So… it should be certain that he had not thought along those lines yet, he still did not know the truth.

But——

Gu Ci’s original words had been, “If you so much wish for me to treat you as mentally ill.”

Yan Luqing indeed wished for him to treat her as mentally ill.

Yet in his eyes, she ought not to be “treated as mentally ill,” but rather to be mentally ill.

Why then had he used “treat as”? Could it be he did not think she was mentally ill?

He had also said that what she spoke last night did not seem like nonsense—that meant he had taken those words as truth. But how could those possibly be taken as truth??

Yan Luqing was about to go mad, and yet she could not go in front of him and ask.

Because she had a guilty conscience, and Gu Ci was too intelligent. At present she had not been punished, which proved Gu Ci had not thought toward the idea that she was a transmigrator. If she pressed and probed him, it might instead make him think in that direction—what then?

Yan Luqing’s heart was vexed into a tangled mess, thrashing on the bed like a salted fish.

Fuck!

Why must he speak in such a way that leaves people guessing!!

And if it cannot be guessed, then so be it—but even such a useful mind-reading golden finger was actually blocked by him!!!

Man, you are really fucking mysterious.

“……”

No, this won’t do. She had to take measures.

Yan Luqing thought for a moment, then turned over and sat up on the bed, opened WeChat, and found the old grandpa she had already paid tuition to.

[Runaway Saintess]: Grandpa, are you free? Can we have class now?

She waited for about three minutes.

[This Poor Daoist Is Not a Charlatan]: That’s fine, little girl, today will still be taught through a video call.

After sending this message, pink bubbles appeared above the old grandpa’s head. Yan Luqing poked them open—

Pink moved-to-tears: Ah, how long has it been since I last saw such a studious child, not easy at all…

Studious Yan Luqing applied herself with full concentration for two and a half hours, and only stopped because she saw how elderly the grandpa was, always drinking water, and feared he could not bear it. But she had not expected that just as class ended, Big Black knocked on her door and came in.

“Miss Yan,” his expression carried a trace of tension, “your grandfather’s car is now parked outside, he wishes to take you to meet him…”

“……”

Truly a family, wasn’t it. This grandpa’s style was exactly the same as that Yan family elder brother from before. Driving the car directly to her doorstep, leaving no room for refusal.

Yan Luqing sighed as if resigning to fate, rose, tidied herself, changed clothes, and in ten minutes was downstairs.

Gu Ci was not in the living room; in the living room there was only Little Black gazing at her eagerly.

“?” Yan Luqing sent Big Black a question mark with her eyes.

Big Black instantly understood, explaining: “He said this time he also wants to go with you…”

“Then let him go.” Thinking of Little Black’s pitiful inner drama in the morning, Yan Luqing decided to treat him a bit better. “Isn’t that my biological grandfather? What’s there to be afraid of? This time I’ll take Little Black alone, you stay at home.”

Little Black’s whole face instantly lit up with happiness, and he immediately followed behind her into the car.

The whole way was silent. Yan Luqing passed the time by scrolling through the inner dramas of various people on WeChat, looking for at least forty minutes before finally reaching the destination.

The so-called residence of the Yan family’s old master was not as ostentatious as the ancestral villa Yan Luqing had visited before; it was a relatively simple three-story building. Yan Luqing got out of the car with Little Black, and someone led her inside.

Although she had spoken of him as her biological grandfather, Yan Luqing was actually very unsteady at heart.

——Apart from Gu Ci, whenever she encountered strangers in this world, she always felt very unsteady.

In everyone else’s eyes, she was mentally ill. This also made it so that she never knew how exactly she should speak to these people.

Her uneasiness was seen through by Little Black, who softly asked: “Miss Yan, are you afraid?”

There was nothing to lie about here. Yan Luqing nodded: “A little.”

Little Black: “But he is your biological grandfather, why are you so afraid?”

Yan Luqing casually voiced her true inner thought: “Because I don’t have him on WeChat.”

Little Black: “?”

He automatically filtered out the strange words, and before they entered, he kept comforting Yan Luqing: “Miss Yan, don’t worry, your grandfather probably won’t get physical. Even if he does, I’ll be beside you, nothing will happen.”

Although Yan Luqing felt it would not go as far as physical violence, she was still touched—this silly son was truly not raised in vain.

After going up two flights of stairs, they finally reached the doorway of a room with its door wide open. Yan Luqing stepped inside and saw the face of Old Master Yan. A head of graying white hair, and a countenance of considerable dignity—at a glance one could tell he had been a figure who stirred the winds and rains all his life.

He first swept a glance at Little Black, who was standing behind Yan Luqing: “You, go out.”

Yan Luqing then heard Little Black answer respectfully: “Yes.”

And at once he carried out the order and stepped back.

Not only did he go out, he even closed the door behind him.

Yan Luqing: “……”

What the fuck…

Yan Luqing pulled back her urge to complain, and first obediently called out: “Grandfather.”

“Mm.” The old master nodded, his deep voice reverberating in the room, “I have the means to restore Gu Ci’s student status, and I also have the means to send him back to school.”

Such an open-and-direct statement immediately left Yan Luqing dumbfounded.

“But, there is a condition.”

Yan Luqing froze, at once asking: “What condition?”

“I do not permit any junior of the Yan family to be someone who has not even graduated university.” The old master looked at her, his sharp eagle-like eyes almost issuing a command: “You must also return to school.”

“……???” Yan Luqing wanted to struggle a little, “But…”

“No buts.” The old master clasped his hands behind his back, his face leaving no room for rebuttal. “I heard from your mother that lately you speak fluently, and going out with others to interact you have had no problem, you have not had an episode. Why then can you not attend school? Since you passed the entrance exam, then you must finish your studies.”

Back then, the original host had not gone to school precisely because her mental state had been unstable.

For a moment Yan Luqing could not find any words to counter, and could only try tentatively: “But the semester has already been open for a month, this…”

“You and Gu Ci are the same. You have a medical case, and he has an accident report as proof.” The old master said, “I told you I have the means, and I have the means.”

The time after that was all Yan Luqing listening to the old master specifically explain how she was to return to campus.

——The school she had tested into would be holding midterm exams in less than half a month. She would need to score over half in every subject, proving that she could keep up with the professional progress, before she could be permitted to resume her studies.

Gu Ci was the same.

“Your parents have already sent the teaching materials to your home.” Before Yan Luqing left, the old master still solemnly warned her, “Only over half is needed. Don’t let others look down on you.”

“……”

Yan Luqing was nearly on the verge of mental collapse.

But even so, before leaving she still stubbornly said to the old master: “Grandfather, can we add each other on WeChat?” She thought for a moment, then added a suitable reason, “So that I can report to you my study progress.”

The old master narrowed his eyes, stared at her for a moment, and still gave it.

After giving it, he added: “My letting you test back in is not only as a condition for helping Gu Ci. This is the schooling you ought to complete in the first place. If you cannot even accomplish this, then you need not bear the Yan name any longer.”

On the return car ride.

Her father was so kind and gentle with her, yet Yan Luqing had never imagined that Old Master Yan would be so thunderous and overwhelming in style.

So she immediately contacted Makka Pakka: “Quickly tell me, what kind of university did the original host test into? Was it some really amazing one?”

Makka Pakka: “No, it was a relatively good first-tier university.”

Yan Luqing let out a breath of relief—at least it wasn’t the kind of top university Gu Ci was in, the difficulty should be a bit lower.

She then asked again: “Then what major did the original host get admitted to?”

Makka Pakka: “Let me see… she applied for… the Software Engineering program at the School of Computer Science.”

“???” The breath Yan Luqing had just released multiplied back severalfold, and she asked in shock, “What did you say?? She applied to that??!!”

It was only then that Yan Luqing suddenly remembered—since she had been classmates with Gu Ci for three years in high school, the original host must have been a science-track student.

“Maria, don’t be too upset…” Makka Pakka tried to comfort her, “Actually, challenges brought by the original character, if the transmigrator completes them, there will be rewards. Although the rewards are random, they are usually quite good.”

A cold laugh burst out of Yan Luqing: “Heh.”

Rewards, indeed.

She was a genuine liberal arts student who had enrolled in a literature major, and now she was being told she had to pass the midterm exams of the Computer Science department within half a month… This was simply a fantasy.

…Damn.

Yan Luqing did not know how many times she was going to break down in a single day today.

Compared with this dreadful news, the earlier issues with Gu Ci were practically sweet troubles.

At that very moment, the phone in her hand suddenly buzzed.

It was a WeChat message, sent from her mother—

[Qingqing, I heard from your grandfather that you agreed. Do you need a tutor?]

Yet at the same time, gray bubbles were rising above her mother’s head.

Yan Luqing expressionlessly poked them open.

But where could she find one? Back in high school she had scared off so many tutors.

Yan Luqing: “…………”

Her mother continued to produce gray bubbles.

That child Gu Ci is especially good at studying, if only he were willing to help her…

Gu Ci.

Yan Luqing stared at those two characters, and her mood finally began to clear, like rain gradually easing—though the sky was not yet sunny, at least she felt alive again.

…

When the car drove back home, she detoured into the side garden and broke off a few branches of flowers.

They were the same little white flowers she had not long ago given to Gu Ci. She did not know their name—the shape was somewhere between cherry blossoms and pear blossoms, the petals larger than cherry blossoms, pure white throughout, very beautiful.

Of course, the point was not how beautiful the flowers were, the point was that these were the ones Gu Ci liked.

After picking the flowers, Yan Luqing returned home, and from the entrance already caught sight of Gu Ci’s silhouette sitting on the sofa.

He was leaning against a throw pillow, in the kind of posture adults would call “sitting improperly.” But on him, it carried an especially harmonious, languid feel.

As Yan Luqing looked at him, Gu Ci seemed to sense her gaze and looked back at her from afar.

In that instant, it gave her the illusion that such a scene had happened once before, when she didn’t know where she had gotten into trouble, or had some problem she couldn’t solve, and so came to him with a belly full of grievance.

Gu Ci watched as she changed her shoes, dawdled and shuffled over in front of him, then stretched out the hand she had been hiding behind her back, revealing the flowers in her palm.

“Gu Ci,” Yan Luqing held out the small bunch of white flowers toward him, looking at him pitifully, “for you.”

“……”

Gu Ci noticed that her eyes actually looked moist, like those of a wronged and pitifully beautiful little dog.

After three seconds of silence, he still reached out and took the flowers.

“What happened.”

Hearing this phrase that was almost a sigh, Yan Luqing’s heart relaxed by half.

She thought, if at this moment she could make a meme, it would definitely be——

Here I am again, bringing a mess back for Princess Ci to clean up.jpg