Memories (14) Evasion

My gaze returned to the seemingly calm apprenticeship petition. Now, handling this thing required the utmost caution. A flat refusal might hurt Xiao Guang or trigger an unknown backlash from the contract; pretending to be ignorant would only lead to endless future trouble.

As for Yi Jiang and Yi Xuan, if they found out their "little junior sister" had brought such a "grand gift," I feared the situation would truly explode.

Caught between the deep, pressing sisterly affection of the "white-haired fluffballs" and the mysterious, hidden agenda of this "heaven-sent marriage proposal," Yun Lan felt that his life as a transmigrator had yet to face any earth-shattering challenges on the path of cultivation, but he was already experiencing what it meant to be "besieged on all sides" and "stuck in a dilemma" within this labyrinth of emotions and relationships.

I need to think... I really need to think. He closed his eyes, forcing himself to calm down as his brain began to race, attempting to untangle even a single thread from this mess that he could pull. Outside the window, the sky shifted from a bright afternoon to a somber dusk amidst his furrowed brows and rapid thoughts.

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

Before long, Faust replied: "Young Master, although my colleagues call me all-knowing, that is merely excessive praise. As for this matter regarding emotions, I cannot provide any useful advice."

Looking at Fufu's almost "disclaimer-like" reply, Yun Lan's last shred of hope for external wisdom was completely extinguished. Staring at the darkened phone screen, I could almost see through its smooth surface to the cool-headed woman on the other side, who was likely sipping coffee with her usual business-like demeanor, signaling that she couldn't help.

"Even Fufu is out of ideas..." he sighed softly, his voice sounding exceptionally clear in the quiet room, carrying a profound sense of helplessness. "The concentration of this 'corrupted' gratitude is just too high; I really can't handle it anymore."

One after another, they kept crashing into him with such heavy and stubborn emotions, yet he couldn't—and didn't have the heart to—cut them off in a crude or violent manner. This "sweet burden" was honestly more exhausting than facing a powerful enemy. After all, they were strays he had picked up himself; he had to be responsible for them in the end.

Since the problem couldn't be solved, or rather, since a perfect solution couldn't be found for the time being, then... why not change the approach and control the variables?

I lit up my phone again, my fingers dancing rapidly as I issued a new, very specific command to Fufu:

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

He emphasized the words "keep an eye" and continued typing: "Ensure their safety and monitor their actions, especially any 'interactions' that might occur between them. Report any anomalies to me immediately."

This instruction sounded like it stemmed from care and protection, and indeed, that was part of it. But the deeper intention, perhaps one he didn't even want to fully admit to himself, was that before he could clear his head and make a decision, he needed to ensure these three "sources of trouble" remained under relatively controllable surveillance—at the very least, to prevent their conflicts from suddenly escalating or them doing something even more extreme.

The message was sent. This time, Fufu's reply came even faster, almost instantaneously. And the content was, as always, blunt and precisely struck at the secret thoughts Yun Lan held:

"Command received and recorded, Young Master."

"However, based on big data analysis of your past behavioral patterns and projections combined with current situational variables..."

"There is a 99.3% probability that your core motivation for issuing this command under the guise of 'protection'—which is actually focused on 'surveillance' and 'information isolation'—is not merely to guard them, but to prepare for and manage the risks of an upcoming 'relocation behavior'."

"In short," Fufu's word choice remained as inhumanly precise and calm as ever, "you are, in all likelihood, preparing to 'run away'."

"Pfft—!"

Yun Lan nearly choked on his own breath. He stared at the text on the screen that had mercilessly exposed him, his face burning. His fingers tapped rapidly against the screen, and he could almost hear the phantom sound of the virtual keyboard being struck with force:

"What kind of talk is that! What is that supposed to mean!"

"Fufu, do you even know how to talk? How can you call this 'running away'? This is clearly... a 'strategic temporary retreat'! It's to calm my mind and avoid making wrong decisions while emotions and the situation are unstable! It's to find a better way to break the deadlock!"

He struggled to label his actions as more justified and strategic, trying to maintain his dignity as "Young Master" and a decision-maker in front of Faust.

"It's a buffer! It's an observation period! It's... a brilliant strategy of trading space for time!" He continued typing "righteously," as if that could convince her, or perhaps convince himself.

However, Fufu's next reply was like a bucket of ice water, extinguishing his feeble defense:

"Semantic analysis complete. Expressions such as 'strategic retreat,' 'buffer observation,' and 'trading space for time,' once stripped of their rhetorical packaging, have a 96.7% overlap with the core action code for 'running away' (actively detaching from a complex interpersonal situation to avoid direct conflict or choice)."

"Recommendation: If you truly intend to execute this plan, please plan your route in advance and evaluate the tracking capabilities and potential reactions of the three target subjects. Specifically, the reactions of Miss Yi Jiang and Miss Yi Xuan after you run away, as well as the possibility of Miss Ye Shunguang tracking you, are all high-risk variables."

"Do you require me to preliminarily screen several routes out of the sect with high concealment and calculate the probability of being intercepted on each?"

Looking at this long string of cold, analytical, and "thoughtful" follow-up service suggestions that made his scalp tingle, Yun Lan was left completely speechless.

That Fufu... she really had stripped away the last of his dignity and even handed him a detailed "runaway guide" to boot.

I opened my mouth, wanting to refute something, only to find that any words seemed pale and powerless in the face of Fufu's precise deconstruction based on "big data" and "core action codes."

In the end, I could only shut down the communication interface in frustration and toss the phone onto the table with a soft clack.