Don't mess with that Miao boy, he's sickly and perverted.

"Excuse me, is anyone home?"

Chai Xiaomi peered inside through the bamboo fence.

The fence gate was ajar. She called out a few times, but the bamboo house remained quiet, and no one answered for a long time.

This courtyard may seem simple, but it is exquisite in every way.

A bamboo swing hangs in the corner, swaying gently in the wind. In front of the swing are a stone table and benches, with a chessboard carved on the table. At this moment, black and white pieces are clearly distinguished, and an unfinished game of chess is being played.

She stood on tiptoe to take a closer look—it was Go.

She was once enrolled in a Go interest class at school, but she only played it sporadically. However, she had a Go-obsessed father at home.

Whenever he had free time on the weekend, Dad would always drag her out for a few rounds of gaming. The reason was simple: he couldn't beat Mom, but he could easily beat her.

That old man, so cunning and sly.

But then she had a sudden inspiration. When playing chess again, she pretended to be playing on her phone with one hand, but actually secretly opened the chess game interface and set the difficulty to "hell level".

When Dad makes a move, she makes a move on the screen and then copies the AI's move onto the real chessboard.

In the end, he won with such ease and grace, beaming with joy.

"Old Chai, you're so weak." She waved her phone smugly. "I can beat you even while playing on my phone. Go back and practice for a few more years."

At that moment, Chai Xiaomi stared blankly at the chessboard on the stone table.

She was very familiar with this chess position. The famous life-and-death problem "Golden Well Barrier" recorded in the "Mysterious Chess Classic" shows that the black stones are surrounded by an iron wall and copper wall, while the white stones in the corner seem to be in a dead end, but there is a way to live.

She stared at the white piece and whispered, "Second line, point. Make an eye, live."

The murmur had barely faded when the door of the bamboo house creaked open softly.

Chai Xiaomi's eyes lit up, a hint of amazement flashing across them.

The woman who came out was a young woman with a charming and spring-like face. Her bright red dress made her look like a peony, and she exuded an indescribable allure when she looked at people.

But those eyes were clean and clear, revealing a naive innocence that showed no understanding of the ways of the world.

The girl in the red dress looked at the chessboard on the stone table, then slowly raised her gaze to look at Chai Xiaomi.

She smiled broadly, her joy evident in her undisguised liveliness and curiosity: "You know how to solve this chess puzzle? I've been pondering this for days, and I'm stuck here, not knowing which move to make."

As she spoke, she deftly pulled open the bamboo fence gate: "My name is Hongxiao. I was just dozing inside when I vaguely heard someone calling me. I'm sorry I'm late, young lady. Is there anything I can help you with?"

As she got closer, Chai Xiaomi noticed that her skirt, which trailed on the ground, was a bit puffy, as if she had an extra layer underneath. She couldn't help but take another look.

"Hongxiao, you can just call me Xiaomi." Chai Xiaomi smiled. "My husband, my friends, and I were practicing archery by the woods over there. We forgot our water pouches and were so thirsty that we came here to ask for a bowl of water."

She paused, a little embarrassed, and said, "Um... if it's convenient, do you have any food at home? I'll pay for it."

This is, after all, a private residence, not a shop open for business. Borrowing some water is fine, but asking someone to buy food seems a bit presumptuous.

But she was really hungry, and she had already eaten all the snacks she had brought with her, such as red dates and melon seeds.

So she blinked and gave Hongxiao a soft, sweet smile that also had a hint of pitifulness.

Hongxiao looked in the direction she pointed and suddenly froze.

The boy under the tree... isn't he the one who spent the whole night on the roof making a bow?

She turned back and looked closely at the smiling girl in front of her. Suddenly, her memory became clear: this was the girl who had been washing clothes back then.

It turns out they were a couple.

The thought that she almost mistook that boy for a lecherous man amused her.

Hongxiao understood, and her smile became much more genuine. "Come in quickly, there's plenty of water."

She paused, then blushed and said, "However, there's no food."

"It's alright, it's alright, there's enough water, thank you," Chai Xiaomi said gratefully in a low voice.

Hongxiao turned around to get water, and soon returned with a ceramic pot and a bamboo cup.

Just as she handed the item over, the red dragon, which had been lazily perched on Chai Xiaomi's shoulder, suddenly raised its head, opened its mouth wide at Hongxiao, revealing sharp fangs, and hissed as it flicked its tongue.

"Ah!" Hongxiao exclaimed in fright, her hand trembling so much that the pottery pot almost slipped from her grasp and shattered.

Chai Xiaomi reacted quickly, catching the pot in one swift motion. Turning her head, she hissed, "Big Fat Snake! What are you doing?"

The red dragon, startled by her roar, widened its vertical pupils in disbelief. It looked at her, then down at its own snake body, which had indeed become quite plump recently, and its head drooped instantly.

Okay... I have gained a little weight recently.

Because its owner rarely kills anymore, its activity level has also decreased sharply.

It didn't actually intend to do anything.

It just felt that the woman in front of it walked with a slightly unsteady gait and that there was an indescribable strange smell about her. It was just trying to scare her and test her strength.

Besides, why does this woman's name sound so similar to it?

One is "red silk", and the other is "red dragon".

Its snakeskin is truly bright red; she's just wearing a red dress, what's so red about that?

Ugh, just looking at it makes me angry.

Hongxiao stared in horror at the snake on the girl's shoulder and backed away step by step.

When the snake opened its blood-red maw just now, she clearly felt an overwhelming and powerful aura of malevolence.

Unlike the demonic aura emanating from a demon, this malevolent aura seemed to have been forged in an ancient and mysterious forbidden land filled with corpses and blood, imbued with the resentment of countless evil spirits.

She could almost see the desperate faces of countless demons on their deathbeds, churning within that malevolent aura.

How many lives must it have devoured?

A fear originating from the depths of her blood enveloped her, her divine sense trembled violently, and she felt that she was about to lose her human form.

Just as she was about to collapse and reveal her true form, the girl in front of her seemed completely oblivious to the terrifying aura. She simply said "Thank you so much" and then, clutching her kettle and bamboo cup, turned and ran away quickly.

"I'll be back to return it to you in a bit!"

The crisp sound drifted in from outside, but the person had already vanished.

Inside the bamboo house, Hongxiao could no longer hold on; her legs gave way, and she collapsed to the ground.

Red smoke billowed out and instantly transformed into a small, fiery red fox.

*

Chai Xiaomi ran so fast that she was still slightly out of breath when she returned to Wu Li.

Her cheeks were flushed, and her smooth forehead was covered with a fine layer of sweat.

Ignoring her own needs, she carefully poured a little water into the bamboo cup, quickly swirled it to rinse the rim, then poured the water out before refilling the cup and handing it to him: "Drink quickly."

As she performed this series of movements, a tiny bead of sweat quietly gathered on her forehead and slid down.

It hovered right on the tip of her delicate chin.

Crystal clear, it swayed gently with her soft breaths, seemingly about to fall.

Wu Li's gaze involuntarily fixed on that point, staring blankly, feeling an intense dryness in his mouth. He silently took the bamboo cup, tilted his head back, and drank it all in one gulp.

His gaze swept across her chin, then quickly shifted away.

He reached out and took the water bottle from her arms, poured himself a full glass, and gulped it down in one go.

And so, one cup after another, before they knew it, they had drunk five cups.

"Slow down, be careful not to choke," Chai Xiaomi couldn't help but remind him.

Seeing him reach for the sixth cup, she quickly pressed down on the kettle: "Wait a bit before you drink."

Wu Li raised his eyes, his gaze once again focusing on the girl's delicate and petite chin.

The bead of sweat was still there, swaying gently, like a light scratch on the tip of one's heart.

The few glasses of water he had just drunk seemed to have never actually entered his body.

A drier, more parched thirst burned up from deep within my throat.

Was he too thirsty?

I actually thought...

He even wanted to suck that drop of sweat, which was about to fall, into his mouth as well.