Xiao Wu pressed down hard, trying to use her position on top to pin Su Chen completely.
Su Chen reacted instantly. He seized her slender waist with both hands and lifted her. "Want to ride me? In your next life! Take this—Subduing Dragon Repents!"
They tumbled across the waterbed, locked in a struggle.
The waterbed was so slippery that neither could find any purchase, and the fight became a fierce stalemate.
Xiao Wu used her signature grappling technique, clamping her legs around Su Chen's abdomen like a giant pair of scissors as she tried to lock him in a scissor hold.
Su Chen caught her wrist, and they rolled back and forth across the bed.
"Surrender and I'll spare you!" Su Chen shouted.
"Never! Demacia!"
Xiao Wu opened her mouth and sank her teeth into Su Chen's shoulder without mercy.
As they wrestled, the mood began to change.
A lone man and woman, dry tinder and raging fire, and pink lighting that made the room unbearably intimate.
Su Chen gazed at the lovely face inches from his own, and his breathing gradually lost its rhythm.
Xiao Wu sensed the change too. Blushes bloomed on her cheeks, and she stammered, "Wh-what are you poking me with?"
She felt a little shy, her heart going thump, thump.
Su Chen grinned. "The Ruyi Jingu Bang. It weighs thirteen thousand five hundred catties. Think you can handle it?"
Xiao Wu's competitive spirit flared. "What a joke! What storms haven't I weathered? Today, I'm breaking that lousy staff of yours!"
Su Chen seized the initiative, flipping over like a salted fish and pinning Xiao Wu beneath him.
"Enemy forces arrive on the battlefield in five seconds. All forces, attack!"
Xiao Wu refused to back down. She wrapped her legs around him. "Come on, then! Let's hurt each other!"
What followed was a peak showdown between species.
"First Blood!"
Xiao Wu cried out in pain. "Go easy! Do you even know how to play? What kind of beginner hits the road without using the brakes?"
Su Chen was drenched in sweat. "It's a manual. We still need to break it in! Your clutch is too tight!"
"Double Kill!"
"Triple Kill!"
The waterbed creaked under the strain.
Xiao Wu finally seized an opening and flipped over at an ingenious angle, reclaiming the high ground.
"Hahahaha! I won! Su Chen, so you have days like this too!"
Astrid rode atop Su Chen, her long hair flying as she looked like a victorious goddess of war.
"Giddyup! Hyah! Run faster, or I'll dock your carrots!"
Su Chen gritted his teeth. "You damned rabbit, just wait until I'm through with you! Great Might Heavenly Dragon! Kṣitigarbha, World-Honored One! Prajna Ba Ma Kong!"
Su Chen entered berserk mode, counterattacked, and pushed straight onto the high ground.
"Quadra Kill!"
"Penta Kill!"
By then, Ah Yin was numb from root to leaf.
She had been sleeping peacefully inside the Soul Tool when she was suddenly taken out. She had thought she might get some fresh air.
Instead, the air was thick with hormones that seemed ready to overflow.
Ah Yin covered her stem tightly with both leaves, yet she couldn't resist parting them a crack to peek.
"What a sin!" she screamed inwardly.
"Why are young people so wild these days? Is that a bed any respectable person would sleep in?"
"The rabbit sounds miserable. Nobody's going to die, are they?"
Watching the two of them roll around on the bed shattered Ah Yin's worldview.
Back when she and Tang Hao were courting, even holding hands had left them blushing for ages.
These two, on the other hand, had launched a Mount Akina Racing God championship right there in the room.
Plants had it so much better. One gust of wind, a drift of pollen, and the deed was done.
So elegant. Truly elegant.
These two sounded as though they were forging iron, each blow ringing hard and clear.
What shocked Ah Yin most was Su Chen's stamina.
"That boy looks so thin and frail. How is his endurance so absurd?"
Through the gap in her leaves, Ah Yin watched Su Chen charge again and again.
The frequency, the force, the staying power.
It left her in awe.
Ah Yin found herself recalling her former husband, the Clear Sky Douluo, Tang Hao.
Tang Hao had certainly been fierce at the forge, sweating buckets.
So why had he wilted like a frostbitten eggplant as soon as he got into bed?
Tang Hao had always been all thunder and little rain: two hours of windup, three minutes of action.
Before every encounter, he would even go through a full set of Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer moves, claiming he was warming up and strengthening his arms.
But once he actually got into bed, he surrendered after a few moves.
Afterward, he always made excuses. "Ah Yin, forging wore me out today. Next time, I promise."
This boy, by contrast, was at full power the entire time, without so much as a cooldown.
She had thought all men were more or less like Tang Hao.
Only today did she learn that even bulls were built differently.
The mighty Clear Sky Douluo was being utterly outclassed in this department by a teenage boy.
Ah Yin spared her past self one second of sympathy.
The battle on the waterbed continued.
Xiao Wu had begun begging for mercy. "I can't, I can't! Boss, I was wrong! I won't play horse anymore!"
Su Chen was merciless. "Admitting defeat now? Too late! Weren't you shouting that you'd be the master? Show me the spirit of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast! Today, you're going to learn who the real rider is!"
"Critical Hit!"
"Armor Break!"
"True Damage!"
Ah Yin's heart lurched at every cry.
She bitterly regretted being taken out at all.
"I shouldn't be here. I should be under the bed."
"Then I could see exactly what posture he's using to put that much force into it."
Ah Yin gave her own thirst for knowledge a nod of approval.
She hurriedly shook the thought from her mind.
What on earth was she thinking?
Ah Yin struggled to calm herself.
But the creaking waterbed and strange conversation kept worming their way into her head.
"Demon, take a blow from Old Sun's staff!"
"Ah! Help! Zhu Zhuqing, save me!"
Ah Yin was at a complete loss.
The mighty Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor had been reduced to a peeping tom listening through the wall.
If word got out, how could she ever show her leaves in the plant world again?
In the next room.
Inside the Blue Enchantress Suite.
Zhu Zhuqing lay on the large blue round bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.
The commotion next door was simply too loud.
For the sake of atmosphere, the hotel's soundproofing was terrible. Xiao Wu's cries came through loud and clear.
Zhu Zhuqing pulled a pillow over her head, her face as red as a ripe tomato.
"Those two have no shame at all!"
Biting her lip, Zhu Zhuqing found Su Chen's roguish face rising unbidden in her mind.
She quickly shook her head to drive the image away.
She got up and went to the wall, raising her hand to knock and warn the people next door to keep it down.
Just as she raised it, Xiao Wu cried, "Great Might Heavenly Dragon!" from the other side.
Zhu Zhuqing snatched her hand back in fright.
Were they fighting, or what on earth were they doing?
She sat back down on the bed and began meditating.
Each time she began to settle into it, a piercing shriek came from next door.
"Su Chen! You bastard! I'm going to kill you!"
Su Chen's arrogant laughter followed. "Kill me? I bet you don't even have the strength to hold a knife now! Accept your fate!"
Zhu Zhuqing tried using Soul Power to block her ears.
But the maddening background music and the waterbed's creaks seemed to have some kind of physical penetration effect, reaching straight into her brain.
Zhu Zhuqing finally snapped.
It was the middle of the night. Were they going to let anyone sleep?
The battle lasted well into the second half of the night.
Xiao Wu had collapsed into a rabbit pancake, without the strength to move a finger.
She even needed Su Chen's help to roll over.
Looking refreshed, Su Chen leaned against the headboard. He produced a toothpick from who knew where and held it between his teeth, looking smugly wise after the fact.
"Well? Do you concede?" Su Chen asked.
Xiao Wu rolled her eyes. "I concede... You're a beast."
Su Chen smiled triumphantly, wrapped an arm around Xiao Wu, and fell fast asleep.
In the corner, more than half of Ah Yin's leaves had turned yellow.
Staying up all night to watch the live show had done that to her.
She watched the two sleep in each other's arms, bitter sap welling up inside her.
"Could those two menaces please put me back in the Soul Tool tomorrow?"
She truly couldn't take any more.