I have no interest in ().

Qing Mo gave Lin Yu a cold sidelong glance, ignoring his crude remark, and continued calmly:

"From the time I hit puberty until now, I've never..."

She paused, pressing her crimson lips together before speaking again:

"Felt sexual desire."

"No sexual desire?" Lin Yu frowned instinctively and asked,

"Are you gay?"

Qing Mo shook her head. "No."

"I have no interest in men or women."

"To be more precise, I simply have no..."

"Interest in sex whatsoever."

"No interest in sex whatsoever?" Lin Yu repeated her words, his brows furrowing even deeper.

This didn’t add up.

Lin Yu recalled the erotic manga scenes featuring Qing Mo from his memory and quickly noticed the inconsistency.

In the original storyline, Qing Mo’s behavior couldn’t be further from asexual—not even by a punctuation mark.

In fact, she was arguably the wildest of the four female leads.

She was up for any kind of play, even initiating some herself!

And now you’re telling me you have no interest in sex?

Who do you think you’re fooling?

As Lin Yu silently pondered the manga scenes, Qing Mo nodded, confirming his repeated question. She took small, delicate sips of the red wine in her glass, a trace of reminiscence flashing in her eyes as she murmured:

"Because of this condition, I’ve seen many doctors."

"They all said it was a psychological issue and referred me to therapists."

"But the therapists couldn’t offer any effective treatment."

"They just told me to watch... stimulating films."

"To..."

Here, Qing Mo trailed off again, biting her lower lip as if struggling with something too embarrassing to voice.

After a moment of hesitation, she steeled herself and forced out the words with great difficulty:

"To explore myself more..."

Hearing such blunt phrasing, Lin Yu was momentarily stunned.

Once the words were out, Qing Mo seemed to shed a weight from her shoulders.

She drained the wineglass in one go, set it empty on the table, and spoke with increasing abandon.

"I followed the therapist’s advice."

"Watched porn."

"Tried touching myself."

Then, Qing Mo suddenly stopped. She turned to Lin Yu, the corner of her lips quirking into a breathtaking yet bitter smile, and asked:

"Do you know what those things felt like to me?"

Lin Yu, of course, had no idea, so he simply shook his head.

Qing Mo’s gaze dimmed as she whispered:

"The porn just made me nauseous."

"As for touching myself..."

She raised her right hand, pinching the soft flesh near her wrist with her left, and said slowly:

"It felt about the same as this."

"In other words, nothing at all."

Listening to the third female lead’s confession, Lin Yu frowned deeply, sensing the situation had grown more complicated.

Qing Mo’s despondent demeanor didn’t seem like an act, yet his own memories couldn’t be wrong either.

Among the four heroines, she was the most reactive, the most adventurous—that much was undeniable.

So why did their accounts clash?

Was there some crucial detail he was missing?

Lin Yu stroked his chin, racking his brain, feeling as though some pivotal piece of information had slipped through his grasp...

...

Wait!

Lin Yu remembered the key point. He turned to Qing Mo with a cold sneer and demanded:

"You claim you’re asexual, that you have no interest in sex?"

"Then why do you have a boyfriend?"

Qing Mo’s delicate brows knit slightly as she reflexively countered:

"How do you know about my boyfriend?"

Naturally, Lin Yu couldn’t reveal the manga’s existence, so he pressed on firmly:

"Never mind how I know."

"Answer the question."

"If you’re asexual, why bother with a boyfriend?"

Hearing his aggressive tone, Qing Mo curled her lips in a scornful smirk and replied dismissively:

"Boyfriend?"

"He’s just a dog I keep to shut people up."

"He acts as my shield in public, and I prop up his family’s business."

"A simple exchange of interests, nothing more."

Leaning back, her slender frame resting against the chair, she crossed her long legs and regarded Lin Yu with a voice both icy and tinged with intoxication:

"Anything else you want to ask?"

"Yes."

Lin Yu nodded. The boyfriend issue had been answered plausibly enough, so he moved on to another nagging doubt.

"Why were you so drunk that night?"

He was curious—from what he’d seen so far, she didn’t seem the type to drown herself in alcohol recklessly.

"Why was I so drunk?"

Qing Mo echoed softly, her lips twisting into a self-deprecating smile as she chuckled:

"Because I was unhappy, of course."

"That ‘shield’ of mine is quite cunning."

"He wasn’t content with just being a front—he wanted to be my real boyfriend, my husband."

"He knew I wasn’t interested in him or anyone else, so he switched tactics and started buttering up my parents."

"Tried using them to force me into a real relationship."

"And it worked."

"My parents adore him, impressed by his business acumen."

"So they keep pushing me to get engaged, to make it official."

"That afternoon, they nagged me about it again."

"I was in a foul mood, so I drank."

"Honestly, when you think about it, he’s not a bad choice."

Qing Mo mused lazily:

"He’s competent, runs the company smoothly, decent-looking—presentable in public."

"He’s attentive, gentle, good at taking care of people."

"A bit ambitious, sure, but who isn’t?"

"If I had to marry someone, he’d be a reasonable pick."

Here, she let out a cold, mocking laugh.

Her slightly drunken eyes locked onto Lin Yu, her smile brimming with bitterness.

"But I can’t accept it."

"Lin Yu, do you understand?"

"I refuse to spend my life with someone I feel nothing for."

"From the day I was born, I’ve had everything I wanted."

"Everything I own is the best."

"I don’t compromise."

"And now you expect me to settle for this... subpar partner?"

Qing Mo stared straight into Lin Yu’s eyes, enunciating each word:

"I can’t stand it."

After hearing her out, Lin Yu’s emotions were mixed.

Damn it.

For something so tragic, why was it so hard to feel sorry for her?

And that line—"From the day I was born, I’ve had everything I wanted"—

That really sounds annoying!

Oh!

I get it now!

This illness is incurable—must be karma from the heavens, right?

Of course, since he was benefiting from her generosity, Lin Yu only grumbled a few resentful words in his heart.

After listening to the third female lead’s lengthy explanation, Lin Yu circled back to the original question and asked:

“I understand everything you’ve said, and I sympathize with your condition. But you still haven’t answered why you chose to keep me as your lover.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Lin Yu suddenly realized something. His eyes narrowed slightly as he studied Qing Mo up and down, then he cautiously probed:

“Qing Mo, don’t tell me the reason you want to keep me is because of that night’s…”

...

Qing Mo remained silent, her gaze fixed on Lin Yu with unreadable emotion.

The longer the silence stretched, the heavier Lin Yu’s heart grew.

Finally, Qing Mo spoke, breaking the stillness.

“To be more precise.”

“It was the…”