"No, absolutely not! I am a married woman in name, and his elder besides. How could I engage in such illicit intimacy, joining yin and yang as husband and wife?!"
Cai Mei'er nearly bit through her lower lip, but as soon as the boy's tall, handsome figure and those eyes surfaced in her mind, her firm resolve quietly began to dissolve without her realizing it.
"But that child was only dragged into this because he wanted to save Xiaotao. At heart, he is a heaven-blessed genius who values affection and loyalty..."
"If it truly came to a desperate, life-or-death moment when I had no choice but to save him..."
Her face burned as though it were about to melt, and her shapely body trembled slightly as Cai Mei'er told herself in utter shame:
"A-at worst, I simply wouldn't let him actually have his way... I could use... use my hand... or some other method to give him proper relief. Surely that would still save his life..."
Whoosh!
Just as Cai Mei'er, her mind filled with these mortifying thoughts, hurriedly landed outside the little courtyard of the Purple Bamboo Residence.
A stunning figure with an exceedingly seductive body strolled lazily toward her beneath Cai Mei'er's astonished gaze.
It was none other than Ma Xiaotao!
At that moment, Ma Xiaotao radiated a clear, rosy glow from head to toe, as though thoroughly nourished, and her face brimmed with unmistakable traces of passion!
Boom!
At the sight, Cai Mei'er felt as though she had suffered a crushing blow. Her mind went completely blank!
That appearance...
A young man and woman alone together in one room for an entire night...
Could those two hot-blooded youngsters really have crossed that line last night and enjoyed the pleasures of fish and water?!!
For some reason, along with her shock, an immense surge of bitter jealousy that even Cai Mei'er herself had never anticipated spread wildly from the depths of her heart like a tide. Her chest tightened, and an indescribable sense of hurt resentment and embarrassed anger welled up toward the black-clad boy who had left!
You little bastard! I was so worried about your safety that I couldn't eat or sleep, and nearly threw propriety and shame to the winds. And you? You turned around and devoured Xiaotao whole, enjoying a full night of amorous pleasure!!
"Oh? Dean Cai? You've come rushing over so early in the morning. Were you worried that your precious young lover would explode and die?"
Ma Xiaotao also noticed Cai Mei'er standing rigidly at the courtyard gate. Her phoenix eyes brightened. How could she fail to guess what was on the vice dean's mind?
An exceedingly suggestive, wicked smile curled her lips. With light, graceful steps, she approached Cai Mei'er, looked the beautiful woman's somewhat disheveled collar up and down, and laughed:
"Hehe, Dean Cai, you have no idea. Last night, that little bastard couldn't stop thinking about you!"
"Xiaotao! You... stop talking nonsense, you shameless little wretch!"
With her feelings exposed to her face, Cai Mei'er's resentment instantly transformed into overwhelming embarrassment. Her cheeks flushed as though aflame, and she hurriedly rebuked her.
"Hehehe, how am I talking nonsense?"
Ma Xiaotao leaned close to Cai Mei'er's ear with a sweet laugh and whispered in a voice only the two of them could hear:
"That little bastard told me everything himself this morning! He said it wasn't impossible to agree to stay at the academy for good, but on one condition: Dean Cai would have to take off her outer robe herself and come to his bed to attend to him properly for a few nights..."
Boom!
Those utterly explicit words sent a tremor through Cai Mei'er's entire body. Her face burned like glowing coals!
Ma Xiaotao narrowed her phoenix eyes slightly, her gaze slowly sweeping over the beautiful woman before her.
When she saw that Cai Mei'er had not flown into a rage, and that her dignified, lovely face had instead flushed like a ripe peach, she could not help feeling somewhat startled.
Naturally, she had made up every word of that bold, explicit nonsense on the spot to fool the vice dean.
And yet...
As she looked at the Vice Dean of the Martial Soul Department, who was normally so dignified and imposing and had always treasured rules and propriety as dearly as her own life, now bashfully biting her red lip with flustered moisture shimmering in her beautiful eyes, Ma Xiaotao's heart gave a jolt. An exceedingly strange look flickered in the depths of her eyes.
"It seems this great dean, usually so pure of heart and free of desire, really has developed such unspeakably outrageous feelings for that little bastard..."
Ma Xiaotao inwardly clicked her tongue and chuckled to herself.
Only after several breaths spent in a daze did Cai Mei'er finally recover from the shock.
She bit her red lip hard, her mature, voluptuous body trembling slightly in the morning breeze. Her beautiful eyes, usually so imposing, were now filled with panic and bashfulness.
"Xiaotao, what you just said... is it really true?!"
Her delicate hands unconsciously clenched the hem of her robe as Cai Mei'er asked in a trembling voice, "That little fellow really... really dared to make such an outrageous, shameless demand?!"
"Oh, my dear dean, this is the sort of thing that could cost me my head! If I weren't absolutely certain, how would I dare make up stories about you so casually?!"
Seeing Cai Mei'er's indecision, Ma Xiaotao showed not the slightest trace of guilt. Instead, she thrust out her ample chest and declared this with righteous conviction.
Then a sly gleam flashed through her eyes. She leaned toward Cai Mei'er's ear and lowered her voice with a teasing half-smile. "If he hadn't told me himself, how would I know that during those jolts high in the sky last night, someone seized on an excuse to burrow desperately into your arms?!"
Boom!
Those words were like a thunderclap from a clear sky, exploding deep inside Cai Mei'er's mind!
"Ah!"
Cai Mei'er cried out involuntarily and stumbled half a step backward. Her dignified face instantly turned scarlet, and almost all the blood in her body seemed to rush to the crown of her head at once!
That indescribable, overwhelming sense of shame left even this powerhouse renowned across the continent weak in the knees.
That intimate scene high in the sky last night was known to heaven and earth, but aside from her and that black-clad boy, no third person could possibly have known about it!
And now, since Ma Xiaotao had laid it bare with a single remark, there could only be one possibility-
That loose-lipped little bastard had personally bragged about every bit of it to Ma Xiaotao while they were in bed!
"That heartless little tormentor! How could he be so reckless, blabbing even about such mortifying bedroom secrets?!"
Cai Mei'er's delicate hands gripped the hem of her robe tightly. Her heart brimmed with shame and anger, yet in the deepest reaches of that anger lurked a strange, secret delight that even she had not noticed...
Beside her, Ma Xiaotao quietly breathed a sigh of relief at Cai Mei'er's loss of composure and patted her chest.
Fortunately, while they were fooling around in bed last night, she had forced that little bastard to loosen his tongue and divulge a few fragments. Otherwise, she really might have failed to make today's lie hold together.
But now that she had driven this normally unapproachable vice dean to such a state, Ma Xiaotao's ingrained penchant for stirring up trouble immediately began itching to act again.
Her phoenix eyes shifted, and a mysterious smile appeared on Ma Xiaotao's gorgeous face. She leaned close once more and lowered her voice. "Dean Cai, that little bastard has very particular tastes. Not only did he say you had to go yourself, but he also has some exceedingly special preferences about the clothes and accessories you should wear when you do..."
Before you continue