Zhu Yuan's brain blue-screened completely. Her CPU was fried, leaving only the cooling fan—her heart—whirring madly inside her chest. The whole world turned into a blur of heavy pixelation, and the only thing still rendered in ultra-high-definition 4K was Zhe beneath her, who at this moment was "fully exposed." Every detail was seared into her retinas, down to the bead of water on his chest that clung there on the verge of falling, refracting the harsh light from the bathroom ceiling.
Time seemed glued in place.
Only Zhe, after being roasted alive by those stunned yet scorching gazes and feeling his scalp go numb, finally managed—through the last remnants of a special agent's willpower—to squeeze out the incantation that might reboot the world:
"Uh… um… Officer Zhu Yuan…" His voice was as dry as sandpaper scraping wood, his chest visibly rising and falling with the effort of breathing. "C-could you… maybe… get off me first? And… um… the towel…"
The words the towel were like a precisely thrown grenade pin, instantly detonating Zhu Yuan's deadlocked nervous system.
"Eee—AAAHHHHHHHH—!!!"
A scream powerful enough to shatter glass and blast straight through the upper limit of human shame ripped through the frozen bathroom air like an air-raid siren. Zhu Yuan reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. Every muscle in her body locked, then sprang. She tried to launch herself dramatically off Zhe in a clean, acrobatic leap.
Unfortunately, she forgot the floor was wet.
In her panic, her jump became a ridiculous slip. Her body lost balance again, both hands flailing helplessly in the air as she nearly crashed face-first right back onto him.
At the critical moment, Zhe gave up on worrying about being naked and fully embraced survival instinct—mostly because he really did not want to be body-slammed twice in a row. He shot both arms out, caught Zhu Yuan cleanly by the upper arms, and with all the strength in his waist and core, yanked her to the side—
Thunk!
Zhu Yuan landed in a not-too-undignified sideways tumble onto the anti-slip mat beside him, while Zhe, thanks to the rebound, lightly knocked the back of his head on the floor again with a resigned little thud.
The two of them lay there side by side on the wet tiles, separated by a delicate, vapor-filled strip of personal space.
Zhu Yuan was breathing hard, eyes unfocused, staring straight up at the bathroom heater lamp as if the secrets of the universe had been written there.
Zhe, meanwhile, remained sprawled with both arms stretched out like a washed-up starfish who had long since given up resisting fate.
Then, a half-second late, Zhu Yuan's senses came back online.
Her neck turned, slowly, jerkily, one notch at a time. Her eyes drifted over Zhe's dead-inside profile—then lowered.
Stopped.
"!!!"
The blood in her body detonated upward all at once.
With a movement worthy of a tactical combat roll, she shot off the floor and actually managed to stand this time—though she was as rigid as a plank. She did not dare turn around. She did not dare look down. She did not dare make any unnecessary movement. Relying only on the directional instinct drilled into her as an officer, she spun one hundred and eighty degrees and prepared to flee this nightmare scene.
Then she slammed directly into three human walls.
At the doorway stood her father, her mother, and Belle, positioned in a perfect triangular formation, completely blocking her escape route. Six eyes, like six high-powered spotlights, illuminated her from head to toe until there was nowhere left to hide.
Her father's expression was profound as an ancient well, though the faint twitch at the corners of his eyes betrayed the tidal wave crashing through his mind. Very slowly, very deliberately, he turned his head to stare at the wall instead, as though he had suddenly developed a deep academic interest in some tiny imperfection in the wallpaper. Only the suspicious redness at the tips of his ears ruined the effect.
Her mother bent down and picked up the fallen thermos again, trying very hard to assemble the calm, understanding smile expected of a sensible elder. Unfortunately, the corners of that smile were trembling, and her eyes were shining with the violent light of my daughter finally opened up, but what on earth do I say now?
"X-Xiaoyuan…" she began, doing her utmost to keep her voice steady. "Maybe… maybe we should step outside first and let this… young man… get dressed?"
Belle still had both hands clamped over her face, but the gaps between her fingers were wide enough to drive a truck through. Peeking shamelessly through them, she let her gaze bounce between her brother's disastrous condition and Zhu Yuan's back, which looked ready to burst into flames at any second. At last, in a trembling whisper that could have been barely suppressed laughter or barely suppressed shock, she said:
"Bro… your only bath towel… is still in Officer Zhu Yuan's hand…"
Zhu Yuan was struck by lightning.
Mechanically, she looked down.
Sure enough, in her right hand was a wet, wrinkled, heavy lump of gray fabric.
At that moment it was no longer a towel. It was a live grenade that had already entered countdown and was burning through her palm.
"H-h-h-here—take it!!"
Her brain abandoned all higher function. Zhu Yuan squeezed her eyes shut and, with the force and precision of someone throwing a flashbang—though unfortunately without the actual precision—hurled the towel behind her in the general direction where Zhe probably was.
Smack!
A soft, damp impact.
Judging by the sound… she had definitely hit him.
But none of that mattered anymore.
Zhu Yuan launched herself like a rocket, head lowered, face blazing red, charging through the narrow gap between her parents and Belle at the speed of a hundred-meter dash. The stairs immediately erupted in a rapid series of frantic thud-thud-thud-thud footsteps that faded into the distance.
Mr. and Mrs. Zhu looked at one another and saw the exact same complicated mixture in each other's eyes: shock, confusion, absurdity… and perhaps, maybe, a tiny trace of "our daughter finally looks a little like a normal girl."
"Ahem. We… should go downstairs and check on Xiaoyuan," Mr. Zhu said, clearing his throat and reclaiming his dignity as an elder. He gently pulled his still-processing wife along with him and headed down the stairs.
Belle stayed behind at the door.
Slowly lowering her hands from her face, she wore an expression that was some impossible blend of sympathy, secondhand embarrassment, and overwhelming curiosity. She leaned in and peeked into the bathroom.
Zhe was still lying there in a giant "X," his face covered by the wet towel Zhu Yuan had just hurled back at him. He did not move at all, like someone whose soul had already left his body. Only the faint rise and fall of his chest proved he remained among the living.
"Bro…" Belle called softly, her tone full of pity. "Do you need me to call an ambulance? Maybe for the psychiatry department?"
From beneath the towel came Zhe's muffled voice, hollow and lifeless, as though drifting in from the edge of the universe itself:
"…Belle… activate emergency protocol 'Erase Social Death'… or just throw me into the nearest black hole… immediately… right now…"
Belle gently pulled the bathroom door shut, sealing away the atmosphere inside—a heady mix of red-date tea, shower gel, and top-tier embarrassment worthy of recording in the annals of history.
Downstairs, faintly, came Zhu Yuan's incoherent attempts at explanation, the soft and suspiciously smile-suppressed questions from her parents, and finally Belle's own laughter—clear and silver and unstoppable now—that in Zhe's ears sounded like the triumphant cackle of a demon.
Zhe remained on the floor, letting the cold tiles drain away the last of his body heat.
Today, Kamen Rider ZZZ had not been defeated by a Nightmare.
He had been defeated by a bath towel—
and by one panicked public security officer.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 172)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 116)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter69)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter119)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 66
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 50
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 52
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 55
The Way the Umamusume Look at 42
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 40
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 36
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 30
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 26
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 26
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