A Shy Mu Xi

The soft, fluffy bedding carried a faint fragrance, warm and cozy.

In the quiet hotel room, the curtains were half-drawn.

After a long while, Mu Xi's eyelashes on the bed trembled lightly.

Her still eyes slowly opened, filled with a trace of confusion as her hazy gaze gradually focused.

Her head still felt heavy and swollen, with a faint dull ache throbbing at her temples. The dizziness from being knocked unconscious by the soul power shockwave had yet to fully fade.

She instinctively moved her fingertips. Her entire body felt weak and sore, while her tightly wound muscles finally relaxed.

Mu Xi had just had a dream—a somewhat embarrassing dream—in which the two of them had fought an earth-shattering battle in bed.

And the male lead had actually been Lin Xun!

Mu Xi's heart jolted, and her entire face instantly flushed crimson.

Embarrassment surged like a tide, spreading from her neck to the tips of her ears. Even her fingertips had turned a faint red.

She did not dare recall those absurd yet sensual scenes from the dream. The more she thought about them, the hotter she became, so embarrassed that her scalp tingled.

"Damn it, damn it, what kind of ridiculous dream was I having..."

She covered her burning cheeks tightly with both hands, buried herself beneath the blankets, and rolled lightly across the bed twice in utter mortification.

She rubbed against the soft pillow from side to side, inwardly berating herself in a frenzy.

She was normally poised and self-controlled, proud and calm. How could she have such a shameless, absurd erotic dream after falling unconscious?!

Just as she covered her face and inwardly spiraled in mortified panic—

A soft sound suddenly rang out in the quiet air of the hotel room.

"Cough."

Mu Xi looked up blankly. Her gaze crossed the spacious room and landed on the sofa not far away.

The young man lounged lazily against the leather sofa, his posture relaxed, one hand casually resting on his knee.

Lin Xun sat quietly with his eyes lowered toward the floor, his expression calm and unreadable. The bone-piercing chill he had exuded in the alley was gone, and he had returned to his usual easygoing, indifferent self.

"Ah!?"

Seeing those familiar handsome features, Mu Xi's muddled thoughts finally returned somewhat. Supporting herself against the soft mattress, she slowly sat up, rubbed her aching temples, and frowned slightly, her mind filled with blank fragments.

The last thing she remembered was the vicious, burly men blocking the alley, the soul power impact crashing down upon them, herself standing in front of them, and the sudden darkness that followed.

Beyond that, she knew nothing of what had happened afterward.

After hesitating for a moment, Mu Xi raised a hand to scratch her slightly messy long hair. Her voice was hoarse from sleep as she asked:

"What... happened?"

The moment the words left her mouth, sealed fragments of memory surged back.

The alley ambush, the vicious Guang Biao, the roaring mecha, the deadly danger rushing toward them...

All the perilous scenes flooded into her mind at once.

Mu Xi's pupils abruptly contracted. The confusion vanished from her face, replaced by complete panic.

She suddenly looked up and quickly scanned the elegant yet unfamiliar hotel room. Her heart leapt into her throat as she pressed urgently:

"Where are those people?! Where did the group that blocked us go?!"

Before she had even finished, she remembered the junior students unconscious at the corner of the alley. Her heart clenched, and she quickly asked again:

"And my classmates! How are they? Are they alright?!"

A string of questions spilled from her mouth.

The oppression of being on the brink of life and death had been too real. Even though she was now in a safe room, the lingering fear remained.

Lin Xun on the sofa raised his eyes at her words. His dark gaze was calm as he looked at the flustered girl and slowly reassured her:

"It's fine."

"Someone stepped in and saved us."

The tension in Mu Xi's back suddenly eased. Her heart finally dropped from her throat, and all the strength in her taut body drained away at once.

She stared blankly at Lin Xun, her eyes full of confusion.

She had been unconscious the entire time and had no idea what happened afterward.

As far as she knew, they had clearly been trapped in a dead end. Guang Biao's vicious dominance and overwhelming strength were simply beyond anything they could contend with.

How had they suddenly ended up safe and sound in this quiet hotel room?

"Your friends are fine too."

Lin Xun added, putting the girl completely at ease.

But Mu Xi asked doubtfully, "Who saved us? The enforcement team?"

She had not even had the chance to contact her father, so she was deeply puzzled by this sudden turn of events.

Faced with Mu Xi's questioning gaze, Lin Xun gently shook his head. His expression was natural, without the slightest flaw.

He followed her lead and slowly began speaking, spouting nonsense with a perfectly serious expression:

"I don't know."

"That soul power shock came too fast. I didn't react in time either. Everything went black, and I passed out for a few minutes."

Lin Xun spread his hands, wearing just the right amount of confusion, looking exactly like someone still dazed after living through the ordeal.

"By the time I woke up, the alley was already empty."

"You and your friends were all lying on the ground asleep. The people who had surrounded us, along with that mecha, had all vanished into thin air without leaving a single trace."

He looked up at Mu Xi's stunned face and continued in a gentle, unhurried tone:

"I checked everyone over. None of you had any external injuries—you were just knocked unconscious. It wasn't serious. You wouldn't wake up, and I couldn't exactly leave you in some remote alley. It was already past the academy dorm curfew too, so I brought you to a nearby hotel to rest until you woke up."

Mu Xi listened in a daze, her brows knitting slightly as disbelief filled her heart.

"You passed out too?"

The girl murmured instinctively, growing even more confused.

Even Lin Xun had been knocked unconscious?

In those few brief seconds, who had made a move and silently dealt with Guang Biao, a six-ring Soul Emperor, along with all those thugs—while even making the mecha disappear completely?

It definitely wasn't as simple as the law enforcement squad.

If Donghai City's law enforcement squad had acted, there would certainly have been records. Someone would have registered the incident and questioned them. They could not possibly have handled everything and withdrawn without a sound, leaving behind no trace of activity.

Yet Lin Xun's expression was open and natural. He did not look like he was lying in the slightest.

Mu Xi rubbed her throbbing forehead, her mind a complete mess.

Everything about this was strange.

After pondering for a moment, she suppressed the doubts filling her stomach and looked up at the calm, composed boy before her.

No matter what, this disaster had happened today because she had tried to be clever and set up that little act.

Without that mysterious person secretly stepping in, she did not even dare imagine what the consequences might have been.

At that thought, Mu Xi's cheeks grew slightly warm, guilt filling her heart as she spoke softly. "Junior... I'm sorry. I dragged you into this today."

Her mind was still turning over the matter of that mysterious expert, wondering whether she should ask her father to investigate if any reclusive powerhouse had passed through Donghai City recently.

Then her train of thought abruptly stalled.

Hotel. Room. Bed. She was sitting on the bed, while Lin Xun sat on the sofa.

The curtains were half drawn, and it was already dark outside.

There were only the two of them in the room.

"Wait." Mu Xi's voice suddenly changed pitch. "The two of us are in a hotel right now?"

"Mm."

"You brought me here to get a room?"

"That sounds ambiguous." Lin Xun leaned back against the sofa, his tone still lazy. "You passed out, and the dorm curfew had already passed. I couldn't just leave you in an alley. This hotel was the closest, so I got a room nearby for you to rest in. The front desk handled all the paperwork, and there are security cameras too. Everything's aboveboard."

"Asshole! Even so, you can't just bring a girl to a hotel room! What if someone we know saw us? Wouldn't that be the end of us..."