After Wu Ling and Aurelia finished their spar, the two returned to their original seats inside Wu Ling's house.
Wu Ling sat on one side and slowly drank tea. Aurelia sat on the other side, holding her teacup with both hands and staring motionlessly at the reflection on the tea's surface.
"Old Li."
Wu Ling called casually. The steward waiting outside pushed the door open and walked in.
"Do you need anything, Young Master?"
"Those tea snacks were good. Bring another plate..."
Halfway through speaking, Wu Ling looked at Aurelia, who was still sitting there in a daze. Then he changed his words. "Forget it. Bring two plates. I accidentally ate Miss Cross's share just now. Give her another one too."
Steward Li felt slightly surprised, but he controlled his expression well. He knew his young master's love of food. Back then, those three clones had often sneaked into the kitchen to steal food.
But this was the first time Wu Ling had eaten a guest's dessert. As Wu Ling had said before, the steward who served the Pope's disciple was not an ordinary man. In that short span of time, he thought of two possibilities.
The first possibility was that Wu Ling did not care about this guest at all, so he did not care about her feelings either.
The second possibility was that Wu Ling's relationship with this person was very good, which was why he made such a teasing, almost playful move.
Either way, he was only a steward. Doing his own job properly was enough. So he bowed at once. "Yes, Young Master." Then he withdrew.
After Old Li left, Wu Ling looked at Aurelia with some helplessness.
In truth, both of Old Li's guesses were wrong. Wu Ling did care about Aurelia, but his relationship with her was not that close.
The reason he had eaten Aurelia's tea snacks was simple. He wanted to provoke her a little.
After the spar ended, Aurelia had returned to her seat and gone into a daze. Wu Ling usually did not mind spending time with such a beautiful girl. Even if they only sat there together, he could sit for a full day. But right now, his mind was not on this.
Although Wu Ling had roughly adapted to Berserker Lancelot's amplification, he had not had proper tools on the road, so it was only a rough adaptation.
After returning home, the first thing in his plan had been to have Rose run a detailed test of his various abilities. Yet the moment he came back, he ran into Aurelia at his door.
For the sake of her beauty, Wu Ling endured the displeasure of having his plans disrupted. But now he had seen her, and they had fought. Yet Aurelia was still sitting here, refusing to leave.
This was like playing FGO and, for once, pulling a brand-new five-star waifu from the gacha. Just when you were about to test her, level her, fight some monsters, and admire the card art, a beautiful classmate you had barely spoken to suddenly came over to hang out. After chatting with you, she then refused to leave.
Could that be tolerated? Absolutely not.
Even Duel Monsters players next door knew that women only affected the speed of drawing cards. As an FGO player with Morgan, Jeanne Alter, Melusine, Nero Bride, Astolfo, and many other waifus, how could a mere beauty compare to the wings in his game?
So Wu Ling came up with a method.
"Miss Cross, are you not eating?... If you are not eating, I will eat it... If you make a sound, I will not eat it... Since you are not saying anything, I will take that as permission... I am really going to eat it... This is the last one. Are you sure you do not want to try it? It is very good."
After this one-sided conversation, Wu Ling quickly put Aurelia's last tea snack into his mouth and chewed with visible enjoyment.
Therefore, this was only Wu Ling's strategy to lure Aurelia into speaking. It was absolutely not because he wanted to eat that plate of snacks. Absolutely not.
When Wu Ling had been saying all that, Steward Li outside would have almost thought his young master had gone mad if he had not known there was another person in the room.
Staring at Aurelia like this made even Wu Ling feel a little embarrassed. But if Aurelia herself did not care, and he cared first, that would make him look a little too... something. So Wu Ling was now stuck between advancing and retreating.
At that moment, Steward Li knocked on the door with two servants, perfectly resolving the awkwardness.
After receiving permission to enter, Old Li immediately saw Wu Ling's appreciative gaze.
"Why is Young Master looking at me like that? I did not do anything. Is it because I work quickly?"
Then he looked again and saw Aurelia still in a daze. What had seemed like an ordinary daze now appeared under a completely different filter in Old Li's mind.
"Why does Miss Cross give me a feeling of loss? And Young Master's look just now... Could it be?"
Smart people always overthink things. In Old Li's imagination, a man and a woman appeared.
Woman: "Actually, I have liked you for a long time!"
Man: "...I am sorry."
Woman: "What part of me do you not like? Tell me, and I will change!"
Man: "No. That is not the point."
Woman: "Then what is the point? Tell me!"
The imagined man hesitated. But when he saw the woman's determined eyes, he knew he could not run away this time.
Man: "Actually, I do not like women."
Woman: "No! That is not true! That is only your excuse, right?"
Then, while the woman was still refusing to let go, a second man silently walked out from the bushes.
"Cough, cough."
Wu Ling coughed twice and interrupted Old Li's fantasy. Old Li returned to himself and looked around. The tea snacks on the table had already been replaced with fresh ones. Then he noticed Wu Ling's eyes flicking toward the door. Old Li understood instantly.
"Young Master, is there anything else?"
"Not for now. I will trouble you again when something comes up."
"Of course, Young Master. Then I will wait outside."
After speaking, Old Li left the room as if relieved and even closed the door a little more tightly on his way out.
Wu Ling poured himself a cup of tea and continued eating snacks. If he had a phone with internet access right now, this would truly be the perfect moment.
While Wu Ling drank tea in silence, Aurelia, who had been dazed for a long time, finally spoke.
"Wu Ling."
"Mm-hm. Miss Cross finally feels like talking?"
Aurelia ignored Wu Ling's teasing. She stared at the side of his face and asked, "Have we met somewhere before?"
"Of course. Last time I saw you, you were still a man. Now that the surgery succeeded, you think I will not recognize you?" Wu Ling complained inwardly, but in reality, he denied it directly.
"No. We have not. This is the first time we have met."
But after hearing Wu Ling deny it, Aurelia stared straight at him and said firmly, "No. We have."