"No! That's not the point I'm trying to make!" Li Meirong shrieked in frustration as her face turned redder still. She unclasped one palm and hastily covered Feng Huang's talkative mouth.
Li Meirong glared at the wide-eyed turtle and blurted, "I may not be the brightest girl around, but I can tell that if a man disappears on a woman like that, it usually means that their relationship was all a joke to him. He's not really into her." She breathed in deeply and said, "I don't want to get hurt again, so I've decided to give up now before it'll be too late and I'll end up falling for him. And about Chou… I hope you're right. Seeing him cry broke a piece of my heart."
'Foolish girl. You don't get to choose when you give your heart away to someone. It sounds like you're already emotionally invested.' Feng Huang silently gathered, pitying her silly mortal master.
Feng Huang attentively listened to Li Meirong, blinking her crimson eyes a few times over. She tried to think of a way to get the girl out of this mess without being too heartbroken.
After Li Meirong finished talking, she slowly moved her hand away from the turtle's mouth.
The Turtle Demoness had a look of concentration on her face as she wondered, "Never mind the crazy plant now! Hmm, about that unworthy male of yours, maybe he did like you. Though sadly, it seems as though he's not that attracted to you, considering how he disappeared when you were about to mate." She paused for a moment and exclaimed, "Ah! Maybe he's a lover of men?"
"A lover of men?" Li Meirong repeated the question, thinking the words over again in her mind.
Unbeknownst to the chattering girls, a certain snow fox who had been overhearing their conversation nearly toppled from his unmoving position!
A lover of men, they said!
Bai Yu was about to shed tears of blood for Bai Qingyue's tattered pride. 'Ah, to think there is a title that would insult His Lordship more than being named Snowball…'
Worse yet, Her Ladyship seemed to be seriously considering Feng Huang's idea!
Li Meirong nibbled on her lower lip, her voice softening to a mumble, "Although I don't wish to believe it, your words do make sense. The first night we were together, Senior Zhu was heavily drugged and might have been acting solely on instinct. Not to mention prior to that, the way he acted when he was sober was completely different. My memory isn't very clear when it comes to that night, but I do recall the way he proclaimed that he wouldn't touch me. I remember the way he spoke… the tone of disgust in his voice,"
She gasped as though she reached a terrible conclusion, "Then when we met again, he began pursuing me right away with no rhyme or reason. Maybe it was all an act to cover his actual interests? When we were about to do it, he couldn't bear the thought of finishing the act and ran away."
Feng Huang bobbed her small head in agreement, "See what I told you. I know what I'm talking about. He obviously likes men!"
In the background, Bai Yu started silently sobbing for his master's ruined dignity.