The Emperor, with more men than women, made me his mistress.

Sheng Yifan raised his thick, sword-like eyebrows, and without saying a word, he raised his right hand, his well-defined fingers pinching the beaded string, and slowly pulled the beaded string off his wrist.

Only then did Yue Li realize that the beaded string was over a foot long after it was taken off, which explained why it looked so long when she wore it on her wrist.

"Here you go." Sheng Yifan placed the red jade beaded string he had taken off in front of Yue Li without the slightest hesitation.

At this moment, Yue Li hesitated. She hadn't touched the string of red jade beads yet and wasn't sure if they contained spiritual essence liquid. So if Sheng Yifan took them away now, she would only think about them for a few days and then forget about them.

But if she touches the string of beads and confirms that it does indeed contain spiritual essence liquid, she probably won't return it to Sheng Yifan no matter what.

"Are you really going to give it to me?" Sheng Yifan probably didn't know the value of this string of beads.

Of course, this applies to spiritual cultivators.

For an ordinary person like Sheng Yifan, it's just a pretty piece of jewelry.

"Of course it's for you," Sheng Yifan said confidently, gesturing for Yue Li to pick it up and take a look.

For him, let alone Yue Li liking this beaded necklace that he also adored, he would be willing to transfer all his assets to Yue Li's name for her to squander, as long as Yue Li was happy.

Seeing that Sheng Yifan didn't seem reluctant at all, Yue Li reached out and picked up the string of beads in front of her.

The moment Yue Li's fingers touched the beads, she knew she had guessed correctly. A faint, almost imperceptible wisp of spiritual energy wafted out along with the red jade covering the beads.

Yue Li ran her fingers over the entire string of beads, roughly checking each bead. Clearly, the spiritual essence inside this red jade bead string had dissipated over a long period of time, and some beads even had less than half a bead left.

Yue Li picked up the bead and shook it; the spiritual essence liquid inside immediately began to slosh around.

Seeing this, Yue Li sighed. It was inevitable that the spiritual essence liquid would overflow after being exposed to the outside for a long time.

Sheng Yifan sat opposite Yue Li, watching her every move intently.

Seeing her actions at that moment, I thought she was curious about the liquid inside the bead.

So he got up and came to Yue Li's side, sitting down next to her. He leaned slightly forward, his arm close to Yue Li's, resting against her arm. He rested his chin on his hand, his head close to Yue Li's, his eyes following Yue Li's fingers as they touched the string of beads before settling on her profile. His eyes were filled with fascination as he spoke in a low, slow voice, "Yue Li, are you curious about the liquid inside? The reason there's only one string of these red jade beads is because only this many beads containing liquid were polished from a single piece of raw red jade. Although I don't know what the liquid is, I thought it looked beautiful, so I had the craftsman string them together and wear them on my wrist."

Upon hearing this, Yue Li's reaction was unclear.

She had been hoping to find more jade containing spiritual essence liquid through Sheng Yifan, but now it seems she was overthinking it.

When she obtained the jade hairpin containing the spiritual essence liquid last time, she asked Jin Chenyuan about it. Jin Chenyuan said at the time that he obtained the jade hairpin by chance and that he did not have a second one.

Indeed, in a world with such scarce spiritual energy, it is already quite rare to encounter so much spiritual essence liquid.

Without the spiritual essence liquid she obtained by chance, it would have taken her more than ten years to cultivate to her current level in this world with its scarce spiritual energy. It seems she was too greedy.

“I really like this red jade beaded string, but I can’t just take your things for free. Is there anything you want?” Yue Li played with the beaded string in her hand, unable to bring herself to return it.

This beaded bracelet was clearly something Sheng Yifan really liked; otherwise, given his family background, he wouldn't be wearing a bracelet that he himself didn't like.

As Yue Li spoke, she turned her head to look at the person sitting next to her. However, the two were too close, and Yue Li turned her head too suddenly, so they ended up face to face, and they could feel each other's breath.

Their eyes met, and for a moment they were both stunned, neither of them expecting such a sudden thing to happen.

Sheng Yifan looked at the face he had dreamed of countless times so close to him, smelled the sweet scent, and as if tempted, lowered his eyes to look at the slightly pursed, petal-like cherry lips. He leaned forward and kissed Yue Li's lips with his sexy lips.

"ah!"

The slightly warm touch landed on the corner of her lips, startling Yue Li. She shoved Sheng Yifan, who was close to her, and jumped up from her chair.

Pushed away forcefully, Sheng Yifan finally came to his senses and felt a pang of regret as he thought about what he had done to Yue Li.

However, what bothered him was not that he had kissed Yue Li, but that he hadn't taken advantage of Yue Li's momentary lapse in attention to hug her and kiss her hard a few times.

Regardless of what he was thinking, a hint of annoyance appeared on his face. He looked up to observe Yue Li's expression and saw that she showed no disgust other than shock. Only then did Sheng Yifan breathe a sigh of relief. He stood up, took a step back, and bowed to apologize, "I'm sorry, I was too abrupt just now. When I saw you... I couldn't help but kiss you."

As he spoke, he looked directly into Yue Li's shocked eyes and said earnestly, "Yue Li, I love you."

Looking at Yue Li's face, which went from shock to astonishment, Sheng Yifan stared at her with his long, narrow eyes full of love and continued, "I suppose you've noticed something too. After all, I've never hidden my intentions. Ever since I saw you by chance on the eve of the Lantern Festival, I've been thinking about you all the time. Since then, I've been looking for opportunities to get close to you. The chance encounter at the Lantern Festival, this sudden visit—everything I've done is just to get close to you and stay by your side."

Yue Li: ……

She looked away, avoiding meeting Sheng Yifan's eyes, which were filled with intense emotions.

Although Sheng Yifan's appearance met her standards, and after spending time with him, she found that his personality was also good, she simply couldn't reciprocate the same feelings.

Yue Li admits that she is selfish and loves herself more. She doesn't want to invest all her love in men; she just wants to enjoy their kindness. In this somewhat distorted worldview, who knows if the man who loves you one second will be sleeping with another woman the next?

Not to mention women, just like what she saw at the pleasure pavilion in Kyoto on her first day there, there were plenty of men rolling around together.

She doesn't invest too much emotion in them, and when they do something to betray her, she can cut ties cleanly and decisively.

Even though Jin Chenyuan treated her so well, she only felt affection for him.

Turning around, Yue Li looked at Sheng Yifan seriously and said, "You should know that I already have two people by my side, and I don't plan to add any new people to my life in the next few years."