"But in the end, my trip was diverted to a different island. Turned out that a friend of mine told me his other friend wanted only a Westerner to be on his island.

So I just got a free trip to the Bahamas as compensation. Away from what was originally meant to be a work trip on a private island."

As Xiaoyun finished telling his story, Lily was long asleep on the water bed. Her eyes were fully closed as she let out a small, steady breath.

"Lily, you awake?"

Seeing her not respond to his whisper, Xiaoyun let out a small sigh of relief in his head as he slowly got out of the water.

After pulling the bathtub plug to let the water drain, he quickly grabbed a towel to wipe himself and put his old clothes back on.

Next, Xiaoyun tiptoed over to the exit, closing the door behind him and leaving Lily alone in the room.

Standing outside, he decided to check his phone, only to see thousands of messages in the family group chat.

"Why did I put the phone on silent?"

Just scanning through the first few lines of messages, it became clear that Yueyue had snitched on both him and Lily.

They all knew he had gone to the bar at the beginning. All before Leyan gave Xiaoyun the phone call earlier.

He had fallen right into a trap, as the recent messages indicated Yueyue was still tracking Lily every step of the way.

They even knew which love hotel they were staying at, including the specific type of hotel room Lily ordered.

"For fuck sake, why can’t Yueyue keep a secret for once?"

The more Xiaoyun read the messages, the more he felt hurt by his wives. All of them were making bets between him and Lily.

Even Wuli, who was far out from Luoping, managed to gain a phone signal to join in the bet alongside everyone else.

The majority of them were betting against him, thinking that he was going to make the ’raw’ rice into cooked rice.

Only Shuli and Anna guessed differently, albeit rather than him taking the initiative, choosing Lily to be the one taking the initiative.

"Too bad all of you are wrong. I didn’t do anything with her."

The moment Xiaoyun sent the exact message into the group chat, it instantly sent the group chat into a frenzy.

Messages were being sent left and right, all asking him to take pictures as proof, almost as if they only cared about the bet and nothing else.

Xiaoyun: You all know Lily is going to see this tomorrow when she wakes up, right? She’s going to be really hurt by you all betting on us.

This time, the group chat fell into dead silence. Not a single person typed anything back to him at all.

Xiaoyun: And no. I’m not going to take a picture of her sleeping. You all can ask her yourself tomorrow if you want to know the answer.

Leyan: Where are you going to sleep today then?

Xiaoyun: Not home.

Before anyone could respond, Xiaoyun closed his phone as he put it back into his pocket, putting it on silent.

"Bunch of asshole. What’s Lily going to react when she sees all of her sisters treating her as something to bet on?"

Every second of thinking about it, the angrier Xiaoyun got. He just couldn’t believe he was being tracked and being bet on.

More importantly, all of them were doubting his character. All of them clearly thought he was using this moment to take advantage of Lily.

"Absurd. Why do they always think the worst of me? What did I do to deserve this level of distrust in my self-control?"

As Xiaoyun headed back into the room, his body froze still by the door. He couldn’t move his eyes away from Lily’s leg.

Her short jeans were slightly pushed aside to the right, leaving a little gap that revealed her striped panties underneath.

A thin line pressed against a blue and white stripe. The secret that he had played with hundreds of times without getting bored once.

"Stop stop stop thinking about this! She’s asleep right now. Don’t be weird. The two of us have already done everything together."

Despite trying to get all of the weird thoughts out of his brain, his body had already reacted to it with a massive tent down below.

His mind was full of Lily’s naked, precious body. Her attempt to use every part of her body to satisfy him without crossing the line.

"Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form... I already abstained for weeks for Tianci’s sake. I can do this!"

---

"Mom! What are we going to do?"

As Nami ran down the stairs to the living room, Leyan and Shuli were sitting on the sofa with blank faces.

"What do you want me to do? Tell the two of them this is all a joke?" Leyan answered back.

"B-But there has to be something we can do. Lily is going to be so angry at us when she sees all of our messages in the group chat."

"You’re the one who started it... Can’t wait to see Lily break up with her best friend after learning how she treated her relationship as a bet."

Kate’s comment only made Nami even more nervous as she walked into the living room with a plate full of watermelon slices.

"Shut up. Mom, you have to do something. Please. I don’t want Lily to be angry at me. I know I shouldn’t have—"

"Why don’t you just apologize to her for starting it?" Shuli chimed in.

"What? Hell no. Why should I apologize when all of you were in? This is bullshit at a level never seen before."

"Too bad, too sad."

Seeing Anna came into the living room with a bottle in hand, Leyan immediately got up from her seat before realizing it was apple cider vinegar.

"What? You scared I was drinking?" Anna questioned, looking towards Leyan standing still in front of the coffee table.

"Of course not... Don’t drink too much of it."

"You’re not my mom."

As Anna rebutted back at Leyan’s warning, everyone in the living room rolled their eyes as if the two had been going at it against each other.

"Come on, Anna, you can’t still be mad at her," Kate murmured as she barely looked fazed by the two of them.

"Easy for you to say. Hmph!"

"What are you guys talking about?"

Yueyue curiously asked as she slowly walked down the stairs with a towel over her wet hair, taking a seat right next to Shuli.

"Leyan threw away her root beer into the trash can," Kate answered as she slowly wrapped her arms around Anna’s shoulder.

"Beer? You can’t drink beer when you’re pregnant."

"It’s not real beer. Root beer doesn’t have any alcohol in it! The whole drink has sassafras and no alcohol at all!"

"How am I supposed to know that? You left it in the fridge, and I could only read the ’beer’ word on it."

As Leyan argued back with beer in English, Anna once again let out a hmph sound before turning back over to the TV.

"Hey! I’m still trying to find a solution with Lily! Yueyue, save me! I really need someone to bail me out!"

"Bail you out?"

"Nami has been worrying that Lily is going to break up with her," Shuli answered as she leaned back all the way onto the sofa.

"Oh, that..."

"You got any idea? My genius, smart, beautiful older sister? Please say you have an idea to bail me out."

Seeing Nami pleading with her sincere eyes, Yueyue couldn’t bring herself to reject her sister’s request.

"Um. Well. You tried to delete the messages?"

"Deleting the messages only deletes my side. She could still see everything that’s sent over to her phone." Nami immediately answered.

"Then I don’t know."

"No way. Please, sis, you have to have better ideas in that big head of yours. I know you’re more than capable—"

"Get lost before I give you a knuckle sandwich."

"Wahhh!"

As Nami ran out of the living room in tears, everyone in the room was a little shocked to see how calm Leyan, Yueyue, and Shuli looked.

"You guys aren’t going to help your daughter?" Kate curiously questioned.

"She’s asking for it when she decided to bet on her best friend. It’ll serve her a good little lesson." Leyan answered.

"What lesson? Why did Nami just run back to her room?"

Yuqi was all puzzled as she came down from the 2nd floor with a towel over her wet hair, just like Yueyue, currently sitting on the sofa.

"She’s regretting making that stupid bet... Is Tianci still in the shower?" Leyan questioned back.

"She’s almost done... Has Xiaoyun come back home yet?" Yuqi questioned again as she took a seat next to her sister.

"He’s staying at the hotel with Lily for the night," Yueyue answered as she took out her phone.

"Did he say he was going to take the initiative with Lily?"

"They aren’t doing anything."