After Su Liumeng slapped the table, her whole body leaned in, almost collapsing onto it.
It was an incredibly aggressive posture—
Only ten or twenty centimeters from me.
I could even see her long lashes trembling uncontrollably.
Thump—
Thump thump—
Truth be told, she wasn’t calm at all.
Her knuckles pressed against the table had gone pale from tension.
Her heartbeat pounded like war drums.
Su Liumeng could clearly hear her own heart, like a letter sent off many years ago, now on the brink of receiving a reply after endless silence.
Her approach was way too bold.
I wasn’t used to this kind of interaction.
My arm jerked back instinctively.
She caught the motion and visibly flinched, her expression stung with disappointment.
But then—
Suddenly, a turn of light.
Like a rainbow emerging after the rain.
“Sure,” I replied.
“I don’t dislike you.”
My soft voice landed by her ear—bringing her indescribable joy.
It was what I honestly felt.
Since I didn’t dislike her, then why shut the door before we even tried?
Why not give it a chance?
If it turns out we’re right for each other… a relationship might even be kind of romantic.
“Yay!”
Su Liumeng almost leapt up in excitement.
But she forgot she was still leaning on the table—
So the moment she bounced up, she completely lost her balance and tumbled down.
Out of instinct, I reached out to catch her.
But with my thin arms and legs, how could I possibly hold up a whole Su Liumeng?
Her falling momentum dragged me down too—
And I ended up toppling over with her, landing right on her chest.
I stared at my hand, now awkwardly braced against something undeniably soft.
And my brain… totally crashed.
Su Liumeng was stunned too.
Her face flushed bright red in a split second.
She did like Si Xinyan—
But that didn’t mean she wasn’t shy.
Especially considering—
She was still a never-been-in-love, pure and proper young maiden.
On the ground, the two beautiful girls were pressed so close, their faces nearly touching from the fall.
Their thin, delicate dresses tangled together—
Skirt hems slightly disheveled, revealing long, slender legs so pale they almost glowed.
Pretty girls were already a rare sight.
Let alone a scene so fragrant, so drenched in tension and intimacy.
“I…”
My voice stuttered—
My small hand recoiled as if electrocuted, and I tried to scramble off her.
But the twisted skirts made my leg slip—
And I tumbled right back down again.
Whoosh.
My pale cheeks instantly flushed crimson.
Lips bitten tight in panic, I silently cursed my own clumsiness.
For just that instant—
I must’ve looked completely, helplessly flustered.
So delicate it almost hurt to look.
Su Liumeng’s eyes glazed over for a second, nearly forgetting I was still pinning her to the floor.
“You…” she finally blinked back to focus.
Her face was so red it looked like it might drip blood.
She turned her face slightly away, voice barely above a whisper—
So soft it was more like she was cooing into my ear.
“G-get off already…”
Aaaahh——!
I was screaming inside like a dying pig.
I scrambled to my feet in a flurry, completely avoiding her eyes.
Su Liumeng stood up soon after.
Compared to me, she was way more composed.
Plenty of people in the cafeteria had seen that entire little episode.
Without missing a beat, she crossed her arms, instinctively stepping in front of me—
Shielding me behind her like a wall.
Then she turned to one girl still watching the scene unfold and barked:
“What are you staring at?”
“Who gave you permission to look at me, huh?”
“Never seen pretty girls fight before?!”
The more she spoke, the angrier she got.
She even marched up and gave that girl a solid kick, displaying her spoiled heiress energy in full force.
The crowd scattered instantly.
The cafeteria fell quiet in an instant.
I was still fixing my rumpled dress,
But her last sentence made my expression falter slightly.
Was she—
Was she reframing the situation deliberately?
Downplaying what happened so people wouldn’t gossip and make me feel awkward?
I shook my head, unsure if it was pure coincidence or… intentional.
“You…” Su Liumeng came back to my side.
“You okay?”
My hand instinctively pressed over my lower abdomen.
“I’m fine.”
Luckily, when I fell just now, I’d landed on something soft.
Otherwise, things could’ve gone very wrong.
Su Liumeng didn’t miss that instinctive little motion.
Her brows drew together—subtle, but sharp.
Was that…?
Her reaction after that fall was… strange.
Su Liumeng pursed her lips but didn’t overthink it.
I brought my empty tray to the return station—
The spicy hot pot was almost entirely wiped clean, a clear testament to just how good my appetite had been.
I hadn’t forgotten the ghost baby’s warnings—
I didn’t eat anything truly spicy.
The hot pot was barely mildly hot, just a touch of chili oil. Nothing too triggering.
During pregnancy, what you really need to avoid are cold-natured foods.
Because those can trigger uterine contractions—and contractions can lead to miscarriage.
Spicy food mostly just leads to constipation during pregnancy, which could also indirectly cause a miscarriage.
But it really depends on the person.
Some women are tougher and can eat anything.
Others—just a little stress and they lose the baby.
Fried food, greasy food, high-fat or raw items—
All on the avoid list.
There are two types of dietary concerns:
One is what increases the risk of miscarriage.
The other is what could harm the baby’s development—like aged preserved foods.
Some trace elements in them might lead to fetal deformities.
I mentally reviewed the pregnancy handbook again—
Just to make sure I hadn’t broken any rules.
Only then did I let out a quiet sigh of relief.
I didn’t even want to imagine it—
If that little ghost ancestor in my belly ended up deformed, grew three arms or four legs or something…
I’d probably die a horrible, horrible death.
Just the thought was enough to make me shudder, full-body.
“What are you thinking about?”
Su Liumeng had been quietly observing me the entire time.
She reached out and gently held me back—keeping me from stepping on a loose stone ahead.
“Nothing,” I lied again.
No way was I going to tell anyone about the ghost fetus.
The fewer people who knew, the better.
At that thought, my eyes darkened slightly.
That red-robed Taoist who tried to exorcise me before…
The ghost baby said she had some backup plan for him.
Guess it worked—
Otherwise, I wouldn’t still be living so peacefully now.
Su Liumeng frowned again.
She’s lying.
Why was Xi Xinyan lying to her?
As the person who knew me best in this world—Su Liumeng could easily see through every mask I tried to wear.
As the ancients once said:
The one who understands you the most is not your lover, but the enemy who opposes you at every turn.
And Su Liumeng—
Once my mortal enemy—
Had long since dissected the book titled Xi Xinyan down to the final chapter.
She could tell I was burdened with something—
As if carrying some secret too heavy to share.
But what was it?
Su Liumeng sat beside me on the long bench.
She needed to know.
She wanted to understand everything about Xi Xinyan.
I instinctively took out my phone, skimmed my notifications.
Not a single message.
I slid it back into the little purse I always carried with me.
“You said you passed the Fifth Trial, didn’t you?” Su Liumeng started, gaze sharp.
“That means you definitely have spiritual potential. But earlier, when you tripped—you reacted just like a normal person. Why’s that?”
“Oh, that?” Su Liumeng raised her wrist, revealing a delicate bracelet.
“It’s this. The bracelet suppresses my cultivation level. Once I take it off, I get everything back.”
I’d always been curious about cultivators, so I pressed further.
“What’s cultivation actually like? Is it just like in novels? Like, flying, walking through walls, that kind of stuff?”
Su Liumeng pouted slightly, as if thinking how to best explain.
“Flying? Phasing through things? That’s probably beyond anyone in our world. At best, it’s brief levitation, or shrinking space to move quickly.”
“Honestly, cultivation isn’t that magical. It’s mostly about refining your inner energy. As long as you have that breath of power—Qi—you can do a lot.”
“Like what?” I asked.
“Like…” She tilted her head.
“With Qi, you can see things. You can read people’s energy, read the land’s energy. Everything has its own aura or essence—cultivation is just forming a connection with that.”
Then she turned to me seriously, expression no longer joking.
“Take me for example—if I take off this bracelet, I can read your luck just by looking. More advanced cultivators can read dragons in the land, use mountain flows and ley lines to their advantage.”
“But anyway, all that’s secondary. What matters most is—you’ve gotta be able to fight. If your fists aren’t hard enough, it’s all talk.”
She gave a little shrug and smiled again.
“Back to the main topic—whether someone’s having a streak of bad luck or a stroke of fortune, it always shows up in their aura.”
I blinked, my curiosity still piqued.
“So… what about pregnancy?”
“Can you tell if someone’s pregnant just by looking at their aura?”
Su Liumeng’s answer came without hesitation.
“Of course you can.”
My heart skipped a beat.
She continued, calmly.
“Once someone’s pregnant, their Qi becomes intertwined with the baby’s. It’s kind of like how traditional Chinese medicine uses the pulse—pregnant women often have a slippery pulse. It’s the same concept when you’re reading auras.”