Step Back, I'm About to Make My Move

So juicy...?

When Zhang Lexuan heard those words, she felt a strange sense of dissonance.

In her impression, Ma Xiaotao wasn't the sort of person who... how should she put it... right, someone so lecherous.

It didn't sound like something she'd say.

But everyone at Shrek Academy was talking about what had happened at the Mimicry Cultivation Ground that day, and Zhang Lexuan couldn't help but believe it.

So, on her way to Shrek Plaza today, Zhang Lexuan had spotted Ma Xiaotao looking for something and forced down the anger in her heart.

Then she walked up to her.

"Xiaotao, do you know my younger brother?"

Zhang Lexuan didn't beat around the bush. She got straight to the point.

[Quest issued: Interrogation by the neighbor's lady of the house.]

[Please talk your way out of it and distance yourself from this incident.]

[Reward: Keep your corpse intact.]

K-Keep her corpse intact?

Was this a test?

The system's voice and Zhang Lexuan's had sounded in her mind at the same time, and Ma Xiaotao immediately understood what this was really about.

Her usually somewhat haughty expression softened. Smiling, she looked at Zhang Lexuan.

"Of course I know him, Inner Courtyard Senior Sister. I met your younger brother at the Mimicry Cultivation Ground, but we've known each other for less than half a day. I can't say I know him very well."

She let just the right hint of regret show.

Zhang Lexuan picked up on it, but everything she knew about what had happened came from the students at the academy. One person could be wrong, but could so many people all be wrong?

Ma Xiaotao felt a headache coming on. No wonder Xuanyuan Sheng was such a handful. It must run in the family.

She saw the same qualities in the Inner Courtyard Senior Sister standing before her.

But this quest was more terrifying than anything Ma Xiaotao had ever faced—not even the flare-up of her Evil Fire compared. It was incredibly dangerous, and the reward was to keep her corpse intact.

Didn't that mean she was going to die either way?

[Xiaotao, go on ahead. Once you're gone,]

[I'll find a girl even more voluptuous and beautiful than you to take over caring for your neighbor's younger brother, Xuanyuan Sheng. So don't worry that there'll be no one to look after him after you leave.]

"Bastard!"

"What?"

Zhang Lexuan glared at Ma Xiaotao. Had she just heard something she shouldn't have?

Seeing the Senior Sister's fierce expression, Ma Xiaotao gave an awkward smile. "I meant those people who are spreading lies."

She hurriedly spoke to the system in her mind.

"You bastard, what kind of thing is that to say? You're talking about inheriting my legacy. Can't you wish your host well for once?"

[Ding. This old lady's judgment is that your chance of escaping Zhang Lexuan is 99%.]

Ninety percent? That's pretty high. Looks like you just want to leave.

[No. The assessment is that there is a 99% chance you'll leave this world by accident. You'll go very peacefully.]

After hearing that, Ma Xiaotao felt her heart turn cold. That terrifying? Looks like the Senior Sister had a frightening side that no one usually saw.

But after thinking it over, she put on the same alluring expression she'd used when dealing with Xuanyuan Sheng that day.

Who said she was going to run?

Hadn't she heard the saying?

The easiest way to overcome fear was to face it head-on. Running wouldn't solve the problem; it would only get her turned into one.

[Oh? Do tell.]

"Step back... I'm about to make my move."

Ma Xiaotao smiled confidently, then reached out and took Zhang Lexuan by the arm, striking the same intimate pose Xiao Xiao had.

"Sister Lexuan, you really don't know about some things?"

The astonished look on her face completely threw Zhang Lexuan, who had been glaring at her in anger, off balance.

"W-What things?"

Her voice had softened considerably, too.

Ma Xiaotao looked earnestly into Zhang Lexuan's phoenix eyes, paused for a moment, and said, "Sister Lexuan, your younger brother is really handsome!"

Was this a confession? It had to be a confession.

Zhang Lexuan hadn't expected Ma Xiaotao to be so brazen. Not only had she said Xiao Sheng was so juicy...

At the thought, Zhang Lexuan's ears turned red. Juicy... What exactly was juicy about Xiao Sheng?

But she could be embarrassed and still interrogate the person holding her arm.

Ma Xiaotao continued, "Sister Lexuan, did you know that lots of girls have confessed to Xuanyuan Sheng?"

Zhang Lexuan nodded. It gave her a bit of a headache, but there was clearly nothing she could do about that sort of thing.

"I did this for you, Sister Lexuan!"

That earnest call brought Zhang Lexuan's thoughts to a halt. She could hear the sincerity in Ma Xiaotao's voice.

"For me? You said something so shameless in front of everyone, and you're saying you did it for me?"

But Zhang Lexuan was clearly not that easy to fool. She immediately challenged Ma Xiaotao.

"Think about it, Sister Lexuan. My actions might have made a lot of people with bad intentions think twice."

Ma Xiaotao kept steering Zhang Lexuan's thoughts. The Senior Sister was clever, but whenever it came to Xuanyuan Sheng, it was as if her mind shut down.

That was what gave Ma Xiaotao room to work with.

"That day at the Mimicry Cultivation Ground, I saw Xuanyuan Sheng get kissed by force. Some female student who knows where she came from left a huge lip print on his face."

Hearing Ma Xiaotao's words, Zhang Lexuan nodded. She really had seen the red lip print on her younger brother's face that day, though it had faded quite a bit.

Seeing that Zhang Lexuan agreed with her, Ma Xiaotao spoke as if she were willing to sacrifice herself for Zhang Lexuan's sake.

"Now think about it. You only looked away for a moment, and someone had already forced a kiss on your younger brother. And there's still a long time ahead of him..."

Ma Xiaotao changed the way she addressed him. She knew she'd already led Zhang Lexuan down the garden path.

Xuanyuan Sheng was having a miserable time in her mind right now.

It was all because of the various female hooligans he'd run into while she wasn't there.

"So that's why I said what I did in the Mimicry Hall. I did it for you, Senior Sister."

"Senior Sister, you know what I'm like. If I'd really set my sights on your younger brother, I'd have dragged him into bed to warm it for me ages ago. How could I have let him go?"

Zhang Lexuan had heard about the flaw in Ma Xiaotao's Martial Soul. If Ma Xiaotao really had improper intentions, Xiao Sheng might have ended up as a tool to suppress her Evil Fire. She wouldn't have let him leave so easily.

She really was trying to protect Xiao Sheng.

After Ma Xiaotao's stream of persuasion, Zhang Lexuan's anger gradually faded. Instead, she even thanked Ma Xiaotao for indirectly helping protect her younger brother.

"So, Sis, you and Sister Xiaotao became friends just like that?"

Beside Shrek Plaza, Zhang Lexuan was introducing her new friend, Ma Xiaotao, to Xuanyuan Sheng and Xiao Xiao.

But Xuanyuan Sheng found it unbelievable. He knew women could sometimes become close for the strangest reasons.

He just hadn't expected it to be this strange.