Chapter 81 End. Congratulations, Miss, Jin Zhao...

Jiang Xiliu was convinced.

How can anyone in this world be so good at playing the victim?

She was completely defenseless against these tactics.

The reason she was able to withstand Shen Yu just now was probably due to her extraordinary performance.

Inside the car.

"I resigned," Jin Zhao said, glancing at Jiang Xiliu. "You said you wanted to find a boyfriend, have you found one yet?"

He then realized he had asked the wrong question and changed his answer: "I meant to say, could I... could I register again?"

Jiang Xiliu was also looking at Jin Zhao, but unlike Jiang Xiliu, she was scrutinizing his expression. After confirming that he was serious, she said in a somewhat harsh tone, "It's already been found."

Jin Zhao quieted down.

His fingers were almost pierced by his nails; he hung his head, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.

“Jiang Xiliu…” Jin Zhao suddenly spoke again.

He said, "One more, please... I'll be very obedient and won't let anyone find out."

Jiang Xiliu was momentarily dazed upon hearing this.

She thought of Jin Zhao as he used to be, and also of how he later seemed to want to die.

She didn't quite understand.

He had already escaped and barely managed to save himself, so why did he want to return to this poisonous land? Wasn't he afraid of really dying this time?

Jiang Xiliu almost never regrets what she does.

Only on the day she learned that Jin Zhao didn't want to live, she stood in the spot where Jin Zhao stood every day, looking down at the empty road where no cars would ever come, and at that moment, she felt a little regret.

Should I not have treated him like that?

Her dislike for Jin Zhao actually stemmed entirely from her "life dream" and System 0777.

If it weren't for all of this, if she hadn't known their ending...

Jiang Xiliu felt that she and Jin Zhao would not have ended up like this.

As for love, it's not really love; as for hate, I can't bear to hate.

However, all of that is now over.

Her dream of a better life has ended, and the storyline told by System 0777 has come to a close.

There was nothing superfluous between them.

It was just Jiang Xiliu and Jin Zhao.

Jiang Xiliu felt that she was a really kind person, so she didn't answer Jin Zhao's question about whether there could be one more.

She turned her head away, pretending she hadn't heard anything.

Let's just let him go.

The house looks brand new compared to when I last visited.

I don't know where Jin Zhao got these flowers from, but they're blooming beautifully.

Jiang Xiliu and Shen Yu barely ate anything at the meal they had; in the end, they ended up eating at Jin Zhao's place instead.

While Jin Zhao was tidying up the kitchen, Jiang Xiliu went into Jin Zhao's room alone.

As Jin Zhao said, it has become very bright, and it no longer feels oppressive.

Jin Zhao is currently living in the smallest secondary bedroom in the entire house. There are no chairs in it, only a bed and a cabinet. She can only sit on the edge of the bed and look out the window.

Even the curtains were changed to a different color; Jin Zhao is truly very obedient.

The window was open, and feeling the breeze blowing in from outside, Jiang Xiliu swung her feet in a good mood.

As a result, it bumped into something.

Jiang Xiliu was wearing her own shoes, so she didn't feel any pain from the impact. Curious, she bent down and peeked out, lifting the bed sheet to see a beautiful and exquisite box.

It's locked.

Jin Zhao finished cleaning and came out, but he didn't see Jiang Xiliu in the living room. The whole house was extremely quiet, as if he was the only one left.

Has Jiang Xiliu left?

"Bang—"

A sound that could not be ignored came from the room with the door tightly closed.

Jin Zhao looked at the door. Was Jiang Xiliu inside? How did she suddenly learn to close doors?

Jin Zhao slowly walked over, pressed the doorknob, and opened the door.

After seeing everything in the room, Jin Zhao froze, forgetting even how to breathe.

His treasure has been discovered.

Jiang Xiliu, who was struggling to unlock the box with brute force, sat on the edge of the bed. The box was on the floor, but she had taken everything inside and placed it within her reach.

Jiang Xiliu picked up the broken glasses and held them up against her face.

The glasses, now only broken and framed, were moved aside, and the two people's eyes met without any obstruction.

Jiang Xiliu shook the half of the glasses frame quite gently: "This is mine, right? When did you take it?"

Jin Zhao pursed his lips, unsure of what to say.

The things in that box all belonged to Jiang Xiliu, and it wasn't just that pair of glasses.

Jiang Xiliu indeed put down her glasses and picked up the scarf and hat: "This is mine too."

She seemed unable to recall when she lost it: "Where did you find it?"

Apart from the box that Jiang Xiliu had only seen once, all the other items were mentioned by Jiang Xiliu.

Jin Zhao remained silent, but when Jiang Xiliu looked over, he had no choice but to explain, "You gave me the glasses... You didn't want the other things, so I took them back."

Jiang Xiliu asked him, "Why did you take it? Why did you lock it up and hide it under the bed?"

When she pulled the box out, it wasn't dusty at all. Either the owner wiped the outside of the box every day, or the owner opened it every day.

Jin Zhao thought about it for a while, but in the end he didn't make up an answer.

He stood at the door, keeping his distance from Jiang Xiliu, and said softly, "This is what I've collected—the little bit of love you have for me."

"It makes me feel better to deceive myself like this."

Jiang Xiliu stood up. It seemed that she finally realized at this moment that Jin Zhao didn't really hate her, and even seemed to love her a little?

How could he not hate her? She's the one who turned him into the person he is now.

Jiang Xiliu thought again that it was because he didn't know he was the male protagonist of the small world, and he didn't know how brilliant his life could have been.

"Actually, everything I did wasn't real." Jiang Xiliu decided to tell Jin Zhao the truth: "My approach to you, my marriage to you, and my divorce from you were all for a purpose."

Jin Zhao didn't react much, he just looked up at her.

“The world we live in now is actually a novel. You are the male protagonist, and Yisile is the female protagonist. You two should be a perfect match?” Because the novel had a bad ending and didn’t get to that point, Jiang Xiliu’s statement was not so certain.

Jin Zhao, who had been expressionless, frowned and replied bluntly, "Impossible."

He added, "How could Sile and I be together? We can only be family."

Jiang Xiliu recalled the first time she met Yi Sile. She was also shocked at the time and thought Jin Zhao was a pervert.

“That’s not important,” Jiang Xiliu said.

"Important." Jin Zhao walked over, squatted down in front of her, and slightly raised his eyes, just enough to meet the gaze of the young lady sitting on the edge of the bed. "And you... what about you?"

Jiang Xiliu asked, "You believe it so easily? I didn't accept it for a long time." Mainly because she didn't believe she was a supporting character.

Jin Zhao: "Because you said it." So he believed it without a doubt, even though it went against his own beliefs since childhood.

Jiang Xiliu looked away, tilting her head and turning her hat: "Our relationship is a tragic one, even in the novel."

"So everything I did was simply because in novels, we get married and divorced."

“You will live a good life after we divorce. You will go from Mr. Jin to President Jin. Whatever project you set your sights on will make money. You will get rid of your current life and become a very rich and unattainable person in the eyes of the world. You will be very happy.”

Jiang Xiliu's dream was so short; it was something she had pieced together randomly from what System 0777 had shown her.

Anyway, it's pretty much the same as the novels she's read.

Noticing that Jiang Xiliu had stopped, Jin Zhao carefully took one of her fingers in his hand.

Are you happy? And you? Where are you?

The previously silent System 0777 responded in my mind.

[System 0777: Hahaha, I scold you every day at home.]

Jiang Xiliu:......

There are reasons why some systems have never been reused.

The somewhat oppressive atmosphere was disrupted by the system in her mind, and Jiang Xiliu couldn't blend in anymore. She rolled her eyes at Jin Zhao and said, "I'm going to live a good life now."

Jin Zhao didn't know what he had done wrong, but he vaguely realized that she was a little unhappy.

Jiang Xiliu didn't waste any words: "Now because of me, you've lost the good life you should have had, and you're even worse off than before. And yet, you still want to stay with me?"

“I didn’t think those days were that great,” Jin Zhao said. “Making a lot of money doesn’t make me happy.”

"Hey! You!" Jiang Xiliu thought Jin Zhao was really hypocritical. Is there anyone in this world who doesn't like money?

"I'll only believe you when you learn to dispense money automatically. You've never even experienced it, yet you know money is bad?"

Jin Zhao didn't mean that. He was about to explain when he remembered that Jiang Xiliu really liked money.

After a while, he looked at Jiang Xiliu longingly and said, "We want to be together."

Seeing that Jiang Xiliu's expression had become even more unpleasant, he lowered his head: "Is it alright?"

Jiang Xiliu withdrew her finger, her expression inscrutable: "I really don't know what you like about me."

Although she was indeed a very good person, she wasn't really that good to Jin Zhao.

Jin Zhao smiled. He leaned against the bed, and Jiang Xiliu sat there. The wind outside the window occasionally blew up the beautiful curtains, wave after wave.

"Because you can bring me happiness."

"I've also felt conflicted and suffered, but I've never thought about leaving you."

"I agreed to divorce you because you wanted a divorce. Actually, I didn't want a divorce at all. I was very greedy. I wanted to be with you."

“But I was terrible at that time. I know you were working hard and busy every day. I felt like I was a burden to you, so I resisted that greed and set you free.”

“When you said you were looking for a boyfriend, I really wanted to offer myself. But when I saw the gloomy environment around me, the uneven roads, and the terrible, pungent smell, I felt that I would be so sorry to make you stop for me.”

“I don’t think I should be so selfish, but now I want to be a little selfish.”

Jiang Xiliu didn't know what kind of happiness she could bring to Jin Zhao.

But after hearing these words, she felt sorry for Jin Zhao.

It seems that, indeed, he only has her left.

Feeling sorry for the man's lifelong misfortune, Jiang Xiliu realized her heart was too soft and decisively left Jin Zhao's place, without ever answering him "okay".

...

June 1st is Children's Day.

A new private chef restaurant has opened in a shopping mall near the Jiang's Building.

The shop isn't big, but the ambiance is quite elegant.

The boss doesn't seem to care about sales figures; he'll come if people come, and he doesn't care if no one comes.

On the first day of opening, they didn't even do any activities, or even set up a table at the entrance or hand out any flyers.

Only those who are very familiar with this mall would notice that the store has changed.

It was almost lunchtime when a man who looked like a celebrity came out of the kitchen. Since there were no customers, the clerks who were idly wiping tables quickly offered their services: "Boss, I'll do it."

The man flinched, preventing the shop assistant from touching him: "No need."

He ignored the fact that the store was empty, as if he didn't open the store to do business.

The shop assistant watched the owner leave and continued idly wiping the tables.

Jiang's employees also had good benefits and low turnover.

When Jin Zhao visited this time, the same four people were still at the front desk.

"Boss's husband."

Jiang Xiliu's divorce should have been made public, but because Jin Zhao left with nothing, there was no change in the shareholding structure. In addition, Jiang Xiliu intended to maintain control, so apart from the person in charge and some well-informed business partners, not many people knew about it.

If even some senior executives were unaware, it was even less likely that these four ordinary employees would know.

Jin Zhao raised the things in his hands: "Delivering food."

"...Boss, Mr. Jiang didn't come to the company today." The four people at the front desk were just discussing this.

Under the slightly puzzled gazes of the four people, Jin Zhao calmly nodded, took out his phone, and started calling Jiang Xiliu.

The call connected, but it was a bit noisy on Jiang Xiliu's end; it sounded like she was outside.

"What are you doing?" Jiang Xiliu's tone was not good, sounding somewhat irritated, mixed with some "ee-ee-ya-ya" sounds.

Despite being scolded, Jin Zhao remained calm: "Where are you? I'm downstairs at your company right now."

"At the hospital, get over here!" Jiang Xiliu said and hung up the phone.

After sending the location to Jin Zhao, Jiang Xiliu stared at the little thing in front of her. The little thing's features were very similar to hers. Although it had a bad temper, it loved to laugh.

"Open your mouth!" The young lady rarely wanted to be a loving mother, so she took a day off on her birthday and impulsively took the little one for a routine check-up.

One of the tests was checking the teeth's eruption. The little one got stubborn and clenched its teeth tightly. The doctor tried several times but failed. With Jiang Xiliu watching, the doctor dared not push too hard.

This examination will be put on hold for now. We'll come back to it after we've completed the other examinations.

The little one who was just grinning and showing her teeth immediately shut her mouth again. She wouldn't open her mouth to drink when the aunt tried to feed her, and her eyes followed her mother around.

Jiang Xiliu was impatient to wait any longer, so she asked the doctor for gloves and prepared to personally pry open the little thing's skin.

The baby's face is so soft and squishy, ​​like it has no bones.

The young lady couldn't find a foothold, so she asked her aunt to hold the little one's head.

The little one is quite perceptive; he gave his mother special face by obediently opening his mouth and even biting his mother's finger with his gums.

It doesn't hurt when it bites because it doesn't have many teeth, but the young lady dislikes the little thing's drool.

There was just too much. The young lady suspected that if the aunt hadn't wiped it off in time, she could have caught a whole handful.

The doctor quickly finished the examination. The little one only had two teeth, which were asymmetrical and made people laugh when they were exposed.

Of course, only Jiang Xiliu dared to laugh at her.

After the check-up, another woman took the little item.

Jiang Xiliu watched from the side and felt that taking care of a child, especially a high-needs child, must be really hard.

She said, "Your year-end bonus will be doubled. Go back to the housekeeper today and collect a big red envelope."

The aunties were naturally happy, but the little one, who was far away from his mother, pouted and lay motionless on his auntie's shoulder.

When Jin Zhao arrived, the aunties had just finished tidying up the children and were preparing to go home.

Jiang Xiliu saw him from afar and was in a very bad mood: "What are you doing here?"

Jin Zhao didn't say that she had told him to come over, but he showed her what he was carrying: "I made you a cake, happy birthday."

Jiang Xiliu reluctantly accepted and let him into the car.

Today, because we brought the child out, the driver was driving a different car than Jiang Xiliu usually uses.

One auntie sat in the front passenger seat, another auntie sat next to the child safety seat, and there was an empty row, just enough for two people to sit.

Jiang Xiliu, with a stern face, ordered Jin Zhao, "Open it and see. If it's not tasty, I'll make you get out of here."

Jin Zhao opened the box without changing his expression. It was a very small and delicate cake, not even needing to be divided; it was a single serving.

Holding a fork, and following Jiang Xiliu's instructions, he scooped out a spoonful.

While feeding Jiang Xiliu, Jin Zhao's gaze involuntarily drifted to the child in the back row who was staring wide-eyed and curiously nibbling on his hand.

She looks just like a chibi version of Jiang Xiliu, with no resemblance to anyone else.

The child noticed someone was watching her and exclaimed "Yay!" to attract attention.

"You're not allowed to look at my daughter," Jiang Xiliu said domineeringly. "If you look again, I'll gouge your eyes out."

She held her chin up, the cake still in her mouth, a little cream on her lips, but she was actually not intimidating at all.

Jin Zhao obediently looked away: "Sorry."

He watched Jiang Xiliu swallow the mouthful, his brow relaxing slightly. He then fed her a second mouthful: "Any plans for today?"

Jiang Xiliu had already held a birthday party last night, and today, as is customary, she should have a meal at home with her parents.

Jiang Xiliu savored the delicate sweetness on her tongue: "No plans."

She raised an eyebrow at Jin Zhao: "What? You've made a plan?"

Jin Zhao nodded, but hearing the wet, babbling noises beside his ear, he said somewhat embarrassedly, "I bought two tickets to the amusement park."

Jiang Xiliu:......

As Jin Zhao fed Jiang Xiliu a bite, he leaned closer and whispered, "Have you been there? I haven't."

Jiang Xiliu had never been to a public one, but she had a small one at home with all the necessary equipment.

Looking at Jin Zhao's bright eyes, she reluctantly agreed to his invitation: "Okay."

The little thing was naturally ignored by the two heartless adults.

However, Jiang Xiliu soon regretted coming to the amusement park with Jin Zhao today.

Children's Day! Everywhere you look, there are little kids squealing and yelling!

There were long queues for each attraction. Jiang Xiliu initially found queuing novel, but after five minutes she became impatient. Jin Zhao bought her an ice cream to appease her, and then walked to the front by himself. After a while, he led her to switch places with a family in the front row.

They'll be in the next round.

Jiang Xiliu asked curiously, "Did you cut in line? Or did you have someone else line up beforehand?" "I paid for it." Jin Zhao was probably doing this for the first time. "But the kid didn't seem too willing, so I gave him an ice cream and coaxed him."

The magic of ice cream is useful for every child.

It's actually quite interesting, especially for two people who have never met before.

Jin Zhao had never been here before, and Jiang Xiliu had never seen such a noisy amusement park.

But all around them were laughter and shouts. It was a little annoying at first, but they easily blended in and became part of the laughter themselves.

“I opened a restaurant near your company,” Jin Zhao said slowly as the Ferris wheel was about to reach its top. “If you want anything to eat in the future, just send me a message anytime, and I’ll make it and deliver it to you.”

Jiang Xiliu hummed an off-key song and joked, "Want to do business with me?"

“No, it’s always free for you,” Jin Zhao said. “This shop is your birthday gift. Whenever you come, it will be open for you, no matter how late.”

Jiang Xiliu looked at him seriously and asked, "Where did you get the money?"

Jin Zhao blinked innocently: "I listened to you and invested all the remaining money from selling the house into the stock market."

"You said that whatever I bought would go up in price, and it actually happened." He smiled shyly. "But the initial investment is limited, and the profits are only enough to support opening one store."

Jiang Xiliu was a little jealous; she was terrible at this, always losing money no matter what she bought.

[System 0777: Miss, you can buy things like him. Let's see whose luck has more influence.]

More than that, Jiang Xiliu cared whether Jin Zhao would become richer than her.

[System 0777: ...Of course not. The small world's favoritism towards the male protagonist can only be within a controllable range, a tiny bit of bias. And to be honest, Jin Zhao's luck isn't as strong as it used to be.]

Jiang Xiliu's silence made Jin Zhao a little nervous.

He wasn't sure if she would like the gift, but it was something he had racked his brains to come up with.

Jiang Xiliu is wealthy and has no shortage of expensive gifts.

Many people wanted to go out of their way for her, but Jin Zhao's only advantage was his cooking skills.

The fireworks show started precisely on time, and the Ferris wheel cabins reached their peak and stopped precisely at that moment.

This is the best viewing spot; the fireworks are practically right in front of their faces.

It was only then that Jiang Xiliu noticed that the other cabins of the Ferris wheel were empty.

She looked at Jin Zhao, her voice calm: "I will not get married again. There's no point in getting married and then divorced, and I don't need to."

Jin Zhao knew, looking at the commotion outside the room, "This is just a birthday present."

Jiang Xiliu felt something was wrong, but she didn't know how to put it.

Perhaps it's because they've never seen Jin Zhao, this penniless guy, spend money so lavishly.

As they left the amusement park, the crowd behind them was still bustling with activity.

Jin Zhao saw her off to the car that the driver was already waiting at the door, while he himself took a taxi home.

He leaned into the lowered car window and asked Jiang Xiliu, "Are you happy today?"

Jiang Xiliu couldn't possibly say she was unhappy today, so she said with a straight face, "Of course."

Jin Zhao reached out and boldly pinched her earlobe: "Jiang Xiliu, be happy every day."

After saying that, he stepped back, stood still, and slowly increased the distance between himself and the car.

Jiang Xiliu stuck half her head out of the open car window and looked back at him.

Amidst the sound of wind, the hum of machinery began.

[System 0777: Congratulations, Miss, Jin Zhao's favorability has reached 100.]

-----------------------

Author's note: Wishing everyone happiness every day! [pink heart]

There are also two side stories, one told from a mini-perspective and the other about a "past life" with world consciousness.

The frequency of extra chapter updates is not as stable as it is now, it's probably every other day. Thank you for reading.