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God of Love refused to let it go and insisted, "Tell me, tell me. Maybe I can help you."

Lucien was silent for a long time. In the end, he acknowledged God of Love's expertise and reluctantly spoke. "Someone told me I was destined to fall in love with Zhen Liu, but Zhen Liu would not love me."

This was what Lucien had learned from the assistant he had previously fed to the dogs.

That person believed Zhen Liu and Lucien were characters in a book. Lucien would become Zhen Liu's trouble, while Zhen Liu would become Lucien's unattainable desire.

When reading the novel, the assistant had thought Zhen Liu was far too ungrateful. That was love from a god—how could he reject it?

So, after realizing he had "entered a book," the assistant had found a way to approach Lucien, hoping to replace Zhen Liu and have a earth-shaking, soul-stirring romance with the God of Lies and Cuisine.

In the end, Lucien had seen through him early on. Before he could even make his mark, he had died.

"There are countless parallel worlds. Many works are treated by their authors as flashes of inspiration, but perhaps, at a certain moment, their subconscious simply glimpsed another world by accident." God of Love conjured a bunch of plump grapes surrounded by wax apples. As he fed them into his mouth, he analyzed, "You know the current situation. It is normal enough for people from other worlds to show up. Perhaps some author in his world accidentally saw Zhen Liu's future."

But that future had actually been quite limited. At most, it was only a fragment of the future.

"I know." Naturally, Lucien understood this sort of subconscious projection across parallel spaces. He simply did not understand... why had his future self fallen for Zhen Liu when Zhen Liu did not love him?

Impossible!

Absolutely impossible.

Did he, the God of Lies and Cuisine, not have any pride?

Thus, though Lucien had already planned to leave, he returned once more to the newly opened branch of Twilight Mystery Club. Using his status as a "shareholder" to manipulate things behind the scenes, he not only forcibly cut in line to join the scenario Zhen Liu's group had started, but also assigned himself and Zhen Liu the roles of Professor Lu and Doctor Zhen. His goal was to embark on a completely selfless, silently devoted love affair, thereby making Zhen Liu fall in love with him.

Wasn't that how humans often worked? The reason they chose to love someone was not love itself, but because that person treated them well.

But Lucien had not actually intended to start any romance between a human and a god. He simply did not want an unattainable desire to appear in his divine life. Since someone had already seen this "fate," and he had learned about it, then he insisted on rewriting it. He would move first, touch Zhen Liu's heart first, and make Zhen Liu fall in love with him!

God of Love looked at his best friend, who was nothing but a stubborn bronze-tier player in the field of romance, with an expression too complicated for words. He really wanted to ask, who exactly had given him this confidence? Good heavens.

But God of Love did not ask that.

He merely said what he considered a tactful thing. "There is a saying among humans. Have you heard it?—Very few people truly love others. People merely want to obtain love by offering tiny acts of affection, but that is nothing more than fishing. (Zhang Fangyu, 'Insights in Solitude')"

That kind of fishing might work on fools, but against an expert, he could only wait to suffer a crushing defeat.

Zhen Liu was clearly not a fool. Not only was he no fool, his methods were exceptionally skillful.

"What makes him so capable?" Lucien did not believe it.

Just then, the score results for "Class Reunion" came out. Every player's score was listed from highest to lowest. Zhen Liu took first place with 9 points.

Lucien: "!!!"

God of Love silently recalled Zhen Liu's performance in the game. He had seemed like nothing more than an emotionless Pineapple Head, a hardline straight man. He had shown only a hint of interest when the prize money was mentioned, and what he seemed to care about most was his deliberately displayed commitment to the truth.

What had Zhen Liu done to Lucien throughout the game?

He had tested out the truth, then chosen not to reveal it. He had fulfilled Professor Lu's love without letting Professor Lu foolishly throw away his life. He had encouraged Professor Lu to live for himself. He had broken his principles for Lucien and given him the 8 points for a successful escape...

Yet Zhen Liu had still won.

What did that mean?

"He noticed my fishing and decided to play along, offering a 'return gift.'" Working backward from the result, Lucien finally had no choice but to admit that they had been nothing more than two old swindlers passionately acting opposite each other. He had not been as deeply devoted as he appeared, and Zhen Liu had not been as oblivious as he had acted.

Lucien stared at the results for a long while without speaking again. He had only the 8 points for escaping successfully, while Zhen Liu had narrowly won with 9 points due to the special reward and restoring the most truth.

"You got played by your little beauty! Hahahahaha!" God of Love finally could not hold it in any longer. He laughed so hard he bent forward and back. He had not seen Lucien suffer a loss in many years, and Lucien had been the one to make the first move. Tsk, he deserved it. God of Love was even a little tempted to reserve Zhen Liu as his devotee.

But Lucien seemed to see through his thoughts at a glance and said bluntly, "Don't even think about it."

God of Love curled his lips in boredom. "Can't you occasionally put aside your pursuit of cuisine?" He had assumed Lucien had taken a fancy to Zhen Liu's soul and intended to treat him as food. Zhen Liu's series of moves really did suit Lucien's tastes.

But to his utter surprise, Lucien shook his head once more.

"Huh?" God of Love froze. Only after quite a while did he seem to realize something. "You... you can't possibly..." Had Lucien actually fallen for Zhen Liu because of all those moves?

Lucien said nothing. He merely lowered his gaze and began to think.

After the game ended, Zhen Liu left the game pod without looking back at anyone.

Boss Qian of Twilight Mystery Club had already been waiting for Zhen Liu. He told Zhen Liu that the winner's prize money would arrive within two business days, and the livestream tips would also be settled and transferred automatically afterward.

Zhen Liu was delighted and decided to splurge for once—he would buy a bottle of chilled mineral water.

Boss Qian knew something about Zhen Liu's circumstances, and he could not help sighing inwardly. He handed Zhen Liu the iced water but refused payment. "Didn't my useless eldest nephew tell you? When you play murder mystery games, ordinary snacks and drinks are generally provided for free. Next time, if you work hard and get a perfect result, I'll even cover all three of your daily meals."