Lu Tingyan didn't let her go until they had walked some distance. "Bai Su, are you that desperate?"
"???" Bai Su said, "Is there something wrong with you?"
'What's gotten into him?'
'All I did was bring the workers some water.'
'Does he have to think so poorly of me?'
She retorted indignantly, "What did I do? They're working their butts off repairing the road up to the orphanage, slaving away from dawn till dusk in this summer heat. What's so wrong with me buying them some water? Or does Major General Lu's heart of stone demand that everyone be just like you?"
From under the brim of his cap, Lu Tingyan's gloomy, narrow eyes stared hard at her.
In the moonlight, her gaze was exceptionally clear and candid.
Although she was very overweight, her eyes were quite large.
The soft, bright moonlight filtered through her long lashes, casting a mix of shadow and luminous halo that made her eyes look both deep and pure.
Lu Tingyan was at a loss for words. He believed that a woman as unscrupulous as Bai Su could easily go around seducing people.
But those eyes were simply too candid and pure, making him begin to doubt his own judgment.
However, females received the appropriate education from a young age. It was impossible for her not to know that the natural scent a female emitted had an aphrodisiac effect on males.
Especially in summer, the unique natural scent of females was simply impossible to conceal.
For that reason, summer was the peak season for males to go into a frenzy.
Most females rarely went out during the summer.
She, on the other hand, not only went out late at night, but she had also been exercising. She was dripping with sweat from head to toe, like a mobile aphrodisiac incense burner, and she dared to stand right in the middle of a group of workers.
And…
Lu Tingyan's brow furrowed so deeply it could have crushed a fly.
He clearly detested this woman. The only reason he'd been kind enough to save her tonight was that one doesn't bite the hand that feeds; he needed her food to restore his spiritual power.
But that damn, fresh scent of peaches from her body uncontrollably wormed its way into his nose, teasing him to the point of restlessness.
'What the hell? Restless?'
He hadn't felt anything for a female in years.
Even when facing the most seductive widow among the nobility, Zhu Li, he could be inundated with her scent all night and remain perfectly composed, without any physiological reaction.
Bai Su, completely oblivious, even gave him an angry shove. "Well? What's wrong with me buying some water to treat them?"
Little did she know that with her movement, the light fabric of her shirt swayed, and the sweat-soaked cloth clung tightly to her body. It was simply…
The tips of Lu Tingyan's ears turned red. He averted his gaze, his face cold. "I don't care what tricks you're playing, but not in my jurisdiction!"
With that, he turned and headed down the mountain, his usually precise and rhythmic steps now tinged with a subtle disarray.
Bai Su rolled her eyes. "Psycho!"
She didn't take it to heart, turning and humming a little tune as she walked back to the orphanage at the mountaintop.
That's just how it is after a good workout; you feel refreshed, as if all your worries have been washed away with the sweat.
She made a late-night snack with Bai Xiaolang in the kitchen before finally going upstairs.
After her late-night snack, the sticky feeling on her body was even more noticeable.
This was something she'd discovered a couple of days ago. It seemed that after exercising, her pores would open up, and if she then ate something she cooked herself, her body would expel even more impurities.
Bai Su quickly grabbed her pajamas and went to take a shower.
When she emerged, fresh and clean, she was once again like a fair, translucent peach.
She casually towel-dried her hair and stepped on the scale.
In the nearly half a month she'd been here, she had already lost twenty pounds.
To lose twenty pounds without even dieting—who could understand such joy?
Bai Su threw her entire body onto the soft bed, wrapped herself in the blankets, and was soon fast asleep.
While she slept sweetly, someone else was wide awake.
Lu Tingyan tossed and turned, unable to sleep. As soon as he closed his eyes, his mind was flooded with scenes from the evening.
Her eyes, glistening with moisture under the moon.
Her snow-white skin, shimmering with beads of sweat.
Her cheeks, faintly flushed crimson.
The wet tip of her tongue, occasionally peeking out as she spoke.
The light fabric of her shirt, rippling like water as she pushed him.
Damn it!
Lu Tingyan shot up in bed and slapped himself across the face.
'Had he gone insane?'
'How could I be obsessing over that woman like some animal in heat!'
Especially after what that other woman had done to him all those years ago—something so disgusting!
Lu Tingyan fought back his nausea and forced himself to repeatedly recall the events of that year. Only then did he calm down.
But while his mind had calmed, his body refused to do the same.
He attributed it to Bai Su's deliberate seduction from earlier.
'That must be it. How could Bai Su not know what effect a female's natural scent has on a male?'
'She must be parading herself in front of me on purpose!'
A frosty glint passed through Lu Tingyan's eyes as he got up and went into the bathroom.
Soon, the sound of the shower running came from the bathroom.
But he would find out the next day.
Bai Su truly had no idea what kind of effect a female's natural scent could have.
She was just a fucking idiot!
「The next day.」
Bai Su was hauling a sack of food up from the base of the mountain.
It was a sack of rice.
For a male, carrying a twenty-pound sack of rice up the mountain would be a piece of cake.
But for a delicate female, such heavy labor was clearly beyond their capacity.
Bai Su was sweating profusely under the sun, struggling up the mountain with the sack of rice. She left a thick trail of her peach scent in her wake.
As she passed the construction crew, several workers grew dazed, and one even got his foot crushed by a machine.
Lu Tingyan's face was dark as he lifted the sack of rice from her shoulder. Veins bulged on his forehead as he suppressed his fury. "Bai Su, what in the world are you trying to do?"
Bai Su looked completely bewildered. "Are you insane? Is carrying rice getting in your way now too?"
Lu Tingyan pointed at the workers, who were dazed and practically floating from the peach scent, and demanded in a low voice, "What are you thinking, seducing them so brazenly like this?"
Bai Su suppressed her own anger, shoved him aside, and snatched her rice back.
Her face dark, she pointed at the sack. "I just went down the mountain to buy rice! We're out of food up here, the delivery guy is out on a run and can't deliver until this afternoon, but that pack of little rascals on the mountain is crying out to be fed, and there's you, you bottomless pit, to feed as well!"
"So I went through all this trouble to haul a sack of rice up the mountain myself so we could scrape something together for lunch, understand?"
The more Bai Su spoke, the angrier she got. She stared at Lu Tingyan as if he were a complete moron. "You're a man... a Major General, aren't you? Where's your brain? You think I've got nothing better to do than come out here in broad daylight, letting my face get sunburned instead of enjoying the AC, just to seduce them??"
"Of course, I'm not looking down on the hardworking men here. I just think that you, repeating the same accusation to slander me over and over, are acting like a fucking idiot!"
"I'm even starting to wonder how you got your position as Major General. You didn't fuck your way to the top, did you?"
Lu Tingyan's face darkened. "You!"
Sparks flew as their gazes clashed in midair.
Lu Tingyan stared into her eyes, and an incredible thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.
'This woman... she really doesn't seem to realize there's anything wrong with what she's doing.'
'Logically, she should be the type to do anything to climb the social ladder.'
'Among the people present, the workers had no status, and he, a useless, retired Beastman, wasn't worth her effort.'
'She had absolutely no reason to go to all this trouble, spreading her scent time and again to seduce them.'
Lu Tingyan narrowed his eyes and stared at her. "Is your brain broken, or did you really forget? A female's scent can easily trigger a male's arousal. You're covered in sweat. The scent of peaches has practically marinated this entire mountain path."
Bai Su was dumbfounded. "Huh?"