Continuous knocking echoed along the second-floor corridor, accompanied by the soft calls of one girl after another.
“Senior Sister~ Senior Sister, open the door! Senior Sister, don’t stay silent. We know you’re in the room~”
“Senior Sister, Senior Sister…”
Creak—
Under the girls’ overlapping voices outside the door, the wooden door was pulled open completely inward.
Xia Liu stood barefoot on the floor, poking her head out with a face full of resentment.
Her collar hung half open, and the hem of her skirt was wrinkled, obviously thrown on in haste just moments ago.
She saw the girls squeezed together like adorable, coquettish flowers.
They still hadn’t changed out of their clothes.
Their bathrobes pressed closely together, the spring scenery beneath them peeking through.
Upon seeing Xia Liu emerge, they scattered obediently like dandelions, looking perfectly well-behaved as they chorused in unison.
“Hello, Senior Sister.”
Three to five girls blinked their watery eyes at Xia Liu, their voices sweet and cloying.
This scene, which outsiders would view as the ultimate blessing of enjoying multiple beauties at once, did not strike Xia Liu as beautiful at all.
“Stop using the word ‘Senior Sister.’ What exactly do you all want?”
Xia Liu took a deep breath and rubbed her forehead, feeling a headache coming on.
She comforted herself internally to control her temper and barely maintained a neutral expression.
If it were only one or two people calling out, it would be fine.
But hearing several girls chanting the exact same word made her skin crawl with discomfort… She even had the strange illusion that she no longer recognized the word.
The time was now roughly the hour of Xu, barely one shichen since they had finished dinner.
After Su Zhan finished eating and left the table, Xia Liu had slowly recovered from her distracted state.
Realizing she was the only one left, she hurriedly scarfed down a few more bites and returned to her room.
Feeling restless and irritable, she debated whether to just bury herself in sleep or go soak in the hot springs to relax.
In the end, she chose the hot springs.
After all, since I’m already here, it would be a waste not to enjoy them.
Each room was equipped with bathrobes in different sizes, so there was no need to go to the bathhouse.
After selecting one that fit her, Xia Liu began changing.
She had only removed half her clothes when a continuous stream of knocking and calling sounded from outside the door.
If this were back in the sect, who would dare disturb her like this?
But they were in the middle of their mortal realm tempering, and she had told these little brats that they must come to her if something came up.
So she could only suppress her emotions and see what mischief they were plotting this time.
“Senior Sister, Senior Sister, are you and Senior Sister Su dao companions?”
The first sentence out of one girl’s mouth nearly made Xia Liu lose her footing.
She almost stumbled sideways, her brows furrowing as she asked incredulously.
“What did you say?”
Someone hurriedly reached out to cover the girl’s mouth, but the girl simply blinked innocently and asked again.
“Senior Sister, are you and Senior Sister Su in a dao companion relationship? The kind where you share the same bed and couch as partners.”
“No.”
Xia Liu pinched the bridge of her nose, taking several deep breaths to swallow the curses rising to her lips.
Sharing the same bed and couch—said so elegantly. Why don’t you just say dual cultivation?!
“Where did you hear this rumor? Who started it?”
Xia Liu asked, her voice carrying a cold edge.
She wanted to find out which little brat had the audacity to spread such nonsense about her.
The girls immediately pointed their fingers in unison at the one trying to hide off to the side.
The girl widened her eyes and looked around.
Seeing her disloyal companions sell her out so directly, she didn’t bother defending herself.
She pointed at herself, put on a pitiful expression, and gave an awkward smile.
“Hehe… Senior Sister, it was me…”
“You…”
Xia Liu felt her blood surging with anger.
She had assumed the main culprit was someone else.
She never expected it to be one of the girls right here.
This one had quite the nerve.
At least it saved her the effort of tracking anyone down.
This was the same girl who had teased her at dinner about whether she had done something naughty.
She really had a cheeky personality.
It was time for her Senior Sister to properly wield the iron fist of discipline and teach her about respecting seniority and hierarchy.
Fortunately, Xia Liu was a dan cultivator.
Even if she beat this girl until she couldn’t get out of bed, she could follow it up by feeding her a highly effective but extremely bitter medicinal pill.
Once the girl recovered, she could discipline her again.
Xia Liu looked the girl up and down, already calculating in her mind whether she should make this little minx lie across her lap for a spanking or use some other method of punishment.
“Senior Sister, spare us! We saw that Senior Sister was feeling troubled and came specifically to help relieve your worries!”
The girl pressed her palms together, displaying quite the spirit of catching a blade bare-handed.
She immediately offered a decisive apology.
Her tightly closed eyes secretly cracked open to peek at Xia Liu’s expression.
Finding that Xia Liu still looked furious, she quickly shut them again and shrank back her neck.
“Relieve my worries?”
Xia Liu frowned, her face filled with distrust.
“You?”
“Yes, exactly! I’ve read many storybooks… ah, no, I’ve reviewed many similar cases and know plenty of solutions!”
The girl nodded her head vigorously like a pecking chicken.
Xia Liu still didn’t believe her.
If it were her, she definitely wouldn’t do something so thankless.
She instinctively sensed that this little minx had no good intentions.
But leaving these girls standing in the corridor might attract even more people, which would be even more troublesome.
“Does anyone else know about this matter?”
Xia Liu asked with a stiff face.
“No, only the few of us know about it.”
The girl replied.
Xia Liu looked toward the other girls, who nodded repeatedly.
Only then did Xia Liu let out a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, it was only these few who knew.
As long as she could nip the rumor in the bud before it spread further, everything would be fine.
“Come in and talk.”
“Do we really have to go inside…”
the lead girl muttered weakly.
“Senior Sister, you’re not planning to trick us inside just to lecture us, right…”
“Weren’t you the ones knocking nonstop on my door just now? Stop wasting words and get inside.”
Xia Liu glared at her.
If this girl hadn’t led the whole pack to knock on her door for so long, she would already be comfortably soaking in the hot springs by now.
And yet here this troublemaker was, suddenly acting all coy.
“Who knew Senior Sister would react like this… If I’d known, I wouldn’t have come.”
The girl grumbled under her breath, but under Xia Liu’s increasingly unfriendly gaze, she immediately made a gesture of zipping her lips, indicating she was wrong.
Xia Liu kept her face stern as she stepped aside to let the three to five girls enter her room.
Then she poked her head out, carefully confirming no one nearby was eavesdropping before closing the door.
“So… spill it.”
Xia Liu turned to face the girls in the room, pressing her back firmly against the door, arms crossed over her chest, wearing an expression of merciless interrogation.
“Why do you have that kind of misunderstanding about me and Senior Sister Su? If your explanation doesn’t satisfy me, you few can look forward to getting properly disciplined today.”
“Ah— No, Senior Sister! I truly came to help you. You can’t do this…”
the lead girl wailed.
“So you’re just going to give up resisting and take the beating directly?”
Xia Liu said expressionlessly.
“No no— Senior Sister, I was wrong…”
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.