Chapter 152: Hot Spring Pass Battle
The ramen for lunch tasted pretty good, but what happened after that was quite beyond Wang Heng’s expectation.
As soon as they walked out of the doorway of the noodle restaurant, Lu Qi asked, “Akihabara is basically done. Shall we go play around somewhere else?”
Wang Heng hadn’t fully let his guard down: “Where to play?”
Lu Qi answered straightforwardly: “Hot spring.”
Soaking in a hot spring—it sounded a bit dangerous…
Wang Heng probed, “It won’t be mixed bathing, right?”
“You mean mixed bathing where men and women soak together? Sorry, I don’t like that much, and in modern Sakura Island Country, it’s hard to find places for mixed bathing.” Halfway through, Lu Qi raised her eyebrow slightly and teased, “Or do you really want to experience mixed bathing?”
Wang Heng said righteously, “No need, a normal hot spring is fine.”
He remembered clearly that he had seen many similar scenes in Sakura Island animation. Boys in one pool, girls in another, separated by a wall in the middle—they could talk to each other, but the wall blocked the view, so they couldn’t see each other.
Presumably, the hot spring Lu Qi was talking about was this kind?
No problem, very low risk.
Seeing that Wang Heng had agreed, Lu Qi called a taxi and headed straight to the suburbs of Edo.
A long time later, when getting out of the car and looking at the hot spring inn in front of him, Wang Heng had a faint bad premonition.
“What are you standing at the doorway for?” Lu Qi walked a few steps, turned back and urged, “Come in with me!”
Wang Heng silently followed her in, and together with Lu Qi, they were led by the waiter into a suite.
Even with a picky eye, the environment of this place was quite nice. They took off their shoes at the doorway of the suite, and upon entering, there was a neat tatami-style room, and moreover, two bedrooms.
There were no beds in the bedrooms, but there was clean white bedding in the wall cabinets, which could be laid out casually when it was time to sleep. Two bedrooms, just right for one for Lu Qi and one for Wang Heng.
After handing a paper bag to Lu Qi, the waiter respectfully bowed and then closed the door and left.
In the paper bag was a pair of men’s swim trunks and a bikini-style women’s swimsuit.
Wang Heng asked, “Don’t they say you have to be naked when soaking in hot springs? Why do we still need to wear swimsuits?”
Lu Qi raised her eyebrow slightly: “You’re so open-minded?”
That faint bad premonition became clearer and clearer in Wang Heng’s mind.
“Sister Lu, this hot spring… it won’t be the two of us soaking together, right?”
Wang Heng finally asked so bluntly.
But Lu Qi didn’t answer directly; instead, she walked to the window side of the living room and pulled open the curtain.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling window was not a courtyard, but a hot spring pool.
Wang Heng was dumbfounded.
Lu Qi explained leisurely, “The one I booked is a private hot spring, meaning the inn room comes with its own hot spring pool. No way, I’ve disliked bathhouses and such since I was little—even if surrounded by the same sex, I’d feel a bit uncomfortable. So if we’re soaking in a hot spring, of course this kind of small pool in a private room is the best.”
Wang Heng’s Adam’s apple bobbed twice, then he said, “Sister Lu, then you should have booked two rooms.”
Lu Qi blinked, seeming a bit surprised: “This suite is very expensive. Booking two rooms would be too luxurious, right?”
Too luxurious… this reason coming from your mouth doesn’t seem very credible.
Lu Qi stuffed the swim trunks into his hand and said again, “What I booked is a one-night two-day set meal, meaning two days and one night. We’ll stay here tonight, and we can soak in the hot spring as much as we want before checking out tomorrow. How about it, isn’t it a great deal?”
Wang Heng couldn’t help but fall into contemplation.
One-night two-day—if he remembered correctly, he’d seen this term somewhere before?
————
Wang Heng first took off his clothes and changed into the swim trunks, then opened the window door of the living room to experience the hot spring.
Looking outside, there was the snowy landscape of winter, covering the courtyard and the fields, shimmering with fragmented golden light in the afternoon sunlight. Wrapping his body, however, was the steaming hot spring water—that warmth seeped from the skin’s surface into the bones, making one involuntarily relax, too languid to move anymore.
Not long after, Lu Qi also slowly walked out from inside and stepped into the hot spring pool.
She was wearing a light blue bikini swimsuit, her exquisite makeup still intact, and on her head, she had put on that fox ear hair accessory again!
Wang Heng stared at her until she sat down, her whole body immersed in the hot spring water… then he silently touched his nose.
Hmm, good, that drop that fell earlier was condensed water vapor, not nosebleed.
Lu Qi looked at him with great interest and suddenly smiled, asking, “What are you thinking about?”
“Emptying my mind, thinking of nothing.”
“You can look forward to dinner later. After soaking in the hot spring, we’re going to have a big meal.”
After saying that, Lu Qi narrowed her eyes, like a cunning yet languidly relaxed fox, quietly gazing at him.
For a moment, Wang Heng felt like he had become a warrior standing alone, isolated and without aid, single-handedly resisting the enemy’s unrestrained army on a narrow battlefield.
In terms of determination and action, Lu Qi was indeed worlds apart from the other three sides. She had a dream last night, and today she launched a frontal attack—its power was astonishingly huge in such a lighthearted manner, terrifying.
It was foreseeable that if he continued to hold out alone, in time, the defenses would inevitably collapse.
But Wang Heng always remembered the strategy he had formulated not long ago: introduce multiple forces to make her aware of competitors’ existence. Once the scummyness was made crystal clear, it would naturally achieve the strategic goal of dissuasion.
Or at least, optimizing the transparency of the asura field would make him safer…
So he sighed, “Sister Lu’s arrangement is really nice. It’s a pity—if only I could bring my girlfriend along, that would be perfect.”
Lu Qi’s expression didn’t change at all, as if she wasn’t surprised in the least, still smiling, “Of course you can. It’s normal to bring family on team-building. Plus, you’ve told me long ago that you have a girlfriend, but I’ve never seen her once—this makes it hard not to be curious.”
Wang Heng: “Then I’ll give her a call later?”
Lu Qi: “No problem at all.”
After soaking a bit more, Wang Heng stood up, said “I’m going to the toilet,” and returned to the living room.
Then, he took out his mobile phone, went into the restroom, and sent a text message to Han Yixuan: 【Sorry, could you please pretend to be my girlfriend again to cover for me? I’ll treat you to a meal when I go home for the New Year as compensation.】
After a few minutes, Han Yixuan replied: 【Sure, how do I cover for you?】
Wang Heng: 【I’ll call you, like a casual check-in greeting.】
Han Yixuan: 【OK, then I’ll wait for your call later.】
Seeing this clear agreement reply, Wang Heng breathed a sigh of relief, and conveniently deleted these text message records.
After deleting, he only then reacted, and couldn’t help but bitter smile:
“We haven’t even confirmed our relationship yet—Lu Qi wouldn’t possibly check my phone anyway. Why bother… tsk tsk, old habits die hard.”
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