After this embrace, for a long time, the two did not speak.

Until Yan Luqing felt that Gu Ci, very faintly, probably also rather reluctantly, lifted his hand to pat her back.

Yan Luqing had never thought that she would take the initiative to hug an almost same-aged male.

When she was completely not drunk, her mind entirely clear.

But she truly had no way, she also had not expected that in this world she would transmigrate into a character who had neither friends nor anyone she could pour out her bitterness to.

Moreover, between her and Gu Ci—or rather, from her toward Gu Ci—there was a very strange, a kind of special dependence she had never experienced in the former world.

Yan Luqing could be certain that in the previous world, Gu Ci was only a paper person she liked. Yet he truly had magic, only relying on the mere morning and evening of a month together, he made her give rise to such a feeling.

It was not that kind of dependence on an elder.

It was that whenever something happy happened, she wanted to show it to him; whenever she was sad, she wanted to seek him to cry; whenever she encountered something she could not solve, the very first person she wanted to find to resolve it was him.

—Clearly he was the sick one, he was the one living under another’s roof, it should be him who ought to rely on her.

“Hey…” Yan Luqing held him, resting her chin on his shoulder, unable to keep from sighing, “It’s just very magical.”

Gu Ci was startled: “What is magical?”

“I say you, you are very magical.”

“……”

What kind of words were these.

Gu Ci was made somewhat helpless by her sudden embrace, and this sudden “you are very magical,” this kind of rhetoric that he did not know whether it was praise or criticism. He was silent for a while, in the end still directly asked aloud: “So, what on earth is wrong with you?”

This one sentence, once again lightly and easily touched her sluggish tear glands.

Gu Ci heard beside his ear a loud sob.

“……”

From the moment she suddenly rested her chin on his shoulder, Gu Ci could already feel that sharp little sensation. He was silent, once again lifting his hand to place it on her back.

“……See, I said you are very magical.” Her voice became choked, the ending of each sentence trembled a little, “When I was in the car earlier I was already fine, I also did not intend to cry… but the moment you ask like this, when you ask me, I just want to drop golden beans [tears].”

So wronged, yet she still called them golden beans.

Some people’s negative emotions can be completely digested and dissolved by themselves. But Gu Ci could see at a glance, Yan Luqing clearly did not belong to that kind of person.

The “I was fine” that she spoke of, was only the “fine” she made for herself. If it had truly completely passed, from the moment she entered the door she would not have had that kind of expression.

Yan Luqing sniffled, her emotions somewhat recovered, and softly said: “Then I still want to hug you to talk.”

Her tone was very much like that of a little child asking for candy.

The certain someone, currently in the identity of Girlfriend-Ci, laughed once, “You and your best friend, do you hug every day then.”

“Not only do we hug-hug, we also tietie [intimate closeness], we also sleep in the same bed—oh, speaking of which, you and I also once slept…”

Yan Luqing was just about to continue counting down, when she heard Gu Ci’s doubtful voice, “tietie…?”

“……” Actually this just meant intimate interaction, but said like this it sounded very cute. Yan Luqing could not be bothered to explain strictly, and muddled him, “It’s that kind where two people’s faces are pressed together, that kind.”

After speaking, even without looking, she could already imagine what Princess-Ci’s expression would be like—

It would definitely be a face of “you really are beyond saving,” or a face of “doing this kind of action, is it really not idiotic?”

Yan Luqing heard him sigh, but he did not loosen his hold, nor did he let her loosen hers. That clear and cold voice, with a helpless tone, lingered beside her ear.

“Speak then.”

……

On the return road, it took a full forty-some minutes. Yan Luqing thought everything through from every angle.

Judging from her own experienced events, after the original host’s illness grew ever more abnormal, those two elder brothers probably gave up on her completely, and the parents also became strangers to her.

At present Yan Luqing still did not understand clearly what the original host’s circumstances in the family used to be. At first she hesitated whether or not to look once more at the original host’s memory, but later she thought it through: looking at the memory was very meaningless, because the past of the original host, whether good or bad, had nothing to do with her.

Even if the original host truly had reasons to become that abnormal person who imprisoned Gu Ci, tormented Gu Ci, and in the end stained her hands with the lives of others, she still would not give rise to even the least bit of sympathy—if a murderer had a tragic childhood, she could not in good conscience feel at ease simply sympathizing with the murderer, because life experience could not wash away the murderer’s crimes.

She believed even Maria would not.

Although she did not understand clearly the specifics of the Yan family’s affairs, Yan Luqing had always seen clearly, and had never once regarded those Yan family people as her own family. Not to mention Gu Ci, in her heart their standing was not even on par with the bodyguards, the twin sisters, the Disney Auntie, and so on.

In Yan Luqing’s heart, the Yan family were more like NPCs, and even that kind of NPC where one had no choice but to show face in order to complete the task.

If she were merely wronged by NPCs, she would at most be angry and displeased, how could she possibly be emotionally invested?

But the starting point of today’s emotion was this: that little girl who today had been without hesitation protected and favored by others, made her think of herself who in the past had been beaten, scolded, and sent back for no reason at all.

Human thoughts are sometimes truly unfathomable; counted carefully, the difference in their circumstances was also very great, yet Yan Luqing’s emotions were still stirred—changing to another identity, the one who suffered disaster and injury was still herself.

“I need to think how to begin…” Yan Luqing organized her words a bit, then decided on the order of cause and effect to tell Gu Ci: “Didn’t I tell you before, that I forgot quite a lot of things? Before today I also didn’t remember that the Yan family was still raising a little girl of six or seven, a younger sister. This little sister is the child of their friend, because her parents both died, so she was brought to the Yan family to be raised.”

Gu Ci’s eyelashes lifted slightly.

He had also never heard that the Yan family had a little sister.

It could possibly be that they simply did not want it public, or possibly that the child’s parents had enemies; the purpose was nothing more than twofold: to protect the child, and also to avoid bringing to the Yan family some bad reputation and speculation.

“Mm.” He lowered his eyes again and asked, “And then?”

Yan Luqing said: “When I went to the Yan family in the morning, they hadn’t come home yet, so I just went upstairs to stay by myself. After not long, a little girl came in, she was crying, I went over to take a look, and it turned out she had a lollipop stuck in her throat, so I helped her take it out…”

Her tone suddenly dropped, mixed with a little anger, “Who knew! Suddenly someone rushed in and directly pushed me to the ground, and also scolded me for going crazy, thinking it was me who made that little sister cry.”

“Who?”

“It was Yan…” Yan Luqing almost said “the Yan family’s second son,” but instantly changed her words, “It was… my second brother.” After a pause, she added a sentence, “In name only.”

Yan Luqing thought, the narration could not only be narrated in a way advantageous to herself, the story had to be completed. So before Gu Ci could say anything, she continued: “But later I recalled, it was because something had happened in the past, that second brother would be so extreme.”

“What matter?”

“Just the origi—” Damn! She almost slipped again. Yan Luqing braked in time, instantly changing her words, “Just me—I, about two or three years ago, when this little sister had just come to the house, I would target her all day long. The most serious time was taking her to the outskirts and then coming back by myself. In the end, after quite a long while, this second brother finally found the child… So the last time I went to the Yan family I didn’t see this little girl, probably because they were afraid I would see her. This time, I don’t know why they didn’t hide her properly.”

But this matter was actually not done by her!

Yet she could not tell Gu Ci that it was not her who did it!!

Yan Luqing felt stifled to death, and at the same time stifled, she asked messily: “So will you, after hearing this, feel that besides being impulsive, that second brother can also be understood…”

“Don’t think so.”

She hadn’t finished speaking before being interrupted by Gu Ci.

After very crisply giving this three-character answer, Gu Ci let go of her hand, also letting go of her embrace in turn. The two straightened their bodies at the same time and met each other’s gaze.

Yan Luqing saw that in his always cloud-light-wind-light expression, there was now more seriousness and earnestness.

He said: “What you experienced is what you experienced, there is no need to stand in others’ position to speak for them.”

He said: “Today you only did a good deed, what do all the prior causes and conditions have to do with you?”

When she heard the first sentence, Yan Luqing’s nose already began to sting. When she finished hearing the second sentence, especially that “you only did a good deed,” her vision directly changed from blurred to clear, and her face once more grew wet.

“In this matter, the one in the wrong is the person who wronged you, is the one who was saved by you yet did not speak for you.” Gu Ci finished speaking slowly, then lifted his hand to brush away the tears on her face, his voice soft, “No one can forgive the one who did wrong in your place, not even you.”

Afterwards his tone shifted, his expression had a fleeting trace of gentleness, “Although this matter, only you yourself know.”

……

Yan Luqing once more had a good cry.

She still had no way to tell Gu Ci why, in the beginning, her emotions had been touched, because that belonged to her past.

But these words… spoke too much in accord with her own thoughts. They spoke so that her heart was truly pleased. They spoke so that her whole body was comfortable.

They spoke as if he knew everything.

But at this very moment, Yan Luqing did not want to care what he might know. She only knew that what she thought was not wrong—

In this world, only Gu Ci stood completely on her side.

In these words, he gave her unquestionable partiality.

She regretted it. Even if the original host had a close friend who was extremely good to her, wholeheartedly thinking for her sake, it was not the person Yan Luqing would seek out when she was unhappy.

Because that belonged to the original host, belonged to another, not to her.

But Gu Ci did.

What she and he experienced, was a brand-new plot that had never appeared in the original book.

Gu Ci treating her well was treating her well, Gu Ci speaking words to her was speaking to her, not to the owner of this body.

Perhaps because she had cried too miserably, too grievously, in her haziness she saw Gu Ci, who was handing her tissues, suddenly stretch out a fair and good-looking hand toward her, coaxing her as if coaxing a child, “Come, a hug? Anyway my clothes are already wet.”

The useless, crybaby family head let out a howl and hugged the wife who was considerate today, smearing snot and tears onto his body, crying while thinking: she must definitely make him a few more flower crowns.

Princess Ci, forever the God.

After a small cry, after a big cry, all the sadness in Yan Luqing’s heart was gone. From seeing the family-themed film at school, all the way to the grievance she suffered today, everything was completely past.

When she was blowing her nose with tissue, she heard Gu Ci suddenly ask:

“This so-called ‘best friend,’ besides hugging, what else must be done?” Gu Ci leaned lazily against the sofa cushion to the side, “Say it, let me hear.”

Just now, during the process of her crying, Yan Luqing had made a request to Gu Ci: this so-called “best-friend time” was too short, it had to be extended, extended until she said to stop.

Perhaps because she looked too pitiful today, Princess Ci did not launch bamboo shoots, and even with great mercy agreed.

“Nothing much…” Yan Luqing thought, her nasal sound very heavy, and casually said, “For example, if I’m bullied, then think of a way to bully back, comfort me, and then apply some medicine for me or something.”

“Apply medicine?” Gu Ci’s voice paused for a moment, then his beautiful eyes half narrowed, making them look even more slender, “You are also injured?”

“Yes!” Yan Luqing slapped her thigh, “I even forgot to tell you! Definitely bruised, definitely, at that time it really hurt me to death!”

Nearby the sofa, less than half a meter away, there was a small cabinet under the tea table. Gu Ci said nothing, stretched out his hand to pull open the cabinet door, lifted out a first-aid kit, and while flipping through it asked: “Just bruised, no bleeding?”

This should be searching for bruise ointment?

Yan Luqing nodded: “Mm, no bleeding.”

“Where is the injury?”

“The injury is—” The instant Yan Luqing was about to answer, her voice stuck in incomparably awkwardness.

Then she propped herself against the sofa cushion, her lips leaning close to Gu Ci’s ear, and in an extremely small voice said:

“The injury is on the bu—tt.”

Gu Ci’s hand flipping the medicine stopped, lifted his eyes: “……?”