Shiina: "What is the Fiji Cup?"

It really has been quite a busy day.

He sighed inwardly, taking two steps in one as he walked over.

"Xia Mu, long time no see." Seeing Xia Mu return, Shiina couldn't help but breathe a small sigh of relief, a gentle smile climbing onto her small face.

During this period, she had deliberately avoided contact with Xia Mu, fearing that Long Yuan would cause trouble for him.

But after not seeing him for several days, she was still a bit worried, so she took the initiative to come find Xia Mu.

She hadn't expected him to be out of his dorm, and he hadn't replied to her messages, making her worry that he had been targeted by Long Yuan.

She would have felt very guilty if that were the case, as it was she who had invited Xia Mu to be her reading companion in the first place.

Now that she saw Xia Mu was fine, she felt relieved.

But once her worry faded, she didn't know what to say, and could only awkwardly tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Come in and sit for a bit."

Realizing Shiina's embarrassment, Xia Mu opened the door wide and said softly.

"Ah, um..." Shiina replied softly, changed into slippers, and stepped inside.

As soon as she entered, she looked around with curiosity.

What would a boy's room be like?

The result, however, left her quite disappointed; it was rather clean, but was that pair of underwear swaying in the wind on the balcony for real?

"Help yourself to the snacks on the table," Xia Mu said, then asked, "What would you like to drink?"

"Ah, just give me any kind of sparkling water," Shiina replied. While Xia Mu was getting the drinks, she rummaged through the snack bags on the table.

At that moment, a super-sized sausage caught her attention.

It must be a jumbo sausage!

She was quite knowledgeable about snacks, but at the same time, she noticed a note next to the sausage.

"Wait, don't look!!!"

Xia Mu, who had just taken out the drinks, was startled and couldn't help but exclaim.

"Huh?" The sudden shout gave Shiina a fright. "What's wrong?"

However, the fact that Xia Mu didn't want her to see it only made her want to see it even more.

Xia Mu was usually very quiet and calm; this note must contain some little secret of his!

"Uh, nothing."

Xia Mu thought for a moment. "Go ahead and look."

Anyway, she didn't know Chinese.

"Oh~"

Shiina blinked her eyes cutely and looked down. "Did a friend give this to you?"

"Yeah..."

"Feijibei? What is that? Is that what you call this sausage in Huaxia?"

Shiina's words hit Xia Mu like a bolt of lightning, leaving him stunned and frozen in place.

Such a cute girl, just like that, had read out the words 'fleshlight'.

It was rather lewd.

But that wasn't the problem.

The problem was, "You can read these characters!!???" Xia Mu was shocked.

"Mhm."

Shiina thought for a long time but couldn't figure out the meaning of the three characters, so she memorized them secretly. She then put down the note, turned her head, and looked at Xia Mu with a blank expression. "What's the matter?"

"In order to read Huaxia novels, I've been studying Chinese quite diligently, you know."

"Cough, cough..."

"It's nothing."

Xia Mu was sweating profusely and quickly changed the subject. "Let's drink our beverages."

He then handed the drink in his hand to Shiina.

"Hm??" Shiina's gaze fixed on Xia Mu's face; there was definitely something fishy going on.

However, she didn't press the issue further. She sat down slowly, opened the sparkling water, and took a sip. "Ah~"

After finishing, a look of intoxication appeared on her face.

"I thought only a shut-in like me liked drinking sparkling water," Xia Mu said, taking a light sip himself.

"Wrong!"

Shiina pushed the can forward. "That way of thinking is completely wrong. You can't label a specific group of people just because of one thing; wouldn't other people who genuinely like it be treated unfairly?"

Her small face shone with a glow of seriousness.

Although there was a suspicion that she was making excuses for herself.

In fact, she was also a homebody who liked to stay indoors and read books.

"Ah, yes, yes, yes," Xia Mu joked, "How could I dare to refute the young lady~"

"Hmph." Shiina let out a soft huff, shaking her small fist, and suddenly, as if she had thought of something, she asked Xia Mu, "By the way, has Long Yuan been giving you any trouble lately?"

"Not at all," Xia Mu replied.

It would be good enough if I didn't go looking for trouble with him.

"Phew..." Seeing that Xia Mu didn't seem to be lying, the heavy stone in Shiina's heart finally fell to the ground.

She then took a few books out of her shoulder bag and blinked as she looked at Xia Mu, "Can you still accompany me to read?"

"I've thought about it; if we are in the library, many people will see us together."

"They might misunderstand our relationship and hinder you from finding a partner!"

She emphasized the tone of her last sentence, wanting to see Xia Mu's reaction.

But Xia Mu just calmly agreed, "Sure."

"Mm... alright."

Shiina's thoughts were complex; she was both happy and somewhat disappointed.

She was happy that she could read with Xia Mu again, but disappointed that Xia Mu didn't want others to misunderstand their relationship.

This strange emotion that had suddenly emerged left Shiina's mind in a jumble, not knowing what to do.

However, she hadn't spent time reading with classmate Xia Mu for several days.

Now that they were finally together, it was truly wonderful...

Stealing a glance at Xia Mu, Shiina chuckled to herself.

It wasn't until nearly twelve o'clock that she reluctantly said goodbye to Xia Mu and returned to her room.

She turned on her computer and typed the three words 'masturbator' into the search bar.

Shiina had not forgotten those most crucial three words.

It didn't matter if she didn't look, but once she did, her small face turned red in an instant.

Red clouds climbed across both sides of her cheeks in a flash.

"Ugh, ahhh..."

Understanding what it was, she felt both shy and curious.

She turned off the lights and, braving the shame, continued to read about the function of a 'masturbator'.

The dim white light hit her cheeks, reflecting waves of crimson.

"So that's how it is..."

Only now did she realize how socially suicidal her actions had been at the time.

"Does classmate Xia Mu also do that kind of thing?"

She lay back in her chair, hugging a doll, and couldn't help but let her imagination run wild.

"Eww, ahhh..."

Just thinking about that scene made her so shy she couldn't control herself; she quickly used the doll to cover her face and then deleted her browsing history completely.

To prevent it from being recovered, she even uninstalled and reinstalled the browser, only then feeling at ease.

The next day, because he had promised Horikita Suzune yesterday, Xia Mu had no choice but to take action.

As soon as class ended, he followed the Trio to the gymnasium.

The gymnasium of this school was very large, and it was subdivided into a basketball court, a badminton court, and so on.

"Ken, it looks like Xia Mu is following us."

Rather than following, it would be more accurate to say he was trailing them openly.

Kanji had discovered Xia Mu a long time ago; the experience of that night still lingered in his heart, unable to be shaken off like a nightmare.

Including Yamauchi, all three of them were already drenched in sweat.

"Tch!!"

Sudo Ken gritted his teeth and, with a face full of defiance, hurled the basketball fiercely at Xia Mu, "What exactly do you want to do, you guy?"

However, when the basketball, traveling at high speed, reached Xia Mu, it was blocked by him in a casual, understated manner.

This was enough to show just how much strength he possessed.

Xia Mu threw the basketball back and cracked his neck with a creaking sound, "I'm here to invite you all to study."