Terrifying to think about deeply. Or briefly. Or not at all.

Shen Yunzhi couldn't accept this for the moment.

Her vision went black, and only those few keywords filled her mind.

Xiao Yao's affection +10%.

To avoid wasting the host's efforts.

Automatically accepted.

Win over Xiao Yao.

Over Xiao Yao.

Xiao Yao.

Yao.

Shen Yunzhi called out to the system, trembling. "System, why don't you just let me die? My next identity can be anything. A vicious villain, a cannon-fodder supporting character, someone everyone hates. I can accept all of those."

Anything but winning over Xiao Yao.

Those words had dealt her an enormous shock.

Her pupils practically shook.

What kind of superhuman would even think of winning over Xiao Yao?

This was seriously sinister, okay?

Terrifying to think about deeply.

Or briefly.

Or not at all.

Code was flying everywhere inside the system's head, too.

This thoughtful Smart Assistant was a support AI it had developed itself.

To make slacking off easier.

But even it hadn't known such a huge blunder could happen.

As the system frantically tried to figure out how to turn it off, it stammered a reply to Shen Yunzhi. "Well... um... I can't figure out how to disable the mission yet. Since it's already started, why don't you give it a try?..."

"..." Shen Yunzhi was adamant. "I can accept a mission to find a way to kill him. I cannot accept a mission to win him over."

The system panicked. "Then... then I'll go think of something else."

Because it had suddenly remembered that it had also sold this support AI to a few colleagues.

If something similar happened and affected those workaholics' performance...

Holy shit.

Those freaks would beat its code into gibberish.

The system scrambled off in terror to fix it.

And then...

It didn't extend Shen Yunzhi's pain suppression.

Shen Yunzhi hurt so badly that tears shot out of her eyes.

"System! Come back, System! Extend the duration! Aaaaaaah!"

The more Shen Yunzhi cried, the more miserable she became.

She really was afraid of pain.

Even popping a pimple required ages of mental preparation.

With pain suppression on, Shen Yunzhi had felt completely comfortable.

Once it was disabled, the contrast made the pain seem twice as bad.

Once the system left...

Shen Yunzhi and Xiao Yao just stared at each other.

That was from Shen Yunzhi's perspective.

But from Xiao Yao's perspective-once Shen Yunzhi started crying, she couldn't rein in her emotions.

The tissue he had handed her was already soaked through.

Moving stiffly, Xiao Yao handed her another tissue.

When Shen Yunzhi took it, even her fingertips were trembling with pain.

Tears were still spilling bit by bit from her reddened eyes.

She really won't stop crying, Xiao Yao thought.

It was as though she had given up on holding back and wanted to use this chance to vent all the grievances she had suffered before.

Xiao Yao wasn't someone who was bad with words.

When he and Shen Yunzhi traded barbs, he could infuriate her to death.

But he didn't even know what had gotten into him.

In this atmosphere, he simply couldn't get a single word of comfort out.

Shen Yunzhi finally managed to stop crying, her voice still choked with sobs. "You don't have to worry about me... I just couldn't hold it in for a moment."

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

It still hurts so much!

Xiao Yao thought it was her emotions that Shen Yunzhi hadn't been able to hold in.

He expressed his understanding and finally squeezed out something that barely qualified as comfort. "...It's all over now."

Shen Yunzhi still found it mortifying and forced herself to hold back her tears. "I really only cried out because it hurt too much. Don't read anything into it."

Xiao Yao thought, It hurt most when she first fell, and even more when the iodine went on. Why didn't she cry out then?

But he still spared Shen Yunzhi's pride. "Okay. I'm not reading anything into it."

Still uneasy, Shen Yunzhi gave Xiao Yao another couple of looks.

She kept feeling that something about Xiao Yao's attitude was off.

But she couldn't put her finger on it.

But because of that stupid romance mission that had somehow been activated...

Whenever she spoke seriously with Xiao Yao, goosebumps rose uncontrollably all over her.

She would rather Xiao Yao traded barbs with her.

Shen Yunzhi said nastily, "If you dare tell anyone I cried today, just you wait and see what I do to you."

My lifelong reputation!

I can't let this ruin it.

Once Xiao Yao stopped looking at Shen Yunzhi, he felt a little more normal.

He covered Shen Yunzhi's legs with his jacket and leaned back an almost imperceptible amount.

As though Shen Yunzhi were some kind of terrifying beast.

But Shen Yunzhi was still inwardly lamenting her crippled leg, in too much pain to spare any attention for Xiao Yao's subtle movements.

She only heard Xiao Yao sounding a little more normal, adopting that familiar lazy tone again as he drawled flippantly:

"You look pretty good crying. Ever thought about going into show business? I'll pay to make you a star."

Shen Yunzhi took it as mockery and snapped, "Get lost."

After a couple of joking exchanges...

Xiao Yao was back to being the Zhou Papi she knew.

The atmosphere eased a little.

But the production crew still hadn't found them.

Xiao Yao figured Shen Yunzhi hadn't eaten much.

"Hungry?"

"...A little."

Shen Yunzhi heard Xiao Yao go off to one side to fiddle with something again.

She didn't care.

All she could think about now was her leg.

Before long, Xiao Yao had put together something to eat and was about to call Shen Yunzhi over.

He looked back at her.

The dancing flames in the coal stove cast a warm glow over Shen Yunzhi's cheeks.

She sat leaning weakly against the wooden bed boards, staring blankly at the flickering flames, only occasionally drawing a soft breath from the pain.

In reality...

Shen Yunzhi was simply staring straight ahead because it hurt so much.

It hurts.

It hurts.

When is the production crew coming?

I want off this mountain.

Someone save me.

It hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts...

There was a little dust smeared on Shen Yunzhi's face, her hair was somewhat disheveled, and the tip of her nose and her cheeks were still flushed from crying.

Xiao Yao himself didn't know why he liked looking at Shen Yunzhi so much.

"..." He silently shifted his gaze away to look elsewhere instead. "Come have something to eat."