Just Checking His Body

After wiping his face, Wang Dong'er looked down at his collar. She reached out and pulled open the neckline where a button was missing, then took a look. His neck was clean, with no other marks. Only then did her expression improve a little, though her cheeks were still puffed out.

"Ma Xiaotao, right?" Wang Dong'er slapped the damp cloth onto the table. "That fire-type Soul Emperor from the Inner Court, Dean Yan's disciple."

"Mm."

"Where did she kiss you?"

"On the mouth."

Wang Dong'er's face darkened further.

"Why did she kiss you?"

"Her Evil Fire flared up, and she couldn't control herself. She told me to leave quickly, but I didn't get away in time." Jiang Wu explained the whole sequence of events again.

From Ma Xiaotao carrying him away, to their sparring in the woods with their strength suppressed, to the sudden eruption of her Evil Fire, to her pouncing on him, and finally to Xian Lin'er arriving and knocking her out with a strike.

He kept it as brief as he could, but didn't leave out a single necessary detail.

After listening, Wang Dong'er fell silent for quite a while.

Jiang Wu thought she was going to lose her temper, but instead, she suddenly plopped down on the edge of the bed, folded her arms, and lowered her head. "Does that mean I'll have to keep a closer eye on you from now on?" she muttered.

"Keep a closer eye on what?"

"On you." Wang Dong'er raised her head, a seriousness in her eyes that Jiang Wu didn't often see. "Ma Xiaotao popped up yesterday, and Wu Ming popped up today. Who knows who might pop up tomorrow? You don't know how to turn people down, and you're good-looking. The moment I take my eyes off you, someone will just carry you away."

Jiang Wu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "I'm not some thing. Who could carry me away?"

"I agree that you're not a thing," Wang Dong'er shot back.

Jiang Wu was momentarily at a loss for words.

Wang Dong'er herself froze for a moment after saying it, then burst out laughing. But once she was done, she put on a stern face again, stood up, and walked over to Jiang Wu. Looking down at him, she said, "Jiang Wu, tell me the truth. When Ma Xiaotao kissed you, did you feel anything?"

Jiang Wu thought about it seriously and answered with complete sincerity. "Hot. Her lips were really hot, like a branding iron. All I could think about was whether my lips would blister if she kept kissing me any longer."

Wang Dong'er stared at him for two seconds. The corner of her mouth twitched, and she couldn't hold back a laugh. "You... you really are..."

She laughed, then stopped and cleared her throat. "What if her Evil Fire hadn't flared up and she'd kissed you normally? Would you have felt anything?"

"She doesn't kiss me when she's normal."

"I said what if."

"There is no what if." Jiang Wu waved a hand. "She's a Soul Emperor from the Inner Court and the esteemed Dean Yan's disciple. Why would she kiss a freshman like me for no reason? What happened today was an accident. Once senior wakes up, she'll probably want to talk about it even less than I do."

Wang Dong'er pondered his words and thought they seemed to make some sense.

But thinking about how Ma Xiaotao had kissed Jiang Wu, Wang Dong'er felt a little unhappy. She leaned close, intending to kiss him.

"Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to kiss you a few times so you'll forget Ma Xiaotao."

"Stay away from me."

Wang Dong'er braced both hands on the edge of the bed and leaned forward, staring straight at Jiang Wu with her cheeks still slightly puffed out. She looked just like a cat guarding its food.

"Wang Dong'er, calm down. This isn't something a few kisses can solve-"

"I don't care. She kissed you, so I have to kiss you back, or it won't sit right with me."

"What kind of logic is that?"

"Wang Dong'er's logic."

Jiang Wu leaned back until his back was almost against the wall and reached out to hold her by the shoulders. "That's enough. What would it look like if someone saw us-"

Before he could finish, the dormitory door creaked open.

Gu Yuena stood in the doorway with a parcel wrapped in oil paper in her hand. Her long silver hair hung behind her shoulders, and her expression was as calm as a pool of stagnant water.

Half a step behind her stood Huo Yutong, holding a cloth bag in her arms. Her black hair hung loose, and her eyes were wide as saucers.

All four froze at once.

Wang Dong'er still had her hands braced on either side of Jiang Wu, her whole body leaning over him. Their faces were less than half a foot apart, and the position looked compromising any way one looked at it.

Gu Yuena's gaze moved from Jiang Wu's face to Wang Dong'er's hands, then back to Jiang Wu's face. After two seconds of silence, she took half a step back and reached out to pull the door shut.

"Sorry to disturb you."

When the door was halfway closed, Huo Yutong slipped in under her arm and poked her head inside. Her face was already bright red. "Um... did we come at a bad time?"

"No, it's a good time!" Jiang Wu shoved Wang Dong'er off him. Caught off guard, she toppled sideways and nearly fell off the bed, scrambling to grab the edge before she steadied herself.

"Gu Yue, open the door! It's not what you think!"

Gu Yuena pushed the door open again and leaned against the frame. She leisurely unwrapped the oil-paper parcel, plucked out a pastry, and popped it into her mouth. Only after chewing a couple of times did she speak. "What do I think?"

"It's... not what you think." Jiang Wu straightened the clothes Wang Dong'er had wrinkled and cleared his throat. "Wang Dong'er was just messing around with me."

Gu Yuena glanced at Wang Dong'er.

Wang Dong'er sat on the edge of the bed, red from the roots of her ears down to her neck. She clutched the bedsheet in both hands, her lips pressed tightly together, looking as guilty as if she'd been caught red-handed.

Gu Yuena glanced at Jiang Wu in turn. His collar was open and missing a button, and though the lipstick mark on his face had been wiped, a faint trace remained. He looked thoroughly disheveled, as if he'd been ravaged.

"Messing around," Gu Yuena repeated, her tone level. "You two were getting pretty creative."

Huo Yutong followed her in and set the cloth bag on the table. Keeping her head down, she didn't dare look toward the bed. Her ears were so red they could have dripped blood. "We... we just came back to get something. We didn't know you were..."

"Were what?" Wang Dong'er jerked her head up, her voice rising. "We weren't doing anything! We were just messing around!"

Huo Yutong drew back her neck, startled by her shout. "Oh... oh."

Jiang Wu raised a hand to rub the space between his brows, feeling his temples throb.

Gu Yuena swallowed her pastry, brushed the crumbs off her hands, and strolled inside. She sat down on a chair and crossed her legs. "All right, explain yourselves. Wang Dong'er, why were you on top of Jiang Wu?"

Wang Dong'er opened her mouth and struggled for a long while before squeezing out an answer. "I... I was checking his neck."

"You had to get on top of him to check his neck?"

"My back's bad. I can't bend over."

The corner of Gu Yuena's mouth twitched, and she turned to look at Jiang Wu.

Jiang Wu spread his hands, his expression sincere. "She said she wanted to kiss me a few times to make me forget Ma Xiaotao."

The dormitory fell silent for a moment.

Huo Yutong abruptly raised her head. The blush on her face hadn't yet faded, and a fresh one spread over it. "Ma Xiaotao?"

Jiang Wu glanced at Wang Dong'er, who turned her head away and refused to look at him.

"Ma Xiaotao's Evil Fire flared up, and she kissed me." Jiang Wu kept it brief.

Huo Yutong's mouth formed an O and stayed open for a long time.

Gu Yuena didn't have much of a reaction. She merely raised an eyebrow. "Ma Xiaotao? That Soul Emperor with the Fire Phoenix Martial Soul? She kissed you?"