, she spoke very quickly, all while watching the other person’s reactions.

A single extended statement from her might contain numerous probes. She would adjust what she said next according to the other person’s response, whether it was a change in microexpression or an unconscious movement of the body.

Under equal conditions, Xia Jinyu would be almost impossible to defeat.

Of all the people Wu Chen had encountered during his thousand-year loop, she might well have had the greatest talent for psychology.

Even Wu Chen himself would have had only a fifty-percent chance of beating her if they had been on equal footing. Conversely, Xia Jinyu would have had a fifty-percent chance of beating him.

But there was no such thing as “if.”

After Wu Chen escaped the thousand-year loop, no one he faced could be said to be on equal footing with him—not Li Ruobing or Su Qingying, nor Li Ruotai or Lu Guangnian, or anyone else. “I know everything about you” was Wu Chen’s greatest weapon. His knowledge of Xia Jinyu was one-sided.

He knew exactly what to do around her and when to do it: when to hold back, for instance, and when to be excessively forward. He knew what would pique her interest and what would annoy her.

He had already been excessively forward.

At this moment, he was mostly holding back.

“I know, Mr. Wu.” Xia Jinyu looked into his eyes. “You’re far too confident in your own charm—frighteningly so. You must have more than one long-term female companion. I’d guess at least three, and most of these women are older than you, including this Miss Bingbing.”

“For you, conquering a woman younger than yourself wouldn’t offer much of a sense of accomplishment. And you have a fortune that would seem astronomical to an ordinary person. You’re only twenty-two. Girls younger than you, even those from prominent families, are unlikely to have much in the way of guile or life experience. If they’re good, they’re innocently good; if they’re bad, they’re simply bad. They’re too easy for you to get.”

“Mm-hmm.” Wu Chen gave her another affirmative hum, still smiling.

Once again, he acknowledged her deduction.

This time, however, Xia Jinyu was not entirely right, because Wu Chen’s “real age” was not twenty-two. In fact, no one in this world was older than he was. Of course, if one considered only his physical age, most of the women in his life really were older than him.

Her guess sounded astonishing, but it was mostly bluff.

There were only two broad possibilities: either the women were much older than Wu Chen or much younger. Since Xia Jinyu had already noticed that Li Ruobing was somewhat older than him, it was more likely that she would guess there were more older women.

Still, Xia Jinyu really was frighteningly perceptive.

Many of her deductions had come only after Wu Chen suddenly kissed her, and she had hit an extraordinary number of key points. Some of her errors were not her fault: no one could infer or deduce Wu Chen’s thousand-year loop. Because of that, there were things she would never be able to guess correctly.

For example, she had guessed that Wu Chen was a wealthy young master.

She wasn’t entirely wrong about his wealth, although he had not possessed it for very long.

But the idea that he was a young master from a wealthy family was completely wrong. The bearing he displayed had been cultivated during the thousand-year loop. It was only natural that Xia Jinyu couldn’t see through it.

“So the motive behind your kissing me…” Xia Jinyu raised a finger and gestured. “First! You were taking advantage of me. I’m thirty-three, but I know exactly how attractive I am. I’m no less attractive than the younger Miss Bingbing sitting beside you, and I have a distinctive quality she doesn’t. You… are lecherous!”

When Xia Jinyu was in combat mode, she became blunt.

It was practically an insult.

She wasn’t always this direct. Different people called for different methods.

The way she was treating Wu Chen now was the approach she had chosen instinctively.

“Although I take issue with some of your wording, Professor Xia…” Wu Chen finally stopped responding with little affirming hums. There was no need to evade or pretend here. Xia Jinyu was right; she had simply put it rather unflatteringly. “Overall, I won’t deny what you’ve said. I’m a healthy adult man, still in the prime of my youth, and it’s hard to deny that I’d feel that way toward a woman like you.”

“Second!” Xia Jinyu moved straight to her next point, a trace of mockery entering her tone. “Whatever your ultimate purpose in approaching me, your kiss just now wasn’t only about taking advantage of me. You also want to establish a long-term relationship with me.”

She was deliberately mocking him to provoke an emotional response.

“Or, to put it another way,” she continued, “you don’t want me to misunderstand your intentions. You came here with a female companion. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t assume that you had any improper intentions toward me. You did this on purpose! You wanted me to know that you’re interested in me!”

Clap, clap!

“Brilliant!” Wu Chen applauded twice.

Her final point was absolutely right—remarkably precise. The most important reason Wu Chen had kissed her was that he didn’t want Xia Jinyu to mistakenly think he wasn’t interested in her. He needed her to know that she herself was the reason he’d come.

A blunt, no-nonsense declaration.

And Wu Chen didn’t mind in the least that Xia Jinyu knew how outrageous his intentions were. He even hoped she’d think he had gone further than he actually had.

In a certain sense, this was crucial.

What made Xia Jinyu most different from “normal people” was that she had seen through too much of the world’s ugliness.

She was constantly trying to reconcile herself with the world.

Why had she never been in love? Why had she still never even had her first kiss?