Don't Hide It—I Know You're a Girl

Seeing Xiao Xiao flee as if a flood or beast were chasing her, not daring to linger for even a moment, Huo Yuhao waited until she was far away before tapping his bowl with his chopsticks.

"Wang Dong, don't you have anything to say to me?"

"Like what you meant when you said that. Or how we're supposed to keep living at the academy after today gets out."

"Two boys pulling and tugging at each other in public... Good grief, I don't even dare imagine what the academy gossip will turn into tomorrow."

Wang Dong's hand tightened sharply around her chopsticks, her knuckles turning white as they struck the porcelain bowl with a dull tap. She glared at Huo Yuhao, her pink-blue eyes seeming to be covered in frost, though a hint of panicked uncertainty hid beneath it. "What do you mean, pulling and tugging? I was... I was explaining things to you!"

Before she could finish, she got stuck on her own words. She had been the one clutching Huo Yuhao's wrist at the table, the one who had leaned close enough to smell the cool fragrance in his hair. Now that he had called her out, the tips of her ears flushed scarlet as though someone had splashed hot water over them.

The little shop's wooden door was still open a crack, and the wind carried in the noise from outside. It settled between them, making the silence feel even deeper. Seeing her puffed-up anger and evasive gaze, Huo Yuhao sighed helplessly and rubbed his brow. "Wang Dong, I'm not blaming you. But think about it. The people at the academy have sharper eyes than soul tools. Wu Feng and Ning Tian saw us today. The others in this shop saw us too. And Xiao Xiao—did you see how fast she ran just now? Who knows what it'll become by tomorrow—'Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong have an improper relationship,' 'Two boys in a small shop, openly...'"

"Shut up!" Wang Dong slammed a hand on the table, making the remaining soup in the bowl ripple. "You're not allowed to say it!"

Her voice was tight, and the panic in her eyes could not be concealed. In truth, she was more afraid than anyone—afraid of those judgmental stares, afraid people would whisper behind her back that "that pink-haired boy is weird," and even more afraid... afraid Huo Yuhao would start avoiding her because of those rumors.

Looking at Wang Dong's expression, Huo Yuhao did not even need to sense her spiritual fluctuations to know what she was thinking.

With a sigh, he stroked Wang Dong's pink-blue hair. Huo Yuhao knew that now was the time to strike while the iron was hot. "Or, Wang Dong, why did you disguise yourself as a boy and live in the boys' dormitory?"

Wang Dong's body abruptly stiffened as if she had been struck by a paralysis spell. Huo Yuhao's fingertips still rested atop her head, carrying a faint coolness, yet it was hot enough to make the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

She quickly turned her head away. Her pink-blue hair brushed over Huo Yuhao's hand, carrying a flustered panic. "H-Huo Yuhao, what... what are you talking about? Disguising myself as a boy..."

Wang Dong's voice trembled like a fallen leaf in an autumn wind. Even the hand gripping her chopsticks was shaking, her whitened knuckles nearly embedding themselves into the wood. She suddenly lowered her head and stared at the little remaining soup at the bottom of her bowl. Her panicked reflection wavered in it—pink-blue bangs hung down to cover half her face, but the blood-red flush at her ears could not be hidden.

"I... I was born a boy!" she shouted stiffly, though her voice was as weak as paper. "What nonsense are you imagining?"

Before she even finished, she instinctively shrank back against her chair, her shoulders taut as a drawn bow. The spot on her head Huo Yuhao had touched felt like it was on fire, so hot she wanted to crawl beneath the table. How had he seen through her? She had hidden it so well. She deliberately kept her voice low, and even copied the way boys took big strides when they walked...

Huo Yuhao said nothing. He merely picked up the teapot on the table and slowly poured tea into an empty cup. The amber tea swirled within it, steam curling upward and obscuring the look in his eyes. "Is that so?" He gently swirled the cup, his voice calm. "Whenever you bathe, you spend two hours in the bathroom. Every time you come out, you're wrapped up from head to toe. Even when you wash yourself in the dorm, you make me leave—Wang Dong, do boys really need to be this guarded around each other?"

"Also, you always carry a faint fragrance around with you. Boys generally don't smell like that."

Wang Dong lifted her chin. "That still doesn't prove I'm not a boy! What you said may be rare, but it's not like no boys are like that."

Seeing how stubbornly she was digging in her heels, Huo Yuhao suddenly laughed.

Wang Dong immediately punched Huo Yuhao. "What are you laughing at?"

Seeing her react so fiercely, Huo Yuhao stopped smiling and looked at her seriously. "I found a book about martial souls in the academy library. It was about the Light Goddess Butterfly. Is there anything you want to say?"

Wang Dong's thoughts were a tangled mess. "What's wrong with the Light Goddess Butterfly? Can't a boy possess the Light Goddess Butterfly?"

Watching Wang Dong remain stubborn to this extent, Huo Yuhao felt utterly speechless. He had practically laid it all out in her face—what was there left to hide?

Oh, right. Wang Dong's mind was basically blank right now. She probably did not know the information about the Light Goddess Butterfly either.

After thinking it over, Huo Yuhao decided to tell Wang Dong directly about the Light Goddess Butterfly.

Huo Yuhao picked up the teapot and refilled the empty cup before Wang Dong. Amid the misty steam, his voice became more solemn. "That book said the Light Goddess Butterfly is an ultimate soft-attribute martial soul. In records spanning thousands of years, no male Soul Master has ever awakened this martial soul."

Wang Dong's fingers tightened sharply around the cup's handle, her knuckles turning white. Droplets along the rim fell onto the tablecloth, soaking out a small wet patch. "T-then the records are incomplete!" she retorted stiffly, though her voice was far lower than before. "Maybe there were some in the past, but they just weren't recorded!"

"Is that so?" Huo Yuhao lifted his eyes, his gaze falling on her faintly trembling shoulders. "The book also recorded that the Light Goddess Butterfly is not inherited through bloodlines. It only awakens in the most beautiful girl on the continent."

Wang Dong's face instantly burned bright red, the flush spreading from her cheeks to her ears and even coating her neck in a thin pink hue. Her hand clenched the cup's handle, her fingertips warming the cool porcelain. Droplets slid down over her fingers and fell onto her wrist, cool against her skin, yet they could not suppress the little spark of sweetness rising in her heart.

The most beautiful girl?

She instinctively looked up and met Huo Yuhao's smiling blue eyes. They seemed to hold scattered starlight, and her heartbeat skipped a beat. But in the next instant, reason washed over her like ice water—No! This is a trap! Huo Yuhao is saying it on purpose!

"Y-you, what nonsense are you talking about?" Wang Dong abruptly lowered her head, staring at the tea leaves drifting at the bottom of her cup. Her voice stuttered, and her rebuttal was far less convincing than before. "Can you trust what's written in books? Maybe some bored scholar just made it up! I-I'm not..."

"Oh?" Huo Yuhao drew out the word, lightly tapping the table with his fingertips. "Then why did you blush just now?"

"Who blushed?!" Wang Dong snapped her head up, her pink-blue eyes wide like those of a puffed-up little beast. "It's... it's too stuffy in here! It's hot!" As she spoke, she deliberately shifted her chair aside to put some distance between them. But as she stood, she accidentally knocked over an empty wine bottle beneath the table. It clattered loudly through the quiet shop.

She hurriedly bent down to set it upright. Her hair fell forward, covering half her face, but the exposed tips of her ears were red enough to bleed. Huo Yuhao reached out to help her steady the bottle, his fingertips brushing over the back of her hand. The faint coolness made Wang Dong jerk her hand back as though burned, nearly knocking over the bottle she had just righted.

"So clumsy." Huo Yuhao chuckled softly as he put the bottle back in place. His gaze settled on her trembling shoulders, and his tone softened. "Dong'er, you don't need to be so nervous."

That name again!

It felt as if a feather had lightly tickled Wang Dong's heart. She abruptly straightened, grabbed the chopsticks from the table, and struck Huo Yuhao's arm with them, though the force was no more than a scratch. "Don't call me that! My name is Wang Dong! Dong, as in the boy's name!"

"Fine, fine, Wang Dong." Huo Yuhao laughed as he dodged, though the tenderness in his eyes could not be hidden. "What are you worried about? Are you afraid that once your identity as a girl is exposed, I'll turn into a beast in the middle of the night? Or are you reluctant to leave me because exposing your identity means you'll have to change dormitories?"