Refusal

Every name in the densely packed list was followed by green. Luo Ruzhuo returned to the first page, where the information at the top stated in plain sight: This report only generates the green range (75% and above): high-potential matches. The table is sorted by match value from highest to lowest, regardless of alphabetical order.

Sentinels in the yellow range (20%-75%) and red range (below 20%) are not displayed. To look up a specific sentinel, enter their ID on the Guide Association's official website.

A quick glance showed that every name on the first page had a 100% match value.

Thoroughly puzzled, Luo Ruzhuo closed the report and opened her smart terminal, hoping to talk to Anna. Only after opening her friends list did she remember that they hadn't exchanged contact information. Just two people occupied the lonely list-

At the top was Red-crowned Crane (Lin Sheng), who currently had two unread messages, followed by Black-footed Cat (Heisha Draven), who had one.

Luo Ruzhuo had just decided to pretend she hadn't seen them when another message popped up-

Lin Sheng: If possible, could you give me a chance to atone?

Atone? For what? Luo Ruzhuo hurriedly scrolled up.

The first message:

Lin Sheng: Good evening, Miss Luo. It was an honor to receive your purification today.

The second:

Lin Sheng: I'm very sorry about what happened today concerning the captain. The matter has been resolved, and I hope it didn't spoil your good mood while you were shopping.

What had happened? Luo Ruzhuo thought hard for a while before finally recalling the rude male guide from that afternoon.

What a nice person. She was the one who had driven away the guide there to treat his captain, yet Lin Sheng was apologizing to her instead.

She replied politely:

Luo Ruzhuo: It's all right. It had nothing to do with you, did it?

Having replied to one, she might as well reply to the other. After responding to Red-crowned Crane, Luo Ruzhuo opened the little cat's chat. There was only one message.

Heisha Draven: Did you receive the sea buckthorn berries?

"Big Yellow!" Luo Ruzhuo called Big Yellow over, a little expectant. "Did any packages arrive today?"

"Yes, Master!" Big Yellow spun around. "Big Yellow put it in the storage room for you, Master. Do you want to see it? Big Yellow will bring it over!"

She opened the package to find clusters of little orange-red berries inside. Their skins were thin and translucent, and they looked wonderfully juicy. Their appearance was downright misleading. Luo Ruzhuo couldn't resist picking one up between her fingers.

The moment she bit into it, Luo Ruzhuo's eyes widened slightly. The sea buckthorn berries in the interstellar world had actually mutated—the expected sourness and astringency were nowhere to be found. Instead, they had the sweetness of tropical fruit, with a faint lemony tartness. After eating one, Luo Ruzhuo couldn't resist reaching for another.

Big Yellow wailed in alarm. "Master—the fruit hasn't been disinfected by Big Yellow yet!" With that, Big Yellow hurriedly carried the whole big box away.

Luo Ruzhuo: ...

That left her hands free to reply to Heisha Draven.

Luo Ruzhuo: Got them! I've already eaten one. They're delicious.

Heisha Draven replied instantly: Glad to hear it. If you like them, I'll send you something else.

He was typing on his smart terminal when something heavy suddenly landed on his back. "Heisha! Who are you chatting with?"

The boy who spoke had a dark face, but the exposed skin on his limbs was white. His blue eyes darted about as he craned his neck to peer at the smart terminal's screen.

Heisha's first reaction was to close the screen. He turned and pulled the sentinel off his back. "Stop fooling around, Luo Xi."

Most of the members of his Desert Team had feline Mental Entities and a strong sense of personal boundaries. Although the members were close, they didn't have much physical contact. The fellow before him, whose Mental Entity was a Siamese—known as the dog of the cat world—was the sole exception.

Luo Xi loved sticking close to his teammates. When Heisha pushed him away, he went over to cling to the blond young man nearby. "Captain, look! Heisha is so cold."

Eager for agreement, he also pulled over the snow leopard and tiger lying on the floor, trying to form a united front. "He's been distracted ever since he came back from his purification!"

The snow leopard Mental Entity's owner had a head of white hair. He hadn't caught what Luo Xi said and simply hugged a cooling unit and sighed. "Ugh, it's so hot."

Beside him, the tiger Mental Entity's owner responded lazily, "So what? It's not like he's found himself a wife."

The blond young man took out a pollution detector and scanned Heisha. "Huh," he said. "Your pollution level is dropping fast. Did you have a high match value with the guide who purified you this time?"

At that, the snow leopard and the tiger turned their curious gazes toward him as well.

Hearing this, Heisha Draven recalled the purification process again, and a smile crept onto his face. Luo Xi pointed at his expression and shouted, "Yes, yes, exactly! He's been like that the whole time, like he's lost his soul!"

Heisha ignored the little brat and nodded to himself. "Yes, Captain. I met a guide I want to bond with for life, but unfortunately, she doesn't seem to need a permanent sentinel for now."

The captain of the Desert Team was called Chiya, and his Mental Entity was a lion. Prides were generally centered on lionesses, with male lions acting as a mobile force. His family followed that model, and Chiya, having grown up in that environment, understood the guide's thoughts in a second.

"There's a limit to how many permanent sentinels a guide can have, so it's normal for her to be cautious. You could try being her temporary sentinel first."

To be honest, Heisha hadn't considered that before. Temporary Marking lasted too briefly—at most a week—and for sentinels with high match values, the hormonal fluctuations after a Temporary Marking wore off were too great, making them more likely to enter a susceptible period.

But since Luo Ruzhuo didn't need a permanent partner, now that the captain had mentioned it, it did seem to be the only option. Heisha's eyes lit up, and he felt he had something new to strive for.

Luo Xi was burning with curiosity. "Who exactly is this Miss Guide, to have Heisha so captivated?"

"Oh." Chiya knew. "It's the one who recently arrived at the Black Tower."

"What!" Luo Xi's fur nearly stood on end. "...That murderer guide!"

"Heisha!" Luo Xi launched himself at him and shook his head wildly, trying to bring his brother to his senses. "Heisha, blink if the guide threatened you!"

"She didn't!" Heisha yanked Luo Xi off and flicked him on the forehead. His expression turned serious for once, and he spoke earnestly. "Miss Luo is a very good person, and she's amazing at purifying pollution! Please don't misunderstand her!"

Only after meeting Luo Ruzhuo in person had Heisha realized that she was nothing like the gloomy, antisocial murderer outsiders imagined her to be. He didn't want his teammates to misunderstand the person he liked, either.

But judging by his teammates' expressions, he seemed to be the one possessed. Helpless, Heisha took all their smart terminals and booked each of them an appointment with Luo Ruzhuo.

Facts spoke louder than words!

"You'll understand after one purification! You'll thank me when you get back."

Heisha returned their smart terminals one by one. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Luo Xi wailing as he clutched his terminal, the snow leopard sprawled over the cooling unit with its tongue hanging out, the tiger scratching its head, clueless about what had happened, and his captain, the only one who seemed capable of understanding him.

He couldn't help sighing, feeling that he really had worried himself sick over his teammates.

Luo Ruzhuo still had no idea that eating a sea buckthorn berry had brought her so much extra work. Had she known that would be the result, she wouldn't have given Heisha her contact information for anything.

Right now, she was troubled by Lin Sheng's replies.

She had clearly told him it had nothing to do with him, so why did he seem even more anxious?

Her smart terminal screen rattled like a sieve, beeping nonstop.

Lin Sheng: No... actually, my family was the one that invited that S-class guide here.

Lin Sheng: I'm very sorry. I didn't expect him to be so despicable as to use purification to threaten you.

Lin Sheng: Don't worry, the Lin Family has already sent him back. A new S-class guide will arrive tomorrow. This one has a very good reputation.

Lin Sheng: ...Would you like a spot to observe and learn?

Lin Sheng: This isn't an apology gift! You still haven't given me a chance to atone...

Lin Sheng: If you're willing to forgive me, could I ask you out on the next day off?

Lin Sheng: I'd like to apologize properly.

Did he have to make it so formal? Luo Ruzhuo's head ached. She really had regarded the whole thing as nothing more than a minor incident that day.

The male guide had left less of an impression on her than that plate of roasted glue worms. At least the roasted glue worms really had been crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, leaving a lingering flavor in her mouth.

Besides, the way sentinels in this world treated guides seemed far more complicated than she had imagined.

On the surface, the status of a guide was undoubtedly elevated, but because of certain stereotypes about men and women, the status of women wasn't so elevated.

Luo Ruzhuo had noticed long ago that the presidents of the Guide Associations in the Central District and the Zone A Black Tower were both men. Yet weren't there more female guides?

The ideas Anna and Miss Weina had instilled in her were that they were precious and had to protect themselves, handled gently like fragile objects. But could those shackles and masks really restrain a sentinel who had gone berserk?

The female guides of this world were like the healing-type ability users from her previous life. They wielded power, but were innocent and kind, held themselves to high moral standards, and considered their greatest priority to be keeping themselves safe from harm. Only the weak placed themselves in a position where they needed protection.

Luo Ruzhuo's fingers tapped lightly on the table, an unconscious habit when she was thinking.

She wondered whether Anna would have gone if she had received Lin Sheng's invitation instead.

After all, Anna really had been troubled today by that arrogant, overbearing male guide.

She had even planned to compromise herself in exchange for a chance to let him heal a sentinel.

If she reasoned backward,

then the premise behind Lin Sheng's solemn apology was that he assumed Luo Ruzhuo was a guide like Anna.

Because he thought Luo Ruzhuo had suffered a terrible grievance, he was so anxious, as though he had failed in his duty to protect her.

But Luo Ruzhuo didn't need that kind of protection.

She typed on her smart terminal at a leisurely pace. This time, her wording was no longer polite.

Luo Ruzhuo: I told you it had nothing to do with you, and I wasn't troubled by it. So, are you looking down on me?

Luo Ruzhuo: I'm not the one you should be apologizing to.

Luo Ruzhuo: It's Miss Anna Bolin.

Luo Ruzhuo: Don't bother me again.

Perhaps, in the eyes of this world's sentinels, Luo Ruzhuo's actions were incomprehensible and cold.

But Luo Ruzhuo still felt that someone she didn't need wanting to protect her was an insult to the strong.

Why should she spend her precious time accepting an invitation to an apology she didn't need at all?

Sleepiness washed over her. Luo Ruzhuo didn't care in the slightest how Lin Sheng reacted after seeing the messages. She shut off her smart terminal, happily lay down on the soft, 2.2-meter-wide bed in her spacious apartment, and fell into a sweet, sound sleep in a second.