Chapter 47

Chapter 47

The voice still echoed directly in his mind.

But perhaps the glitch was still active, as even Jian Yi and Xu Ru could hear it.

Both were startled.

However, thanks to their prior shared consciousness, they were somewhat mentally prepared.

Still, 996's piercing shriek startled Shen Ju awake.

Originally feverish and disoriented, he was now jolted into semi-consciousness, his eyes fluttering open.

But Shen Ju remained somewhat dazed. Without fully opening his eyes, he mumbled at 996, "Brother 996, what's wrong with you...?"

996 thought, *What's wrong with me?*

*I'm freaking dying!!!*

After Shen Ju spoke, his eyes opened fully.

As soon as they opened, he saw Qin Suxi right across from him.

He blinked, thinking he might be hallucinating.

So he shifted his gaze slightly—

Jian Yi.

Then a bit more—

Pei Yan.

Then...

Guan Mulin, Guan Muyao, Guan Lifeng...

And finally, Xu Ru, all the way in the back.

Shen Ju stared wide-eyed for what felt like forever, then slowly closed them again.

*Must be seeing things.*

"Brother 996, I think I saw my Mom and Dad, Eldest Brother, Second Brother, and Brother Pei."

996: "............"

*Maybe you should open your eyes and take another look?*

Anyway, it didn't dare speak.

It was so scared, boo-hoo.

*Why are humans scarier than ghosts, boo-hoo.*

*Is it too late for me to make a run for the supernatural world now...?*

Jian Yi couldn't hold back anymore: "Shen Jiujiu, are you telling me this 996 *thing* is supposed to help restore my left hand?!"

996 muttered under its breath: "I'm not a thing."

*Wait, that's not right.*

*Well, I am—*

*No, that's not right either.*

*Actually I'm not—ah! What am I?!*

996's coding was going haywire.

Shen Ju was also in chaos.

He opened his eyes again, completely jolted awake.

The shock was better than any medicine.

The room packed with people wasn't a hallucination after all.

Shen Ju slowly sat up, still disoriented, sitting on the top bunk.

He shifted his feet, debating whether to climb down.

Pei Yan put a hand out to stop him, and Jian Yi cut in directly: "Stay up there for now. Explain things clearly first."

Shen Ju was cornered.

Pei Yan tapped on the bed rail: "Jiujiu, can your system show itself and talk?"

Guan Muyao shot a look at Pei Yan.

He clicked his tongue silently.

He himself had rarely called him "Jiujiu."

Shen Ju was still dazed, his mouth hanging slightly open.

Pei Yan sighed: "Actually, we could hear your conversations with the system for some time now. It started at that banquet when your identity was first officially revealed, back at Heyuan, after we all ended up in the pond together."

"Sorry it took us so long to tell you."

Guan Muyao thought, *How come we don't get an apology?*

Shen Ju's mind was still processing slowly.

It took him a while to process what Pei Yan said.

Once he finally processed it, his eyes went wide slowly.

"!!!!!!"

996: *See? Now you understand how I feel!!*

Shen Ju slowly turned his head and looked at Qin Suxi, who was nearest to him.

When Pei Yan heard Qin Suxi say that Shen Ju would be "kicked out" of the Guan family after his final mission ended, a flicker of emotion crossed his eyes.

*So this is the thing he didn’t know?*

*No wonder.*

Pei Yan looked at Shen Ju again and saw that after Qin Suxi finished speaking, Shen Ju was once again stunned, bundled up in the blanket on the bed, looking completely dumbfounded.

Shen Ju tried hard to make sense of the current situation.

So...

From shortly after he arrived at the Guan family, from the first time he went to Heyuan, from that banquet, from after he and Pei Yan fell into the pond together—whether it was Pei Yan or the family members—they had actually been able to hear every conversation between him and 996?! So they had long known about the tasks he was doing, the role he was playing, and presumably now also knew why he had to do it, for what purpose...

Shen Ju thought again.

He thought about what he had said to 996 every time.

After he finished thinking.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!!"

996: *Yeah, I understand.*

*I totally get it.*

Shen Ju wanted to pull the blanket over his head.

Now his mind was clear, his body no longer felt heavy, and he really wanted to sneak out of bed.

But the blanket was gripped by Jian Yi’s right hand.

Jian Yi, being clever, had figured out a lot of information from Qin Suxi’s words.

Everything comes with conditions and costs, especially something like restoring his disabled left hand. "Creating something out of nothing" isn’t something that can be achieved under normal circumstances.

So what kind of role did Shen Ju have to play?

And he had to be driven out of the Guan family...

After transferring to Qichen, he had seen how Shen Ju interacted with Guan Mulin and the others.

Sometimes, Jian Yi had even thought that after coming to the Guan family, Shen Ju no longer had to restrain himself, so his way of speaking and acting had changed a bit. But it turned out... it was all an intentional act of disguise?

Most importantly, Shen Ju was going to leave the Guan family in the end—for him?!

Jian Yi refused to accept it.

"Shen Jiujiu!"

Jian Yi’s voice trembled: "So you made a deal with this... *thing*, all for me?"

This time, 996 didn’t retort.

It thought humans were so tricky—no matter how you responded to insults, it would always be problematic.

"What exactly is going on? Explain it clearly!"

Jian Yi couldn’t help but get worked up, his chest heaving.

"I... uh, bro, I..."

Shen Ju was at a loss for words, unsure how to explain.

In fact, he was still in shock and felt as exposed as if he were naked in broad daylight, desperately wanting to hide.

"Jiujiu, let your system explain."

Pei Yan brought up 996 again at this point and said in a calm, measured tone, "If I’m not mistaken, the reason we can hear your conversations with the system is likely because your system had a bug long ago, and it hasn’t been discovered yet. But despite that, neither I nor your family members exposed this major flaw. On the contrary, after learning how much you wanted to complete the task, we even cooperated and assisted."

Shen Ju and 996 couldn’t help but recall that there was a period when the task made no progress at all, but then at some point, it started moving forward smoothly.

So it was actually because the family members actively cooperated?!

But 996 wasn’t just struck by sudden realization; listening to Pei Yan’s words, it felt its entire spherical form trembling again.

*Humans are terrifying!!*

"So, since things have developed to this point—and even the recently exposed mistake wasn’t caused by us—and now two more people know, we might as well take this opportunity to lay everything out clearly. After all, if everything is clear, maybe we can still coordinate. But if Jiujiu’s system isn’t willing to cooperate, and we already know all this..."

Pei Yan smiled: "That would be bad. It might be hard to resolve the situation neatly. After all, strictly speaking, since we were forced to know about this, we’re also 'victims' in a way."

996: "..."

*If it could, it really wanted to wail loudly!*

*It was being threatened, right?!*

*Right!!!*

*It might as well go back to factory settings!*

*Why is the first task so difficult! So difficult!!*

996 was having an internal breakdown.

But thinking of its host, it let out a sob and emerged from Shen Ju’s body.

A small, glowing blue sphere.

Streams of code flickered across it, giving off a strong futuristic tech vibe.

Seeing 996, everyone couldn’t help but hold their breath briefly.

Knowing about 996’s existence was one thing, but seeing it with their own eyes was another.

"Alright."

996 perched on Shen Ju’s knee: "The host did agree to take on the task to restore Jian Yi’s left hand."

"We need the host to serve as a control group for this world’s protagonist shou and to promote the emotional progress between the protagonist shou and the protagonist gong, acting as a key link at critical moments."

996 extended a small nub to scratch its head: "If the worldline proceeds normally, it will generate energy, and part of that energy can then be used as a reward for the host—"

"What if the task isn’t completed?"

Jian Yi interrupted: "And who are the protagonist shou and protagonist gong?"

Guan Mulin: "..."

Except for Pei Yan, the others also reacted.

"Right, who is it?"

But subconsciously, they all looked at Guan Mulin...

Shen Ju's main mission target was Mu Lin after all.

So the "protagonist shou" and "protagonist gong" mentioned by the system?!

Qin Suxi parted her lips: "Ah-Lin, you never mentioned any of this to us..."

Just looking at Guan Mulin's expression made it clear he definitely knew.

He probably heard it while being with Shen Ju, but they had never heard any of this before.

Guan Mulin never expected he would be the one to be mortified like this.

He gave a stiff smile, thinking how was he supposed to explain this.

"Right now, it's not about whether we can complete the mission."

Pei Yan spoke up, glancing at Jian Yi: "Regarding this mission, Jiujiu's family members have already experimented with it—they can cooperate and help advance the mission progress. But the problem now is, even if the mission is completed, Shen Ju would still have to be separated from his family because of the character role he must perform for this mission. I think the final point of being 'driven out' of the Guan family probably also stems from the persona Shen Ju needs to maintain."

996 was completely overwhelmed: "...That's right..."

Jian Yi's expression turned even uglier. Finally understanding, he said without hesitation: "Since Shen Jiujiu accepted this mission for me, if I'm unwilling, can we just—"

"Don't do it."

Someone said it before he could.

Jian Yi was stunned, and so was Shen Ju.

Everyone turned to look at Xu Ru, who was standing at the back.

"Can we just... not do the mission?"

Xu Ru spoke again, her words strained.

Shen Ju moved his lips: "Auntie..."

"I have to admit, I want my son to regain his health more than anyone, but... I can't..."

Xu Ru choked up, covering her eyes with her hands.

Anyone could see how conflicted and pained she was at that moment.

But Xu Ru also knew she couldn't, and had no right, to let Shen Ju give up so much.

She couldn't just stand by and watch this happen...

Xu Ru's mind was unusually clear.

She knew she had to say something.

And even if she were willing, Jian Yi probably wouldn’t agree.

She didn’t want Jian Yi to resent or hate her.

Even though she desperately wanted her son to be whole again.

If it were possible, if she could take Shen Ju's place, she would be willing to pay any price.

But clearly, she couldn’t...

Xu Ru closed her eyes, calming herself.

She looked up at Jian Yi.

The message in her eyes was the same as his.

She was signaling to Jian Yi—*just follow your heart.*

Jian Yi withdrew his gaze and looked at 996, which was squatting like a lump on Shen Ju's knee: "I don’t know exactly what you are, but I’m a concerned party too, right? I don’t want my left hand healed, I don’t want Shen Ju to do this mission, I refuse the reward for this mission’s success. Besides, the mission is already such a disaster—it’s essentially failed. Can you just cancel it now?"

Shen Ju said anxiously: "Brother—"

"Shut up."

Jian Yi glared at Shen Ju, his eyes red and too painful to look at.

Shen Ju pressed his lips together.

Honestly, with the mission in such a state—almost everyone involved knew about it, and had known for some time—continuing with it...

"But the mission can’t just be abandoned like that..."

996 squatted on Shen Ju's knee, looking deflated: "Um... the authorities don’t know about these bugs yet. If we can continue smoothly with the mission..."

"No." Jian Yi’s face was filled with anger.

996’s voice was choked up and full of grievance: "But you just said you could cooperate, boo-hoo..."

Jian Yi: "............"

*Whoever said that, take it up with them!*

"Anyway, I don’t agree—"

"Maybe you should ask Shen Ju his opinion."

Pei Yan glanced at Shen Ju and sighed: "He’s held on this long already."

Shen Ju sniffed: "I want to do it."

"Shen Jiujiu—"

"It’s not just for you, brother!"

Shen Ju raised his voice: "Your hand—it’s been on my mind too!"

"I’ve come this far. If I quit now... just like that, I couldn't bear it."

"It would be even more painful..."

As he spoke, Shen Ju’s eyes grew red.

He knew everyone had his best interests at heart.

Now that the matter has been exposed, even Xu Ru said he shouldn’t continue the mission, but how could Shen Ju just give up so easily?

Pei Yan’s words spoke to what he was feeling—he had already persevered this far, and he truly didn’t want to abandon the mission now.

“We can make two preparations.”

Pei Yan spoke up again.

Using his height, he reached out and patted Shen Ju’s clenched fist by his side, then looked up and met Shen Ju’s eyes with a reassuring smile.

996 tightened its tone, taking back what it had said earlier that Pei Yan was a great guy!

Today, it had truly witnessed it—this person was the scariest one here!

But...

If the other party could come up with any constructive ideas, 996 couldn’t help but want to hear them out.

Otherwise, with all these bugs it had caused one after another, severely dropping the ball, being reset to factory settings would be the best outcome. It was more afraid of facing some kind of punishment—that would be a living hell, wuuu.

So...

“What are the two preparations?” 996 muttered.

Pei Yan raised an eyebrow. “You can first quietly look into whether there’s any way to end the mission midway. On the other hand, the mission can continue for now.”

Jian Yi frowned, seeming to have something to say.

“I know everyone is most concerned about Shen Ju eventually being ‘kicked out’ of the Guan family.”

Pei Yan looked around at everyone. “But since the mission progress allows for coordination, this matter isn’t impossible to ‘fake.’ After all... the act of ‘kicking out’ can be interpreted in several ways.”

Everyone present reacted differently.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Pei Yan continued, “By the way, does Shen Ju still need to continue that mission related to me?”

He looked at 996.

996 uttered an “ah” and instinctively said, “Yes, but—”

*But since it’s already exposed, whether he does it or not doesn't really matter, right?*

Before it could finish, Pei Yan interrupted:

“In that case, if Shen Ju needs to complete this mission in the end, he can become engaged to me.”

The Guan family: "............"

Jian Yi: "............"

*What did he just say?*

-----------------------

Author’s note: Pei Yan: Pardon my bluntness, let everyone see when the hidden knife is finally revealed [dog emoji holding a rose].