Bath × Coward

"So I'm someone you need?"

Lin Yue's casual question left Chen Xi unsure how to answer. She deliberately pretended not to hear it, picked up her clothes, and headed for the bathroom.

Steam rose in the bathroom. In this scorching weather, it should have been unbearable, but to Chen Xi, who had consumed the Rain Lord's eyes, it felt incomparably comfortable.

She looked at the water heater set to the right.

Hot water in weather like this?

Silently turning it to cold, Chen Xi lightly pinched the hem of her clothes.

Because of the renovation, a full-length mirror had been built directly into the bathing area.

"It's just a shower." Chen Xi continued moving, choosing not to close her eyes.

The lovely figure in the mirror was enough to make the vast majority of girls feel inferior.

But because she knew it was herself, she felt absolutely nothing.

Absolutely—nothing!

With her cheeks flushed crimson, Chen Xi did her best to hypnotize herself.

Five seconds later, she still surrendered to reality and closed her eyes.

Lying in the cool bathtub, Chen Xi finally enjoyed a rare stolen moment of leisure.

The disastrous start she had been dealt after transmigrating had finally been turned around.

It seemed simple, but in truth, one wrong step would have led to eternal damnation.

Lin Yue's Regression ability meant that as long as Chen Xi was marked as an enemy, any mistake she made could be saved and optimized away by the other girl.

Under such immense pressure, Chen Xi's nerves had remained tightly strung until now, when they finally relaxed a little.

The happy hours seemed to have had the fast-forward button pressed. In the blink of an eye, Chen Xi had already lain in the bathtub for three hours.

An ordinary human soaking for so long might have had their skin rot away, yet Chen Xi looked even more radiant.

Chen Xi sensed that the three days needed to control the Rain Lord had likely been shortened to one day.

There was no point soaking any longer. Chen Xi kept her eyes tightly shut as she dried herself off.

In truth, she did not particularly want to control the Rain Lord. She had only brought it in as an emergency measure.

Once she died, her Legend progress would be reset to zero, so for Chen Xi, CG was what truly mattered.

After putting on a short-sleeved shirt in the same style as Lin Yue's, Chen Xi quietly stepped out of the bathroom.

In the living room, Lin Yue lay on the sofa, drowsily scrolling through forum posts.

When she saw Chen Xi emerge, she instinctively complained, "You finally came out. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought you died in there."

"Then should I video call you in the future so you can watch me bathe?" Chen Xi took the hair dryer from her hand.

"Mm..." Lin Yue pondered for a moment. "That wouldn't be impossible?"

Ignoring her banter, Chen Xi ran her fingers through her hair.

Girls' long hair really was much more troublesome to dry than short hair. She spent several minutes on it before barely drying it halfway.

"Sleepy." Lin Yue yawned, tears gathering in her eyes.

"Where am I sleeping tonight?" She blinked at Chen Xi.

Not knowing what Lin Yue meant, Chen Xi replied as usual, "You sleep on the sofa. The living room has air conditioning too. I'll get you a soft blanket."

"Oh."

After some fussing around, Chen Xi looked at Lin Yue obediently lying on the sofa under the blanket. She said goodnight and closed the bedroom door.

Turning on the air conditioner, she leaped onto the bed like a fish vaulting over the Dragon Gate and collapsed onto it.

Sleeping after a bath really was blissful.

After scrolling through her phone a little longer, the girl fell deeply asleep and entered a sweet dream.

Until... a knock sounded, and Lin Yue's voice came from outside the door.

"Chen Xi, can you open the door?"

Chen Xi kicked off the blanket and got up to open it.

Lin Yue stood outside holding a pillow. Under the moonlight, her demeanor seemed slightly cool and distant.

Chen Xi asked groggily, "What is it?"

"I..." Lin Yue hesitated. "I'm not used to sleeping there."

"Then you sleep in the bedroom, and I'll sleep in the living room." Chen Xi pushed her into the bedroom, shut the door behind her, took a few steps to the sofa, and heavily dropped onto it.

Within seconds, Chen Xi had returned to dreamland. She was simply too sleepy.

However, her sleep did not last long before Lin Yue shook her awake again.

Chen Xi opened her eyes to find the blonde girl looking at her pleadingly.

"What exactly do you want?" A trace of anger slipped into her voice. "I even gave you the bedroom."

At those words, Lin Yue froze, and her voice began to tremble. "...I'm scared."

"I'm scared Wu Xin will sneak attack me." And then peel her skin off while she was still alive.

Lin Yue did not say the second half aloud.

Her Regression ability was uncontrollable. It would only trigger upon death.

The agony of suffocating to death had already left her unable to recover for a long time. She could hardly imagine what it would be like to be skinned alive.

"..." Seeing Lin Yue like a startled fawn, the tiny bit of resentment in Chen Xi's heart vanished as well.

She had been too self-assured.

Although she did not like browsing too much information related to spoilers, given how popular the manga was, Chen Xi had more or less seen discussions about Lin Yue's heroine persona.

Without a doubt, Lin Yue in the original work had an almost perfect character setup.

Countless cycles had failed to wear down her spirit. Not only was she powerful, but Lin Yue had never shown mercy when she struck.

Moreover, Lin Yue had quite a long list of nicknames.

Shadow Monarch, Scarlet Tyrant, Prophet, Dictator Lord, World Destroyer... and so on. None of them had anything to do with the Lin Yue before her, who was on the verge of tears.

She was only a little girl who had just turned eighteen, been disposed of in the water, had her neck forcibly snapped, and might even have her skin peeled off.

Fear was the emotion of a normal person. The fact that Lin Yue could remain calm already showed remarkable strength of mind.

"Come on." Chen Xi tried to make her voice gentler.

Yet to Lin Yue, that soft-spoken moment appeared entirely differently.

The black-haired girl told her to hurry up and leave with the same "expressionless" face as usual.

"You're kicking me out in the middle of the night?!"

Lin Yue found Chen Xi utterly unreasonable. Waking her up twice in the middle of the night had been a bit excessive, sure.

But it did not warrant telling her to get lost the moment she opened her mouth...

She had just made up her mind to save her, too...

The more she thought about it, the more wronged Lin Yue felt. Tears kept swirling uncontrollably in her eyes.

Seeing that expression, how could Chen Xi not realize Lin Yue had misunderstood her?

"I mean, come into the room with me." Chen Xi's gaze darted away, unable to meet hers.

She had acted cold too often, and for a moment, she had failed to control the degree.

At those words, Lin Yue, who had been on the verge of tears moments ago, immediately broke into a smile.

"Okay."

She nodded, and the two of them entered the bedroom together.

"I'll sleep on the inside," Chen Xi said.

She carefully lay down on the inner side, while Lin Yue, having gotten what she wanted, slept on the outer side.

Fortunately, the bed was big enough to barely fit two people. As long as neither of them slept too wildly, they would not touch each other.

That was what Chen Xi thought, but the next second, Lin Yue's warm arms wrapped around her neck.

?

Chen Xi turned her head. The blonde girl had already fallen asleep, and from this close, Chen Xi could even hear her faint breathing.

After moving her right arm away, drowsiness overtook Chen Xi, and she returned to the embrace of dreams.