An open Commercial Street was much easier to investigate than before.
When Bai Xia was preparing to return, she made a call.
By the time she got home, she had already received the results sent by Li Butler.
There was no need to have Bai Xiaoya push Zhang Butler to investigate.
When she returned home, the door was tightly closed, and she had no choice but to knock a few times.
Dong dong dong.
Inside, Bai Xiaoya’s wary voice sounded.
“Who?”
Bai Xia: “Me.”
An open Commercial Street was much easier to investigate than before.
When Bai Xia was preparing to return, she made a call.
By the time she got home, she had already received the results sent by Li Butler.
There was no need to have Bai Xiaoya push Zhang Butler to investigate.
When she returned home, the door was tightly closed, and she had no choice but to knock a few times.
Dong dong dong.
Inside, Bai Xiaoya’s wary voice sounded.
“Who?”
Bai Xia: “Me.”
“Verbal password?”
“……”
After a while, the door opened.
Bai Xiaoya pulled her in and whispered,
“Don’t knock on the door directly like that in the future. Use special gestures and verbal passwords to communicate, so others don’t barge in.”
Madam Bai, who had only mild suspicions about her daughter’s love life, was only slightly wary.
The real ones to be careful of were enemies who might go crazy and charge into the house.
Bai Xia agreed with this viewpoint, but the problem was:
“Where would we get a verbal password?”
Bai Xiaoya blinked.
“Su Qingyu and I just discussed it.”
Bai Xia turned to look at Su Qingyu.
She had already raised her little hand to her forehead, looking complicated.
She was thinking, did we overdo it last night and become super silly?
After a moment, Bai Xia sighed and looked back at Bai Xiaoya.
“How would I know the verbal password you and Su Qingyu just discussed? I wasn’t here.”
…That seems right, too.
“Ahem, I woke up too early today and got a bit hypoglycemic. Anyway, you remember now. From now on, our secret code is—’That’s enough.'”
The girl’s brow twitched.
“Does it have any deeper meaning?”
“No, but it’s natural enough that others won’t notice anything strange.”
“……Fine.”
Any excuse works.
Bai Xia closed the door, took her phone, and walked into the room.
She looked around, her gaze passing over Bai Xiaoya and Su Qingyu, who, for some reason, were sitting on the bed—she’d deal with that later.
First, she took out the notebook computer that the big-breasted girl usually brought to school.
“I found their location.”
The girl spoke concisely.
“Most likely here.”
She transferred a file from her phone, bringing up an image.
It showed a relatively quiet Commercial Street in the Inner Ring of the city.
Quiet didn’t mean business was bad.
It was because this street was high-end, expensive, and didn’t rely on foot traffic.
The restaurant was member-only.
The clothing store was custom-made.
The board game hall was by reservation.
Even the bathhouse there was invitation-only.
“All the other shops are clean because they have business dealings and good relations with the Bai Family… with our family. Except for this one.”
Bai Xia pointed to the restaurant marked on the map.
“This restaurant’s origins are unclear. It suddenly appeared a few years ago. It’s said to be member-only, but in Baiyuan City, neither in business nor politics, is anyone a member of this restaurant.”
With the Bai Family’s connections, it wasn’t hard for Li Butler to find this out.
“Alright.”
Bai Xiaoya waved her hand.
“You tell us how we should act.”
Actually, she hadn’t listened carefully to Bai Xia’s reasoning process.
Since she wasn’t going herself, just believing was enough.
Could the protagonist of destiny be wrong?
Trust!
Su Qingyu, however, thought seriously for a long time.
Wearing white ankle socks, she sat on the bed like a duck, leaning forward slightly.
“If foot traffic is low, the visibility is wide. It’s hard to walk directly to the restaurant door. Could we start from the first shop on the street and pass through them one by one?”
“I thought about this on the way.”
Bai Xia operated the keyboard with both hands, changing the display to a structural diagram of the Commercial Street.
“Starting from the first shop and passing through isn’t really possible, but there’s a better way—using the underground parking lot. The parking lot starts ahead of the entrance and runs all the way to the bathhouse next to the restaurant.”
She pointed at the image.
“In other words, the farthest we can get is here.”
Once inside the bathhouse, the rest was simple.
The restaurant was right next door; you could even jump over from the rooftop…
Well, maybe not that simple, but it was doable.
Su Qingyu nodded.
“Then the question is, can we get into the bathhouse?”
She looked at Bai Xia.
Bai Xia looked at Bai Xiaoya.
Bai Xiaoya lowered her head to look at the General Big White Rabbit, meaning she didn’t know.
“Emmmm, we could go ask.”
***
A few minutes later, Mr. Bai, who was outside strolling with Madam Bai, received a call.
“You want to go play at Le Mei Bathhouse? Sure. The owner gave me some VIP Cards before. Just take them—they’re in the study. Left side, third cabinet from the door, second shelf from the top.”
“Thanks, Dad,”
Bai Xiaoya said happily.
“Your memory is amazing!”
“Hehe, of course. Back in school, your old man was…”
Mr. Bai wanted to brag a bit more about his glory days, but Bai Xiaoya had already hung up, taking the other two girls to the study.
Beside him, Madam Bai asked,
“Bathhouse?”
“Legit. The Hu Family runs it. Did you forget? We were invited to the opening not long ago. You enter a room, soak in a private hot spring, then change and go out to the restaurant for a buffet, play some billiards, hit the arcade and Esports Zone…”
“I know it’s a proper bathhouse. It’s just that, with a group of young girls going out to play, going to a bathhouse feels… old-fashioned.”
Shouldn’t they go to a café, a milk tea shop, a board game bar, or even an internet café?
“It’s a good thing,”
Mr. Bai said.
“It means our daughter is mature.”
“……”
Is that so?
Maybe, maybe not, but Bai Xiaoya had already found the VIP Card.
It had the Le Mei Bathhouse logo on it and three golden letters.
VIPO
“Got it. Let’s go.”
Bai Xiaoya was about to rush out when Bai Xia grabbed her.
“Wait, we’re not going there to play. Entering the restaurant through the bathhouse is just the first step. Then what? How do we deal with those people?”
Though the girl had confidence in her own strength, Magic Hands, and the Pocket Watch’s ability to Control Mind, when a real fight broke out, life and death would be decided in a split second.
Without Healing Ability or Defensive Ability, everyone was just attack power, low defense.
Su Qingyu also said,
“Right. And we don’t know what abilities their items have. Once we enter the restaurant, it’s basically a Decisive Battle. So it’s best to test first and see what they have.”
She didn’t know if it was an illusion, but since “fighting side by side” yesterday, her teamwork with Bai Xia had grown more in sync.
It was like a jungle-mid combo in esports.
But then Bai Xiaoya said,
“No need for all that trouble!”
Facing the two girls’ puzzled gazes, Bai Xiaoya hesitated for a moment, then closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and said with full confidence,
“I have an ability that can nullify all their Mysterious Items for five minutes… including yours.”
Because she couldn’t think of how to explain the origin, she relied on momentum to carry it through.