“Let me take a look… your true form… hmm?”
Huang Qinyin suddenly yanked open the privacy curtain—but what she saw behind the door was very different from what she’d imagined.
Su Xinran was sitting naked in the bathtub, holding something that looked like a stick of incense and lightly tapping her lower abdomen with it.
Startled by Huang Qinyin’s sudden intrusion, Su Xinran shuddered and quickly grabbed a towel to cover herself.
“You… what are you doing?!”
Su Xinran asked, flustered and embarrassed.
“Haaah…? You’re asking me what I’m doing—what about you! What are you doing?!”
“Moxibustion. What else?”
Su Xinran shook the burning stick in her hand.
“This helps relieve abdominal pain. It’s an ancient human healing method. Our corpse tribe preserved this practice through inherited human memory.”
“Moxibustion…?”
Huang Qinyin looked skeptical.
She had heard that the corpse race practiced this form of treatment.
So, the fire incident from earlier might actually be explained away.
And the smoke from the burning mugwort had completely dulled her sense of smell—even the trace of blood was now undetectable.
But there was still something off.
“Where are your clothes?”
She’d walked into the bathroom wearing a nightgown.
If that nightgown had mysteriously vanished, it could still mean Su Xinran had destroyed evidence.
Huang Qinyin pressed on relentlessly.
“Right there.”
Su Xinran pointed to the rack beside her where her towel was hanging.
Her nightgown was folded on top of it.
“That’s impossible… That can’t be the one you were wearing!”
Huang Qinyin snatched the nightgown from the rack.
But to her dismay, it was the exact same one Su Xinran had worn earlier—same color, same style, same pattern.
Unwilling to give up, Huang Qinyin brought the nightgown to her nose and sniffed it.
All she could detect was the soft scent of a girl’s body—no trace of the bloody odor she remembered.
“No way…”
Huang Qinyin felt her confidence cracking.
She had definitely smelled strong blood earlier!
All her suspicions had now been explained away.
It was Su Xinran’s turn to go on the offensive.
“Listen, breaking into someone’s bathroom like that—by any standard, isn’t that kind of inappropriate?”
Su Xinran casually extinguished the moxa stick in her hand and confronted Huang Qinyin.
“I…”
Huang Qinyin stumbled back under pressure, bumping right into Ranzhu, who had come to check what all the fuss was about.
“What’s going on so early in the morning… Eh?”
What met Ranzhu’s eyes was Huang Qinyin roughly barging into the bathroom—apparently to spy on her young mistress bathing.
So Huang Qinyin was into this kind of thing…
That’s criminal!!
“Qinyin-chan… This… this is really not okay…”
Hearing Ranzhu’s words, Huang Qinyin finally realized that not only had she failed to catch Su Xinran red-handed—she’d also made a major fool of herself.
“…I’m really… truly sorry…”
After hesitating for a long moment, Huang Qinyin finally bowed in apology and exited the bathroom.
Once she left, Su Xinran collapsed weakly into the bathtub, breathing heavily.
“Whew… I actually… managed to bluff my way through…”
Her heart was pounding so loudly she could hear it echoing in her chest.
As for the nightgown—of course, it wasn’t the original one.
She had already burned the original to ashes earlier.
This one had been exchanged from the points shop.
Thankfully, items from the shop didn’t have that distinct “new item smell” like real-world clothes did.
Otherwise, she really would have been exposed…
And it was only thanks to that last-minute idea to use mugwort smoke to confuse that woman’s sharp sense of smell that she had narrowly made it through this ordeal.
“Being a girl is seriously too much trouble… I almost caused a disaster…”
Muttering complaints, Su Xinran cleaned up the aftermath, put on her nightgown, walked out of the bathroom, and stretched lazily.
“Guuu~”
Back in her bedroom, she opened the door and found that—shockingly—Wang Ya was still fast asleep.
Even with all that noise earlier, she didn’t wake up?
Originally, it had been Huang Qinyin’s job to come wake Wang Ya.
But since she was now sulking downstairs in self-exile, the task naturally fell to Su Xinran.
“Aya-jie! Time to get up!”
“Mmgh…”
Wang Ya groaned and rolled over, pulling the blanket over her head.
“Up and at ‘em!”
Su Xinran shook the lump under the covers vigorously, and after some effort, finally managed to drag Wang Ya out of bed.
“Ugh… I was sleeping so soundly for once—can’t I sleep a bit more…”
Wang Ya rubbed her eyes, grumbling.
“Good morning, Aya-jie!”
Su Xinran cheerfully raised her hand in greeting.
After washing up, Wang Ya finally regained some of her daytime dignity.
She brought the already-freshened-up Su Xinran to the dining table.
Su Xinran had thought the breakfast from her magical, wish-granting fridge was already luxurious enough—but now, seeing the breakfast spread at Wang Ya’s house, she finally understood what “balanced nutrition” truly meant.
Walnut buns, fried fish fillets, juice, fried eggs, cherry tomatoes, and a variety of fruits and vegetables.
Nothing particularly extravagant, but clearly the maids had put a lot of effort into balancing nutrients.
At the table, Wang Ya sipped juice while reading the newspaper.
On the back of the paper, Su Xinran caught sight of a bold, eye-catching headline that took up a large chunk of space:
“City C Volunteer Police Recruitment – Last Day Today! Interested applicants, please report to the Saint Freya Academy Gymnasium for physical evaluations!”
“Hm…”
Su Xinran was so engrossed in reading that she absentmindedly ended up feeding a spoonful of fried egg right onto her face.
“What are you looking at?”
Wang Ya lowered her newspaper, her sharp eyes narrowing in on Su Xinran.
“N-Nothing!”
Su Xinran quickly ducked her head and focused on eating.
“Qinyin, Ranzhu—I need a favor from the two of you.”
Wang Ya put the newspaper down.
“What are your orders, milady?”
The one called Huang Qinyin was the pink-haired maid from the day before.
“I’m going to the hospital to visit an injured colleague today. I’ll need you two to take Xinran to complete her enrollment at Saint Freya Academy. It’s already the 10th—if we delay any longer, she’ll miss the transfer student deadline.”
“Understood.”
Both maids replied at once.
Huang Qinyin, still downcast from earlier, silently stepped to Su Xinran’s side.
Beneath her bangs, her eyes were slightly lowered, and those amber-orange irises were full of frustration and unwillingness.
After breakfast, Wang Ya left for work in her car.
“Well, I do want to go to school, honestly.”
Su Xinran wiped her mouth and gave a small cough.
“But… look at me—my clothes from yesterday are dirty, and I have nothing clean to change into. I can’t exactly show up for school registration in a nightgown, right?”
“Mmm, mmm, that would be inappropriate.”
Ranzhu nodded in agreement, finding it very reasonable.
“So then, I’ll just go back upstairs and get some more sleep. Let’s postpone the enrollment stuff for now.”
As soon as Su Xinran finished speaking, she turned to head upstairs like a lazy fish… only to have someone grab her collar again.
“Even though you’re short…”
“And flat-chested…”
“And it is really hard to find any spare clothes that fit you here…”
“You… What do you mean…”
“Sorry to disappoint you, Miss Xinran, but… I’ve already washed your clothes~”
Huang Qinyin said maliciously.
“NOOOOO!!”