No need to take responsibility?

Although Mo Yu tried to appear calm, a closer listen would reveal a slight tremor in his voice.

Lin Chuyi, in her current state, was certainly incapable of noticing such details. Hearing his words, she simply nodded in agreement.

Yet, why did she suddenly feel a chilling draft?

Only belatedly did Lin Chuyi look down at herself. One single glance made her wish she had never been born with eyes. *My, oh my... where are my clothes?!*

With a startled gasp, Lin Chuyi dived right back beneath the covers, wrapping her bare body tightly from head to toe. It suddenly dawned on her why Mo Yu had suffered a nosebleed earlier; he hadn't been suffering from an excess of medicinal tonics at all—he had clearly seen what he ought not to have seen!

Lin Chuyi's face instantly flushed as red as blood, and even her skin took on a delicate pink hue.

Being an unmarried maiden after all, she blushed so deeply she dared not speak carelessly, terrified that he might possess a strong sense of honor and stubbornly insist on taking responsibility.

When silence stretched for a moment from behind the bed, Mo Yu gave a light cough and said, "I will take responsibility."

As soon as those words fell, Lin Chuyi cried out in a conditioned reflex, "No, no, no, there is no need for responsibility, really no need!"

Mo Yu was momentarily stunned. When the words of responsibility had slipped past his lips earlier, he had felt a somewhat strange and tangled knot of emotions within his heart. Yet now, upon hearing Lin Chuyi's unhesitating refusal, he suddenly found himself at a complete loss for what to do.

"Chuyi, I..."

Before Mo Yu could finish, Lin Chuyi anxiously cut him off. "Elder Brother Mo, just pretend you never saw anything. You don't need to take responsibility, truly."

She certainly could not blurt out that what she desired was a lifelong devotion shared by just the two of them. If she said such a thing, he would likely take her for an absolute fool. Even in this small town, aside from her father, which household did not have a wife and concubines? Some even had a primary wife and multiple concubines. Not to mention that Elder Brother Mo clearly appeared to be a man of great wealth and nobility; the notion of a lifelong bond between a single pair was something that would likely never happen in his life.

Mo Yu's gaze deepened slightly. No need for responsibility? Could it be that she already had someone in her heart?

"Elder Brother Mo, could you please step outside for a moment?" Having slightly calmed her emotions, Lin Chuyi looked with a blushing face toward Mo Yu's back.

Mo Yu nodded, turned, and walked out. He did not slow his pace until he reached behind the folding screen, pausing for a brief moment before continuing toward a chair not far away.

Only after Mo Yu had stepped outside did Lin Chuyi realize this was not her own bedchamber at all!

Yet within a moment, she figured it out. The head she had seen bobbing in the hot spring pool must have been Elder Brother Mo, and then she, utterly lacking in backbone, had been frightened into fainting, whereupon he had carried her here.

The thought of being scooped out of the water completely naked and carried all the way here made Lin Chuyi burn with mortification.

She was still a young maiden, after all, and having her entire body seen by him left her drowning in embarrassment.

A few sets of men's clothing were draped over the bedside. Without thinking, she knew they belonged to Elder Brother Mo. For a young woman to wear a man's garments was rather improper, but she could hardly go without anything. After a moment of internal struggle, Lin Chuyi picked