Ling Ling was sandwiched in the middle like a sandwich, with Lin Jiu on her left and Ye Fengxue on her right.
Across the table was Hua Jianxi, who was holding a lollipop in her mouth, while Chiyotsuki sat gracefully at one end of the table, holding a red teacup, her golden eyes watching the group with interest.
“Sister, I added a little extra honey to today’s teriyaki chicken leg rice.”
Lin Jiu picked up a piece of golden-brown chicken leg meat with her chopsticks and brought it to Ling Ling’s mouth.
Ling Ling opened her mouth and ate it, chewing twice with a blank expression.
“Is it good?”
“Mm.”
Lin Jiu’s smile brightened, and she picked up a piece of broccoli and brought it over.
“Then have another bite of vegetables. Sister has been ‘exercising’ at night lately, and if you don’t get enough sleep, your skin will get worse.”
She deliberately emphasized the word “exercising” when she said it.
The whole table fell silent for a moment, and Ye Fengxue’s chopsticks stopped mid-air.
She naturally knew what Lin Jiu meant by “exercising”—it was about going out at night as “Bai Ye” to cause trouble. But lately, Ling Ling had rarely gone out as “Bai Ye” because the Countermeasures Section’s search for her had been strict, so she had chosen to lie low for now.
Thinking of this, Ye Fengxue subconsciously looked at the pitch-black ring on Ling Ling’s left ring finger.
This suddenly conjured an image in Ye Fengxue’s mind: in the late-night bedroom, moonlight streaming in through the gaps in the curtains, Ling Ling lying on the bed, her white hair spread across the pillow, her usually cold little face flushed with an unnatural red, lips slightly parted as if enduring something.
And the person on top of her—
Crack!
Ye Fengxue’s water glass was frozen into a solid block of ice.
“Lady Ye?”
Ling Ling tilted her head to look at her, her crimson eyes filled with a hint of confusion, but she felt that Lady Ye was thinking something rather impolite in her mind.
“Your face is really red. Is the cafeteria too hot?”
“N-no! I was just thinking about something!”
“Thinking about what?”
“Thinking about—none of your business!”
Ye Fengxue put the block of ice on the table and took a big gulp of ice water, trying to cool down her overheating brain.
But that image had taken root and wouldn’t go away no matter what.
Even more absurdly, the image started playing on its own.
The white-haired girl was pinned against the wall, her wrists held above her head, her crimson eyes full of watery light, her voice soft as if pleading.
“Xiao Jiu… no…”
No, no, no!! Ye Fengxue almost screamed out loud.
Chiyotsuki looked at her, her golden eyes curving slightly. “Fengxue, are you suffering from heatstroke? Your face is so red.”
“I don’t have heatstroke!”
“Then why are your ears red too?”
“Because—because it’s too hot!”
Hua Jianxi, with the lollipop in her mouth, swept her gray eyes back and forth between Ye Fengxue and Lin Jiu, then leaned in close to Ling Ling and lowered her voice. “Ling, it seems Lady Ye has misunderstood something quite serious.”
“Misunderstood what?”
“That kind of ‘exercise’ you and Xiao Jiu do every night.”
Ling Ling gave her a blank look.
“Hua Jianxi, if you keep spouting nonsense, I’ll pull your tongue out.”
“Oh my, Ling is so fierce.”
Hua Jianxi shrank her neck, but her eyes were full of laughter. “But the way you blush is really cute, you know. Despite not having done anything, you’re being treated as if you do that every night—shouldn’t Ling clarify?”
“Clarify what?”
“Clarify that you and Xiao Jiu are just purely sleeping in the same bed and not doing anything else.”
Ling Ling’s chopsticks paused for a moment.
The roots of her ears began to turn red.
Not because she was misunderstood about that kind of thing, but because she suddenly realized—from an outsider’s perspective, the way she and Lin Jiu interacted was indeed very easy to misunderstand.
Eating together, living together, sleeping together, wearing matching rings, and on top of that, her little sister’s gaze always carried a possessiveness that said, “Sister can only be mine.”
In the anime she watched in her previous life, this was clearly the beginning of a standard “German Orthopedics” scenario.
“…We haven’t done anything. We’re just ordinary sisters in a relationship.”
“Do ordinary sisters wear rings on their ring fingers?”
“That’s a coincidence.”
“Do ordinary sisters sleep in the same bed every day?”
“She’s afraid of the dark.”
“Do ordinary sisters look at each other with that kind of look?”
“…What kind of look?”
Hua Jianxi rested her chin on her hand, her gray eyes curving into crescents, and said word by word, “It’s that look—’Sister is mine alone, none of you can touch her.'”
Ling Ling was silent.
She couldn’t refute it.
“Hua Jianxi.”
Lin Jiu’s gentle voice suddenly interjected.
Hua Jianxi turned her head and met that pair of azure blue eyes.
Lin Jiu’s smile was still sweet, but the light in those eyes was as cold as a winter lake surface.
“Sister’s ring is a coincidence. Sister sleeps with me because I’m afraid of the dark. And the way Sister looks at me is just an ordinary sisterly look. So, could you please stop saying these strange things in front of Sister? Sister will get embarrassed.”
“…Ling gets embarrassed?”
“Yes, she does.”
Lin Jiu tilted her head, reached out and gently poked the base of Ling Ling’s ear. “See, it’s already completely red here.”
Ling Ling smacked her hand away, picked up her water glass with a blank expression, took a sip, and pretended nothing had happened.
But her ears were indeed red enough to bleed.
Ye Fengxue watched this scene, and her internal mini-theater started again.
This time the image playing was even more absurd—the white-haired girl was pressed down on the bed, her wrists tied to the headboard with a white ribbon, her crimson eyes full of mist, lips slightly parted, voice with a crying tone.
“Xiao Jiu… no…”
Crack!
The new water glass in her hand was frozen into a block of ice again.
The whole table fell silent again.
“Lady Ye,” Ling Ling looked at the ice block giving off cold air, “what exactly are you thinking about?”
“Nothing at all!!” Ye Fengxue put the ice block on the table and stood up. “I’m done eating! I’m leaving first!”
She turned and walked away, her steps fast as if fleeing for her life.
After taking a dozen steps, she suddenly stopped and looked back—Ling Ling was sitting in her original spot, head tilted in her direction, crimson eyes full of confusion.
Ye Fengxue bit her lip and quickly walked back.
“What’s wrong?” Ling Ling asked.
“I… remembered I haven’t had dessert yet.”
She sat back down in her seat, picked up the glass that had already frozen into an ice block, and pretended nothing had happened.
Hua Jianxi was already laughing, collapsed on the table.
“Lady Ye, were you just thinking about something very exciting? Share it with everyone.”
“No!!”
“Then why did you freeze your water glass into an ice block?”
“My superpower got out of control, can’t it?!”
“Fine, fine, fine.”
Hua Jianxi wiped away the tears from laughing, her gray eyes full of cunning.
“But Lady Ye, have you ever thought about one thing—if Ling really does that kind of ‘exercise’ every night, why is she still so energetic during the day?”
Ye Fengxue was stunned for a moment.
“Because—because she’s a superpower user?”
“Superpower users are human too.”
Hua Jianxi held the lollipop in her mouth, her tone lazy. “Doing that kind of thing too much will definitely lead to back pain and soreness the next day, and the way you walk will also be different.”
“But Ling’s walking posture today is very normal, her back is straight, and there’s no trace of that kind of ‘overexertion.’ So—”
She paused, the corner of her mouth curving into a meaningful arc.
“—Those images Lady Ye imagined are probably just Lady Ye’s own delusions.”
Ye Fengxue’s face was already as red as it could get.
She opened her mouth to say something, but her brain had completely shut down, unable to formulate a single word.
Chiyotsuki finally put down her red teacup, her golden eyes curving into crescent moons.
“Fengxue, can you describe in detail the images you just imagined? I’m quite curious too.”
“Senior Chiyo!!”
Ye Fengxue collapsed onto the table, burying her face in her arms, her ears red enough to drip blood.
Ling Ling looked at her, a flash of confusion in her crimson eyes, then turned to Hua Jianxi. “What exactly did you say to her?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
Hua Jianxi blinked, her expression so innocent it was annoying. “I was just stating a fact—Ling is still a pure little virgin, how could she possibly understand that kind of thing.”
Ling Ling’s chopsticks paused for the third time.
This time, her face turned red even faster than Ye Fengxue’s.
“Hua Jianxi.”
“Hm?”
“Say that again.”
“Say it again? Sure.” Hua Jianxi cleared her throat and said word by word, “Ling·is·still·a·pure·little·virgin.”
The whole table was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
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