Engagement Annulled? Now The Husbands Kneel and Beg for Her Favor

Her earlobe was gently nibbled on, and Jiang Qingli winced, raising a hand to push him away.

Ye Linyuan hummed softly by her ear. ”Tired?”

”I’m tired,” Jiang Qingli nodded.

As expected, she heard him sneer. ”Fooling around with that rabbit for a day and a night. Of course you’d be tired.”

Jiang Qingli: ”...”

’I knew he was going to be a sarcastic jerk about it!’

Jiang Qingli retorted defiantly, ”So what? I’m the female master. I don’t need to get your permission to be with someone. Besides...”

As he grasped her hand, Jiang Qingli picked up her terminal and pointed to the time. ”Look closely. It’s 11:45. In fifteen minutes, it’ll be Tuesday. If you say one more thing to upset me, I’ll call Jing to come take your shift!”

Ye Linyuan raised an eyebrow. ”Fifteen minutes is enough.”

Jiang Qingli’s pupils trembled. ”You’re still young, how can you already be...”

The mischievous taunt in her eyes was obvious, but Ye Linyuan didn’t explain. He simply took her hand and guided it under the covers.

”Wait—”

Jiang Qingli was about to refuse when she felt a strange texture.

She froze, then looked down. She realized Ye Linyuan wasn’t guiding her hand to *that*, but to the skin of his abdomen.

A pattern had appeared there, one that hadn’t existed before.

Black lines outlined a black snake entwined with blooming pear blossoms.

Ye Linyuan’s skin was an almost sickly pale white, making the tattoo stand out starkly against it.

Jiang Qingli recognized it. It was a doodle she had casually drawn with a pen.

She never thought Ye Linyuan would turn her casual doodle into a permanent tattoo.

This was different from the other marks on Ye Linyuan’s body.

The marks had been placed upon him, but this tattoo was something he had chosen for himself.

Gazing into her sparkling eyes, Ye Linyuan lowered his head, his deep voice a low caress against her ear. ”Are you satisfied?”

”I am.”

Jiang Qingli nodded, then, as if feeling that wasn’t enough, she added, ”I love it.”

The moment she said she loved it, the pale skin tightened over his muscles. Bluish-purple veins stood out in stark relief, and the air grew thick with a potent, hormonal scent. The tattoo itself seemed to darken in color.

Something had changed.

His golden, slitted pupils locked onto her, narrowing with intense aggression.

Jiang Qingli braced herself, expecting him to do something forceful, just as he always did.

But after staring at her for a moment, Ye Linyuan said nothing. He just tightened his arms around her, buried his face in the crook of her neck, and fell silent.

’It’s rare for him to be this quiet and docile.’

She was used to him being so aggressive, so his sudden docility felt strange. ”Are you hurt?” she asked. ”You’re so quiet.”

Ye Linyuan adjusted her head, making her pillow it on his arm. His voice was laced with a lazy drawl. ”Keep asking, and I’ll make it so you can’t be quiet.”

Jiang Qingli: ”...”

She obediently shut her mouth and snuggled into a comfortable position in his arms.

A snake tail flicked the lights off, and Ye Linyuan held her close.

Jiang Qingli remembered something. ”Are you going to be staying in the First District for a while?”

”My position won’t be changing for a while,” Ye Linyuan said.

”In that case, could I trouble you to give me some special training in shooting?” Jiang Qingli asked in a small voice. ”I heard the test is even harder this year. I need to get a perfect score on the final if I want to get an A+.”

The soul that was in her body before had skipped too many classes, causing her coursework grade to plummet.

Jiang Yi and a few of the other Beast Husbands were leaving the First District tomorrow for a job on the border of another district.

Jiang Qingli wanted to get a perfect score to surprise her mother and make her proud.

She had Yuan Shimo for help with her theory lessons, so it was perfect to ask Ye Linyuan for help with shooting.

Ye Linyuan grunted. ”Fine. Give me your schedule tomorrow.”

His face was buried in the crook of her neck, and his cool breath tickled her skin.

Jiang Qingli flinched from the tickle, then asked, surprised, ”You’re not going to ask for payment?”

’Usually, whenever she asked him for anything, he’d demand something in return. But not this time, apparently.’

After a moment of silence, Ye Linyuan suddenly asked, ”What flavors do you like?”

Jiang Qingli paused. ”You mean, like in desserts?”

”Or anything else.”

His long, slender fingers wrapped around a soft strand of her hair, twirling it slowly.

He wasn’t sure why, but he wanted to know more about her.

Jiang Qingli thought for a moment and started listing all the foods she liked. She found herself getting hungry as she spoke and quickly cut herself off. ”Okay, okay, that’s about it. If I say any more, I’ll get hungry enough to eat you raw.”

The man holding her chuckled, his deep, magnetic voice uncharacteristically earnest.

”Yes. I’ll remember that.”

-

Although the Imperial Royal Academy was full of nobles, their privileges were mostly only useful for arranging make-up exams; they couldn’t be used to secretly inflate scores.

To make good on the promise she’d made to her mother, Jiang Qingli spent the next week frantically catching up on her end-of-term lessons, rushing from one classroom to another.

Fortunately, Qin Shu was preparing for graduation and would be staying at the academy, so he was able to handle work for the Melt Star Association and take most of those duties off her plate. This was a great relief to Jiang Qingli.

After the last make-up class ended on Saturday night, the two-week finals period officially began.

Staring at her exam schedule, Jiang Qingli mentally planned out her study time for each subject.

Lin Xiyue linked her arm with Qingli’s, scrolling through the school forum on her terminal. ”They’ve started another thread about you,” she said, exasperated. ”This is the third one guessing how many classes you’ll fail. The bets are pretty high, too. The biggest is ten thousand, from Xie Guanqi. Unbelievable.”

The Royal Academy’s grading was notoriously strict. The soul who’d previously inhabited Jiang Qingli’s body had failed countless times, forcing her to take make-up exams every semester. It had become a tradition on the campus forums at the end of each term to start a poll guessing how many classes she would fail this time.

Jiang Qingli had expected as much, so she was relatively calm about it.

Lin Xiyue fumed. ”These people have too much time on their hands. I’m going to bet that you won’t fail a single one! I’ll make a killing off them!”

She scrolled down a little further, then let out a gasp. ”Huh?”

”What is it?” Jiang Qingli asked.

”Someone bet on the ’perfect GPA’ option! They bet one hundred thousand!”

It wasn’t the amount that surprised Lin Xiyue. ”It’s one of your husbands who placed the bet! He actually browses the forums?! Shocking! Isn’t he supposed to be some kind of dinosaur who reads paper books and communicates by letter?!”

She said, turning her terminal for Qingli to see.

Jiang Qingli saw a list of betting options on the thread, ranging from ”fail every class” to ”perfect GPA.” The option with the most bets was ”fail half.” Only one person had bet on the ”perfect GPA” line.

A black avatar with the ID: ”Mo.”

That was Yuan Shimo’s ID.

A smile touched Jiang Qingli’s lips.

In the next second, another bet appeared.

The avatar was pure white, and the ID was ”Yuan Shiyao.”

Lin Xiyue laughed. ”Those two brothers really do everything together. I wonder if—”

She cut herself off as they rounded a corner and a figure came into view.

It was a tall, slender young man with jade-green eyes, who was watching them quietly.

Lin Xiyue quickly hit the brakes. Seeing one of the Beast Husbands approaching, she said a hasty goodbye to Jiang Qingli and left.

As he drew closer, Jiang Qingli saw he was holding a cat.

It was a small, fluffy black kitten. It looked utterly adorable. When Jiang Qingli stroked its head, it immediately started purring, wagging its tail and acting cute.

”Is he your pet?” Jiang Qingli asked, gently stroking the kitten, her eyes curving into a smile.

Yuan Shiyao looked slightly troubled. ”No. A student found this stray and brought it to the student council. I’m trying to figure out what to do with it.”

He noted the fondness in her eyes and spoke tentatively. ”Qingli, I heard you joined the academy’s animal protection club. Could you teach me how to take care of a cat? I’m on my own, I don’t think I’d be very good at it...”

Just as Jiang Qingli was about to answer, a pale figure entered her line of sight.

Yuan Shimo was walking straight toward them.