There was a kind of pain called other people's children

"Thump. Thump. Thump."

The voices outside the classroom gradually faded, as though an invisible hand clenching Ye Shiyu's heart was slowly withdrawing.

Her panting subsided. She raised her eyes again to look at the vacant-eyed Yan Huan before her, as though reason had only now reclaimed the high ground in her mind, allowing her to realize what had just happened.

She looked at the wrist Yan Huan had grabbed earlier. A red ring had formed on its fair, delicate skin from the force of his grip, showing no sign of immediately fading.

Perhaps because of the blood surging beneath her skin, it felt tingly and slightly itchy.

Ye Shiyu had the sort of body that marked easily.

Her skin in particular was fair and tender, showing color as readily as a clean canvas.

This sort of act, which symbolized "someone else" encroaching on her territory, had originally been what she hated most.

Physical contact from others was as unforgivable as someone taking her things.

Yet ever since Yan Huan had arrived, there seemed to be an exception.

Perhaps it was the kindness he had shown that night, or perhaps it was the smile on his face, that made Ye Shiyu willingly rein in her stinginess and want to give something back.

She had only meant to ask for his help today, and ask what he liked while she was at it, but in the end...

She had still hypnotized him.

I'm sorry, Xiao Huan...

I definitely won't hypnotize you next time.

Ye Shiyu thought this guiltily to herself.

Although having Yan Huan call me his big sister was wonderful. It would have been even better if he'd been gentler when acting spoiled...

But I definitely won't hypnotize Xiao Huan next time.

Ye Shiyu promised herself this, wise and holy as half a sage.

Why only half?

Because she hadn't gotten the full satisfaction out of having Yan Huan act spoiled earlier, so she only counted as half.

"Xiao Huan, once I count down from three, your hypnosis will end. Three, two, one..."

Inwardly, she expressed her wish to deactivate the app like this, feeling a little nervous as well.

Last time she had hypnotized him, she had left the room beforehand, so she didn't know what ending the hypnosis face-to-face would look like.

At her command, that feeling of memories peeling away like an ebbing tide returned.

Both Hitomi Sakuramiya's and Ye Shiyu's Modifiers produced this sensation. First, all the memories of what had just happened left his mind, and then a new set of memories formed.

Those memories were fabricated so well that, without a Modifier or a reminder from a third party, the target would virtually never realize what had happened.

"..."

Yan Huan's bewildered eyes slowly closed. When they opened again, his gaze showed no awareness of anything unusual.

"Sister Shiyu?"

"Let's keep fixing the computer..."

Seeing that Yan Huan hadn't noticed anything unusual, Ye Shiyu relaxed inwardly and returned to her doll-like demeanor.

Yet her gaze roamed over Yan Huan like a murderer revisiting the scene of the crime.

Yan Huan turned back with a smile and continued helping her fix the computer, while his thoughts began to turn.

When someone obtained a Modifier like this, their desire to use it actually developed gradually.

The idea of going all the way at once most likely came from doujinshi that wrapped everything up in a few dozen pages.

Before evolving to the "I don't eat beef" stage, they would inevitably enter the "Careful Superman" stage first.

In particular, Ye Shiyu's Modifier currently lasted only fifteen short minutes, which invisibly restricted many of the ideas she could put into practice.

But this gradual progression was still much faster than Yan Huan had imagined.

Only last Sunday night, he had pulled out all the stops, trying to stir Ye Shiyu's guilt to curb her desire to use the Modifier.

Meow-chan had also said at the time that Ye Shiyu had dropped a fragment, so his efforts should have been effective.

Yet barely a few days had passed before trouble struck again at noon on Tuesday...

Although her reason for using the Modifier had been to prevent her own social ruin, making it something of an accidental use.

But what about afterward?

She had still failed to resist the lure of the Modifier's effects and issued him a string of commands.

None of those commands had been particularly excessive, but they symbolized the rekindling of her desire to use the Modifier...

It wasn't that Yan Huan's earlier attempt to prick her conscience had been completely ineffective. Ye Shiyu's repeated hesitation and apologies made that clear.

The only problem was...

It hadn't been strong enough.

For a patient like Ye Shiyu, he would have to increase the dosage.

So thought Yan "Fake Psychiatrist" Huan.

"Sister Shiyu, just download 360 Security Guard. It's pretty handy if you don't know computers. Security basically won't be a problem."

"Mm-hmm."

Ye Shiyu didn't understand any of it, so she simply nodded and let him do as he pleased on her computer...

She didn't mind at all that he was holding the mouse with her name written on it, or tapping his fingers on her computer's keyboard.

For the moment, Yan Huan had also forgotten this particular habit of Ye Shiyu's.

After all, he was busy thinking through his next strategy, and having just been hypnotized, he now had to play the perfectly normal younger sworn brother...

Those two tasks occupied his brain's working memory like the downloader virus on Ye Shiyu's computer.

Also, hadn't that group outside shouted Bai Yi's name earlier?

The name of the idol who possessed the "Indifference" Modifier.

"Tick-tock."

"Tick-tock."

In the afternoon classroom building, an illusory ticking like dripping water sounded out of thin air.

Yet the many students passing through seemed not to hear it, walking by as usual...

Amid the crowd, a beautiful girl wearing sunglasses, a cream-colored long-sleeved top, and a black cotton-linen knee-length skirt stood with her arms folded by the busy school gates.

It was none other than Bai Yi, Totsuki Academy's widely renowned idol.

Even sunglasses couldn't conceal her beauty. An air of confidence, fashion, and beauty burst from her vibrant body, telling everyone who saw her of the wonders of youth.

She was chewing a piece of strawberry bubble gum, occasionally blowing air into the candy in her mouth, making it swell until it burst like a balloon.

"Pop."

That was the sound it made.

She wore a little light makeup, with a layer of high-quality pink lip gloss covering half her lips, sparkling with a delectable, crystalline sheen.

Her lips were as sweet as that piece of strawberry-scented bubble gum.

I don't want to go to class at all this afternoon. Maybe I'll sneak out for a stroll. I can use that, anyway.

With that thought, she took something resembling a pocket watch out from inside her clothes.

Though the pocket watch's style was plain, its interior looked exquisitely crafted, comparing favorably even with priceless works of art.

Illusory lettering also floated in the center of the dial, adding a touch of fantasy.

[Nameless]

The dial had three hands, none of which corresponded to the actual time.

It was already almost one in the afternoon, yet the hour hand, which looked as though it were made of ice, pointed straight up at twelve and seemed not to have moved for a long time.

The minute hand was covered in rust and rested at nine o'clock. A line of illusory text floated over the rusty minute hand.

[Accumulated usage time: 30 minutes]

The second hand seemed not to exist at all. Only the rotating base of the hand suggested that an invisible hand was moving across the dial.

When Bai Yi's awareness touched that rotating second hand, illusory information poured out.

[Welcome to the Nameless Pocket Watch]

[Watch level: 1]

[Current effect: Indifference]

[Ten minutes per day. Upon use, you enter a state in which you will not be discovered, regardless of what you do. If you do not use the effect that day, the time can be accumulated for later use, up to a maximum of 60 minutes.]

[While the effect is active, all your actions will only have immediate consequences for you personally. For everyone else, the consequences of all your actions will occur the instant the effect ends.]

It sounded convoluted, but after trying it once, you could quickly understand what it meant.

While in Indifference, when Bai Yi touched someone else, she immediately felt the contact.

But what about other people?

When she touched them, they wouldn't feel it immediately. Instead, the sensation would hit them the instant the effect ended.

No matter how many different sensations there were, they would all arrive in a single instant.

There was actually an effect on objects too, but the Modifier seemed to have forgotten to explain it...

Or rather, did it simply want Bai Yi to do whatever she pleased to people while the effect was active?

Back to objects.

The pocket watch automatically corrected unreasonable changes to objects.

For instance, the marker she had used to prank Zhou Bin automatically returned to its original position after Bai Yi used it, without fingerprints or even any missing ink...

But the scribbles on Zhou Bin's face remained.

That description alone made it clear just how miraculous this power was.

So ever since the pocket watch had inexplicably appeared in Bai Yi's bag last Friday, it had nearly become her most cherished toy.

With this thing, she could do many things she had never even dared imagine before.

For instance, Zhou Bin was her number-one victim, because he had called her mother many times last semester to complain about her.

When she arrived at noon today, she had even seen him covered in all sorts of strange religious items...

He was probably still on tenterhooks now, wasn't he?

Bai Yi gave a small, satisfied smile, then turned and walked off campus under the cover of Indifference.

She intended to skip class outright that afternoon.

"Tick-tock. Tick-tock."

The world around her seemed divided by that regular, water-drop-like ticking, with Bai Yi on one side and the entire world apart from her on the other.

Then the worlds overlapped, forming everything she saw.

Reaching the shopping street in the park outside the school gates, she casually took a skewer of candied hawthorn on sale in a dessert shop and ate it with abandon.

That manager of hers monitored her diet every day, terrified that eating high-calorie food would make her gain weight or break out, practically wishing she could stuff salads and other light meals into Bai Yi's brain as common knowledge.

Yet she feasted in private and even posted pictures of going out for hot pot on her social feed, leaving Bai Yi all alone to drink green juice and eat salad, huh?

At that thought, Bai Yi even began eating the candied hawthorn more viciously, as though she were biting her manager's head.

"Hahaha, the president said I'm not a mascot, okay?"

"Oh? President Yan says things like that to you?"

"Of course. But you've got to have the skills to back it up! Personally, I think the president only thinks that because I'm so smart."

"Hahaha..."

The president?

Yan Huan...

Still eating her candied hawthorn, Bai Yi glanced toward the voices with the beautiful eyes behind her sunglasses and spotted You Anlina chatting with several third-year female students outside a milk tea shop.

That annoying girl...

Bai Yi silently withdrew her gaze, preparing to leave before today's ten-minute effect ended.

After all, if she kept using it, she would have to dip into the time she had saved over the weekend and Monday...

Bai Yi had a bit of a hoarding streak.

But out of the corner of her eye, she was still inevitably drawn to a noticeboard by the school gates. It bore the student council's emblem and introductions to its members.

"Yan Huan, student council president. With outstanding grades and unparalleled approachability, he won the students' favor in the fall semester, receiving a total of..."

Bai Yi paused slightly in eating her candied hawthorn. Merely looking at Yan Huan's photo on the noticeboard brought an irrepressible look of irritation to her face.

"Tch."

The candied hawthorn in her mouth gradually lost its flavor, but she couldn't bear to throw it away, so she took it with her as she left Totsuki Academy during the lunch break.

That evening, on the first floor of an upscale villa in Jinghe District.

Bai Yi scanned her fingerprint and entered. The sound of the range hood came from the kitchen; her mother was probably cooking.

She glanced toward the kitchen and changed her shoes in the entryway, taking off her bucket hat, sunglasses, and mask along the way and tossing them all into a basket beside her.

"I'm home."

"How was school today?"

However, the voice answering her came from the living room, not the kitchen.

Bai Yi froze slightly and smoothed her silky black hair, which the bucket hat had mussed a little.

She walked casually into the living room and said,

"How else could it be? Same as always. It was just one elective..."

A middle-aged woman in gray loungewear sat on the living room sofa, studying her.

She was Bai Yi's mother, Zuo Jiangqin.

Hearing Bai Yi's words, Zuo Jiangqin frowned and exposed her lie.

"I sent Ji to pick you up at school this afternoon. She said she didn't see you come out."

Ji, whose full name was Ji Lin, was Bai Yi's manager.

Bai Yi paused slightly just as she was about to head to her room. She too frowned, looking at her mother sitting in the living room, and asked in return,

"Didn't I say I'd come home myself this afternoon?"

"You didn't go to school at all, did you?"

"...So?"

Bai Yi took a deep breath. In the end, rather than returning to her room, she went into the living room and said to Zuo Jiangqin,

"It was just one elective. What does it matter whether I went or not?"

"Enough of that 'whatever' attitude. Take a good look."

The woman grew even angrier when she heard Bai Yi's indifferent words.

She took out her phone, opened her email, and showed Bai Yi a results sheet.

"Your school's student council emailed me this morning with your results from the start-of-term exams. Only 292 out of 500! There are 178 students in your year, and you ranked 152nd. Aren't you ashamed? Huh? If your fans found out your grades were this awful, who knows what people online would say."

"Why do you care what they say? I have events scheduled every day. I've barely attended any classes. How am I supposed to take the exams?"

"Barely attended any classes? Then why didn't you go when I took you there this afternoon? It's because you're slacking off. You're lazy!"

"Mom, if you don't understand, can you stop pretending you do? You can't even tell compulsory classes from electives. What advice do you think you can give?"

They were talking at complete cross-purposes. Bai Yi waved a hand irritably and said,

"I'm tired. I'm going back to rest."

Bai Yi had grown sick of the nagging, but as she tried to leave, the woman behind her stopped her with a sharp shout.

"Stop right there! You never behave properly! Ji told me everything. You drag your feet at events, and you're just as lackadaisical at school. What exactly do you want?"

"..."

Events, events.

You're the ones who arranged all those stupid events.

They wouldn't let her write songs, saying it took too long to gain exposure and that she needed to capture the market of fans who liked her looks. Now they had her eating nothing but greens every day...

Her mother was the same, so eager to cash in. The moment her manager mentioned a paid promotion, she got excited, but Bai Yi was the one exhausted from running around everywhere.

Yet despite the thousand things she wanted to say, Bai Yi took a deep breath and decided to avoid it.

Her pretty face simply fell. Not wanting to waste any more words on her mother, she turned again to return to her room.

"Wait. Eat the salad on the table!"

"..."

Bai Yi ignored her mother behind her, her hand already pressing down on the door handle.

But her mother was no longer looking at her either, as though they were both already familiar with this routine.

Today, however, perhaps because of the email reporting her grades, Zuo Jiangqin said with particular feeling,

"Look at that Yan Huan in your student council. His grades are so good, and he's the student council president. He comes first in every exam. And don't forget, he was there when I took you to that child-star audition back then."

As she listened to her mother, Bai Yi pushed open the door, but stopped just as she was about to step into her room.

Her mother, however, failed to notice that the delicate fists hidden beneath her sleeves had clenched tight.

"All he had to do was smile, and the station executives took a liking to him at first glance. They were absolutely determined to sign him. All he had to do was show his face, and he wouldn't go even when the station begged him. We worked ourselves to the bone, writing songs and practicing instruments, just to get a place."

The moment she brought this up, Zuo Jiangqin bristled with irritation.

"What right do you have not to work hard? Huh? People who work in fits and starts have options. We don't, so we have to seize every opportunity all the more.

"We helped you get into show business and make a name for yourself. You need to appreciate that and be more enthusiastic at events. We spent money to get you into Totsuki, so you need to work hard and improve your grades. That'll make it easier for Ji to build your public persona too. Are you listening? Huh?"

Bai Yi's mother looked up, only to discover that at some point, Bai Yi had turned to stare at her, her face cold.

She was looking at her with an expression she had never worn before.

In the darkness, some kind of desire seemed on the verge of freezing the air.

Even with soup still cooking in the kitchen, the heat could not dispel that chill.

Bai Yi watched her mother like that. After a moment of silence, she gave a mocking smile and said,

"Since you like him so much, Mom, you're welcome to make him your son."

"You-"

Bang!

Before Zuo Jiangqin could speak again, Bai Yi had already pulled the door open, gone inside, and slammed it shut.

"That child..."

Zuo Jiangqin frowned, still looking exasperated at her failure to live up to expectations.

She sat on the sofa with her arms folded for a long while, and unlike usual, no guitar sounds came from Bai Yi's room.

The deathly silence in the villa finally made Zuo Jiangqin reluctantly admit...

Perhaps she really had been a little too harsh.

But wasn't that because Bai Yi did a poor job at work day after day and was terribly lazy about her studies too?

How could things go on like this?

Zuo Jiangqin felt that her intentions were right. The problem lay only in her methods.

She had often mentioned that boy named Yan Huan in front of Bai Yi before.

After all, that exceptionally good-looking boy at the company's child-star auditions back then had left such a deep impression.

It was even more so at Totsuki. He was popular, and his grades were outstanding too...

Zuo Jiangqin had simply felt that giving Bai Yi a rival would spur her fighting spirit, which was why she had tirelessly emphasized it.

"Beep, beep, beep."

Just then, the kitchen timer suddenly went off.

Her soup was ready.

Zuo Jiangqin sighed and went into the kitchen, turned off the heat, then took a bowl and ladled out some pork rib soup.

Returning to the living room, she picked up the salad on the table and carried it along to Bai Yi's door.

"Knock, knock, knock."

"Come out and eat."

This was Zuo Jiangqin's signal of reconciliation.

But even after a long time, there was no response from inside.

At this, a spark of anger rose again in Zuo Jiangqin's heart, which she had only just persuaded herself to calm.

She put the soup and salad on the table, then returned, intending to open Bai Yi's door directly.

"I said it's time to eat. Did you hear me?"

Yet when she pushed open the door again, the girl's bedroom, with its guitar, sheet music, computer, and game console, was empty.

"Yiyi?"

Zuo Jiangqin froze slightly, calling Bai Yi's childhood nickname as though she had been startled.

Yet the room remained deathly silent. Only the wind blowing past the villa's ground floor stirred the curtains at the open window in response.