Yang Shan left in a whirlwind, like a typhoon sweeping through, leaving behind a room in disarray, the lingering smell of grilled meat and beer, and... a "leftover problem" that made Luo Li's scalp prickle.
Silence returned to the living room, but the atmosphere was even more delicate than before.
Castorice remained seated beside Luo Li, without immediately returning to her room.
She tilted her head slightly, her long silver-purple hair slipping from her shoulder. Pure, persistent curiosity glimmered in her purple eyes, focused on the term that had puzzled her earlier.
"Luo Li," she began softly, breaking the silence, "what does... 'sister-in-law' mean?"
Luo Li: "!!!"
He knew he wouldn't escape this!
His newly relaxed nerves instantly tightened again, and he felt his cheeks heating up at a visible rate.
"Well... it's..." His gaze wandered as he stammered, his mind racing to find an explanation that would make things clear without making him seem too "full of ulterior motives."
"It's a kind of... uh, term we use here for the... female friend of someone we're really close to!" Luo Li squeezed out an explanation riddled with holes, then wanted to slap himself as soon as he finished.
What kind of nonsense was that?!
Castorice was clearly unconvinced by this vague explanation.
She blinked her purple eyes, her long lashes fluttering like butterfly wings, and pressed on with an innocence born of unfamiliarity with the world, each question striking Luo Li right in the heart. "A female friend? Like... us?
"But why did he only call me 'sister-in-law,' and not call you... something similar?"
Luo Li felt as though these innocent questions were about to back him into a corner.
He took a deep breath. Knowing he couldn't bluff his way through, he could only steel himself and explain as simply and indirectly as possible. "'Sister-in-law'... specifically refers to a kind of... closer relationship."
Not daring to look into Castorice's eyes, he stared at the empty beer can in front of him, his voice growing quieter. "Usually, it means... a man's younger brother's... wife. Or it's a teasing name close buddies use for... their friend's girlfriend."
By the time he finished the last word, Luo Li felt even the bases of his ears had turned scarlet.
The air seemed to freeze for a few seconds.
Castorice quietly digested this information.
"A younger brother's wife... girlfriend..." She softly repeated those key terms, matching them one by one to scenes from the romance movies she had watched.
Those male and female leads who called each other "husband," "wife," and "darling"... was this "closer relationship" what they shared?
So, in that person's eyes, she and Luo Li... had that sort of relationship?
That realization was like a stone dropped into a calm lake, sending layers of unfamiliar ripples through her heart.
A belated blush also spread over her cheeks, delicate and lovely as peach petals in early spring.
She secretly raised her eyes toward Luo Li beside her, who looked ready to squeeze himself into the gap between the sofa cushions.
His face was turned aside, his smooth jawline drawn a little taut. His ears were so red they looked ready to drip blood, and even his neck was faintly pink.
Was he... feeling shy?
Because of her?
A strange feeling, mingling shyness, confusion, and a trace of indescribable sweetness and warmth, quietly spread through her heart.
She recalled how Luo Li had looked after her all these days, his clumsy but sincere concern, the warm support in the movie theater that had almost been an embrace, and his embarrassment when his friend questioned him earlier, as though he wished he could vanish on the spot...
If... it were with him...
Castorice felt her heartbeat inexplicably quicken a little, and her fingertips curled unconsciously.
"(⊙o⊙) Wow! Master! The pretty lady's blushing! Did she understand? Is she interested in you? Strike while the iron's hot!" Xiao Hong bounced around excitedly in the mental space.
Shut up! Luo Li roared inwardly. This Memory Spirit really couldn't resist making a spectacle even messier.
He mustered his courage and sneaked a sideways glance at Castorice, catching the lovely blush on her face and her slightly evasive gaze.
At that moment, Luo Li felt as though something had gently bumped his heart, leaving it aching and tingling.
He forced himself to calm down. He couldn't panic, and he couldn't take advantage of her vulnerable position.
He cleared his throat, trying to dissolve the ambiguous, awkward atmosphere with a light, even slightly teasing tone, as though also making a declaration to his restless heart:
"Ahem... well, Castorice, don't get the wrong idea." He turned his head, doing his best to make his expression look natural and upright.
"Yang Shan's just got a foul mouth and likes talking nonsense. Don't take it to heart."
He paused, as though emphasizing something, or reiterating it to himself. He deliberately raised his voice a little, with a hint of protesting too much:
"I help you and look after you because you're all alone here with no one to rely on, and I can't bear to watch that. I absolutely don't have any other improper thoughts!"
He waved his hands vigorously, looking at Castorice with "sincere" eyes. "I'm not lusting after your body! Don't worry!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Luo Li wanted to slap himself again.
Wasn't that fucking protesting too much?! It sounded even more suspicious!
Sure enough, at his words, a deeper trace of confusion flickered through Castorice's purple eyes.
Lusting after... her body?
She instinctively looked down at her body in its loose pajamas, then raised her eyes to Luo Li's "righteous" expression, even as his entire neck flushed red.
In the culture of Amphoreus as she knew it, there didn't seem to be a term that expressed a certain desire so... directly.
But combining Luo Li's extremely unnatural behavior with his earlier explanation of "intimate relationships," she seemed... vaguely to understand a little?
Did he mean that he wasn't helping her because... he wanted that sort of "closer relationship" with her?
For some reason, at that possibility, the newly budding, faintly sweet ripples in Castorice's heart seemed to pause for an instant, giving rise to a trace of disappointment so faint that even she didn't notice it.
But she soon suppressed that strange feeling and nodded gently, her voice regaining its usual ethereal quality, though the ends of her words seemed a little softer than usual. "Mm, I understand. Thank you, Luo Li."
She stood and tugged at her slightly wrinkled pajamas. "I'll... go back and rest."
"Huh? Oh, okay. Good night," Luo Li hurriedly replied, letting out a long breath of relief inwardly, though he vaguely felt something wasn't quite right.
Only after watching Castorice quietly return to her room and gently close the door did Luo Li completely collapse onto the sofa. He pressed the back of his hand against his burning forehead, feeling as though he had endured a mental marathon.
"(`皿´) Master! You're such an idiot! A huge idiot!" Xiao Hong stamped in anger in the mental space. "That was such a good opportunity! How could you say something like that! The pretty lady definitely got the wrong idea!"
"What wrong idea? I was clearing things up!" Luo Li stubbornly insisted.
"(￣﹏￣;) Clearing things up, my ass! That reaction, those words, you were obviously feeling guilty! Protesting too much! Based on my analysis of the vast number of human romance memories I've absorbed, that behavior is called being a 'tsundere'! It's a major obstacle on the conquest route!"
"Get lost! What would a Memory Spirit know?!" Luo Li snapped in embarrassment.
"(◞‸◟ ) Hmph! Ignore your elders' advice, and you'll suffer before your eyes! Just keep walking your 'upright' path! Let's see when you'll finally get past that last one-point-something percent!"
Xiao Hong angrily fell silent.
Luo Li lay alone on the sofa, staring at the ceiling, yet his mind involuntarily replayed Castorice's flushed cheeks and slightly evasive gaze.
Did he... really not want to?
The answer seemed to be no.
But he was even more afraid.
Afraid that rushing things would frighten her and destroy the hard-won warmth and closeness they now shared.
Afraid that the suspicion of "lusting after her body" would taint his desire to protect her.
He silently repeated that sentence, which had already become his guiding principle, as though doing so could suppress the restless seedling called "desire" in the depths of his heart.
Yet that seedling's roots seemed to have sunk deeper without his noticing.
Meanwhile, back in her room, Castorice leaned against the cold door without immediately going to sleep.
She raised a hand and gently touched her still-warm cheek, her purple eyes looking somewhat hazy in the darkness.
"Lusting after... my body..."
She softly repeated the unfamiliar phrase, yet what appeared before her eyes was Luo Li's gaze, especially bright with embarrassment, and the way he had pretended to be calm despite being terribly nervous.
This person... really was... strange.
She walked to the window and gazed out at the starless night sky shrouded in Blood-Erosion Clouds. The lake in her heart, once frozen by her prophetic dream, seemed to have had a warm stone dropped into it.
The ripples were faint, but they continued to spread.
[Ding! The host and the target, 'Castorice,' had a subtle exchange regarding the definition of an 'intimate relationship.' Although it did not directly increase affection, it successfully planted a seed of deeper contemplation in the target's heart and further reinforced the pattern of 'natural interaction.'] [(Emotional foundation continuing to strengthen...)]