Yan Luqing rarely read novels. In the novel she had entered, whenever she read the author’s description of the series of psychological reactions that the male lead, Little Pine Tree, had upon seeing the female lead, Little Rose, one of the more frequent descriptions was: “as if a certain place in his heart had collapsed by a corner.”

Because she had never experienced it, whenever Yan Luqing saw such a description, she always felt somewhat awkward, and quite unable to understand.

How could it collapse by a corner? Why would a perfectly fine organ suddenly collapse?

But at this very moment, she unexpectedly and inexplicably understood the true meaning of that description, and also genuinely and tangibly felt such a process.

The last time she had a faint trace of such a feeling was that time when she went to pick someone up from school but ended up making a blunder.

He had said: Can I substitute myself every day, so you can come pick me up every day?

At that time, she had, for a brief instant, felt as if she had been struck, felt as if she had seen a princess acting spoiled. Only afterward, upon thinking about it, that line was still rather implicit, still within the realm of joking; it was not impossible that he was simply speaking in jest.

But this time, Gu Ci was completely, absolutely, and unmistakably telling her—everything from his actions to his voice was capitalized “acting spoiled.”

Yan Luqing was a big consumer of short videos. Basically, any video that had gone viral with hundreds of thousands or millions of likes, she had scrolled through. Some time ago there had been a brief trend of so-called “little puppy acting spoiled,” all with the same kind of soft, milky voices, with a bit of makeup making the corners of their eyes unnaturally red…

She watched with considerable numbness, and when she left comments, she was nothing more than a machine snatching for the hot posts without any emotion at all, not putting her heart into it.

But Gu Ci was different.

Gu Ci’s control over his voice was simply superb. That one “Family Head” he spoke, as well as the earlier sentence, his timbre was only slightly different from usual, but with that special intonation added, the feeling it gave was worlds apart.

A clear and cold voice saying such words, a person who ordinarily never showed weakness suddenly beginning to so plainly show weakness—it was simply too… impossible to withstand.

Yan Luqing felt that he was truly marvelous, as if no matter what he did it was all extremely refreshing and without grease, and the most terrifying thing was—on top of that refreshing quality, his destructive power was immensely strong.

Being embraced by him like this, coupled with the things she had just heard him say, Yan Luqing did not say “alright” or “not alright.” Instead, she directly and slowly raised her hand, and lightly embraced him back.

Gu Ci seemed not to have expected her to make such a move. After Yan Luqing encircled him, his whole body paused for a moment.

Then, he gave a light laugh.

Yan Luqing’s ears grew even hotter, the skin hidden beneath her hair already dyed with crimson.

Her tone adjusted to be the same as before, she asked with concern: “Are you sure this will make it a bit better?”

“Of course it will.”

When Gu Ci spoke with his face resting on her shoulder, the breath he exhaled scattered faintly around her neck. Because his voice was not loud, it was not very obvious.

But precisely this kind of faint, indistinct sensation made her feel all the more ticklish.

That tickle even spread to places other than her ears.

Fortunately, all of these reactions he could not see, and he did not know.

Yan Luqing steadied herself for a few seconds, then continued: “At that time I had the doctor see you right away, why did it…”

“Useless.” Gu Ci said. “This kind of thing, how could it ever be fundamentally cured by medicine?”

“This kind,” he was most likely referring to du [drugs].

Yan Luqing did not know much about this matter. She always felt this was a field that any normal person ought to stay far away from. Thus, she lowered her voice and asked: “Then this… drug, once injected into your body, shouldn’t it already have been metabolized?”

“I also had such a guess. One possibility is… the addictiveness of this drug is precisely in making people feel realistic pain. But from every theoretical perspective, it is not very likely to be achieved.”

“Another possibility is that the existence of this drug does not conform to reality, or rather, to scientific logic.”

Yan Luqing: “Then there’s no way to deal with it now? Are there experts in this area who can help you alleviate it?”

Gu Ci was still leaning on her shoulder and said: “None.”

If there were, he would have already tried them in his previous life.

Gu Ci actually did not care much about this pain, he just felt it was somewhat annoying.

Every time he would lie down in the room, he simply felt that if he moved even a little, he would break out into a cold sweat—very troublesome. And being seen by Yan Luqing, she would then overthink.

“This is just too…” Yan Luqing herself did not know how many times she had already sighed at some of the magical settings of this world. She directly said, “Too unreasonable.”

“Unreasonable things are far more than just this one.” Gu Ci spoke lightly. “The unreasonable events that have happened around me are far too many to be counted.”

Yan Luqing was stunned.

This line—no matter how one looked at it—was the kind of thing only she, a person who had transmigrated into a book, would say.

In her daily life she constantly ridiculed how unreasonable this world was in all aspects, but the “native inhabitants” here seemed not to have such thoughts at all; they all lived quite accustomed to it.

She had not expected Gu Ci to actually feel the same.

Not bewildering, not absurd, not unfortunate.

But “unreasonable.”

“……”

Before she could ask anything more, Yan Luqing suddenly felt that the place at her shoulder seemed a little moist.

Her whole body froze at once.

Yan Luqing’s first reaction—could it be that Gu Ci was in such pain he cried?

And following that absurd thought, the notion that was born was—

——I really want to see what he looks like when he cries.

“……” Yan Luqing dismissed that thought, and tactfully asked: “Are you… in a lot of pain right now?”

“Hm? No,” Gu Ci gave a laugh, “holding you, it’s much better.”

Yan Luqing hesitated for a moment, but still slightly turned her head: “Then why are you crying…”

“…?”

“Crying?” Gu Ci froze for a moment, then understood what she meant. Straightening up, half helpless, half amused, he said: “That’s not tears.”

Yan Luqing lifted her eyes to see his face. On his smooth, fair forehead, beads of cold sweat hung. She immediately realized: “Ah…”

Yan Luqing had misunderstood. She felt somewhat awkward, and also somewhat distressed—sweating this much from cold sweat, how much pain must he be in?

So for a while she did not say anything.

Instead, it was Gu Ci who looked at her, the corners of his eyes bending, as he slowly articulated: “Does the Family Head dislike it?”

The words that came out sounded like a playful tone, inexplicably carrying a hint of seduction.

Just six words.

She did not even know why, but Yan Luqing’s face suddenly heated for an instant. She opened her mouth: “I never said—”

“Oh.” He was still smiling. “Then that means you don’t dislike it.”

Yan Luqing indeed did not dislike it.

She was an ordinary person who liked cleanliness but did not have a cleanliness obsession, and besides, this was a patient, and also—the person with whom, no matter how one counted in this world, she was most deeply entangled.

Yet such an obviously normal matter, once asked by Gu Ci in such a tone—

If she gave an affirmative reply, it was as if this “not disliking” carried some kind of indescribable ambiguous meaning.

“Why would I dislike it,” Yan Luqing casually pulled out a reason, making herself seem justified, “…you never disliked me when I was drunk.”

He had seen every kind of ugly state of hers, what was this compared to that.

Yan Luqing did not even want to recall what she looked like when she was drunk. By contrast, Gu Ci right now had very much the style of a sickly-beautiful person—delicate yet strong.

As she spoke, she gradually relaxed from her initial stiffness.

Who knew, the next moment, caught off guard, her body pitched forward—she was once again pulled by the wrist into his embrace.

“Since you don’t dislike it, then let’s continue.”

Yan Luqing carefully recalled. The serious hugs between her and Gu Ci had only been twice.

The first time was because Yan Luqing had actively asked for it. At that time she had been wronged by others, her belly full of grievances suppressed all the way. When she saw Gu Ci she instantly could not hold it in anymore and collapsed onto him, crying with both snot and tears.

The second time was this time.

She did not even know why, but Gu Ci’s movements in hugging were so smooth, as if they had already embraced like this a hundred times.

The two of them clung together for a long while. After Gu Ci’s bout of pain passed, he let her go.

When thanking her, Gu Ci’s smile inexplicably carried a bit of sweetness. The four words “thank you, Family Head” were spoken in a way that sent another wave surging through her heart.

Then he went to take a bath.

After leaving Gu Ci’s room, during the time that followed—whether eating, watching television, or finally returning to her room to bathe and prepare for bed—Yan Luqing remained somewhat dazed. Although the two of them had no further physical contact, merely chatted idly, she would from time to time, in a trance, think back to the scene of the two of them speaking while embracing.

Recalling again and again, she could not control her heartbeat. As for her face heating up, it happened so often she was nearly desensitized.

At night, before closing her eyes to sleep, Makka Pakka, after holding back for a whole day, popped out to show her the data.

“Maria, today was really a bit exaggerated.” It said in considerable astonishment. “What on earth happened to you this afternoon! In your head you didn’t think of anything other than Gu Ci at all? All! Of! Your major emotional fluctuations that I detected were all related to Gu Ci! All of them were garbled!!!”

Yan Luqing: “…………”

She truly wanted to snap back: You think you’re so capable, you go ahead and do it, go live day and night with Gu Ci, see if you can keep your heart pure and desireless, unmoved!

But this was a system, an artificial idiot. She could not lower herself to its level…

Thinking thus, Yan Luqing said calmly: “So what. I spend a lot of time with him, of course I’ll think about some of the things from when we’re together.”

“Yet when you’re not spending time with him recently,” Makka Pakka pulled up another chart, “garbled data also frequently appears—look at this percentage. You’ve been thinking about him quite a lot lately.”

“That’s because his birthday was recently…” Yan Luqing wanted to explain, got out the beginning of a sentence, then suddenly felt an inexplicable irritability. “No—anyway, he’s about to leave, what does any of this matter?”

“……”

A sudden silence.

Yan Luqing thought of how before, Makka Pakka had used every sort of roundabout way to tactfully tell her how hard it was for a book-transmigrator to develop a romantic line with a character who originally had no romantic line in the book, and how some important supporting characters couldn’t escape being punished by the system and then disappearing.

It was well-intentioned too.

Makka Pakka’s voice grew smaller: “Maria, don’t be angry, I—I just wanted to say, actually frequently thinking of someone is li—”

“Two or three days left.” Yan Luqing cut it off, lowered her eyes, and said seriously: “There’s only two or three days left. Once we’re no longer together, once we don’t see each other, it’ll stop.”

Said to it, also said to herself.

Makka Pakka immediately quieted down.

Yan Luqing sat on the bed for a while, her mind empty. She was just about to lie down and sleep when the phone beside her rang once.

It was her eldest brother, whom she hadn’t contacted for some time.

【Yan Fengming】: Gu Ci is still living at your place, isn’t he?

Makka Pakka, seeing this, explained: “Maria, we’ve reached the plot point. These supporting characters will also urge the progress of the plot. It’s all normal.”

Yan Luqing understood.

This was to urge the bigshot to run away.

She hadn’t replied yet when another message came from the other side.

【Yan Fengming】: I know you didn’t care one bit about your reputation back in high school when you did those things, but since Grandpa says you’ve improved a lot now, can you start considering your reputation? And also consider the other person?

Meanwhile, above her eldest brother’s head floated many blue bubbles.

Yan Luqing: ? Saying such serious things, why is he feeling sad?

Curious, she tapped on four of the bubbles—

Blue Worry: I always feel like something has happened between the two of them.

Blue Doubt: With Gu Ci’s personality, does he seem like someone who would stay so quietly at her place?

Blue Concern: Yan Luqing says it’s fine, but she was sick for so long, how could that be?

Blue Concern: There’s absolutely something going on.

Yan Luqing: “…………”

Speechless for a few seconds, she moved her fingers and typed.

【Runaway Saintess】: Big Brother.

【Yan Fengming】: What is it?

【Runaway Saintess】: You’re so cute.

【Yan Fengming】: ?

【Runaway Saintess】: Good night (^_^)

【Yan Fengming】: ???

Her eldest brother of the Yan family was not the first, and sure enough, in the time that followed, Yan Luqing received the occasional “supporting-role urging” plot.

The ones who came were all from the Yan family.

On the morning of the fifteenth, while she was in class, she suddenly received a message from Mother Yan. It began with inquiries about her studies, moved on to the main subject of asking about her relationship with Gu Ci, and concluded with a hint that Gu Ci ought to return to his own home.

Accompanied by bubble after bubble, all of them under the blue “sadness” category, not much different from her eldest brother—

Could she agree to that?

Ai, during the time Gu Ci had been here, Qingqing had finally become so stable. Not to mention whether or not she would agree—even if she did, in the end, she would likely relapse.

After Mother Yan came the Yan family’s old master, who also arrived with his head full of blue bubbles. Compared to Mother Yan, he was even more straightforward, directly giving Yan Luqing his reasons.

There was, after all, a reason why the Yan family members were all messaging her together—Gu Ci’s uncle who had been abroad seemed to have just announced that he was returning to the country to develop. The old master and Mother Yan had most likely just caught wind of this and thus contacted her.

Actually, the nominal parents of this body did keep in touch with her, caring about her illness and her studies. But Yan Luqing treated them as NPCs, and did not put her heart into maintaining the relationship, naturally replying without much emotion. Thus their conversations always carried an air of unfamiliarity.

She did not want to invest, nor did she dare to invest.

Familial affection was like this, and other things were the same.

The only thing she dared to invest in was friendship.

Yet—the classmate Little Mahua, whom she counted as one of her bad friends, was always persuading her to invest in love.

After replying to the Yan family’s old master, Yan Luqing also told her the truth in passing.

“Actually, everything I said before was true.” She explained earnestly. “When I said I wasn’t cohabiting with Gu Ci, I really wasn’t. Gu Ci is moving out the day after tomorrow.”

“!!!”

“What?!” Little Mahua first showed a shocked, heartbroken expression, then shook her head like a rattle-drum: “Impossible, the great beauty definitely won’t move out! I don’t believe it!”

“Really…” Yan Luqing was helpless. “Gu Ci was only temporarily staying at my house. His relative who had been living abroad is returning the day after tomorrow, so he’s going with him…”

Little Mahua covered her ears: “I won’t listen, I won’t listen, I won’t listen! Class is starting, class is starting, don’t talk, listen to class, listen to class!”

Yan Luqing: “……”

When talking about other things, how come you were never this studious.

Their conversation ended just as the class moved into group discussion.

In recent lessons, Yan Luqing’s group had been partnered with two boys sitting in front of them.

The two boys were roommates, also buddies, yet their personalities were completely opposite: one taciturn, the other so high-profile it seemed he wanted to ascend to the heavens.

The taciturn one was sparing with words, but he studied very well. Each time during group discussions, he would bury his head in research, while the three of them cheered him on and stared wide-eyed as he wrote.

The high-profile one was called Wu Qingxin. Yan Luqing generally rarely remembered people’s names, but she could remember his, simply because his contrast was too great—his name was “Qingxin” [Qing = Clear, Xin = New], yet when he spoke, he was not the least bit “clear and fresh.”

A few days of familiarity later, Yan Luqing learned he had a very urgent wish—he wanted to get out of being single.

According to Little Mahua, in the month before Yan Luqing came to school, Wu Qingxin had already set his sights on many girls, flirted with a few, but all ended without results. Little Mahua said he was the type who, once he failed with one, would switch to another and start over again.

The two of them had discussed it before—since he only flirted with one person at a time, it didn’t really count as being a “Sea King”, but his behavior still felt strangely off in some way.

Today, Wu Qingxin again said he had met his true love. When he flirted with her, the conversation collapsed, so he wanted the two girls to look over it to see where things went wrong.

While handing them his phone, Wu Qingxin even wanted praise: “Look, I’m pretty good at chatting, right? Why didn’t this girl go along with my words?”

The first line on the screen: 【Baby, don’t say angry words, I can tell, I won’t believe it.】

Yan Luqing: ?

On the other side, the “baby” sent back a long string of question marks and also said: 【Don’t call me baby. Call me that again and I’ll delete you.】

Wu Qingxin typed again—【Baby, what are you shy about?】

Yan Luqing: “……”

And also further down: 【Girl, eyes can’t lie.】

Yan Luqing’s scalp was already tingling; she couldn’t keep looking.

You’re so greasy—if the Daqing Oilfield ever lost a runaway oil barrel, it must be you.

Yan Luqing couldn’t help saying: “Wu Qingxin, have you considered working at the Daqing Oilfield after graduation?”

After she said it, seeing Wu Qingxin’s obviously puzzled expression, she couldn’t help but silently criticize her own words: wordy, wordy.