Do you hate your sister very much, thinking she's useless...

Separated by a single wall, two different worlds.

On the other side of the wall, Zhang Lexuan murmured softly toward the mottled old tree.

The rustling of leaves in the wind masked most of her words, but the endless longing and loneliness in her tone reached Su Chen's ears with perfect clarity.

She sounded as if she were confiding in an old friend she hadn't seen in ages, or perhaps talking to herself, trying to find a shred of comfort from the tree.

Su Chen leaned against his side of the wall, his mood complex to the extreme.

There was no need to guess why Zhang Lexuan would appear at this time, in Tiantou City.

Who else could it be but that damned simulator?

Has the causality of the simulator actually started to interfere with reality?

Su Chen rubbed his temples, feeling a massive headache coming on.

In the simulated storyline, Zhang Lexuan's background was tragic, her entire clan wiped out. Su Chen had been her only kin during those dark years, the pillar that kept her alive.

Given the senior sister's soft-on-the-outside, tough-on-the-inside personality, once she caught even the slightest hint that he might still be alive, she would track him down to the ends of the earth without hesitation to verify it.

Even if it were only a one-in-ten-thousand chance, she would never give up.

This isn't just a simulation; it's saddling me with a mountain of romantic debt!

Su Chen couldn't help but grumble inwardly.

He had originally thought he was just grinding experience and collecting rewards in the simulator, but who could have guessed this thing had such "thorough" after-sales service, delivering the female lead right to his doorstep?

Listening to the faint sound of sobbing from the other side of the wall, Su Chen fell silent.

Was this sudden reunion a gift of fate from the heavens, or a tangled, inescapable romantic disaster?

He didn't know.

But he did know that from this moment on, the trajectory of reality had completely veered off course.

Just as Su Chen was caught in a dilemma, preparing to find an excuse to slip away, the worst happened.

Speak of the devil.

"Yo! Brother Su! What a coincidence!"

A loud, surprised voice suddenly exploded in the quiet street.

A passing soul master approached with a beaming face, enthusiastically patting Su Chen on the shoulder.

"Out for a stroll so early? I was deeply impressed by your boldness when you threw money around at the auction house the other day, brother!"

Su Chen: "..."

The air suddenly went still.

Su Chen turned his head stiffly, looking at the passerby who was practically begging for praise, his mouth twitching uncontrollably.

At this moment, only an irrepressible urge to kill surged in Su Chen's heart.

Are you serious, buddy? Nobody will think you're a mute if you don't talk!

Did the heavens send you here just to punish me?!

If looks could kill, this passerby would have already reincarnated eight hundred times.

However, it was too late.

That energetic shout of "Brother Su" was like a thunderclap, piercing through the wall.

Zhang Lexuan, who had been preparing to leave, felt her delicate body tremble violently.

That word, that surname, was like a key, instantly opening the floodgates of her sealed memories.

She turned around instinctively, her gaze cutting through the crowd and locking firmly onto the back of the figure who was about to flee.

Her pupils contracted sharply!

So similar! It was too similar!

That upright posture, the silhouette of his profile, even the small habit of slightly furrowing his brows when helpless—it all overlapped perfectly with the boy who had always followed behind her in her memories!

And with that "Su" surname...

How could there be so many coincidences in the world?!

Reason told her this might just be an illusion, but her body reacted faster than her brain.

Zhang Lexuan's voice carried a hint of trembling, and even a sliver of incredulous hope, as she blurted out:

"Xiao Chen... is that you?"

She didn't give Su Chen a chance to explain.

A streak of moon-white light cut through the air, and the next instant, a faint, elegant fragrance washed over him.

Zhang Lexuan had already channeled her soul power, appearing before Su Chen as if teleporting, so close that they could almost feel each other's breath.

Too similar...

It was as if he had been carved from the exact same mold!

Especially that look in his eyes, and the slight twitch at the corners of his mouth...

Zhang Lexuan remembered it clearly; whenever Su Chen caused trouble as a child and tried to deny it, he would put on this exact expression—innocent, yet tinged with a hint of guilt.

In this moment, memories buried for years surged back like a tidal wave, instantly breaching the dam of her reason.

Su Chen just started to open his mouth: "About that..."

However, a single trembling sentence from Zhang Lexuan instantly stuffed his throat like cotton.

"Xiao Chen... are you blaming your sister?"

Her voice carried a trace of imperceptible sobbing, and those eyes, usually as cold and clear as the moon, were now brimming with tears.

"Back then... if only I had listened to you and asked Elder Song to come along when we went to hunt that soul beast... that accident wouldn't have happened..."

"And you wouldn't have been... by that hundred-thousand-year soul beast just to save me..."

By the time she finished, she was already sobbing uncontrollably.

In her daily life, she was the head senior sister of the Shrek Academy inner court, a member of the Sea God Pavilion council, the reserve successor to the Sea God Pavilion Master, and the unattainable "moon" in the hearts of all the students.

No matter how tricky the mission or how powerful the enemy, she could always handle it with ease, as elegant as a perfect goddess.

But in front of Su Chen, she shed all her disguises and strength.

At this moment, she was just a sister who had lost the most important person in her life, filled with nothing but guilt.

Two lines of clear tears slid down her beautiful face, and that tear-streaked appearance was enough to break the heart of even the most cold-blooded person.

The surrounding air seemed to have frozen solid.

The soul master who had merely been passing by and accidentally stumbled upon this scene was now drenched in cold sweat.

Realizing he had likely seen something he shouldn't have, the soul master's survival instinct kicked into overdrive; without a word, he turned and bolted, wishing he had grown two extra legs!

This left Su Chen standing alone in place, facing the peerless beauty crying her eyes out before him, completely bewildered.

This... this mess was a bit too big to handle!

Facing Zhang Lexuan's tear-streaked appearance, Su Chen froze completely.

This ruthless man who was decisive in the simulator, who even dared to swindle the seven-hundred-thousand-year Snow Empress, was now standing there like a child who had done something wrong, completely at a loss.

"Don't... don't cry..."

Su Chen opened his mouth, but couldn't squeeze out a single word for the longest time.

This time, he really couldn't clear his name even if he jumped into a river.

Su Chen was also feeling annoyed; why on earth did he have to go for this walk early in the morning?

At this very moment, he would rather face a rampaging hundred-thousand-year soul beast than face this head senior sister crying her eyes out in front of him!

Kill a soul beast? Simple! One slash, and the world is quiet!

Coax a girl? This was a hell-difficulty dungeon!

The simulator taught me how to cultivate, how to kill, how to swindle soul beasts... but it never taught me how to coax a woman!!

"This question is way out of the syllabus, hey!!"