Chapter 57

For the next several days, Bai Xinmei remained in that place. At first, she thought that as time passed, someone would notice something was wrong and come looking for her.
Until…
“Can’t you let me go? Yuanzheng will be back soon. What you’re doing isn’t right…”
She spoke irritably, completely at a loss as to how to undo the man’s stubborn fixation. She still didn’t understand how things had developed to this point, but she was certain of one thing, he wouldn’t hurt her.
“You’ve been eating too little these past few days,” Song Jinping said softly.
There was even a breeze-like smile on his face, as though he were still that educated youth sitting on an ox cart, gazing at golden waves of rice.
Sunlight streamed through the window, spilling onto the warm pink floor. He held up the bowl; she turned her head away. The two of them seemed locked in a silent standoff. At moments like this, the man always looked a little helpless. He set the bowl down gently, sat by the bed, and began speaking to himself.
“Do you have no appetite? Don’t you like Liren Fashion’s daily periodical? I’ve read it too. There was a feature on ruby earrings, I thought they’d suit you very well…”
Bai Xinmei’s eyes widened.
These past few days, she’d already realized that this man knew her movements over the years like the back of his hand, even what newspapers she read.
“You investigated me?!”
The moment the words left her mouth, Song Jinping looked wounded. His lips pressed into a tight line. After a long silence, he finally said quietly,
“I just wanted to know whether you were living well.”
What could she say?
Seeing his pitiful expression, she didn’t continue questioning him.
He lowered his head, trying to kiss her, longing for her mercy. She dodged the gesture without a trace. “I need to rest now.”
From Song Jinping’s angle, all he could see was her delicate, beautiful jawline, and her cold, indifferent back.
A surge of unwilling resentment rose in his heart. She had clearly been the one to provoke him first, yet she walked away so decisively.
“What? You won’t even look at me anymore?”
The words were filled with hurt and restraint. Bai Xinmei’s head throbbed painfully. The plot had twisted into this mess, and the system was nowhere to be seen, who knew what it was busy with.
Because she’d underestimated the danger of a character’s blackening, she’d fallen into a passive position. She couldn’t afford to respond carelessly anymore.
Suddenly, she understood why Song Jinping had snapped.
A favored son of heaven who had never failed, after finally accepting that he’d fallen in love with a seductive rural widow, just as he was about to plunge headlong into a passionate romance, loving her to life and death, he discovered her dead husband had returned. The widow hesitated… then got back together with the ex-husband.
He himself had merely been a momentary diversion.
If it were her, she’d blacken too.
Thinking this through, Bai Xinmei realized that staying silent would only make things worse. She carefully chose her words.
Softly, cautiously, she said, “No, Jinping. I just think that what we’re doing now isn’t right. We can’t betray Yuanzheng.”
Before she could finish, she felt a scorching gaze lock onto her back.
Damn it, she’d said the wrong thing again.
She wanted to slap herself twice, only to remember her hands were still chained.
“When you provoked me, why didn’t you think about any of this?” he said slowly. “Now… it’s too late.”
“Hey, hey, Jinping, Jinping, don’t leave! I didn’t mean Yuanzheng is more important than you. I mean he’s very capable, no, that’s not it, I mean, ah! Song Jinping, get back here! Do you even really like me?! What is this supposed to be?!”
Outside the door, the man’s eyes grew ever deeper, shadows pooling within them.
As long as Meimei stayed here a few more days, he’d be able to take care of everything. Then it would be their wedding.
Another click of a lock.
That damned bastard Song Jinping, why was he keeping her locked up here? At this level, didn’t it already count as loving her? She felt she’d completed the task, no, she’d exceeded it.
[System!!! System!!!]
She began calling for the system nonstop.
On her one hundred and thirty-eighth call, the system finally arrived, unhurried as ever.
[Main quest completion: 100%. Congratulations, intern.]
[Then what exactly is your standard for judging main quest completion? I think back on the boat, the male lead already thought he was in love with the female lead. Why wasn’t it marked as success then?]
She truly didn’t understand and felt there was something wrong with the system’s evaluation.
[The chosen ones of fate in each story world are usually upright characters. Your earlier ambiguous interactions could only be considered the male lead being temporarily bewitched by your appearance. Risking his life to save you stems from the inherent kindness and justice of the chosen one. Even if it weren’t you, if it were a cat or a dog, he would still save them. Therefore, such behavior cannot be used to determine that the chosen one has fallen in love with you.]
[Only when a character violates their inherent persona, doing things that are irrational or uncontrollable, can it be determined that you have influenced them. For example, in this period-drama world, the male lead Song Jinping is outwardly warm but inwardly cold, seemingly gentle and amiable yet deeply arrogant at heart. He helps the weak, but only on a superficial level. In the original plot, he also helped the abused female lead, which led to their interaction. Later, their being together relied entirely on the female lead’s courage in pursuing love. Otherwise, the male lead would always remain outside the game, gazing down upon the world with pity.]
[What is conquest? Naturally, it is to make the man obsessed with you, driven mad for you, to drag him into the game.]
After hearing the system’s explanation, Jiang Wei, now separated from Bai Xinmei’s body and existing in a virtual state, fell into deep thought.
What a twisted logic.
Yet… it oddly made sense.
[So I’ve completed the task now?]
The system didn’t respond again, but Jiang Wei knew the task was complete. The intense scoring phase had begun. She grew nervous as two massive virtual screens appeared in the void, data scrolling endlessly.
In terms of OOC severity and task completion, she ranked below the male-lead department’s tasker. But in audience popularity, she ranked higher, perhaps a newcomer’s bonus.
As the final data was tallied, even though she existed only as data herself, she felt cold sweat stream down her back.
The male-lead department’s tasker lost to her.
A shadowy figure before her struggled briefly. Then countless tentacle-like things extended from all directions, wrapping around it. In the end, it shattered into a cloud of light, scattering into the void.
“Spiritual strangulation. Permanent erasure.”
A cold voice explained.
Jiang Wei watched the scene unfold, her face drained of color.
So this… was the price of failure.
“Who are you?” she asked.
She couldn’t see the being beside her clearly, he was blurry, human-shaped yet not quite human. She decided to treat him as human for now.
“Ji Ye. Or rather, your system. Taskers also like to call me Victor. Because the taskers I partner with almost never lose.”
It was that system.
Jiang Wei’s eyes widened. So it had a form like this… almost never losing. Maybe she wasn’t completely unlucky after all.
“What happens to the people in that world after the task is completed?”
“The story world will automatically repair and complete itself.”
“Then… can I go back and take a look now?”
Thinking of Qin Yuanzheng, still out on missions, and Song Jinping, whom she’d dragged into this mess, Jiang Wei felt uneasy.
Ji Ye glanced at her and snorted. “You like them?”
“Of course not. Of course not,” she quickly denied. “It’s just… after being there so long, they all felt real.” She frowned slightly, after all, she’d lived there for nearly ten years.
“They are real,” Ji Ye said calmly. “Those story worlds are merely parallel spaces, just like the place you were born, which also truly exists. You just weren’t the protagonist there. Oh, right, that place has already been destroyed by you.”
She wasn’t sure if she was imagining it, but she felt Ji Ye glance at her twice.
She puffed out her cheeks. At least the opening hadn’t been too bad.
Then she heard Ji Ye add, “Interns do not have permission to view the subsequent Heavenly Dao repair content.”
What?!
She rolled her eyes hard. “Then… with my performance, can I become a full-time employee?”
The damned system went silent again.
That only made Jiang Wei angrier.
“Detected emotional residue from the intern in the previous world. Emotional cleansing is required.”
Cleansing?
Her instinctive reaction was rejection.
“I don’t want any emotional extraction.”
“Emotional extraction is not mandatory. However, your earlier questions indicate that you’ve developed complex emotions toward the characters of the story world, which is detrimental to future task execution. Are you sure?”
After what Ji Ye said next, Jiang Wei hesitated again. She cast him a suspicious glance.
“Then… will my memories be taken away too?”
“No.”
Ji Ye’s electronic voice echoed faintly through the void, distant and unreal, much like the future Jiang Wei could not see the end of.
She said nothing more, silently checking her next mission instead. Deep down, she swore that this state of being controlled by others was something she would change sooner or later.
When she received the identity card for her second task world, she was hit all over again.
So this world was just one massive dog-blood mess, wasn’t it?
A so-called ancient-era forced-love novel titled Qingfeng Chant: The Treacherous Minister Husband Cannot Escape. Truly, round of applause.
He was a peerless genius, dazzling beyond compare, yet because of a cruel stepmother and an unloving father, he spent sixteen years half-mad and half-foolish to avoid disaster.
She was a noble young lady, yet due to a peasant woman’s moment of malice, her place was stolen. Still, a true pearl could never be buried by sand. Step by step, she made her way to the capital and finally reclaimed her identity. Only because, in their youth, that single thread of warmth, now that he wielded overwhelming power, made it impossible for him ever to let her go…
Jiang Wei: Damn it… my eyes. Someone save my eyes. Let me see what disgusting role I’ve drawn this time.
Qin Jinxiu, eldest daughter of the Qin family, the male lead’s cousin. Spoiled, willful, vicious at heart, and terminally infatuated with handsome men. She adored chasing pretty young masters, fawning shamelessly over them. Toward the male lead, who had been fostered in her household, she alternated between beatings and verbal abuse. That was, until he grew up and revealed a face capable of toppling cities. While Qin Jinxiu was once again gazing dreamily at a deity statue, she suddenly realized that the man carved into the mountain god looked strikingly like her cousin, and her imagination immediately ran wild…
Enough. Truly enough.
Oh, right, there was something even more revolting.
Qin Jinxiu was the very “cuckoo” who had stolen the nest.