...
"I have nothing to be ashamed of!" Xuan Hao tried to appear calm.
"Oh? Is that so?" Na'er stepped forward, getting closer like a small hunting dog with a keen sense of smell, her nose twitching slightly.
"Then what's with this faint jasmine scent on you?
This smell... I remember Rongrong's scent."
Na'er raised an eyebrow, her eyes instantly turning dangerous:
"Could it be... that you two did something behind my back last night?!"
Shh! Ancestor, keep your voice down!
Just as Xiao Wu was about to turn around at the other end of the corridor, Xuan Hao felt a chill run down his spine.
He immediately covered Na'er's mouth and dragged her into her own room, slamming the door shut with a bang.
"Mmm!"
Na'er broke free from Xuan Hao's hand, glared at him with some dissatisfaction, and waited for his explanation.
"I'm scared of you." Xuan Hao sighed and rubbed his forehead, then lowered his voice and confessed honestly, "Rongrong ran to my place last night and is fast asleep in my room right now.
You absolutely mustn't tell anyone, or Xiao Wu will be exposed!"
"What?!"
Upon hearing this, Na'er's eyes widened instantly, her face filled with disbelief and speechlessness. She pointed at Xuan Hao, then at the door:
"You...you guys didn't really...did that?!"
A surge of jealousy welled up inside Na'er. She was the one who got there first!
How could that delicate young lady of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School have beaten her to it?!
"What are you thinking!"
Xuan Hao flicked her smooth forehead in annoyance.
"I know what I'm doing.
How old is she?
Of course I didn't cross that final line.
I just... stayed up half the night with her."
Hearing Xuan Hao's assurance, Na'er's heart, which had been in her throat, finally settled back into her stomach.
She breathed a long sigh of relief and patted her budding chest.
Thankfully, the position of the empress has been preserved.
but...
Na'er's eyes darted around, and a fiercely competitive glint suddenly flashed in her purple eyes.
She grabbed Xuan Hao by the collar, pulled him towards her, and declared with an air of dominance:
"I don't care! Since you'll play with her, I want to play with her tonight too!"
Seeing Xuan Hao's slightly twitching lips, Na'er seemed to feel that one night wasn't enough, and immediately changed her tune, demanding an exorbitant amount:
"No! For the next three nights, you have to come and play with me every night!"
"And..." Na'er straightened her back proudly, patted her belly with extreme confidence, and her eyes revealed the fierceness of a dragon, "I'm not like Ning Rongrong, a delicate and weak support-type Soul Master who faints after a few mishaps.
I'm a Silver Dragon!
My physical condition is excellent, and I can definitely keep up to the end!"
"..."
Looking at the silver-haired girl in front of him, whose eyes seemed to say "I want to win favor" and "I want to win back double", Xuan Hao suddenly felt a deep sense of powerlessness welling up in his heart.
"How come you all went astray?"
...
For the next month, Xuan Hao deeply understood what it meant to "catch what you sow."
He felt that he had completely become these girls' "exclusive plaything"!
Initially, it was indeed only Ning Rongrong who launched the night raid under the guise of "compensation." Then, not to be outdone, Na'er forcefully joined the fray.
That's not all.
I thought Xiao Wu would be kept in the dark all along, but it turns out that this 100,000-year-old rogue rabbit has an unusually sharp intuition.
After seeing Ning Rongrong and Na'er unable to get out of bed in the morning for several days in a row, Xiao Wu keenly noticed something was amiss.
Then, on a dark and windy night, she secretly slipped into Xuan Hao's room with a pillow, claiming that she "couldn't let her brother be monopolized by a bad woman."
Thus began a bizarre and extremely exhausting "tug-of-war" that consumed Xuan Hao's energy.
These three girls, each with their own ulterior motives, seemed to have reached some tacit understanding and began to take turns on the task at hand.
One takes a day off today, another takes two days off tomorrow.
Although they never say it out loud and pretend to be good friends in public during the day, everyone knows what's really going on.
Of the entire team, it seemed that only Zhu Zhuqing, who was always aloof and not good at speaking, was still kept in the dark.
Every day, she was like an emotionless training machine, focusing all her energy on becoming stronger.
...
That afternoon, in the woods on the outskirts of the city.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves, dappling the grass.
Xuan Hao sat comfortably against a large tree, his hands behind his head.
Ning Rongrong, like a lazy kitten, nestled comfortably in his arms, playing with his fingers.
In an open space not far away, Xiao Wu and Zhu Zhuqing were engaged in a high-intensity sparring match.
The two figures clashed, exchanging blows, their bodies drenched in sweat.
As for Na'er, who confidently declared that she had the "Silver Dragon Physique and could definitely keep up with him to the end," she was fast asleep in her hotel room.
He talks a big game, but he's really just a "newbie." He can easily cause a ruckus and then cry out for a truce.
"Hello."
Just as Xuan Hao was lost in thought, Ning Rongrong, nestled in his arms, suddenly stirred restlessly.
She tilted her head slightly, looking at Zhu Zhuqing, who was sweating profusely on the field, her figure breathtaking, and lowered her voice, uttering a startling statement:
"Brother Xuanhao, what do you think... should we bring Zhuqing in too?"
"Cough cough cough—!"
Xuan Hao nearly choked on his own saliva.
He looked down at the unfazed "little devil" in his arms, speechless, and pinched her cheek in exasperation.
"Can you stop filling your head with all this nonsense all the time?"
"Tch, don't try to act all high and mighty with me!"
Ning Rongrong pouted in dissatisfaction, then opened her little white teeth and gently bit Xuan Hao's arm, leaving a shallow tooth mark.
She then grumbled and exposed his lie:
"Don't think I don't know your tricks! If you have no feelings for Zhu Qing, why are you so good to her?
Top-grade immortal herbs and extremely precious soul bones, you're throwing them all at her!"
"Anyway, given your personality, you'll definitely take advantage of her eventually.
Since you're going to have to get involved sooner or later, you might as well drag her into this now while everyone's here, so it won't be awkward if she gets involved later."
"Let her get used to it sooner, so that when you get along in the future, at least you won't have to argue over something as trivial as this."
Hearing this extremely bizarre logic, which even began to "plan for a harmonious harem" for him, Xuan Hao was immediately speechless.
You're overthinking it.
"Right now, Zhu Qing is preoccupied with how to improve her strength and how to escape the fate of the Star Luo Empire.
She has no time for such sentimental thoughts.
Let's talk about this later."
"Let's talk about it later?"
Ning Rongrong rolled her eyes at him, looking at Xuan Hao as if he were an idiot, and retorted, "How do you know he's not interested?"
"Zhu Qing is usually quiet, but that doesn't mean she's blind! She's very smart!"
Ning Rongrong reached out and poked Xuan Hao's chest, then snorted coldly:
"Don't you think about it carefully!
This month, Na'er, Xiao Wu, and I have been taking turns taking leave!
Today I can't get up, tomorrow her legs will be weak."
"If you can't even spot the problem with this blatant 'work schedule,' then Zhu Qing must be an idiot."
Ning Rongrong glanced at Zhu Zhuqing, who had just finished a round of sparring and was wiping sweat from her brow not far away, and added insult to injury with a chilling remark:
"I bet she figured out the shady dealings between you and us a long time ago!"
"She's just too cold-hearted and shy, too embarrassed to point it out, so she's just pretending to be clueless with us!"
"It's going to happen sooner or later anyway, so we might as well come sooner to avoid embarrassment later."
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