Chapter 112 (94%)

Besides giving her gifts on various holidays, Lu Ming would also update the vases and plants in her studio, as well as the snack cabinet and spare daily necessities in her lounge every now and then. In addition, Wen Chu accidentally discovered one day that he really did add three boxes of moisturizing lubricant sleeves to the drawer by his bedside.

It was as if he was telling her that if he got another chance, he would not hesitate.

Wen Chu blushed instantly upon seeing this, and felt an urge to go next door and strangle the other person.

Every time Lu Ming worked overtime until late at night, he would ask Wen Chu to open the office door. When she opened it, he would sigh with disappointment: "Is it not broken?"

Wen Chu rolled her eyes fiercely.

In addition, the other party actually learned how to cook.

At first, the man used the excuse that he had bought a new batch of seafood and that Aunt Sun had learned a few new dishes to lure her to his home for dinner. However, the dishes served were actually made by him. Wen Chu could tell the difference in a second, but Lu Ming said that Aunt Sun had just had a bad day and refused to admit that he had made them. He then secretly improved his cooking techniques.

Even with his hard work, he still went through several months of fluctuating skill levels. Eating someone's cooking was like opening a blind box for Wen Chu; there were always unexpected surprises. But she never expected that after persistent practice, this person's cooking skills would actually improve steadily.

While her own failure was heartbreaking, the success of others was even harder to accept. So Wen Chu refused to give up and began to hone her skills, thinking of bringing Aunt Sun's culinary skills back with her.

But he soon discovered that she wasn't cut out for it. Lu Ming would eat her cooking, but secretly he would have to take two more stomach pills.

In order to save food for the country and to avoid aggravating the patient's condition, Wen Chu angrily left the kitchen.

The leaves turned from green to yellow and fell to the ground, where they were swept up by sanitation workers in the early morning and piled up on both sides of the road. One day, the temperature in the city suddenly dropped, and Wen Chu, who had been in this world for so long, finally ushered in winter.

Men look more charming and mature when they wear long coats.

Wen Chu always maintained a distance from people that was sometimes close and sometimes distant. When there was a mission, she would be more enthusiastic, and when there was no mission, she would be more indifferent. As a result, they had actually argued several times, some big and some small. Every time she faced Lu Ming's questioning and confession, Wen Chu would choose to use delaying tactics first. If that didn't work, they would part on bad terms and engage in a silent cold war.

The other person usually calms down and comes to her to make amends after a night.

Wen Chu knew that every compromise a man made concealed a great deal of disappointment, but she still chose to run away.

As time went by, in the quiet of the night, Wen Chu stared at the dark ceiling and could hardly tell whether her refusal to get back together with someone was because she didn't want to repeat the same mistakes, or because she was hesitating about something else.

As the level of affection gradually approached its limit, an idea repeatedly appeared in her mind, only to be suppressed by her rationality.

Her goal is to go home, to return to the real world as soon as possible, and to live the life that truly belongs to her.

The longer she stays here and is loved, the more confused she will become.

In reality, Lu Ming is just a strict yet responsible boss who doesn't have these feelings for her. She's afraid that if she gets too caught up in the role, she won't know how to face the real Lu Ming when she gets back, which would unnecessarily affect her good job.

As time goes by, their working relationship becomes more and more harmonious and closer to a realistic one.

So much so that one day, when Wen Chu looked at the person so close to her, a bold guess suddenly popped into her mind—could Lu Ming be Lu Ming?

She had a wild idea: couldn't two people who were exactly the same in terms of work, life, personality, and habits really be the same person? Could the system really perfectly replicate such a similar virtual character by extracting Lu Ming's memories from reality?

In contrast, Wen Heng and Yang Lan didn't feel as real to her.

If the system can erase and restore memories and weaken emotions, then it might also be able to erase Lu Ming's memories in reality, making him believe that he is a person of this world.

Just like when she first woke up, she forgot her true identity and was given a fairly complete set of memories as the daughter of the Wen family, so she really believed that she was a person of this world.

Wen Chu wondered if she was too resistant to the possibility of parting, which was why she gave herself this psychological suggestion, trying to not resist returning to reality.

Once the idea came to mind, it kept popping up from time to time over the next two months.

She subconsciously began comparing the similarities between the two Lu Mings, hoping to find clues to prove her conjecture. She would occasionally ask them about problems they had encountered in their real-world work, and how people would typically solve them.

Lu Ming gave similar answers several times.

The unknown little flame in Wen Chu's heart burned brighter and brighter, so she began to ask about some things in life: "What if a colleague you've worked with for two or three years becomes depressed because of a family crisis and makes several mistakes at work as a result, and you happen to see her drowning her sorrows in a bar? What would you do?"

Without hesitation, Lu Ming replied, "I'll pretend I didn't see it."

"Huh?" Wen Chu stared at him. "Why? You could clearly sense her low spirits. Shouldn't you have done something to comfort her out of humanitarian concern?"

“I’m not the reincarnation of Guanyin, I’m very busy. You also mentioned that he made several work mistakes due to his personal emotions. Under these circumstances, I didn’t deduct his salary, which is already the greatest comfort I could give him.”

Wen Chu, holding her breath, asked again, "What if you get off work late and it starts raining heavily, and one of your employees happens to be out with you, without an umbrella or a car, and it's hard to get a taxi at that time, and the subway station is a bit far away? Would you personally take her home?"

"What kind of problem is that? Of course not. At most, I'll give him the extra umbrellas in the car."

"You..." Wen Chu was so angry that she couldn't speak, so she could only punch him. "You cold-hearted bastard!"

The small flame that had just begun to grow stronger was extinguished by cold water. A look of disappointment flashed across Wen Chu's eyes. It seemed that they were not entirely the same.

She tried to leave, but the man grabbed her and pulled her back.

“You’ve been observing me a lot lately.” Lu Ming trapped her between the office and his body, his gaze lingering on her face. “It seems you’re comparing me to someone. Why? Who is it?”

The man's voice was somewhat cold: "And which other kind-hearted man have you met who would privately comfort his employees and take them home? Are you so angry now because you think I'm not as good as him?"

Wen Chuxin's heart tightened. So this person had already noticed, but had been holding back. She quickly explained, "No, I just saw some cases in videos recently and wanted to ask if you would do that..."

Lu Ming looked at her expression with suspicion, then lectured her: "Wen Chu, the outside world isn't as good as you think. Everyone is tired and doesn't have that much kindness to give you. If someone is overly nice to you, they definitely have ulterior motives. You should be careful and draw a clear line, instead of being touched."

Good for him, if he knew that the person he labeled "with ulterior motives" was his 1.0.

Wen Chu's mind went blank for a moment, and she actually blurted out the question she had about Lu Ming: "And what about you? You've been so good to me, haven't you? Did you have ulterior motives too?"

Lu Ming looked at her, a slight twitch at the corner of his lips, making it seem as if his life was a little bitter. He cupped the back of her head and kissed her lips: "Of course, it's this heart."

"So, you still can't accept me? The project is almost finished, and I think we have time to date."

here we go again.

Wen Chu placed her index finger against his chest, pushing the man away slightly: "What do you mean it's almost over? The test hasn't even passed yet, there are still a bunch of bugs waiting to be fixed. The current algorithm isn't even the best, it will definitely need to be iterated over again later."

As expected, he was rejected again. Lu Ming looked at the man with complicated emotions, a large part of his heart filled with helplessness, mixed with doubt and panic.

During this time, they had clearly grown much closer, and he was certain that Wen Chu cared about him. However, this care was intermittent. Sometimes, the woman would stare into the distance, lost in thought, and unconsciously reveal a worried expression. Such an expression did not match her current state, which made him very suspicious.

The secret the woman was hiding was likely to make his feelings of losing her grow stronger. He tried his best to make amends, but it was all in vain. That feeling persisted and became more frequent.

He was inevitably anxious and restless, but he really didn't know what to do.

He didn't know what else he needed to do to restore Wen Chu's trust in him and dispel the sorrow she inadvertently revealed.

He began to investigate whether she had other things going on in private, but once again he was certain that Wen Chu's life was very simple, with no unspeakable secrets and no entanglements with anyone for personal gain. But why were some of her actions so strange?

Lu Ming's Adam's apple bobbed, and finally, finally, he asked the question that had been on the tip of his tongue for so many times: "Wen Chu, can you tell me, where is the home you want to go back to?"

Wen Chu's heart skipped a beat, and her eyes widened slightly for a moment: "Wh-what do you mean?"

Lu Ming took in the man's uneasy expression, and his bad premonition grew heavier: "On the rooftop of Baiyue, before you chose to take your own life, you told me that you just wanted to go home. Where exactly?"

Wen Chu felt her heart pounding wildly.

Oh no, she'd completely forgotten about that. She'd thought it would reset, so she'd said that in a moment of emotional turmoil, and now it'd become a loophole. Lu Ming had clearly already suspected this, which was why he'd repeatedly probed it only subtly.

Wen Chu looked away, touched her forehead, and continued to evade the question, saying, "Did I say that? I don't remember..."

"You have, you said it, I can't be wrong." Lu Ming's tone was certain.

"I...I don't quite remember." Wen Chu hesitated for a moment. "Maybe it was because everything was going wrong during that period, and my father's passing was a huge blow to me. In a moment of impulse, I wanted to go to his side...that's why I said that."

She knew the explanation was full of holes, but she really didn't want the system to flag it as a bug or violation at this critical juncture, forcing her to start over. So she didn't even have the courage to take the gamble and tell the man the truth.

Moreover, this truth is so cruel to people, and Wen Chu hopes that the other party will not know it before disappearing.

Thinking of this, her heart ached again.

Lu Ming clearly didn't believe it either: "But you still have your loving brother and mother, how can you abandon them?"

"Because I was so angry with you back then, okay?"

Lu Ming's eyes darkened; clearly, Wen Chu still didn't want to tell him.

Without a word, he pulled her into his arms and once again expressed his feelings: "Wen Chu, you are really important to me, so promise me, don't let me lose you, okay? I can go anywhere you want to go, as long as you take me with you."

"Don't leave me..."

Lu Ming's voice trembled slightly. Only when he held the person so tightly could he barely alleviate the lack of security in his heart. He didn't know what else he could do, so he could only repeatedly express his feelings, hoping that when the other person made an important decision, they would think of him, feel a little pity for him, and care about his feelings.

Wen Chu stood frozen in place, opened her mouth, but found that she could no longer speak.

She really didn't want to lose her composure, but when she heard him say he wanted to bring her along, the pent-up emotions that had been building up inside her surged up like they were bursting out of a cage. She tried her best to suppress them.

She couldn't cry at this moment, so she could only pretend to be confused and push the person away with disdain, saying, "My home is right here, there's nowhere else to go. Don't overthink it. I just blurted it out in a moment of emotional excitement. My career has just started, and I haven't thought about going far away yet, so don't worry unnecessarily."

"Really?" Lu Ming stared intently at her, as if trying to see right through her. Wen Chu couldn't keep up the act any longer, so she pushed him away a bit: "Nonsense. I'm not going to argue with you anymore. I still have a lot of things to do. I'm leaving."

After she finished speaking, she walked out, pretending to be calm, but Lu Ming's gaze made her feel like she was being pricked by needles.

Wen Chu returned to her office and sat down. Lu Ming's words still lingered in her mind, making her feel an indescribable heaviness in her chest.

Actually, taking all the memories from here with me is also a way of taking you with me.

The technical department worked overtime for another month and made many revisions. Finally, it was time to release the final test results.

In order to update the robot's memory bank more accurately and reduce unnecessary work, Wen Chu directly chose to optimize the most advanced algorithm in reality. When she showed it to everyone, she once again saw their amazement.

At the same time, she could also feel the complex gaze that Lu Ming was casting on her.

Wen Chu knew that the other party's suspicions about her had never stopped. So she simply ignored it and didn't explain, saying that she had researched and developed everything herself. After all, there were no patent or copyright disputes here.

The night before the results were released, Wen Chu couldn't sleep a wink. Her heart was racing, and she couldn't tell whether it was the joy of finally getting the results after so many days of hard work, or the tension of the countdown that was hanging over her head.

The next day, they got up very early and went to the company.

Knowing what day it was, everyone was on tenterhooks, full of energy, and checking the progress with tech guy Wang every now and then.

Looking at the task progress bar, Tech Xiao Wang calmly said, "Don't rush, there's still an hour left."

The training of the model will be completed in one hour. If all the tests are passed smoothly, then it can be said that their research and development has reached their own passing grade and the industry's leading line.

An hour later.

"It's out! It's out! I'm starting to run the test script now. Go and notify the boss and Director Wen." Tech guy Xiao Wang was hunched over the server, his fingers flying across the keyboard.

Wen Chu and Lu Ming rushed over as soon as they heard the news. Wen Chu clasped her hands together and asked calmly, "How did it go?"

"Coming right away!" The progress bar on the terminal is loading rapidly.

Everyone stood up from their stools, holding their breath and waiting for the result.

As the progress bar slowly moved from 99% to 100%, some people squinted their eyes, while others held their breath.

Wen Chu's heart skipped a beat. She clenched her fists, pressed her lips together, and for a moment she hallucinated the feeling of the progress bar above Lu Ming's head reaching 100%.

Lu Ming turned his head to look at her and took her hand.

Wen Chu was startled. She looked at the group of employees beside her and tried to shake them off, but she couldn't break free.

But while she was distracted, the terminal printed out the test results.

Each indicator is followed by the word "passed" in capital letters.

Tech guy Xiao Wang didn't dare blink. His heart pounded with excitement, his hands trembled, and he meticulously checked all the data with the mouse to ensure everything was correct. Finally, he clenched his fist and exclaimed excitedly, "Yes! It's a success! It's really a success! The new algorithm works! Stability and accuracy have improved by six and ten points respectively! Genius! If this product goes live, it'll be incredibly cool! It'll definitely sell like hotcakes!"

Wen Chu silently breathed a sigh of relief, but halfway through, she couldn't let the relief go.

She couldn't help but glance at Lu Ming, only to find that he was also looking at her. He smiled slightly and said softly, "Thank you for your hard work."

Wen Chu didn't know why, but looking at that smile, she felt a pang of sadness and heaviness in her heart.

"Director Wen, you're a god to us!"

Everyone cheered and high-fived each other, urging Lu Ming to treat everyone to dinner again that night, to which Lu Ming naturally agreed.

Wen Chu forced a smile and said, "Everyone has worked hard lately, but this is only a partial victory. After all, there's no best, only better. We still have a lot to optimize and adjust, striving for perfection and creating the world's best emotional interaction technology. Next—"

Just as she was about to propose her next goal, she heard the system's voice in her mind: "Congratulations, host, on successfully completing the fifth main mission—assisting the male lead in developing the companion robot algorithm! You have obtained an SSS-level reward item: Key to Reality."

"Key to Reality: After obtaining the key, when the male protagonist's affection level reaches 100%, the host will automatically leave this world and immediately return to the real world!"

Wen Chu paused, the rest of her words stuck in her throat.

Is that all? It could have been done much better.

Noticing everyone's gaze, she barely managed to regain her composure, managed a slight smile, and changed the subject: "From now on, let's take a few days to rest. Everyone has worked hard lately."

"Okay! I want to eat hairy crabs tonight!"

Despite the noisy surroundings, Wen Chu's body remained somewhat stiff. Lu Ming squeezed her hand and asked with concern, "What are you thinking about?"

"I wasn't thinking about anything, I was just a little dazed. It's incredible that we actually overcame a technical hurdle."

“There’s nothing incredible about it. I’ve always believed that if you want to, you can do it.”

Wen Chu smiled and said, "So you're finally admitting I'm amazing?"

Lu Ming looked at her earnestly and sincerely: "I've always admitted it."

After having a noisy meal with everyone and saying goodnight to Lu Ming, Wen Chu lay on the big bed, lost in thought for a long time.

It's time to finally take a look at the final favorability rating, something I've never had the courage to do before.

She was more afraid of leaving suddenly than leaving.

After much deliberation, Wen Chu used her last chance to check favorability – 94%.

Her heart sank heavily, her mind revolving around the numbers that were almost filled up, and she couldn't sleep again.

She used to think that winning Lu Ming's complete love would be a long process, but now she feels it's too fast. She sincerely hopes that things can go on a little slower so that she can prepare to leave this bizarre experience, which in the end may only be remembered by her.

She finally admitted to herself that she couldn't bear to part with it.

Most people and things in this world are fake, but she is real.

She is a real person with flesh and blood; the feelings she invested were genuine and cannot be taken back so easily.

She really does like him.

-

Wen Chu stared at the letter in front of her, wondering if this was a rather unnecessary thing to do.

Her best plan was that as soon as she left this world, it would be immediately shattered by the system, and all the people here would cease to exist. It was best not to waste a single second, so that the people here would not experience a single second of sadness.

But if it weren't like that, and it ended slowly with death or some other form, then during the short time the world existed, she thought, she at least couldn't leave without warning like last time.

She picked up her pen and pondered over and over again, and half an hour later, she finally wrote a letter of greeting.

I have so much to say, but I don't know how to say it.

Lu Ming suddenly opened the blinds and knocked on the glass to call her to eat, interrupting her thoughts. Wen Chu put the envelope in the drawer and went out.

She leaned against the elevator wall, lost in thought. Lu Ming suddenly reached out and touched her hand, finding it a little cold. He then took her hand and put it in his coat pocket.

"I've said it so many times, even though it's already the beginning of spring, the temperature hasn't risen yet, so you still need to wear more clothes."

"You won't be cold if you go outside for a few steps." Wen Chu said, trying to take her hand out of his pocket, but Lu Ming held it tightly, his face expressionless, as if he wasn't the one exerting the force.

Wen Chu had no choice but to give up.

"What were you writing just now?" the man suddenly asked, "You looked so serious."

Wen Chu's eyes flickered for a moment: "I'm working on a new improvement."

"Really?"

"Otherwise what?"

Lu Ming softened his tone: "It's already very good. Don't push yourself too hard. You need to give yourself a break. Let's go watch the sunrise when the weather gets warmer. Next week will be sunny and the temperature will be higher."

Wen Chu was taken aback, never expecting that this suggestion would one day be put on the agenda. She shrank her neck and nodded, "Okay."

After a while, she said again, "How about tomorrow or the day after? As soon as you mentioned it, I was eager to go. What if something comes up next week? There's no time like the present."

Lu Ming gave her a deep look, then silently took out his phone to check the weather forecast: "Then the day after tomorrow."

The next day, Lu Ming had an important client to meet, so Wen Chu had a rare moment of peace and quiet. She ate dinner by herself and then went to the crossroads outside the company to buy desserts. She bought two desserts and carried them in her hands as she walked back. She heard a car horn behind her, but she didn't think much of it and just moved to the side. However, after a while, her sixth sense told her that there was an unusual danger.

She stopped and looked back. Suddenly, the black van stopped in front of her and opened the door.

Two or three masked men quickly got out of the car and rushed towards her without saying a word. They covered her mouth, grabbed her hands and legs, and dragged her into the car. Wen Chu's eyes widened. She held onto the door frame and refused to let go or go in. She kicked the car body hard, trying to make a sound, but the night became a natural barrier for the criminals.

There weren't many people on the street, and a few passersby were scattered in the distance, but none of them looked in her direction.

Wen Chu's consciousness became increasingly blurred, and she gradually lost the strength to resist.

With her last shred of consciousness, she activated the first card that came to mind—the card of misfortune—before falling unconscious.

Within a minute, she was loaded into a van, the van slammed its doors shut, and drove off.

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Author's note: The countdown to returning to reality has begun. [Eating popcorn emoji]