151 The Battle of Thermopylae
The ramen for lunch was good, but the development after that was quite unexpected for Wang Heng.
Walking out of the ramen shop, Lu Qi asked, “Akihabara is just like this. Let’s go somewhere else to play?”
Wang Heng didn’t completely relax his vigilance. “Where to?”
Lu Qi answered crisply, “Hot springs.”
Hot springs, it sounded slightly dangerous…
Wang Heng asked tentatively, “It’s not a mixed bath, is it?”
“You mean, men and women bathing together? Sorry, I don’t really like that, and it’s hard to find mixed baths in modern Sakura Island,” halfway through, Lu Qi raised her eyebrows slightly and teased, “Or do you really want to experience a mixed bath?”
Wang Heng said righteously, “No need, a normal hot spring is fine.”
He remembered clearly seeing many similar scenes in Sakura Island anime. Boys soaked in one pool, girls soaked in another, separated by a wall. They could talk to each other, but the wall blocked their sight, so they couldn’t see each other.
Presumably, what Lu Qi meant was this kind of hot spring, right?
No problem, the risk was very small.
Seeing that Wang Heng had agreed, Lu Qi called a taxi and headed straight for the suburbs of Edo.
A long time later, when getting off the car and looking at the hot spring hotel in front of him, Wang Heng had a slight premonition that something was wrong.
“What are you doing standing at the door?” Lu Qi walked a few steps, looked back, and urged, “Come in with me!”
Wang Heng followed silently and, along with Lu Qi, was led into a suite by the waiter.
Even with a critical eye, the environment of this place was quite good. Taking off shoes at the entrance of the suite and walking in, it was a neat tatami-style room with two bedrooms.
There were no beds in the bedrooms, but there were clean white futons in the wall closets, which could be laid out when sleeping. Two bedrooms, one for Lu Qi and one for Wang Heng.
After handing a paper bag to Lu Qi, the waiter bowed respectfully and left, closing the door.
Inside the paper bag were a pair of men’s swimming trunks and a bikini-style women’s swimsuit.
Wang Heng asked, “Isn’t it said that you have to be naked when soaking in hot springs? Do we still need to wear swimsuits?”
Lu Qi raised her eyebrows slightly. “Are you that open?”
The trace of a bad premonition became clearer and clearer in Wang Heng’s mind.
“Sister Lu, this hot spring… we’re not going to soak together, are we?”
Wang Heng finally asked so bluntly.
Lu Qi didn’t answer directly, but walked to the window in the living room and opened the curtains.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling window was not a courtyard, but a hot spring pool.
Wang Heng was dumbfounded.
Lu Qi explained leisurely, “I booked a private hot spring, which means the hotel room comes with a hot spring pool. I can’t help it, I haven’t liked places like public bathhouses since I was a child. Even if there are people of the same sex around, I feel a little uncomfortable. So to soak in a hot spring, of course, this kind of small pool in a private room is the best.”
Wang Heng’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down twice, and then he said, “Sister Lu, then you should have booked two rooms.”
Lu Qi blinked, seemingly surprised. “This suite is very expensive. Booking two rooms would be too extravagant, wouldn’t it?”
Too extravagant… coming from your mouth, the credibility doesn’t seem very high.
Lu Qi stuffed the swimming trunks into his hand and added, “I booked a one-night, two-day package. Stay here tonight, and we can soak in the hot spring as much as we want before checking out tomorrow. How about it? Is it a good deal?”
Wang Heng couldn’t help but fall into deep thought.
One night, two days. If he remembered correctly, he seemed to have seen this term somewhere?
(T/N: One night, two days: frequently used in the titles of adult videos (JAV) involving hot spring trips)
**
Wang Heng took off his clothes first, changed into swimming trunks, then opened the window door of the living room and experienced the hot spring.
Looking out, it was the snow-white snow of winter, covering the courtyard and the fields, shining with broken gold light in the afternoon sun. And wrapping around his body was the steaming hot spring water. The warmth penetrated from the surface of the skin into the bones, making him involuntarily relax, so lazy that he didn’t want to move anymore.
Not long after, Lu Qi also walked out slowly from inside and stepped into the hot spring pool.
She was wearing a light blue bikini swimsuit, her exquisite makeup remained, and on her head, she was actually wearing that fox ear hair accessory again!
Wang Heng stared at her until she sat down, her whole body immersed in the hot spring water… and then silently touched his nose.
Hmm, fortunately, the drop that fell just now was condensed water vapor, not a nosebleed.
Lu Qi looked at him with interest and suddenly asked with a smile, “What are you thinking about?”
“Emptying my mind, thinking about nothing.”
“You can look forward to dinner later. After soaking in the hot spring, we’re going to have a big meal.”
With that, Lu Qi narrowed her eyes, like a calculating yet lazy and relaxed fox, staring at him quietly.
For a moment, Wang Heng felt like an isolated soldier, fighting alone against the enemy’s unscrupulous army on a narrow battlefield.
In terms of determination and execution, Lu Qi was indeed worlds apart from the other three parties. She just had a dream last night, and today she started a frontal attack. The power was so amazing and terrifying in an understated way.
It was foreseeable that if he continued to defend alone, the defense line would collapse sooner or later over time.
But Wang Heng always remembered the strategy he had formulated not long ago, which was to introduce multiple forces and let her understand the existence of competitors. Being a scumbag openly and clearly would naturally achieve the strategic goal of dissuading her.
Or at least, optimizing the transparency of the battlefield of love could also make him safer…
So he sighed, “Sister Lu’s arrangement is really good. Unfortunately, it would be great if I could bring my girlfriend along.”
Lu Qi’s expression didn’t change at all, seeming not surprised at all, and still smiled. “Of course you can. It’s normal to bring family members to team building. And you told me a long time ago that you have a girlfriend, but I haven’t seen her once. It’s hard not to be curious.”
Wang Heng: “Then I’ll call her later?”
Lu Qi: “No problem.”
After soaking for a while longer, Wang Heng stood up, said “I’m going to the bathroom,” and returned to the living room.
Then, he found his phone, went to the bathroom, and sent a text message to Han Yixuan: 【I’m very sorry, can I trouble you to play my girlfriend again and help cover for me? I’ll treat you to a meal as compensation when I go home for the New Year.】
After waiting for a few minutes, Han Yixuan sent a reply: 【Sure, how do you want me to cover?】
Wang Heng: 【I’ll call you, the kind where I pay my respects and greet you.】
Han Yixuan: 【OK, then I’ll wait for your call.】
Seeing such a clear agreement, Wang Heng breathed a sigh of relief and deleted these text message records by the way.
After deleting them, he realized and smiled bitterly:
“We haven’t confirmed the relationship yet. Lu Qi couldn’t possibly check my phone anyway. Why bother… Tsk tsk, old habits die hard.”
