“Here, time to rinse off, Xiao Xi.”
“Okay.”
Once her waist-length hair was finally washed, Xia Mengxi turned her attention back to herself.
To be honest, this was the first time she had seriously examined her own body since becoming a girl.
Though there was no mirror, she could still see that her skin was fair and delicate—so delicate that even a light pinch would leave a faint red mark.
Her well-developed “buns” made it so that when she looked down, she could only see the front half of her feet.
Their size wasn’t much different from Lin Xue’er’s.
Speaking of Lin Xue’er, the girl behind her was making rustling sounds.
Curious, Xia Mengxi turned her head to look-only to immediately blush and snap her gaze forward again, her breathing growing ragged.
She couldn’t be blamed for reacting so strongly.
After all, this was the first time she had seen a girl in such an “exposed” state-herself excluded, of course.
She wasn’t the type to feel anything about her own body.
Just as Xia Mengxi’s thoughts were running wild, a soapy hand touched her back.
The sudden chill of the contact made her shiver, her entire body stiffening as she straightened her posture.
“What’s wrong, Xiao Xi?”
“N-nothing.”
Clenching her teeth, Xia Mengxi relied on sheer willpower to resist the sensations trailing across her skin.
It was a feeling she had never experienced before—so overwhelming she couldn’t even put it into words.
If she had to describe it, it was like the panic of encountering a ghost in the dead of night.
She truly didn’t understand.
She was just being washed with soap, so why did it evoke such an unsettling sensation?
What nearly short-circuited her brain, however, was when those unfamiliar symbols of femininity were touched.
A jolt of electricity surged through her entire body, shattering her frozen state like an explosion.
Before her mind could even react, her body’s defense mechanisms kicked in, forcing her to jerk away from the contact.
Her reaction instantly drew Lin Xue’er’s displeasure.
“Xiao Xi, stop squirming.”
“……”
Xia Mengxi opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but she couldn’t defy Lin Xue’er.
In the end, not a single word came out.
The result was that she had no choice but to endure the fluttering in her chest and the terrifying, full-body sensation caused by Lin Xue’er’s roaming hands.
Though this torturous interlude didn’t last long, to Xia Mengxi, it felt several times longer.
If Lin Xue’er hadn’t announced it was time to rinse off, her willpower alone wouldn’t have been enough to keep her weakening body upright.
At this, Xia Mengxi couldn’t help but grumble inwardly: A girl’s body is seriously terrifying!
Fortunately, Lin Xue’er’s methods of conditioning were psychological.
Otherwise, she wasn’t sure if her own body’s reactions might lead to changes in her sense of self.
Just imagining it sent a chill down her spine—if her autonomy was altered, would she even still be her?
“Alright, Xiao Xi, wait here for me. I’m going to take a shower too.”
“Mm.”
Xia Mengxi nodded obediently, then noticed Lin Xue’er untie the cord from her wrist and hang it on the shower door handle.
If Xia Mengxi had taken the opportunity to escape while Lin Xue’er had her back turned, she could have gotten away.
But she didn’t, because doing so would have violated her three-step plan to turn the tables.
Moreover, even without the three-step plan, she wouldn’t have done it.
She hadn’t been tortured by Lin Xue’er to the point of losing her sanity, so she still had the capacity for rational thought.
Making such a reckless move would have been downright foolish.
Thus, she obediently followed Lin Xue’er’s instructions, standing outside the shower stall with a towel draped over her shoulders, her back to the person inside as she waited until the water stopped.
Once again, her performance as the “good girl” had concluded successfully.
After the shower, Lin Xue’er seemed particularly pleased with her docile behavior this time, her smiling face radiating even more warmth than usual.
“Xiao Xi was very good again today. When we get back, I’ll give you a big reward.”
“Really? Yay!”
Xia Mengxi wasn’t entirely indifferent to the so-called reward.
As an ordinary person trapped in such dire circumstances, she naturally longed for normal treatment.
However, her actual level of anticipation was only about one-fifth of the “fake excitement” she displayed outwardly.
She knew this was just another one of Lin Xue’er’s conditioning tactics, so tempering her expectations was a necessary psychological adjustment to maintain clarity.
But Lin Xue’er’s promised “big reward” still managed to exceed her imagination.
After returning to the room at the entrance of the cell, Lin Xue’er didn’t make her enter the metal prison.
At first, Xia Mengxi thought Lin Xue’er simply wanted to dry her hair, but even after her hair was dry, there was no sign of that.
Unable to contain her curiosity, Xia Mengxi hesitated for a moment before asking Lin Xue’er, who was sitting nearby, “Xue’er, what was that reward you mentioned earlier?”
“Xiao Xi, you’re so smart-you should be able to guess, right?”
Instead of answering directly, Lin Xue’er responded with a rhetorical question, hinting at the answer.
As for Xia Mengxi, her comprehension was sharp, and she quickly grasped what Lin Xue’er meant.
To maintain her “good girl” persona, she pretended not to understand, looking at Lin Xue’er with feigned confusion.
“I…I’m not smart at all. I’m really dumb, so please tell me, okay?”
“Hehe, since you put it that way, I suppose I can tell you.”
Seeing that Lin Xue’er was still in a good mood, Xia Mengxi knew her “good girl” act was hitting the mark.
So when Lin Xue’er revealed that the reward was letting her stay in this room for a whole day, she maintained her “docile yet clueless” expression, putting on an exaggerated show of delight.
“Really? That’s amazing! Thank you, Xue’er!”
“You’ve earned it, Xiao Xi. As long as you keep behaving, the rewards will only get better from here.”
“Mhm! I’ll remember that!”
Xia Mengxi’s smile at this moment was half-genuine, half-fake.
The genuine part came from the fact that her three-step plan to turn the tables was making progress.
She was proud of her own cleverness for devising such a strategy and believed that if she held on a little longer, a bright future awaited her.
As for the fake part-aside from containing a hint of mockery, there was also a trace of guilt.
Mockery that was her way of despising Lin Xue’er for her dark turn and imprisonment.
Even though she had come to understand the general reasons behind Lin Xue’er’s descent into darkness and felt sympathy, the two matters were not the same and had to be treated separately.
So when facing Lin Xue’er now, she no longer harbored just a single emotion of disgust as before.
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