Regarding Qin Zheng’s ‘schemes,’ it had been said before that Bai Xia understood everything she should, and even things she shouldn’t. After all, what else did she possess that was worth coveting, apart from her slender frame, weighing less than a hundred catties?
Moreover, it seemed he had never once concealed his intentions; he approached her with such blatant transparency that even repeated rejections didn’t seem to faze him. He was relentless, displaying a persistence that suggested he wouldn’t rest until he had achieved his goal.
‘What a terrifying loli-con!’
For anyone else, such a persistent pursuit might have led to their eventual surrender. Yet, faced with Qin Zheng’s attempts to ‘conquer’ her, Bai Xia merely offered a cold smirk.
She was, after all, no ordinary person.
‘This foolish loli-con will never grasp the difficulty of my ‘conquest.’ He’ll never realize that the ‘loli’ he faces is actually a steel-straight man in disguise!’
Therefore, in response to Qin Zheng, the great loli-con’s ‘kindness,’ Bai Xia, adhering to the principles of friendship, prepared to let him experience true despair. Only then, she reasoned, could he rediscover genuine hope.
Indeed, her sole intention was to teach Qin Zheng a lesson, to guide him back from his ‘misguided path.’ It certainly wasn’t because she couldn’t resist the allure of a luxurious villa.
Although…
“This massage feels so good.”
As I watched the rain outside the window from the sofa, Bai Xia narrowed her eyes. The fully automatic smart massage had her on the verge of drifting off to sleep after just five minutes of blissful comfort.
In a daze, she realized the rain outside had intensified, now accompanied by flashes of lightning and rumbling thunder. It was then, as she stirred from her drowsiness, that a sudden realization struck Bai Xia.
Just as a thought clicked into place, Qin Zheng’s voice echoed from behind her. “The rain outside is too heavy. Just stay here tonight. As for your belongings at your old place, give me the spare key, and I’ll call a moving company to have them delivered on a good day.”
Indeed, it seemed leaving today was impossible due to the weather.
Of course, the villa itself presented no issues. Each room was ready for immediate occupancy, and for Bai Xia, simply staying the night was hardly a major inconvenience.
However…
“You’re staying too, Boss?”
“Why?” Qin Zheng settled onto the sofa beside her, then looked at her with a knowing, half-smile. “Are you suggesting you’d kick your landlord out?”
“…Didn’t you just say this house belonged to your friend?”
“And did you believe me?”
“Alright,” Bai Xia conceded, speechless.
Driving Qin Zheng away was, of course, out of the question. Not only was it nonsensical to evict the owner of a house, but the severe storm outside made travel genuinely unsafe.
Thus, despite a lingering sense of awkwardness, she had no choice but to accept that they would be sharing the villa tonight.
****
Fortunately, as a villa, there were more than enough rooms to go around, plenty for several more people, let alone just two. Since they wouldn’t be sleeping in the same room, let alone the same bed, perhaps it truly wasn’t such a big deal after all? With this thought, Bai Xia’s composure gradually returned.
The escalating storm outside could not penetrate the interior of the villa. Even the deafening thunder was reduced to a mere whisper by the excellent soundproofing.
It was only five or six in the afternoon, far too early for bed. So, even though her room was prepared, Bai Xia couldn’t possibly sleep now. As for dinner, having eaten a lot at noon, she had no appetite whatsoever.
Idle and with nothing to do, she yearned to log into an online game, only to realize her launcher was still at her old house. Ultimately, with Qin Zheng retreating to his study, purportedly to handle business, Bai Xia could only resort to taking a bath.
Before leaving, she did glance into the study, and once again, she couldn’t help but marvel at how advanced technology truly simplified life. Even across thousands of miles, ‘face-to-face’ real-time meetings could be conducted via projection.
Due to special encryption, Bai Xia couldn’t hear the content of the meeting, nor was she particularly interested.
Compared to that, a bath was far more appealing, especially in a ‘bathtub’ large enough to swim in.
The villa’s bathroom was indeed enormous; calling the tub ‘swimmable’ was no exaggeration. And thanks to prior instructions, the smart assistant had already filled it, perfectly regulating the water temperature.
In fact, if one desired, they wouldn’t even need to lift a finger during a bath. A simple command would prompt the smart assistant to handle everything—shampooing, massaging, scrubbing—using various intelligent bath products. However, Bai Xia still found such a concept rather peculiar.
Moreover, while a smart assistant was theoretically genderless, she still disliked the feeling of being monitored by an imagined ‘gaze’ while bathing. So, after confirming everything was in order in the bathroom, she temporarily blocked the assistant’s control over the space.
‘The more advanced the technology, the lazier people become.’
Bai Xia stripped off her clothes and placed them aside. Watching them automatically get collected by a machine and sent into the washing machine, she couldn’t help but shake her head. Immediately, however, another problem dawned on her. “Wait… If I wash them now, what will I wear later?”
While it was normal to wash her rain-soaked clothes during a bath and change into fresh ones, this wasn’t her own home. Where would she find a change of clothes?
She stared blankly at the light blue panties already swallowed by the washing machine nearby, then glanced at the only pair she still wore. For the first time, Bai Xia felt that too much intelligence might not be a good thing.
‘I hope there are some clothes I can wear here.’
Rubbing her forehead, a slightly exasperated Bai Xia grabbed a large towel and pushed open the glass door, heading towards the steamy bath. It was then she noticed that the wall on the other side of the tub was actually a full-length mirror, and despite being in a humid bathroom, it remained perfectly clear, reflecting everything around it without a trace of fog.
Using the soft glow of the streetlights outside, Bai Xia looked at her reflection in the mirror, feeling a strange sense of wonder. Although it was her own body, looking down at it with her eyes and gazing directly at her reflection in the mirror were two entirely different sensations.
Unconsciously, she walked past the bathtub and the array of unknown skincare and haircare products on the wall-mounted shelf, stopping directly in front of the mirror. Looking at the unfamiliar yet familiar girl in the reflection, clad only in a scant piece of fabric, Bai Xia found herself momentarily lost in thought.
She stiffened, seized by a sudden, startling realization that lingered for a while before she shook her head as if waking from a dream, instinctively stumbling back a few steps and nearly falling in her haste. Taking a deep breath to calm her unusually agitated emotions, Bai Xia frowned and reached out to touch the mirror’s surface, her reflection mirroring the action. “It feels… truly eerie?”
It was indeed a very strange sensation, akin to shifting from a first-person perspective to a ‘third-person’ one. This gave Bai Xia the illusion that the girl in the mirror was scrutinizing her. Of course, an illusion was just an illusion; this wasn’t a horror novel, so there was no need to worry about the Bai Xia in the mirror coming to life and engaging in a battle with her counterpart outside the glass. Bai Xia was simply feeling a subtle strangeness from rarely scrutinizing herself so closely. Shaking her head, she ceased observing her reflection. She then removed her panties, placed them aside, and stepped into the gently steaming bath.
To be honest, she had been longing for a bath. Due to a slight penchant for cleanliness, even though the rainwater on her had been wiped away earlier, she still felt somewhat uncomfortable. Thus, with such a large bathtub now available, it was a pleasure she simply had to indulge in. As for how she would leave after her bath without dry clothes? What would she say if she ran into Qin Zheng?
“Gurgle gurgle… Bathing, eating, playing games—life’s three greatest joys~”
Closing her eyes, she submerged her entire body into the lukewarm, inexplicably pale green water. The soothing warmth quickly permeated Bai Xia’s entire being, from the outside in. If only she could breathe underwater, the ineffable comfort and relaxation might have even spurred a sigh of pure contentment.
She remained fully submerged for a considerable time, only rising with a splash when she started to feel uncomfortable. Exhaling deeply, she wiped her face and pushed all her hair back, then truly began to savor her bathing time.
——
——
It was only after bathing for a good half hour that Bai Xia finally emerged from the bathroom, thoroughly satisfied. During this time, no ‘fan service’ plot points occurred due to an unexpected intrusion. Firstly, because Qin Zheng was still in his meeting, which hadn’t concluded even after Bai Xia had finished bathing. Secondly, because the door was locked.
Yes, it was that simple and straightforward!
Bai Xia found it utterly perplexing why, in anime and novels, various ‘fan service’ scenarios unfolded when the male protagonist accidentally barged in on someone bathing. If you didn’t know there was someone else in the house, and you didn’t want to be seen, why wouldn’t you lock the door while bathing? Or was buying a door with a lock truly that expensive?
Bai Xia’s sense of self-preservation was far from ordinary. Moreover, with only two people in the villa—one of whom was a loli-con—bathing without locking the door would be tantamount to an explicit invitation, wouldn’t it?
Unfortunately, Bai Xia had no intention of ‘feeding herself to the wolf,’ so she had developed the good habit of always locking the door when she bathed.
After her bath, her clothes were still wet and hadn’t dried yet. With no other option, Bai Xia, while Qin Zheng was still in his meeting, wrapped herself in a bath towel and headed upstairs. Naturally, she searched the master bedroom thoroughly but found no suitable clothes.
However, it wasn’t as if there were no clothes at all she could wear. Although the villa had been unoccupied for years, someone regularly cleaned it. And, likely due to specific instructions given earlier, there were a few shirts and trousers—men’s sizes—in the wardrobe, just in case.
In a situation with no clothes, the distinction between men’s and women’s wear was hardly a concern. Furthermore, Bai Xia felt no psychological burden wearing men’s clothes. Yet, she immediately encountered another problem.
“…Isn’t this too big?”
Bai Xia struggled to push her hands through the sleeves and button the shirt all the way to the top. But the sleeves promptly slid down her arms, revealing half a shoulder, and the hem reached past her knees. It was clearly ill-fitting, but with no other options, Bai Xia had to make do. As for the pants she had initially considered putting on, she hesitated, ultimately deciding against them.
Therefore, when Qin Zheng finally concluded his meeting and came downstairs, he was met with the sight of the young girl. Dressed in an oversized shirt that exposed one shoulder, she sat curled on the sofa, her small legs tucked in, watching a movie.
When he noticed her enter, Qin Zheng looked at her face, still faintly flushed from her recent bath, and remained silent for a long moment.
“Are you… trying to tempt me?”