Chapter 3

Xie Zhiyu said, "...No. You should eat more."

The shock made him say one sentence more than he had intended.

"Thank you." Shen Baili remembered something else. "Oh, and thank you for bringing me to the hospital yesterday. I don't know what I would've done without you."

[Thank you, big shot, for saving my sorry life.]

Sorry life?

Xie Zhiyu looked at her lips, which had not moved, and pinched his finger hard.

He needed a good rest. He was so tired he was hallucinating.

Xie Zhiyu and Shen Baili barely knew each other, so they had little to talk about. Once he had cleaned up the kitchen, he headed home. Before leaving, he filled a thermos with warm water and set it beside her hospital bed.

Shen Baili watched his tall figure from behind and could not help sighing.

[Xie Zhiyu really is a good person.]

She looked away, so she did not see the hand of the man she had just called a good person pause on the door. Xie Zhiyu pushed it open and went out, his steps inexplicably hurried.

Shen Baili took a sip of warm water. It tasted faintly sweet.

She could not help praising her stepbrother again. No wonder he was such a big shot—he even got the little details right.

Wait. A thought flashed through Shen Baili's mind.

If she remembered correctly, all four big shots of the Xie Family were beautiful, powerful, and tragic. None of them had a particularly good ending...

"Ding, ding, ding! You remembered right. Your whole side gets wiped out~"

A cheerful electronic voice appeared out of nowhere, with the breezy enthusiasm of someone unconcerned that other people might die.

Chapter 3

Shen Baili blurted out, "

A system

?"

As someone who had spent years watching melodramatic shows of every kind, she had plenty of "knowledge" to draw on and took the revelation in stride.

"No wonder your soul bonded with me. You're so smart." The system's electronic voice remained bright and cheerful.

She had known it was a system. A system that did not seem particularly bright.

Shen Baili hesitated. "...Thanks for the compliment?"

A host of thoughts flashed through her mind, and she took the initiative. "System, do you have a name?"

"My name is A-Deng," the system answered, finding nothing odd about its host.

Shen Baili tested it. "The deng from lao deng, 'old geezer'?"

A-Deng hurried to explain, "Not lao deng. A-Deng! The deng from dengdeng, 'electric light'."

The system, A-Deng, understood the culture of this world and cared a great deal about its name.

Shen Baili made a mental note of that and stopped teasing it. "Got it. Your name is A-Deng."

"So, A-Deng, why did you bond with me?"

A-Deng said, "Your obsession awakened me. You were the one who bonded with me."

A glint flashed through Shen Baili's eyes. She repeated the key word. "Obsession?"

Before she could coax anything else out of it, A-Deng spilled everything. "The powerful obsession you felt just before you died forcibly bound us together. For certain reasons, I need to fulfill that obsession. But while I was taking you to be reincarnated, there was an accident."

"...I used all my energy to protect myself and automatically began formatting. After I sent you into this world in an emergency, I fell unconscious too. I didn't wake up until yesterday."

Shen Baili understood. "You can fulfill my obsession?"

A-Deng said, "Yes."

Shen Baili's heart leaped. Without thinking, she asked, "Can you make sure my mom and I stay safe and healthy and have smooth lives?"

A-Deng said, "No."

Shen Baili said, "Then can you make me the richest person in the world through legal means?"

A-Deng said, "No."

Shen Baili asked the question that mattered most. "Then what can you do?"

After a moment of silence, A-Deng said cheerfully, "I can keep my host entertained."

"I checked the two obsessions you just mentioned. Neither matches the powerful obsession you had when you bonded with me~"

"I can only help fulfill the obsession you formed in your previous life."

Shen Baili's head ached. She asked sincerely, "Then what was my obsession?"

A-Deng said, "I was formatted, so I don't have a record of your obsession."

Shen Baili was stunned. "So... you lost your memory?"

Even systems had started getting melodramatic storylines these days.

After a string of conversations in which they kept talking past each other, Shen Baili had gathered quite a bit of information.

The system called A-Deng gained energy by fulfilling her obsession. They had tried more than ninety-nine possibilities and still had no idea what her obsession was.

For now, though, it seemed the system was self-aware and a little dim. It also could not hurt her or affect this world in any way.

Shen Baili thought A-Deng was rather like an electronic pet that needed charging.

Seeing Shen Baili fall silent, A-Deng could not resist introducing the functions it had left.

"Once I have energy points, I can unlock chapters of the original story for you~"

"Some chapters of the original story involve you. Knowing the plot in advance would give you a chance to get ahead of it and change your intended fate."

"Without energy points, I can't help you resist the force of the original plot. You and Shen Wan will both die..."

"Beep, beep, beep! System energy low. Entering sleep mode automatically."

Shen Baili's pupils contracted. She hurriedly asked, "Why are my mom and I going to die?!"

"Why didn't you tell me something this important sooner?"

"Wake up!"

She called out to the system again and again, but it did not respond.

"You could at least tell me how to replenish your energy." Shen Baili could not help complaining about how unreliable it was.

Expecting no help from the system, she thought over what it had told her and the obsession it kept referring to.

She had a vague sense that she had missed something crucial, but no matter how hard she racked her brain, she could not remember it. It was as though a thin veil covered the memory.

What obsession had she had in her previous life?

As she kept thinking, she drifted back to sleep.

Shen Baili spent seven days in the hospital, eating bland food every day and getting a moderate amount of exercise.

In just seven days, she lost a full five pounds. She had grown so thin her eyelids were nearly triple-folded, and her mouth was desperate for flavor.

Fortunately, the restraint had been worth it. Her wound had not become infected and was healing well. Once her stitches were removed, she could leave the hospital.