Shen Ye casually picked out a few pieces, hugged the clothes to her chest, and walked back to Lin Xiangyi’s side.
“These are good enough.”
Lin Xiangyi took the clothes and flipped through the size tags.
Then he said to the shopkeeper:
“Do you have these in smaller sizes?”
“Yes, we do, they’re in the back. I’ll get them for you.”
Listening to the two of them talk, Shen Ye pursed her lips.
What’s the big deal, acting like I need to be looked after.
She spotted a height-measuring station in the store, her small eyes lighting up as she snuck over.
No one was watching her.
She stood on her tiptoes and secretly measured herself, only to find no breakthrough. She silently added her ears to the count.
Even with rounding, that’s 1.6 meters now!
1.6 meters!
1.6 meters~
1.6 meters…
That’s… passable, I guess.
“Hmph.”
Shen Ye covered her face, as if amused by her own ridiculous thoughts.
Is it really passable?
I’ve even learned to lie to myself now.
“Sigh.”
She let out a deep breath.
Then she lowered her hands and looked at the mirror beside her, at the girl who couldn’t look even remotely handsome no matter how she wore men’s clothing.
The girl in the mirror stared back at her, her eyes forlorn.
“Let’s go, Xiao Ye.”
Lin Xiangyi’s voice came from behind.
Shen Ye snapped back to reality and glanced at her reflection in the mirror with a complicated expression.
“Hah.”
She let out a bitter, quiet laugh, then put on a brand-new smile and turned to follow him.
“Coming~”
The two of them stepped back into the flow of the crowd.
The shopping mall was still bustling, noisy voices coming from every direction.
In the corner Lin Xiangyi couldn’t see, the smile on Shen Ye’s face faded bit by bit.
She kept her head down, carrying the small bag with both hands behind her back, trailing slowly behind Lin Xiangyi.
Earlier, she’d noticed the looks from the shopkeeper and her junior brother.
In their eyes, I’m just a pretty girl right now.
A girl like that, who won’t pick the pretty, flashy clothes and insists on dressing like a guy.
To them, that must look weird, right?
…
Ugh.
It’s been less than two days, and I’m already thinking of the two fellow men as “them”?
I really am becoming strange.
Shen Ye’s thoughts drifted further and further away, and her pace grew slower and slower.
That sales assistant at the women’s clothing store too—the way she looked at me was like I was a little sister.
In her eyes, I couldn’t feel any of that kind of attention a man would normally get when facing a woman.
Instead, there was only that kind of doting gaze you’d give some little animal.
I’m not some kid.
Shen Ye raised her arm and tucked the stray hair hanging in front of her eyes behind her ear.
The motion brought an odd friction, as well as the uncomfortable, suffocating tightness around her chest.
“…”
And this kind of underwear only girls would wear.
Wearing something like this underneath while putting on boys’ clothes on top.
This is weird.
This has to be weird.
Shen Ye stopped in her tracks, rooted to the spot, biting her lip hard.
And also…
She remembered that moment in the fitting room, when she’d held up the dress and pressed it against herself.
In that moment, her eyes had been full of hazy confusion, like a drunkard bewitched out of her senses.
In that instant, she’d thought about a lot of things.
From the life-and-death moment at Azure Cloud Sect to all the exchanges she’d had with her junior brother.
She’d always felt she owed her junior brother something.
As his senior brother, she’d known so little about the junior who’d been by her side for over a decade.
She wanted to try to make it up to him.
So, when it came to what her junior brother might be “expecting,” she chose to respond.
But…
That method is definitely wrong!
What was I even thinking back then!?
Dressing up in women’s clothes for your junior brother to see—is that something a senior brother should do? How embarrassing!
Thankfully, I stopped myself in time.
Shen Ye’s face burned red from her own wild thoughts, her CPU overheating. She covered her flushed cheeks with her hands and stood still for a long time, unable to take a step.
By the time the heat on her face subsided and she came back to her senses,
Lin Xiangyi was no longer in her line of sight.
“Xiangyi?”
She looked around in confusion and called out softly, but her voice sank into the noisy crowd like a stone dropped into the ocean, not a single ripple to show for it.
“Ah!”
A tall man brushed past her, bumping into her shoulder with considerable force, and the pain made Shen Ye let out a small yelp.
She turned to look, but the man had already vanished into the sea of people.
“…”
The crowd surged around her, wave after wave.
Shen Ye held her bumped arm, her eyes vacant.
In the crowd, she couldn’t find where she was supposed to go.
On the other side of the mall, not far ahead of Shen Ye.
Lin Xiangyi walked in silence, his hands in his pockets.
Back at the men’s clothing store, he’d seen that forlorn smile on Shen Ye’s face, and his worry had been spreading uncontrollably ever since.
Coming to the Human World all alone, she must be feeling really down.
Lin Xiangyi knew how humans persecuted Spirit Beings, and he also knew how humans were seen as villains in the eyes of some spirits.
She was someone my senior brother asked me to look after, and yet I let her get frightened.
That look on her face—she was clearly scared, she just wasn’t showing it at all.
And here I was, thinking that whole “Hero Saving Beauty” thing was cool. Damn me.
He clenched his fists.
Not taking care of her is entirely my fault. I should be the one apologizing to her.
He made up his mind, turned around, and opened his mouth to speak—but the familiar figure was nowhere to be seen.
“Xiao Ye?”
Lin Xiangyi’s face went pale in an instant.
Damn it. Too many people. We got separated.
How the hell did I lose track of a living, breathing person?!
“Xiao Ye!”
He shouted again, but his voice didn’t stir a single ripple in the crowd.
No, I have to go find her!
“Where’d that little beauty run off to? Don’t tell me she’s already sick of you and ran away?”
A cold, sneering voice suddenly sounded right by his ear.
Lin Xiangyi’s expression changed. He sidestepped two paces and turned toward the source of the voice.
A familiar figure was standing right behind him.
A well-dressed young man with his hands in his pockets, a mocking smirk hanging at the corner of his mouth, staring at him with an arrogant look.
The crowd streamed past the two of them, but the air around them seemed to freeze solid.
“It’s you?”
Lin Xiangyi’s eyes turned cold.
“What? Surprised?” Zhao Lin tilted his head. “This mall is my family’s property. Is it really that strange for me to show up anywhere here?”
Lin Xiangyi didn’t respond. He didn’t even look at Zhao Lin, just turned to leave.
“Hey, hey, hey, don’t rush off.”
Zhao Lin’s voice chased after him from behind.
“Still holding a torch for her? Take big bro’s advice and save your energy. A beauty on that level isn’t something a small-time family like yours can afford to keep.”
Lin Xiangyi’s steps halted, and a dangerous aura radiated from him.
Zhao Lin, however, remained oblivious, still wearing that insufferable grin.
“Heh heh heh. Lin Xiangyi, I do know who you are.”
He stepped forward twice, closing the distance between them, and uttered a single word.
“Azure Cloud Sect, right?”
“Hahaha. The sect of the famous Shen Ye—who doesn’t know it, who hasn’t heard of it?”
“But you, Lin Xiangyi, your reputation is worlds apart from your senior brother’s.”
“I heard that after you failed your last exam, you switched to the Life Spirit System. Five years have passed. Care to let me see just how capable you are? But before that, I have one thing I’d like to say.”
His voice drew closer, deliberately making sure Lin Xiangyi heard every word.
“A waste is always a waste.”
Lin Xiangyi turned around. He said nothing, simply stared at Zhao Lin in silence, then spoke calmly:
“Fine. Let me show you, then.”
Zhao Lin let out a whistle, and in his pupils, Lin Xiangyi’s icy smile was reflected.
Good. Letting you off last time—I was way too soft.
Lin Xiangyi clenched his fist tightly.