Zhao Youlin was a little shocked before she c.o.c.ked her eyebrows and cast Ye Yan a profound glance. She chuckled, “Mr. Ye, are you confessing to me?”

Ye Yan did not act affectatiously and grinned as he answered, “And if I say I am?”

Zhao Youlin's gaze froze when she heard this, and her eyes gained a frosty look in an instant when she looked at Ye Yan. “And if I refuse?”

Ye Yan instinctively frowned. He was a little taken aback by Zhao Youlin's merciless words, but he did not panic, as if he expected that Zhao Youlin would not do what she said. “Youlin, if possible, I still want you to at least consider it. You don't have to be in a hurry to give me an answer, I'm willing to wait. Just don't be in a hurry to reject me. After all, the request I made isn't that over the top. I just want a chance to court you, and I'm not being rude to you by asking you to be my girlfriend straight away. This isn't too big of a loss for you, and in fact, you can get the agreement you want because of it, it's not a loss at all for you, isn't it?”

“You don't think this is being rude to me?” Zhao Youlin looked like she had just heard the most ridiculous joke in the world. The ice in her gaze did not thaw because of Ye Yan's explanation. Instead, it became even colder. “I know that to you, perhaps compared to saying something as straightforward as 'I fancy you, so I want to sleep with you', saying that you want to court me sounds much more tactful, but I must tell you…”

She paused for a moment, and there was a storm stirring in her eyes. “In my dictionary, your tactful confession is no different from those annoying words the others spew at me. Not only is it no different, it's even more disgusting than theirs. At the very least, they voice their thoughts clearly, but your tactful words just make you sound like a hypocrite. At the end of the day, it's just the difference between a real rascal and someone who pretends to be serious by putting on the facade of a kind person.”

Zhao Youlin's thoughts were simple. If a man liked her and wanted to pursue her, that was fine.

Even though she was unfortunate enough to have been reborn into a woman who was once married and had a son, she was now divorced and single, she could absolutely try to get into a new relations.h.i.+p with someone else.

So, if a man just came over to her and said that he liked her and wanted her to give him a chance to court her, even if she did not like him, she would tactfully reject him and thank him for liking her.

But unfortunately, Ye Yan did not do that. Instead, he thought of taking another way and wanted to use this agreement to get closer to Zhao Youlin. But this seemingly genius move ended up being a stupid one, because it had stomped on Zhao Youlin's tail.

In truth, this was not the first time Zhao Youlin had ever ran into something like this. Due to her good looks, in her previous life, when she first entered the police force, she quickly ran into a superior who had ill intentions with her.

That man gave her overt and covert hints, but Zhao Youlin remained unshaken. In the end, the man just could not hold back anymore and approached Zhao Youlin while she was on duty at night alone.

Zhao Youlin could still remember it. That man had approached her, and with a smug look on his face, he had promised to let her enjoy all sorts of great benefits after she dated him.

That smug, better-than-thou look was something Zhao Youlin could remember even more. At that time, Zhao Youlin was still young and hot-headed. She did not think about the consequences and only knew the anger flooding within her, and she… ahem. She punched the disgusting man until he fell on the floor, and he might have lost half of his lifespan because of it.

It was easy to imagine what happened next. The man was stationed to a new post later on. He only kept getting promoted, and he was in such high spirits because of it. It was an unbearable sight.

Meanwhile, Zhao Youlin received a huge warning because of it, and after that, she never had an easy time. After serving for a few years, her rate of promotion happened at a snail's pace, and in the end, she was only the captain of a small squad.

However, it was all thanks to this ruckus that it caused the people who had malicious intentions with Zhao Youlin to slowly get rid of their thoughts, and they no longer dared to do anything that crossed her boundaries. Zhao Youlin was very satisfied with it.

Even if her superiors occasionally caused her trouble because of it in the future, she never regretted it.

But she never expected that after so many years, someone like this had appeared again and used some sort of business deal to give weight to his feelings, and he even asked her to give him a chance because of it.

Zhao Youlin's reaction had been completely against Ye Yan's expectations, so much so that Ye Yan actually became speechless because of Zhao Youlin's aggressive mockery. He did not know how to explain to Zhao Youlin that his feelings for her were real.

When Ye Yan finally registered what was happening and wanted to say something, Zhao Youlin's next words killed the next words on his tongue.

“You just mentioned that I wouldn't suffer any losses if I agreed to your condition, right?'

When Ye Yan saw the mockery on Zhao Youlin's lips, for some reason, he suddenly felt that something bad was about to happen.

“I…” The third son of the Ye family had always been fooling around with women and had a sweet tongue, but now, he did not know what to say, which was something rare for him.

Of course, Zhao Youlin did not intend to give him a chance to explain things.

A cold sneer bloomed on her lips, and Zhao Youlin mocked him rather cruelly, “So, in your heart, feelings are something that can be measured by profit and loss. You really opened my eyes.”

“Youlin, that's not what I meant…” For the first time ever, Ye Yan's words completely failed him.

“Mr. Ye, if that's not what you meant, then what exactly do you mean? But that's fine, it doesn't matter what you mean, I don't believe I'll want to hear any of it. There's a saying, when a conversation becomes disagreeable, it's a waste to say even one more word. Perhaps to you, what you said just now doesn't bear any special meaning, but to me, you've absolutely offended me. To a certain degree, our views on life are different, and since it's so different, it's hard for us to find a common language. I'm afraid that I cannot agree to the requests you mentioned just now, Mr. Ye.”

“Youlin, listen to me…” Ye Yan wanted to defend himself, but Zhao Youlin interrupted him once again.

“Also, I believe that there is no need for us to continue with this meal anymore. Let's pretend that all that transpired today never happened, and I'll pretend that I didn't hear what you just said. We can also pretend that we've never talked about this agreement before. As for how you intend to deal with that plot of land later, it's up to you. I can't interfere with your decisions, and I don't intend to. Let's end things here for now. I have something else to do, so I'll be taking my leave. I'll see you again—No, if possible, I hope that I will never see you again, Mr. Ye.” Once Zhao Youlin finished speaking, she picked up her handbag and left.

When Ye Yan saw this, he wanted to stop her in alarm, but Zhao Youlin saw through him first and moved her body to the side to avoid Ye Yan's hand, and she left swiftly.

Ye Yan looked at his empty hand and remained dazed for a long while. When he snapped out of it and looked at the door, Zhao Youlin was no longer in sight.

He curled his empty hand into a fist, and a hint of self-deprecation flashed in Ye Yan's eyes. He also looked rather pathetic because of it. He… seemed to have been too hasty and ended up making things worse.