After dinner, Su Yan silently loaded the cleaned dishes into the dishwasher and let the machine run.
Marikawa Shizuka sat on the living room sofa, cradling the two Snowball Beasts in her arms.
She turned on the television, unwrapped the white towel from her body, and lay prone on the sofa. As she watched the broadcast, she began directing the two little cuties.
She had them hop and bounce across her back, creating a massaging effect.
The two Snowball Beasts seemed to enjoy it too, and the human and her pets were having a wonderful time together.
Su Yan's gaze casually swept over Shizuka's milky, smooth skin. "Shizuka-san, you didn't forget about running the water for the bathtub after your shower, did you?"
"Eh?"
Shizuka turned her head toward Su Yan. "No, no. I started filling the tub with hot water as soon as I stepped out of the bathroom."
"If you go in now, the hot water in the tub should be just about full, right?"
"Good," Su Yan nodded.
Having received Shizuka's confirmation, he returned to his room to grab a change of clothes and entered the bathroom.
He tossed both his and Shizuka's discarded clothes into the washing machine and started the cycle.
Since neither of them wore cheap, low-quality clothes that might bleed dye, there was no need to wash them separately.
In truth, Su Yan was often puzzled by people who insisted on hand-washing their underwear separately.
How could anyone believe their hands were cleaner than a machine?
However, Su Yan didn't dwell on the matter for long.
After a quick rinse in the shower, he lowered himself into the tub filled with hot water, letting out a satisfied groan.
It had to be said that people in this country had a peculiar obsession with bathtubs.
No matter how small the bathroom was, almost every Japanese home had to have a tub installed for soaking.
It was undeniably comfortable, though.
Lying in the tub, Su Yan reached for his phone from the shelf and began silently browsing the internet for information.
Before he transmigrated, Su Yan had read an 'Infinite Flow' novel with a concept so interesting he still remembered it to this day.
It followed a Lord God Space that sent different teams to various movie and TV worlds to carry out missions.
Thinking about it, his current situation was somewhat similar—transmigrating into fictional works—except there was no Lord God Space over his head, and he didn't have any missions to complete.
However, what Su Yan found most intriguing was a setting in that novel where the Lord God Space would conserve resources.
Sometimes, it would send two different teams on what seemed like two different movie missions, but they were actually taking place in different locations within the same world.
For example, while some guy named Andy was carrying out an escape plan in a prison called Shawshank in America...
There might be a guy named Jigsaw committing crimes in a neighboring city at the same time.
Even in another city's airport, there could be a man being kicked off a plane for claiming it would explode after takeoff.
So, after transmigrating, Su Yan occasionally wondered: when the zombie crisis broke out in the Highschool of the Dead universe, were the plots of other zombie works unfolding elsewhere simultaneously?
After all, before his transmigration, the zombie apocalypse was a popular genre with no shortage of content.
Some zombie-themed works could even be considered classics.
For instance, the famous Resident Evil movie series, The Walking Dead television show, or even the Prototype game series.
Even back in China, there were excellent works like Zombie Brother.
Unfortunately, forget the famous Umbrella Corporation—Su Yan hadn't seen a single shred of information online related to a zombie virus.
There had been no warning signs at all. It was as if the zombie crisis had erupted out of nowhere, causing cities, countries, and the entire world to fall in an incredibly short span of time.
Su Yan shook his head, clearing away these cluttered thoughts.
After surfing the web for a bit longer, he put his phone back on the shelf.
He submerged his head into the water.
"Holy crap!"
When he poked his head back out and opened his eyes, the sight of Shizuka's face right next to the tub startled him so much that a certain swear word escaped his lips.
Calming himself down, Su Yan looked at her. "Seriously, Shizuka-san, what are you doing in here? You scared the life out of me."
"I came to help you scrub your back," Shizuka replied with a blink. "Didn't I say earlier? I want to wash together with little Su Yan."
Shizuka hadn't brought the two Snowball Beasts inside.
Unless she wanted to take a cold bath with Su Yan.
Since Snowball Beasts were ice-attribute Digimon, their bodies were icy cold. Cuddling them while sleeping was great—better than an air conditioner.
But if you put them in hot water, their bodies would instinctively use their ice powers to cool the water around them.
Looking into Shizuka's clear golden eyes, Su Yan couldn't help but wonder.
She had clearly finished her shower already, yet she had stayed wrapped in a towel instead of changing into clean clothes.
'Was this your plan from the beginning? You silly girl?'
If this were a Galgame, the following options would have popped up right about now.
Option one: Agree to Shizuka's request and invite her into the tub, unlocking a special CG scene.
Option two: Refuse Shizuka's request and push her out of the bathroom, decisively locking the door to continue soaking, unlocking the 'Steel Straight Man' achievement.
Option three: Tell Shizuka, "You like scrubbing, huh? Then scrub my boots," using a French accent to unlock the 'Close to God, Far from Humanity' achievement.
However, reality was no Galgame. Before Su Yan could even respond, Shizuka squeezed into the tub on her own.
The tub in Shizuka's house was large, enough for both of them to lie down without feeling crowded.
Having lived together for over a year, Su Yan hadn't been practicing any monk-like celibacy, and Shizuka was far from unattractive.
On the contrary, she was a stunning, airheaded beauty with a mature figure—a classic anime heroine.
In fact, Su Yan had long since won her over. Over the past year, they had basically done everything there was to do.
They had even shared many of their 'firsts' with each other.
Taking a bath together now was nothing unusual.
"A bath really feels amazing after exercising," Shizuka sighed contentedly.
She settled into the water.
Su Yan rolled his eyes. Being massaged wasn't exercise. The ones exercising were the Snowball Beasts.
However, as their bodies pressed together and he felt Shizuka's delicate skin...
"It really does feel amazing," Su Yan concluded.
He had reached the same conclusion.
Shizuka was the kind of woman who appeared to have three heads when she was soaking in the water...