Chapter 129 Cloudy Day

Luo Huayi breathed a sigh of relief after taking Cheng Zheng to the hospital for a check-up and confirming that he had nothing else to do besides a cold.

"Take good care of yourself at home these next few days," Luo Huayi said as she drove Cheng Zheng home and gave him paid leave. "Your sick leave allowance will be calculated separately."

Cheng Zheng noticed that Luo Huayi seemed distracted when she left, which puzzled him.

But soon, Cheng Zheng's mind was drawn away by the paid leave and extra subsidies.

Who cares? He only cares about how many digits are added to his payslip anyway.

Luo Huayi left Cheng Zheng's apartment and walked towards the Maybach parked downstairs.

As Luo Huayi drove out of the residential area, she inexplicably recalled Xin Que's back as she parted ways with them without ever looking back.

It was as if their hug had never happened.

Luo Huayi shook her head, trying to shake these images out of her mind.

But the warmth in Xin Que's arms, the determination with which she pulled him away from the illusion...

The more I try not to recall them, the clearer these images, these feelings, these complex emotions become.

It's like it's taken root in his mind, impossible to eradicate.

While waiting at traffic lights, I would unconsciously drift into thought; when slowing down to let pedestrians pass, my gaze would wander aimlessly among the passing pedestrians.

It seems... I'm actually hoping to find that silhouette in the shadows.

Luo Huayi parked the car in the villa's garage, and the more she thought about it, the more uneasy she felt.

What's wrong with him?

I've hugged Xin Que before, and none of them have ever felt this strange...

Luo Huayi paused as he unbuckled his seatbelt, unable to help but recall the times he had been in close contact with Xin Que.

Xin Que forcibly kissed him in the basement, and she bandaged herself in the Yu Shui Yun Jian story space...

Then there was the time when the kidnappers forced him to choose between two options, and the time when the idol twisted the heavens and earth...

The more Luo Huayi thought about it, the more she felt that something was wrong with her current state.

Why think about these things?

He should be thinking about company matters, project progress, and how to avoid the next twist...

In any case, Xin Que should not be considered.

After dawdling and getting out of the car, Luo Huayi returned to the villa. Her mind was a mess, and she had no appetite. After a quick wash, she collapsed onto the bed.

It's quite tiring.

He was exhausted, both physically and mentally, after being tormented by the illusion for so long.

But I just couldn't fall asleep.

...

Luo Huayi turned over again, still unable to fall asleep. He simply opened his eyes and stared blankly at the cabinet door.

He glanced at the digital clock by his bedside; it was already past one in the morning.

But Luo Huayi just couldn't fall asleep.

The tangled mess in Xin Que's mind didn't dissipate with the quiet night; instead, it grew bigger and bigger like a snowball.

He stroked the soft blankets covering him, and then remembered Xin Que's embrace that had almost trapped him to death.

Luo Huayi slowly curled up and buried her increasingly hot face in the quilt.

He was absolutely certain he had claustrophobia, but now, his mind was telling him with absolute clarity—

This person with claustrophobia quietly became dependent on Xin Que's embrace, which held him firmly from all sides.

even……

Luo Huayi's face grew hotter and hotter.

if……

Being embraced by a woman again, he would probably hug her back even tighter than she did.

My consciousness is becoming increasingly blurred, and my eyelids are becoming increasingly heavy.

If only I could dream of her...

In a man's dreams, there are many "what ifs" that never existed before.

...

The overhaul is complete.

[The Humanoid Restraint Program 01 has resumed normal operation.]

When the engineer came to hand over the shift, he glanced at the dense array of operation prompts.

Upon seeing the error message and the prompt to resume operation from program 01, the engineer instinctively took another look.

"That's strange," the engineer muttered, after checking everything but finding nothing wrong. "Everything seems normal during the inspection..."

“Administrator,” he summoned the administrator AI, “retrieving all the running logs for 01.”

"Why is this program getting more and more complicated as it runs?" The colleague who was helping with the inspection scratched his head, his head aching from staring at the screen. "Is the anthropomorphic module installed in this program so advanced? Its emotional fluctuations are already 70% as realistic as those of a real person."

The two searched back and forth for a long time, but ultimately found no suspicious threat.

...

The next morning, Xin Que received a call from Ji Mingchuan.

“Xin Que, I’ve thought about this for a long time,” Ji Mingchuan said seriously. “Continuing to encounter ghosts isn’t a solution. I asked a friend to find a master to take a look at us.”

He felt like dying when he thought about the embarrassment he had made at the food stall yesterday.

His lifelong reputation was ruined by these supernatural encounters with ghosts.

Xin Que: "...Master?"

“Actually, I think…” Xin Que was about to persuade him that it was an uncontrollable force when she was interrupted by the master that Ji Mingchuan mentioned.

"You said that master's surname is Zhen?"

Xin Que immediately thought of Master Zhen, whom Luo Huayi remembered and had heard about at the Women's Virtue Academy.

The Master Zhen that Ji Mingchuan inquired about was probably not a simple coincidence.

Is it part of the plot, or have the people in the prison come up with new methods?

“Alright, when do we meet Master Zhen?” Xin Que changed her mind and agreed.

They didn't find any fragments of her memory in the next level of hell, but instead saw Luo Huayi's past from beginning to end.

After Xin Que emerged from the previous level of hell, she couldn't understand why her former self, before losing her memory, would arrange such a role for her as a bystander.

Is the intention to use Luo Huayi to represent a specific person in real life?

No... Even in her amnesiac state, Xin Que was well aware of the extent of her caution.

Planting a time bomb that mirrors reality in a virtual prison is an act tantamount to playing with fire, and it's impossible to hide it from the engineers and prison guards.

What value does Luo Huayi possess that makes her worth such a meticulously planned scheme?

They simply valued his position as a prison guard and wanted to recruit him as a cover to conceal their whereabouts.

There's something deeper...

Xin Que frowned and pondered for a long time, then casually twirled the ballpoint pen on her finger.

"Clatter".

A ballpoint pen fell onto an A4 sheet of paper on the table.

[Please have the character Xin Que complete the following storyline mission: She is blackmailed by Luo Wenyong with the future of the Xin family and forced to become his hostage in his fight against the male protagonist.]

The story text is back.

Xin Que ignored the ballpoint pen that had fallen onto the table, and crossed her arms to look at the glaring red words in the air.

The previously weak and translucent text is no longer there.

Did the prison do the repairs?

Xin Que looked out the window at the gray sky. Although she couldn't see the menacing statues overlooking the city, her innate sense of danger told her that the gaze watching her seemed to have intensified.

"Knock knock".

There was a knock on the apartment door.