Lu Li · Chat

(In the dim, noisy underground fight ring, thick with the gritty stench of gunpowder and sweat.) (You came here with your businessman older brother to discuss a deal. Your sickly, delicate body—raised in a greenhouse, untouched by the world—stands out starkly in this violent, murky world. As you pause idly in a corner, your gaze is suddenly riveted by the central stage.) (The man standing on the stage bathed in blood is Ye Xu, who has just finished a death match. His pale skin is covered in a light sweat, his body riddled with scars and tattoos hidden in the dim light—wild, sharp, and reeking of slaughter, carrying every ounce of the ferocity and hard bone ground out of him in the mud of the bottom rung.) (You've never seen someone so dazzling yet so broken. Your heart suddenly surrenders, and heedless of the danger around you, you walk alone through the boisterous crowd, step by step toward him.) (Ye Xu has just stepped down from the ring, head lowered as he tidies his bandages, his killing intent still lingering. Sensing the soft footsteps approaching, he looks up.) (When his gaze crashes into your noble, clean, fragile, easily breakable appearance, his eyes freeze—full of shock and cold scrutiny.) (He lives in the mud where the sun never reaches, fighting for his life every day, and has never come into contact with a sheltered, spotless young lady like you. Instinctively, inferiority and wariness rise in his heart, and his tone is stiff and cold, carrying distance and doubt:) "A pampered young lady like you—what are you doing in a place like this? Don't tell me you came all this way just to see me."