An Yang sat on the sofa and suddenly felt that this sensation was quite wonderful. He could let the notes leap freely under his control. It was just a pity that he was already long past the age of pursuing such things.
Only then did Ji Weiwei react. "Why did you stop playing? It sounded pretty good."
An Yang glanced at her. "Finish your noodles first. They'll be cold soon."
Ji Weiwei pouted, picked up her bowl, and viciously grabbed another large clump of noodles. With a slurp, she sucked them into her mouth and said, "These noodles taste awful. You definitely didn't even add soy sauce!"
An Ran looked embarrassed. "I don't know how to cook. The kitchen is basically just a decoration. What would I need soy sauce for? Having some salt and MSG is already pretty good!"
"No wonder they taste so bad..."
An Yang watched her eat the last clump of noodles, then start fishing around in the bowl with her chopsticks for the broken pieces. In the end, she simply lifted the bowl and drank the broth. The corner of his face twitched.
"They're so bad, yet you're eating them like you're having the time of your life..."
"Mm... I was starving! Is that not allowed?"
"Of course it is. But what were you doing? Did you go to Amazon to carry out a special mission? How did you end up this hungry?"
"You really think I was starving? I was just joking. It's not easy for someone like you, who can barely support himself, to cook me a bowl of noodles. I just got carried away eating them!"
The corner of An Yang's eye twitched, and his expression turned serious. "Now that you've finished eating, you should tell me. Why did you run here to hide again? Did your parents pressure you into another blind date?"
Ji Weiwei froze for a moment, smacked her lips, then placed the huge bowl on the coffee table. She wiped her mouth without the slightest concern for her appearance and said, "Yes! I thought the old man was really sick, so I rushed back without stopping. I even failed to complete the sales plan my boss assigned me. And what happened? They were forcing me to go on another blind date!"
An Yang asked, "Why were they in such a hurry? Was it another White Bone Spirit who worked at a state-owned enterprise?"
Ji Weiwei glanced at him. She was an incredibly beautiful girl who usually paid considerable attention to her appearance in public. She was even a goddess in the eyes of many otaku. Yet here, she belched and wiped her mouth without a care, completely ruining her originally charming and alluring air.
"What? Are you jealous? Those White Bone Spirits working at state-owned enterprises wouldn't make them this anxious. Apparently, this one is the young master of a wealthy family, basically a rich second-generation heir. I doubt he's any good, but my parents dote on him like he's some kind of treasure. You should have seen them. They already showed him my casual photos, makeup-free photos, artistic photos, and every ID photo I've had since childhood. They were terrified that if they waited even a little longer, their hard-won rich son-in-law would run away!"
"Well... you can't put it that way. Your parents are only thinking about your lifelong happiness."
Ji Weiwei let out a scornful laugh, her face full of self-mockery. "Heh, my lifelong happiness? When I was little, they thought I was a money-losing burden. Now that daughters are worth something, they're afraid they won't be able to sell me—or won't sell me for a good enough price—and end up losing money again."
An Yang did not know what to say. He and Ji Weiwei had grown up in the same neighborhood, so he knew what her parents were like. They really were not good people. When her mother was pregnant, she had gone for an examination, and the doctor had said it was a boy. The couple had been overjoyed. The medical technology of that era was not very advanced, though, and when the child was born, it turned out to be a girl. The feelings of those two people who had been eagerly awaiting a son could be imagined.
In the words of that era, their thinking had been utterly backward. They favored boys over girls, despite being a family of teachers. Ji Weiwei had often been beaten when she was little, and whenever that happened, she would run to An Yang's home to hide. An Yang's parents would take good care of her and give her delicious food. Back then, she seemed more like their daughter than An Yang's.
Ji Weiwei glanced at An Yang. "It's all because you're useless. Otherwise, I would have dragged you out as my shield long ago. Every time I go home, it's a blind date. Now I feel sick whenever someone mentions blind dates. If they keep forcing me, I'm going to go crazy!"
An Yang thought for a moment. "Hiding here isn't a solution either. Aren't you afraid your parents will come here looking for you? Or go to your company?"
Ji Weiwei pouted. "Even if they figured out I was here, they wouldn't be able to find me. Asking Uncle and Auntie would be useless too. They definitely wouldn't tell them. As for going to my company, they'd be even less willing to do that. At worst, I'll just resign. Then they won't even get the little bit of money they currently take from me!"
An Yang nodded, feeling somewhat awkward, but...
Ji Weiwei had a fierce personality and acted without restraint. Whatever she wanted to do, she did. If her parents really dared to go to her company to look for her, she really would resign!
As for why An Yang's parents would not tell her parents where she was, there were two reasons. The first was because of what had happened when they were children. Ji Weiwei was often beaten and cursed at, so she had grown even closer to An's parents. The second was that An's parents genuinely liked this girl. Ahem... They had wanted her to become their daughter-in-law for a very long time.
Ji Weiwei grabbed the bowl in her hand and took it to the kitchen to wash it. Only after that did she walk out, shaking her hands as she went. Water flew everywhere, splattering the floor.
"I'm exhausted. I'm going to sleep for a while. I probably won't wake up until tonight. Don't move—I'll cook!"
"Sure! But... how are you going to cook with no vegetables or rice?"
"...What are you waiting for? Go buy some!"
An Yang pouted and flopped onto the sofa without moving.
He received a text message on his phone. He glanced at it casually and found that it was from Xiao Xueer.
"Brother An Yang, the weather has been really hot these past few days. Remember to take precautions against heatstroke when you go out this afternoon."
An Yang shook his head with a bitter smile. He was not a little girl. How could a grown man suffer heatstroke so easily? Besides, with his constitution, it would be a huge joke if he actually did suffer heatstroke. Still, she was a young girl, and he could understand her concern.
Come to think of it, his own younger sister had never shown him this kind of concern.
After thinking for a moment, he still replied, "Thanks, Xueer."
Not long afterward, he received a call from his mother, Xie Yunqing. She said that An You wanted to find a summer job with her classmates in Jinguan City, earn some pocket money, and get some practical experience, so she would not be coming home. However, Xie Yunqing was worried that An You did not understand how to deal with people and might be deceived by scammers, so she asked him to keep an eye on her.
An Yang was stunned, but he could only nod and agree.
Setting aside her personality, An You had been a diligent and studious good child since she was little. It was perfectly normal for her to want to stay in Jinguan City and find a summer job. After all, even summer jobs in Jinguan City paid quite well. But Xiao Xueer's family was clearly no ordinary family. Why did she want a summer job? And her family had actually agreed?
All right, it had nothing to do with him. He only needed to complete the task his parents had given him. It was also his duty as an older brother. After all, they had called him about it, which meant they had definitely already told An You. Given An You's personality, though, she would never want him to help, nor would she contact him voluntarily.
"These two girls are such a handful!"
An Yang gave a bitter laugh, lay on the sofa for a while, then returned to his room and continued watching A Chinese Ghost Story.
The more he watched, the more conflicted he became!
A Chinese Ghost Story told the tale of a scholar named Ning Caichen who went to Guo Bei County to collect debts. He was caught in a heavy rain, which soaked his account books and blurred the writing, preventing him from collecting the money. With not a single coin on him, he could only stay at the demon-infested Lanruo Temple, where he encountered the hero Yan Chixia and the female ghost Nie Xiaoqian.
The mission was to stop Nie Xiaoqian from reincarnating. However, the Nie Xiaoqian in the story was not being forced to reincarnate. She had chosen to do so—or rather, reincarnation had always been her wish, the highest pursuit of her existence as a lone wandering spirit. Yet the system wanted him to stop Nie Xiaoqian from reincarnating.
Wasn't it destined to make him the villain?
After finishing the movie, An Yang closed his eyes and thought it over. There were two relatively simple ways to accomplish this, but one clearly required him to brutally destroy a beauty. The other was slightly more difficult, yet it still would not let him be a good person.
The first was to take the Thousand-Year Tree Demon and Black Mountain Old Demon's side and have Nie Xiaoqian marry Black Mountain Old Demon. That meant becoming enemies with Nie Xiaoqian, Ning Caichen, and Yan Chixia from the original story.
However, with his ability to predict the future, he could easily remove Ning Caichen from the main plot, preventing him from falling in love with Nie Xiaoqian and from meeting Yan Chixia. He could even ensure that Ning Caichen had no contact with Lanruo Temple whatsoever!
The second was to side with Yan Chixia as he had been at the beginning and directly beat Nie Xiaoqian's soul to pieces. That would naturally stop her from reincarnating. However, he would have to prevent Ning Caichen from persuading Yan Chixia. Otherwise, if Yan Chixia was moved and abandoned his killing intent, the plan would naturally be scrapped.
After watching A Chinese Ghost Story again, An Yang felt deep sympathy for this lonely, pitiful, and helpless female ghost. She was pure and devoted, dared to love and hate, and was more straightforward than most people. He really could not bring himself to ruthlessly destroy her. Thus, he leaned more toward the third plan.
That was—to stand on his own side!
He would neither help Nie Xiaoqian reincarnate nor help the Thousand-Year Tree Demon marry her off to Black Mountain Old Demon. He would help Nie Xiaoqian regain her freedom instead. The price would be that she remained a ghost forever, never able to reincarnate.
The prerequisite, however, was that he had to help Yan Chixia kill the Thousand-Year Tree Demon and Black Mountain Old Demon, obtain Nie Xiaoqian's Golden Pagoda, and destroy it. As for what happened afterward, he would not interfere. He would simply let Nie Xiaoqian and Ning Caichen remain together forever.
That was what the mission required, and he had no choice but to complete it. He could only accept it helplessly!
Perhaps this was the meaning of the Prelude to the third story: making him learn how to be a villain.
"Sigh. Whatever. Plans never keep up with changes. I'll enter the story first. Maybe something else will happen?"
An Yang shut down the computer and lay on the bed for a nap. When he woke up, Ji Weiwei had already prepared the meal, and the entire room was filled with its aroma.
The next day, he called An You. Just as expected, An You's attitude was stiff, and she had no intention of letting him help.
"That's enough. I'll handle things with Mom and Dad. I won't make things difficult for you!"
"There are a lot of scammers these days. Mom and Dad are worried about you, so they asked me to take a look. I'm not going to find a job for you. I'll just go with you to the interviews. You're Mom and Dad's precious daughter. If something happens to you, I won't be able to answer to them."
"I'll say it again: I'm not stupid. Besides, you haven't even found a job yourself yet. You should worry about yourself!"
An Yang felt a headache coming on. "Then where are you now?"
An You was silent for a moment. "An Yang, I don't like you interfering in my affairs. Not if you don't want me to tell Mom and Dad that you lost your job."
An Yang froze. This girl actually dared to threaten him. Just as he was about to continue, the call was already disconnected.
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