After resting for a while, Feng Yijiu still clung to the idea of earning back her ticket price. She headed for the cosplay and lolita sections, where the prettiest girls were concentrated.

After all, the block of wood beside her had barely taken any photos that could make her happy. Leaving like this would be a serious loss.

But Feng Yijiu soon realized that she might actually feel better if they left right away.

Why were the girls in the lolita section trying to sell her frilly dresses?!

How was that any different from trying to sell Six Degrees of Space to a guy?

Feng Yijiu was furious. Then, after she and Li Hao entered the cosplay section, they almost didn’t make it back out.

……

“What kind of eyes do these people have?!”

Even after leaving the convention, Feng Yijiu remained indignant.

Li Hao lowered his head slightly and looked at her.

If Feng Yijiu didn’t say anything, who would believe she was a boy dressed like this?

In fact, Li Hao felt that even without the fake pair of things on her chest, she might still be pretty cute. Especially compared to his own utterly unremarkable appearance.

“Hey, Wo—Li Hao, what are you looking at?”

Feng Yijiu turned around. When she noticed his gaze, her face flushed slightly, but she still questioned him aggressively.

For some reason, looking at Feng Yijiu’s fair cheeks, now tinged with red, made Li Hao want to take a picture and preserve the moment.

Still, he managed to suppress that restless impulse.

“Nothing. It’s just…” Li Hao awkwardly changed the subject. “Didn’t you say you’d teach me how to interact with girls today? I already paid my tuition.”

“Oh, right. I forgot.” Feng Yijiu seemed to remember something. Then she coughed lightly and announced, “Class dismissed.”

Li Hao: “……”

Only after seeing his expression did Feng Yijiu reluctantly extend her hand again.

“If you want to borrow the experimental equipment, just say so.”

Li Hao looked at her small hand, wrapped in a leather glove. He hesitated, then reached out and took it.

But whether he hadn’t noticed or not, this time, his fingers gently laced with hers.

Feng Yijiu froze, then quickly pulled her hand back.

“No. This is too disgusting.”

She hurriedly put some distance between them and said seriously, “To ensure the purity of our relationship… Hmm, I think you’re already a mature person. You should learn to practice on your own.”

“Here. Watch.”

Feng Yijiu placed both hands in front of herself with great solemnity. Then she clasped her right hand with her left, fingers interlocked.

Li Hao awkwardly copied her movements. But with the way he did it, he looked more like he was offering New Year’s greetings.

“Forget it.”

Seeing his idiotic, hopeless expression was too much for Feng Yijiu. After thinking for a moment, she removed one of her gloves.

Then, with an expression of extraordinary generosity, she slapped the glove into Li Hao’s hand.

She looked just like a chivalrous heroine from ancient times—bold, righteous, and generous with her possessions.

Carefree. Magnanimous. Grand.

“It’s yours. Don’t mention it.”

Li Hao stared at the glove in his hand, completely baffled.

By then, Feng Yijiu had already quickened her pace and walked ahead.

There was no way she was going to tell that blockhead Li Hao that, for some reason, her heart had just started pounding.

What a useless body.

Feng Yijiu thought this to herself.

……

After returning home, Feng Yijiu quickly tore off the cumbersome outfit.

As if that still wasn’t enough to vent her frustration, she kicked it twice after taking it off.

“Hiss…”

Unfortunately, her fair little foot stepped right onto the outfit’s zipper. The pinch hurt quite a bit.

After casually pulling on another piece of clothing, Feng Yijiu sat down in her chair. She picked up her phone and began inspecting the spoils she had won in the cosplay section today with her dignity—

No, with her life.

She scrolled through photo after photo of pretty girls. Some were cosplayers, while others wore lolita outfits or different kinds of clothes.

But for some reason, Feng Yijiu felt remarkably calm as she looked at them now.

She no longer felt the excitement and thrill she used to.

She even felt that these “common beauties” weren’t as pretty as she was.

That feeling terrified her a little. She seemed to have realized something.

Yet after scrolling back and forth, she discovered that she no longer felt anything toward those pretty girls.

She wasn’t a high monk, so could she really have attained enlightenment and started burning out relics?

This was bad. Very bad.

Feng Yijiu pressed down on her pounding heart. She felt that she needed to test herself.

First, she tiptoed over and locked the door. Then she put on her headphones and entered a certain educational website on her phone—a place where one could learn for a lifetime.

The girls there were much more… ahem, liberated than the girls at the convention.

On the homepage, Feng Yijiu saw a “proper person” whose “clothing was conservative, figure was lacking, and expression was dignified.”

She gritted her teeth and clicked in.

After a simple and cliché plot, the instructional material went straight to the main topic.

Feng Yijiu’s cheeks slowly began to redden on their own.

But before long, an untimely knock sounded at the door.

Her face instantly turned from red to white. She quickly exited the page, then opened the door.

Standing outside was Feng Mingdong, who had only just returned home.

“Dad, you… you’re back.”

Her technique had been interrupted midway, and Feng Yijiu was feeling a little nervous. For some reason, a faint trace of helplessness had also surfaced within her.

……

When Feng Yijiu returned to her room again, she locked the door properly before burrowing beneath her covers.

Then she put on her headphones once more and went straight to the main event.

The girl’s explaining voice was very pleasant.

But Feng Yijiu herself failed to notice that, as she watched, her jade-white legs were slowly drawing together.

Her breathing gradually grew heavier, too.

On the phone, an unseen master wielded his brush with sweeping strokes, using a white-tipped brush to depict magnificent mountains and rivers.

What a splendid landscape painting.

He painted the mountain ranges. Their forms rose majestically, steeper than Mount Hua and more lushly beautiful than Kunlun.

With only a few strokes, the lines were simple and sparse. Yet they captured the mountains’ strange beauty with perfect clarity.

Between the mountains lay narrow stone crevices, too tight for two people to walk side by side—a wonder worthy of being called “a slit of sky.”

If someone found themselves there and looked up at the gorgeous peach blossoms crowning the summit, they would probably marvel at the wonders of creation.

They might even blurt out a line of poetry:

“The peach blossoms by the mountain temple begin to bloom.”

He painted the snowy plains. From afar, they were an expanse of white. Up close, however, they brimmed with sparkling life.

He painted the secluded valleys. They were deep, their forests dense, with streams murmuring through them.

Near the water stood a stone. All that was missing was an angler in a straw rain cape, holding a graceful bamboo rod.

……

Even more remarkable was the passion in the girl’s explanation.

The clanging accompaniment rang out like rolling thunder and sudden lightning. It sounded like thousands of soldiers and horses rushing forward, shaking the earth and mountains as they raised waves of snow.

It made anyone sigh at the breathtaking beauty of these lands.

As the poem went:

“It seemed to sob, yet could not flow through.

The twisting rapids and winding shallows neared their end,

Now and then dripping across the level sands.”

As Feng Yijiu admired the scene, she felt the artistic cells within her body come alive once more.