Gu Ci first made a joke, and afterward, in a calm tone, told Yan Luqing the truth—he did not attend class because he had no class in the afternoon.

After that, the luggage that had been packed and left at the door was happily carried back by Big Black and Little Black, unpacked and arranged again. The two of them then sat quietly on the sofa for quite a while watching television.

The throw pillow that Yan Luqing had originally been holding had already been transferred into Gu Ci’s hands.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Princess of the Bamboo Kingdom hugging a plump green bamboo shoot. The image was both incongruous and strangely harmonious and warm, and she had to hold back hard to keep from laughing out loud.

During the television commercial break, Gu Ci suddenly spoke: “Tomorrow I will go with my uncle to the neighboring city.”

“…Oh.” After hearing that, Yan Luqing recalled the vague bits she had overheard earlier of his conversation with his uncle, which seemed to mention asking his uncle not to enter tomorrow. At once she understood, “Are you two going on a business trip?”

“Something like that.” After Gu Ci finished speaking, he suddenly began, as if reporting to a superior, to explain the details of the trip. “After we arrive, we will first have a meal with the boss of Linzhi, then rest at the hotel. On the second day…” Speaking at a moderate pace for about a minute, he finally said, “At the earliest we’ll be back on Saturday, at the latest on Sunday.”

The more Yan Luqing listened, the more bewildered she became. Not until Gu Ci finished recounting everything did she blankly speak out: “…Why are you telling me all this in such detail?” Then, muttering softly, “I’m not your superior.”

“I think reporting one’s itinerary to the head of the household is also very necessary.” Gu Ci turned his head and looked at her seriously. “Does the family head not like to hear it?”

“…………”

Yan Luqing was almost unable to face the term “family head” anymore.

It was just like the way the word “best friend” had already been ruined by a certain someone’s overuse.

She hastily said, “No,” and then continued staring at the television, her mind wandering far away.

……

Because she had been staying with this humanoid bug all day, Yan Luqing’s mind was unusually quiet. But after entering her room that night, she already anticipated that she would be bombarded, so she quickly spoke before Makka Pakka could:

“Alright! I know you definitely have a whole pile of things to say. Starting now, don’t get excited, pay attention to your speaking speed, and slowly tell me.”

“……”

Makka Pakka seemed to really take it in. After pausing for several seconds, it then spoke: “Maria, Gu Ci didn’t escape the way it was described in the original book!”

Yan Luqing smiled and nodded: “Very good, I also grew a pair of eyes, I already know that!”

“……”

Choked off by her, Makka Pakka continued, “I—I actually don’t have much to say, only that Gu Ci did something completely opposite from the original plot, and I can’t figure out why.”

“How can you have nothing to say?” Yan Luqing was stunned. “Hey, this is such a big deal! Back then when I saved the female lead, that so-called system punishment made me fall down a hillside into the wilderness to survive. Now with Gu Ci not leaving—such a big matter—you actually don’t have any bad news to tell me?”

Makka Pakka: “I know there might be, but I haven’t yet received any concrete news.”

“And Maria! That time you really didn’t only save the female lead,” Makka Pakka emphasized, “that was the main character! That was the first encounter between the male lead and the female lead! If we really did not succeed in repairing it, if they will not end up together—”

“You’re just overthinking it.” Yan Luqing cut it off, recalling the various fragments she had seen earlier on Jiang Baichu’s WeChat, sneering, “Look at how sticky the two of them are. The male and female leads are naturally drawn to each other; it would be strange if they didn’t end up together.”

“I brought them up because I want to tell you, this time the punishment level will definitely not be lighter than last time—in the settings I learned, in a transmigration-into-book world, the status gap between main characters and supporting characters is very large, and correspondingly, the punishment for altering the plot also differs.”

“……”

Although she had long known this point, this time Yan Luqing suddenly felt a strange discomfort.

After a few seconds of silence, inspiration flashed for Yan Luqing, and she asked again: “Then in your settings, it doesn’t matter where the supporting characters go, it doesn’t matter if the supporting characters’ personalities change. So in fact, not only is there a great difference in status between main characters and supporting characters, but also the degree of completion of the supporting characters’ plotlines must be much lower, right?”

Makka Pakka: “Mm, yes.”

So, becoming a supporting character truly had both advantages and disadvantages.

Yan Luqing: “But I’ve always wanted to ask—starting from that banquet that was suddenly canceled last time—that was already a disorder, wasn’t it? And then, right after I transmigrated, the event where you were activated, that Butterfly Leaf Mountain, I don’t even remember Gu Ci and the original host appearing in the original book. Yet you said I had to bring him there…”

Half-joking, half-testing, Yan Luqing said: “I even suspect that I transmigrated into the wrong book, that what I entered is some kind of imitation version.”

After she finished speaking, she carefully listened to Makka Pakka’s voice. That familiar young-yet-deep tone had not the slightest anomaly, naturally replying to her: “Maria, from my side it shows no error. You indeed transmigrated into the correct book.”

After pausing for a moment, it added a sentence: “Only… I don’t know exactly where there once was a bug.”

“?” Yan Luqing’s ears perked up, instantly catching the irregularity. “What do you mean, there once was a bug?”

Makka Pakka said: “It’s like this—before, I submitted an error report wanting to check, and then somehow something went wrong, which made me accidentally click into the repair records that only administrators can see—” It lowered its voice. “What was shown there was that this world had already been repaired for a bug once.”

Yan Luqing was stunned for a moment.

“Then you… didn’t click inside to see what was repaired?”

“No.” Makka Pakka sighed in disappointment. “I only took a quick glance, and was soon kicked out by the protection program.”

“……”

The conversation ended there.

That night before going to sleep, Yan Luqing was still thinking about what Makka Pakka had said.

Her intuition was still fairly accurate, and she also believed that this artificial idiot, exclusive to her, had not lied to her.

Then why would such things appear?

Why, after a bug had been repaired, would so many bugs appear again?

But with her extremely limited amount of information, it was impossible to figure out anything conclusive about this kind of matter. With these thoughts weighing on her mind, Yan Luqing eventually drifted into sleep.

The next morning.

On the way to school in the car, Yan Luqing was still immersed in Makka Pakka’s words. With her forehead against the car window, she combed through, from beginning to end, all the things she had experienced since her transmigration.

Then she realized, in everything she could think of, in every most vivid memory, Gu Ci was indispensable. Every scene had him.

The closer the moments of their contact, the more deeply she remembered them.

She was lost in thought and did not notice that because of a stray cat crossing the road ahead, the driver suddenly braked.

Until, from the side, a hand suddenly reached out, supporting her forehead, turning her head away from the edge of the window—

Then Yan Luqing felt a rather strong inertia pulling her body forward.

“……”

She came back to her senses, just as Gu Ci withdrew his hand. The touch on her forehead disappeared. He glanced at her indifferently: “What are you thinking about.”

There was actually a faint tone of instruction in his words.

But if he had not just supported her head, Yan Luqing would probably have already banged into the glass window because of the inertia.

She adjusted the hair at her forehead. “…Thank you.”

The stray cat crossed the road, and the car steadied again.

Gu Ci did not respond to her words of thanks.

Instead, he gave a faint smile, looked at her, and said: “Family head, I will be leaving this afternoon.”

Yan Luqing turned her head in a daze: “Mm, you told me yesterday.”

After a brief moment of eye contact, Gu Ci spoke again, his voice calm: “Nothing you want to say?”

“……”

Nothing to say?

Of course Yan Luqing had things she wanted to say. From last night until now she had a bellyful of words she wanted to let out. She wanted to tell him everything she knew, to tell him everything Makka Pakka had said, to hand it all over to him to analyze.

But what came out in the end was only: “Then… I wish you a smooth business trip.”

Gu Ci stared at her for a long while, the black-and-white of his eyes looking especially clear in the morning. He clicked his tongue, his tone faintly suggestive: “I thought I would hear something a little different.”

Yan Luqing widened her eyes.

She didn’t know why, but seeing Gu Ci’s expression like this, she felt for an instant that her thoughts had gone astray.

That so-called “something different”—could it be the mushy words people usually say before parting, like “I will miss you”?

Rendered speechless by her own imagination, Yan Luqing hurriedly pulled herself back, blurting: “There’s not that much to say…”

“And didn’t you already report it all yesterday?” She paused. “It’s only not seeing each other for two days.”

Leaving Friday, returning Sunday.

“Not necessarily two days. If quickly—” Gu Ci’s voice stretched, “it would be only thirty-some hours of not seeing each other.”

Thirty-some hours of not seeing each other?

Did he not feel there was any ambiguity? Was he implying that in the villa they saw each other all the time, everywhere? How busy was he! Yan Luqing could still remember how he hadn’t even come out to watch television a few nights ago.

And besides, when people sleep, they’re not together—did sleep time not count?

“The way you’re counting time—” Yan Luqing had too many complaints in her heart, and like a reflex let out a cold laugh, “it’s as if when we sleep, we’re also seeing each other.”

“……”

As soon as those words came out, both of them fell into silence.

The driver in the front seat also stiffened for a moment.

The atmosphere was extremely tense and awkward. The driver seemed to want to reduce his presence, very considerately lowering the partition to cut off the view between the front and back seats—

But with that, Yan Luqing felt the density of awkwardness around her only grew stronger. Until she heard a light chuckle at her ear, and the awkwardness reached its peak.

“Family head, the way you said that…”

Gu Ci was the first to speak. His voice was unhurried, laced with laughter: “It sounds as if you are very dissatisfied with this matter.”

“……”

Dissatisfied with what matter?

Dissatisfied with the matter of not seeing each other during sleep?

Did he mean she wanted to see him during sleep?!

Just then, the car drove into the university town and began to slow down, and Yan Luqing also saw the familiar school gates of her university outside the window.

The car stopped. She glared fiercely at Gu Ci: “Even if you are a top student, you can’t just do reading comprehension however you like.”

Then she opened the car door, got out, and with a sharp “bang” slammed the door shut, turning around to leave with an air of seeming coolness.

Walking along the road to the classroom, as she gradually calmed down, Yan Luqing couldn’t help but feel a little emotional.

She seemed to often face this kind of situation—arguing with Gu Ci in the car until her face turned red and ears burned, only to return to normal after stepping out and letting the cold wind blow on her.

Just as she thought this, the phone in her hand buzzed.

It was a message from Gu Ci.

【Runaway Princess】: Family head, no matter how expensive a car door is, if it’s slammed often, it will still break.

“……”

Now you’re worried about that!

Calling me family head, worrying about things you shouldn’t be worrying about—and not even thinking about who it is that makes me slam the door each time.

Yan Luqing was riled up again. While fuming inwardly, her fingers flew across the screen: As long as you don’t anger me, it’ll be perfectly safe!

After a while, Gu Ci sent another message.

【Runaway Princess】: Within thirty hours I really won’t have the chance to anger you. I wish the family head happy times.

These past few days in class, Yan Luqing had always been in a daze. And each time, no matter who sent her a message, after she read it her gaze would turn vacant, her mood sinking even lower.