“Not gonna lie—it actually looks really pretty.”
The Luo family really did have incredible genes. The phrase “born beautiful” fit them perfectly. Whether it was Luo Xinyu putting on a short wig to dress as a boy, or Luo Xingchen wearing a long wig to dress as a girl, their looks were absolutely top-tier either way.
“See? That’s what I’m saying.”
Xia Xi spread his hands and rolled up the canvas featuring the magical-girl version of Luo Xingchen. He planned to keep this drawing safe—it’d make excellent blackmail material against his future brother-in-law.
When the time came, all he’d have to do was pull out this painting and casually drop: “Xiao Chen, you wouldn’t want this to get out, would you…?”
And just like that, any problem would be solved.
Munching on her chocolate cornet, Luo Xinyu glanced over at the desk.
On it lay a piece of drawing paper featuring a child with a monkey’s tail—the very first character Xia Xi had drawn back when she’d been teaching him how to sketch.
“I didn’t expect you to still remember this.”
Seeing the nostalgic look in Luo Xinyu’s eyes, Xia Xi smiled and sat down at the desk.
“Of course I do. This is proof of our memories together~”
Luo Xinyu stood up and squeezed onto the same chair as Xia Xi, not minding the lack of space at all. She leaned against his arm.
To an outsider, it would look like a boy snuggling up to a girl—and anyone who didn’t know better might even think the girl was the boy’s mom.
“By the way, what did Uncle say to you? He probably laid down a bunch of conditions, right?”
Letting Luo Xinyu rest against him, Xia Xi asked casually.
“My dad didn’t really have any demands. All he said was that you need to treat me well. Oh, and also… he wants to read the rest of your Journey to the West chapters. I already promised him we’d release them all later. I made that call on my own—you’re not mad at me, are you?”
Even though her words sounded like she was asking, her tone didn’t carry much uncertainty—as if she already knew the answer in her heart.
“Yeah, I’ll post them in a bit.”
Xia Xi nodded.
He’d already planned to release the remaining chapters anyway. There was no way he’d get upset over something so trivial with his dear lady.
“After you post those, are you planning to write something new? Like that ‘Battle Qi Turns Into Horse’ thing you mentioned?”
Luo Xinyu really enjoyed Xia Xi’s bedtime stories—though whether it was the stories themselves she liked, or the person she shared a bed with, well, that was up for debate.
Xia Xi thought for a moment, then nodded.
“I definitely want to work on something new, but this time it won’t be a novel.”
“Not a novel? Then… a comic?”
Luo Xinyu looked at the drawing of the child with a monkey’s tail, lost in thought.
All the practice sketches Xia Xi had done back then were safely stored in a cabinet. But this one on the desk was brand new—clearly just drawn.
And the fact that he’d drawn something like this as soon as he arrived at her house made his intentions pretty easy to guess.
“Let me take a guess—your next story has something to do with this kid, doesn’t it?”
Xia Xi nodded again.
“Exactly. I’ve even got his name ready—Sun Wukong.”
“Sun Wukong? Isn’t that the name of the monkey in Journey to the West?”
“So in the early parts of this comic, the main character will have some traits inspired by that monkey.”
“Are you sure you’re not just too lazy to come up with a new name?”
Xia Xi shook his head very seriously at the skeptical look in Luo Xinyu’s eyes.
How could he be too lazy to name a character? The protagonist of Dragon Ball was literally called that, okay? Sure, that Sun Wukong also went by “Kakarot,” but if you wanted to know why he had the exact same name as the Monkey King from Journey to the West, you’d have to ask the original creator, Mr. Toriyama.
“I’ll sketch a few pages first to test the waters. In the meantime, grab my phone and post the remaining chapters of Journey to the West from the draft folder in the author dashboard.”
Xia Xi gave his shoulder a little nudge, signaling the young lady leaning on him to get up.
Luo Xinyu pouted in mild displeasure, but she listened anyway and pulled out the phone from her pocket.
“Aren’t you afraid I might find something I shouldn’t on your phone?”
Luo Xinyu placed her finger on the fingerprint scanner, and the screen lit up.
“Nope. I haven’t done anything shady.”
Xia Xi was telling the truth—he didn’t really hide anything from Luo Xinyu.
Besides…
His browser was always in incognito mode! He’d memorized all those secret codes and websites by heart—no bookmarks needed! So there was no chance of Luo Xinyu stumbling across anything she shouldn’t in his browser history.
“Besides, I’ve already registered your fingerprint on my phone, along with a few others. Even if we weren’t swapped, you could still unlock it. If I really had something to hide from you, why would I have added your fingerprint in the first place?”
Even though he knew Luo Xinyu wouldn’t misunderstand, Xia Xi couldn’t help adding a few extra words of explanation.
“I know, I know—you’re the best, okay~”
Luo Xinyu’s tone might have sounded impatient, but the upturn of her lips and the arch of her brows gave away her cheerful mood.
What could be more heartwarming than knowing the person you love has nothing to hide from you?
She recalled certain TV dramas where a guy would immediately shove his phone back into his pocket the moment a girl reached for a drink nearby. That kind of guarded, mistrustful life was definitely not what Luo Xinyu wanted.
She could accept Xia Xi being a little flirtatious—even if that meant a few more “sisters” in the mix. She’d manage the relationships between them.
But what she couldn’t accept was Xia Xi being constantly on guard around her. Being treated like a potential snoop would feel absolutely awful.
Fortunately, Xia Xi truly treated her well—whether it was genuine affection or just him being oblivious, she didn’t care.
After using his author dashboard to publish the remaining chapters, Luo Xinyu opened his photo gallery.
She wouldn’t go digging for secrets on purpose, but checking out his photo album was perfectly normal, right?
Xia Xi’s gallery had a ton of photos, and most of them included girls.
There was her, An Xiaoyu, Xia Yue, Lin Xueling, the Liu sisters, and Bai Xiaocha.
Basically, all the girls he interacted with the most.
Of course, these weren’t secret candids—they were mostly just everyday snapshots or group photos from outings together.
One photo in particular caught her attention.
It seemed to have been taken in their university classroom.
In the picture, Lin Xueling—dressed in a clean, pure JK uniform—was resting her head on her arms, sound asleep on the desk.
She must’ve been having a good dream, because a tiny bit of drool was trickling from the corner of her mouth.
And at the bottom of the photo, a cat’s paw appeared out of nowhere, seemingly trying to grab the phone of the person taking the picture.
Luo Xinyu remembered that Lin Xueling had a cat named Youyou—a little furball that was apparently some kind of “senior cat” from her school. The paw in the photo was probably hers.
But why would the cat try to snatch Xia Xi’s phone?
Could it be…
Suddenly remembering Xia Xi’s special ability, Luo Xinyu couldn’t help but let out a laugh.
Who knew little Xue had been through something like that?
But the thought of turning into a cat sounded pretty fun, actually.
She made up her mind right then—next chance she got, she was definitely going to ask Xia Xi to turn her into a cat too, just for the experience~
