Xi Feng could swear she wasn’t faking it.

When the thunder reached her ears, she felt her brain tremble.

An utterly uncontrollable fear welled up from deep inside her. In an instant, it filled her mind and consciousness, and every cell in her body quivered with terror.

She quickly crouched down, clutching her head. Her body curled up on its own, trembling like a wounded little animal.

It seemed Lilian hadn’t forgotten the request she’d made about being afraid of thunder—and had made sure she experienced exactly what that was like.

“Shit!”

Xi Feng cursed under her breath and bit down hard on her lower lip, hoping the pain would curb the fear rising inside her. But it was no use. Her body wouldn’t listen to her, trembling all on its own.

Wdnmd, Lilian—you’re such a damn menace!

You tell me—is this something a decent person would do!?

Bei Yaoyue was startled by Xi Feng’s shrill scream. After a moment of surprise, she walked over to Xi Feng with a puzzled look, bent down, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“N-no… I’m fine.” Xi Feng struggled to lift her head and replied in a trembling voice.

Was she supposed to tell Bei Yaoyue she was afraid of thunder?

As if!

She was a proper tough guy. How could she admit to something so humiliating?

“Rumble!”

But it seemed God wasn’t about to let her off the hook. Just after she’d stubbornly denied it, a blinding flash streaked past the window, lighting up half the sky. Then a deep rumble of thunder rolled across all of New Moon City.

“Aah!!!”

After letting out a startled scream, Xi Feng clapped both hands over her mouth. No! This absolutely couldn’t go on!

So pathetic! So spineless! So embarrassing!

Control yourself! Control yourself!

“You’re not…” Bei Yaoyue froze for a moment, then asked with a strange look on her face, “Afraid of thunder, are you?”

She’d only asked on a whim. In her experience, most people who claimed to be afraid of thunder were just making a scene. Very few people were genuinely scared of such a perfectly ordinary natural phenomenon—so few they were practically one in a million.

If a vampire who’d lived for who knew how many years was really afraid of thunder, that would be the joke of the century.

“W-who’s afraid of thunder!” Xi Feng jerked her head up, pressed her lips together, and denied it with a stubborn look.

She couldn’t admit it. Absolutely not!

At the same time, she kept reminding herself: There’s nothing to be afraid of. Nothing at all. It’s just thunder, something she’d experienced countless times growing up…

“Boom!”

“Waaah!!!!!!!”

Like a Python function with an if statement written in advance—“if condition == 'thunder': action(scream)”—Xi Feng let out a scream the instant thunder sounded outside the window. Every single time.

It was a fear etched into the depths of her soul, one her conscious willpower couldn’t suppress at all.

Two streams of tears silently welled up, escaped her eyes, and spilled from their corners onto the floor.

They weren’t just tears of fear. They were tears of humiliation, too.

“……”

Bei Yaoyue was speechless for a moment.

No matter how much Xi Feng denied it, no matter how unwilling she was to believe it, there was no other explanation. She was afraid of thunder.

And judging by how intense and genuine Xi Feng’s reaction was, there was no way she was putting it on to win Bei Yaoyue’s sympathy.

“Are you all right?”

“I… I’m fine…” Xi Feng forced her chattering teeth under control and answered in a trembling voice.

—You don’t look fine at all.

Bei Yaoyue silently grumbled to herself, then let out a helpless sigh. She crouched down and opened her slender arms, drawing the petite figure trembling violently with fear into her embrace.

Unlike the cold body she’d expected from a vampire, the little body in her arms was a normal, living temperature—warm, even. Its tender skin was so soft that she almost thought she was hugging a bundle of cotton.

“Don’t be scared. It’s just thunder.”

Her voice was still cool, but a faint, well-hidden tenderness slipped into it.

After all, seeing Xi Feng like this would make anyone’s urge to protect her skyrocket—though for some people, their urge to mess with her might skyrocket instead.

The sudden warmth of the embrace made Xi Feng stiffen, but she didn’t struggle or pull away. A girl’s soft embrace really was comfortable, and she found herself a little addicted to the feeling.

“I… I know that… but…” Xi Feng gave a bitter laugh and didn’t finish.

I can’t explain this to you. I’m just an idiot who dug a huge hole and buried myself in it.jpg

Bei Yaoyue gently patted Xi Feng’s back and said softly, “Then just don’t listen.”

“……” Xi Feng’s mouth twitched slightly. If Bei Yaoyue weren’t genuinely trying to comfort her right now, she might’ve launched herself into the air and punched her.

Just don’t listen!? As if she didn’t want to.

But of the five senses, hearing was the most indispensable. You could choose not to look, smell, eat, or touch—but you couldn’t choose not to hear.

So why hadn’t humans evolved the basic ability to shut out sound!?

Bei Yaoyue wasn’t thinking about any of those strange things. She was seriously trying to figure out how to coax her little maid to sleep. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to sleep in peace either.

If thunder scared Xi Feng this badly, she’d have to be a ghost to sleep soundly through a stormy night like this.

“I’ll stay with you while you sleep.” After thinking it over, Bei Yaoyue decided this was the only way.

Xi Feng, held in her arms, seemed much calmer now. Maybe having her there would help.

Then Bei Yaoyue started wondering again whether her little maid had been putting on an act from beginning to end, just to cop a feel.

“!?” Xi Feng’s cheeks suddenly flushed. “Stay with me while I sleep?”

Thinking like a man, she naturally took the words the wrong way.

“I’ll sit beside you until you fall asleep, then I’ll leave.”

Apparently unaware of Xi Feng’s misunderstanding, Bei Yaoyue said it as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world.

“Oh…”

Realizing she’d misunderstood, Xi Feng lowered her head in embarrassment. Of course—she’d been thinking the worst of Bei Yaoyue.

She still didn’t want to admit she was afraid of thunder, but at this point it made no difference whether she admitted it or not.

Bei Yaoyue wasn’t stupid, and neither was she. Bei Yaoyue had already been considerate enough not to say it outright. If Xi Feng kept denying it, she’d just be making a fool of herself.

“Can you stand up?”

“Probably…?”

After talking for a while, her fear of the thunder had eased somewhat. She forced her wobbly legs to push her up, then managed to stand.

Seeing that Xi Feng looked ready to fall over at any moment, Bei Yaoyue hesitated, then reached out to steady her.

“Thanks,” Xi Feng said with a bitter smile. She was mortified, but that was still better than falling flat on the floor.

She’d completely lost hope in what this body could do. At this point, she was starting to feel like there was nothing left to lose.

You dig your own hole, you have to lie in it—even if you have to cry while doing it.

With Bei Yaoyue supporting her, Xi Feng staggered back to her room. But the sight of the unmade bed gave her another headache.

“……I’ll do it.” Bei Yaoyue glanced at the white-haired little girl beside her, who could barely even stand, and decided she might as well make the bed herself.

“Sorry to trouble you.” Xi Feng awkwardly scratched her cheek. She didn’t want to bother Bei Yaoyue over something so minor, but she wasn’t in any shape to do normal chores right now.

What was the point of keeping this piece-of-junk body?

“Rumble!”

A low rumble of thunder rolled by. Maybe she was gradually getting used to the fear, because this time Xi Feng only gave a violent shudder and managed to keep the scream bottled up inside.

Bei Yaoyue, focused on making the bed, didn’t notice the little detail. It took her two or three minutes, but she finally got the bed into a state where someone could sleep in it. Then she turned to Xi Feng, who had her hands clasped in front of her chest, and said, “Come over.”

Xi Feng climbed onto the bed, then suddenly blushed. “I’m going to take my clothes off. Could you turn around for a moment?”

She was too embarrassed to look at her own body, let alone let someone else see all of it. Just thinking about it made her cheeks feel like they were on fire.

Bei Yaoyue curled her lip. They were both girls, so what was there to be embarrassed about?

She was straight, after all. She wasn’t about to entertain any strange thoughts about a little girl who might not even have any hair down there yet.

Still, so Xi Feng wouldn’t feel awkward, Bei Yaoyue turned around and dutifully fixed her gaze on the window.

Outside, raindrops gathered on the glass and reflected the clear, brilliant light of the streetlamps. They slid down the window along irregular paths, painting a strange picture across the glass.

So beautiful.

Rainy nights really were captivating.

A rustling sound from behind her set the imagination running. Then something darted under the covers as quickly as if it had done something wrong.

“I’m done.”

Xi Feng’s soft voice pulled Bei Yaoyue back from her appreciation of the rainy night. She walked over to the bed and sat down sideways on its edge.

Xi Feng had tucked her whole body under the oversized blanket, leaving only half her head and eight short, delicate fingers visible above its edge. She looked absolutely adorable.

“Go to sleep. I’ll leave once you’re asleep.” As she spoke, Bei Yaoyue picked up her phone, planning to find something to do.

If she just sat there in the dark with Xi Feng doing nothing, she’d die of boredom.

She dimmed the screen as low as it would go, then held up her phone and asked, “Will this brightness bother you?”

“No.” Xi Feng gently shook her head.

At first, she’d refused the idea of being watched over like a little kid while she slept. But then she imagined herself screaming like an idiot all night if she were alone, and decided she’d rather just put up with the embarrassment.

When you had to choose between two bad options, you went with the lesser one. If she was going to embarrass herself either way, she might as well embarrass herself a little less.

Perhaps the heavens took pity on her. Once she was under the covers, the thunder finally began to die down, leaving only the steady patter of the torrential rain outside.

With the calm, peaceful rain as a lullaby and the reassuring presence of someone beside her, she soon drifted off. She fell asleep faster than she ever had before.

A faint, adorable snore reached Bei Yaoyue’s ears as she aimlessly scrolled through “KnowIt.” After leaning over to make sure Xi Feng was really asleep, she stretched, got up, and headed for the bathroom she’d been meaning to visit for ages.

After all that, it was already three-thirty in the morning.

If it weren’t for Xi Feng’s little problem, Bei Yaoyue would’ve been tucked back under the covers, sleeping soundly by now.

Bei Yaoyue let out a long sigh and knocked on her head in exasperation.

Had she brought home a little maid, or a tiny tyrant?