Chapter 104 Perfection Through Refinement (3)
"Trust me, okay?"
The fingers that were being gripped were slowly pulled back. Just as Shu Ningmiao was about to say something, the buzzing terminal interrupted their standoff.
The faint buzzing broke the brief silence. Shu Ningmiao picked up the terminal and saw the notification that popped up.
Even the notification box is flashing with malfunctioning black and white pixel blocks.
Survival Tip: Players are advised to stay away from Shu Changyan.
Before Shu Changyan's gaze fell upon her, Shu Ningmiao subconsciously pressed the screen shut, her expression instantly becoming composed.
"It's so late." He lowered his hand, his expression unreadable. "Who is it?"
She answered casually, "Shi Yu."
As soon as she finished speaking, she turned and ran upstairs, ignoring the coldness that flashed across his usually gentle and smiling face.
Shu Ningmiao walked up the stairs and turned around at the corner: "I'm going to sleep."
"Okay." He looked up at her, his expression softening, and didn't say anything more: "What do you want to eat tomorrow?"
"Don't you have to work tomorrow?" Shu Ningmiao raised an eyebrow.
"I'm asking for leave." His brow relaxed, and he sighed softly. "There are always things more important than work."
She waved her hand: "I want to eat pancakes."
Shu Changyan pursed his lips and smiled slightly at her.
The coldness and estrangement of the past few days were completely dissolved in just a few words, or perhaps they had never existed at all.
After a while, the living room fell silent again. Shu Changyan took out his terminal and deleted more than a dozen missed calls from the screen. Two seconds later, a new call popped up requesting to connect.
He answered the call, and the person on the other end was surprised for a moment.
"You went to keep your sister company again?"
Shu Changyan glanced at the stairs, walked a little further away, and said nothing.
The National Union Building was brightly lit, the light shining through the transparent white glass creating an illusory and hazy effect. From a distance, it looked like a circular cage. Zhao put down the report that was almost overwhelming him: "You damn siscon, can you please have some mercy and come back to help me finish this pile of tasks? You know perfectly well that Xiao Jiang is illiterate. These two days are the big days for the reshuffling of councilors. Do you want me to die?"
Before he could finish speaking, he was hit hard on the head with something, letting out a muffled groan.
With Shu Ningmiao not in front of him, Shu Changyan's previous warm and gentle demeanor vanished completely, replaced by a cold expression: "Go and talk to the representative."
"Okay, you're a great hero, everyone's willing to give you a break, but who's going to pity me?" Zhao said in a mournful tone.
Shu Changyan stared at the closed door, then casually looked away, somewhat absentmindedly: "The medals and titles that Kovina gave you aren't enough to cover your overtime pay?"
The current Minister of the Army, Kovina, is a complete warmonger. In order to promote the military expansion plan and create a war hero like Zhao, she spares no effort in publicizing and exaggerating this incident.
"Are you laughing at me?" Zhao said lazily. "In the days right after the news aired, I actually saw people guessing the color of my underwear in the comments section. Can I apply for workers' compensation?"
"You can approve one for yourself, no need to ask me." Shu Changyan said listlessly, "I'm hanging up."
"No way," Zhao said with a grin, continuing, "You know about the Prometheus incident, right? The little girl you found at the scene seems to have been flagged as suspicious by the police."
"Is that so?" Shu Changyan wasn't worried at all, and said indifferently, "They won't let the Public Security Bureau investigate further."
In order to maintain the surface of the lie, the deeper truth beneath must first be covered up.
The military's decision to have Erici testify that Zhao was trying to become a hero in order to win over Achini meant that everything she said except that was a lie.
Out of respect for Shu Ningmiao's thoughts, Shu Changyan also did not delve into what she had done in this matter. From birth to adulthood, Shu Ningmiao had never lacked the testing and manipulation of others.
He hoped that Shu Ningmiao would tell him what she was thinking one day.
"Hmm...that girl named Erice is your sister's classmate, right?"
"Are you bored?" Shu Changyan's tone remained expressionless: "Don't pry into unnecessary gossip."
"Okay, speaking of which, let me tell you some gossip I've heard. Your sister has been getting quite close to the Yangsong Church lately, and they've been giving her a lot of preferential treatment—yes, the one you hate the most. I heard their Holy Son is also your sister's classmate. What a coincidence! Both are of marriageable age. Do you think he'd make a good brother-in-law? Maybe he could even improve your prejudice, haha." Zhao snapped his fingers: "Anyway, have a great vacation."
He didn't dare utter a single word, quickly hanging up the phone without giving the other end any chance to speak.
Shu Changyan gripped the terminal tightly, and faint blue veins were faintly visible on the protruding part of his finger bones.
Microscopic organisms can generate thousands of units.
He had seen the famous Holy Son of the Church of Praise, who had a face that was enough to bewitch people and a rotten smell about him.
What sweet talk would this person use with Shu Ningmiao?
Perhaps it will tempt her mind like a bewitching believer, promising her illusory benefits.
Shu Changyan's temples throbbed, and after a while, his expression gradually calmed down, but his brows remained tightly furrowed.
There is no such thing as a good candidate for sister-in-law. Who would want someone with a mysterious background to get close to their sister?
He knew that unreasonably interfering with his sister's social life was not a good thing, and judging Shu Ningmiao's decisions by his own standards was even more annoying.
Shu Changyan disliked Shi Yu, but he would have disliked anyone else as well. However, he suppressed his anger and gradually turned it into a normal frequency like his heartbeat. He could only ignore it and pretend to forgive.
No one, including Shi Yu, can surpass his relationship with Shu Ningmiao.
Yet he still easily takes a casual joke to heart, subconsciously paying attention to every detail.
Shu Changyan raised his hand to support his forehead, slowly exhaled, and after a long while, gave a bitter smile.
Shu Ningmiao closed the door, quickly opened the game, swiped away the notifications, and coldly asked the now completely black title cover, "What do you mean?"
She never imagined that Shu Changyan would appear in the game's prompts one day, since Shu Changyan had never appeared in the game's storyline, and the romanceable characters had nothing to do with him.
In this game, Shu Changyan is a complete "outsider".
"Stop playing dead." Shu Ningmiao frowned and tapped the screen: "Explain."
『I█※▍』
The dialog box popped up halfway, then froze on the screen as if stuck, not moving at all.
Shu Ningmiao asked helplessly, "What's wrong with you?"
The pop-up window trembled, as if it had suddenly come to life and displayed a large amount of text.
"I cannot resist the erosion of fate; my consciousness within this game, this vessel, is about to collapse."
"But you cannot yet fully control the power of the strings, so be very careful," it said. "Remember, never believe anything you see."
"...Collapse?" Shu Ningmiao pondered. If the consciousness in the game that could talk to her disappeared, then the game would most likely turn into the idiotic version that made her please Su Ni before.
"Could you explain it more clearly?" Shu Ningmiao felt even more helpless: "How am I supposed to master the power of the strings, and what will I see next?"
"The essence of a string is time. If you can control the string, you can travel freely through time without needing the save/load function of a game. I can't help you; you must experience the flow of the string yourself to control it, but that's dangerous."
Its speech became increasingly incoherent: "You will see illusions, real and unreal, anything is possible. You must establish an anchor point to ensure you stay in place and don't get lost in what you see."
Shu Ningmiao closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and ran her fingertips through her hair: "I don't understand."
The game's tone softened as it said, "Then listen to me." "Stay away from him."
Shu Ningmiao had a headache for no apparent reason: "What does this have to do with him?"
He will influence you.
Shu Ningmiao pressed her temples: "From the beginning until now, you haven't given me any correct clues at all. Even as you're about to disappear, you're still saying these ambiguous things."
Listen to me, my dear.
The text in the chat box showed no anger; instead, it became even gentler: "From the first time I saw him, I thought he was terrifying. He's an extreme, incomprehensible madman, a demon created by war. I can't understand his actions, but he's your brother."
Shu Ningmiao asked in surprise, "Who are you talking about?"
It doesn't give a reason, it just repeats: "He will influence your decision."
"Why are you so sure he will affect me?" She didn't understand this at all.
"If you ever find yourself caught up in memories, you'll understand what I'm talking about," it said. "Even the most intense emotions, the most unforgettable love and hate, will fade with time. Don't let your emotions drag you into the abyss."
Shu Ningmiao still couldn't understand the warning, but as the error message kept flashing, the dialog box gradually disappeared.
She was stunned for a while, then went to the bathroom to shower and clear her head. Lying in bed, she still couldn't figure out what the game meant.
Shu Changyan was not the direct culprit behind her death, but the game's every word hinted at the "impact" he might have on her.
What consequences will the "influence" it talks about have?
Perhaps it was because she had been thinking about it all day that she dreamt about it at night. Shu Ningmiao curled up in bed and didn't close her eyes for a long time, her brows still furrowed in her sleep.
In the dead of night, she woke up from her sleep, opened her eyes, and felt numbness in her hands and as if an invisible hand was choking her throat.
Shu Ningmiao's eyelids trembled slightly as she saw the old-fashioned ceiling and the swirling dust floating above her, which landed on her eyelashes. Only then did she realize that she was not actually awake.
Because the scene before her eyes belonged to Edwina's office.
Here we go again, she thought helplessly.
Death is like a Möbius strip, yet it repeats endlessly while she is alive.
Someone put their arm around her shoulder and silently touched her face with their fingertips, carefully tracing her cheek.
Shu Ningmiao was unable to move her entire body, her eyes were half-closed, and her field of vision was limited, so she could not see the person's face.
But she knew who he was.
Shu Changyan's hair had a faint smell of rust. He bent down, lowered his head slightly, and kissed her face very lightly. In her unfocused vision, she could see his downcast eyes and expression, devoid of desire or joy, gentle and lingering, without any further development.
This kiss completely stunned Shu Ningmiao.
Her mind went blank, and her ears were ringing like a beehive.
The sensations from her limbs gradually crept back to her nerve endings. Shu Ningmiao could taste her own blood and also noticed the salty, fishy smell on the other person's lips.
She could see Shu Changyan's eyes clearly through the warmth of his lips. His beautiful blue eyes were crystal clear, covered with a thin layer of water, and silently fell—broken tears.
He held her in his arms, like a piece of driftwood adrift on a vast ocean. They had never been so intimate before, never.
She froze for two seconds, a look of astonishment and disbelief flashing in her eyes. After several moments of struggle, she tried to forget that she was completely unable to move.
Shu Ningmiao wanted to scream for the first time.
"Bang"
She accidentally swept the terminal by the bed to the floor, where it rolled a few times with a dull thud.
She covered her ears and sat up abruptly in bed. After a while, she let go of her hands to cover her heaving chest, and her eyelids began to twitch slightly.
This is an illusion.
wrong.
She fully understood the meaning of the game's warning.
"Why are you awake?" Outside the door, Shu Changyan seemed to have heard a loud crash from her room. He walked upstairs and gently knocked on her door. "Did you have a nightmare?"
After a long time, Shu Ningmiao finally opened the door and quietly looked into his eyes, as if she were observing a unique pollutant through the iron bars of a cage.
Shu Changyan remained expressionless, then raised a finger and pointed to himself, seemingly puzzled.
Shu Ningmiao saw his face, and the scene from earlier flashed before her eyes.
With hallucinations swirling in her mind, she suddenly turned and brushed past him, her tone natural and ordinary: "It's nothing, I want some water, you go to sleep."
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Author's Note: In the first playthrough, the protagonist had already clearly defined his feelings.
But I still haven't figured out this timeline.
In other words, Miao and Ge still consider each other family.
Miao: (She was kissed) There's something dirty in there.
This part also involves the truth behind the rebirth storyline, but we can pretty much guess what it is already.
The game player said this because they thought the guy was too neurotic and obsessive. Firstly, they were afraid Miao had weaknesses, and secondly, they were biased (?). Miao's career is the only one among her fans.
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