Chapter 43: “Is It Okay to Touch?”

“Take off your outer robe.”

After dinner, Meieruita said calmly.

An Luo blankly tugged at the black wizard robe on his body and probed, “Are you going to do an experiment?”

Not now, so soon…

“No.” Meieruita shook his head. “I’m going to bathe, and the only set of clean clothes I have here is this one.”

A wizard apprentice’s usual attire consisted of three pieces: long pants, a shirt, and an outer wizard robe.

The Wizard Tower was extremely cold, but because the wizard robe’s material was special, there was generally no need to layer much underneath.

An Luo had just come out of the bath, and since Meieruita’s clothes were too loose on him—especially the pants—he had only worn the shirt and wizard robe.

The robe reached his ankles, so from the outside, it didn’t look off at all.

But now…

An Luo had felt a bit shy at first, but then he thought, Meieruita wasn’t a girl, and they were both guys—what was there to be embarrassed about?

He had attended university in the north, where everyone bathed naked in the communal baths, and roommates even scrubbed each other’s backs.

Even though Meieruita’s status was a bit special, he was still a guy, no matter how you sliced it.

Besides, An Luo wasn’t naked; he still had a shirt on, and his undergarments had dried and been put back on.

No big deal.

With that thought, An Luo relaxed.

And best of all, this wasn’t an experiment!

He took off the wizard robe and handed it to Meieruita.

Without the wizard robe’s insulation, the biting cold of the underground laboratory—indistinguishable from the Wizard Tower—made An Luo shiver instinctively.

Meieruita’s shoulders were broader than An Luo’s, so the shirt hung loosely on him, but An Luo wasn’t much shorter, so the length was only a bit longer than his own shirts, reaching midway down his thighs.

An Luo’s legs were very pale, covered in soft, flabby flesh—the kind from a sedentary otaku lifestyle. The bit of muscle he’d built from commuting to work had vanished during his recent shut-in days in the wizard dormitory.

Meieruita had been calmly gazing downward, but after An Luo removed the wizard robe, he swept his eyes over him once and quickly looked away. “Go to the bed.”

“Okay.” An Luo didn’t hesitate and slipped under the covers.

He wasn’t stupid—why stand there freezing when there was a warm spot?

Plus, Meieruita had suggested it himself.

Overhead, the Thorn Beast was still blindly searching, emitting faint rustling sounds.

Meieruita emerged from the dormitory with a misty aura of water vapor. He didn’t return to the desk to study but sat on the edge of the bed instead.

His hair was damp, his long pants and wizard robe neatly on, and the chill of cold bathwater clung to him.

An Luo couldn’t help but ask, “You bathed in cold water?”

“Mm.” Meieruita replied, “It helps strengthen the constitution.”

“Then… is there anything else?”

Meieruita looked at An Luo.

In terms of overall form, An Luo resembled a delicate piece of porcelain—soft, beautiful, and fragile.

Meieruita didn’t even need to use much force; a gentle push would shatter him.

An Luo sat amid the soft bedding, wearing Meieruita’s shirt. The oversized white shirt didn’t fit him well, but with limited options, he had no choice.

When preparing supplies earlier, Meieruita had considered bringing two sets of clothes for changes, but to maintain credibility and avoid suspicion, he had ultimately taken only one.

The scarcity of clothing forced more exposure, creating an imposed intimacy. Sharing the same set of clothes with An Luo allowed them to close the physical distance rapidly, fostering forced closeness on a material level.

Meieruita had considered pushing further but quickly abandoned the idea.

Clothing provided a sense of security; stripping it all away might backfire.

Leaving one piece on made An Luo feel vulnerable, stirring unique emotions, while still preserving basic security.

An Luo felt a chill on his shoulders and pulled the blanket higher, trying to cover everything below his neck.

“My research has hit a bottleneck,” Meieruita said. “I hope you can help me.”

An Luo: “…Huh? Me?”

Help with Meieruita’s experiments?

He asked nervously, “How?”

Not the kind where he lay on a dissection table, right…?

“I’m researching soul witchcraft,” Meieruita said softly. “I need to observe and contact souls.”

“Do you remember the last soul transmission?” he continued calmly. “This time, I want you to take the lead.”

What?

Me as the lead?

As mentioned before, soul transmission was extremely dangerous.

The leading party, if harboring ill intent, could reverse-invade the other’s soul and forcibly extract all their knowledge.

Normally, Meieruita would never do this.

It was like handing his vital point directly to An Luo, betting on whether An Luo would stab him in the back.

Noticing An Luo’s shocked gaze, Meieruita simply said, “To gather more data, I have no choice.”

He raised his eyes. “You won’t hurt me, right?”

His gray-green eyes narrowed slightly, carrying a dangerous edge as Meieruita smiled. “If you reverse-invade my soul, I’ll lock you in here.”

His tone was gentle, half-joking, half-threatening: “Once you know everything about me, you can stay trapped here forever.”

An Luo: “…”

He was certain Meieruita wasn’t joking.

As expected, even when taking risks, Meieruita always had a backup plan.

“Don’t worry, I absolutely don’t want to stay here.”

Meieruita pressed An Luo’s shoulder through the blanket, applying some force that made the soft bedding sink.

Through the thick covers, he said, “I remember, during one of our casual chats, you told me a story called ‘The Princess and the Pea.’ The poor princess, separated by dozens of layers of bedding, could still feel that single pea underneath. She tossed and turned all night, waking with bruises on her back.”

“I can make that a reality.”

“Then, even the simplest, gentlest touch will make you tremble uncontrollably.”

Meieruita’s palm slid slowly, his cool fingertips climbing onto An Luo’s warm neck. “Imagine it, An Luo—friction between fabric and skin will become unbearable, every tiny sensation amplified dozens of times. And that’s just the starting condition. Then add me as a variable. Can you guess what I’ll do to you?”

An Luo: “…”

Live experiments?

Dissection while fully conscious?

You win!

He shivered.

The threats were spot-on, chilling to the bone, but An Luo had never planned to peek into Meieruita’s soul anyway, so while creepy, it was manageable.

After a moment of silence, An Luo quickly changed the subject. “But I don’t know how.”

“No need to worry. I’ll guide you; just follow the sensations.” Meieruita’s tone returned to calm. “But first, I want to ask—what information will you choose to transmit to me?”

An Luo: “Any requests?”

“None.” Meieruita said, “This is just an experiment to deepen my soul insights. The contact process is the focus. But I’m curious—what will you tell me?”

An Luo thought for a moment.

His mind was full of random trivia, but much of it couldn’t be revealed to Meieruita.

Especially anything related to Earth fell into the “can’t say” category.

Earth’s advanced technology—if those precise machines piqued Meieruita’s interest, it’d be over.

So… what to say?

“Stories okay?” An Luo asked. “Not ones I wrote, but ones I heard or saw.”

“Of course.” Meieruita replied, “Though I have no interest in fictional tales, as I said before, this is just an experiment.”

An Luo breathed a sigh of relief.

Meieruita had no interest in stories because he saw them as either daydreams or false psychological comforts with no real value.

Completely harmless.

An Luo prepared quickly.

“Give me your hand,” Meieruita said.

An Luo offered his right hand.

But unexpectedly, Meieruita gripped it and leaned in, his heavy, cool, damp body pressing down, wet strands of hair brushing An Luo’s cheek.

Then, Meieruita lowered his head, resting his chin on An Luo’s shoulder.

He was heavy; leaning over like that left An Luo almost unable to move.

The bitter scent on Meieruita had faded somewhat, replaced by the crisp chill of a cold bath, like a winter gust.

Embarrassment was An Luo’s first reaction.

Why get so close all of a sudden?

Before An Luo could ask, Meieruita explained, “Given your performance during the last soul transmission, going straight to full contact is safer.”

An Luo immediately recalled the previous scene.

Souls were far more sensitive and fragile than bodies. Back then, his brain had felt like it was being zapped by waves of low-voltage current—not painful, but literally “tingling to the scalp” in ecstasy.

Even now, he couldn’t fully recall the soul transmission process.

Meieruita’s voice was low, his warm breath grazing An Luo’s neck as he spoke.

The seventeen-year-old protagonist’s voice hadn’t fully matured, but it already carried a husky depth.

He’d turn eighteen soon.

An Luo vaguely remembered setting the protagonist’s birthday as January 1st.

New Year’s Day, renewal, new beginnings—symbolizing fresh starts.

It was just a few days away.

“I just realized—your eighteenth birthday is coming up soon.”

Meieruita, hearing this, said, “I wonder if we can get out before then. If we do, I can try making you a bowl of noodles.”

He lowered his eyes. “And if not?”

“Ah, then we’ll postpone it. Celebrating a few days late should be fine, right?”

“…Mm.”

An Luo was relatively slender overall, without the strength to support Meieruita; the wooden bed frame bore most of the weight.

Meieruita knew this well but still pressed his full weight down.

His gray-green eyes observed closely.

An Luo didn’t seem comfortable, but he didn’t protest or suggest a different position.

“Shall we start?” An Luo asked, unaware of Meieruita’s gaze.

“Mm.”

An Luo closed his eyes and tilted his head to the side.

His fingertips tentatively touched Meieruita’s cheek. “Is it okay to touch once?”

“It’s fine.”

An Luo turned his face, pressing his forehead against Meieruita’s.

Immediately, he felt a gentle soul energy guiding him, allowing him to touch Meieruita’s soul.

At the same time, Meieruita began to tremble faintly.