Chapter 256
Victim +1...
When the knocking sounded, Xue Youyou was frozen in the bathtub in an extremely subtle posture.
Mutsuki's hand was still resting on her thigh, the icy touch of her fingertips like a small snake flicking its tongue, making the hairs on her body stand on end.
In that brief half-minute, she gleaned a chilling secret from the strokes of that finger, but before she could ponder it further, she was interrupted by a few crisp knocks on the door.
"Someone's coming."
Almost reflexively, Xue Youyou grabbed Muyue's wrist and removed her hand from her leg.
The speed and force of the movement made Mutsuki let out a soft hiss.
"Is she your girlfriend?"
Mutsuki, however, remained calm and observed Yuki's unusually embarrassed expression with interest: "Let her wait."
Xue Youyou didn't argue with Muyue. She stood up from the bathtub, splashing water all over the floor.
She casually grabbed a towel from the shelf and wrapped it around herself, then glanced back at Mutsuki, who was still soaking in the water. After hesitating for a second, she grabbed another towel and threw it over Mutsuki's head.
"I dried it off and came out."
"Heh, you're quite adept at using her."
Mutsuki slowly lifted the towel from her head, but showed no intention of getting up immediately. She watched Xue Youyou's hurried figure walk towards the door, a cryptic smile playing on her lips, lost in thought.
Xue Youyou walked to the door and opened it.
Standing outside the door was Meng Yanqing.
She had changed into a light blue nightgown, her long hair still damp from her shower, with a few stray strands clinging to her cheeks.
But when he saw Xue Youyou open the door and the still dripping hair behind her, his hesitant expression froze as if someone had pressed the pause button the moment he saw what was in front of him.
Xue Youyou was wrapped in a bath towel, with large expanses of her fair shoulders and collarbone exposed to the air. Water droplets slid slowly down the curve of her neck and disappeared into the edge of the towel, and she exuded a warm aura as if she had just come out of the bath.
"faint--"
Meng Yanqing's words caught in her throat because she looked over Xue Youyou's shoulder and saw the second person in the room.
Mutsuki was walking out of the bathroom, a towel loosely wrapped around her. She was already petite, and the towel made her look less like she had just come out of the bath and more like she was wearing an adult's clothes.
Both of them were soaking wet.
Both of them were wrapped in bath towels.
The two were in the same room.
In an instant, 108 images that shouldn't have flashed through Meng Yanqing's mind.
"Yan Qing?"
Xue Youyou coughed lightly, feigning composure, her tone as calm and natural as possible, as if nothing had happened: "What do you need me for so late?"
Meng Yanqing did not answer immediately.
Her gaze swept back and forth between Xue Youyou and Muyue three times, her lips pressed into a line, her brows slightly furrowed, like a wife who had caught her husband cheating.
"you……"
She spoke with difficulty, her voice carrying a clear hint of jealousy, but mostly confusion: "What's going on?"
Before Xue Youyou could even speak, Muyue behind her spoke first, saying in a deliberately drawn-out, lazy tone, "Taking a shower, huh? Otherwise, what do you think we can do naked in the bathroom? Play cards?"
Xue Youyou's eyes twitched.
This guy really is someone who thrives on chaos.
She took a deep breath, turned her head and gave Mu Yue a warning look, then turned back to Meng Yanqing and explained in as gentle a tone as possible, "Didn't I tell you before? She's sleeping in my room tonight to discuss the Great Dao of Beast Taming. We just took a shower together."
Meng Yanqing blinked, seemingly processing the explanation.
But judging from her skeptical look, Xue Youyou's explanation was clearly not up to par.
However, she wasn't there to catch them in the act of adultery, and there was something more urgent that she needed to confirm than "Yuyu and Mutsuki taking a bath together."
So she temporarily suppressed the sour feeling in her heart, pulled down the white stocking on her left leg, revealing a section of fair and smooth calf.
"Youyou, look at this."
Xue Youyou followed her finger and looked down at Meng Yanqing's inner calf, near her ankle. There, a fist-sized, dark red crescent-shaped mark was quietly imprinted on her skin, its lines clear and its color eerie.
It was exactly the same as the one on her lower abdomen.
Xue Youyou's pupils contracted slightly.
Mutsuki, standing behind Meng Yanqing, also came closer. She glanced at the mark on Meng Yanqing's calf, but didn't show much surprise on her face. She simply said "Oh" softly, then nodded, and said in an almost matter-of-fact tone, "With your talent, it's understandable that you were chosen by the Imperial Sacrifice."
"Emperor Festival?"
Meng Yanqing looked blankly at Xue Youyou, then at Muyue, her face full of question marks: "What do you mean?"
Just then, the knocking sounded again.
Xue Youyou's gaze passed over Meng Yanqing's shoulder and landed on the figure in the corridor who had just walked to the door.
Lu Yutang stood there, wearing a pale yellow nightgown, her hair half-wet, clearly having just taken a shower.
She was clearly taken aback when she saw that there were already three people in the room, and her steps faltered at the threshold.
"Yutang?"
Xue Youyou had a bad feeling and asked, "Did you come to see me about something?"
Lu Yutang bit her lower lip, glanced at Xue Youyou, then at Meng Yanqing and Muyue inside the room, and stammered, "I...I have something I want to tell you alone..."
"It's alright, everyone here is one of us."
Xue Youyou had already guessed what she was going to say, so she said, "Just say it."
Lu Yutang's face turned red to the roots of her ears.
She stood there, hesitating for a long time, twisting the hem of her nightgown with her fingers, almost wringing the fabric out of shape.
But in the end, under Xue Youyou's urging gaze, she gritted her teeth and carefully lifted the hem of her nightgown, revealing a small patch of skin near the inner thigh.
"When I was taking a shower, I noticed... a red crescent mark here. I don't know when it appeared, it doesn't hurt or itch, it just looks a bit strange. I was a little worried about it, so I came to you to take a look."
Xue Youyou looked down and, sure enough, a red moon mark identical to the one on her lower abdomen was quietly imprinted on the inner side of Lu Yutang's inner thigh.
"You actually won too."
Xue Youyou raised her head, her tone carrying a complex mix of sympathy and helplessness.
"Huh?" Lu Yutang lowered her skirt, her face still flushed, but more confused than anything else.
"That's normal."
Mutsuki shrugged, the towel slipping slightly from her shoulder. She casually pulled it up: "She's a rare resurrection ability user. Although her combat strength isn't great, it's understandable that she was chosen by the Emperor's Festival."