Lu Qian, his head spinning slightly from five glasses of wine, stumbled over to where Ming Ye stood. He didn't need to be sober to see the way Ming Ye was looking at Zi Han. It wasn't the gaze of a brother watching over a sister; it was the gaze of a man watching something he intended to consume.
"You know," Lu Qian started, his voice thick with playful mischief, "if I didn't know you two were siblings, I'd swear you liked her."
"I do," Ming Ye said without a second's hesitation.
He could have denied it, but the decision had already been made. He didn't just like her; he had claimed her. It was better to let the truth hang in the air like a warning, a "Keep Out" sign for anyone who might be entertaining their own ideas. He could recall Lu Qian calling her cute once. While it was true, he had to nip anything growing from its bud.
"So, you like her?"
