“Ah! There’s a ghost!” She suddenly jumped up and threw herself into Gong Yin’s arms.

Sure enough, the next instant, before touching that warm chest, she was politely returned to the corner of the house, feet in the air.

Jing Hengbo lay on the ground and chuckled twice.

She clutched tightly in her hand a purple fruit that she had snatched while pretending to throw herself at Gong Yin.

With the fruit in her hand, that sweet and rich tempting fragrance became even more intoxicating and swaying. This aroma seemed to have magic power, calling her to taste it immediately. She curled up in the corner and secretly took a bite—ah… rich milk flavor, silky texture…

A hand reached over and snatched her delicacy away.

Gong Yin looked down at the fruit with one bite taken from it, his expression darkening slightly, and casually threw the fruit away.

Jing Hengbo angrily pelted him with the remaining astringent fruits.

“I won’t eat anymore! Go ahead and starve me to death if you dare!”

With a thud, she fell backward, like a dead pig unafraid of boiling water.

All around was very quiet. Gong Yin didn’t come over to beat her. After a while, she squeezed open a crack in her eye to peek and saw Gong Yin picking up the scattered fruits, piling them in a corner, then continuing to meditate.

Jing Hengbo found it boring and was also somewhat tired, so she closed her eyes, rolled into a corner, and quickly fell asleep.

She didn’t know how long she had slept when she was awakened by wind sounds overhead.

That rustling sound of branches and leaves moving came again. She nervously opened her eyes wide, listening carefully. The net house was twisted with leaves, with many gaps letting in moonlight. She watched with wide eyes as the pile of fruits in the corner moved once, then again. A black shadow seemed to flash through the gaps…

She counted the fruits—one was missing…

After a while the fruit pile moved again. She counted again—another one was missing.

Sweat appeared on Jing Hengbo’s forehead. She nervously glanced at Gong Yin across from her. Gong Yin’s face was like a white relief sculpture in the darkness, showing no change whatsoever.

This guy’s martial arts were so advanced—shouldn’t he have keen hearing and sight? How could he have no reaction at all?

What was worse, Jing Hengbo suddenly felt her skin becoming taut, her throat very dry, and a line of fire surging up from inside her body, whooshing and burning right into her eyes!

She stared wide-eyed at Gong Yin across from her and suddenly discovered his collar was loose!

His collar had originally been fastened with pearls. After using the pearls as weapons against enemies, the collar naturally opened. Previously, she had been too worried to pay attention, but at this moment, in the darkness, under scattered moonlight, in her tense mood, she suddenly noticed this insignificant change in Gong Yin.

She stared fixedly at that line of collar opening. If Gong Yin’s face was like an exquisite relief sculpture in the darkness, his neck was like a pure white flowing river, and below the river’s extension was a smooth-textured area with delicate collarbones and shoulders and chest…

The fire burned hotter and hotter, her throat dry and painful. She couldn’t help swallowing, making a loud gulp that startled her.

This sound woke Gong Yin. Opening his eyes, he saw the ghostly fire-like gaze of the female wolf across from him floating in the air. Gong Yin paused, followed Jing Hengbo’s gaze to look at his own collar, thought for a moment, then reached out to tear off a section of light green soft stem and leaves from nearby vines, stripped off the tender leaves, leaving only the green stem…

Then Jing Hengbo watched him thread this thing through his collar opening, wind it around like a silk ribbon, then methodically pull it tight and tie an exquisite knot.

…

Jing Hengbo looked at that stem necktie, and the raging fire in her chest was as if doused with cold water, extinguishing with a splash.

So damn embarrassing!

She felt like she had instantly transformed into a sleazy lustful wolf encountering an ascetic ice mountain, seeking love but being disdained, retreating in defeat like the Big Bad Wolf.

Back in the day, she was known as the research institute’s number one beauty, a young man killer. Wherever she went, thousands of men bowed their heads, countless subjects knelt beneath her skirt. It was always others who looked at her with greedy eyes while she played hard-to-get, toying with the world. What was happening today?

A lifetime of reputation ruined in old age—collapse!

Jing Hengbo’s gaze went blank as she fell backward and lay rigidly still.

Her person was well-behaved, but her thoughts surged like tidal waves, or perhaps heat waves surged endlessly within her body, making her face red and ears burning, as if being scratched by countless small hands, never finding the right spot. Before her eyes were scenes of his beautiful swan-like neck, and below the neck, moonlight flowing like water over his skin…

She gripped tightly to the edge of the net ropes, picking at those delicate vines, repeatedly warning herself in her mind, “Don’t pounce, don’t pounce, don’t go, don’t go…”

At some point, all the stems and leaves had been pulled off, and her self-admonishments had become, “Go? Don’t go? Go? Don’t go? Pounce? Don’t pounce? Pounce? Don’t pounce?”

…

Suddenly someone turned her shoulder from behind.

Her mind roared, reason burst its banks, and she whirled around to embrace the person, frantically rubbing against them while reaching to pull at the “green leaf necktie” at Gong Yin’s collar.

Her fingers were caught, and Gong Yin seemed to snort coldly. That snort made her soul fly away, feeling that even a single snort was as beautiful as heavenly music. That green “necktie” seemed to become an insurmountable chasm between her and him. She bounced up trying to bite away that layer of obstruction with her mouth, then planned to tear it off…

The next instant, heaven and earth turned upside down. Her head was somehow already stuffed into a net hole opening, and Gong Yin’s voice sounded behind her: “Spit it out!”

Then her back was patted, her throat made sounds, and something slid out of her mouth. She could see clearly it was that purple fruit flesh, which apparently hadn’t been completely digested.

Half her face was exposed at the net hole. In her dazed state, she seemed to see a short black shadow flash by, faintly making “gugu” laughing sounds, and a furry paw playfully pinched her face—

Jing Hengbo was startled awake, suddenly opening her eyes wide. Just as she was about to see clearly, her body sank as Gong Yin dragged her back.

Jing Hengbo lay on the ground panting. Gong Yin’s face was right above her. Looking at this face and neck now, they were still beautiful, but suddenly she no longer felt the impulse and urgency from before.

She vaguely seemed to understand something.

“That purple fruit…”

“That’s something the masters of this mountain forest use to help with reproduction,” Gong Yin answered euphemistically. Jing Hengbo listened with twitching cheeks—animal-specific aphrodisiac?

No wonder Gong Yin wouldn’t let her eat it. She had thought he was hoarding good food for himself…

“That’s not right, you ate more than me…”

“I have a pure heart and few desires, never controlled by lust,” Gong Yin sat upright with godlike bearing. “Moreover, your beauty is truly insufficient to make me lose control.”

Jing Hengbo swore that given the chance, she would definitely scratch up his face!

Calling him smug! Calling him aloof! Calling him contemptuous! Calling him pretentious!

Those who call Jing Hengbo ugly must be eliminated no matter how far away!

Gong Yin lowered his lashes, taking her anger into his sight, closing it away, locking it up.

Never controlled by lust…

He suddenly thought of her snake-like arms when she turned over, and the burning sweet breath at his ear. In that moment, he suddenly understood that descriptions like “soft as boneless” and “charming as a fox spirit” in legendary novels weren’t just empty words. In that instant of physical contact, it was like soft ocean waves rippling at his side, every inch seeming to suddenly tremble. Moonlight was shattered by the trembling, turning into countless tiny flames drilling into his body. He used great strength to immediately push her away, and even greater strength to maintain that moment’s coldness and determination. Yet until now, at his fingertips and neck sides, her naturally rich fragrance still seemed to linger…

Gong Yin felt he must not have recovered physically and something had gone wrong.

An important way to resolve a restless heart was to shatter all beautiful illusions.

“After eating so many fruits, are you thirsty?” he suddenly asked.

Jing Hengbo found this question very strange and illogical, yet it seemed to remind her of something. She suddenly pressed her lower abdomen and showed a pained expression.

Urgent need to urinate!

Now Jing Hengbo was dumbfounded. She had forgotten this important problem. With both trapped in the net, unable to leave each other, how would they solve physiological needs?

Gong Yin very calmly pointed to a certain net hole in the corner, indicating she should solve it there, then turned his back.

Jing Hengbo’s face turned red then blue then red again. Finally unable to resist the pain in her abdomen, she inched step by step to the corner edge and gradually solved the problem, sucking in her stomach repeatedly, afraid of making even the slightest sound.

To avoid any sounds being heard by him, she wanted to sing, but singing would lose control, so she could only talk.

“How come you don’t need to?”

“I can use internal energy to expel water vapor from my body as much as possible.”

“What about… number two? Can that also be expelled through pores? Won’t you end up with yellow stuff coming out all over your body…” Embarrassment made it easier to babble nonsense.

“By then I should have recovered half my true energy and escaped.” Gong Yin quickly cut off her disgusting words, his face somewhat green.

“Wuu wuu wuu I want to learn martial arts,” Jing Hengbo cried.

Gong Yin ignored her. She hadn’t mentioned learning through all the previous hardships, but only thought of learning martial arts to avoid urinating. Her aspirations and determination were just about that level.

After spending a quarter hour to finish, Jing Hengbo rustled about tidying up. Suddenly lifting her head, through the gap in the net holes, she saw a short black shadow standing opposite, trembling all over with an intoxicated expression as it watched her. When that thing saw her looking over, it lewdly thrust out its little belly.

“Ah!” Jing Hengbo screamed.

Startled, that thing whooshed up, its long tail sweeping across Jing Hengbo’s face as it hooked onto a tree branch above, swung a few times, and disappeared.

Jing Hengbo’s scream stopped abruptly. “Monkey?”

Her eyes went round as she finally noticed countless black shadows scurrying about in the treetops.

So the sounds in the forest, the constantly flashing ghostly shadows, the magical appearance and disappearance of fruits in Gong Yin’s hands—all were the work of these flying monkeys.

“Your monkey story was too exciting,” Gong Yin said behind her. “They came to wait for the ending.”

“The monkey’s ending is!” Jing Hengbo turned around, eyes blazing with anger, “They finally found that bitch An Lingrong who wears white and uses pearls, swarmed over together, and collectively destroyed his chrysanthemum!”