Mid-June, the month of Final Exams.
The days were growing hotter, and Mr. Bai and Madam Bai were giving themselves more vacation time.
Unfortunately, today wasn’t the weekend, so their two daughters weren’t home.
Madam Bai sat on the living room sofa, holding a half-cooled cup of tea in her hands.
A period drama played on the wall-mounted TV, but her attention was entirely elsewhere.
“I just feel like something’s off—our Xiao Ya, Xiao Xia, and that girl who comes over on weekends.”
Mr. Bai sat beside her, watching TV, and looked confused when he heard this.
“Three girls. What’s the problem?”
“Leaving aside the number, there could still be something between girls.”
Madam Bai whispered.
“Didn’t you feel it? Between Xiao Ya and Xiao Xia, there’s this… indescribable feeling.”
Not intimate, but a bit ambiguous.
Mr. Bai was a man of great wisdom, and he knew his wife well.
“You mean those two girls—no, all three—have something?”
How was that a problem? Wasn’t that a good thing?
He raised his eyes, used the back of his hand to cover his twitching lips, and spoke solemnly.
“Buddha said, to see a flower is not to see a flower; to see a leaf is not to see a leaf. One flower, one leaf, all are Bodhi. If you have distracting thoughts in your heart, always thinking about bad things, you’ll find problems in everything.”
Madam Bai was stunned.
She faintly felt this logic wasn’t what that saying was for, and did Buddha really say that?
If Bai Xia were here, she’d recognize it at once—wasn’t this her own usual symptom?
Appearing calm, but actually spouting nonsense.
Exactly the same.
“If your heart is restless, dry, and troubled, you’ll always feel weighed down by worries. Why not let go, have a sip of tea, relax, and think again?”
Mr. Bai’s expression was so calm, as if he’d achieved enlightenment, that Madam Bai was really fooled.
Could it be… there really wasn’t a problem with them?
***
It wasn’t just the parents who worried about Xiao Ya’s relationships, but also her close roommates at school.
After learning that Bai Xiaoya’s Summer Vacation plan was to spend time with Su Qingyu and her “Sister,” they grew even more anxious.
“Xiaoxiao, are you sure you’re really just playing together?”
“Not playing with you?”
Gu Yun and He Lili were very worried about her.
Bai Xiaoya almost lost her composure at those words, putting down her textbook to let them see her complicated expression.
“No, sisters, your thoughts are way too progressive.”
Not that perverted, right?
Although Xiao Ya always called Xiao Xia a big pervert, if things were really that bad, she wouldn’t dare say it out loud.
At that level, even shouting once would be too much.
“Anyway, just be careful.”
Gu Yun offered a sincere blessing.
“Beware of cross-contamination or something.”
“…Thanks, but I’d rather hear you wish me luck on the exams.”
Final Exams had arrived.
The weather was clear that day, not a cloud in the sky, no rain or wind.
Everything went according to plan.
Few people knew that in the hospital mortuary that day, a bizarre corpse theft had occurred.
Because of the heavy stench, the Association didn’t bring it back to the Member-Only Restaurant, but sent it to a deserted suburb instead.
A group of people in gray clothes neither wept nor celebrated, but laid the corpse flat and lit an ominous white incense candle by its head.
Incense to open life and death, candlelight to guide the soul.
Nothing happened in reality, but in the curling smoke, everyone caught a whiff and saw a scene in their minds.
The Black-Haired Girl arrived with the Blonde Loli, placing a flute into a box.
As the vice-captain, she bravely stepped forward to check the flute’s authenticity, discovering it was a fake.
Not long after, chaos erupted.
“He felt… fear,”
The man sensed the emotion through the Soul Incense.
“He suddenly began to doubt himself, doubt whether his companions were strong enough to defeat that girl, and then fully realized the answer—no.”
Scenes of shooting at companions and the Black-Haired Girl descending from above, knocking out enemies with her elbow, also appeared before them.
Everything was clear now.
“It’s the Pocket Watch,”
He said firmly.
“Edwins’s Pocket Watch.”
The others were equally grim-faced.
Partly due to the unpleasant taste of the Soul Incense, and partly because some of them had been involved in the plan years ago and suffered from the Pocket Watch’s rampage.
That feeling was ten thousand times worse than the Soul Incense.
“But who was that girl? The one who came with Su Qingyu?”
Such things weren’t hard to check, especially in Baiyuan City where information trading existed.
“Bai Xia, daughter of the former Baibai Trading boss. She’s been searching the Trading Zone for years, trying to uncover the Truth of That Year. But it seems now she’s succeeded.”
The man’s face was dark.
“Pack up. Let’s return. I need to request more people and supplies from other Subbranches. Dealing with the Pocket Watch and Magic Flute together requires absolute preparation.”
One controlled the body, the other toyed with the mind.
A single misstep meant total ruin.
The group cleaned up the scene, sealed the corpse in a Corpse Bag, and erased traces on the ground.
“Leader, what about this candle?”
Someone pointed to a stub of Yellow Spring Candle.
“Take it. It’ll regrow, though it takes a long time.”
***
It had been a long time since Bai Xiaoya took an exam, so returning to the exam room made her nostalgic.
Her grades might not be great, but it didn’t matter—she’d been through this before.
If she failed, so be it.
After all, Xiao Ya already planned to let Xiao Xia inherit the family business and live off her.
They were family; she couldn’t just ignore her.
After the exam, Su Qingyu ran over excitedly.
“A Ya, I’ve already set up our first Summer Vacation outing!”
She handed over her phone.
Bai Xiaoya looked and saw a newly opened Water Park.
“There’s a Female-Only No Disturbance Zone. I bought tickets already. You can play a lot, and there’s a connected Hotel too.”
Su Qingyu looked at her expectantly.
“If you get tired, just sleep. No problem.”
Summer and big-breasted girls—how could you not think of swimsuits?
The timing was three days later, right when Bai Xia was free for Summer Vacation.
Would there be make-up classes for first years before break? Who cared—Bai Xia would just pretend not to know and leave.
Bai Xiaoya nodded.
Hot Summer Vacation and water really did go well together.
But for some reason, she felt Su Qingyu’s gaze held deeper meaning.
“Is that all?”
“Of course,”
Su Qingyu hooked Bai Xiaoya’s arm.
“If you have ideas, A Ya, we can add them too.”
“I don’t have any. Just…”
Bai Xiaoya was about to speak when a “ding-dong” sounded in her ears.
She instantly perked up.
It was finally here!
[Ding-dong~ Special Limited-Time Summer Mission: Nothing but petty tricks. Mission Introduction: The two Destined Heroines are conspiring to go Two Against One and target you. Such underhanded villainy—using it against the Villainess instead of the Heroine—how twisted.]
[Mission Requirement: At the right moment, expose their scheme to their faces and deliver a mocking retort. Mission Reward: One draw from the High-level Prize Pool!]