Psychological Mini-Game

At last, after a period of mutual torment, Ling Tianchen reluctantly handed the still-warm bundle of white stockings back to Ling Luochan, who hung them on a small hook by the entryway.

It was worth mentioning that the pair of jade-like feet revealed when she finally took off her stockings had held his gaze for quite a while.

They had soaked their feet together before, and he had never thought anything of it. Why had it become completely different today?

He pondered it for a moment and decided it was probably because of the long buildup before those feet were revealed.

Wrapped in semi-transparent white stockings, they had appeared and disappeared from view with a shy, half-concealed allure.

The whole process had been like helping a beauty remove all her clothes. What one enjoyed was the gradual progression itself. If she had been bare from the start, much of the charm would have been lost.

Pulling his thoughts away from the earlier sensuality, Ling Tianchen bent down to change into slippers as naturally as if he had returned home.

The instant he slipped his feet into them, he froze.

Why did something feel off? The slippers fit him perfectly—not too big, not too small. Was that right?

Only then did he realize that these were the pair he had worn back in Tianshui City.

"What's going on here?"

He turned to Ling Luochan and asked.

At this point, he still thought his sister had specially bought him an identical pair, though they did not look new.

Ling Luochan's pupils widened slightly, and she immediately raised a hand to smack her forehead in annoyance.

She had checked the entire apartment. How had she missed the most obvious thing?

"Oh, oh, I anticipated something like this happening today, so when I returned to Shrek, I specifically brought a pair of your slippers. Looks like they came in handy."

As she spoke, she gave an awkward laugh, her gaze darting about.

Ling Tianchen fell silent for a moment.

This was far too suspicious. He could not help recalling certain past events at the Ling Residence.

Back at the Ling Residence, some of his clothes would periodically vanish without a trace, and it always happened when Ling Luochan came home on break.

Although his parents' investigations invariably concluded that servants had stolen them to sell for money, he had only half believed it.

His clothes were expensive, sure, but not expensive enough for servants to risk losing their livelihoods or even their lives over them. It was not as though they were high-grade soul tools smuggled in from the Sun Moon Empire.

Fortunately, he owned plenty of clothes. Wearing every outfit only once might have been excessive, but throwing them out after wearing them for just a week was no issue at all.

Losing a few pieces did not affect his daily life, so he had not paid much attention to it. It had simply passed as a minor incident in life.

But now, it seemed things were not so simple.

"Ahem, Sister Luochan, you really are thoughtful."

Though he could not draw a final conclusion based on this alone, he still put a huge question mark in his mind. From now on, he would have to keep an eye on Sister Luochan. She did not seem as innocent as she looked.

Ling Luochan seemed unable to endure the subtle atmosphere either. She hurriedly fled past him, tossing out, "You're hungry, right? I'll go make dinner," before diving headfirst into the kitchen.

Watching her flee in such a hurry, Ling Tianchen secretly shook his head. He hoped it was not what he imagined.

While waiting for the food, he casually looked around the small apartment.

It was not large, but it was clean and tidy, with everything neatly arranged in its proper place.

If she could really clean the room into this state in one minute, then he would admit defeat.

It seemed he had wrongly blamed Sister Luochan before. She had not completely let herself go while living alone.

Of course, he had not forgotten the other mission of this visit: finding the answer to the slipper issue.

He made a circuit around every corner but found nothing suspicious.

Naturally, he would not rummage through private spaces like the wardrobe. That was Sister Luochan's private domain, and he was not a pervert.

The only thing that seemed somewhat out of place was the bookcase.

Several shelves in the bookcase were completely empty, standing in stark contrast to the neatly arranged areas around them.

He leaned closer and lightly ran a fingertip across a shelf. There was no dust.

Clearly, these shelves had been full of books not long ago, only for someone to put them away in advance.

Interesting.

The corner of Ling Tianchen's lips lifted slightly. The books Sister Luochan had hurriedly put away were definitely something strange, weren't they?

Combined with the masterful way she had teased a younger boy with her movements and words at the entryway just now, there could only be one truth!

The books Sister Luochan had hidden had to be dirty books!

It was understandable. Entertainment on the Douluo Continent was extremely limited, so dirty books were surely one of the few pillars that could comfort Sister Luochan's spirit.

Besides, he had no right to criticize anyone. After all, at nineteen, his mind contained even more filthy thoughts than Ling Luochan's.

Ling Tianchen sat on the bed and casually picked up a magazine from the table to pass the time. He happened to flip to the horoscope section.

"Uh, let me see... Libra, found it!"

That was right, his zodiac sign was Libra. Its pronunciation was almost the same as Tianchen, which was quite an unexpected coincidence.

"Let's see... horoscope..." His gaze moved down the text. "Today, the emotions of someone important by your side will undergo subtle changes. This may be a good thing for you, or it may be a bad thing. Everything depends on you..."

"What the hell is this? I can't understand it!" Ling Tianchen tossed the magazine aside with a disdainful expression. "As expected, foreign stuff like horoscopes is all a scam. What does it mean, everything depends on me? It's so ambiguous that it can be explained however they want. It's purely a trick for fooling people."

He lay back on the bed with his hands behind his head, staring blankly at the ceiling.

"Don't dismiss it so quickly. I think it's rather accurate."

At some point, Ling Luochan had already sat beside the bed. She picked up the magazine from Ling Tianchen's hand, then gently lifted his head and placed it on her soft thighs.

"Sister Luochan, are you done cooking?"

"Mm, but before we eat, let's play a little game first. It's from the magazine you just looked down on. It's a psychological test. You only need to answer one question, and I'll be able to clearly understand Tianchen's deeper thoughts."

"Boring. How could something like this possibly reveal what someone is thinking inside?"

Ling Tianchen scoffed, but the sensation of resting his head on her smooth thighs was simply too comfortable. He was so content that he had no intention of getting up at all.

"Don't worry about such little details."

Ling Luochan giggled and flipped to a page she had treasured for a long time. She cleared her throat and read in a serious tone.

"You are walking down a dark road when someone suddenly taps you on the shoulder from behind. Who do you think that person would be?"

"...Uh, let me think."

Ling Tianchen closed his eyes, and a scene unconsciously appeared in his mind:

On a dim path, a small hand gently tapped his shoulder from behind. He turned around to find Ling Luochan standing there, her cheeks slightly flushed as she spoke somewhat shyly. "Tianchen, I'm a little afraid of the dark. Can you carry me back in a princess hold?"

Mm, that suited her perfectly. She definitely wanted to see him panic and blush again, then secretly laugh to herself nearby. What an utterly wicked woman!

He opened his eyes and met Ling Luochan's expectant gaze, unable to stop himself from smiling.

"Then it could only be Sister Luochan."