Chapter 35: Social Death or Rumor?

It is common knowledge that when a person experiences intense pain or stimulation, the body’s instincts can lead to a loss of bladder and bowel control.

Having just endured both extreme stimulation and excruciating pain, one might wonder: what state was Dugu Yan in now?

Although Chen Ming had already neutralized the paralytic toxin, it would take some time for the effects to fully wear off. Combined with the lingering pain throughout her body, Dugu Yan was completely unable to discern her own condition. Though she was a Douluo spirit master with no concept of physics, Dugu Yan truly understood what it meant to be in a state of quantum superposition. She wanted to ask Chen Ming, but she was too shy to speak. She wanted to ignore it, but she lacked the thick-skinned audacity to do so.

After a few minutes of silence, Chen Ming stood up and extended his arms, preparing to carry Dugu Yan to the school infirmary. Just as he was about to lift her, Dugu Yan finally closed her eyes, her face flushed crimson, and spoke.

"Um... could you wait? Could you wait for a moment?"

"Huh? What for?" Chen Ming did not understand what she meant, so he crouched down, looking curiously into her eyes.

Feeling the warmth of a male peer and the breath so close to her face, Dugu Yan felt as if her face were on fire. However, to avoid becoming the center of gossip in the academy for the foreseeable future, she gritted her teeth and confessed.

"I might have... had an accident with my personal hygiene..."

"You’re worrying about your image at a time like this? Do you not care about your life?" Seeing Dugu Yan’s disheveled hair and face covered in snot and tears, Chen Ming assumed she was concerned about her appearance, and his tone turned stern.

Upon hearing this, Dugu Yan finally gave up, saying in a voice on the verge of tears, "I might have... soiled myself..."

Chen Ming stiffened. He looked down at the hem of Dugu Yan’s dress, which had become damp at some point, and felt his entire body go rigid. He shifted his gaze to his own trousers, which were also stained, and for a moment, he was at a complete loss for words.

After a long silence, Chen Ming sighed, abandoned all thought, and pulled a blanket—originally intended for field use—from his storage spirit tool, preparing to wrap her up. Just as he was about to do so, Dugu Yan spoke up hurriedly.

"Could you... please help me clean up? There are spare clothes and fresh water in my storage spirit tool..." Her voice became barely audible, and had Chen Ming not possessed acute senses, he would never have heard her.

"Are you serious?" Chen Ming asked, his voice stiff as he looked at the blanket in his hand and then at the self-abandoned girl before him.

"Yes..."

"I have already been exposed to you... if others or the teachers saw this, I would be..."

"Are you sure?"

"I am..."

"You won't cause trouble for me in the future?"

"I won't."

"Should I wrap you in more blankets? So outsiders won't notice? If that doesn't work, should I have Teacher Niu call for a healing-type instructor?"

"No... just help me..."

Dugu Yan closed her eyes, falling silent, her face burning with intensity. With no other choice, Chen Ming carefully picked her up and carried her to a corner. He retrieved the clothes and water from her storage tool and awkwardly cleaned her up.

Even beautiful girls go to the bathroom, and even their mess smells. Chen Ming never imagined he would have the opportunity to change someone in such a state. If it were his own child or an elderly relative, he might accept it, but this? What even was this situation?

After dressing the unresisting Dugu Yan like a ragdoll, Chen Ming looked down at his own soiled clothes, fell silent for a moment, and then hid away to quickly change into a new set. He then picked up the "playing dead" Dugu Yan and headed toward the cave entrance.

Outside, the rain had cleared, and a rainbow hung at the edge of the clouds. Niu Dali was sitting on a stool in the sun, enjoying the post-rain scenery and eating a melon.

When he saw Chen Ming emerge from the cave carrying a blushing, motionless Dugu Yan, Niu Dali was so startled that he swallowed the watermelon rind he had been about to discard. He reached for the fried chicken, but instead shoved a chicken bone into his nostril, standing there in a frozen, dazed state.

"You two... what is this?"

"Teacher Niu, don't ask. Just pretend nothing happened today."

"But, this..." As Niu Dali started to stand up to check on them, Dugu Yan, who had been pressing her face firmly against Chen Ming’s chest, turned her head and glared fiercely at him.

Stunned, Niu Dali sat back down. He picked up the watermelon rind and began to gnaw on it mechanically. "I saw nothing. I noticed nothing at all..."

"Sigh." Chen Ming sighed, ignored Niu Dali’s expression, and hurried toward the infirmary with Dugu Yan in his arms.

Once Chen Ming was out of sight, Niu Dali pulled the chicken bone out of his nostril. He looked down at the grass, his heart filled with shock.

"They changed their clothes... a man and a woman, in that cave, changing clothes, and the woman couldn't even stand and had to be carried..."

"Oh heavens! Am I going to be silenced by a Titled Douluo for this?!"

At that thought, Niu Dali jumped up, scattering his fried chicken and melon everywhere. To ensure his survival, his brain whirred like a helicopter propeller, and he quickly devised a desperate scheme.

"The more people who know, the safer I am... No, I must spread this news quickly and reasonably..."

"I'm afraid to tell the three education committee members, or I might be silenced. I need to find someone with a similar spirit power level, someone who can't kill me too quickly, to use as a buffer..."

With that, Qin Ming’s face immediately appeared in his mind. He no longer cared about guarding the mimetic training ground and began to run with the greatest speed of his life. Despite being an assault-type spirit master, his explosive speed far exceeded that of an average agility-type Spirit King.