Admit it, you're mad with jealousy

A bath?!

Together?

Xuan Jia went rigid, his face rapidly filling with disbelief and boundless panic.

"Xin Lan... could you..."

He instinctively opened his mouth to beg her not to keep that promise, but when the words reached his lips, he couldn't bring himself to continue.

Because he had no right.

He wasn't even Xin Lan's guardian sentinel. How could he ask that of her?

But he still couldn't accept it.

If only he had behaved himself earlier, Xin Lan would have been very interested in him.

At least tonight, she would never have thought of playing this game with Wu Xi.

"...Xin Lan."

He stared at the countdown on the screen with trembling lips, his peach blossom eyes gradually reddening and glistening with tears.

Wu Xi, meanwhile, had entered the final stretch.

Though pushing his body to its limits was painful and his limbs ached terribly, he had eyes only for the reward.

A bath!

Getting completely naked and taking a bath with Xinbao!

Maybe I can even hold Xinbao!

Ahhh!

Go! Even if it kills me, it'll be worth it!

Wu Xi gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and powered through, finally finishing the last few push-ups in one burst.

"The countdown has ended. Congratulations, Commander Wu Xi. You completed three thousand push-ups in a total of thirty-nine minutes and fifty-six seconds."

At Fuxi's announcement, his arms went weak almost instantly, and he wanted to collapse onto his stomach.

But the thought of bathing with Xin Lan soon filled him with energy again, as though he'd been injected with chicken blood. Even his face, which had grown somewhat too pale from forcing himself to keep going, flushed considerably with excitement.

"Ahhh! Xinbao, I finished! I actually did it! I can't normally do anywhere near that many. It must be because you purified my Mental Landscape today that I could return to my peak! Love you to death, hehe!"

Infected by his unmistakable joy, Xin Lan smiled, stepped down from his back, and kicked him. "Look at you."

Wu Xi immediately hugged her foot and happily rubbed against it again and again, not caring at all that someone on the other end of the video was watching with red eyes.

"Xinbao, let's go take a bath~ I couldn't give it my all this afternoon because it wasn't convenient. Once I'm holding you in my arms, I promise I'll give your whole body a good, comfortable massage, so you'll fall asleep as soon as you touch the bed after your bath."

"Xin Lan... we..."

Seeing the guide he wanted with his own eyes, her foot held by another sentinel as the two interacted so intimately and naturally, Xuan Jia grew so jealous that his eyes turned red and his breathing quickened.

He swallowed dryly and called Xin Lan's name again, still wanting to talk to her.

But Xin Lan only glanced back at him before turning all her attention to Wu Xi again.

"Let's go. I'm a little sleepy anyway. I'll get a good night's sleep after the bath. I have work tomorrow."

Wu Xi quickly nodded like a puppy. "Mm-hmm! It really is getting late, so let's not waste time on irrelevant people. I'll carry you to the bathroom, okay, Xinbao?"

Without saying yes or no, Xin Lan held out her hands to him. Wu Xi immediately bent down, happily scooped her up in his arms, and spun her around several times.

"That's great! Xinbao really is the best guide in the whole world! I'll be your good little bear for the rest of my life! I'll bathe you and massage you forever!"

His proud, delighted voice mingled with Xin Lan's cool yet indulgent laughter as the two quickly moved from the bedroom to the bathroom.

The bathroom was some distance from the bedroom, so Xuan Jia couldn't see what was happening in there at all. He could only hear the occasional rustle of clothes falling to the floor and the splash of water as the two entered the tub.

For the first time, he hated being such a high rank and having such good hearing.

He didn't want to listen at all, but no matter how he covered his ears, he could still easily hear the laughter and increasingly intimate sounds coming from the other end of the video.

"Plip."

On the screen no one was paying attention to, a tear like a little white pearl slipped silently down the handsome young man's cheek. It hung from his chin for less than a second before falling heavily onto the clean, tidy white desk with its futuristic design, bursting into a transparent splash.

Xuan Jia braced himself against the desk, his head lowered. He couldn't bear to look or listen anymore, yet he didn't want to hang up just like that.

If he hung up, they might truly have no reservations left, and might even form a physical link that very night.

But he really couldn't bear to keep listening to what was happening on the other end.

After enduring it for a long while, the tears drying on his face and making it sting and itch, Xuan Jia finally thought of the quickest solution.

He quickly found Mo Xiao's Star Network ID in the database and sent him a request.

"Mo Xiao, are you dead? If you don't find a way to stop them, Xin Lan and Wu Xi are going to form a physical link. Do you know that?"

Mo Xiao accepted his request quickly.

It was the first time the two brothers had added each other's Star Network IDs to "chat" in all their years, but neither liked a single word the other said.

Mo Xiao: "You can get red-eye disease even from that far away?"

Xuan Jia: "They're soaking in the same bathtub right now. Have you ever bathed with her? You're not jealous?"

Mo Xiao: "What does them forming a physical link have to do with you?"

Xuan Jia: "What do you think? Death smiley face.jpg"

Mo Xiao didn't reply again.

He was in the bedroom directly beneath Xin Lan's room on the ninety-first floor, lying on the bed she had slept in before.

The scent of Xin Lan's Guide Pheromones still lingered on the bed, the fresh, delicate fragrance of lily of the valley.

He had deliberately kept the robot from cleaning it.

Because this was the only way he could be close to her after being 'left behind.'

He had long known that Xuan Jia wouldn't make a special trip here just to persuade Xin Lan to go to District K1, but he had still underestimated Xuan Jia's speed.

Since Xuan Jia knew what Xin Lan and Wu Xi were doing, presumably he and Xin Lan were still on a video call, but she had left him hanging.

Normally, though, Xin Lan wouldn't do that. She seemed to like Xuan Jia's type of looks; that had been apparent from their second meeting.

So Xuan Jia could only have done something wrong, and she was punishing him this way.

In that case, it was even less appropriate for Mo Xiao to get involved. If he made her angry again, forget bathing with her—he probably wouldn't even get to touch her hand in the future.

"Damn it, isn't Mo Xiao worried at all?"

Xuan Jia waited a long time, but Mo Xiao never came knocking to intervene. Instead, after giving Xin Lan a comfortable massage, Wu Xi deliberately wrapped her in a bath towel and carried her out of the bathroom.

"Tsk, why is this video still connected? What a nuisance."

When Wu Xi saw that the screen in the bedroom was still lit, the ease and satisfaction on his face were instantly replaced by cold hostility.

He gently laid the sleeping Xin Lan back on the bed and covered her with the quilt, then adjusted the towel around his waist and went over to the screen just like that.

The two bare-chested men silently looked at each other for two seconds. Wu Xi gave a disdainful snort and was the first to provoke him.

"Administrator, did you enjoy listening to our private talk? Staying up in the middle of the night, stripping to seduce her and eavesdropping on other people bathing-do you want to be my Xinbao's exclusive sentinel that badly? I suggest you have some shame. My Xinbao hates sentinels who pester her relentlessly and don't observe male virtue most of all."

Xuan Jia had long been prepared to hear him boast and provoke him, so his expression didn't change. Instead, seeing with his own eyes that Xin Lan was already asleep finally put him completely at ease.

"What do you mean, 'your Xinbao'? You bathed with her and still couldn't become her exclusive sentinel. How do you have the nerve to talk about me?"

He sneered, sweeping his gaze over Wu Xi from head to toe, and said mockingly,

"I think she sees you as nothing more than a child and doesn't consider you a normal man at all. At least she's interested in my body, but you, heh heh..."

"I think you're the one who should reflect on whether some part of you looks like a child's, which is why even at a time like this, Xin Lan can't work up any sexual interest in you."