A Delicate Task

A soft gasp escaped Tang Xingwan’s lips as her gaze fell upon Bai Muxue, whose forehead and cheeks were slick with a fine sheen of sweat, and whose rosy lips parted and closed in a gentle rhythm.

Immediately, two patches of crimson bloomed across Tang Xingwan’s own delicate cheeks.

She vigorously shook her head, desperate to banish the indescribable images that had momentarily invaded her thoughts.

‘What on earth was I just thinking?’

‘You really need to cut back on watching ‘that kind of stuff,’ Tang Xingwan!’ the girl, her cheeks ablaze, inwardly admonished herself.

‘Alright, two hours a day, tops!’

With her thoughts somewhat adrift, Tang Xingwan remained seated at the head of the bed, her gaze lost in contemplation as she stared at the girl with her eyes still tightly shut.

Her fingers, restless and uncertain, began to toy with a single strand of hair that cascaded over Bai Muxue’s shoulder.

Within the depths of Tang Xingwan’s own dark eyes, her tumultuous thoughts shimmered and danced.

“Miss Bai, Miss Bai?”

Once more, she gently poked Bai Muxue’s soft cheek, yet the girl remained utterly unresponsive.

‘This is hardly normal sleep; she must have simply fainted!’

‘No, this simply won’t do!’

In any case, since the plan to give her water was currently unfeasible, the next step would be to wipe Miss Bai’s body with alcohol.

Clenching her small fists, Tang Xingwan offered herself a silent word of encouragement before jogging off.

She quickly located the household’s medical alcohol, diluted it with water, and then dampened a clean towel.

However, upon returning to the room, carrying the basin of water, Tang Xingwan’s resolve began to falter once more.

‘Wipe her body… did that imply she had to undress Miss Bai?! Was that not a bit too…?’

‘Moreover, the person in question was Miss Bai, such an adorable girl… having to undress a beautiful, ailing maiden just to care for her—was this not precisely the kind of predictable scenario found in certain romance games?’

Tang Xingwan’s uncertain gaze drifted repeatedly, lingering first on Bai Muxue’s pale, delicate face, then on her slender arms.

Her mind seemed utterly consumed by visions of imagined whiteness and softness, and an ineffable shyness bloomed across her flushed, youthful face.

‘Forget it! We’re both girls, what’s there to be so shy about? Besides, this is all to save her!’

Patting her burning cheeks, Tang Xingwan finally steeled her resolve.

She then bit down hard on her lower lip, and with an expression akin to someone marching to their doom, she began to slowly, meticulously, peel away the black dress from the girl’s form.

‘The fabric is so soft… This dress certainly isn’t cheap; she truly is a young lady…’

As Tang Xingwan continued to murmur to herself, the silky-smooth fabric glided luxuriously beneath her fingertips.

With every slight upward roll of the dress, a dazzling patch of white skin beneath it was revealed, hinting at the beauty concealed within.

Despite Bai Muxue’s eyes remaining tightly closed, Tang Xingwan’s shy gaze utterly refused to linger on the girl’s form.

She could only avert her head slightly, her fingers fumbling as she slowly, cautiously, continued to remove the dress the girl wore.

‘It’s fine, it’s fine, this is purely to save a life… I absolutely harbor no ill intentions of ogling a beautiful girl’s body, none at all…!’

Continuously offering herself these internal assurances, Tang Xingwan gritted her teeth and, with a final decisive movement, completely removed the last lingering edge of the dress from Bai Muxue’s body.

Stripped of the black dress’s concealment, Bai Muxue’s slender arms and exquisitely delicate shoulders were laid bare to the air.

Along with them, her skin, as fine and smooth as lamb fat, was revealed—from her prominent collarbone down to her gentle lower abdomen, every inch of her almost translucent skin became breathtakingly clear.

‘Oh, wow…’

The sight before her nearly robbed Tang Xingwan of her ability to think.

Instinctively, she covered her eyes with her small hands, leaving only a sliver of vision between her fingers, through which she timidly gazed at the soft, pale beauty lying so close.

‘Tang Xingwan felt as though she might very well break down… If beauty could indeed be considered a weapon, then she had, in that very moment, been utterly vanquished by it.’

Bai Muxue simply lay quiescently on the bed, her flat abdomen gently rising and falling in rhythm with her somewhat hurried breaths.

Yet, it was this seemingly simple motion alone that caused Tang Xingwan’s heart to accelerate abruptly.

The afternoon sun streamed in, fiercely bright, casting a soft glow on Bai Muxue’s jade-white skin, where a few faint blushes still lingered.

Below her slender waist, white silk undergarments modestly concealed a beauty that nonetheless invited wild speculation.

Even the most delicate, almost imperceptible downy hairs on her smooth skin were discernible to Tang Xingwan’s keen gaze.

Tang Xingwan swallowed hard, her cheeks burning, and suddenly felt an overwhelming dryness in her throat.

‘It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine… While Miss Bai is undeniably adorable, she’s completely unconscious at the moment.

Even if I were to do something… peculiar, she wouldn’t wake up, would she?! Hey, hey, hey!!’

‘What on earth am I thinking? This is getting increasingly strange!’

‘If Dad were still alive, he would undoubtedly scold me fiercely if he knew I harbored such peculiar thoughts about a beautiful girl lying helpless in bed!’

Snapping back to reality, Tang Xingwan quickly reined in her runaway thoughts.

She hastily composed herself, wrung out the towel, and, making a conscious effort to avoid certain unspeakable areas, cautiously brought the damp cloth closer to Bai Muxue’s skin.

A soft ‘Mnngh…’ escaped Bai Muxue’s lips.

Yet, the instant the cool towel made contact with her skin, the girl stirred uneasily, emitting a faint, delicate whimper.

‘No, no, no, don’t make sounds like that! It’ll just make things weird!’

Bai Muxue’s subtle whimper slowly, insidiously, burrowed into Tang Xingwan’s ears, causing her delicate body to tremble violently.

The blush on her cheeks deepened further, and an overwhelming surge of shame and embarrassment, so profound she wished to bury herself alive, instantly coursed through her entire being.

‘I haven’t, I haven’t done anything wrong, there’s nothing to be afraid of…’

Though Tang Xingwan continued to mumble these assurances, her gaze remained stubbornly erratic, utterly unwilling to linger on the girl’s form for too long, creating an undeniable impression of attempting to conceal something.

Daring not to let her mind wander any further, she swiftly pressed the towel against Bai Muxue’s skin and began to wipe meticulously.

Yet, as the towel brushed gently over Bai Muxue’s exquisitely delicate collarbone and slender shoulders, Tang Xingwan’s thoughts, imperceptibly, began to drift once more.

‘Miss Bai is truly so petite… I wonder if she’s quite a bit younger than me? Perhaps still in junior high? But can a junior high student possess such a mature aura?’

‘Hmm, but while she certainly appears very petite… bearing no resemblance whatsoever to the phrase ‘voluptuous figure,’ isn’t this very daintiness, when coupled with Miss Bai’s adorable countenance, actually the most perfect combination?’

‘After all, things like dolls… are only truly endearing when cradled in one’s arms…’

With a medley of subtle thoughts swirling in her mind, Tang Xingwan carefully pulled the blanket back over Bai Muxue.

She then re-wet and wrung out the towel, folded it into a neat strip, and gently placed it upon the girl’s forehead.

Having completed these tasks, Tang Xingwan quietly exhaled a sigh of relief, then slumped weakly onto the edge of the bed.

Her beautiful, ink-black hair was now completely drenched with sweat, clinging damply to the sides of her face.

It was, undeniably, Bai Muxue who had succumbed to illness.

Yet, Tang Xingwan herself was now overcome with a profound sense of exhaustion, as though the meticulous act of wiping had utterly drained every ounce of strength from her body.

‘Is caring for someone truly this arduous? I’m starting to understand Dad’s sentiments now…’

Wiping the beads of sweat from her face, Tang Xingwan slowly turned her head, her gaze settling upon the slumbering Bai Muxue.

Miss Bai was undeniably cute, so cute it almost felt like a transgression.

This was precisely what Tang Xingwan had thought the very first time she laid eyes on Bai Muxue.

In this era of advanced internet connectivity, Tang Xingwan believed she had encountered her fair share of beautiful girls.

Yet, it wasn’t until this very day, as she gazed at the slender maiden lying so serenely on the bed, that a sudden realization struck her: every internet-famous beauty she had previously admired, along with esteemed figures like Qin Xiyao and Shen Jingyi, would now have to concede their top spots in her heart, moving down by a full rank.

She had never before encountered a girl quite like this—so utterly perfect it bordered on the ethereal.

The already petite Bai Muxue, now divested of her dress, appeared even more slender and fragile.

This delicate form, combined with her currently fatigued expression and disheveled hair, made her seem like a fleeting, dreamlike bubble—as if even the slightest exertion might ruthlessly shatter such exquisite beauty.

‘Suddenly, I’m finding two-dimensional characters far less appealing…’