Memories (14): Avoidance

My gaze returned to the seemingly tranquil letter of apprenticeship. I had to handle this thing with the utmost care. A direct refusal might hurt Xiao Guang, or trigger some unknown contractual backlash. Pretending not to know about it would only cause trouble down the line.

And if Yi Jiang and Yi Xuan found out that their "junior sister" had brought along such a "grand gift," they'd probably blow their tops.

First, there were the "white-haired dumpling" sisters, their deep bond driving them to press me at every turn. Then came the "heaven-sent marriage contract," its origins unknown and its secrets hidden. Yun Lan felt that, although his life as a transmigrator hadn't yet brought him any earth-shattering challenges on the path of cultivation, he'd already learned what it meant to be "besieged on all sides" and "caught between a rock and a hard place" in the maze of relationships and feelings.

"I need to think this through... I really need to think this through." He closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down. His mind raced, trying to find even the smallest thread he could pull from this tangled mess. Outside the window, as he furrowed his brow and pondered, the bright afternoon gradually gave way to a gloomy dusk.

"Forget it. I'll ask Fufu." I took out my phone, quickly found the rabbit icon in my contacts, and sent her a message.

Faust replied shortly afterward: "Young master, although my colleagues call me all-knowing, that is merely excessive praise. As for matters of the heart, I can't offer any useful advice."

Looking at Fufu's almost disclaimer-like reply, Yun Lan's last faint hope of getting some outside help vanished completely. Facing the phone screen as it dimmed again, he could almost see through its smooth surface to the other side, where the ever-businesslike, elegant woman was sipping coffee and expressing her inability to help.

"Even Fufu has no idea..." he murmured, his voice especially clear in the quiet room, filled with deep helplessness. "This 'transformed' gratitude is way too intense. I really don't think I can handle it."

One after another, they came at him with such heavy, stubborn feelings, yet he couldn't bring himself to cut them off in some simple, brutal way. This "sweet burden" was more exhausting than facing a powerful enemy. After all, they were kids he'd taken in himself. He had to take responsibility for them.

If he couldn't solve the problem—or, rather, couldn't find the perfect solution just yet—then... couldn't he at least change his approach and control the variables?

I lit up my phone again, my fingers flying as I gave Fufu a new, very clear instruction:

"Fufu, listen. Your top priority from now on is to keep an eye on the three of them—Yi Jiang, Yi Xuan, and our newcomer, Ye Shunguang."

He especially emphasized the words "keep an eye on them," then continued typing: "Make sure they're safe, and watch what they do. In particular... keep an eye out for any 'interactions' between them. Report anything unusual to me right away."

The instruction sounded like it came from a place of care and protection, and some of it certainly did. But his deeper intent was perhaps something he wasn't even willing to admit to himself: before he sorted things out and made a decision, he needed to keep these three "sources of trouble" under a watchful eye, at least to prevent their conflicts from suddenly escalating or any of them from doing something even more outrageous.

Message sent. This time, Fufu replied even faster—almost instantly. And, as always, her response was blunt and hit right on the mark, exposing Yun Lan's secret little motive:

"Instruction received and recorded, young master."

"However, based on a big-data analysis of your past behavior patterns, combined with calculations that account for the current situational variables..."

"Your decision to issue an instruction at this point in time under the guise of 'protection,' when it actually focuses on 'surveillance' and 'information isolation,' has a 99.3 percent probability of being motivated not by a simple desire to protect, but by preparations and risk management for your upcoming 'relocation.'"

"In short," Fufu continued, her phrasing still inhumanly precise and cool, "there's a very good chance you're planning to 'run away.'"

"Pfft—!"

Yun Lan nearly choked on his own breath. He glared at the words on the screen, which had exposed him without mercy, and felt his face grow hot. His fingers flew across the screen, tapping so frantically he could almost hear the imaginary keyboard being pounded:

"What are you talking about?! What kind of thing is that to say?!"

"Fufu, do you even know how to talk?! How can you call it 'running away'? It's clearly... clearly a 'strategic temporary retreat'! It's so I can think calmly, so I don't make the wrong decision while my emotions and the situation are unstable! It's so I can find a better way to break the deadlock!"

He tried to give his actions a more respectable, strategic label, hoping to preserve some dignity in front of Faust as both "young master" and decision-maker.

"It's a buffer period! An observation phase! It's... it's a brilliant strategy of trading space for time!" he continued to type with "righteous indignation," as if that could convince her—or convince himself.

But Fufu's next reply poured cold water over his feeble rebuttal:

"Semantic analysis complete. Once their rhetorical embellishments are stripped away, the core action code of phrases such as 'strategic retreat,' 'buffer and observe,' and 'trade space for time' overlaps with 'running away (voluntarily withdrawing from a complex interpersonal situation to avoid direct conflict or making a choice)' by as much as 96.7 percent."

"Recommendation: If you do need to carry out this plan, please map out your route in advance and assess the tracking capabilities and likely reactions of the three targets. Miss Yi Jiang and Miss Yi Xuan's reactions after you run away, as well as the possibility of Miss Ye Shunguang tracking you, are all high-risk variables."

"Would you like me to make a preliminary selection of several discreet routes for leaving the sect and calculate the probability of being intercepted on each?"

Yun Lan looked at this long string of analyses, cool to the point of cruelty, and the follow-up offer of "thoughtful" assistance that made his scalp prickle. He was utterly speechless.

Fufu... She'd torn away the last shred of my dignity and even handed me a detailed "guide to running away."

I opened my mouth, wanting to argue some more, but realized that no words could stand up to Fufu's precise deconstruction based on "big data" and "core action codes."

In the end, I could only close the chat in frustration and toss my phone onto the table. It landed with a soft smack.