Flowers in the Dust

9527: [Side Quest progress updated to 85%.]

Wen Nan was stunned by her actions and failed to react in time.

Summer clothes were thin and scant to begin with. Wu Yuwei undid most of the buttons on her shirt, baring the fair skin beneath and the nude lace trim...

Only then did Wen Nan snap out of it. He hurried forward and clamped both hands around hers. "Xiao Wei, don't do this. Even if you gave yourself to me right now, I still couldn't fall for you—"

"—I don't believe you! I don't believe it!"

Wu Yuwei angrily cut him off. She yanked her wrists free from his grasp, then caught his wrist and pressed his palm firmly against her chest.

"Hey..."

She moved too quickly for Wen Nan to react. His palm had already touched something soft.

A perfect handful.

He snatched his hand back as if shocked by electricity. "Xiao Wei," he called again, trying to make her stop.

But as soon as he opened his mouth, Wu Yuwei—her shirt hanging open—threw herself at him again, heedless of everything, trying to kiss him.

The liquid she had fed him earlier still lingered in his mouth, along with that strange sensation.

It was a tingling, numb feeling, like the faintest current running between his lips and tongue. It felt bizarre.

Wen Nan instinctively took two steps back, putting distance between himself and Wu Yuwei so she couldn't touch his lips again.

Wu Yuwei lunged and missed. She stood frozen in place, lips trembling, hands clenched into fists, her eyes full of unwillingness as she stared at Wen Nan.

Wen Nan sighed softly to himself.

Wu Yuwei was beautiful, with delicate features and fair skin. With tears in her eyes, she gazed at him, her eyes filled with longing and hurt. It would be a lie to say he felt nothing at all.

She was slender, without many curves, but she was tall, with long, straight legs. Her shirt hung open, revealing her slim waist and a glimpse of her neat little navel.

She had slipped her top down to her elbows, leaving her prominent collarbones, small, rounded shoulders, and slender arms fully exposed. Her skirt had also been tugged out of place during their struggle, hanging loosely around her hips. She looked ready to let him do whatever he wanted.

Faced with such a sight, even if the head on Wen Nan's shoulders had no improper thoughts, he couldn't stop the one below from having a few.

But he forced those thoughts down.

He didn't want to, and couldn't, consummate that kind of relationship with Wu Yuwei here.

They were locked in a tense silence.

Wu Yuwei's gaze slowly traveled down from Wen Nan's face, finally settling on a certain spot.

9527: [Side Quest progress updated to 93%.]

Wen Nan spoke up. "Xiao Wei, stop—hey!"

He had barely started when she abruptly dropped to her knees in front of him and reached for his belt.

Wen Nan's expression turned cold. He grabbed Wu Yuwei's hand and forcefully shoved her away from him.

"Wu Yuwei," he said, each word deliberate. "Don't debase yourself like this. Love and sex aren't the same thing. I'm not going to change my mind just because you're 'offering yourself' to me now."

Wen Nan looked directly into Wu Yuwei's eyes and said one last thing. "I can't give you what you want. Stop pursuing me."

After that, he had nothing more to say. He turned and left.

Wu Yuwei stared blankly in the direction where he had disappeared.

She had seen the way Ye Jiu looked at her just now. There had been helplessness, impatience, and revulsion in his eyes. He'd avoided her as if she were a venomous snake.

She had tried everything she could, yet in the end, all she got was his resolute figure disappearing into the distance.

At that moment, she knew it was truly over between them.

Wu Yuwei's legs gave way, and she collapsed onto the cold floor, slick with blood.

9527: [Congratulations! Your progress with Xiao Wei has exceeded 99%!]

9527: [Side Quest progress updated to 100%.]

9527: [Congratulations, contestant! You have successfully completed the Side Quest "Xiao Wei's Entanglement"!]

9527: [You will receive an additional reward of 300 attribute points, to be tallied after the trial ends.]

The moment Wen Nan left the public restroom, one system notification after another sounded in his mind.

Wu Yuwei's affection level had reached 99% despite his rejecting her at every turn?

It was certainly a route he'd never imagined, but hopefully he wouldn't have to see the pure, innocent girl in tears again during the remaining missions. That was a relief.

As he thought this, he accidentally bit down on something hard beneath his tongue. Wen Nan hissed softly, then realized that a small, hard bead had somehow appeared in his mouth.

He spat it into his palm and looked down. It was a blue gemstone that resembled a pearl.

Could this...

Could it have formed from that strangely textured liquid Wu Yuwei had left on his tongue when she kissed him?

9527: [Congratulations, contestant! You have received the Side Quest bonus equipment reward—Flower's Tear.]

9527: [Flower's Tear:

"To love someone is to humble yourself until you're in the dust, then bloom."

The campus belle Wu Yuwei realized her feelings for you and begged and pursued you relentlessly, but she couldn't make you change your mind in the slightest. In the end, she gave up completely. At that moment, she experienced the pain of wanting something she could never have for the first time, and finally found emotional closure amid the bitterness of unrequited love. She left a drop of her liquid in your mouth. It mixed with your saliva and condensed into Flower's Tear.

Flower's Tear inherits the properties of the liquid in Wu Yuwei's body. It can triple the effect of one specific attribute, skill, or piece of equipment for the contestant.

Duration: 3 minutes. Cooldown: 3 hours.

This equipment has been permanently bound to your account. It may only be used by you and cannot be given or sold to anyone else.]

It could triple an effect outright?

So if he used the Attribute Trial Card to raise his charm to 100 points, then used Flower's Tear, he could break through the current level-one cap and boost his charm to 300 points?

It sounded like a pretty useful piece of equipment.

The effect just didn't last long—only three minutes. With so little time, he'd be back to normal before he could even finish delivering one cheesy pickup line.

And the cooldown was a full three hours. That was long enough for him to thoroughly let loose twice...

He'd better hold on to this thing, think it through, and save it for when he really needed it.

As he was thinking, another system notification sounded in his mind.

9527: [Congratulations! You have completed Main Quest 2. Please return to the Trial Zone checkpoint—your dormitory—as soon as possible to claim your rewards.]