Lin Yu was engrossed in struggling with the buttons on her new dress, the buttonholes were too tight, making it difficult to both fasten and unfasten.
“Stop… don’t…”
“No… bath… no haircut…”
The quiet bathhouse suddenly echoed with the voices of two people arguing, one of which sounded disturbingly familiar.
“Stand still! We agreed to cut your hair after the bath!”
“No haircut!”
The voices grew louder, and it seemed like one of them was… was Nangong speaking?
Lin Yu had just managed to undo the first button at her collar when a figure rushed past her.
Their chase had begun in the bathhouse, evident from their conversation. The girl ran and Nangong pursued, the girl unable to escape, as they dashed from the bathhouse into the changing room.
For a girl desperate to flee, running straight was evidently not the best strategy.
The changing room had a long row of storage racks, creating a winding path that was perfect for eluding her pursuer.
So, she did just that—she burst through the curtain and made a sharp ninety-degree turn, darting along the wall towards the corner of the changing room.
It was the very spot Lin Yu had chosen, feeling shy, to change.
“Thud” was the dull sound of their foreheads colliding, “Ow” was the cry of pain as she hit the ground.
After a dizzying spin, Lin Yu landed heavily on the floor, her tailbone aching. Her vision blurred, and she saw… a girl standing before her, wearing almost nothing.
The girl, wearing only a small triangle of cloth around her waist, her upper body bare, was half a head taller than Lin Yu, and was rubbing her own forehead, staring at Lin Yu in confusion.
“See what happens when you run so fast, you fall, don’t you?” Nangong arrived a moment later, saying, “We agreed to cut your hair after the bath, and…”
Nangong’s words trailed off as she noticed that the person lying on the floor was not just the long-haired girl.
“Lin Yu? What are you doing here? Didn’t Jiang Yuan take you to familiarize yourself with the surroundings?”
The long-haired girl across from Lin Yu softly repeated her name, her Diacla accent not quite right, “Lin… Yu?”
Just as Lin Yu was about to change, she was suddenly knocked to the ground by this unexpected encounter, and a wave of grief and resentment washed over her.
Not only was her head hurting from the fall, but her heart ached too, as Nangong seemed to favor this girl over her.
Suddenly, the girl who had fallen was not the only one on the floor, and Nangong’s attention shifted to Lin Yu.
“It’s all Isabella’s fault. She promised to get a haircut after the bath, and now she’s trying to run away…”
Seeing the distress on Lin Yu’s face, Nangong decided to ignore the girl still sitting on the floor and focus her concern on Lin Yu.
Lin Yu was helped up from the rough floor by Nangong, who gently rubbed her face, “Did you hurt yourself from the fall?”
“N-no, I didn’t.”
The unexpected care made Lin Yu hastily wipe away her tears and raise her hand to dry her face, feeling content to be noticed again.
“I’m here because… Jiang Yuan asked me to shower and rest before the meeting.”
Lin Yu briefly explained her situation to Nangong, who nodded thoughtfully.
“Wow, I didn’t realize it took so long in the bath.”
Nangong had been with Isabella this whole time, while Lin Yu had already finished ten laps and rested. It seemed like Nangong and Isabella had been in the bath for a long time, and Lin Yu felt a surge of inexplicable anger.
Where did that girl go, anyway?
The long-haired girl who had been sitting across from Lin Yu, rubbing her forehead, had vanished, leaving only wet footprints to show she had ever been there.
In just a few seconds, she had vanished right before Lin Yu’s eyes, proving her to be quite the escape artist.
“Isabella, you little…!”
Nangong called out loudly, stopping the other girl from escaping through the door, “At least put on some clothes before running away!”
The girl trying to escape was dragged back by the arm, her chest pushed forward in a comical pose.
“No haircut! Hair is precious, Isabella, no haircut!”
A pair of healthy, firm breasts swayed before Lin Yu, their tips exposed due to the lack of proper clothing, showing off their natural color.
In the past, Lin Yu would have enjoyed such a sight, but not anymore. In her fifteen years of life, she had grown to understand both male and female bodies intimately.
Unlike her past self as a small chef, she no longer felt the same way about the opposite s*x.
… It was as if she had never seen such a sight before?
After all, she had always been flat-chested, so she had never seen breasts like these before.
Lin Yu’s thoughts were a mix of relief and pity: What a hassle to have such a large bust, thank goodness she didn’t have to deal with that. Being flat was just fine, especially since she no longer had to worry about the expectations of someone like Commander Yang.
“You take your time with the bath, I’ll go handle her business… Come on, let’s get that haircut.”
Nangong quickly “escorted” the long-haired girl with the strange name out of the changing room, not forgetting to remind Lin Yu about the bathhouse protocols.
After taking off her shirt and pants and putting them away, Lin Yu slowly lifted the curtain to the inner bath.
She shrugged her shoulders and lowered her gaze, unwilling to look too far into the room. Barefoot, she walked quickly into the inner bath.
… What a letdown, she had expected to see a group of nearly naked men like in the bathhouses she had been to before.
Instead, she found herself alone in the bathhouse, completely naked and standing by herself.
Maybe it was the wrong time, or maybe no one was using it, but the not-so-small bathhouse had only Lin Yu inside.
Just a few minutes earlier, Nangong and Isabella had been running and playing in here. Now, it was just Lin Yu.
Suddenly, an image of Nangong helping someone bathe flashed through her mind.
Lin Yu quickly shook her head to clear the thought.
Bathing was something she had to do herself. Asking for help was too embarrassing, whether it was from a man or a woman, in this life or the last.
She randomly found a faucet, following Nangong’s instructions to activate the magic stone water heater. Hot water poured down from the showerhead, soaking her completely.
Because it was pure water, there was no scent, only the steam rising before her eyes.
Streams of water flowed over her head, dripping down her hair, and even when it got into her eyes, it didn’t sting.
“It’s been a long time since I last showered…”
She tilted her head back, running her hands through her hair, and under the hot water, she felt reborn.
Such a holy, radiant scene, if photographed, would surely be captivating.
“Ouch!”
Then, she slipped on a bar of soap, landing on her back in the smooth bathhouse floor, with the showerhead drenching her face with water.