"Little Xie, don't you remember Yin Yan? The two of you had lived under the same roof before." Ning Xin said with an uncomfortable laugh, carefully observing Jun Xie's reaction.
"No." Jun Wu Xie replied, without even lifting her head.
Yin Yan felt his a burning sensation forming on his cheeks. Ning Xin had just been telling Fan Zhuo how close he was to Jun Xie and in just the next moment, Jun Xie was saying he did not even know him. The slap that came with that snub immediately crushed the courage that Yin Yan had worked so hard to summon up to come here.
At that moment, Yin Yan and Ning Xin wished the floor would just swallow them up. They had been so sure that Jun Xie's hostility towards them had been because of Yin Yan but from the way things were looking, that was not the case at all.
And Yin Yan had been trying so hard to convince himself that he must realise and submit himself to the circumstances and bow down to Jun Xie for the moment.
However, he had not expected himself to be so far beneath Jun Xie's notice and was a person he did not even remember.
Silence suddenly pervaded the bamboo hut. Yin Yan's head hung low in humiliation and the smile on Ning Xin's face was frozen as the two of them squirmed under the deafening silence.
Fan Zhuo was sitting on the side and he did not seem to have noticed the predicament the two visitors were in as he asked in perplexed consternation: "You don't recognise him? That couldn't be, Ning Xin was telling me that you and Yin Yan enjoy a rather close relationship and he came all the way here to see you as he missed you terribly. Little Xie, you must really think hard, and do not dismiss it so trivially."
Fan Zhuo's voice was gentle, his expression concerned and caring.
However, both Ning Xin and Yin Yan would rather he not say anything at that moment!
If Fan Zhuo had not said all that, Jun Xie would not have known about their intentions. But since Fan Zhuo had said it, Jun Xie would naturally realise that the two of them had shamelessly come trying to establish a relationship with him and failed miserably, getting themselves badly snubbed.
At that moment, all traces of her smile disappeared from Ning Xin's face. She saw that Jun Xie was staring at her with a gaze that made her feel extremely uncomfortable and under that gaze, she felt as if her pretenses were being peeled off layer by layer, making her feel rather unsettled.
The seat under her grew uncomfortable and all the words she had prepared so carefully died within her. Jun Xie's single cold "No" had thrown all her plans into disarray.
She didn't know how to carry on with the act.
To make things worse, Fan Zhuo had brought the matter up which had made Ning Xin greatly humiliated.
This time, Ning Xin could not stay seated there a moment longer. Her back stiffened and she suddenly stood up, her face a pale mask as she hurriedly bade farewell and took her leave, hastening her way out. She did not even bother to say anything about seeing them again this time.
Yin Yan followed quickly behind her without a word running out of the bamboo hut as if chased by a ferocious beast.
Only after the two had left, Fan Zhuo suddenly broke out into laughter, unable to hold himself back anymore.
"Ning Xin must be getting anxious. She doesn't seem to be able to hold back anymore. I would have thought that she would be struggling a little while more but she seems to have reached her limit today." Fan Zhuo swirled the tea in his teacup, as his smile began to reach his eyes.
As they had grown up together from a young age, he naturally knew Ning Xin's character only too well. She might seem gentle and adorable on the outside, but on the inside she possessed a very high sense of self esteem, and was extremely self absorbed. Jun Xie's repeated and unrestrained slaps to her face must really have driven Ning Xin almost to madness.
Jun Wu Xie raised an eyebrow. She did not feel that she had said anything harsh.
"Since they came to us asking for torment, shouldn't I grant them their wish?"
She had not even made her move and Ning Xin had been so eager to come to their door asking to be tormented, why should she refuse them?
Fan Zhuo laughed lightly, and rested his chin in his palm, as he stared at Jun Xie with his head tilted.
"I am getting really curious what really happened in the Battle Spirits Forest that it can make such a conceited and self centred person to discard her pride and come try win you over. I could sense the extremely strong hatred she had for you but she suppressed and hid her rage as she put on an amicable smile in front of you. I am guessing there is something she needs from you?"