After Transmigrating Into a Book, I Was Played by the Black Lotus – Chapter 62

The order isn’t like this.

When Bai Xiying came out, her expression was calm and composed, showing no signs of sadness or any other unusual emotions.

Lin Xingzhu, who had been watching her closely, breathed a sigh of relief.

“Are we going to the place you mentioned next?”

After the two of them got into the car, Lin Xingzhu tilted her head and asked.

A strange light flashed in Bai Xiying’s eyes. She took out her phone, entered the destination for navigation, then placed it on the dashboard and said with a smile, “That’s right, I’ve already booked everything.”

“You still won’t tell me what we’re going to do.”

As she spoke, Lin Xingzhu glanced at the navigation, and her eyes widened slightly. “A resort villa¹?”

Bai Xiying nodded. “Yes. I looked up some guides², and the scenery here is beautiful. More importantly, the hot springs at the villa are said to be excellent.”

Soaking in hot springs, huh.

Lin Xingzhu blinked lightly. “Well, it seems I was lucky to have packed my swimsuit.”

Bai Xiying gave her a look with an unreadable meaning.

“…?” Lin Xingzhu was a little confused.

Bai Xiying didn’t speak in a roundabout way³. “Actually, you can soak in this resort’s hot springs completely. nude.”

“…”

Lin Xingzhu averted her gaze and said calmly, “Oh, is that so.”

But the tips of her ears, hidden beneath her hair, turned slightly red.

The drive wasn’t long, and they arrived at the villa Bai Xiying had mentioned in about an hour.

They were both a little hungry when they arrived. After parking the car and dropping off their luggage, they went to find a restaurant and ordered some of the resort’s local specialties.

As Lin Xingzhu ate, she felt the food was a bit bland, different from her usual diet, but it was still acceptable.

After eating what could barely be called a late lunch, the two returned to their room for a short nap.

Bai Xiying had booked a large suite with two separate bedrooms.

When Lin Xingzhu woke up from her nap, she didn’t get up right away.

She lay with her eyes open, staring at the unfamiliar ceiling above. Her thoughts were a jumble, yet it also felt as if she wasn’t thinking at all, purely the groggy illusion one has after waking up.

But deep down⁴, Lin Xingzhu knew this was no illusion.

It seemed she had nothing left to hesitate about.

After they got up, Bai Xiying suggested they go to the hot springs in the evening, saying that after the soak, they could be completely relaxed and have a pleasant night.

Lin Xingzhu wasn’t sure if the last few words Bai Xiying had emphasized when she spoke held another meaning.

But Lin Xingzhu thought she was just overthinking it.

Even though she was faintly sure that Bai Xiying liked her too, Lin Xingzhu believed they would come to a mutual understanding—the first step was always to confirm their relationship.

In the evening, they strolled around the resort grounds together.

Waterfalls, bamboo groves, small bridges, streams…

The scenery was very healing, especially with the person she liked by her side.

As they crossed a wooden bridge, Bai Xiying said, “A few days ago, I kept thinking about what to do but couldn’t come up with anything. In the end, I decided we should just relax. After all, things have been so chaotic⁵ lately, so I thought a soak in the hot springs would be nice.”

Lin Xingzhu listened to her quietly.

“This is my second time at a hot spring. The first time was for a club team-building⁶ event in college. I was pretty clueless⁷ back then and didn’t know how to enjoy it. I wonder if it will feel different this time.”

Lin Xingzhu said, “It will.”

Bai Xiying turned back with a faint smile. “You guarantee it?”

The question caught Lin Xingzhu off guard, but facing Bai Xiying’s sparkling eyes, she paused for a moment. “…I guarantee it?”

And so, Lin Xingzhu saw Bai Xiying laugh out loud.

She didn’t seem to mind how she answered.

But seeing her so happy, she couldn’t help but smile as well.

By the time they walked all the way back, it was dinnertime.

They casually ordered some food at the same restaurant where they’d eaten earlier. Bai Xiying also ordered an extra dessert. After making sure they were full, the two of them returned to their room to get ready for the hot spring.

As they walked, Bai Xiying added, “I wasn’t lying to you at lunch. The hot spring I booked really can be used completely. nude.”

Lin Xingzhu’s mind uncontrollably started to imagine what she was saying. In just an instant, as if she had accidentally touched something fragile, she quickly reined in her thoughts, suppressing the heat that was rising to her face.

“…I already know,” Lin Xingzhu said seriously. “But I’m still used to wearing something when I soak.”

She prayed that Bai Xiying wouldn’t say anything else that would make her imagination run wild.

As if her prayer had been heard, Bai Xiying seemed a little disappointed. “Alright, since you prefer it that way, I’ll just do the same as you.”

Lin Xingzhu: “…”

So you really planned to be naked from the start, didn’t you?

But Lin Xingzhu didn’t ask the question out loud. She just went back to her room in a proper manner to get what she needed, then stood in the living room waiting for Bai Xiying.

Before they had even begun, she suddenly realized that coming to the hot spring with Bai Xiying might have been an unsuitable choice.

At least, it was for the person she was right now.

The hot spring was actually located within their large suite, so they didn’t really need to go back to their separate rooms to get things; they could have just changed right there.

But Lin Xingzhu, out of some sort of insistence, did so anyway.

However, it was clear that while Lin Xingzhu had such principles, the other one didn’t necessarily share them.

Bai Xiying came out wrapped in a bathrobe.

Lin Xingzhu realized she was already prepared; as soon as the bathrobe was undone, she could get into the pool.

…Help, how did I forget I could have just worn a bathrobe too?

Lin Xingzhu suspected her judgment had been clouded by the yellow waste materials⁸ that frequently popped into her head.

“…Wait for me a moment, I’m going in to change first,” Lin Xingzhu said, slightly embarrassed.

Bai Xiying looked a little surprised, but she was in a good mood and nodded in agreement.

Lin Xingzhu was very quick, coming out a few minutes later wrapped in a matching bathrobe just like Bai Xiying’s.

The moment their bathrobes came off and they were about to get into the pool, Lin Xingzhu’s regret for agreeing to come to the hot spring with Bai Xiying reached its absolute peak.

She stared at Bai Xiying’s three-point bikini⁹, a swimsuit that truly only just barely covered the three essential points, and her mind went completely blank.

It’s white…

Even at a time like this, Lin Xingzhu found that she somehow still had some basic ability to discern things.

If it weren’t for the fact that the fresh, tender cherries hadn’t bloomed, she would have truly suspected that Bai Xiying wasn’t wearing anything at all.

Already submerged in the pool, which was filled with floating rose petals, Bai Xiying blinked her eyes innocently and said, “I promised I’d do the same as you, and I did.”

Lin Xingzhu struggled to tear her eyes away.

Indeed, a bikini made of fabric so thin and scant you could barely piece together a handkerchief from it was, nonetheless, still fabric.

Lin Xingzhu’s fingers trembled. She lowered her head and, with feigned composure, undid the wrapping that was suppressing her reason.

The bathrobe slipped off, revealing that she too was wearing something uncharacteristically sexy.

It was a black one-piece swimsuit, which made her skin look as white as piled snow.

Bai Xiying felt a fire named “reason” ignite in the depths of her eyes, crackling as it burned, completely devouring the already teetering supports.

She bit her lip, desperately restraining the sound that was about to escape her throat.

But her body beneath the water was burning, along with the fire of desire in her heart.

Sinking. down her body, Lin Xingzhu tried her best to keep some distance from Bai Xiying.

She silently chanted in her heart to comfort herself, It’s just a hot spring, just a hot spring, that’s all. I mustn’t get carried away by lust¹⁰, I absolutely must not get carried away.

This is a proper activity, Lin Xingzhu admonished herself in her heart.

But she didn’t know that Bai Xiying had no intention of letting her remain proper.

Bai Xiying glanced at the tense-looking Lin Xingzhu out of the corner of her eye, a faint, almost imperceptible smile gracing her lips, but she said nothing.

After a while, as they settled comfortably into the soak¹¹, Bai Xiying reached for the fruit platter by the side of the pool. She speared a slice of watermelon with a toothpick and then pushed the platter to the space between herself and Lin Xingzhu.

“Have some fruit.”

Lin Xingzhu glanced at the distance and moved a little closer.

Bai Xiying frowned. “Why are you acting as if I’m going to do something to you?”

“…” Lin Xingzhu moved a little closer.

This time, Bai Xiying didn’t say anything more.

Lin Xingzhu avoided the cherries on the platter and casually picked up a peeled orange slice to eat.

As she ate, Lin Xingzhu lowered her gaze, and her long-dormant sharpness slowly began to return.

She glanced at Bai Xiying, whose cheeks were flushed red from the steam, and swallowed, pondering if now was a good time.

She felt the atmosphere was quite suitable.

Before she could think about it too much, Bai Xiying suddenly spoke up again.

“Lin Xingzhu.”

Lin Xingzhu looked up. “Hm?”

Bai Xiying reached out and gathered a few rose petals, saying softly, “I have something I want to tell you.”

“Then say it.”

Bai Xiying wrinkled her nose and gave her a look that was neither light nor heavy, a look of feigned annoyance. “It’s a secret. Can you come a little closer?”

There are only the two of us in this room, what kind of secret can’t be said just like this?

But the thought only flashed through her mind for an instant, and Lin Xingzhu honestly dragged her body closer.

Compared to when they first got in, she had already let down her guard.

A secret smile played on Bai Xiying’s lips.

A little closer, and a little closer still.

Lin Xingzhu stopped moving when there was about two chi¹² of distance between them.

“Say it.”

“Still a little far,” Bai Xiying muttered. Before Lin Xingzhu had time to react, she saw the completely flushed Bai Xiying suddenly pull them closer.

——They were almost pressed right up against each other.

Then, a clap of thunder exploded right next to her ear.

“You like me, don’t you, Lin Xingzhu?”

The bright red lips opened and closed, but Lin Xingzhu felt as if the clap of thunder had left her lost in a silent, deserted realm. She blinked with effort, trying to make out the words from the shape of her mouth.

“I like you too, Lin Xingzhu.”

She seemed to be witnessing a naked confession from the person she adored.

Even at this moment, Lin Xingzhu’s pounding heart and dazed, intoxicated mind could still spare a sliver of thought to marvel at how the two of them were so perfectly in sync.

Sound flooded back into her ears.

Lin Xingzhu blinked slowly, about to pick up where Bai Xiying had left off, to break and reconstruct the boundary that defined them as friends and reshape it into the intimately entwined relationship of a couple.

But in the next second, Lin Xingzhu’s pupils contracted sharply.

The thunderclap landed, and a bolt of lightning struck her brain in its wake!

She saw Bai Xiying reach a hand under the water. The ripples stirred, and then a piece of white fabric was tossed out onto the floor.

That wasn’t all.

Frozen in shock, Lin Xingzhu watched helplessly as Bai Xiying did the same thing again[ef, undoing the clasp behind her back that shackled the snowy peaks¹³.

The cherries she had used to distinguish the boundary between one white and another now appeared before her very eyes.

An ambiguous, lilting voice drifted up leisurely.

“Although I really wanted to do the same as you, I think I still prefer it like this.”

Bai Xiying said, her lips curling into a smile of boundless beauty.

Lin Xingzhu hastily averted her gaze, her intuition screaming that something was wrong.

“Listen to me, we should—” We should establish our relationship first!

The mouth and tongue that were trying to make a sound were stopped by someone else’s.

A body, baptized by the spring water, pressed against hers.

Soft, lotus-root-like arms¹⁴ were like the world’s most fragile yet hardest-to-escape ropes, tightly binding the ascetic who, in defense of morality and reason, wished to flee.

With her eyes covered and her mouth blocked, the only thing Lin Xingzhu could still control—her mind—was on the verge of collapse!

The correct steps aren’t supposed to be like this!!

She hadn’t even finished her lines! After mutually clarifying their feelings, shouldn’t they have confirmed their relationship status, then progressed from hugging to kissing, and then to being intimate?!

Entangled by lips and tongue, Lin Xingzhu was dazed and bewildered, with no idea which step in the process had gone wrong.

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