My Arch-Nemesis is the R-Rated Male Lead - Chapter 16

Lu Rong looked at that line of text above his head and burst out laughing.

So he actually still cared that she hadn’t added him on jade inscriptions? What a closet freak.

Zhou Li, seeing her suddenly laugh, asked with a cold, puzzled face, “What are you laughing at?”

“Nothing, nothing?” Lu Rong asked, suppressing her smile. “What were you doing just now?”

“Cultivating,” Zhou Li replied simply.

Lu Rong then saw new words appear above Zhou Li’s head.

[Avoiding you. You’re too dangerous.]

Lu Rong was astonished. Why was he avoiding her?

Besides, she couldn’t even beat him in a fight, so how was she dangerous?

“Hmph, I don’t believe you.” After saying this, she pointed at her own chest. “Did you grab and lift me again yesterday?! You left marks on my chest from lifting me like that.”

Zhou Li averted his gaze and replied coldly with two words: “My apologies.”

But Lu Rong saw a heart suddenly pop up above his head.

Lu Rong: A heart? Why would a heart pop up?!

“I’ll go get you some medicine.” Zhou Li said and vanished in a flash. Lu Rong stroked her chin and asked the system.

“What does it mean when your male lead has hearts popping up over his head?”

[Hearts appear when he’s feeling happy or his heartbeat is overloaded. Correspondingly, if he’s angry or furious, a broken heart will appear.]

Lu Rong understood. So, why was Zhou Li happy just now?

That bastard! Last night, he must have deliberately retaliated against her for tugging at his collar, and that’s why he hoisted her up so roughly—otherwise, her skin wouldn’t have gotten chafed.

Fuming and muttering curses under her breath, she finished washing up and went out to find Qiu Ling for breakfast.

Qiu Ling and Senior Brother Lin were already eating. She went downstairs, found the two of them, and sat right down. Qiu Ling, seeing her as if suddenly possessed by a dog, leaned in and sniffed her, then asked curiously, “Why do you smell exactly like Venerable Jian?”

Lu Rong’s face grew hot. “Do I?”

She sniffed at herself but didn’t smell anything. Qiu Ling’s strange gaze settled on her neck: “Yes, you do.”

Qiu Ling had waited for her for quite a while last night and had even sent a message asking where she was, but got no reply.

“Maybe I was affected by that human-faced snake last night. I don’t remember what happened. I just woke up in Zhou Li’s room.” Lu Rong said calmly, picking up a steamed bun and starting to eat.

“Where is Venerable Jian?” Senior Brother Lin asked with concern.

“No idea. Anyway, not with me,” Lu Rong replied—just as Zhou Li slowly walked in.

He stepped into the room bathed in morning light, his entire figure seemingly coated in a thin layer of gold. The hazy glow softened the chill that usually clung to him, and for no reason at all, Lu Rong recalled how she had grabbed his collar the night before. How his neck had flushed red beneath her fingers.

Zhou Li entered carrying medicine and was just about to walk over when Lu Rong’s voice suddenly echoed in his mind.

[I even tore his clothes open last night. How did I not go wild and bite his Adam’s apple? What a waste.]

His steps halted. His Adam’s apple shifted unconsciously, as though the faint ache from her teeth still lingered there.

She really didn’t remember.

Better that she didn’t.

Zhou Li continued forward, intending to hand her the medicine, but Mo Chou’s voice beat him to it.

“Miss Lu, are you alright?”

Lu Rong felt utterly done with life.

“Last night I saw your senior brother carrying you off,” Mo Chou continued. “I wanted to check on you, but he took you straight into the room—and never came out.”

Lu Rong hadn’t known that happened. She instinctively looked toward Zhou Li, who was approaching.

[Help me. Help me.]

Zhou Li didn’t slow his steps at all, as if he intended to walk straight past her. Lu Rong was just about to call out when he moved first—walking over and taking the seat beside her instead.

He glanced at Mo Chou. “The matter on East Street last night—has it been dealt with?”

The sudden pressure of his authority bore down on her. For a moment, Mo Chou couldn’t even speak properly. “My brother… he will… he will take care of it.”

“Always relying on your brother. No wonder your swordsmanship is mediocre,” Zhou Li said flatly. “If you spent that time swinging your sword tens of thousands of times, your skills wouldn’t be at this level.”

Mo Chou’s face flushed with shame.

“That’s right. Venerable Jian has me swing my sword eighty thousand times a day,” Lu Rong chimed in helpfully.

“No wonder Miss Lu’s swordsmanship is so formidable,” Mo Chou said, clearly inspired. She quietly clenched her fist. “I’ll definitely work twice as hard.”

“Miss Lu, I’ll come find you again tonight,” Mo Chou said, then hurried off.

If you can still get out of bed after swinging your sword tens of thousands of times, I’ll call you impressive, Lu Rong thought.

Once Mo Chou was gone, Lu Rong’s mood immediately improved. She lifted her gaze toward Zhou Li—only to see a single word floating above his head.

[Irritated]

Lu Rong was baffled.

What on earth is he irritated about?

“Venerable Jian, the human-faced snake on East Street last night is already gone. Does that mean the trouble in Luo City has been resolved? Are you heading back?” Senior Brother Lin asked.

Zhou Li replied calmly, “The human-faced snake was only meant to mislead you.”

“What?” Lu Rong was startled. “Then what other demons are there?”

She hadn’t expected the Spring Banquet to be ruined like this—no fun, just endless demon extermination.

“The spring eye of the Yin–Yang Spring was dug out, leaving only a spiritual source behind,” Zhou Li said simply. “If that spiritual source isn’t destroyed, this place will continue to give rise to different demons.”

Realization dawned on Senior Brother Lin and Qiu Ling.

“Someone’s trying to stop us from destroying the spiritual source?” Senior Brother Lin asked uncertainly.

As Lu Rong listened, a question occurred to her. “Then why was the spring eye dug out in the first place?”

“It’s probably connected to Mo Jianlan,” Qiu Ling said. “I’ll go capture her and ask.”

Zhou Li had no intention of interfering. He merely lowered his gaze, landing on the white sugar cakes that had somehow appeared in his bowl at some point.

Lu Rong’s soft muttering echoed by his ear.

[Thanks—add one. Add one. Add one…]

She kept placing more into his bowl, stacking the small sugar cakes into a tiny mountain.

Zhou Li felt that she was trying to sweeten him to death.

And yet, he still bowed his head and began to eat.

The cakes were soft and sweet, genuinely good. A dusting of sugar frosting clung to his lips.

Lu Rong’s gaze drifted over unconsciously, her peripheral vision catching the subtle movement of his Adam’s apple.

Her gaze froze.

Why was there a small bite mark on his Adam’s apple?

Lu Rong tried to look more closely, her eyes widening just a bit.

“Rongrong, what are you staring at?” Qiu Ling asked curiously.

Lu Rong immediately snapped her gaze back. “Nothing!”

[Holy crap—there’s a bite mark on Zhou Li’s Adam’s apple. Don’t tell me I actually bit him last night?]

Zhou Li’s heart clenched when he heard that. The sensation of her bite from the night before resurfaced—had it really left a mark?

Last night, he’d only been focused on Lu Rong. He hadn’t spared a single thought for himself.

He finished the last white sugar cake in his bowl, stood up cleanly, and said, “Be careful on your own.”

With that, he turned and left without looking back.

Lu Rong stared at the words floating above his head.

[Must not let her discover the bite mark she left on my Adam’s apple]

Lu Rong: “???”

I really bit him?!

A strangely satisfying feeling welled up inside her. Heh. Zhou Li—so you have days like this too.

“Lu Rong?” Qiu Ling poked her cheek. “Your smile looks way too pleased.”

Lu Rong hurriedly wiped the grin off her face. “What? No. I just think Luo City is really fun.”

Especially Zhou Li in Luo City. Much more fun than the one from Wuhui Ravine.

“Let’s go find Mo Jianlan later,” Qiu Ling suggested.

Lu Rong had no objections. She lowered her head, finished her bun, wiped her hands, and said, “I’ll head upstairs for a bit.”

With that, she hurried onto the dragon lift and went up. When she reached Zhou Li’s room, she raised her hand and knocked.

Zhou Li had been examining the bite mark on his neck. It was faint—easy to miss unless one looked closely.

But upon closer inspection, there was still a trace of redness.

He dispelled it at once.

Hearing the knock, he already knew it was Lu Rong. She had always knocked with a loud bang bang bang.

Putting on a calm front, he walked over and opened the door. As expected, her luminous, fair face greeted him.

“What is it?”

Lu Rong lifted her jade token and said, “I just remembered—we haven’t added each other’s jade inscriptions yet.”

Zhou Li’s gaze flicked to her token. His expression didn’t change at all as he simply pulled off his own.

“Here.”

Lu Rong handed hers over. As she did, she noticed that Zhou Li’s jade token had a blank ring around it, bearing only a single, simple character: Zhou.

Almost instinctively, she looked up at the top of his head.

Two hearts were bouncing happily.

Huh.

He really was happy.

Lu Rong clicked her tongue inwardly.

Figures. A male lead from a restricted-content novel—never showing emotion, never letting anything slip. Probably even does it with a straight face, all while thinking about how to thoroughly rail the female lead until she cries.

She put away her jade token, her gaze drifting back to his neck.

Zhou Li subconsciously took a step back. “What are you looking at?”

Lu Rong stepped closer—two steps. The distance between them instantly turned ambiguous.

With his eyelids lowered just slightly, Zhou Li could see her sharply defined collarbones. When his gaze lifted again, it landed on her small, pointed chin.

Last night, she had been pressed against his chest, that very chin nestled stubbornly into the hollow of his neck, refusing to move away.

The air felt inexplicably warm.

He looked away.

Lu Rong tilted her head, studying him.

His ears slowly heated. “If you have something to say, say it.”

Lu Rong held out her hand. “Where’s my medicine?”

Zhou Li let out a quiet sigh of relief, tossed the medicine to her, then turned around without another word and went back into the room, shutting the door behind him.

Just before she turned away, Lu Rong caught sight of the hearts above his head—from two, they whooshed straight up to five.

She stared.

What on earth was he so happy about?

How could he be this happy?

Back in Qiu Ling’s room, Lu Rong prepared to apply medicine to the injury on her chest. She pulled her clothes aside and looked down at the faint ring of marks there, brushing her fingers over them.

“This doesn’t look like it was caused by clothing pressing too tightly…”

Beneath her touch were traces that resembled scales—marks that looked like something had coiled around her hard, leaving them behind.

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