Just Likes Watching Men Cry

Xin Lan felt as though she suddenly understood the appeal of fluffy creatures, even if she might only understand it for this one. The soft sensation really did put her in a good mood.

Without warning, just as delight appeared on Wu Xi's face and he was about to ask her, a powerful surge of mental power rushed into his Mental Landscape.

It was a frigid glacier strewn with the foul-smelling carcasses of animals.

All around the fractured ice were animal corpses eroded by black filth. Their shapes were no longer recognizable, and they looked utterly disgusting.

Wu Xi's Spirit Body also seemed to be on the verge of death. It lay dying on a sheet of ice that was about to melt, letting the black filth beneath the water crawl over it as though it were alive.

Xin Lan felt that looking at it for too long would make her sick, so she quickly enveloped every bit of black filth she could see with her mental power and purified it. She left only after she saw the spotless polar bear sit up again.

"Oh my god! Miss Guide, my Mental Landscape feels unbelievably clean! Did you actually help me bring my Rampage Level down to zero? Aaaah! I'm going to love you to death! Boohoo! This feels so good, so comfortable. I've never felt this comfortable or relaxed in my life!"

The moment she came out, she heard Wu Xi yapping.

Xin Lan stood up and gave his ear a sharp twist.

"Now that you feel good, why aren't you getting a bath towel to dry me off? Do you want me to bloat up like a corpse?"

Wu Xi yelped in pain and immediately scurried off to fetch a bath towel. He wrapped it around her and carefully dried her off.

But the emotions he had been able to control suddenly became impossible to suppress, perhaps because the deep link just now had been too intense.

After drying her upper body, his legs nearly gave out. He dropped to his knees and hugged her legs.

"Miss Guide, I really can't take it anymore. I like you so much, so much I'm going crazy. Please, will you let me hold you for a little while? Just a little while, I..."

As he spoke, he suddenly choked up. Then, as though emotions bottled up for too long had all come crashing down, he clung to her legs and burst into loud sobs.

Xin Lan: ...

"Get up."

She kicked him expressionlessly.

But the feeble kick not only failed to push him away, it made him push his luck and hold on even tighter, as if he wanted to bury his whole head between her legs.

"Just a little while, boohoo, please, Xinbao, just a tiny hug!"

"Waaah—I was always so jealous that Chi Ming could call you Lanlan so affectionately. Miss Guide, I want to call you something more affectionate too, waaah..."

"Hic... Boohoo, can I call you Xinbao from now on? Wu Xi's favorite Baby Xinxin, Xinbao for short. Can I call you Xinbao? A Xinbao only I can call you~ I like you so much, Xinbao..."

Xin Lan rolled her eyes: ...

Fuck!

This stupid bear really did seem to have gone mad.

If she'd known, she wouldn't have purified so much for him. She'd purified him so thoroughly in one go that she'd turned him into a pure idiot.

"Get up. Don't make me say it a third time."

She gave him another kick, her face cold.

This time, Wu Xi finally recovered a little sense and immediately let go.

But his wet gray eyes were still filled with passionate, surging affection for her, as though he wanted to etch her image into his body and soul.

Those emotions came across with extraordinary speed and intensity in the enclosed space.

Xin Lan, however, felt no stirrings in her heart. She was just a little taken with his appearance as a crybaby bear.

It might not sound very nice, but she seemed to really enjoy watching men cry.

Especially those who looked good doing it.

When Chi Ming cried, he was a tough guy shedding tears. When Yu Yuan cried, he was restrained and reserved. Wu Xi's crying was a little exaggerated, but his emotions were the most direct and passionate. He acted coquettishly and hugged her legs, great big tears rolling down his face. He really was just like the stupid bear in his Mental Landscape.

He was so big, yet he sat on the floor looking pitiful.

He was rather endearing.

"Stop crying and go to sleep."

Xin Lan left the bathroom first. When she reached the door, she turned her head and glanced back at him.

"Remember to wash yourself clean before getting into bed."

Wu Xi, who was slumped on the floor and crying buckets because he thought she hated him: ?!!!

Holy shit!

Xinbao wasn't angry, and she hadn't forbidden him from calling her that!

She'd even told him to get into bed and sleep with her!

Aaaaaah!

He nimbly sprang to his feet, quickly rinsed his whole body clean and put on a bathrobe, then ran out grinning from ear to ear, beside himself with joy.

"Xinbao? I'm all clean and smell nice now~"

Afraid that Xin Lan had already fallen asleep, he didn't dare call out too loudly.

But Xin Lan wasn't asleep at all.

She'd wanted to sleep; her eyelids had been drooping with exhaustion earlier.

But the stupid bear had cried his heart out at the top of his lungs, and any sleepiness she had was long gone.

"Come here."

Leaning against the bed, she patted the spot beside her.

Wu Xi pressed his lips together, his heart racing and his hands trembling with excitement. He launched himself onto the bed and burrowed into her arms, rubbing against her eagerly.

"Boohoo, Xinbao, you're so good to me! I'll serve you for the rest of my life, until I die."

"No, wait! I can't die. If I die, I won't be able to hold Xinbao like this anymore. Boohoohoo, I'll live to be a hundred and die for love after Xinbao dies. That way, Xinbao won't have to suffer~"

He seemed more emotional after the deep link. Or perhaps, because he no longer had to spend extra energy suppressing his rampaging Mental Landscape, he had nowhere to expend all his energy, and it all turned into tears. The moment he burrowed into her arms, he couldn't stop crying.

Afraid he'd soak her clothes with his tears, Xin Lan pushed his face away in distaste.

Wu Xi obediently moved away, but he remained beside her on his knees, looking up at her with red-rimmed eyes.

"Xinbao~"

He blinked, his face full of happiness and pure affection, as though simply calling her name so fondly could make him happy enough to die.

Xin Lan lowered her eyes to his bathrobe, which hung open at the chest, and raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you wearing clothes to sleep?"

Wu Xi froze for a moment, then stripped naked and lay down at lightning speed. "I'm not wearing anything now, Xinbao. Can we cuddle now? I really want to hold you while I sleep~"

He opened his arms of his own accord, and Xin Lan was instantly dazzled by his large, pale pectorals.

She pressed them. They felt as good as she'd expected, though different from Chi Ming's. Chi Ming's were springier, while his were softer.

Xin Lan was delighted. She immediately lay on top of him, snuggling and rubbing against him.

Wu Xi's entire body went stiff: ...

Wait!

Why does this feel like I just dropped a rock on my own foot?

Being held by Xinbao felt great, of course, but he could look and not touch. Wouldn't he be unable to sleep all the same?

Sure enough, Xin Lan paid him no mind and fell asleep within a few breaths.

Meanwhile, he stood at attention, not the least bit sleepy, and could only stare at the clouds moving slowly across the ceiling.

That continued until Xin Lan had slept a full two hours.

"Hm? You didn't sleep?"

Perhaps because the massage had been so thorough, Xin Lan didn't feel very sore when she woke up.

Wu Xi, on the other hand, didn't look very well.

His face was even a little pale.

"It's okay, Xinbao. I'm not sleepy."

Not sleepy after going a whole day and night without sleep?

Xin Lan gave him a look that said he was fucking impressive, then got straight out of bed and left.

Wu Xi took a deep breath and lay sprawled on the bed, calming himself for quite a while longer before reluctantly leaving her room.

Just then, Yun Jin and Cang Leng had returned together from a mission.

Both men wore deep frowns, and their clothes were covered in bloodstains. Clearly, the mission hadn't gone very smoothly.

But their attention was entirely on Wu Xi, who was tiptoeing out of Xin Lan's room.

"Holy shit, Wu Xi, look at you! Miss Guide accepted you?"

Cang Leng hurried over and asked in a low voice, his eyes full of envy and regret.

"If I'd known, I would've applied to accompany Miss Guide during her workout today too. Maybe..."

"It wouldn't have helped if you had. I got Xinbao to accept me through my own ability."

Wu Xi walked away with a proud look on his face. When he saw that Xin Lan had finished eating, he hurried over to fawn on her again. "Xinbao~"

A vein on Chi Ming's forehead throbbed.

Yun Jin also wore a conflicted expression as he turned and went back to his room in disbelief.

Only Wu Xi saw nothing overly cloying about his behavior. He sat beside Xin Lan and eagerly kneaded and massaged her shoulders, fawning over her so much that it was almost painful to watch.

Xin Lan didn't turn him down, though. She just kept tapping away on her wristband.

Seeing that she hadn't enabled privacy mode or sent him away, Wu Xi worked up the nerve to lean over and take a look. "Xinbao, what are you doing?"

Xin Lan ignored him and continued sending messages to someone else. After she was done, she backed out and checked another new message before turning off her wristband.

Expensive wristbands all had privacy functions. Ordinary ones could hide every screen that popped up from the wristband, while high-end ones could even hide video screens, so that someone standing nearby couldn't see the person on the other end.

But Xin Lan's wristband clearly didn't have that function. It was hard to say whether she'd deliberately left it off or the wristband itself lacked the feature.

Wu Xi had been about to ask her about it, but his sharp eyes soon spotted that the person she'd just messaged was Xuan Jia.

And the other person who had sent her a message actually had a special contact name!

It even said "Baby Yilai"!

Fuck!

Who was this person?