Chapter 41 I Refuse [Um... Host, this... this...]

【Um… Host, this… this…】

Gu Xiaozhu raised an eyebrow slightly: "Can't we even talk about this?"

Hmm... it's not impossible...

【All right. 】

The system, as if relieved of a heavy burden, said in a rather nonchalant tone: "I do have contact with Jiang Zhihe; in fact, we've been in contact for a long time."

[Before you arrived, host, I had already communicated with him.]

Gu Xiaozhu: "So early? Is it because... he's the chosen one? The protagonist of this world?"

【no……】

The system paused for a moment, then continued:

[It was because of an accident, an accident that shouldn't have happened. If it weren't for that, we wouldn't have come together, let alone reached this cooperation.]

Gu Xiaozhu: "Cooperation? Do you mean the 'fragments' you mentioned?"

【right. 】

Gu Xiaozhu nodded slightly.

In this way, Jiang Zhihe's previous words and actions, as well as his strange yet confident statements, can be explained.

"So—what exactly are these 'fragments'?"

[Host, all I can say is that it concerns your life. Collect all the fragments, and you will gain complete memories and understand everything.]

We can save you, and save this world from collapse.

Gu Xiaozhu was silent for a moment: "What about Jiang Zhihe? Does he know? Does he... know the truth?"

He knows, he knows everything. If you, host, ask him, he won't refuse.

...She seemed to understand.

No wonder the system kept emphasizing that her life was the most important thing, and no wonder Jiang Zhihe had been doing his best to protect her.

She is the author who writes this world.

He is the only god in this world.

So once she dies, the world will collapse and perish.

The spirit beasts and magical beasts of this world, due to their innate and natural characteristics, have a closer connection with the world.

The reason they didn't harm her is because they have an innate subconscious tendency to seek advantage and avoid harm; it's a feeling that the world has given them—

This person must not be hurt, absolutely not!

Oh, I see... that's how it is.

The room remained silent for a long time, so long that the system felt a little uneasy, even a little frightened.

[Host...you...]

Shh, I'm going to sleep.

Gu Xiaozhu uttered a muffled sound.

"Let me sort this out myself first. After all, there's a lot of information here, isn't there?"

Her voice was devoid of emotion, and even the system couldn't determine whether she was angry or not. Upon hearing her words, it simply shut its mouth and fell silent.

… …

The next morning, Jiang Zhihe knocked on Gu Xiaozhu's door.

"Xiaozhu, are you awake?"

He stood in front of the door, his expression unusually hesitant. The system had told him what happened yesterday. Although he knew Xiaozhu was smart and would have guessed this sooner or later, he hadn't expected it to happen so quickly.

He was especially uneasy when he heard the system say that Xiaozhu ignored him in the end.

After all, just like the system, he had indeed kept it from Xiaozhu before, so what if Xiaozhu...?

Should I get angry with him and ignore him?

The thought of this possibility made him feel like the sky had fallen, and his whole demeanor darkened considerably.

Teng Shao frowned as he looked at Jiang Zhihe: "What's wrong with him?"

Zhu Songyun, standing to the side, quickly calculated and said, "Oh dear? He kept so many things from Xiaozhu before, and now it's been discovered!"

Her previous boredom vanished instantly, her dull eyes widened, and her face was full of gossipy, gloating expression.

Teng Shao also became interested and leaned closer to ask, "Could he still be hiding something from Gu Xiaozhu? Can you figure out what it is?"

Teng Shao didn't even need to ask, because as soon as he did, Zhu Songyun had already begun to quickly calculate: "Hmm...it has a very close connection with Xiaozhu herself, and..."

At this point, she paused, her face suddenly turned pale, and then she vomited a mouthful of blood.

Seeing this, Teng Shao quickly moved half a step to the side to avoid the blood splattering on him.

Zhu Songyun looked completely at ease and skillfully took out a elixir and swallowed it.

"This is quite a big deal." She finally came to this conclusion, then turned to Teng Shao with a resentful expression: "And—were you serious about that half-step back you took?"

"Aren't we comrades?!"

She spoke in a rather exaggerated manner.

Teng Shao rolled his eyes: "You can talk to me about the word 'companion' again when you and that Jiang guy have confessed everything to me."

Zhu Songyun blinked: "Oh, so you knew."

Teng Shao: "I'm not stupid."

You're all playing the riddle-maker. Of the four people present, besides him, only Gu Xiaozhu is still in the dark.

He didn't care, after all, he didn't really care about other people's affairs and had no interest in knowing them, as long as they didn't get in his way in the end.

but……

Gu Xiaozhu is not that kind of person.

Someone as thoughtful and overly sensitive as her would definitely feel resentful after learning that those around her were keeping it from her.

He was just a little curious about how she would express this resentment.

On the other side, Jiang Zhihe stood dejectedly at the door. The quieter the room became, the more uneasy he felt.

"Xiaozhu, I..."

He hesitated, pursed his lips, and his voice sounded somewhat bitter: "I didn't mean to hide it from you... If there's anything else you want to know, you can ask me! As long as it's something I can tell you, I'll tell you everything!"

"So please..."

Don't hate me.

Don't ignore me.

I really...

"Really?"

A voice suddenly came from inside the door; it was Gu Xiaozhu's.

Upon hearing her reply, Jiang Zhihe's eyes lit up, and his voice became much more urgent: "Of course it's true! I'll tell you everything I can! I guarantee the contents are absolutely true! Heaven is my witness!"

As he spoke, he even made a swearing gesture, completely forgetting that the people in the room couldn't actually see it.

There was a moment of silence in the room before the voice rang out again: "Okay, then I'll wait for you to come back."

“Okay! Then wait for me… what?” Jiang Zhihe stopped mid-sentence, then asked in confusion, “Xiaozhu, you… don’t want to ask now?”

Inside the room, Gu Xiaozhu leaned against the door, listening to the boy's voice outside. She took a deep breath, suppressing all her unusual emotions and trying to make her voice as calm as possible:

"Now that I know so much, I need to... sort out my thoughts, don't I?"

"Okay... then I'll be going now?" A suspicious voice came from outside the door.

"good."

As the footsteps faded into the distance, Gu Xiaozhu listened to the silence outside the door return, and her tense body finally began to relax.

I walked back to the bedside step by step and sat down.

Everyone around her was keeping it from her.

The system works this way, and so does Jiang Zhihe.

If this is the case, then Zhu Songyun, who is an expert in divination, must have foreseen something when he suddenly approached them.

This matter is clearly closely related to her, but she herself is the only one—

I know nothing.

She was kept in the dark by everyone, like a fool.

She was very angry and felt wronged.

But she understood that it wasn't that they didn't want to tell her, but rather that there were some things they couldn't say.

She knew that they were keeping it from her for her own good.

That's why, no matter how angry or aggrieved she was, she couldn't vent these emotions on them. In the end, she could only swallow them silently and try to process them on her own.

Everyone is keeping it from her...

Okay, except for Teng Shao.

He really didn't know anything.

Thinking about it this way, she inexplicably felt sorry for Teng Shao.

Her train of thought inexplicably veered slightly, pulling her out of her previous state of being immersed in her emotions.

She didn't know how much time had passed before she noticed that there seemed to be some noise outside the inn.

Walking to the window, I pushed it open and looked down. I saw a familiar figure standing in front of the inn’s entrance, with more than a dozen boxes behind him and several servants carrying them.

"Miss Gu!"

Yan Yang immediately saw the girl standing by the window. She looked a little confused, and her clear eyes were staring at him without blinking.

Upon seeing this, Yan Yang immediately straightened his clothes, looked up at the girl by the window, and then waved to the side.

The servant immediately understood and shouted towards the back, "Open the chest—!"

More than a dozen chests were opened one by one, revealing mouthwatering gold and silver treasures inside.

Gu Xiaozhu frowned slightly, sensing that something was wrong.

Besides, didn't Jiang Zhihe and the others exorcise demons? Since the fox demon is entangled with the Second Prince, shouldn't he be in the palace right now?

How did they end up here? And with so much treasure?

Yan Yang opened his folding fan, looked up at Gu Xiaozhu, his face full of smiles, but his eyes revealed undisguised arrogance.

“Miss Gu, didn’t you save my life yesterday? So after I got back, I thought about it carefully and finally decided to repay you.”

As his smile grew wider, Gu Xiaozhu's bad premonition deepened.

"I've made up my mind! I want to marry you!"

Yan Yang's face was full of self-righteousness: "How about it? To have the honor of marrying the second prince of my Dayan Dynasty is more than enough to repay your life-saving grace!"

Gu Xiaozhu: "..."

This isn't repaying a debt of gratitude!

This is clearly revenge!

Downstairs, Yan Yang's words were still unfinished: "However, the position of principal wife is reserved for my Mei'er, so you can only be a concubine. But even as a concubine, it is already a great honor for you!"

Gu Xiaozhu's expression grew increasingly grim as she listened.

"I refuse!"

She was already in a bad mood, and this person just had to add fuel to the fire at this moment. The emotions she had managed to suppress suddenly surged up, even making her voice much louder.

"Wh-what?" Yan Yang was a little stunned, as if he hadn't expected the other party to refuse.

Gu Xiaozhu stood by the window, her usually gentle expression hardening, her indifferent eyes looking down at him like a cold god.

“I said, I refuse.”