Put Your Clothes On

Mo Fan had a vague memory of heading out to the Dongting Lake plains for a Field Expedition around the beginning of the year. Now, returning to school, it was nearly the end of the year. He couldn't help but reflect on what the hell had happened to him over the past several months.

First had come a fat lizard with dragon blood — a Giant Lizard. Then a butcher of a Military Commander, brutal as a demon. After that, he'd gone feral for months in the wilderness, trading wits with an Armored-Shell Giant Lizard and a Marsh Poison Centipede. And finally, a trip to Hangzhou to check on his sister had somehow spiraled into this entire mess.

If he hadn't eventually crawled back to Pearl Academy and pulled on his magic school uniform, he might actually have believed he was some all-powerful figure who could turn this world upside down with a flick of his wrist.

How was it that this planet felt less safe than Mars?

Whatever. Stop overthinking it. Just get back to the apartment.

He dug out the key hidden under a potted plant and deftly let himself inside.

"Sis Mu, Zhou Shuming is way too full of himself — he actually had the nerve to say in public that he wants you to marry into the Zhou Clan! Sure, he's powerful, but that doesn't give him the right to humiliate you like that. What century does he think this is? The overbearing CEO fantasy went out of style ages ago. Honestly, apart from that absolute devil, I've never seen anyone as arrogant and shameless as him!" Ai Tutu fumed from inside the room.

Mu Nujiao sat on the plush sofa, her slender figure sinking into the cushions. Her head tilted gently back, long hair cascading down over the back of the couch, her neck pale and smooth — graceful as a swan.

She pressed her fingers between her brows, looking faintly weary. She didn't respond to Ai Tutu's rant.

Something seemed to catch her attention. She turned her head toward the entryway, a slight frown crossing her face.

**Creak—**

The heavy front door swung open, and a young man with an easy bearing and a casual smile stepped inside. He glanced around the living room, then calmly took off his shoes and tucked them into the cabinet, hung his backpack on the hook beside the door, and shrugged off his coat in one fluid motion.

His movements were unhurried and completely natural — as though he'd lived here forever. Not a trace of unfamiliarity.

In the living room, both Mu Nujiao and Ai Tutu were staring at the man who had just waltzed in. Several seconds passed before either of them moved.

"Sis Mu..." Ai Tutu said slowly. "Am I seeing a ghost?"

She glanced at the window. Bright sunlight flooded the entire apartment. She'd never heard of a ghost that could move around so freely in broad daylight.

Mu Nujiao said nothing. She just stared at him, her eyes full of something unreadable.

"So who's the jackass out-jackassing me? Just tell me his name, Miss Ai Tutu," Mo Fan said, wearing that same effortless grin of his as if nothing in the world had happened. "I'll take care of it for you — I'll scold him to death."

"You — you — you—" Ai Tutu pointed at Mo Fan, her mouth working soundlessly. She forced herself to swallow, steadied herself, and finally managed: "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

Mo Fan grinned. "Plenty of people jump off cliffs and walk away. You think I'd go that easily? Besides, if I left, who'd keep an eye on you two? Leaving you to someone else's hands really isn't my style."

"Ptooey! We're sisters, not mother and daughter!" Ai Tutu snapped back. "And don't try to change the subject — are you a person or a ghost? If you're a person, why does everyone say you're dead? And if you're a ghost, then you're some kind of depraved spirit coming after two girls like us — worse than an animal, honestly. Let me tell you, I've awakened the Undead Element. You take one more step and I will collect you." She jabbed her finger at him.

Beside her, Mu Nujiao seemed to want to say something. She reached over and nudged Ai Tutu.

But Ai Tutu spread her arms wide, planting herself like a fierce little bodyguard. "Don't even think about touching a single hair on us! You'd better hurry up and go get yourself reincarnated—"

Mu Nujiao finally couldn't hold back any longer. She stepped forward and interposed herself between Ai Tutu and Mo Fan.

"Sis, I'm not scared!" Ai Tutu declared.

Mu Nujiao gave a small, delicate cough. Her cheeks had gone pink. She leaned toward Ai Tutu and said quietly, "That... Tutu. Go put your clothes on first."

Ai Tutu froze. She slowly looked down.

And found, to her absolute horror, that her considerable assets were fully exposed to the open air — and had apparently been bouncing along with every indignant gesture she'd made throughout the entire confrontation.

"Ahhhhhh!" Ai Tutu shrieked in mortified outrage. "You pervert! How did you make my clothes disappear?!"

Still shrieking, she clapped both arms over her chest and bolted upstairs.

For a woman so generously endowed, her panicked sprint was quite the spectacle. The sight sent a warm rush straight to Mo Fan's nose.

Mu Nujiao watched Ai Tutu flee in panicked disarray and couldn't help pressing a palm to her forehead. *Honestly — how slow are her reflexes?*

The apartment had been just the two of them for a long time. The weather outside was cold, but the heating kept things warm inside, and Ai Tutu had always been casual about such things at home. She found bras uncomfortable and had simply stopped wearing one — and then, naturally, hadn't bothered putting her top back on either, just sitting on the sofa watching dramas in a state of blissful disregard.

Plenty of girls were like that when they had the place to themselves. It just hadn't occurred to anyone that Mo Fan would walk back from the dead at exactly that moment, leaving a perfectly innocent girl thoroughly exposed.

"Your habits are clearly much better than hers..." Mo Fan said, a faint edge of mischief in his voice as he and Mu Nujiao faced each other alone. "Aren't you surprised to see me?"

A flash of embarrassed indignation crossed her face. She should have been overjoyed that he was alive — and somewhere underneath it all, she was — but this whole scene had her thoroughly convinced this man had ulterior motives. She couldn't help herself: "I'd have been more surprised if you had died. People like you never go that easily."

"Oh? Sharp tongue all of a sudden. Or maybe the real reason is that my miraculous survival has sent your heart into such a flutter you can't quite hold on to that composure of yours." Mo Fan studied her with a smile.

Mu Nujiao let it pass. Whatever his faults, him being alive was better than anything else. If he hadn't been, she might have abandoned every last shred of her dignity to curse him out — and he wouldn't even have been there to hear it.

"**MO FAN!!!!!**" The roar of an enraged lioness thundered down from the second floor, rattling the room.

Mu Nujiao glanced upstairs, then looked back at Mo Fan. "You're on your own," she said simply.

With that, she padded upstairs in her fluffy slippers, her slender waist swaying as she went — leaving Mo Fan alone in the living room to weather the storm.

"Shouldn't there be a tearful reunion hug?" he called after her with a wry smile.

Mu Nujiao was already on the stairs. She glanced back over her shoulder — just once, without any expression — then continued on her way.

Mo Fan watched her slender silhouette disappear around the corner, and felt a small, quiet pang of regret.

Back in her room, Mu Nujiao gently pushed the door shut. She leaned back against it, tilted her head up, and let her eyes fall closed — as if a weight she'd been carrying for a very long time had finally lifted from her shoulders.

A long moment passed.

And then, slowly, a smile curved at the corner of her lips.

When her eyes opened again, everything seemed a little more worth waking up for.