She Decided to Reward Herself...

[Ding! Check-in successful!]

[Obtained one-star trait "Courage" - ???]

Chu Ge stared at the panel for a long time.

Whether a trait came from a check-in or from synthesis, the system had always attached a line of explanation, as if afraid he wouldn't understand it.

This was the first time he had seen three question marks.

He had a feeling he'd checked in and gotten something extraordinary.

But if it really was extraordinary, why was it only one star?

"System, aren't you going to explain?"

[Reply to host: equipping this trait will increase the user's courage. It provides no other boosts.]

"Are there any side effects?"

[None.]

Chu Ge paused, then asked, "Then tell me, what do these three question marks mean?"

The system answered with particular bluntness:

[Reply to host: fear is a creature's instinct, and courage is a hymn to life. This is an entirely ordinary Courage trait.]

[As for the three question marks after it, they're there simply because it needs no explanation. It means exactly what it says.]

That made sense. He couldn't find a fault with it.

"All right, at least it's something new and entirely beneficial. Better than that Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo."

Chu Ge turned and went back to his room, walked to the bed, lay down, and closed his eyes.

Sleep, then head straight to the East Sea Martial Arts School Competition when he woke up. His schedule was crystal clear.

But lying in bed, he just couldn't quiet his mind.

Silly Roe Deer's face popped into his head.

And what Silly Roe Deer had said-

"Chu Ge, if I died, would you be sad?"

He would. Of course he would.

They had grown up together, and he had long since counted Silly Roe Deer as one of his own.

Even if Xiao Yan really were a silly roe deer, he wouldn't give her a shred less affection than she deserved.

But he hadn't dared answer her directly at the time. He had only turned his gaze toward the lake and pretended he hadn't understood.

Why?

Because Chu Ge had lived two lives, and in his previous life, he had been a seasoned galgame veteran. The moment Silly Roe Deer said those words, his brain delivered its verdict on the spot:

There was a 99.99 percent chance that was a confession.

The remaining 0.01 percent was her joking around.

But given the mood at the time and Silly Roe Deer's emotional state, how could she have been joking?

If she really had been joking, that was textbook-level acting. She could debut and win an award right away.

In truth, after all these years, Chu Ge could tell that Silly Roe Deer had special feelings for him.

Back when he hadn't been sure, he had always told himself not to read too much into it.

After what Silly Roe Deer had pulled today, he had no choice but to believe it.

So he would rather force out something hurtful than put his true feelings on the table.

If he had really said, "I'd be very sad too," wouldn't that have been the same as accepting her confession on the spot?

If he accepted, how were the two of them supposed to get along from then on?

Xiao Yan's father was a live-in son-in-law, so she had taken her mother's surname.

His mother and aunt were sisters by blood, and twins at that.

In other words, he and Xiao Yan were genuinely related by blood. There was no "one of their mothers was adopted," no "switched at birth," not a drop of melodrama mixed in.

So even if he really did feel that way himself, he absolutely couldn't be with Xiao Yan.

Society and propriety wouldn't permit it, neither family would permit it, and the spit from their relatives and neighbors could drown them both.

No one even remotely normal would have the courage to take that step.

Courage.

Chu Ge opened his eyes and looked at the trait on the panel for a long time.

"System, are you taking a jab at me?"

[Reply to host: this system deceives neither the young nor the old and never takes jabs at the host.]

"..."

He rolled over, pulled out his phone, and opened his chat with Silly Roe Deer.

The last message was from noon: she had sent him a sticker of a roe deer rolling around.

Chu Ge's fingers hovered over the keyboard. He typed a line, deleted it, typed another, and deleted that too.

In the end, he sent five words:

"Does your knee still hurt?"

He regretted it as soon as he sent it.

What was this? Did he have a mouth or not?

Her reply came quickly, though.

"It doesn't hurt anymore."

Chu Ge breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good. Get to bed early."

"I know, I know. You too," Silly Roe Deer replied, followed by "pout-nose-pick-grin."

Another sticker followed. It was the same roe deer, playing dead this time.

Chu Ge stared at the sticker for a long time, then locked the screen and tossed his phone onto the bedside table.

Forget it. Time to sleep.

He'd focus on doing well in tomorrow's martial arts school competition first. Everything else could wait.

As for the words he hadn't sent-

The day would come when he said them.

As for which day that would be, he didn't know.

Downstairs.

Only a faint light glowed in the room in the small hours of the morning.

Xiao Yan sat at the head of her bed in her pajamas, tracing lines on her tablet stroke by stroke.

After finally finishing a picture, she narrowed her eyes and studied it. The more she looked, the more wrong it seemed.

"So ugly."

With a sweep of her stylus, a black line cut the figure in half at the waist.

It wasn't a slip of the hand.

Because the stylus didn't stop.

More and more lines crawled across the tablet in a tangled mess, blacking out the entire screen in a few breaths.

When she was done, Xiao Yan turned off the tablet and tossed it aside.

Closed her eyes.

Lay down.

Went to sleep.

All in one smooth motion.

One minute later.

Grrr~~~

Her stomach rebelled.

Xiao Yan opened her eyes, stared at the ceiling for three seconds, then resigned herself to climbing out of bed.

She opened the fridge, and its cold white light fell across her face.

The fridge was utterly empty, cleaner than her face.

Fair enough.

If only she'd eaten two more bowls at the free school cafeteria before coming home today.

There were actually plenty of snacks left from the ones she'd bought with the hundred yuan she'd found, but unfortunately, she'd left them all in Chu Ge's living room. At this hour, she was too embarrassed to go rummaging for them.

At that moment, even London might not have been as gloomy as she was.

Xiao Yan closed the fridge, pulled out her phone, and opened her account balance.

89,726,352.23

More than eighty million.

There was pocket money, fees from drawing comics, New Year's money, and birthday transfers from over the years. It was her entire nest egg, saved bit by bit over eighteen years.

In any country, that sum was enough for an ordinary person to lie flat for life.

She stared at the string of numbers for a long time, then merely murmured:

"Still not enough..."

So she had to keep saving.

Xiao Yan gulped down a couple of mouthfuls of water to stave off her hunger, then returned to bed and lay down.

This time, she really did go to sleep.

In her dream, she drew a very long picture. Two people stood at the end of it, but she couldn't make out who they were.

Lin Lan got off work.

She returned to the Lin Family estate, stood in the hallway, and knocked on the door in front of her.

"Little Deer, it's me."

"Coming, coming!"

The door opened from inside, revealing a girl with her hair in two buns.

Lin Lan handed her what she was carrying in her right hand.

"Here you go."

"Hehe, Sis, you're the best."

Lin Luyin took it, and her nose twitched. Her eyes lit up on the spot.

"Sis, want to come in and sit for a while?"

Lin Lan had been about to refuse. It was late, after all.

Then she remembered she had tomorrow off and could sleep until she woke naturally, so she agreed.

Inside the room.

Lin Luyin put the bag on the small dining table and opened it. A rich aroma wafted out.

It was barbecue, a whole heap of it.

Ever since losing to Chu Ge in the class placement exam, Lin Luyin had been stewing over it and training hard, spending most of each day immersed in cultivation. She hadn't touched dangerous goods like barbecue in a long time.

Today counted as a cheat meal.

"Sis, want some?"

"No, I've already had a late-night snack."

Lin Lan sat down on the sofa and watched her eat the skewers.

"Slow down. Don't get grease on your pajamas."

"I know."

Little Deer was eating with such relish, her cheeks bulging, that she simply couldn't stop.

Lin Lan smiled helplessly and swept her gaze around the room.

The two were paternal cousins and lived under the same roof, but she really had only been in this room a handful of times.

The last time she'd come in...

Was the last time.

The room was pink: a pink bed, pink dolls, a pink wardrobe. Even the computer was pink.

Who would have thought that East Sea City's famously tsundere young miss had such a girlish heart in private?

Lin Lan's gaze returned to Lin Luyin's face.

They hadn't seen each other for a while, and her younger cousin's strength had leaped forward again. She had reached the eighty-fifth level of qi and blood and wasn't far from the eighty-sixth.

She truly was a rarely seen prodigy.

She had simply been too playful before and neglected her cultivation. If she'd paid it even a little attention, there would be no question of her qi and blood having passed the ninetieth level by now.

"Little Deer."

"What is it, Sis?" Lin Luyin looked up, grease on the corners of her mouth and on her face too.

"Has Uncle made any preparations for your breakthrough to the Black Iron Realm?"

"Yes." Lin Luyin nodded. "A little while ago, he bought a Star Stone at an auction overseas and brought it back. He's already given it to me."

As she spoke, she got up and ran to rummage through her bedside table, soon returning with a small wooden box.

She pressed the box into Lin Lan's hands, then went back to battling the barbecue.

Lin Lan opened the box.

Starlight burst forth, bathing half the room in dreamlike colors.

Inside lay a smooth, rounded stone the size of an egg. Stars flowed within it, as though a stretch of the Milky Way had been sealed inside.

"So this is a Star Stone..." Lin Lan murmured.

It was beautiful, and truly worthy of that price.

Her talent was fairly good, but not enough for her family to be willing to pour billions into training her. So even after cultivating to this day and reaching the Bronze Realm, she had never dared hope for a treasure like this.

Fortunately, she was laid-back by nature. As far as strength went, having enough was enough; she had no burning need for the Power of the Three Aspects.

Lin Lan closed the box and put it back in front of Lin Luyin.

"Do you have time during the National Day holiday?"

"What is it?" Lin Luyin put down her skewer.

"It's nothing much. Isn't Xu Junyuan coming to your school to hold a concert then? The Martial Arts Association has to send people to maintain order, but they're short-handed, so they're recruiting some temporary staff. I thought I'd ask if you're interested."

She had only brought it up casually.

She hadn't expected Lin Luyin to actually nod.

"No problem."

"Experiencing the many facets of life helps temper one's Dao heart."

"It's part of becoming a powerhouse."

"It's also a stepping stone for my future ascent to the supreme peak."

Lin Lan sat across from her and listened.

With every sentence, the corner of her mouth twitched.

When had her cousin become so chuunibyou? Every other word out of her mouth was Dao hearts and supreme peaks.

"Oh, right, are you going, sis?"

"I have to," Lin Lan said. "The association assigned me to it. I'll be standing right below the stage, keeping watch that day."

She stood up and smoothed the wrinkles from her clothes.

"I'm heading back. Take your time eating, and remember to wipe your mouth when you're done."

"Come on, sis, you really don't want a skewer?"

"Really, I don't."

Lin Lan closed the door behind her, crossed the hallway to her own room, flopped onto her bed, and turned on her computer.

Before going to sleep, she would watch Yosuga no Sora.

Work was work, cultivation was cultivation, and being an otaku was being an otaku. None of the three got in the way of the others.

No matter how enormous the matter, it would have to wait until she finished tonight's episode.

An hour later.

"Then if I do get pregnant, I'll just get an abortion!"

Hearing those words, followed by the sound of a slap, Lin Lan felt completely satisfied.

Now this was what she wanted to see!

So...

She decided to reward herself...

By rewinding and watching it again...