Alice

There was a plate of washed cherries in front of Ivy.

This was what Yu Mo brought home. She washed a full plate and ate it while chatting with Lorraine - unfortunately, the chat was not a very pleasant one.

She said: "Because Yu Mo and I have lived together since childhood..."

"I know," Lorraine said, "Childhood sweethearts, go on."

He doesn't seem interested in Ivy's cherries.

Ai Wei took two gulps of water from the cup, her voice no longer hoarse after being moistened: "The neighborhood where we live is not very safe. After passing the wasteland, many people suffer from mental problems, some milder or more serious. So, if my parents have to work at night, I always sleep at Yu Mo's house... There are no extra rooms at my uncle's house, so I often share a bed with Yu Mo."

Lorraine said, "Before the age of ten?"

Ivy widened her eyes and emphasized, "It's seven years old. After seven years old, we won't sleep together anymore."

"Yu Mo was already sixteen years old at that time," Lorraine said sharply, "not six years old. Most men of this age are in adolescence and hate children. If he still slept in the same bed with his little sister, I would suspect that he was a pedophile."

"Please don't make malicious assumptions about others," Ivy couldn't help but said, "You seem to like to think the worst of others - I'm not your prisoner, Mr. Lorraine."

"I'm just listing one possibility," Lorraine said. "Please continue, Ivy."

Ivy continued, "So Yu Mo knew a lot of my childhood habits... Later, my uncle and aunt passed away, and my parents often took care of him; he was like my brother -"

"A brother who would induce his sister to fall in love?" Lorraine said, "This shameless behavior really opened my eyes."

Ai Wei defended Yu Mo: "I was the one who pursued him, and he rejected me many times."

"Oh, you pursued him. He rejected you many times, but he still became your first love." Lorraine nodded. "Are you sure he's not playing hard to get?"

Ivy said, "He would never do such a thing. Don't think so badly of him."

"I hope so. If he is not playing both sides, he should decisively reject you instead of being ambiguous," Lorraine said bluntly. "He is nine years older than you. With all due respect, he should know better than you what to do and what not to do."

Ivy said, "You are nine years older than me? And you are my teacher, why don't you still make love with me?"

Lorraine raised her hand: "Can we get back on track? Aren't we discussing the relationship between Yu Mo and you?"

Ivy pointed out: "It's because you always have a prejudice against him."

She said, "It's obviously you who keeps going off topic."

"Even if I am biased," Lorraine slowed down her voice and took a step back. "Student Ivy, can you tell me why he has been so distant to you for so long?"

Ivy couldn't answer.

But she thought that Lorraine had a hard time today. His skills in bed were great and fully satisfied all her needs. She even took male contraceptive drugs in advance.

Most importantly, he even controlled himself and seldom said any harsh or vicious words.

It's not easy.

This is even harder than Song Feng turning into a magical girl.

Ivy is easily soft-hearted and tends to see the bright side of things.

So after Lorraine's voice softened, she pushed the plate full of cherries in front of him and generously invited him to taste it, trying to close the distance between them.

"Think about it," Lorraine said, "During your relationship with Song Xu, did Yu Mo ever express dissatisfaction with Song Xu? Just like what he said to me in the car, blaming Song Xu for not taking good care of you."

"I don't need extra care," Ivy explained, "and Yu Mo is like a mother, he is too considerate--"

"It seems that he did express it," Lorraine concluded. "I'm sorry, but now I have serious doubts about Yu Mo's identity."

Ivy was shocked: "Have you gotten rid of all the anger and are you regaining your sanity?"

"If he is a 'mother' as you said, this reason can explain some of his hostility towards Song Xu and me," Lorraine analyzed calmly, "But if he really thinks of himself as a 'mother', he would not have agreed to your confession in the first place, unless he identifies as a woman and is extremely attracted to women."

"Because they were afraid that I would be sad..."

"You believe it?"

“…”

"He is an unstable factor, at least not worthy of your complete trust," Lorraine said, wearing pajamas the same color as the night outside the window. "Ivy, I suggest you treat him with caution."

"Caution?"

"Yes," Lorraine nodded, "I initially suspected that he killed the real 'Ivy'."

Ivy stood up instantly: "I don't like you speculating about my family like this."

"Family?" Lorraine looked up and picked up a cherry. "Are you sure?"

Ivy snatched the cherry from his hand and angrily took away the entire plate of cherries, leaving him with only a table full of angry cherry stems and cherry pits.

She wondered if Lorraine had been in charge of interrogations for too long and was suspicious of everything?

When Yu Mo was studying at medical university, after killing a frog for the first time, he sat in silence, feeling so guilty that he didn’t even eat dinner.

How could he, with such a soft character, kill someone?

In the master bedroom.

Lorraine rolled up her sleeves and cleared the table.

Within a minute, I heard someone knocking on the bedroom door again.

"Welcome, Ivy, who is good at taking away cherries in anger," Lorraine said without even looking up, "What can I do for you?"

"Don't talk like that," Ivy said, "If you could always be as gentle as you are in bed..."

Lorraine cleaned the table in an orderly manner: "If you could be as obedient as in bed, that would be great."

"..." Ivy said, "I have an interview with the expedition team tomorrow."

"Xin Lan will come to pick you up tomorrow, don't worry about being late," Lorraine said, "Don't worry, I'm not using the bus for personal purposes. Ivy is a classmate with a very high sense of morality."

"Of course I know... you said Yu Mo was nice to me for a purpose," Ivy hesitated, "but you also hid a lot from me, okay, Teacher Lorraine."

Lorraine paused and tilted his face slightly. The light shone on the bridge of his nose, making his profile look like a passionless statue.

Ivy looked directly into his black spinel eyes.

"Trust is mutual. You told me that Yu Mo couldn't be trusted," she said. "In fact, I know nothing about you either."

Ivy didn't expect Lorraine to give her the answer she wanted, she just expressed her thoughts seriously.

After all, he has a special identity and it is impossible for him to tell her all the confidential matters.

After all, this was a marriage based on genetic attraction that lasted less than a year.

The reason they are compatible in bed is probably just because of their high compatibility and the mutual attraction of hormones; in fact, they have completely different personalities, one is dull and the other is sharp.

Lorraine didn't ask her to "fix" her bluntness, and she shouldn't demand that she stop being so sharp-tongued.

It's just a marriage, it's just a marriage.

She had always known.

"You said the scar on the back of your hand was a laboratory accident," Ivy said. "Coincidentally, I was also injured while doing experiments, and I have seen scars on my parents' bodies caused by acid rain. Those are actually traces of acid rain. You are lying."

Lorraine stood motionless beside the now-clean table, the soft light making his black curly hair look like noble black velvet.

"When you went to the Dark Zone to save me, someone called you 'Cyrill', and I felt that it was definitely not a mistake; you are very familiar with the Dark Zone, so familiar with it that it seems like you have lived there for many years; dealing with those people is completely at ease, you know their personalities very well and know how to deal with them; the words that Ci Li used to insult you were very strange, and some of the bad words did not match my impression of you... You seem to be hiding a lot of secrets, hiding a lot of things from me," Ivy said quickly, "but I have never asked you about it, do you know why?"

Lorraine said, "Because our marriage is a political one."

"Yes," Ivy stood still, "because our marriage is a political one."

He did it to support the policy and perhaps to go a step further; she did it to convince her parents and successfully join the expedition team.

From the beginning, none of them had any feelings for this 100% perfect match.

If you don't expect things, you won't be disappointed.

"Goodnight," Ivy said. "I'm glad we see eye to eye."

Lorraine said, "You don't sound happy."

"Because we just had an argument," Ivy cried, "I thought you, who are good at being sarcastic, were also good at hearing sarcastic words in other people's words."

"So you're being sarcastic," Lorraine apologized without any sincerity. "Sorry, I thought you were being coquettish."

Ivy turned and left.

"Come back," Lorraine threw the collected garbage into the robot cabin responsible for cleaning and cleaned his hands with a wet towel, "You sleep in the master bedroom, I'll go out."

He reminded: "——your clothes and suitcases are here."

Ivy said: "Don't talk to me like a rebellious teenager! I'm not your student anymore!!!"

The first day of living with Lorraine.

Xingyu was very satisfied and her mood was greatly improved.

Ivy discovered the next day that this was just the beginning of a nightmare.

At four o'clock, Lorraine exercised for nearly an hour in the home gym. At five o'clock, he woke up the sleepy Ivy and took her out for a morning run. After Ivy returned home half dead and panting, he made love with her several times until her breasts were cramped and she uncontrollably sprayed his coconut juice all over her body.

At breakfast, Lorraine saw Ivy typing away at the computer.

He asked: "You haven't prepared the interview materials yet?"

"I've prepared it a long time ago," Ivy yawned, exhausted, "I'm writing the formal divorce application."

Lorraine leaned over and read word by word. After reading it, she commented: "Not bad, the format is correct and the wording is rigorous. The sentences about the reasons for the divorce are well written - 'A widowed marriage, a widowed life; a poisonous and cold husband, and I who have lost my freedom', which rhymes successfully - have you ever taken a literary antithesis course?"

Ivy closed her computer expressionlessly: "I took an elective course on ancient Chinese rap."

Lorraine: “…”

After breakfast, Xin Lan arrived on time, picked up Ivy, and sent her to the expedition team interview camp.

He still showed great friendliness, but due to his special status, he only sent her to the venue and left.

Ivy felt that he seemed to be worried about something, but she was too tired now, so tired that she fell asleep as soon as she got on the bus and woke up as soon as she got off.

Lorraine was like a fairy who would suck her essence dry, no, he was simply a very mature enchantress.

After Lorraine reminded her to "look at the budget published on the government's official website", she quickly selected a new expedition target - the new team is called "Green", which was just established last year with investment; many people disliked it because it had few members, ordinary leaders, and lacked fierce competition.

Ivy thinks this is great and very suitable for her now.

The leader can't do it, but she can.

Moreover, this year the government cut investment in Iris and vigorously supported some emerging expedition teams, and Green was also on the first batch of support list. Although the treatment may not be as good as Iris, the weapons will be replaced with new ones. Fewer people means danger, but also means new opportunities.

The registration area for the Green team was very small, and was squeezed by several large teams next to it, leaving only a small table. Ivy ran over quickly, filled out the registration form, and smoothly submitted the interview materials.

A hand forcefully snatched her information away. Song Feng, who was tied up like a half-mummy, pinched the stack of papers and said, "Don't joke with your future."

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, he handed the stack of information back to Ivy: "Reconsider it. A chicken head is not as good as a phoenix tail. Only in a highly competitive environment can one's greatest potential be stimulated."

Ivy found him very strange - God, if he was really bored, couldn't he go to the base and weed?

She re-sent the interview information to Green's people.

The latter was a skinny little girl who wanted to accept the call, but after seeing Song Feng's sharp eyes, she hesitated: "...Do you really want to join us?"

"Well," Ivy put it in her hand, "I'll wait for your interview notice."

She turned and left. Song Feng followed her and walked away silently for a while. Suddenly, he heard a sweet voice: "Deputy Captain!"

The gentle aroma of coconut milk wafts through the air.

Ivy paused.

Not good.

She realized something was wrong.

Turning around, Ivy was shocked to see a familiar face.

The girl who had died in the dark area ran to Song Feng in the sunlight and looked at him with admiration: "Deputy Captain, the Captain asked you to go back. He just asked me to get the data sheet, but I don't know where it is. Can you help me?"

Ivy's breathing hitched.

She looked at the face that was exactly like hers, the body, and the appearance in disbelief.

Ellie?

Wasn't she...killed by Ci Li and his men?

This--

Song Feng lowered his head and looked at Alice.

The tips of his ears slowly turned red, and he even began to speak incoherently: "Well... I know, I'll take you there."

Alice smiled innocently: "Thank you, Vice Captain! Wow, you really helped me a lot, otherwise I really don't know what to do...Huh?"

She looked at Ivy.

As if they had never met before, Alice tilted her head slightly, completely different from the indifference she had shown when she shot at her that day. She was full of curiosity: "Why... do you look so much like me?"

"I'm curious, too."

A male voice interrupted the stagnant air.

Lorraine walked slowly behind Ivy, made a stern face, and gently put his hand on Ivy's shoulder, patting her soothingly.

Ivy straightened her back.

Lorraine's gaze finally fell on Alice. He paused for a moment and frowned.

"Isn't Iris's assessment very strict?" Lorraine asked, "How did you pass the assessment when you don't even know how to get a data sheet?"