It felt like being inside a sauna.
The air grew hotter and hotter, her body temperature rising rapidly, blood boiling within her veins and rushing to her head.
Hualí’s breathing grew labored, her chest heaving up and down with each ragged gasp.
She finally remembered.
The memory of that night in the tunnel had never been a dream.
That hateful Sidella had really left some strange Mark on her body!
Hualí glared stubbornly at Sidella, her tiny fists clenched tight, nails digging into her palm, her cute brows knitted together, a glimmer of tears gathering in the corners of her eyes.
“Sidella, how can you be so mean!”
Hualí’s curse lacked force, and in Sidella’s ears, it sounded no different from whining.
Sidella relaxed her brows, a smile in her crimson eyes as she rested her cheek on her palm.
“Because you’re too mischievous, Hualí. If I’m not careful, you’ll run away again. So I had to use some special methods to limit your range of activity.”
Stripping away the pure magic, the main component of the Magic Mark on Hualí was Sidella’s Blood.
So as long as she wished, she could know Hualí’s movements at any time.
Hualí and Penina’s Escape had never escaped Sidella’s grasp from start to finish.
And this would be the final Punishment for Hualí’s mischievous Escape.
Sidella sat on the bed, her hand flat on her lap, beckoning Hualí to come over.
“Hualí, I think we’ll have many interactions like this in the future. If possible, I hope you can be more honest and proactive.”
Sidella’s scarlet gaze fixed on Hualí.
As expected, Hualí’s stubborn and unwilling expression was even cuter than when she was bouncing around mischievously.
Sidella continued, pressing her advantage.
“Come here yourself. Afterward, I’ll remove the Mark for you.”
Am I going to be scolded?
Most likely, yes.
Finally.
Tick, tick, tick…
As time passed, the ticking of the Clock in the Palace Chambers grew louder, urging her to make a decision.
But it was strange—Hualí’s fuzzy little head clearly remembered there was no such thing on the Palace Chambers wall.
Her voice trembled, hoping the detestable Blood Queen would keep her word and let her go afterward, she asked weakly.
“Will you really remove the Magic Mark and stop controlling me this way?”
Once again, unable to resist, she chose to compromise.
“Mm-hmm~”
“You promise!”
“I promise~~”
Sidella’s bright blood-red eyes shimmered, her lips curling into a small smile at Hualí’s surrender.
Even her footsteps were hesitant as Hualí dragged her limp legs, inching toward Sidella on the bed.
The short three meters between them felt like an unbridgeable chasm.
Tears of sorrow fell, wetting the path forward, the slippery floor warning of Hualí’s ill-fated journey—a single misstep could send her tumbling.
Just reaching Sidella took all her strength.
Hualí’s eyes started spinning like mosquito coils.
“Wait.”
“Guh…What?”
“Stupid Hualí~”
Sidella shook her head with a smile.
“It’s nothing. Keep going.”
“Guh…Ugh!”
***
Anyone who took the university elective ‘Course of Chinese Garden History’ knows that the Mortise and Tenon Structure is the Soul of Chinese architecture.
When the protruding Tenon fits into the hollow Mortise, the structure locks together seamlessly and firmly.
No matter how the building shakes above, the Tenon below maintains the connection’s stability.
Such solidity, like weathering storms and the test of time, ensures even after long exposure to wind, sun, and the wet corrosion of heavy rains, a good Mortise and Tenon Structure doesn’t collapse.
Inspired.
For the sake of Graduation, the two made it their Thesis topic, attempting to reconstruct a sturdy small-scale Mortise and Tenon model in reality.
Unlike Hualí, who preferred slacking off and muddling through, Sidella was meticulous in everything.
She insisted on multiple Experiment scenarios simulating real-life usage—for instance, testing whether the Mortise and Tenon connections would deform and cause a collapse under the violent friction of an earthquake.
Hualí shook the experiment model desperately, while Sidella focused on the stability of the Mortise and Tenon joints, checking for any signs of loosening.
If the model slipped or shifted during the Experiment, it was considered a failure, and Sidella would firmly demand a complete restart.
A few failures were tolerable—but even Hualí, iron-willed as she was, couldn’t withstand seventeen or eighteen attempts!
Over time, as Sidella’s research partner, Hualí was tortured to exhaustion, unable to muster the strength to even shake the model.
If given the chance to choose her Thesis partner again, Hualí would rather die, even jump from here.
She would never pick Sidella as her partner again!
After much struggle, they finally completed the ‘Anti-Seismic Experiment on Traditional Mortise and Tenon Structures in Earthquake Disasters.’
Next came the ‘Anti-Corrosion Experiment on Traditional Mortise and Tenon Structures in Coastal Areas.’
The main aim was to simulate a typhoon hitting a traditional wooden Mortise and Tenon building near the sea and test its resilience.
As salty, corrosive seawater (electrolyte solution) surged up with the typhoon, they observed whether the all-wood Mortise and Tenon Structure could resist corrosion that would destroy metal structures.
During the Experiment, Hualí played the part of the typhoon-driven waves, wielding a hose spraying seawater at the joints.
Sidella monitored the data in real-time—checking for simulated corrosion from the seawater.
Hualí was annoyed because the device controlling the water flow was malfunctioning, making it hard to manage the output and often flooding the place with salty water.
Fortunately, the Experiment was completed, and the exhausted Hualí collapsed, snoring in no time.
Sidella finished the final cleanup.
With the Thesis titled ‘A Study on Traditional Mortise and Tenon Structure Buildings—The Remarkable Environmental Adaptability of Ancient Chinese Architecture,’ she compiled all the data and reports, wrote both their names on the cover, and submitted it.
She reflected that Graduation was all about writing endless reports and thick Thesis volumes.
Glancing at the soundly sleeping Hualí, Sidella’s lips curled with mischievous satisfaction.
She couldn’t help but mutter knowingly.
“Hualí has already fallen asleep? Looks like Graduation really is exhausting.”
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