58 Memory

◎I hate that I am my own substitute, so you never see me◎

I don't know how the single-occupancy accommodations for S-rank Sentinels in the Northwest District are, but the accommodations in the South District are just so-so. Ning Yue's single room was barely half a person's height wider than the one she'd stayed in the White Tower, barely enough for two people to cross in the hallway.

Ning Yue went to bed, she felt embarrassed, occupying someone else's room and even occupying his bed. She was not really a princess yet, so she sat cross-legged on the ground.

The extra half body length of space was just right. She could stretch her legs on the ground and sit quite comfortably.

Ning Yue beckoned her to come up, "Why are you sitting on the floor? There's no bed."

Yan Xunzhi looked at her intently, "If it was an ordinary sentry, would you let me sit on it?"

Ning Yue paused, then immediately guessed the conflict between her and Kong Wei from her words. She said playfully, "If you were an ordinary sentry, I wouldn't even let you into the room."

Yan Xunzhi raised the corners of his mouth. Ning Yue said, "If you feel comfortable, just continue sitting there."

Yan Xunzhi just sat there, looking up at her.

"...Do I look like her?"

Ning Yue raised an eyebrow, "Who?"

"It's Yan Xunzhi." Yan Xunzhi looked into her eyes, and a miniature, blurry image of her was reflected in his eyes. "Yan Xunzhi from my previous life."

Ning Yue noticed her prying gaze and said, "What do you want to hear? As for the face, they definitely look alike. She works in the Logistics and Armaments Department, so her life isn't as good as yours. She's even thinner than you. As for her personality... you'd have to ask Kong Wei. I don't have much impression of her. She's just Kong Wei's follower, so I think she has a good temper."

Oh. Yan Xunzhi suddenly thought of Kong Wei, who was drunk and hugged her to help her put on clothes, saying that she had gained weight. It turned out that it was not her aesthetic taste that was wrong. At that time, she had been thinking about another Yan Xunzhi.

Even if she appeared in front of her every day, she would not care about it at all.

Yan Xunzhi was silent for a moment, then asked, "Did she participate in Officer Kong's experiment in her previous life?"

In fact, she already had a vague answer in her heart. She had participated in Kong Wei's experiments in a previous life and might even have the correct data.

Otherwise, she had found so many experimental subjects in her life, including Sang Wanyin, who had also spent two lifetimes. How come she, an extraneous person who had only experienced one collective research, was the first to succeed?

Ning Yue shook her head, "I don't know."

Yan Xun wasn't surprised. Kong Wei didn't want to tell her, and since Ning Yue and she weren't close friends, why would she tell her this?

Ning Yue saw through her thoughts and nodded, "I really don't know."

"I know." Yan Xunzhi grinned at her, "Never mind, I can guess it."

Ning Yue sighed, "Why would I lie to you? Can't you feel that I am not one of Kong Wei's experimental personnel at all? How would I know what she is doing?"

Yan Xunzhi could certainly feel that there were two types of people around Kong Wei for a long time. One was her experimental subjects, such as Sang Wanyin, and the other was the researchers who participated in the experiments with her, such as Zeng An and Sun Yesuo.

Ning Yue was neither. She was isolated from this experiment, but she also felt that she was very special to Kong Wei. Almost all the data for her experiment was collected by Ning Yue, so it was impossible for her to know nothing about her experiment.

"I did see the experiment." Ning Yue spread her hands, looking as frank as could be. "But if I say I can't remember it at all, do you believe me?"

Yan Xunzhi let out a long "ah".

Some say the more outrageous something is, the more likely it is to be true. But Ning Yue kept spouting nonsense, and she couldn't figure out if it was just some escalated joke.

Ning Yue had to lower her head to look her in the eye. After chatting for a long time, she still felt uncomfortable. "Can you please come up and sit down? This way I can see your good looks, and all my photos are ugly. Come up, come up."

Yan Xunzhi laughed heartily and climbed up obediently.

After sitting down, she heard Ning Yue ask her, "What do you think is the relationship between me and Kong Wei?"

"The previous link sentinel direction." Yan Xunzhi didn't even think about it. "And it was a two-way link sentinel direction. You were together in your previous life, so you must have had a very good relationship."

A two-way choice occurs when there is complete mutual mismatch, yet there is complete trust in the other, a willingness to entrust one's life to the other. Because of this mismatch, strength is greatly diminished, and the connection will not be particularly stable; it must be compensated by a genuine mutual understanding.

Ning Yue smiled, "We chose a two-way link only because we were reborn together and hold each other's secrets."

"I even begged her to do it. She's a guide and can hide her own memories, but what about me? If a guide connects with me, it would be easy to discover that I have two spirit bodies. Then I would definitely be the target of everyone's criticism."

Yan Xunzhi was surprised.

Then it seemed normal to her. She was so short-sighted that she had never thought of this before.

——Kong Wei was too indifferent. She had never hidden the secret of the spiritual body from her. She always thought it was normal for an S-level guide to have two spiritual bodies.

Isn't she afraid that one day she will show off happily and let something slip?

"I told her at the time that if I was exposed, I would definitely drag her down with me."

"Even if she can hide, can she hide it forever? Even without dual spirit bodies, can she endure surveillance for the rest of her life? Can she do what she wants to do under surveillance?" Ning Yue's expression was high and proud. "Kong Wei is too calm. If she doesn't take threats, you have to hit her most sore spot."

Yan Xunzhi listened to her passionate words and seemed to be lost in thought.

From what she said, it seems their relationship in their past life wasn't very good. But if it wasn't, she would have known about her experiment in her past life, so they wouldn't have been so distant...

"You guys..." Her mind was in a mess for a moment.

Ning Yue observed the changes in her expression with great interest, "Think about our relationship first... Can I ask you about something else?"

"What?"

Ning Yue's mouth was almost stretched to her ears as she watched the fun. "How do you feel if you know Kong Wei treats you like Yan Xunzhi from your past life? Do you hate her?"

Yan Xunzhi was stunned for a moment and smiled bitterly, "Do you have to gossip at this time?"

"I'll take you back to my room." Ning Yue said bluntly, "It's reasonable to exchange it for something I'm interested in."

Yan Xun subconsciously reached out and rubbed the back of his neck vigorously, as if to comfort himself, "I'm afraid that if I say... people will think it's too ridiculous."

Ning Yue pointed three fingers to the sky, "I swear, I won't laugh at you!"

Yan Xunzhi laughed dryly twice, followed by silence.

After a long silence, he said, "...two days."

Ning Yue immediately understood, "It's no problem to stay for three or four days! You are such a gossip-loving person."

Yan Xunzhi covered his face, pressed down hard with his ten fingers, and pinched it.

My face is so thin, my bones and flesh ache as if they are about to be crushed. Only when the pain is numb can I say it, "At first, I really hated her for playing me around. My happy, tangled and self-pitying moments were like a joke in her eyes. Now I am just... very sad."

"Actually..." Her eyes felt hot, so she had to press them through her eyelids.

Her fingertips were wet, and Yan Xunzhi despised herself for being useless. Wasn't it because she wasn't loved by anyone? She fully accepted that her brain, which had only developed for twenty years, could not compete with Kong Wei.

"It doesn't matter who she loves. I don't mind being a stand-in. Really, I've gained so much more than I've lost. I want to thank Kong Wei for giving me this opportunity." She looked at the bed sheet, her chin pointed. Two tears fell, staining a large area of dark color. "But it's me, that person is me."

Ning Yue tilted her head to support it, like a supporting actor, "Yeah, it's you."

"I can deceive myself by pretending to be anyone. She must have seen me at least at some point. After all, no one can be exactly the same as anyone else. But that person is me. In my previous life, we were different, but in Kong Wei's eyes, we are the same."

"I'm sad, very sad. Sad that I loved her, but she never loved me at all, or maybe she never even saw me."

What is more hurtful than quarreling is cold violence. Yan Xunzhi feels that Kong Wei is like a long cold violence to her.

Everything was misplaced. The care and love she expressed... all the emotions were not for her. When she was immersed in it, she just felt weird, and when she pulled away, she realized how self-indulgent she was.

In many stories in novels, the protagonist is reborn into the past and happily pursues his lover from the previous life, so that he can live with her in a more perfect life.

They never avoided talking about their past and present lives, but Kong Wei was very secretive about it. He would rather let her misunderstand than confess that he loved her in her previous life.

Kong Wei wasn't stupid, and neither was she. If he had no ulterior motives and truly treated them as human beings, there would be no need to be so secretive; if she truly loved her, given her personality, she should have told her about her past life with an open heart long ago.

It was simply because—she could definitely tell the two of them apart.

Only in this way would one not dare to answer, and only in this way would one cover it up.

She clearly and distinctly allowed her to be the substitute every moment, and never saw her for a moment.

Ning Yue handed her a piece of paper and gave her some instructions, "Have you told Kong Wei this?"

Yan Xunzhi shook his head, "I didn't care."

Besides, she was too lazy to say it. What difference would it make if she said it? Kong Wei was such a self-centered person that she didn't care at all.

Ning Yue was even more excited than her. The word "empathy" was a bit weak. It seemed that she was the one who was deceived, not Yan Xunzhi. "You should have slapped these words in her face! Kong Wei will definitely be speechless. What a great opportunity!"

Yan Xunzhi laughed amusedly, "I can see that you just can't win an argument with Kong Wei, so you want me to take revenge on her."

Ning Yue rubbed her hands together, "You haven't spent enough time with her. Do you know how rare this opportunity is? She's feeling down right now, and she doesn't seem to feel anything. She always feels indebted to you. If I were you, I would definitely maximize your value!"

The speaker has intentions, and the listener has thoughts. Yan Xunzhi paused for a moment, savoring the meaning, "...For example?"

If she had the guts to do that, of course she would say, "I don't want her charity," but this is a dungeon, and she's just a B-rank sentry, so what's the point of having guts?

At least the northwest wind can still be full!

Yan Xunzhi never thought of blackmailing Kong Wei, which was a dangerous and treasonous act.

It was suddenly brought up, and I had no idea what to do. I planned to listen to it first and refer to Ning Yue's requirements.

Ning Yue angrily said, "Make Kong Wei pay back all the money she borrowed from me! Do you know how much she stole from me while I couldn't remember the amount? And then she immediately went to connect with you. I was so nervous every day when I went to the ground to connect with the public guide. She wants to pay me for mental damages!"

“…”

【Author’s words】

Pickled Fish: You're really out of your mind. What kind of serious request could Officer Ning have...