Chapter 48
Shi Ye stood like a human-shaped doorpost at the front door, her back pressed against the cold wooden board. The moon necklace around her neck, however, was warm against her skin, as if silently reminding her: Look, this is Qi Jin's mark. Once you put it on, you can't take it off.
The system's half-dead electronic voice in his head was still broadcasting in a choppy manner: [Warning... Connection progress... 90%... Buzz... Host... Emotional data... Abnormal... Conflict with mission objective... Suggestion... Buzz... Disconnect...]
Disconnect? Shi Ye scoffed inwardly. She could barely control her own heartbeat, and she dared to disconnect? With whom? With that "forced connection" whose progress bar had skyrocketed to 90%? Or with Qi Jin outside the door (who might not have gone far yet)?
She took a deep breath, trying to pack up all the jumbled warnings in her mind and Qi Jin's words, "I care about you," and throw them into the trash can deep in her consciousness, but to no avail. Those two things were like two powerful magnets, firmly stuck to her brain, impossible to shake off.
Never mind, let's open the door first.
Insert the key into the lock, turn it, and push it open.
What greeted them was not the expected silence and darkness, but rather—bright lights and Lin Xiaoyu, who suddenly sprang up from the sofa, her hair a mess, her eyes wide like saucers!
"Sister Shi Ye! You're finally back!" Lin Xiaoyu pounced on Shi Ye like a hungry tiger, almost knocking her off her feet. "I've been waiting for you for so long! You didn't answer your phone! I thought you'd been abducted by aliens!"
Shi Ye was so dizzy from being shaken that he barely managed to stand up before he could see the state of the living room clearly—the coffee table was piled with all sorts of empty snack wrappers, the sofa cushions were arranged in a strange fortress shape, and the TV was on, playing incomprehensible shopping advertisements at a deafening volume.
"How...did you get in?" Shi Ye was a little confused. She remembered that she had not given Lin Xiaoyu a key.
"Oh! My senior gave it to me!" Lin Xiaoyu said matter-of-factly, then her eyes widened even more. "No! That's not the point! The point is—Sister Shi! You and my senior! Are you two!!!"
She clenched her fists, her cheeks flushed with excitement, and her eyes gleamed with a strange light that Shi Ye found very familiar—the kind that comes from "having stumbled upon something amazing."
Shi Ye's heart skipped a beat, a sense of foreboding washing over her. "Are we...?"
"Are you together?!" Lin Xiaoyu lowered her voice, leaned closer, mysterious yet excited. "I knew it! I knew it! I felt something was off during the competition today! The way Senior looked at you! And this on your neck!" She spotted the silver on Shi Ye's neck and reached out to poke it, but Shi Ye nimbly dodged.
"This is..." Shi Ye wanted to explain, but didn't know where to begin.
"No need to explain! I understand!" Lin Xiaoyu said with an "I understand" expression, cupping her hands to her heart. "Isn't it the love token that senior gave me? The moon necklace! How romantic! Senior is so thoughtful! She seems cold on the surface, but she's actually so considerate! Shi Ye, you look so good wearing it!"
Shi Ye: "..." She felt that Lin Xiaoyu's ability to fill in the blanks was probably even more outrageous than her system.
“It’s not what you think…” she tried to struggle.
"Oh, Sister Shi, don't be shy!" Lin Xiaoyu didn't believe it at all. She was immersed in the romantic story she had created. "Senior is such a nice person, and so handsome... oh no, so beautiful and capable, and so devoted to you! Although you two seemed to have a misunderstanding before, it's all over now! Congratulations! I knew my ship was real!"
Shi Ye watched as Lin Xiaoyu excitedly spun around on the spot, her temples throbbing. She felt that her "matchmaking mission" had not only completely failed, but had also inadvertently created something extraordinary—for example, Lin Xiaoyu had become her (forced) number one CP fan with Qi Jin?
"Xiaoyu, you've really misunderstood..." Shi Ye said weakly.
"What misunderstanding?" Lin Xiaoyu blinked her big eyes. "Didn't your senior tell you herself that she cares about you? Didn't she give you the necklace and tell you not to take it off? Didn't she personally walk you home late at night? What else could this be but love? Is it some kind of socialist sisterhood?"
Shi Ye was rendered speechless by this series of parallel sentences. Thinking about it carefully… it seemed… logically… impossible to refute?
"And there's more!" Lin Xiaoyu magically pulled her phone out from the sofa cushions, swiped it a few times skillfully, and handed it to Shi Ye. "Look! Someone posted it on our school forum! 'Shocking! At the design competition, the CEO of Qi Corporation made a mysterious appearance, just to protect her?' Although no names were mentioned, the description of 'the girl in the misty blue dress' and 'the aloof female CEO'—isn't that you and your senior?! Lots of people are guessing!"
Shi Ye stared at the sensational headlines and the various speculative comments on her phone screen, and her vision blurred. She felt like she wasn't living in a romance novel about a wealthy family, but rather in some outrageous campus gossip magazine.
"What is all this nonsense..." she said, rubbing her forehead.
"This is the judgment of the masses!" Lin Xiaoyu said righteously. "The eyes of the masses are discerning! Sister Shi, just go for your senior! Such a good woman, you won't find another like her even with a lantern!"
Shi Ye: "..."
She really wanted to open Lin Xiaoyu's head and see just how many tons of romantic bubbles and melodramatic scripts were inside.
"Alright, alright," she decided to end the conversation, afraid she'd break down if she kept going. "Why aren't you home late at night? What are you doing here? Just gossiping?"
"Oh! Right!" Lin Xiaoyu slapped her forehead, finally remembering the important matter (if gossip doesn't count as important). "I'm here to share some good news with you! The person in charge of that company that was interested in my design just contacted me! We've arranged to meet at their company tomorrow afternoon to chat! They said they're very interested in my concept and want to discuss the possibility of cooperation in more detail! Maybe I can even sign an internship or project contract!"
That's really good news. Shi Ye was genuinely happy for her: "Congratulations. Prepare well."
"Mmm!" Lin Xiaoyu nodded vigorously, then chuckled, "And... Senior Jiang Chen... just messaged me too, saying he was very impressed with my work today, and that I can discuss any professional questions with him in the future..."
Her voice trailed off, and her cheeks began to flush again.
Looking at her lovestruck expression, and recalling her earlier fervent "blessings" for his relationship with Qi Jin, Shi Ye felt a mix of emotions. This girl, still clueless about her own love life, has the leisure to meddle in other people's (non-existent) love affairs.
"So... what did you say to him?" Shi Ye asked.
"I... I said okay, thank you, senior." Lin Xiaoyu looked down and fiddled with the hem of her clothes. "And then... and that was it. I don't know what to say..."
Looking at her awkward demeanor, Shi Ye felt inexplicably amused, and also a little...envious? At least Lin Xiaoyu's feelings were pure and direct; she liked someone, and she was shy. Unlike her, which was a tangled mess, impossible to unravel, and accompanied by a world that could collapse at any moment and a forced connection progress bar that had soared to 90%.
"Let nature take its course," was all she could say.
"Hmm!" Lin Xiaoyu looked up, her eyes sparkling. "By the way, Sister Shi, do you want to come with me to that company tomorrow afternoon? I... I'm a little nervous about going alone..."
"Tomorrow afternoon?" Shi Ye thought for a moment, she didn't seem to have any plans, "Okay."
"That's great!" Lin Xiaoyu cheered. "I feel so much more at ease with you here! I'm going home now! I'll come find you tomorrow at noon!"
She busily began cleaning up the mess she'd made of snacks and the sofa fortress, her movements as swift as a whirlwind. Before leaving, she gave Shi Ye a wink and mouthed, "Go for it, Shi Ye! Win over the senior!"
Shi Ye: "..."
The door closed, and the world finally became quiet.
Shi Ye looked at the now empty (but somewhat messy) living room and sighed wearily. She walked to the sofa, sank into the soft cushions, and stared at the chandelier on the ceiling.
In her mind, the system's electronic voice seemed to have regained some stability after Lin Xiaoyu's interruption, but it still carried some noise:
[Forced Association Progress: 91%...Continuing to rise...Warning...The deviation between the host's emotional data and the core logic of the mission is increasing...Worldline stability coefficient...Slightly decreasing...Recommendation...Host...Reassess...Behavioral strategies...]
Behavioral strategy? Shi Ye twitched the corner of her mouth. Her "behavioral strategy" was to mess everything up, and then discover that she had created a bizarre situation that even the system couldn't calculate.
She raised her hand and touched the moon necklace around her neck.
It was a gift from Qi Jin.
Let her wear it, don't take it off.
The barren, frozen land in my heart seems to be... beginning to thaw. Not the violent melting caused by molten lava, but like spring snow, slowly melting under the warm sun, turning into trickles that overflow the dried-up riverbed.
It's very unfamiliar.
But... it doesn't seem so bad.
My phone vibrated.
She picked it up and saw it was a message from Qi Jin.
There is only one picture.
Clicking on it reveals... a screenshot of a weather forecast? Tomorrow afternoon, sunny, with pleasant temperatures.
The message below read: "I'm free tomorrow afternoon. Need a driver?"
Shi Ye stared at the weather forecast screenshot and the line of text for several seconds, stunned.
How did Qi Jin know she was going to accompany Lin Xiaoyu to the company tomorrow afternoon? Did Lin Xiaoyu tell him? Or... did she guess?
And that tone... it sounds a bit like... volunteering?
Her finger hovered over the screen, hesitating about how to reply.
Refuse? There doesn't seem to be any reason.
Accept? Wouldn't that... make things even more complicated?
The system in my head started buzzing again: [Detected the target's intention to actively approach... seriously deviates from the direction of the matchmaking mission... suggests the host... exercise caution...]
Shi Ye completely ignored the system's nonsense.
She looked at the screenshot of the clear weather forecast and then touched the moon necklace around her neck.
Outside the window, the night was deep.
But in my heart, it felt like a tiny bit of light was shining through.
Very faint.
But it was enough for her to see a glimmer of a possible direction in the pitch-black maze.
She typed slowly and replied:
Okay. Thank you.
Click send.
The message vanished like a pebble thrown into the night.
She leaned back on the sofa and closed her eyes.
The corners of her mouth, however, uncontrollably curved upwards into a small arc that she herself didn't even notice.
Who cares?
Anyway... even if the sky falls, there's always the person who said they'd be her driver to hold it up.
Although that person might be one of the culprits who caused her world to collapse.
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