“Comfy, isn’t it?”
“Quite comfy,” Liu Qingyan said with a gentle smile, thinking of Liu Qingquan’s furious expression when left at home. “Sister Shen found a great spot for a bath. We could come back on our days off.”
“Hehe!”
Seeing Liu Qingquan wasn’t here, Shen Ying knew what Lu Zheng was up to. She reached for a Ludong cherry from the tray by the shore and popped it into her mouth.
“So sweet!” Shen Ying said, then ate another cherry.
Liu Qingyan ate a grape, then picked another and fed it to Lu Zheng to keep his mouth occupied.
…
Last time, Shen Ying brought him to scout the place. This time, it was a day off, so he brought Liu Qingyan along.
Lu Zheng had prepared plenty of fruits, drinks, and snacks for a relaxing holiday.
Well, even though it hadn’t been long since their last Su City trip…
But fair’s fair, right?
Liu Qingyan sipped her fruit wine and asked softly, “Do many people come here usually?”
“No idea,” Shen Ying shook her head. “The first time I came, it was empty. The second time, with Lu-lang, we ran into five female spirits.”
“Five female spirits?”
At that, Shen Ying grinned and vividly recounted their visit to Wuxiu Manor and how Hu Cainiang tried to seduce Lu Zheng.
Liu Qingyan glanced at Lu Zheng, suppressing a smile. “Lu-lang didn’t mention this to me.”
Lu Zheng, soaking in the warm water, shrugged. “What’s to say? We barely know them, just a passing encounter.”
Shen Ying giggled and fed Lu Zheng another cherry as a reward.
Lu Zheng smacked his lips. The sweetness of the fruit mixed with the sugar on her delicate fingers was delightful.
As he chewed the cherry, ready to spit out the pit, his eyes suddenly flickered.
*Pfft!*
The cherry pit shot out, whistling into the white mist.
“Hey, how rude! This Hundred Springs Valley isn’t private property. I just wanted to bathe. Why attack me on sight?”
A clear voice rang out, and a slender, graceful figure emerged from the mist, swaying like a willow in the breeze, exuding charm as she reached the hot spring’s edge.
Lu Zheng looked up to see a woman in a green lily silk dress, her skin fair, her almond eyes slanted, her expression pure yet tinged with allure. Her gaze toward them held a subtle eagerness.
Shen Ying’s eyes glinted knowingly. “This valley has plenty of springs. You could go anywhere, so why sneak over to us?”
“Hmm…”
The woman paused, eyeing the wooden tray of fruits by the shore, then licked her lips. “I smelled the sweet scent of fruit and followed it. I wanted to ask for a few to try, but as it’s our first meeting, I didn’t know how to start.”
Lu Zheng exchanged glances with the two women. So she was drawn by the fruit?
After a moment, Shen Ying picked up an orange and tossed it over.
“Thank you, sister!”
The woman caught it, peeled it, and popped a segment into her mouth. Her eyes lit up. “Mmm, so sweet!”
“Then you…” Lu Zheng started, then, “Bloody hell?”
He watched as the woman, without moving a muscle, let her green silk dress slip off and fall to the ground.
Underneath… nothing.
With light steps, she entered the water, holding the orange in one hand, swimming toward Lu Zheng.
“What are you doing?” Lu Zheng gaped.
The woman said matter-of-factly, “Serving you, of course.”
Lu Zheng: Σ(っ°Д°;)っ
“Two women serving one man, with you in charge, so all this stuff is yours,” she continued naturally. “I want more of your fruit, so I’ll serve you too.”
Lu Zheng was dumbfounded.
Sure, the stuff was his, and Shen Ying and Liu Qingyan were attending to him, but how did that lead to her conclusion?
“Hold on, miss!” Shen Ying and Liu Qingyan were both amused and exasperated. This woman clearly wasn’t well-versed in the ways of the world, perhaps a bit… naive?
The woman frowned. “What, you don’t want to share with me?”
“There’s plenty of fruit here. We’re not stingy with mere things,” Liu Qingyan said, placing some cherries, grapes, oranges, and watermelon slices on a wooden tray. She set it on the water’s surface and gently pushed it toward the woman.
“Please, help yourself,” Liu Qingyan said.
The woman blinked, inspecting the tray, then picked up a grape and popped it into her mouth.
The purple grape juice made her eyes shine.
“Thank you, sister!”
Holding the tray, she continued swimming toward them.
“Why are you still coming over?” Lu Zheng asked.
She smiled faintly. “You gave me so much. Of course, I have to thank you properly.”
Lu Zheng shook his head vigorously. “No need, I accept your thanks. Just go back where you came from.”
The woman tilted her head. “Why can they serve you, but I can’t?”
Liu Qingyan shook her head helplessly, Shen Ying narrowed her eyes, and Lu Zheng explained, “We have an emotional bond.”
The woman blinked, struggling to grasp the concept of an emotional bond. “But I can have one with you too, can’t I?”
Lu Zheng was speechless, thinking, *Bloody hell, that almost makes sense…*
But though he could be a bit of a cad, he wasn’t about to let a female spirit repay him with her body on their first meeting, especially over a tray of fruit.
He shook his head, about to refuse, when his eyes flickered toward the left side of the spring.
“Hmph, you lustful snake, playing innocent to trick people. Are you after this handsome lad’s looks or his yang energy?”
A soft, sweet voice sounded. They looked to see a petite girl in black perched on a nearby tree branch, swinging her fair legs, smirking mockingly at them.
Lu Zheng froze, then felt a surge of heat in his lower abdomen, blending with the spring’s warmth, subtly seeping into his body.
This heat made his breathing heavy, his gaze toward Shen Ying, Liu Qingyan, and the woman turning intense.
“Lust poison?” Lu Zheng’s eyes flashed sharply.
Shen Ying waved her hand, unleashing a wave of peach blossom aura toward the woman.
“Hehe!”
The woman’s expression shifted instantly, her naive innocence replaced by sultry charm.
She retreated, slipping out of the peach blossom aura’s range amid rippling water, not forgetting to shoot a glance at the girl in black. “Meddling scorpion, I’ll pluck your stinger one day!”
Then, turning to Lu Zheng with a resentful, alluring look, she said, “I just wanted a fleeting moment with you, but you’ve got a lioness at home. Fine, I’m off!”
Her body slithered like a snake to the opposite shore, her green silk dress automatically wrapping around her.
Then she vanished swiftly into the thick mist.
Oh, still clutching the tray Liu Qingyan had given her.
