Chapter 62 Lu Ran's abnormality was because...
The world is quiet.
There was no sound, no light, and not even weight.
Pei Ci reached out her hand, but she couldn't see it. Darkness completely enveloped her. She remembered she should be asleep, on the night of her engagement to Lu Ran.
But what's the situation now?
Reason told her she had to act, not let herself be swallowed by the darkness. So she walked forward, kept walking forward, aimlessly walking forward. Slowly, light appeared ahead, and as she got closer, a black wooden door with a handle appeared. The door seemed somewhat familiar, but she couldn't remember where. She simply followed her thoughts and pushed the door open.
Then……
She saw a hospital room.
The ward was rather simple, with clean walls and ceilings, two beds, and a half-open window with light blue curtains, allowing sunlight to filter through intermittently. The air was filled with the smell of disinfectant.
Pei Ci blinked and subconsciously looked at the bed near the window. A girl was half-lying on the bed, wearing a loose blue and white hospital gown. Her wrists were slender, her skin was pale, and light blue veins were visible on the side of her neck. She was quietly gazing at the green leaves outside the window, her eyes only blinking slowly from time to time, proving that she was alive.
Pei Ci looked at the girl with wide eyes, a rare sight for her.
She finally recognized herself.
My past life, when I was hospitalized.
Looking at herself from an outsider's perspective was truly bizarre; Pei Ci couldn't understand why things had turned out this way. Before she could figure it out, a voice suddenly came from behind her—
"A-Ci, you are so beautiful, how could you get such a disease? It's such a pity."
"If I could, I'd really like to donate my heart to you. Hmm... let's try to be a match."
Pei Ci was taken aback. She turned her head and saw a young girl sitting on another bed. Pei Ci could only see her beautiful black hair and brownish-red eyes. She immediately realized who this was—her fellow patient in the same bed. She couldn't remember what she looked like, but she was an extremely vibrant girl.
At that moment, the girl seemed to have thought of something happy, and her voice carried a joyful tone—
"Because A-Ci is very beautiful."
"Girls always like pretty things, and Ah Ci probably wants to survive too, right?"
"The outside is colorful, vibrant and colorful."
"...You can go out and take a look."
Should we go out and take a look...?
Pei Ci's lips moved unconsciously, repeating the same thought. At that moment, her heart seemed to be pounding. She suddenly realized how desperately she wanted to live, even though she didn't find the world particularly interesting. Perhaps, that sentence had indeed stuck in her heart.
She couldn't remember who the person was, but that person told her with such certainty—
"Aren't you interested?"
"It's okay, the world will tolerate someone as boring as you."
You will survive.
Pei Ci's gaze froze, and countless images flashed before her eyes in a daze—warm, bright, or sorrowful. She couldn't see clearly, because the memories were sealed away, and she didn't want to recall them. Yet, this did unconsciously awaken her will to live.
Yes, she can't keep giving up. She has to take action. She's already persevered for so long, hasn't she? At worst, she'll just be surviving in vain, living like a walking corpse, nothing more.
so--
They will survive no matter what.
Go and see that boring world for yourself.
As Pei Ci pondered this, she suddenly felt herself being embraced by something soft, followed by a burst of light that engulfed the entire world. And then…
"Miss Pei Ci? Miss Pei Ci?"
A deep male voice called her name, the volume neither too loud nor too soft, just right to make her feel comfortable.
Pei Ci realized she was asleep, but she couldn't control her body. She only felt her brow furrow slightly, her right hand slowly regaining strength, and then—
"Smack—!"
A crisp slap rang out.
With that sound, Pei Ci finally regained control of her body. She slowly opened her eyes, and a clean cabin bedroom came into view. Kneeling beside her was a mixed-race man in a suit. Next to the man was a smartly dressed female assistant. Pei Ci thought for a few seconds and finally remembered that these two were the people who had returned to China with her. One was named Anderson, and the other was named Shao Ying.
This showed that the system hadn't lied to her. After the mission failed, the world indeed restarted.
Judging from the situation, she's currently on a plane back home. In another hour or two, she'll run into Ye Qingyu, who works part-time at the airport.
"Miss?"
"Miss Pei Ci...?"
Shao Ying's slightly worried voice woke Pei Ci from her reverie.
She quickly snapped out of her daze, glanced at Shao Ying, and then looked at Anderson. Anderson had a very handsome face, but at this moment, half of his face was swollen, making him look quite disheveled.
Pei Ci knew she was the one who hit him, but she felt little guilt. Everyone who worked around her knew about her condition before they started working there; receiving a salary nearly ten times the market rate meant being able to completely tolerate her illness. Therefore, she simply said calmly:
"Excuse me, Anderson."
“Miss,” Anderson said meekly, “this is not your fault.”
After saying that, Pei Ci saw him and Shao Ying about to give her an injection. She had always complied completely before, but thinking about how she always fell asleep after injections, she spoke first this time, "No rush."
Her voice was very soft, yet it startled both of them.
"Miss?" Both of them were shocked.
Pei Ci saw no need to explain. Her thin eyelids drooped, revealing a hint of dejection. Yet her words were firm: "You all go out first."
The young lady's words can never be disobeyed.
The two servants looked at each other, then obediently withdrew.
Pei Ci was left alone in the room.
Pei Ci blinked, slowly sat up in bed, and leaned against the headboard. The long journey of the past few days had made her face look a little tired, but it did not diminish her beautiful appearance.
Just then, she lowered her head, about to call the system. She then heard the system's extremely excited voice—
【Aaaaaaah, I can finally talk!!!】
[You have no idea how severely I was restricted later on; I was basically reduced to a tool for indicating whether a task succeeded or failed!!]
I didn't intentionally ignore you afterwards, I just genuinely couldn't say a word at the time!!!
Pei Ci was still somewhat unaccustomed to the system's liveliness. After a moment, she grasped the main issue in its words, "...Being restricted?"
[Yes, I'm restricted. You're too involved with the male lead, the main characters, and other key figures in the book, affecting too many core aspects of the story, so I can't show my face.]
[Seriously, I was also stunned when Ye Qingyu jumped off the building?! I never imagined he wasn't the female lead, and that he was a man?! Is this insane?!]
The system was completely bewildered and rattled off a whole bunch of nonsense.
Pei Ci listened silently to its complaints, then asked, "Don't you know that Ye Qingyu isn't the female lead?"
"Yes, otherwise why would I have asked you to protect the female lead? And it's really strange, it's clearly showing Ye Qingyu as the female lead here, and it hasn't changed even now."
[However, since Ye Qingyu is a man, he's definitely not the female lead. Something very strange must have happened, so strange that it could even deceive the world's consciousness.]
Looking at it this way, it finally makes sense why no matter how much we tried to bring the male and female leads together, they never ended up together. They chose the wrong people for love. Sigh, all those world reboots were for nothing. Now, if we can't get back on track with the main storyline this time and next, this world is doomed…
The system's complaint was quite lengthy, and Pei Ci twitched her finger, asking, "What's going on?"
Since they were all in the same boat, the system didn't lie to her and told her everything it knew.
And this all started from the very beginning.
Pei Ci's world is a derivative world of a melodramatic campus novel, and for this world to survive, it must follow the main storyline. However, when the main storyline first ran, the male and female leads didn't have a happy ending, causing the world's timeline to be disrupted. Therefore, the system born from the world's consciousness was forced to restart the world and try to reunite the male and female leads, using methods no less rudimentary than forcibly creating a bond and instilling emotions. As a result, the second time, the male and female leads not only didn't end up together, but instead became enemies.
Then comes the constant restarting, restarting, restarting, and with each restart, the male and female protagonists inevitably turn against each other.
Of course, the world can't keep restarting indefinitely. When it could only restart three more times, the system approached Pei Ci. It hoped that with Pei Ci's help, the male and female protagonists could have a happy ending, correcting the timeline and preventing the world from heading towards destruction. Therefore, it signed a contract with Pei Ci.
Logically speaking, neither the male nor female lead should be able to escape the influence of the main storyline...
[But this world is too strange, so incredibly strange, it's like it's been infected with a virus. The female lead's reactions and actions are relatively normal, but Lu Ran, this is just too weird! I've clearly given him numerous hints, proving that Ye Qingyu is his destined one. Even later on, everyone he sees is supposed to be Ye Qingyu, yet he wants to kill her even more. He's truly gone mad…!!]
[Ah! Not crazy! If Ye Qingyu isn't the female lead, no wonder this trick doesn't work, hahaha.]
[But now it's simple. As long as we figure out Ye Qingyu's identity and find out why the world's consciousness mistook him for someone else, and then find the real female lead, with the powerful plot and psychological suggestion, we won't have to worry about the two of them not being together!]
Looking at it this way, the world actually becomes simpler, hahaha.
The system's laughter echoed in Pei Ci's heart.
After a detailed explanation, compared to her previous helplessness before the restart, Pei Ci finally had a goal. The key was to find out Ye Qingyu's true identity and locate the real female lead. This task was actually simpler than anything like matchmaking.
only……
She suddenly thought of that tense and suffocating room, where Lu Ran handed her the pistol and quietly raised the apple in her hand above her head.
The apples are plump and bright red.
His eyes were fixed on her without missing a beat.
For no apparent reason, Pei Ci suddenly asked a question—
"Is Lu Ran acting strangely because he hasn't waited for the female lead?"
Because there is no female lead, the storyline between the male and female leads cannot develop.
So, in this storyline, her supposed fiancée takes the place of true love.
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