57: Chapter 57 Ruan Ruoruo comes to the door.

Lin Qing opened his eyes amidst a lingering, fragrant scent.

Liu Meini's back was turned as she sat on the edge of the bed, her figure looking desolate.

"Sister Meini..."

His voice was hoarse as he tried to prop up his body, but the intense soreness in his lower back caused him to fall back powerlessly onto the soft brocade quilt.

Liu Meini did not turn back, merely lifting her fair hand slightly.

A gentle force held Lin Qing's waist from afar, helping him barely steady himself into a sitting position.

On the inner side of the bed, Bai Nian let out a suppressed soft groan and woke up as well.

Beneath the quilt, her hand tightly gripped the bedsheet printed with red plum blossoms.

The heart-burning restlessness within her body had receded.

She turned her head, happening to crash into Lin Qing's gaze looking over.

In her mind, out-of-control images surged like a tsunami.

Scalding sweat, hurried breathing, and every single moment she had actively catered to him...

Bai Nian quietly averted her face, her earlobes so red they were practically dripping blood.

Her final composure was crushed and shattered completely to pieces.

Lin Qing gave a dry cough, breaking the suffocating silence.

"Thank you, Sister Meini."

Liu Meini did not answer, her gaze sweeping past the messy wedding bed before shifting away.

The next instant, Bai Nian's body suddenly tensed up.

A line of small golden characters popped up before her eyes.

[Offspring Kindling (Binder: Lin Qing)]

At this moment, her breathing even stalled.

Kindling...

She... had it too?

Wasn't Mengmeng's talent spread finished by morning?

Why did it appear on her now?!

She raised her head in astonishment, looking toward Lin Qing.

"The poison is resolved," Liu Meini's cool voice rang out timely. "Go back. If you don't go back soon, they will worry."

The dismissal order was issued decisively.

Lin Qing nodded toward her, turning to Bai Nian: "Can you still walk?"

Bai Nian suppressed the doubts in her heart and subconsciously nodded, but just as she wanted to lift the quilt, the soreness coming from between her legs nailed her movements in place.

She bit her lip hard, her cheeks burning up once again.

Lin Qing understood.

He bent down to get out of bed, his movements somewhat staggered, and then scooped Bai Nian up horizontally in his arms.

"Mph!"

Bai Nian let out a startled cry, instinctively wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face deeply into the side of his neck, lacking even the courage to glance at Liu Meini.

Holding her in his arms, Lin Qing walked as if stepping on cotton with every step, his legs shaking slightly.

Liu Meini still had her back turned to them, but the fingers hanging within her wide sleeves quietly tightened.

The vermilion large door closed silently behind the two of them.

Inside the door, red candles flickered.

Liu Meini stood in place.

After a long while, she raised her hand to press against her glabella, and an almost imperceptible sigh dispersed in the spacious room.

This debt of karma seemed to have been calculated even more messily.

...

Dormitory 9001.

Three furnaces burned red-hot, driving away all the chill in the air.

Liu Meini's frozen black bug ice sculptures were moved into the dormitory by the girls.

Over the course of more than six hours, one piece was burned through.

Under the continuous pouring of life energy, everyone upgraded to [Good Tier].

Although the insect horde had turned into experience babies, neither Lin Qing nor Bai Nian had returned, and no one went to sleep.

"Creak—"

The yinshen skeleton gate opened.

Lin Qing carried Bai Nian in his arms and stepped in.

"Lin Qing!"

"Monitor!"

Su Xixi rushed up first, and upon seeing Bai Nian with closed eyes nestled in Lin Qing's arms, her breathing hitched.

"What's wrong with the Monitor?"

Lin Qing avoided the circle of searchlight-like gazes, his voice hoarse:

"It's nothing, I helped Sister Meini with a special task. Bai Nian consumed too much and became exhausted."

This was the excuse Liu Meini taught him.

But Su Mengmeng moved forward by half a step, her gaze falling on Bai Nian's exposed profile.

That flush was different from ordinary people, carrying a kind of post-affair languidness and an intermingling of breath.

Her nose twitched slightly, as if she smelled a faint, somewhat familiar scent similar to when she was alone with Lin Qing.

The girl's fingers pinching the corner of her clothes tightened, and she silently lowered her eyes.

An Mumu leaned against the edge of the furnace, her eyes squinted into slits.

Something was wrong, far too wrong.

"Let me take care of the Monitor!" Shen Zhiyi reached out to take her.

Lin Qing sidestepped to avoid her: "She needs rest. Tonight, she'll sleep in my room."

He carried Bai Nian straight toward the single room, hooking the door shut with his foot.

"Everyone rest as well, leave someone to watch the furnace."

The main hall fell into a dead silence.

An Mumu stroked her chin, her gaze moving back and forth between the single room door and Su Mengmeng's face, lowering her voice:

"Taking care of business to the point of exhaustion? And she has to sleep in his single room too?"

"Could this time's kindling have been passed to the Monitor?"

...

Early the next morning.

The door of the single room was pulled open with a creak.

Lin Qing supported himself against the door frame, propping his lower back with one hand, taking two seconds to ease himself before taking a step.

His walking posture was somewhat stiff, and when he shuffled to the side of the furnace to pour water, his wrist shook, splashing out most of the boiling hot water.

A chill ran down his back.

Only then did he truly experience the weight of Liu Meini's words.

The weakness of having his bone marrow hollowed out was even more heart-palpitating than when he had forcefully confronted the Berserk Orcs.

Over a dozen gazes in the hall pricked his back like needles.

"Dorm Leader, good morning," An Mumu crossed her arms, her gaze spinning around his belt area. "You really worked hard helping Teacher Meini with business last night～"

In the corner, Su Xixi's mouth was puckered enough to hang an oil bottle.

Right at this moment,

Su Mengmeng trotted over holding a wooden bowl, her cheeks flushed bright red, her voice suppressed to the lowest:

"Brother Qing, you... drink it while it's hot."

Lin Qing lowered his head.

In the steaming thick soup inside the bowl, a uniquely shaped ingredient rolled along with the oil droplets.

"This is... boiled using that... part of the mutated black tiger," Su Mengmeng stuffed the bowl into his hands, supplementing softly, "To nourish your body."

"Pfft—"

Lin Qing almost spat out a mouthful of water.

An Mumu doubled over laughing on the spot.

Right at this time, outside the corridor of the Ninth Floor, a hurried and forceful knocking sounded on the door.

"Brother Lin Qing! Open the door!"

On the screen of the central console, a young girl wearing a gothic lolita battle dress was patting the Bone Gate with a face full of anticipation.

Behind her stood fifteen fully armed girls in a grand procession.

"Yo," An Mumu whistled, "Isn't this our class's big miss Ruan and fifteen other classmates? What is this, coming over to snatch a bride?"

Lin Qing raised an eyebrow.

The Bone Gate opened in response.

Ruan Ruoruo rushed in aggressively, but all the thousands of words she had prepared stuck completely in her throat when she saw the scene before her.

Lin Qing stood beside the furnace, his eye sockets bruised, his complexion weak, still holding a bowl of inexplicable tiger whip soup in his hands.

Brother...

He... had been squeezed dry?

Ruan Ruoruo's gaze swiftly swept across Su Xixi and An Mumu, the two with the heaviest suspicion, and finally fixed on Lin Qing's weak-looking face.

Her chest heaved violently, and her eye rims instantly turned red.

Over the past few days, in order to quickly upgrade her team to find Brother, she had smashed countless gold coins and desperately led her team outside to kill monsters.

Enduring the sub-zero temperatures of over minus 50 degrees, they did not retreat.

Until yesterday, the core team under her finally gathered three Good Tier combat strengths.

Only then did she have the confidence to come look for Brother Lin Qing.

What was the result of what she saw?

Brother had been tossed about to this state, and still had to drink soup to nourish his body?!

Ruan Ruoruo abruptly raised her dagger, its sharp tip tracing a cold glint under the furnace firelight, pointing at Bai Nian, Su Xixi, and An Mumu one by one.

"Very well."

She bit her back teeth, her voice suddenly spiking, her tear-laced anger enough to flip over the roof:

"Speak! You group of vixens, exactly which of you squeezed Brother dry?!"