Like The Trio, this self-proclaimed married young woman was, in essence, still a girl untouched by men.
That said, what Kiana shouted wasn't, "You're still a virgin!" but, "You're lying!"
That was where the girl's cleverness lay. If she gave the other party a reason for her suspicions, they could think of every possible way to patch up their story, and then they'd be dragged back into an endless argument.
So she simply bluffed first, planning to decide what to do next based on the other party's reaction.
Sure enough, Bronya was immediately at a loss.
She exchanged looks with Kiyono and the nouveau riche, who were both looking over. The former gave a slight nod.
"You...!"
Wearing an aggrieved expression, she got up to question them and test the waters, only to suddenly meet a pair of eyes wreathed in thunder.
It was Mei.
The Queen of Thunder, realizing she had been deceived, stared at her like that, her icy gaze seemingly assessing a dead person.
Kiyono's knees went weak. She staggered back two steps, and the harsh words that had nearly burst from her mouth were crushed in her throat.
Some time later, watching the sorry backs of the two being led away by patrol officers, Kiana stuck out her tongue. "Bleh bleh bleh, you filthy scammers, may your whole family die!"
Even when she was cursing, she was still lively and adorable.
Mei withdrew her freezing gaze and forced out a faint smile. "How did Kiana figure out they were running a honey trap scam?"
She couldn't be blamed. Those two had actually used the sins committed by her biological father to deceive people and exploit the sympathy of unrelated bystanders.
In a situation like that, the girl had already done remarkably well not to draw her sword.
"Oh, that."
The white-haired little puff proudly handed over the glasses.
Having composed herself, Mei accepted them and put them on.
Noticing the large, perfectly open zero above Kiana's head, she tilted her head. "What does this number mean?"
"They're glasses that show the number of times someone has done it."
Unlike Miss Raiden, who had grown up in a Confucian cultural sphere, Kiana didn't have so many euphemisms when discussing such matters.
She briefly explained the strange item's function. Sure enough, Mei's face heated up, becoming red as a ripe apple.
"Th-this, this, this!"
She was utterly dumbfounded.
Holy shit, what kind of cursed thing was this?!
"Embarrassed Mei is so cute." Kiana teased, "Actually, it's not too bad. When I first learned what it did, my reaction wasn't much different from yours. I was thinking, 'What the hell is this perverted strange item?!' and instinctively wanted to destroy it in the most inhumane way possible... But after thinking about it carefully, I'm not some loser who doesn't care about herself. Besides, this thing is in my hands now, so naturally, I'm the only one who gets to look at other people!"
"N-no, that's not what I'm talking about!"
Mei hurriedly took off the glasses and put them on Kiana, then forcefully turned her head to the side.
And so, the girl saw an enormous golden cloud made of numbers drift over from afar.
"Seriously, it's a shopping district. Why is the public restroom built so far away?" Fu Li, walking toward them, couldn't help complaining to the girls. "If I were the designer, I'd definitely build more of these convenient facilities that benefit the nation and the people. But since I have such a conscience, those capitalists definitely wouldn't allow it... Why are you two making those faces?"
"Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousand, hundred thousand, o-o-o-one million?!"
Staring up at the long string of numbers above Fu Li's head, Kiana and Mei were left speechless.
Wow! A golden legend!
The golden legend subconsciously leaned closer.
"D-don't come any closer!"
The girls clung to each other and backed away repeatedly in terror, looking at him as though he were a beast.
"Stop talking in riddles and tell me what's going on."
Fu Li bent down, picked up the strange item glasses they had dropped, and put them on.
They added a touch of scholarly refinement to him, making Mei, who had a weakness for that sort of thing, blush.
Fortunately, Kiana, who promptly handed him a compact mirror, didn't see that scene. Otherwise, Fu Li's head would probably have suffered again—meaning more chewing.
A moment later, after learning what the strange item did, Fu Li was so angry he could barely catch his breath. "Listen here, you two young ladies. How about using those clever little heads of yours to think carefully about how old I am this year?"
Kiana raised her little hand high. "Sixteen! A high school student!"
Fu Li continued, "Sixteen years, 365 days a year, plus four extra days for four leap years. How many days is that altogether?"
"5,844 days." That came from Miss Raiden, whose math grades were excellent.
"Yes, exactly, 5,844 days." Fu Li choked up. "So tell me, how exactly was I supposed to do that with people over a million times in a mere five thousand-plus days? Even averaging a hundred times a day with someone from birth until now wouldn't be enough. Can I control time, or can the women who do it with me control time?"
Kiana rubbed her chin, then lifted her face with a giggle. "True. Who in the Honkai world can control time?"
She rose onto her tiptoes and lightly patted the boy's shoulder a few times. "Fine then! This young lady misunderstood you, A Li!"
Mei also walked behind Fu Li and reached out to knead his tense shoulders. "All right, don't be angry. Keep being angry and you won't even be able to eat."
Fu Li huffed.
At the same time, elsewhere—
In an open area before a building, the "patrol officer" who had taken away the scammer duo respectfully unlocked the handcuffs around Kiyono's wrists.
He looked toward Bronya, who was also cuffed beside her.
"No need."
The moment she spoke, her fair wrists bound by silver rings, along with her clothes, rapidly shrank.
A moment later, Bronya, restored to her original size, slowly floated into the air.
She quietly gave the order. "Evacuate the crowd. Inform everyone in the shops to prepare, and remember not to alert Raiden Mei's group."
Since their plan to lure the Conquest Gem's host body into the encirclement had failed, they could only face them head-on now.
"Yes!"
The assembled troops saluted loudly. After everyone had dispersed, Kiyono, who remained behind, glanced at her superior's loose outerwear and suddenly said, "Captain Bronya, um, your clothes—"
"Is there a problem?"
"N-no!"
"You should carry out your orders too."
"Yes!"
After she left as well, Bronya, now alone, raised a small hand and secretly placed it over the white shirt sunken flat against her chest.
"They'll grow."
She repeated it.
"If they don't grow, Bronya will eliminate every flat-chested person in the world."
She made the vow through gritted teeth.
"Holy Shit! The Tofu Is Poisoned!"
Welcoming back Fu Li, who had returned like lightning, the three gathered to discuss things and decided to find an old-established restaurant and dig in on the spot.
After winding through several streets and alleys, they found a Chinese restaurant called Qingzhou Yansui Hall · Songshan in a small alley.
The moment Kiana sat down, she impatiently ordered the restaurant's signature mapo tofu. Once the menu made its way around the table, everyone chose a few dishes they liked as well.
"Let's see." The young waitress in a modernized qipao picked up the menu. "Stir-fried river shrimp, eight-treasure whole duck, sea cucumber with shrimp roe, Chinese clover with pork intestines, stir-fried eel paste, soft-shelled turtle in rock sugar syrup, hairy crab in soy sauce, braised river eel, crab roe with shrimp..."
She looked up and kindly advised them, "Forgive me for saying so, but while the three of you are indeed at the age when you're growing, isn't this a bit too much...?"
"It's fine!" Kiana waved her little hand. "Young Master Fu Li is paying for everything today!"
Fu Li cooperatively pulled out a bundle of Yukichi Fukuzawa notes and slapped it onto the table. Mei, meanwhile, took off the strange item glasses hanging at her chest and put them on him as sunglasses, looking utterly sycophantic.
"That isn't the issue." The waitress didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "I meant that you might want to order as you eat, so as to avoid unnecessary waste."
"That guy from earlier really ought to see your service attitude, miss!" Kiana huffed unhappily. "You look unfamiliar. Are you new here?"
"Yes." The waitress answered without changing expression.
"No wonder you'd ask something like that, but don't worry!" As a regular customer, the girl confidently raised her chin. "As long as it's marked on the menu, we can eat all of it without wasting even a tiny bit!"
"You can eat it all by yourself. Mei and I aren't little piggies like you, Kiana."
"Would it kill you not to talk? Would it kill you?"
"It'd drive me crazy."
"Why are you so annoying?"
Kiana turned back with puffed cheeks, only to find that the waitress had already gone to the back to place the order.
When Kiana looked over, the waitress even gave her a wounded look, as if saying, Could you lovebirds take your flirting somewhere else? Could you stop forcibly stuffing me with your lovey-dovey nonsense?
Time passed second by second. Before long, the mapo tofu they had ordered first was brought to the table.
The three all stared at the crimson lava bubbling away in the center of the table, then raised their heads and looked at one another.
"A Li, you eat it."
"You ordered this thing." Fu Li was expressionless.
"Then... Mei?"
"Kiana, you're my dearest friend." The girl revealed a smile as benevolent as the Virgin Mary.
"Precisely because we're best friends, I want to give you the best things."
Kiana eagerly scooped up some tofu with a spoon, carefully held her hand underneath it, and brought it before Mei. "Come on, say ah—"
Her little expression was full of anticipation! Her big eyes sparkled!
"Honestly, what am I supposed to do with you?" Mei shot her a fondly reproachful look, but still tucked back her hanging hair and opened her soft, tender cherry lips. "Ah—"
From Fu Li's angle, he could even see the little pink tongue shrinking behind her silver teeth.
It was rather pleasing to the eye.
"A Li! Look over there!"
"Hm?"
Fu Li, who had been enjoying the sight of a beautiful girl, followed the direction Kiana pointed, only for something to suddenly appear in his mouth.
"Hehe~"
Kiana withdrew the now-empty spoon and smugly wiped her delicate nose with her thumb.
"As the good person treating us to dinner, our Lord A Li naturally has to taste the first bite!" She blinked her rose-blue eyes and leaned over beside him with a wicked grin. "This is a beautiful girl's special service, you know? How does it taste?"
To her surprise, Fu Li opened his mouth. "Ptooey!"
He spat everything he had just eaten onto the backrest of the chair opposite him.
Luckily, Kiana had already moved to his side. Otherwise, that spit would definitely have sprayed all over her face.
Kiana's expression darkened. "Did you seriously just spit it out?!"
She had been the one to bring them to this restaurant, and of course she had sampled everything here before.
The mapo tofu only looked excessively festive. In reality, it was fragrant, smooth, crisp, and numbing, making people want more after one bite.
In other words, the girl's feeding play had genuinely been meant to thank Fu Li.
For foodies, the first and last bites of every meal were treasures among treasures!
Hmph! This young lady will never feed you anything again! Stinky Li! Stinky pear!
Angrily, she picked up the spoon, scooped another spoonful from the plate, and brought it to her mouth to vent some steam.
Smack!
Before you continue