The air in the room seemed to freeze for an instant.

After Yan Luqing spoke, she only then realized what the words she had just blurted out meant.

Indeed, she had cleared herself of the suspicion of “finding someone to make a body pillow.”

But she had added on an entirely new suspicion, one that was even more perverse than finding someone to make a body pillow—“personally drawing a body pillow.”

What kind of person would make a human-shaped body pillow of a real person?

Even if it were purely just for fun, in the eyes of outsiders it would surely be thought of crookedly—of all the fun things one could do, why make a human-shaped body pillow? And a life-sized one at that?

At first, after she finished drawing Gu Ci’s whole body and clicked [Complete], giving rise to this human-shaped body pillow, Yan Luqing did not think too much about it. She only felt somewhat surprised—after all, she hadn’t expected that the thing generated would actually be this large, even taller than her.

Since its quality was good, very soft and very beautiful, she admired its details for a while, and afterwards intended to put the pillow away properly before continuing her creation.

At the time Yan Luqing thought: how could the princess’s human-shaped body pillow be left lying on the ground? So she moved it onto her own bed, even gave it a pillow, letting it enjoy princess-level treatment.

When doing all this, she never thought—even in death—that she would be caught by the pillow’s real person.

Now Yan Luqing finally understood what was meant by “being unable to defend oneself no matter what one says,” and what was meant by “explaining is the same as covering up.”

She saw that Gu Ci’s posture had already changed from holding the doorknob to leaning against the doorframe, lazy and casual, his expression still hovering between a smile and not, looking as though he wasn’t angry.

—It looked more like he was about to fire bamboo shoots [internet slang: tease/make fun].

“You say,” he spoke slowly, his voice sounding calm in the room, “this isn’t something you found someone to make, you drew it yourself?”

“……”

Yan Luqing closed her eyes.

Words that blurt out without passing through the brain were just this nonsensical.

Adding on the little bit of alcohol that had made her excited, made her thoughts straightforward—so, in her fluster, that explanation had directly revealed the truth, admitting that this pillow was something she personally drew.

What Gu Ci was feeling now, Yan Luqing could not imagine.

If this matter hadn’t happened to herself today, but instead had been told to her by someone else—hey, did you know? There’s actually someone who personally drew a human-shaped body pillow of xxx, and even made it life-sized! Eww!

—She would definitely have joined in with an “eww,” and could only think of two words to describe such a person: pervert.

How should she explain to Gu Ci… that she really wasn’t a pervert, she had only thought it was fun?

Yan Luqing held it in for a long time.

Held it in until Gu Ci seemed to grow tired of waiting, and lazily asked her: “Can I come in and sit while we talk?”

“No! You must not!” Yan Luqing immediately stopped him.

If he came closer, wouldn’t he be able to clearly see the other things in addition to the body pillow???

“Oh,” Gu Ci let out a single word, then as if perfectly clear about what she was thinking, slowly said, “But, even standing here, I can still see the things arranged around you.”

Yan Luqing: “……”

Golden-finger Family Head vs. High-Intelligence Wife:

Fake mind-reading vs. real mind-reading.

But Gu Ci truly did not step inside, still standing at the doorframe.

The room was bright, with only a small portion of the light falling on him. Though there was a certain distance between them, Yan Luqing still felt waves of awkwardness and suffocation.

What should she do?

Unable to answer head-on, she could only feign an attack in another direction.

“Why didn’t you knock when you came in just now?” Yan Luqing decided not to answer the key question and to seize the initiative.

“I did knock, but you were wearing headphones.”

“But it’s already the middle of the night,” Yan Luqing happened to seize upon this opening, and hurriedly asked again, “Even if I didn’t hear you knock, what business did you have that you had to come to me at this hour?”

Once those words were out, Gu Ci fell silent.

Yan Luqing rejoiced inwardly: she had struck the key point! He had no answer!!

But before she could be pleased for more than a few seconds, his voice once again came to her ears.

“I originally did have something to come find you for,” Gu Ci said, “but after seeing these… items of yours, and—”

He paused subtly, the corners of his brows lifting slightly, “that body pillow made with me as the model.”

“……”

“To tell the truth, I also suffered quite a shock,” Gu Ci’s gaze at her appeared especially sincere, “so I have completely forgotten why I came to find you… you can understand, can’t you?”

“……”

This level, this rhetoric.

It had clearly been that he had no answer, yet with a few light words, he had diverted the situation back onto her.

No wonder he would be so formidable in the future. Who could contend with him? How could he not be formidable?

Since he had spoken to this extent, she naturally had to be understanding.

Yan Luqing stiffly nodded: “Mm, mm, I should.”

Once again the spotlight fell on the Yan Family Head who had secretly made a body pillow.

The Yan Family Head opened her mouth with difficulty: “I know this can easily cause misunderstanding, but—”

Before she could finish the second half, Gu Ci smiled and cut her off.

“Mm,” he nodded, “it’s enough that you know.”

“……”

Yan Luqing instantly deflated.

It wasn’t as if this was Gu Ci’s first time seeing her pull off strange antics, so why did he stand here without leaving this time?

Hadn’t he always maintained the persona of being indifferent as a chrysanthemum, as though her little tricks were never worth placing in his heart? Why did he insist on digging to the root this time?

Yan Luqing most disliked probing deeply into certain matters. Just like when she had hypnotized Gu Ci and the result was far different from what she had imagined, she hadn’t known how to face him—just at that time, Makka Pakka had also shown her the number of times she thought about Gu Ci each day, and she hadn’t known how to explain her own behavior, nor how to face herself.

So she had chosen to go attend school, thinking that going out from the villa to do something else could clear her mind.

But later, when Gu Ci came to pick her up at the school, she gave up on that entanglement.

Why think so much? Thinking so much wasn’t happy at all.

So Yan Luqing couldn’t help but ask: “How about you just temporarily lose your memory, okay? You see, you handle so many affairs every day—how could such a small matter catch your eye?”

“You mean,” Gu Ci looked at her with a smile, his tone gentle, “the matter of you personally drawing a life-sized body pillow printed with me? I don’t think that counts as a small matter.”

“……” His appearance made it clear—he had to have a reason.

“Gu Ci,” after thinking over and over, she still brought out the all-purpose excuse, “I, although I look no different from a normal person, occasionally, my brain does have a bit of a problem.”

Gu Ci gave an “oh”: “For example, drawing a body pillow of someone, and then placing it in the very center of the bed to let it lie there.”

“…………”

Ahhhhhhhhhhh damn it, so annoying!!!

From the moment Gu Ci opened the door and witnessed the famous scene until now, at least ten minutes had passed, yet still she hadn’t managed to explain anything substantive.

Yan Luqing was still racking her brain, thinking what kind of excuse she could come up with to muddle through, when the other suddenly asked: “You said this was something you drew yourself—then where did that object come from?”

“……”

She was stunned for a moment, but quickly reacted: “Of course it was all delivered by express.” Yan Luqing braced herself, “I’m not a manufacturer—could such a thing appear out of thin air?”

Gu Ci’s expression was calm: “Perhaps it could?”

“……Hahaha, you’re really humorous!” Yan Luqing exaggeratedly finished, then forced two more awkward laughs, “Haha, haha……”

But speaking of appearing out of thin air.

Yan Luqing’s brain, skewed slightly under the influence of alcohol, suddenly flashed with a spark of inspiration—

She decided to let the pot shatter since it was already cracked: “Gu Ci, if you really don’t believe me, then do you still remember what happened in the tree hole a month ago?”

Gu Ci: “I remember.”

“Then do you remember what nickname I gave myself?” Yan Luqing was afraid he would give a different answer, so she rushed to answer for herself, “At that time I said I was Dora-A-Qing, just take it as real, okay? I have a magic pocket, and in it many magical treasures can be born—”

At this point, she no longer needed to care about what was realistic, directly implementing to the end her principle of “my brain has problems”—anyway, Gu Ci wouldn’t actually do anything to her!

Yan Luqing thought with delight, but when she realized that last thought of hers, she paused slightly.

Just at this moment, Gu Ci gave her an answer.

His face held an obvious smile, his eyes curved: “Your answer indeed makes it seem like your brain has a problem.”

“……”

Yan Luqing didn’t know if she had gotten used to his “bamboo shoots”, but she actually had no reaction to these words—instead, she was struck for a moment by the very first genuine standard smile he had given tonight.

Then, even more beyond her expectation, Gu Ci was actually willing to follow along with her obvious nonsense—

“Even if your hypothesis holds, I still have one point of great doubt.”

Yan Luqing cautiously asked: “What… is it?”

“Since it’s your pocket, then why are all the things born from it…” his tone paused slightly, his gaze swept around the room, his ending note rising, “all related to me?”

This, at least, was easier to answer than before.

“Actually, I suppose I’m your fan.”

Since she herself had originally been a fan of Gu Ci’s character, Yan Luqing spoke with confidence: “You’re so amazing at physics, and I can’t learn physics now, so I take you as my idol—all geniuses are my idols, isn’t that fine?”

Gu Ci watched her with great interest for a while, then said: “Fine.”

And then he continued: “One last question.”

“We see each other every day, so why do you still need to make these things?”

“……”

For some reason, Yan Luqing was suddenly touched by that phrase in his words, “see each other every day.”

But the days of seeing each other every day were soon going to be gone.

Yan Luqing remembered that part of the original book’s plot—Gu Ci left this villa with the help of his uncle, who found him and then took him away. That time seemed to be when his uncle had just returned to the country and, from somewhere, obtained news of Gu Ci.

Now that Gu Ci had contacted his uncle this early, he might even leave ahead of time.

Although she had done all this originally just for fun, in a certain sense, it could also count as a keepsake for the future.

Yan Luqing’s emotions shifted from the initial taut awkwardness, to the mute fluster and panicked nonsense in the middle, and now suddenly dropped vertically downwards.

All of her emotions were reflected entirely on her face.

Gu Ci, looking at those eyes whose expression had inexplicably changed, immediately recalled how she had acted in the car earlier, when she sought credit and praise from him.

He felt as if there were two invisible fluffy ears on her head.

If they really existed, at this moment those ears should have drooped limply down.

Gu Ci’s mood had originally been unusually complicated, because when he first came upstairs, the thoughts flashing through his mind were of the writings he had recently read about sleepwalking. He had listed out many possible scenarios for what he might find in her.

Then he pushed the door open.

He saw her sitting on the floor, he didn’t know what she was playing with, but in any case she was having a lot of fun.

He saw a lump of fake poop, and also saw the body pillow printed with his own face lying in the very center of the bed.