Leaving everything else aside, even if you wanted to find someone to pretend to be your girlfriend, shouldn’t Lu Yuyao be your first choice?
Why are you even bringing this up with me?
Jiang Ling was frozen for a long moment before forcing herself to stay calm and testing the waters.
“Fang Chenxi, cola doesn’t have any alcohol in it, right?”
Fang Chenxi glanced at the cola can on the table.
Even if Jiang Ling hadn’t said it, she already knew.
Jiang Ling was playing dumb.
Still, no matter who it was, they wouldn’t be willing to go along with something like this.
“If you ask me, even if you were going to find someone to pretend to be your girlfriend, shouldn’t you go to Lu Yuyao?”
“You two grew up together as childhood sweethearts. Your parents know her too. That would be way more convincing.”
Jiang Ling racked her brains, doing her best to steer the conversation back on track, hoping that what Fang Chenxi had just said was just a momentary lapse in judgment.
‘Falling in love over time—that’s supposed to be your script.’
The question really had come out of nowhere.
She had just been looking at Jiang Ling’s face and blurted it out without thinking.
“Just forget I said anything.”
Fang Chenxi sighed, picking up a piece of sweet and sour pork and putting it in her mouth.
The sweet and sour balance was just right—exactly her taste.
Jiang Ling’s eyes widened.
Fang Chenxi’s sudden silence made it impossible for her to gauge what the other girl was thinking.
If all the earlier changes in Fang Chenxi—things that differed from the original book—could be explained by the butterfly effect…
There was no way her feelings for Lu Yuyao could have changed.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
‘Couldn’t I just get a system or something?’
‘I just want a system!’
Jiang Ling cried out in her heart.
This person’s thoughts were way too hard to figure out.
After dinner, Fang Chenxi finally seemed to act a bit more normal, curling up on the living room sofa to watch TV.
Jiang Ling used bathing as an excuse to escape.
“Then I don’t have to wear it after I shower, right?”
Jiang Ling’s eyes were full of hope, her voice pitiful.
“I sweated a lot doing housework. My clothes are dirty.”
But Fang Chenxi pulled out another sealed maid outfit from somewhere, a smile on her face.
“No problem, I have another set. Change into it after you wash up.”
Before leaving, Jiang Ling shot her a fierce glare.
Fang Chenxi’s smile only grew wider.
‘This girl definitely gets off on bullying me.’
After her shower, Jiang Ling blow-dried her hair.
The damp golden strands felt incredibly smooth to the touch, and she couldn’t help but wonder.
Normally, when Lu Yuyao washed her hair, she’d use all sorts of products—shampoo, conditioner, the works—to maintain it.
But Jiang Ling was lazy and only ever used shampoo, rinsing it off and calling it done.
Lu Yuyao always scolded her for it, saying she was ruining her hair quality.
Yet her golden hair was still silky and soft.
‘Does that mean I’m just naturally beautiful?’
Jiang Ling let her thoughts wander.
Coming out of the bathroom, Jiang Ling looked down from upstairs.
Fang Chenxi was still watching TV.
She called out,
“Fang Chenxi, where am I sleeping tonight?”
It was getting late.
After a busy day and a shower, exhaustion washed over her.
She was dead tired.
“Sleep in my bedroom.”
“No way. Don’t you have two guest rooms?”
Jiang Ling pouted.
There was no way she was sleeping with Fang Chenxi.
“Those two guest rooms are empty. What would you sleep on?”
What!
Jiang Ling froze at her words, then went to check the guest rooms.
She pushed open one door and turned on the light.
The room was completely empty—nothing inside.
The other guest room was just the same.
Jiang Ling was dumbfounded.
She turned around angrily, only to find Fang Chenxi had somehow appeared behind her, leaning against the doorframe with an “I told you so” expression.
“Fang Chenxi! You planned this all along, didn’t you!”
“Watch your tone. Call me ‘Master.'”
“I’ll call you…”
She couldn’t bring herself to say the curse word.
Jiang Ling’s eyes were wide with anger.
“There’s no way I’m sleeping with you. If that’s the case, I’m going home.”
“Can’t handle losing?”
“Reverse psychology won’t work on me!”
“Fine, fine. But your clothes are already washed and hanging out on the balcony. If you don’t want to sleep here, then go home in your maid outfit.”
Fang Chenxi’s expression was nonchalant, but her words were utterly despicable.
Jiang Ling didn’t believe her.
She went to the second-floor balcony to check for herself.
Fang Chenxi hadn’t lied.
Jiang Ling slapped her forehead in frustration.
‘I’m such an idiot!’
Because she had changed clothes in the bathroom, and when she did the laundry earlier, she had mindlessly thrown her own clothes into the washing machine too.
‘Jiang Ling, how could you be this stupid!’
She turned her head.
Fang Chenxi’s eyes were full of triumph.
“So, do you want to go home in a maid outfit, or sleep with me?”
Jiang Ling lowered her head in despair.
The answer was already clear.
Still, Jiang Ling made Fang Chenxi agree to three rules:
No using the title of “Master” to do anything bad, or else she’d rather embarrass herself by going home in this outfit than stoop to sharing Fang Chenxi’s bed.
Fang Chenxi happily agreed.
But she was curious.
“Why are you so guarded against me? It’s normal for girls to share a bed, isn’t it?”
‘No duh. You’re the heroine of a yuri novel. If I’m not guarded against you, who am I supposed to guard against?’
Recalling that Jiang Ling used to read yuri novels all the time, Fang Chenxi teased with a smile.
“You don’t actually like girls, do you?”
Jiang Ling’s face was expressionless.
She had already walked into Fang Chenxi’s bedroom first.
Let her say whatever she wanted.
Fang Chenxi’s bed was soft and spacious.
There was even room for four Jiang Lings to lie down with space to spare.
Jiang Ling placed a pillow between them as a boundary line.
Luckily, Fang Chenxi had spare bedding, so Jiang Ling didn’t have to huddle together with her.
Before going to sleep, she didn’t forget to remind Fang Chenxi not to cross the line.
To be safe, Jiang Ling even kept her maid outfit on.
Fang Chenxi could only nod, thinking she was making a huge fuss over nothing.
“I usually sleep naked. Don’t you try anything.”
“I wouldn’t!”
But then Fang Chenxi proceeded to strip off her clothes right in front of her.
Jiang Ling was so startled she immediately shut her eyes, her cheeks flushing.
“At least warn me before you take your clothes off!”
Fang Chenxi ignored her, slipped into bed in her underwear, and said,
“Good night.”
“Good night.”
The light was turned off.
The room fell silent, leaving only the sound of their even breathing and the rain outside the window.
Jiang Ling wasn’t asleep yet.
She was on her phone replying to messages.
It was from Lu Yuyao.
Probably because she hadn’t come home all day, even though she had told her beforehand, Lu Yuyao still sent a message to make sure she was safe.
Jiang Ling’s heart grew warm.
‘This feeling of being cared about is really addictive.’
‘Lu Yuyao, Lu Yuyao… if only you weren’t the heroine of this book.’
She would have gladly accepted Lu Yuyao as her sworn sister.
[Don’t worry, I’m about to sleep. I’ll be back early tomorrow morning.]
[Okay, good night.]
[Good night.]
A smile tugged at Jiang Ling’s lips.
She put her phone under her pillow and set an alarm for seven in the morning.
She couldn’t wait to go home.
Maybe because it was her first time sleeping in someone else’s bed, Jiang Ling’s heart was still tense as she listened to Fang Chenxi’s breathing with her eyes closed.
Fang Chenxi was abiding by the rules.
So far, she hadn’t done anything strange.
Jiang Ling secretly opened her eyes and stole a glance at Fang Chenxi.
Fang Chenxi’s breathing was steady.
Her eyelashes trembled slightly with each breath.
Her hair was spread out on the pillow, beautiful as a painting.
‘Is she really asleep?’
After confirming multiple times that Fang Chenxi wasn’t faking it, Jiang Ling finally felt at ease.
In the dead of night, unable to sleep, she began to mull over Fang Chenxi’s strange behavior during the day.
‘Butterfly effect.’
‘Those simple four words are no longer enough to convince myself.’
‘Why would Fang Chenxi do this?’
Jiang Ling thought to herself that since she had transmigrated into the book, even though her actions weren’t identical to the original plot, she hadn’t done anything bad.
She had been careful to avoid trouble and had already made way for the two heroines’ relationship.
In Jiang Ling’s view, Fang Chenxi had gone beyond simply deviating from the plot.
Her behavior seemed to suggest that she had already lost interest in Lu Yuyao.
Of course, she meant in terms of romance.
She no longer seemed to pursue Lu Yuyao as the love of her life.
That was a serious problem.
So far, only Fang Chenxi had broken away from the story.
If the two heroines stopped loving each other, then this book would lose its reason to exist.
And their existence as side characters would become meaningless.
‘Could there be something like a Heavenly Dao in this world?’
‘Like in those novels, if the plot deviates too far from the original, the world would self-destruct and reset?’
Jiang Ling’s little head began to run wild with thoughts.
‘Probably not…’
Suddenly, a shiver ran down her spine.
Her eyes flew wide open.
A terrifying thought surfaced in her mind.
‘Could it be that Fang Chenxi is also…’
“Reborn.”
Jiang Ling muttered under her breath.
Then she realized someone was lying right next to her.
She quietly turned her head to look at Fang Chenxi.
The other girl still had her eyes closed, breathing steadily, still asleep.
‘Phew.’
Jiang Ling let out a sigh of relief.
She silently scolded herself for being careless, then returned to her earlier train of thought.
‘Reborn…’
‘Compared to Fang Chenxi being a reincarnator, I’d rather accept the butterfly effect explanation.’
‘Because if that were the case, it would be too terrifying.’
She would have no way to predict how the story would unfold from then on.
And if Fang Chenxi really was a reincarnator, then maybe all these deviations from the plot were just a ruse to deceive her.
In her previous life, she had been hindered by Jiang Ling.
So after being reborn, she wanted to toy with Jiang Ling, and once she got bored, kick her away.
Then she would win the girl’s heart.
Jiang Ling pulled the blanket up higher, covering half her face, her eyes filled with terror.
She didn’t dare think any further.
No matter how she looked at it, the situation was stacked against her.
But if it really was like that…
Did Jiang Ling have any way to salvage things?
Her mind was a mess.
She couldn’t come up with any solution for the moment.
The warm bed lulled her exhaustion, accumulated over the entire day, to take over her brain.
Sleepiness surged, and Jiang Ling could barely keep her eyes open.
In the end, she even unconsciously mumbled softly,
“G-getting kicked to death… would be fine too… at least then… I wouldn’t have to worry anymore…”
Jiang Ling’s breathing gradually steadied.
Perhaps, when there’s no other option, giving up and running away is the best solution.
Fang Chenxi opened her eyes.
Her beautiful eyes were filled with complexity.
She had only been pretending to sleep.
Like Jiang Ling, she wasn’t used to sharing a bed with someone else, so she hadn’t been able to fall asleep.
Originally, she had planned to tease Jiang Ling when she wasn’t paying attention.
But instead, she heard something from Jiang Ling’s mouth that shocked her.
“Reborn.”
And then the fragmented murmurs that followed.
Words with such unique meaning—Fang Chenxi didn’t believe that was just Jiang Ling talking in her sleep.
Jiang Ling really was just like her.
She had come back from a rebirth.
She had suspected as much before, but having it confirmed from Jiang Ling’s own mouth still left Fang Chenxi with complicated feelings.
Especially that last murmur.
Jiang Ling seemed afraid.
And the object of her fear was her.
Fang Chenxi.