Chapter 195 : Chapter 195
195. I, the Labor God of Shu Mountain
“Coward, huh…”
Hearing those words, Lu Zheng gave a wry twitch of his lips, his heart full of helplessness toward Yi Ning.
Who did she think turned him into a coward in the first place?
Flirting with him at every turn, riling him up until his mind burned with desire, then suddenly switching to an innocent expression like nothing had happened, laughing at him for getting flustered over flames she lit herself…
Lu Zheng only had to show a bit of embarrassment to get teased, but Yi Ning had way more to consider: how to tease, how much skin to show during the tease—it all had to be calculated.
If Lu Zheng hadn’t built up so much experience from getting teased daily by Yi Ning, he would’ve lost control long ago.
Yi Ning’s kind of person—the kind who basically screamed “Come at me! I dare you!”—if Lu Zheng really had no shame...
He still wouldn’t dare do anything. At most, he’d cop a light feel.
Lu Zheng smiled again, helplessly.
That was just who he was.
Sure, he had his fair share of hormonal urges as a teen male. Among his fellow heroes, there were plenty of seasoned playboys.
But Lu Zheng leaned conservative when it came to this stuff.
As a powerful hero, if he wanted, there’d be a ton of girls willing to throw themselves at him. Changing partners weekly wouldn’t be hard at all.
And yet, Lu Zheng remained a virgin.
In his worldview, there was no such thing as “just for fun” or “one-night stands.”
To him, a girl’s chastity was precious.
If he wasn’t ready to take responsibility, he wouldn’t even let his thoughts wander.
He dated with the goal of marriage.
If they were going to end up married anyway, then whether “it” happened a bit sooner or later didn’t matter much.
And as for urges... Well, his left and right royal consorts had been loyally serving him for over a decade. What’s a few more years?
So even if Lu Zheng’s “Lower House” sometimes tried to seize control, when it came to something as major as reproduction, the “Upper House” always held veto power.
Lu Zheng took a few steps back and shrugged at Yi Ning.
“Yeah, that’s right. I am a coward.”
With that, he turned to head for the cabinet, planning to pull out his bedding and settle in for a peaceful night on the floor.
But before he could take a few steps, Yi Ning spoke again.
“Wait.”
Lu Zheng turned back. Yi Ning still hadn’t looked at him, but she reached out and patted the empty space beside her on the bed.
Lu Zheng gave an exasperated sigh. “No matter what you say, I’m not falling for it. In fact, my heart is already as calm as still water. Your temptation has no effect on me!”
Yi Ning was silent for a few seconds. The tips of her ears started turning red.
But just as they flushed, she released the hand supporting her head and buried her ears into the pillow.
Another few seconds passed.
“I’m not messing with you this time. Come on up.”
Her voice, muffled by the pillow, was calm—but if one listened closely, it was easy to catch the faint tremble hidden within.
Clearly, she wasn’t as calm as she pretended to be.
Lu Zheng, with his sensitivity, could naturally detect that trace of emotion—and that trace of emotion made it hard for him to tell what Yi Ning was really thinking.
Could she actually mean it this time?
“Why?”
Lu Zheng asked.
He couldn’t figure out what he had done to deserve this offer of sharing a bed.
Could it be that Yi Ning actually… likes me?
No way, right?
Besides, Yi Ning was originally a guy, wasn’t she?
It hadn’t even been that long—were all people in the Evil Council this wild?
“……”
Faced with Lu Zheng’s direct question, Yi Ning went quiet for a few seconds again. Then she gave a response similar to before.
“You are stuck on this alien planet because of me. And you’ve been tolerating my nonsense the whole way through. When we get back, you’re probably going to get chewed out again because of me… If I sleep in a bed while you sleep on the floor, even the tiny bit of conscience I have left will start to hurt.”
“And even if I let you up here, it’s not like you’d do anything to me, right?”
“I mean, I used to be a guy too. Sleeping in the same bed is basically just two dudes bunking together—nothing to it…”
The more Yi Ning explained, the more her words started to lose coherence.
Honestly, even she wasn’t entirely sure why she was doing this.
Sure, she used to be male. She knew exactly how powerful such a line could be for a guy, how many fantasies it could trigger, and what kind of reactions it might provoke in her own body.
It wasn’t like she felt zero shame about sleeping in the same bed with Lu Zheng.
But compared to that shame, the idea of Lu Zheng sleeping on the floor just made her uncomfortable.
Just thinking about it made her heart feel strangely empty.
And she wasn’t lying about Lu Zheng taking care of her.
Even though Yi Ning was a villain, with laughably low morality points and a fondness for doing whatever she pleased, she wasn’t ungrateful.
Sleeping in the bed while the guy who took care of her slept on the floor—it wasn’t just emotionally uncomfortable, it was also illogical.
It’d cost too much favorability.
They’d finally built up all this goodwill. Letting it all vanish over something like this would be such a waste.
Besides, she was originally the same gender as Lu Zheng.
Two guys sharing a bed… wasn’t a big deal… right?
The more Yi Ning thought about it, the more she felt like letting Lu Zheng sleep in the bed was the right move.
Even the faint resistance and embarrassment buried deep in her heart began to blur.
Wasn’t this just her trying to convince herself?
“Stop overthinking it! I told you to come up here, so just get up here!”
As her shyness faded and her inner resistance crumbled, Yi Ning’s tone became firmer.
She lifted her face from under the pillow, revealing a resolute expression—yet her cheeks still held a lingering blush, giving her an unexpectedly captivating charm.
Damn that charm.
Lu Zheng could feel his Lower House stirring, rapidly pushing motions and trying to seize control of the Upper House.
He took a deep breath and manually forced the Upper House to crush the rebellion.
With all his willpower, he refused Yi Ning’s invitation.
“I’m not coming up!”
Lu Zheng was afraid that if he got into that bed, the Lower House would launch a full coup and things with Yi Ning would spiral into something they shouldn’t.
Too bad his noble intentions failed to reach Yi Ning’s heart.
She furrowed her brow, clearly displeased.
She’d worked up all this mental preparation, buried her embarrassment, and allowed him to share the bed with her—and now he had the audacity to reject her?
“I’m gonna count to three!”
“If you’re not over here by the time I’m done, I’ll have Ji Ping hack your computer, pull out everything, and send it to everyone in your contacts! I’ll even attach a nationwide flight promo code and say it was personally recommended by you after a ‘hands-on’ review!”
Such a vicious plan.
“Three!”
And before Yi Ning even got to “two,” Lu Zheng had already teleported to the exact spot she pointed to.
It wasn’t that Lu Zheng feared her.
He just didn’t want everyone in his contact list getting spammed by Yi Ning, that’s all.