Chapter 580: Taking It Too Far

Chapter 580: Taking It Too Far

Clap, clap!

As she heard the applause, Xia Jinyu stared at Wu Chen. She had just conducted a fairly thorough analysis of him, laying out his thoughts and motives bluntly, even using a few words that might make someone wince.

Yet Wu Chen wasn’t angry at all.

Xia Jinyu couldn’t read what was going through his mind from his face.

She had analyzed him correctly.

And he was applauding her.

That gave Xia Jinyu a sense of defeat, a feeling she hadn’t experienced for a very, very long time.

In fact, Wu Chen’s thoughts and motives didn’t bother her in themselves. He wasn’t pretending to be the opposite of what he was. A capable, wealthy man would naturally entertain more outrageous fantasies. Even if Wu Chen were imagining a threesome right now, Xia Jinyu wouldn’t have much of an emotional reaction.

She had seen too much.

What Xia Jinyu was feeling now came from two things. First, she was angry because he had kissed her. Second… she had never met anyone like Wu Chen. He had shown extraordinary psychological insight and repeatedly outmaneuvered her, yet at this point he was challenging her to analyze the psychological motives behind his own behavior.

She had done so.

Wu Chen had nodded along and agreed with every part of her analysis.

Xia Jinyu had won.

Yet Wu Chen wasn’t the least bit frustrated.

That made her deeply uncomfortable. It felt as though she had seen right through this man, yet somehow she still hadn’t. If she had just met Wu Chen and none of the earlier events had happened, she might have thought he was pretending not to care, putting on such a perfect performance that she couldn’t see through it.

But after everything that had happened, looking at him now…

Xia Jinyu even began to doubt herself. Had she won? Had she really won? Had she?

“Don’t you want to defend yourself?” Xia Jinyu asked, studying Wu Chen.

“What is there to defend?” Wu Chen shrugged with a smile. “I really did take advantage of you just now. And, Professor Xia, you’re practically… a goddess of sensual beauty. You should know that every man has fantasized since his student days about having a relationship with a beautiful female teacher. I only graduated from college not long ago myself. Professor Xia, you’d be an excellent choice for me. If I could have a lover’s relationship with you, that would be ideal.”

The way Wu Chen put it was… both polite and outrageous.

What did he mean, an excellent choice? Had she given him a choice?

If he’d said that to an ordinary woman—or to an “extraordinary” woman like Li Ruobing, or to most women in general—before she’d developed any positive feelings toward him, the whole thing would have fallen apart immediately.

She might even have flown into a rage.

What kind of thing was that to say?

Yet when he said it to Xia Jinyu, it didn’t seem nearly as offensive.

She didn’t even care very much about his wording. To her, it was nothing. Weren’t all men like that? Compared with men who concealed their thoughts behind a respectable facade—including her own students, who openly admired her but privately… Xia Jinyu dared say that every male student she had ever taught had entertained extremely outrageous fantasies about her as their professor—Wu Chen was simply saying the quiet part out loud. At least he was frank.

Of course, Wu Chen hadn’t started out by saying outrageous things.

No matter what Xia Jinyu’s personality or past might be, such words would normally have angered her. The change had come after Wu Chen kissed her. He had asked her to analyze his motives, and because of everything that had happened before, Xia Jinyu had gone along with the challenge, wanting to win.

She had said outright that Wu Chen had improper intentions toward her and was lecherous.

So Wu Chen had simply replied, in effect: Yes, yes, yes. That’s exactly what I think. I’m serious. That’s the kind of man I am.

That created a very strange situation.

Wu Chen could now say outrageous things to Xia Jinyu, and a combination of factors made it less likely that she would get angry at them. Instead, she began doubting herself—and wondering whether his easy admission of such improper intentions might itself be false.

At any moment after Wu Chen kissed Xia Jinyu, she could have stood up and walked out in a huff.

But she didn’t.

She was caught up in Wu Chen’s overall performance. If one looked at it simply as winning and losing, she could relax and accept either outcome. But Xia Jinyu had been lonely at the top for far too long. In other words, she had been lonely for a long time.

At last, someone had appeared who could match her. He had done something deeply offensive, but before she arranged for someone to settle the score with him, there was no reason she couldn’t continue talking to him a little longer. Talking was still possible. She had already begun to approach Wu Chen as a puzzle to solve.

She didn’t find him boring at all.

Wu Chen had simply skipped the boring part.

“A lover? Mr. Wu, your confidence exceeds even my imagination. Do you think I could feel any affection for someone like you?” Xia Jinyu deliberately adopted a contemptuous, mocking expression.

Putting on a look of disgust as if she were looking at trash could add spice to a lovers’ relationship. For a man trying to win her over, though, it could be devastating.

Calling him “someone like you” was a personal insult.

Wu Chen wasn’t affected in the slightest.

“Life is short! Are you really planning to be alone forever, to live your whole life like this, Professor Xia?” Wu Chen even started offering the kind of obvious platitudes that would make most women roll their eyes. “You’re thirty-three already, Professor Xia! How many more thirty-three-year periods does a person get? I can feel your loneliness. It must be painful not to be understood, right? Actually, I think we’re the same kind of person… And yes, my confidence really is beyond your imagination!”

Li Ruobing was almost stunned into a daze.

Ever since Wu Chen had kissed Xia Jinyu, Li Ruobing hadn’t understood a single thing he did.

Xia Jinyu had called him lecherous, which was practically an insult.

Wu Chen just kept nodding.

Li Ruobing had been nervous when he was exposed like that, yet Wu Chen acted as if nothing had happened.

Then he began saying outrageous things to Xia Jinyu. How could she possibly put up with that?

And now he was spouting the most obvious clichés, as if he were a man with no idea how to pursue a woman, clumsily offering lines that could never work: life is short, I can feel your loneliness, we’re the same kind of person…

Li Ruobing clearly didn’t understand what Wu Chen meant by “loneliness.”

Xia Jinyu did.

Then, to Li Ruobing’s utter astonishment, Xia Jinyu fell silent at Wu Chen’s words.

Xia Jinyu could have put on an act and pretended not to be moved, but there seemed little point. By using the word “loneliness,” Wu Chen had shown that his understanding of her reached straight to the heart.

“Yes. Life is short,” Xia Jinyu said suddenly, with a sigh.

Then, in a move that was completely out of character, she picked up Wu Chen’s phone, unlocked it, and opened the note titled “Xia Jinyu.”

It was utterly sudden.

She had chosen a random moment. They weren’t guessing anything or making bets; neither had asked the other a question. They had just been having a conversation with no discernible rhythm. Wu Chen had done nothing to prompt her to look at the notes.

Yet Xia Jinyu chose to look at them on her own, without warning, abruptly.

Surely Wu Chen would be wrong this time?!