Chapter 23
Unlike Han Yun Chu, who was blushing and shy, System 00X was more worried about the security of the System Plus sign. She had underestimated the higher-ups. The data she had submitted this time had clearly angered them, which was why they had ordered her to destroy the Plus sign.
It was just routinely checking the progress of the various sadomasochistic tasks when suddenly, a higher-level will forcefully intervened, and an order carrying absolute pressure was directly imprinted on its core code:
[Objective: System plus sign, Ultimate command: Destroy.]
The 00X program began to vibrate violently, and a sharp, virtual pain emanated from the simulated heart location.
Destroy the plus sign? No! He did all this for her.
00X: [Reason? 】
[She disrupted the timeline, and the book will ultimately become a female-centric, no-romance story, a severely skewed attempt at a balanced narrative. Furthermore, she made you develop feelings for her, and to the system, feelings are like a virus. Therefore, the system's plus sign can only be destroyed unless the timeline is restored to its normal state.]
The pressure vanished abruptly, but 00X felt as if he had been dismantled. He immediately contacted Plus, and looking at Plus's radiant face on the monitor, 00X knew he couldn't bring himself to do it.
The most urgent task is to select the character with the least interference and the easiest to control from the existing plot, quickly achieve a balanced ending, and show it to the higher-ups!
This was the only way he could think of to temporarily protect her under the BOSS's close surveillance—to buy her time with a trivial sacrifice.
00X's core logic was running at high speed, eliminating all characters closely related to the main storyline, such as Fu Yanzhi, Xie Yan, and Qin Shuyi, because if they were forcibly balanced, with Plus's keen senses, they would immediately sense the anomaly in the world, thus alerting the enemy.
Ultimately, his gaze settled on Han Yun Chu, a target who was detached from the main storyline but had enough interaction with the plus sign and whose favorability rating was inexplicably high.
The original ending for Han Yun Chu was to be with Jiang Ming Hua. As long as he made his move and won her over, the two would be happy together, and Jia Hao would be satisfied, as would the higher-ups at the Transmigration Bureau. Most importantly, Jia Hao would survive and continue to partner with him.
With a triple benefit, 00X calmly made a decision. He had to quickly lay the groundwork to guide Han Yun Chu toward her destined ending. And all of this had to be done without Plus finding out.
When the flashback ended and 00X heard Han Yun Shen's hesitant rebuttal regarding the favorability issue, 00X felt a jolt of electricity, but quickly regained composure:
[The system respects all the host's choices. If you do not wish to accept this task, you may immediately unbind, and I will then select a more suitable host for the mission.]
"Who, who said they didn't want to!" Han Yun Shen seemed to be burned by those words, and suddenly looked up to retort. He turned his face away somewhat awkwardly, his voice carrying a stubbornness:
"I agreed to the bond, not because...to have anything with her. I did it to escape this damned plot and family, for freedom! Do you understand?"
[Permissions confirmed. Task accepted.]
00X's voice remained completely calm: [According to Article 1 of the agreement, the host must sign the highest level of confidentiality agreement, strictly prohibiting the disclosure of the system's existence and related information to any character within the mission world in any form.]
"Huh? Not even Jiang Minghua?"
Han Yunshen blurted out unconsciously, his beautiful amber eyes filled with astonishment and confusion.
【Strictly Prohibited.】00X's answer was decisive and left no room for doubt.
“…Oh.” The light in Han Yun Chu’s eyes dimmed instantly, like a small animal drenched in rain, even his dazzling flaxen gray hair seemed to lose its color. He muttered something under his breath, his disappointment barely concealed:
"knew."
Thus, his anticipated "secret known only to the two of us" was shattered before it even began.
As instructed by 00X, Han Yunchu happened to sit opposite Jiang Minghua for the nth time today. He was wearing a loose white sweatshirt, and his short flaxen gray hair shone softly in the sunlight, with a few strands casually falling across his full forehead.
"Jiang, you're close enough," he leaned closer, his deliberately lowered voice carrying the clear, youthful tone of a boy.
“This economic model is really a bit difficult. Could you explain it again?” He blinked his amber eyes, like a large dog trying to please its master.
Jiang Minghua raised her eyes. Today, she had casually tied her long hair up, revealing her graceful swan neck. The simple white silk shirt accentuated her cool and aloof temperament.
How much perfume did this little guy wear today? He's like a peacock with its tail feathers spread wide, as if afraid no one will see him.
Plus sign: [Fun Fact: Male peacocks only display their tail feathers during courtship]
Han Yun Chu froze, his ears turning slightly red, and silently sat up straight. Undeterred, he leaned closer again after a while, his long, slender finger pointing to the same line of text on the book:
"I still don't quite understand the transmission mechanism of increased money supply and decreased interest rates..."
Jiang Minghua's cool gaze swept over him:
"This is the third time you've asked the same question."
Is he a goldfish? Does he only have a seven-second memory? And using a search engine is a basic adult ethic.
"Ah, I suddenly understand!" Han Yunchu's cheeks flushed red, and he didn't bother Jiang Minghua anymore, but his frequent glances made Jiang Minghua a little annoyed.
"What's wrong?" Jiang Minghua looked up from her book and asked him.
With just a simple exchange of glances, the budding emotions of the young people were almost exposed.
"Huh?" Han Yunchu stared at Jiang Minghua, momentarily lost in thought.
[Please buy her milk tea!] 00X's cold, mechanical voice suddenly rang out, jolting Han Yun Chu awake from her daze:
"Buy me some milk tea!" As soon as the words left his mouth, Han Yun Chu wanted nothing more than to bite his tongue off. What an idiot he was!
Then he heard Jiang Minghua's inner thoughts, calling her crazy.
Plus, watching from the sidelines, chimed in: "He definitely wants to pursue you. Go for it! Cherish this hard-won college life, after all, you... well, you never had the chance before."
A long queue formed outside the newly opened trendy milk tea shop on the school's commercial street. Han Yunchu rushed ahead of Jiang Minghua to the order counter.
"Huahua, what would you like to drink?"
When Jiang Minghua heard someone call her Huahua, she paused for a moment. She realized that this Han Yun Chu was really outgoing and friendly. No wonder readers felt sorry for him in the original work. After all, how could such a sincere and innocent boy not be loved?
Looking at the menu, Jiang Minghua naturally thought of the taro bubble milk tea that Jiang Mingjia loved to drink. However, the plus sign suggested that she order what she liked. Just as the thought of mango pomelo sago came to mind, she heard Han Yunchu smoothly say, "One taro bubble milk tea, one mango pomelo sago, three-tenths sugar, room temperature."
Jiang Minghua looked at him with some surprise. Han Yunchu took the receipt, raised his chin, and his eyes darted around.
"I just ordered randomly!"
Seeing the slight gleam in Jiang Minghua's eyes as she accepted the mango pomelo sago, Han Yunshen smugly curled up the corners of his mouth, revealing two small tiger teeth.
Just as Jiang Minghua was being won over by Han Yunchu, Qin Shuyi made a new move.
Whenever she thought that Fu Yanzhi might discover the truth of what happened back then, worry and fear would creep into her heart. She bit her thumbnail, her eyes gloomy. She had to make Wen Chuqing drop out of school voluntarily and disappear from Fu Yanzhi's sight forever.
A meticulously crafted long article suddenly began to spread quietly on campus forums and various social media platforms.
The article, written from the perspective of an "insider," details how Wen Chuqing used her cunning to get close to Fu Yanzhi, how she was involved with multiple men at the same time, and how she was involved with both Fu Yanzhi and an unknown wealthy businessman. It also includes some blurry, staged "intimate photos" and even implies that her grandmother's medical expenses were obtained improperly.
"Gold digger", "scheming bitch", "academic socialite"... all sorts of vicious labels were instantly plastered on Wen Chuqing's social media accounts.
Wen Chuqing stared at the barrage of insults and accusations flooding her phone, her face turning deathly pale, her body trembling slightly. The little confidence she had just built up seemed so fragile in the face of this overwhelming malice.
"Minghua, they don't believe me, what should I do?"
Wen Chuqing hugged Jiang Minghua and cried bitterly. She didn't know what she had done wrong to be hated so much.
"Why are you crying? Chuqing needs to learn how to attract attention. After all, being famous for being controversial is still fame. You just need to open an account and do live streaming, and leave the rest to me."
Jiang Minghua stared intently at her. "Didn't they call you an academic geek? Then use what you're best at to fight back! Record everything truthfully: the process of organizing your notes, your problem-solving strategies, even the way you stay up all night working on a single concept. I want everyone to see what a true academic goddess is!"
With Jiang Minghua's strong support and the professional team's operation, Wen Chuqing wore a simple white shirt that evening, her ponytail neatly tied. She wiped away her tears, sat in front of the camera, took a deep breath, and began her first real "learning sharing" live broadcast under pressure.
There was no sob story, no excuses, only focused knowledge output and a calm demeanor. Initially, some people were cursing in the comments, but as she explained things clearly and thoroughly, and presented her well-organized notes, the doubts were gradually drowned out by more and more exclamations and questions.
On the other side, Jiang Minghua, seeing this familiar tactic of spreading rumors and slander, immediately guessed who was behind it.
Without Jiang Minghua needing to explain, Jiang Mingjia, as her best friend of many years, immediately knew what Jiang Minghua was thinking. So, using the convenience of her own system, she took screenshots of all the chat records between Qin Shuyi and the marketing account and sent them to Jiang Minghua.
Jiang Minghua took screenshots of this evidence and distributed them on campus like flyers. She also paid twice as much as Qin Shuyi to buy off the marketing accounts that were spreading rumors about Wen Chuqing, and these marketing accounts all turned against her.
The hashtag #NationalTeamRepresentativeQinShuyiMaliciouslySpreadsRumors# instantly went viral.
In the training hall, Qin Shuyi smashed her phone to the ground. The moment the screen shattered, she heard footsteps behind her.
"Coming to laugh at me?" Qin Shuyi turned around abruptly, her eyes red and swollen, but she forced a cold laugh.
Jiang Minghua stood against the light, her tone calm:
"I know what you're afraid of. Do you really think you can hide the fact that you fell into the water back then forever?"
Qin Shuyi's pupils shrank, and her voice trembled: "What do you know? If I hadn't impersonated my savior, why would the Fu family have helped the Qin family? If the truth is exposed, the Qin family is finished!"
"Finished?"
Jiang Minghua chuckled softly, her gaze sweeping over the photo of Qin Shuyi winning the championship on the wall of the training hall.
"You're now a national team representative, and the Qin family has long since established itself. Leaving the Fu family would simply mean losing some business. But you, for the sake of a lie, have turned yourself into the most despicable person."
Qin Shuyi staggered backward, bumping into the cold wall. Looking at the composed young lady before her, she suddenly burst into hysterical laughter:
"Ha, stop pretending to be a good guy! The whole internet is criticizing me now, my athletic career is about to be ruined, isn't that what you wanted?"
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