Cleaning Up the Scene

“Come here.”

Xun Xue’s voice, carrying an unquestionable tone, beckoned to the frozen Gan Tang.

“Okay, okay, Auntie.”

Gan Tang started, swallowing hard in her dry throat, and cautiously moved closer to the bed.

“Next, do as I say.
Do you understand?”

Xun Xue looked at Gan Tang, then gently restrained Lu Qiancha.

“Mm-hm.”

Gan Tang nodded repeatedly, like a chick pecking at rice, her cheeks still burning hot.

After a long while…

Xun Xue deftly gathered and rolled up the damp bedsheets and quilt.
She said to the dazed Gan Tang, “I’ll go wash these.
You…”

She paused, pointing at the still-unconscious Lu Qiancha, whose body temperature had slightly dropped but whose small face was still flushed.
“Take Little Qiancha for a bath, clean her up.”

Xun Xue’s tone was flat, as if assigning a routine household chore.

“…Oh, oh.”

Gan Tang replied subconsciously, her cheeks flushed as she was still savoring the aftertaste of what had just happened.
It was the first time she knew that things between girls could be so… stimulating.

It wasn’t until Xun Xue disappeared out the door with the sheets that she abruptly came back to her senses—

A bath?!

Giving her senior brother a bath after he had just gone through that?!

The turbulent thoughts she had just suppressed instantly rushed back with a “boom.”

Gan Tang’s face was now hot enough to fry an egg.

She took several deep breaths of the cool air to barely calm her heart, which was about to leap out of her throat.

Taking a few steps forward, she carefully picked up the limp little wolf cub, who was exuding a charming aura, and walked towards the bathroom in the side room.

Inside the side room, Gan Tang embedded a fiery spirit crystal into the recess of the wall formation.

“Om—”

A soft red light illuminated, and the room’s temperature rose abruptly.

Steam began to rise.

The water-drawing formation was activated, and a trickle of warm water sprinkled from the formation plate in mid-air, gradually filling the ancient-style wooden bathtub placed against the wall.

Looking at Lu Qiancha’s still-unconscious but slightly less flushed little face, and then feeling the sticky, uncomfortable sensation of her own sweat-soaked clothes from all the previous excitement…

Gan Tang bit her lower lip.

With a few light “plops”…

The sweat-soaked clothes clinging tightly to her body were quickly shed and casually tossed into a rattan basket in the corner.

Then, she switched the water-drawing formation to shower mode.

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—”

The warm water flowed down like a fine curtain of rain, bringing a refreshing and comfortable feeling.

“Ngh…”

At that moment, Lu Qiancha, who was leaning back in the wooden chair, her long eyelashes fluttered a few times like a butterfly’s wings, and she let out a faint whimper.
Her hazy, deep blue eyes slowly opened.

“…S-Senior brother?” Gan Tang’s voice was slightly moist with the steam and a little stiff from a guilty conscience.
The bath bean in her hand almost fell to the floor.
“You… you’re awake?”

Lu Qiancha tried to move her paw.

Her body was still as soft as noodles just fished out of water.
Never mind moving, even sitting upright in the wooden chair was the result of all her effort.

She could only manage a soft “mm” in response.

Deep within her newly-cleared blue eyes, extremely complex emotions were churning—embarrassment? Shyness? Bewilderment? It was hard to say.

Gan Tang nervously observed her senior brother’s expression.
Seeing that she was just staring blankly at the flowing water and hadn’t flown into a rage,

she finally mustered the courage to ask in a voice so soft it was almost a whisper, “…Senior brother, do you remember what happened just now?”

“…”

Silence.
A long silence.

Only the sound of trickling water flowed between the two.

Finally, Lu Qiancha’s lips, which seemed even softer due to her weakness, slowly moved, and she uttered two extremely heavy and complexly shy words: “…I remember.”

“Waaah!” Gan Tang’s heart instantly leaped into her throat.

She knelt down on the wet floor with a plop, her hands subconsciously clutching Lu Qiancha’s cold little paws.

Gan Tang lowered her head, her words coming out in a rapid-fire succession, with undisguised panic and regret: “I’m sorry, senior brother! I’m really, really sorry! It’s all my fault!

“But-but the situation was really, really urgent! Auntie was holding you, and then she said she would teach me how to help you.
I-I didn’t mean to see you… like that! And… and I certainly didn’t mean to…”

“It’s okay, it’s not your fault…”

Lu Qiancha’s voice was a weak sigh.
She raised her still somewhat powerless paw and, with great difficulty, reached the top of Gan Tang’s wet head, pressing gently with her paw pad as a form of comfort.

“?!” Gan Tang abruptly raised her head, her pink eyes filled with an unbelievable light, as if she had just heard a fairy tale.

‘Senior brother, not only is he not angry?! He’s… he’s comforting me instead?!’

“Ngh~ Don’t look at me like that… I get shy too.”

Lu Qiancha felt extremely uncomfortable under her scorching gaze.
She awkwardly turned her blushing little face away, her two small, fair feet swaying restlessly.

“Senior brother…” Gan Tang’s voice was still tinged with a cautious probing, “Y-you… you’re not going to beat me up?”

“Ngh… if you ask again.”

Lu Qiancha seemed to have hit a sore spot.
Her soft paw suddenly “fiercely” pawed at the air a few times, “…I might really beat you up…”

Unfortunately, Lu Qiancha’s movements were soft and limp, more like pouting than a threat.

“I’ll shut up! I’ll shut up right now!” Gan Tang immediately made a cross sign over her mouth with both hands, then quickly grabbed the bath bean and towel from the small wooden table next to her and presented them to Lu Qiancha as if offering a treasure: “Here! Senior brother, for you!”

Lu Qiancha raised her still slightly trembling little paw, then let it fall limply in resignation.
Her voice was filled with helplessness and fatigue: “You wash me…”

“…I really don’t have any strength left.”

“Mm-hm, mm-hm!”

Gan Tang’s eyes lit up, her agreement almost too eager.

She immediately moved under the shower stream in front of Lu Qiancha, sat cross-legged, and let the warm water wash over both their legs.

Then, Gan Tang picked up the bath bean and towel and, with an almost reverent and nervous air, began to carefully wipe Lu Qiancha’s small and exquisite body, which now exuded a delicate and soft feeling.

The water flowed over…

“Senior brother…”

Gan Tang finally couldn’t hold it in any longer and called out in a low voice.
Her voice was somewhat muffled by the sound of the rushing water.

“Hm?” Lu Qiancha lifted her eyelids and looked up at her.

Gan Tang’s cheeks were even redder in the steaming air.
Her gaze couldn’t help but wander for a moment before she said, with a certain anticipation and a secret shyness, in a voice like a mosquito’s hum, “…Um, if you’re still angry, senior brother, and feel that you’ve been taken advantage of… and want to get ‘revenge’…”

She paused, her long eyelashes, dotted with water droplets, trembling slightly.
“…I-I won’t refuse either…”

After saying this, Gan Tang almost buried her head in the water.

Lu Qiancha: “…”

She looked at this junior sister in front of her, with her flushed cheeks, averted gaze, and nervously crossed legs…

A huge sense of helplessness mixed with speechlessness washed over her.

‘What on earth is in this silly junior sister’s head?!’

Lu Qiancha didn’t hesitate, her voice resolute: “I will refuse.”

“Eh?!” The blush on Gan Tang’s face faded slightly, replaced by undisguised disappointment.
She complained with teary eyes, “Senior brother! It took me so much courage to say something like that! How could you… be so heartless!”

Lu Qiancha looked at her, her blue eyes clearly reflecting her figure.
She said, word for word, in a serious and solemn tone, “Gan Tang.
I only see you as a younger sister.”