The birthday banquet venue was in complete disorder; in the end, the hotel’s security personnel began to come in to manage order, sending the guests away one after another. If no one made a bigger disgrace, without accident this birthday banquet would become the laughingstock for the next half year.

Before leaving, Yan Luqing went to the restroom.

This hotel’s restroom was in the back garden. One had to say, it was made with quite some creativity—after finishing using the toilet and coming out, one could still enjoy the scenery.

Yan Luqing was slowly strolling back, sighing at the fact that there was no one around, appreciating the flowers and plants, when her neck suddenly tightened, being fiercely yanked back by a great force from behind—

Next was a split second of heaven and earth spinning; she felt her temple crash into a hard object with a muffled thud, immediately after which warm liquid flowed down from that spot.

“…………”

Your mother, who the hell is this!!!

Yan Luqing was caught off guard, and with her current “ragdoll” physique, once restrained she basically could not move.

A female voice suddenly rang out from behind.

“Cousin, Gu Ci is with you, right?”

?

Cousin? Gu Ci?

Yan Luqing’s brain spun at high speed. The original body’s cousin, Gu Ci… This was that supporting female character that Jin Qi’an liked!

If she remembered correctly, this supporting female character was called Yu Xi, Yan Luqing’s distant cousin. Jin Qi’an secretly liked her, she had unrequited love for Gu Ci.

Yu Xi in the original work was that kind of typical little white flower, in real life maybe even a bit “tea-tea,” logically speaking should not have much popularity, but since she was the female character who scolded Yan Luqing the fiercest in the book, and truly liked Gu Ci, she actually gained quite some fondness from the book fans.

[Little white flower: refers to weak, innocent heroine archetype.]

[ Tea-tea: refers to manipulative yet pretending to be innocent.]

The laughable part was that Yan Luqing herself once even approved of her scolding Yan Luqing’s words; in the blink of an eye she herself became the Yan Luqing being plotted against by Yu Xi.

If Yan Luqing were not beaten into head bleeding and unable to speak, she really wanted to shout aloud: I am your ally, damn it!

“Yan Luqing, when will you realize that you are simply a lunatic?”

It began, she had begun!

Beginning with “you are a lunatic,” taking “you also deserve to like him” as the trunk, ending with warm blessings such as “I beg you to hurry up and die,” this was the indispensable three-piece set of Yu Xi scolding Yan Luqing.

Yan Luqing might even be more familiar with it than Yu Xi herself.

Yan Luqing was very clear-headed on one point, she would not take this kind of obvious resentment targeted at the original body onto herself—but to crash her head without a word, the pain was borne by herself, this must be returned.

Yu Xi, after all, was a girl, and with her scolding to distract attention, her strength very quickly was no longer as solid as at the start.

Yan Luqing gathered strength in her throat and actually forced out a complete sentence:

“Yes, Gu Ci is indeed at my house right now, I’m clearly telling you, we are living under the same roof now, what can you do about it?”

Yu Xi instantly froze all movements. Yan Luqing seized this fleeting opportunity, taking her off guard, swiftly and ruthlessly grabbing the roots of her hair and yanking down a whole handful!

—

When Yan Luqing did not return after more than ten minutes of going to the restroom, Gu Ci suddenly spoke to Big Black and Little Black: “You can go take a look at the back garden.”

Big Black did not understand: “Why?”

Gu Ci leaned back on the sofa, analyzing one point at a time: “I was once fairly familiar with this place. From the lobby to the back garden, finishing in the restroom and returning, at most five minutes; even if a girl walks slowly it would not exceed seven minutes. At this time, it is almost impossible that there is a line waiting for the restroom. Therefore, it is possible that something has happened in the back garden.”

The two insisted on taking Gu Ci along, afraid that he alone could not see and staying behind would be unsafe.

Thus when the three arrived at the back garden, Big Black and Little Black saw their Miss Yan, with a face full of blood, grabbing her cousin’s hair.

That scene was truly shocking.

Yan Luqing’s blood did not keep flowing; she was a little dizzy but it did not hinder her from walking. When they got into the car, Big Black used the medical kit to simply treat the blood on Yan Luqing’s face, treating as he sighed: “You haven’t seen your cousin in a long time. Every time you meet her, you can’t beat her, you can’t out-scold her, so maybe in the future it’s better to just…”

Yan Luqing said resolutely: “No, this time I won.”

Little Black, lacking tact, whispered on the side: “But you bled and she didn’t, clearly it’s her win…”

At this moment, Gu Ci, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke: “What did your Miss do?”

Little Black: “She yanked Yu Xi’s hair bald on the top of her head.”

“……”

Yan Luqing smiled: “Even if I told you, you wouldn’t understand.”

At the top of the head, losing a small handful of hair from the roots—how painful this is for a girl, you men will never understand.

……

This birthday banquet trip was originally a journey of fulfillment, fulfilling one of Yan Luqing’s dreams from when she was a reader. But this head injury of hers was truly an unforeseen disaster. Even though it was not a very serious flesh wound, the doctor still said she had to lie in bed for a few days.

It was also after helping Gu Ci retrieve his phone at the birthday banquet that Yan Luqing remembered, since her transmigration she had never touched a phone at all.

So early the next morning after returning home, she asked Big Black for her lifeblood.

A black, latest-model small brick.

When Yan Luqing first got it in her hand, she inexplicably heard a current. At the time she was startled, but then discovered that her finger had no sensation of being shocked at all, not even a trace of numbness, so she was relieved.

After turning it on, what she wanted to check first was WeChat.

At a glance, she did not find the familiar green icon.

There were not many apps on this phone screen, only two pages of desktop. Yan Luqing looked through them one by one, and finally her gaze fixed on the first in the third row—

That bright red app.

“Damn!” Yan Luqing really could not hold back and swore, “Little Black, why does my WeChat icon look like this?”

Big Black had been called away to the Yan family’s main house, so Little Black, who was second-most familiar with Yan Luqing, was on guard.

Little Black quickly walked to her bedside, eyes wide: “What’s wrong with it?”

Yan Luqing froze for a moment, then jerked her head up: “Can’t you see that my icon is red?”

Could it be that in this world WeChat was set as a red icon?

Just as Yan Luqing formed this assumption in her heart, she saw Little Black beside her suddenly frown and dial a call.

“Hello, Doctor Qu. You previously told us to closely observe Miss Yan. Today we discovered she has developed a new symptom, color blindness.”

Yan Luqing: “…………”

Goddamn it…

She pinched the bridge of her nose. While Little Black was still babbling on the side, Yan Luqing braced herself and tapped open this bright-red, eye-scorching WeChat.

Its inside was actually normal, exactly the same as the WeChat Yan Luqing knew.

…Could it be that she really had become red-green color blind???

Yan Luqing scrolled down through the conversation list and saw the names of two acquaintances.

Jin Qi’an, Yu Xi.

She first tapped into the chat window with Jin Qi’an, and then discovered that the previous records between the two had already been deleted—it was a blank.

This person’s profile picture…

Wait!

This person’s profile picture, at the top, actually had a lifelike dynamic effect, blue bubbles rising.

?

She wasn’t really hallucinating, was she?

Yan Luqing silently recited the Core Socialist Values ten times in her heart, then muttered to herself ten times to believe in science, finally tentatively tapping one of those bubbles—

A large blue box suddenly popped up on the screen, with a line of words inside framed up:

「Why is Yu Xi asking about Gu Ci again, what’s so good about that pretty boy? Am I not better than him? Damn!」

“……”

Yan Luqing nearly rolled her eyes all the way back.

He was so ordinary, yet so confident.

So…

Was this actually Jin Qi’an’s inner thoughts?

In real time?

Logically speaking, Young Master Jin should now be lying in the hospital, one leg in a plaster cast, unable to go anywhere. Just recalling his own birthday banquet would already make him wish for death rather than life.

Yan Luqing straightforwardly typed out and sent him a message.

YLQ: 【Has your leg healed?】

Then she began to wait.

After about thirty seconds, on the far left of this message there actually appeared a “Read.”

Yan Luqing: …Wasn’t this damn function already offline for ages in Langguo???

After showing “Read,” a cluster of bright red bubbles appeared on his side one after another, looking as if they were racing to come out, extremely anxious.

Yan Luqing tapped twice in succession, and on the screen popped up two bright red boxes:

「Damn, this crazy woman really is a lunatic？」

「My leg was definitely your doing, damn it」

“……” Damn, it really was real time.

That meant—even without sending messages she could still see what the other party was thinking at the moment?

Damn, Golden Finger.

Wow～Golden Legend!!!

Yan Luqing was exhilarated. The only thing she regretted now was not asking for her phone earlier.

Then what did these bubble colors mean?

Yan Luqing exited the chat window with Jin Qi’an and instead entered Yu Xi’s.

The chat between the two was just as blank as the one with Jin Qi’an. After waiting a moment, she saw on Yu Xi’s profile picture bubbles emerging in two colors—blue and pink—overlapping together and actually looking rather pretty.

Yan Luqing tapped three times on the pink bubbles in succession, and three pink boxes appeared:

「Want to see Gu Ci」

「Want to see Gu Ci」

「Want to see Gu Ci」

Then she tapped three times on the blue bubbles in succession, and three blue boxes appeared:

「Yan Luqing go die」

「Yan Luqing go die」

「Yan Luqing go die」

Yan Luqing: “Pft…”

Did it have to be this real?

The more Yan Luqing looked, the more excited she became. There were no other familiar names in the contacts list. She waved at Little Black who was standing by the window: “Little Black, come here.”

Little Black walked over in a few steps: “Miss Yan.”

Yan Luqing held out her own QR code, eyes bright as she stared at him: “Come, add me on WeChat.”

Little Black’s eyes widened in shock, “N-no… My contract says that since I’m not yet a private bodyguard, I cannot have any private contact with Miss Yan. I’m not worthy!”

“?” What kind of strange contract was this? Yan Luqing casually waved her hand, unconcerned: “You are very noble. I say you’re worthy, then you’re worthy. Hurry up and scan me.”

“……”

After adding the utterly despairing Little Black, Yan Luqing discovered that the bubbles on his profile picture were also quite dense, divided into gray and blue.

She first tapped three times on the gray ones—

「Miss Yan is crazy」

「Miss Yan is crazy」

「Miss Yan is crazy」

Then she tapped three times on the blue ones—

「Please pay the salary quickly, I can’t hold on」

「Please pay the salary quickly, I can’t hold on」

「Please pay the salary quickly, I can’t hold on」

“…………”

Truly no surprise at all.

……

For the next hour, Yan Luqing used Little Black for a long series of experiments.

She said many things to provoke him and discovered that each bubble color represented a different emotion. For now, the most common ones appearing on Little Black were blue and gray.

When Yan Luqing said those kinds of words tinged with neurosis, Little Black’s face would turn utterly terrified, and gray bubbles would appear on WeChat showing: 「How serious is Miss Yan’s illness？」, 「Does Miss Yan eat people？」, 「She seems like she wants to eat me.」 and so on.

The blue ones came afterward.

Once they turned into blue bubbles, Little Black’s inner thoughts became: 「I probably won’t live much longer…」, 「I want to see my mom one more time」 and the like.

Analyzing by context: gray was fear, blue was sorrow, and just now Jin Qi’an’s bright red was probably anger.

But Yu Xi’s pink—what was that? Yan Luqing hadn’t yet guessed.

Yan Luqing searched throughout her WeChat list, but found no Gu Ci, no guci, no GC, no gc. She searched every way she could, but nothing.

She had to find Gu Ci! She had to add him as a friend! She had to see his bubbles! Immediately, at once!

So she got out of bed on the spot. Under Little Black’s extremely terrified gaze, she said: “I have something to do. Do whatever you want.” Then, thinking of his pitiful inner monologues earlier, she hinted, “If you’re homesick, you can even make a video call to your family.”

Then Yan Luqing saw his bubbles.

Gray fear: 「Is she asking me to explain my last words？」

Blue sorrow: 「She’s finally going to deal with me.」

Yan Luqing: “…………”

This child didn’t have much brain capacity, but what he thought up was certainly complicated.

As Yan Luqing flew downstairs, she regretted why she hadn’t looked at her phone earlier—such an important crime tool, and she only just got her hands on it!

Since she transmigrated into this body, this was absolutely the fastest she had ever moved.

——She wanted to know Gu Ci’s inner thoughts.

——She finally didn’t have to guess at the great one’s mind anymore.

Only after transmigrating into a book did she realize how hard it was to be an ancient eunuch, speculating on others’ thoughts every day—this really wasn’t something ordinary people could do.

Yan Luqing arrived at Gu Ci’s door and knocked three times, “knock knock knock.”

From inside came a “Come in.”

Yan Luqing pushed the door open and entered, just about to speak bluntly, when she saw Gu Ci half-reclining on the bed—one hand playing with a phone, the other connected to an IV.

Yan Luqing walked up to the bedside. “You… why are you on an IV this time?”

“Because I can’t eat.”

“……”

Before, Yan Luqing saw this person could get out of bed, bathe, and even accompany her to the banquet, and thought he was almost better, that it only required recuperation afterward.

She had thought that since she transmigrated into the original body, the harm that body had caused him naturally would no longer exist, so Gu Ci shouldn’t have any major issues.

In these past days since she transmigrated, Yan Luqing was well aware of how bad her own body was—before transmigration her body was light as a swallow, but now it was as if she was tied down with dozens of jin of sandbags. No matter what she ate or drank, there was always a trace of nausea.

But at least she could still eat normally.

Gu Ci was so bad he could only live on IV drips… how much suffering must that be.

Damn.

Letting Jin Qi’an lose a leg was still letting him off cheap.

As she was inwardly cursing, Gu Ci suddenly lifted his eyes toward her. His expression was much like it had been most of the time on the day he first arrived—on the surface appearing indifferent, but if one looked a bit longer into his eyes, one would feel he was very gentle.

Gu Ci said: “You came to find me, what is it?”

Yan Luqing instantly recalled her purpose, her eyes lighting up with a sudden whoosh.

If Gu Ci could see clearly, he would have discovered that right in front of him was a pair of eyes shining as brightly as lightbulbs, staring straight at him.

“Gu Ci, I just realized that even though we’ve known each other for so long, I actually don’t have your contact information.” Without waiting for him to express any thought, Yan Luqing continued, “Just right, your phone was retrieved yesterday. Why don’t we take this chance to add each other on WeChat?”

If it were only the first sentence, it wouldn’t have been enough—the latter one was the real key. Gu Ci’s phone had been retrieved thanks to Yan Luqing, so by bringing this up, whether or not Gu Ci acknowledged her as a friend, whether or not he wanted to add her, this WeChat was absolutely, definitely, going to be added.

This line of talk was truly expert-level White Lotus, but at this moment it was a special circumstance, and Yan Luqing was willing to reward her lotus-like self with an essay of On the Love of the Lotus.

As expected.

The hand with which Gu Ci had been playing with his phone paused. He smiled faintly, unlocked the screen with facial recognition, and handed the phone to her.

“You add it yourself.”

Yan Luqing held his phone as if cradling her own future.