Thanks Cedric

Singles Bar. 

Purple, as Elena Garcia, was sitting across Cedric with a glass of strawberry juice pressed slightly between her palms—a picture of sheer nervousness. 

Cedric was amused as he observed her timid theatrics. She looked so frightened she might as well hide away. 

"Just like a bunny." A small grimace laced his lips. Placing the long stemglass onto the table, he turned to the timid little thing opposite him. "Elena, you can relax. I would not hurt you." 

Purple nodded like a rattle then suddenly shook her head, blinking innocently. "But a bad guy wouldn't introduce himself as the bad guy, and someone who wants to hurt me wouldn't announce their intention." 

Cedric let loose a chuckle. This little girl was intruiging. He had been trying to get close to her in the past two weeks. She had been frequenting Singles Bar and sitting on the same spot but he had not had his way with her yet. At first, she would take flight every time she saw him approach. 

After having to literally grab her a few times and proving that he had no intention to hurt her, she stopped fleeing. Now, he could even successfully invite her for a drink or two—but she would try to keep as much distance from him as possible and quietly hug her signature glass of strawberry juice. 

Despite meeting so many women in the twenty-eight years of his life, he had never met one like her. It was surprising that such a person even existed to begin with. It was intruiging as well as easier to deal with than other women. 

Gazing at her gently, he patted the space beside him. "Come here. Sit next to me." 

Purple looked up fearfully, contemplated for a while and obeyed his order but expectedly sat as far from him as the couch could allow. 

He chuckled and stood, walked over and slotted himself next to her. Her body froze, making him almost decide to wait for a while longer before making this move. But on the other hand, La Rose Noir was getting out of hand. He did not have any more time to keep humoring a bunny. Besides, no woman deserved so much patience from him. He had already wasted too much time on her. Thinking about it, he moved even closer to her. 

Purple froze. This time it was real. Cedric had been taking things slow in the past two weeks—or at least that's how it looked. It was unexpected for him to suddenly start making such suggestive moves. 

She was startled and almost yelped when she suddenly felt his hand on her knee. She should have expected this. How could it be surprising? Cedric was an impatient casanova. It was aleeady shocking enough that he had not made a move until now. 

His hand moved a notch higher. She could feel the warmth of his palm through her terribly outdated black, pleated skirt. His hot breath came into contact with her earlobe as she heard his gentle voice. "Ellie, you are such a pretty girl. I kinda like you." 

Being the kind of man who needed to do literally nothing for women to come littering at his feet, Cedric was bad at pick up lines. He could only make do with this. 

"But I don't like you." Came Purple's timid reply. 

Cedric almost jumped in shock and anger but controlled himself enough to ask why, to which she sucked on the rainbow-colored straw slotted into her glass of juice, her eyes growing bigger as she answered, "You only want my body. And my name is Elena, not Ellie." 

Cedric found her comical once again. How irritatingly innocent. "Listen, I don't want—heck, I want your body. Who wouldn't when faced with such a pretty girl? But that's not all I want, Ellie. I want to be your friend too. Your boyfriend." Cedric surprised even himself by his smoothness. "And I still want to call you Ellie. It sounds cuter. Can I call you that?" 

Purple regarded his love-struck expression that was obviously just a mask. Her character, Elena, was naive, so she would probably say yes to that. Hence Purple nodded slowly. 

"Wonderful! Now I have the world's cutest girlfriend." 

Purple secretly smiled. He had played a word game and tricked her. But in the process, he had just helped her complete the next step that she was racking her brains over. 'Thanks Cedric'. She thought. The next step was to make him do something no other woman had made him do—date her. 

Even so, it would be suspicious if she agreed too readily so she widened her eyes and shook her head. "No-not yes to being your girlfriend… I can't do that." 

"And why not?" Her innocence and honesty was starting to infuriate him.

"Because I don't trust you." 

"And why don't you trust me?" 

Purple took a deep breath to consider her answer and said, "because you're a Qin."

When she saw his face drain of color and turn pale, she secretly sighed in relief. Shera had been right. Since he already knew that Elena was a member of La Rose Noir, he might still have some lingering suspicions about her. But if she indirectly pointed out the enmity between them, he might take her as a fool instead. A fool who only needed a little nudging to spew everything he needed to know.