...
As Xuan Hao pried her fingers apart little by little, Qian Renxue took a deep breath, her tense body relaxing slightly as she slowly released her grip on him.
A brief silence fell over the deep alley.
Just as Xuan Hao thought the one-sided showdown was finally over and was about to turn and leave, Qian Renxue's voice rang out behind him again.
This time, her tone was less sharp, but more stubborn and difficult to conceal.
"And what about you and that woman?"
Qian Renxue raised her head, her eyes, now cold again, fixed intently on Xuan Hao:
"Pope Bibi Dong... what are your feelings for her?"
"Don't try to fool me with those high-sounding reasons."
Qian Renxue stepped forward, her tone resolute.
"I'm a woman, my intuition is never wrong. The way that woman looks at you, the way she indulges you, is just not right!
And you... your feelings for that woman are definitely not those of a teacher and student, or an elder and a junior!"
Upon hearing this name, Xuan Hao paused in his departing steps.
He turned around, looked at Qian Renxue's face, which was filled with curiosity and resentment, and asked with a hint of amusement, "Why do you care about this?"
"What kind of relationship I have with Bibi Dong, and what has happened between us, is our private matter.
Even if we did something treasonous, it has nothing to do with you, His Highness the Crown Prince of the Heaven Dou Empire, who is far away in the Heaven Dou Empire, right?"
Xuan Hao narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at her:
"Or... after I exposed your thoughts, your twisted competitive spirit has started to flare up again?"
"Do you think that since even that high and mighty Bibi Dong can lower herself to please me, why can't you, Qian Renxue?"
Caught off guard by her hidden competitive spirit, Qian Renxue gritted her teeth and glared at him, retorting, "Is that not allowed?!"
"Of course it's not impossible."
Xuan Hao suddenly laughed, a laugh tinged with helplessness and mockery:
"But the problem is, am I some kind of exceptional person?
Is it really worth it for you to fight with the woman you hate the most for a bastard like me just to prove yourself?"
Xuan Hao walked back to Qian Renxue step by step, looking down at her with an extremely oppressive gaze:
"Besides, if your true intention is to compete with Bibi Dong for something to prove you're stronger than her, then your focus has never been on me, but on Bibi Dong!"
"In other words, you're just unilaterally competing with Bibi Dong. If Bibi Dong had her eye on someone else instead of me, Xuan Hao, would you also have gone to snatch that other person without hesitation just to annoy her and defeat her?"
"No! You're the one I want!"
Qian Renxue frowned and almost instinctively retorted sharply.
"Alright, stop lying to yourself."
Xuan Hao sighed helplessly, looking into her eyes filled with obsession:
"I ask you, if you really got me, would you be happy?
Or rather, how long could you be happy?"
"I've already made myself clear enough.
The reason you still maintain such a strong interest in me isn't because you love me at all, but precisely because I've been guarding against you like a thief all these years, always keeping an insurmountable distance from you!"
"Once I break down this barrier, once I bow down and submit to you… believe me, you could lose all interest in me at any moment!"
"The reason you feel excited and happy now is purely because the sense of distance from what you want but cannot have is stimulating your nerves in the process of trying to tame me.
But once you have completely obtained me and won this game, I, this 'trophy,' will inevitably become worthless in your eyes."
Xuan Hao leaned against the blue brick wall, looking up at the sliver of sky above the alley, his tone revealing a desolate understanding of human nature:
"That's how most things in this world are; what you can't have always seems more desirable."
"Even Ning Rongrong and Yan Yan, who you find incredible for staying by my side, are the same case."
Xuan Hao looked down at Qian Renxue and threw out an extremely realistic and cruel theory.
"You only see a group of beautiful women surrounding me, but you have no idea that if I don't deliberately maintain that delicate balance between them, these girls' feelings for me will soon run into problems."
"Why?"
Xuan Hao asked himself and answered, "Because in relationships involving multiple people, they unconsciously develop a sense of comparison and competition.
This sense of crisis and urgency makes them work harder to maintain the relationship.
When they feel that they have received a little bit of my favoritism at some point, or even just the feeling of getting a little bit more advantage than others... it will make them feel extremely happy and satisfied."
"Conversely, because I sometimes favor others, they get jealous, angry, and unhappy.
But then, as long as I coax them and show them more favor, the stark contrast makes them feel like they've regained what they lost, and they become even happier."
Xuan Hao looked at Qian Renxue's slightly dazed expression and smiled mockingly:
"It sounds shameless, vulgar, even ridiculous, doesn't it?"
"But Qian Renxue, remember this: that's what feelings are all about!"
"Love has never been some pure, noble, otherworldly, sacred thing.
The essence of emotions, to put it bluntly, is a business of mutual exchange!
Only, the commodity in this business is not gold coins and wealth with a price tag, but the living value of emotions!"
"And you…" Xuan Hao looked at her deeply, "If you can't even give others the most basic emotional value, what do you have to talk about love?"
Xuan Hao looked at Qian Renxue's slightly pale face without pausing and continued to dissect this theory of tearing apart hypocrisy.
"So put away your self-righteous bargaining chips.
Never make promises to others with wealth, status, or your superior power."
"In the face of true love, these material things are not a plus at all; they are a heavy burden on love itself."
"Even the 'responsibility' that people often talk about is the same."
Xuanhao shrugged.
"The world always likes to put shackles on relationships, thinking that 'responsibility' is the guarantee for maintaining love. But in reality?
Pure responsibility not only does not play any role in protecting love, but on the contrary, it is a huge and suffocating pressure."
"When you maintain a relationship out of so-called responsibility, there is not much love left in it, only the moral obligation to grit your teeth and the exhaustion."
Qian Renxue listened blankly, her lips twitching slightly as if she wanted to retort, but no sound came out.
Xuan Hao's voice softened slightly as he looked at her.
Do you know why love is always so alluring, even to the point that people are willing to throw themselves into it like moths to a flame?
"It's because from the moment it was born, it has been completely detached from the trivialities of real life.
It doesn't care about your background, your soul power level, or how many gold soul coins you have.
It is completely and thoroughly based on 'emotions'."
"It is precisely because love is based on pure emotion that it makes people blind, hot-headed, impulsive, and even willing to do anything for that person, daring to fight against the whole world."
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