Chapter 44: The Humiliation of the Bathhouse

Ultimately, under the guise of their ‘benevolent’ coercion, Jin found herself being half-heartedly swept along.

She didn’t even have a chance to order the luxurious takeout she had been dreaming of.

Instead, they ushered her towards the base’s public bathhouse, a place that was perhaps too spacious and perpetually shrouded in a thick, steamy mist.

The moment she stepped into the bathhouse, a wave of warm, humid air, infused with the fresh scent of shower gel, enveloped her.

The immense bathing pools, rows upon rows of shower stalls, and the assortment of toiletries thoughtfully provided in every corner all attested to the facility’s comprehensive amenities.

Yet, for Jin, whose sole desire was solitude and a fleeting moment of tranquility, this communal space felt less like a relaxing bathhouse and more like a public execution.

She deliberately dragged her feet, seeking out the most secluded shower stall in the farthest corner, as if hoping to shrink herself into the very wall.

However, the other three clearly had no intention of allowing her any chance for ‘self-imposed isolation’.

Lin Wan, as lithe and agile as a fish, immediately claimed the shower stall right beside Jin, humming a cheerful tune as she began to rinse off.

Xia Yue, meanwhile, chose a slightly more distant position, but one that afforded her an excellent vantage point. Her movements remained as elegant and composed as ever, as though she were not there to bathe but to conduct a formal inspection.

Yu Niannian, on the other hand, stuck to Jin’s side, a curious shadow, playfully fiddling with the shower controls. The resulting splashes nearly drenched Jin’s face.

Jin: “…” She silently adjusted the showerhead to the lowest stream, turning her back to the trio. Mechanically, she began to wet her hair and apply shampoo, her sole desire to swiftly conclude this excruciating ‘public execution’.

A cloud of white foam gradually enveloped her hair, releasing a fresh, invigorating scent of mint.

With her eyes closed, she vigorously massaged her scalp, trying to wash away every trace of embarrassment and helplessness with the cascading suds.

Just as her hair was thoroughly lathered, her vision completely obscured, and her senses dulled by the ceaseless rush of water—

A mischievous hand, silently and with playful intent, reached out from beside her!

It was Lin Wan!

Seizing the moment Jin’s eyes were closed, lost in the lathering, Lin Wan’s fingers, quick as a serpent, burrowed into the dense foam on Jin’s head. Then—she lightly tickled Jin’s scalp!

“Yaaah!”

The sudden, ticklish sensation made the unsuspecting Jin jolt violently, crying out in surprise, much like a cat whose tail had been abruptly stepped on!

She instinctively drew her neck back, her body lurching backward in a conditioned reflex. The floor beneath her feet, slicked with shower gel, instantly became perilously slippery!

“Thump!”

With a muffled thud and a violent splash, Jin completely lost her footing, landing with a solid impact on the slick, wet floor. The sharp pain radiating from her backside made her wince, her face contorted.

To compound her misery, a considerable amount of the white foam from her head had, with her fall, splattered onto the innocent Yu Niannian standing nearby. Some even flew to land near Xia Yue’s feet, a little further off.

“Hahahahaha!” The instigator, Lin Wan, erupted into a thunderous, utterly unsympathetic peal of laughter at Jin’s utterly disheveled state. She bent over, tears practically streaming from her eyes. “Jin, your reaction is just too amusing! You’re like a startled rabbit!”

Yu Niannian, splattered with foam, paused for a moment. Far from showing any anger, she found the situation quite amusing and giggled along with Lin Wan. She even dabbed a finger into the foam on her face, examining it with childish curiosity.

Xia Yue, though she didn’t overtly laugh, watched Jin sitting on the ground, her head crowned with foam like a peculiar white top hat, her face a comical blend of bewilderment and indignation. The corners of Xia Yue’s lips curved upward almost imperceptibly before swiftly resuming their serene composure. She merely cast a faint, implicitly warning glance at Lin Wan.

“Lin! Wan!” Jin, still sprawled on the ground, seethed with a mix of shame and fury. Her head still crowned with foam, she pointed a trembling finger at the convulsing Lin Wan. “You! What exactly do you think you’re doing?!”

‘Her backside throbbed, her scalp still tingled with a lingering itch, but most importantly—it was utterly humiliating! To have fallen flat on her back in front of so many people (even if it was just the four of them)!’

“Oh, come on, it was just a joke~” Lin Wan finally managed to stifle her laughter. She crouched down in front of Jin, a mischievous grin still playing on her lips, and reached out to brush the foam from Jin’s face. “Who told you to wear such a long, suffering expression just now? You practically begged to be teased.”

“Go away!” Jin huffily slapped Lin Wan’s hand away, struggling to regain her footing. The floor, however, remained treacherous, and she nearly tumbled again, only to be clumsily but swiftly caught by Yu Niannian at her side.

“Are you alright, big sister?” Yu Niannian asked with genuine concern, her small hands gently patting the water droplets from Jin’s back.

Jin gazed at Yu Niannian’s innocent face, then at the still-grinning Lin Wan beside her, and finally at Xia Yue in the distance—who, though not actively participating, had clearly condoned the entire spectacle. A profound sense of powerlessness washed over her.

‘With these three individuals, her sense of shame and any hope for peaceful days were, she realized, irrevocably lost.’

She sighed in resignation, her head still a chaotic mass of foam, as she rinsed off under the cascading water. Her mind was already racing, plotting: next time she bathed, she would absolutely lock the door. No, even better, she would find a secret base they could never, ever discover!

However, no sooner had this desperate thought formed than she heard Lin Wan’s excited proposition from beside her: “Let’s all bathe together every single day from now on! Imagine how lively it’ll be!”

Jin: “!!!”

No—! A desperate wail echoed within her heart.

‘It seemed that even this most fundamental freedom—the simple act of bathing alone—was about to be ruthlessly snatched from her.’

After what felt like an eternity, she finally managed to rinse the last of the suds from her hair and body. Jin felt as though she had just fought a grueling battle, utterly exhausted both physically and mentally.

Half-surrounded by the trio, she was ‘graciously invited’ into the spacious, steaming hot spring pool nestled on one side of the bathhouse.

The warm spring water, enveloping her body, did indeed offer a fleeting measure of solace. Yet, the utterly despondent expression on Jin’s face remained entirely unchanged.

She slid down against the pool wall, allowing the spring water to rise to her chin, leaving only a face etched with the sentiment ‘life is not worth living’ visible. Her eyes were vacant, staring blankly into the swirling mist.

Yu Niannian, like a carefree little fish, splashed playfully in the hot spring before swimming over to Jin. Observing her despondent demeanor, Yu Niannian’s small face filled with a mixture of worry and confusion.

She edged closer, her voice a soft whisper: “Big sister… are you truly so unwilling to bathe with us? Are you… not happy when you’re with us?”

Her voice was soft, laced with a touch of innocent grievance, and it brushed against Jin’s eardrums as lightly as a feather.

Jin slowly turned her head, staring blankly at Yu Niannian.

Her gaze, quite involuntarily and with a hint of comparison she herself didn’t even consciously register, swept over Yu Niannian’s chest. Damp from the spring water, it revealed subtle, pleasing curves. Then, swiftly and with an almost palpable despair, Jin’s eyes dropped to her own chest, which was so negligible, as flat as an airport runway.

An indescribable wave of bitterness and profound self-deprecation surged through her.

She lifted her head, her expression utterly devoid of hope as she looked at Yu Niannian. In a voice that bordered on sleepwalking, she uttered a seemingly nonsensical question:

“…Niannian, what’s your… cup size?”

“Eh?” Yu Niannian was utterly bewildered by the sudden question. She blinked her large eyes, a faint blush creeping onto her cheeks. Despite her confusion, she answered honestly, a touch of innocent pride in her voice: “It’s, it’s a B!”

B…

That single letter descended like a bolt of lightning, striking Jin’s already fragile nerves with devastating precision.

She fell silent.

For a full five seconds.

Then, under Yu Niannian’s utterly bewildered gaze, Jin silently and slowly raised her hand. She picked up the dry white towel draped nearby, unfolded it, and then—with a sudden, decisive motion—covered her entire face, completely obscuring her features along with her profoundly despairing expression.

Her entire being seemed to instantly drain of all color, transforming her into a gray-white sculpture named ‘Despair’ within the steaming hot spring.

“Big sister?” Yu Niannian grew even more perplexed. She reached out, intending to gently lift the towel. “What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”

Jin pressed the towel firmly against her face, a muffled, trembling reply emerging from beneath its folds: “…Don’t mind me… Just let me… be alone for a moment…”

‘She desperately needed a moment to digest this cruel reality, to mourn her all-encompassing ‘paucity’—a paucity that manifested not only in her magical prowess but, even more painfully, in her very physical attributes.’

Lin Wan, who had witnessed the entire exchange, first froze for a fleeting moment. Then, she erupted into a peal of laughter even more exaggerated than before, swaying uncontrollably and slapping the water’s surface. “Puhahahahaha! Jin, you… why on earth would you ask that?! Are you intentionally trying to humiliate yourself, hahahaha! Oh, I can’t, I’m absolutely dying of laughter!”

Even the usually aloof Xia Yue, observing Jin with a towel draped over her head, radiating an undeniable aura of ‘I want to be left alone’, couldn’t help but turn her head. Her shoulders twitched almost imperceptibly, a clear indication that she was struggling mightily to suppress her own amusement.

Yu Niannian looked at the uproariously laughing Lin Wan, then back at Jin, who remained ‘playing dead’ beneath the towel. Although she didn’t fully grasp the situation, she vaguely sensed she had inadvertently uttered something that had deeply disheartened her big sister. Her small mouth formed a pout, and she awkwardly stirred the hot spring water.

Beneath the towel, Jin listened to Lin Wan’s infectious laughter, sensing the sheer ‘malice’ of the world around her, and a wave of utter desolation swept through her.

‘This life truly isn’t worth living!’

‘A magical weakling, of dubious identity, pursued by high-ranking witches, monitored by organization bigwigs, and now surrounded by three eccentric ‘guardians’ who could cause her social demise at any moment… And now, even her most basic ‘dignity’ as a woman had been cruelly trampled!

‘Was her life as a witch truly destined to be utterly crushed in every conceivable way?’

In that moment, Jin profoundly felt that, compared to all the fighting and killing, it was this pervasive ‘mental assault’ from life and her companions that truly broke her.