Medeili hesitated to take a single step forward.
Inside the greenhouse, the black-haired girl was practically glowing, looking like a priceless night pearl or a goddess descended from the heavens. Her beauty was already staggering, but with the added effects of a level-three beauty filter and skin-smoothing, the impact on Medeili’s young heart was devastating.
In an instant, a sense of inferiority welled up from the depths of her soul. The girl before her was a swan drifting in the clouds, while she was nothing but a toad in a mud pit.
Medeili clenched her fists, huffing and puffing as she hopped in place, her hair fluttering up and down with her movements.
“I—I’m a little rich girl!” she suddenly shouted, a phrase so embarrassing her face turned bright red. Shivering, she repeated it again, “Wang Yue said so! I’m a little rich girl, so I’m worthy of her!”
The words felt more like a desperate excuse she had cooked up for herself.
Once she said it, however, her resolve hardened. Panting, she muttered, “Huff… puff… I don’t care. I—I’m going in!”
She leaped across the three steps and burst into the room, coming to a halt right in front of Wang Yue.
The black-haired girl sat there, one finger pressed against her lip. Her gaze, sharp yet laced with a hint of flirtatious charm, swept over the midnight visitor.
“Oh? Are you lost, you clumsy little darling?” she asked, her voice melodious and sweet.
Medeili held her breath, her body stiff with tension. The radiance emanating from Wang Yue felt like a field of Rejection, physically pushing her back.
“Yue…” she whimpered.
“Are we really that close?” The black-haired girl leaned forward, her eyes flashing with a touch of indignation.
“I’m sorry, Wang Yue…”
“That’s Classmate Medeili to you.”
Wang Yue’s tone was haughty and dissatisfied. She tilted her pretty face up, her expression as cold as frost. “Though we may be acquainted, every visitor who comes to see me must bring a bouquet of roses. That is the rule.”
Medeili glared at the Neural Plug at the back of the girl’s neck, thinking bitterly that it was all the fault of that wicked device for twisting her personality.
And why is she so expensive?!
Normally, people only ask for roses after a long conversation!
But you? You won’t even talk without them?
Medeili puffed out her cheeks in annoyance and stomped off to pick roses.
When she returned, she held a single rose aloft. Since she hadn’t let the thorns draw blood, the flower remained pure white.
The black-haired girl cast a skeptical look at it. “Why isn’t it red? How am I supposed to decorate my vase with this?”
“You didn’t say what color you wanted,” Medeili grumbled, plopping down into a chair and turning her head away in a huff.
“You may leave now.” Wang Yue seemed genuinely offended as she pointed toward the door.
“Eh? I—I haven’t even warmed up the seat yet!”
“If you aren’t even willing to endure a little pain for me, I highly doubt the sincerity of your feelings.” Wang Yue’s voice was icy. She refused to look Medeili in the eye, shifting her gaze elsewhere.
“You can’t even do it yourself, so what right do you have to demand it from others?” Medeili retorted righteously.
As soon as she spoke, she noticed Wang Yue’s left eyebrow twitch slightly. She looked like she was struggling to suppress her rage just to maintain her elegant composure.
“Even if your feelings are sincere, how could an ordinary girl like you ever be worthy of my elegance and nobility?” Wang Yue asked, turning her head.
Medeili bit her lip, an accidental trace of infatuation leaking into her expression. The way the black-haired girl looked at her—head slightly tilted, eyes hazy yet dismissive—was so beautiful it made her heart race.
But she knew the answer to this question. She shouted it out like a student racing to answer a teacher:
“I’m a little rich girl! I’m worthy!”
“Oh? Flaunting the inheritance left by your dead father only proves your spiritual poverty.”
“I’m spiritually wealthy, too! I dream about you every single day!” Medeili blurted out.
Click, clack, click…
A faint vibration echoed from the copper tubes at the back of Wang Yue’s head. Her small head wobbled back and forth, looking as if she were completely unable to process Medeili’s logic and was on the verge of a total system crash.
Terrified, Medeili rushed forward to grab Wang Yue’s shoulders. “Ahhh! Don’t break! I’m sorry, I was wrong! I won’t argue anymore! Say something, please!”
It took a long time for Wang Yue to stabilize. She cleared her throat, pushed the orange-haired girl away, and resumed her haughty persona.
“Hmph. Go and pick Red Fruits to serve me. Only then will I allow you to touch me.”
Medeili bit her nail and thought for a moment, asking with total seriousness, “Can I only touch you once? Where? Where am I not allowed to touch? We have to agree on the price first!”
“Name the spot, and I’ll give you a quote,” Wang Yue said, rubbing her forehead helplessly.
“Your cheek!”
“One fruit.”
“Your lips!”
“Two fruits.”
“Your tummy!”
“One fruit.”
“Your hand!”
“One fruit.”
…
Once they had negotiated a price for every part of her body, Medeili left, humming a happy tune.
She followed the path of scaled stone slabs to the Thorny Flowerbed. She stood at the edge, refusing to enter. Cupping her hands around her mouth like a megaphone, she yelled at the top of her lungs:
“I know—you’re hiding—the fruits—! Every time the others come, they grow two or three—but you only—let them pick one—! You’re pocketing the rest for yourself—!”
Medeili paused, then screamed again, “Hand them over—or you’re dead—!”
The Mother Plant within the thicket remained motionless and silent. It was unclear if it was simply ignoring her or if it lacked the intelligence to understand.
“You’re dead,” Medeili whispered with a smile, pronouncing its death sentence.
Mystic Art, activate!
Ethereal, dreamlike fish scales suddenly surged across her clenched arms. Supple webbing grew between her fingers, and a fan-shaped dorsal fin sprouted from her back, its spines piercing through her clothes!
She moved like a dancer, her arms swaying fluidly, her footsteps light and graceful. As she walked, the roar of crashing waves seemed to echo between heaven and earth.
Medeili walked straight through the thorns. The long spikes scraped against the dazzling, mesmerizing scales covering her body, but they failed to leave even a scratch.
Before she could even get close, the Mother Plant curled into a ball, its thorns pointing outward like a giant hedgehog.
“So you do have a brain,” Medeili mocked, tilting her head.
The Mother Plant huddled even tighter. After a moment, as if paying protection money, three green fruits turned bright red and dropped to the ground.
Medeili didn’t pick them up. She spread her fingers, hovering them over the soil as if scanning it. She let out a cold snort. “I can sense liquids. You have a cubic meter of nutrient matter converted from blood stored in your underground roots… I want half of it, or I’m pulling you out by the hair.”
Half an hour later, Medeili had secured three heavy hemp sacks. Like an ant moving its colony, she took turns dragging them back.
She was beaming with joy. This was enough to let her touch to her heart’s content!
Back in the greenhouse, she yanked the drawstrings open. Clatter, clatter. Red Fruits rolled out, filling the entire room.
Wang Yue crouched on the floor, frantically picking them up and bunching them into her skirt until she couldn’t carry any more.
As the girl sat at the table, stuffing fruit into her mouth with loud crunches, Medeili hugged her from behind. She buried her face in the crook of Wang Yue’s neck, inhaling a refreshing, haunting fragrance.
She didn’t dare let her hands wander.
Medeili knew very well that this black-haired girl, who cared only for fruit and ate like a glutton, wasn’t the real Wang Yue. She was merely a puppet controlled by the Melody.
If she took advantage of her now, the real Wang Yue would surely be furious once the plug was pulled and she woke up… Medeili thought to herself. Instead, Wang Yue will surely love how well-behaved I am. When the time comes, I’ll make some small requests, and she’ll agree. Then I’ll be happy again.
After a while, she felt something strange against her arm. she pressed Wang Yue’s tummy. Ah, it was round and bloated.
“Yue, stop eating! There are hundreds of pounds here! Your stomach is going to burst!”
While trying to snatch the remaining half-bag of Red Fruit away, she accidentally pulled Wang Yue down. Both of them tumbled to the floor together.
The black-haired girl lay there with her limbs sprawled out, her gaze vacant. Juice as red as blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, running down her snowy-white neck and disappearing into her clothes, a piercingly vivid crimson.
