Gu Shangse's words instantly steered Lin Enxin's statement onto a different level.
But Lin Enxin wasn't trying to express that kind of liking for everyone.
What she wanted to express was her liking for Gu Shangse alone, a liking directed only at him.
Although she liked others, liked their big group, her feelings for Gu Shangse were different; it was a romantic liking.
"No," Lin Enxin shook her head earnestly, her gaze sincere as she looked at Gu Shangse, "My liking for you isn't the liking for a friend, but like how a woman likes a man."
Lin Enxin's personality was always like this; if she liked someone, she'd say it and never hide it.
Of course, she also understood propriety and propriety, and who came first.
Like when she first liked Gu Shangse, knowing she liked Su Ling, and Shang Qi hadn't appeared yet. She thought they were a couple, so she nipped that inappropriate affection in the bud.
It was only after Shang Qi appeared and Su Ling's choice became clear that she allowed her feelings to resurface.
Standing next to Gu Shangse and Lin Enxin were Qin Yun, Li Yang, Bai Heqing, and Rao Can.
The four of them, on either side, surrounded the two.
At first, all four were focused on the thick hail piled up in the courtyard, and they were using their abilities to the best of their ability to clear it.
Gradually, they pricked up their ears, listening to Lin Enxin and Gu Shangse's conversation, pretending to clear the hail.
Gu Shangse looked at Lin Enxin, who had confessed to him. His expression remained unchanged, his gaze towards Lin Enxin was as if he were looking at a child. He said word by word, seriously, "I don't like children."
"I'm 19 this year," Lin Enxin looked at Gu Shangse, not feeling like a child at all. "I'm an adult, almost twenty."
Gu Shangse didn't want to discuss such matters with Lin Enxin in public. No matter what, it wasn't very friendly to a girl. His expression became slightly serious, "I only see you as a younger sister."
After saying this, Gu Shangse didn't give Lin Enxin a chance to speak and directly said, "That's all, don't disrupt my hail clearing."
Lin Enxin was rejected, a rejection without any lingering sentiment.
Gu Shangse, if he didn't like someone, wouldn't give false hope or lingering thoughts, nor would he play coy.
He genuinely saw Lin Enxin only as a child, a younger sister, and had never harbored romantic thoughts about her.
The one he liked was the girl he fell in love with at first sight, even if that girl already had someone in her heart.
Lin Enxin, being rejected, pouted. "I won't give up."
Gu Shangse, one day, I will make you fall for me.
***
Su Ling and Shang Qi stood in the bountiful vegetable sheds, the loud sound of hail falling from above.
There were no lights in the sheds, and it was pitch black.
But this didn't affect Su Ling and Shang Qi.
The two stood at the entrance of the vegetable shed, side by side.
Perhaps disliking the darkness, Su Ling snapped her fingers, and a ball of deep blue flame with an alluring red glow overflowed from her fingertip, dispelling the darkness in the shed and illuminating their faces brightly.
Shang Qi, at the right moment, spoke, "A'ling, I'm sorry, I've been hiding things from you."
"Before I met you in my previous life, my name wasn't Shang Qi, but Wen Shang Qi. I also wasn't a southerner like you, but a northerner living in Beijing. When I met you, I had just finished a bloody massacre. You could say I was on the run, living incognito."