Chu Qitong closed the rouge container and put it away. Then, half jokingly, she said to Li Luo, "Make sure to keep it a secret that I accidentally ruined the rouge that Ming Luan gave me. If it really gets back to her, she'll complain again about how I don't cherish the things she gives me."

Upon hearing Chu Qitong's words, Li Luo hurriedly nodded in agreement. She turned around and controlled the lights in Chu Qitong's bedroom, then respectfully took her leave.

After Li Luo left, only Chu Qitong and Ning Zhuangyan were left in the hall. Seeing Li Luo gone, Ning Zhuangyan once again pressed half of her body onto Chu Qitong's, and said, "Darling, should we go to bed now?"

Although Chu Qitong was well aware that Ning Zhuangyan was a woman, for some reason, when she heard the words "to sleep" spoken by Ning Zhuangyan, Chu Qitong couldn't help but feel an unusual sense of strangeness.

When Ming Luan was young, she always liked to stick to Chu Qitong and sleep together. In theory, it shouldn't be anything strange for two girls to sleep together, but looking at the smiling eyebrows and eyes of Ning Zhuangyan in front of her, Chu Qitong's intuition told her that the "going to bed" Ning Zhuangyan mentioned was definitely different from when she used to hold Ming Luan to sleep.

Chu Qitong's expression changed slightly. She pointed in the direction of the inner chamber and said, "You're injured. You should sleep on the bed, and I'll sleep on the soft couch."

"Hua Hua, are you afraid?" Ning Zhuangyan's slender fingers picked up a few strands of long hair hanging by Chu Qitong's ear, sniffed them lightly at the tip of her nose, and said to Chu Qitong with a smile that seemed like a smile.

As they spoke, Ning Zhuangyan's hand skillfully wrapped around Chu Qitong's waist. With a certain amount of strength, she held onto Chu Qitong and walked towards the inner chamber.

Chu Qitong had never come across a girl as frivolous as Ning Zhuangyan. She was taken aback by Ning Zhuangyan's actions and was a little dazed. By the time she regained her senses, Ning Zhuangyan had already taken off her only outer garment and was sitting on the edge of the bed, wearing only a red bellyband, looking at her.

Chu Qitong looked at Ning Zhuangyan, who acted as if she owned his Qiwu Hall, and for a moment didn't know how to speak. Ning Zhuangyan seemed oblivious to Chu Qitong's astonishment. She kicked off her shoes and got on the bed, then moved closer to the inside and patted the vacant spot beside her, saying, "Come up and paint, hurry."

Chu Qitong saw Ning Zhuangyan showing no signs of awkwardness at all. She also decided to stop worrying about anything. She possessed and blew out the candle in front of the bed, then took off her outer robe, leaving only her inner garment as she got on the couch.

As soon as Chu Qitong lay down, in the darkness, Ning Zhuangyan reached out and tugged at the hem of her clothes. It was probably because Ming Luan used to pull on Chu Qitong's clothes whenever she was scared. This small gesture from Ning Zhuangyan made Chu Qitong's heart soften a bit.

Chu Qitong turned over and faced Ning Zhuangyan, asking, "What's wrong, Zhuangyan?"

This was the first time Chu Qitong called Ning Zhuangyan by her name. Unexpectedly, after saying it aloud, the name strangely rolled off her tongue. Ning Zhuangyan seemed to chuckle softly, but Chu Qitong couldn't quite catch it.

"Painting." Ning Zhuangyan suddenly called out Chutong's name, but the conversation ended abruptly. Chutong was puzzled; ordinarily, someone like Ning Zhuangyan wouldn't abruptly stop halfway through a sentence like that.

Before Chu Qitong could voice her doubts, she heard Ning Zhuangyan's slightly cloying voice with a sweet tone, pouting and saying, "Hua Hua, I'm so cold. Can you please hold me?"