The Changning Villa district has a particularly good environment. As the vehicle slowly drove through the main gate, the first thing that caught the eye was a large fountain and lush greenery, with neatly trimmed shrubs and spotless, immaculate ground. Even the air seemed to carry a faint, almost imperceptible fragrance.

This was almost like a world apart from the Water Factory Alley where Lin Bosheng grew up. He lowered his eyelids, his expression unchanged.

“Young master… we’ve arrived.”

It was Uncle Zheng’s voice.

Meanwhile, Liu Sizhen, still a little groggy, opened his eyes and realized that although he had been leaning on the other side before, at some point he had ended up leaning on Lin Bosheng. Not only did the male protagonist not wake him up, but he also straightened up to make him lean more comfortably?

However, the male protagonist’s expression also seemed quite neutral.

Perhaps this was normal…?

Of course, Liu Sizhen didn’t know how Lin Bosheng had been looking at him before he woke up, or how he had carefully guided him to lean on him.

He also didn’t know how, under the cover of the blanket that blocked everyone else’s view, Lin Bosheng had carefully tried to hold his hand several times, only to back off every time he touched the back of Liu Sizhen’s hand.

Liu Sizhen’s palm was soft, without a single rough callus. The back of his hand was smooth, a stark contrast to Lin Bosheng’s skin, which had cracked multiple times.

After sensing that Liu Sizhen was about to wake up, Lin Bosheng quickly shifted his gaze to look elsewhere, putting on a calm expression, although only he knew how fast his heart was racing.

As he mentally scolded himself for such despicable actions and dirty thoughts, he couldn’t help but entertain more fantasies.

Liu Sizhen yawned several times as soon as he got out of the car. He was still feeling a bit sluggish when they got home, but no one noticed.

The other students chattered excitedly all the way, discussing something about positioning awareness in a shooting game, and as soon as they arrived, they made a beeline for the game room.

They liked to hang out at Liu Sizhen’s house because there were no strict adults watching them, so the atmosphere was free and easy. The only one who noticed was Lin Bosheng, who kept glancing over at Liu Sizhen, who was writing his homework in the living room.

He had slept the whole way there, but still felt like he hadn’t had enough sleep.

— Could he be sick?

The thought suddenly crossed Lin Bosheng’s mind, and he laughed self-deprecatingly. How could that be? He probably just didn’t sleep the night before.

If Liu Sizhen were really sick, wouldn’t it have been noticed by now? His family was so wealthy. Although Lin Bosheng thought this, he couldn’t help but pay more attention to him.

Meanwhile, Liu Sizhen himself began to sense that something was off.

He seemed to have been feeling unusually tired these past few days.

[System, am I sick?]

[…Yes.]

Just as he was about to head upstairs to take a nap, Liu Sizhen froze on the spiral staircase, staring at the sparkling chandelier, seemingly in a daze, while listening to the system’s explanation in his head.

It explained that he had been rejected by this world, and in order for him to eventually leave this world more naturally, there had to be subtle signs starting now…

Sleepiness was a precursor to his eventual departure.

[Just adjust for now. It won’t be like this in a couple of days.]

[Oh… ]

So, this was just an early taste of what was to come.

And having a terminal illness or something was just too cliché.

Aunt Wang had never liked the other game-playing friends Liu Sizhen had brought home before. She thought they had a bad influence on him. But this time, seeing Liu Sizhen bring home a studious student who went straight to doing his homework made her happy.

She was so pleased that she brought fruit to Lin Bosheng and chatted with him, praising how well-behaved Liu Sizhen was when he was little.

Lin Bosheng didn’t find Aunt Wang annoying; he listened attentively and even threw in a few remarks.

Upstairs, Liu Sizhen was also hearing everything clearly through the system.

[Wait… why is she talking about my childhood?!]

[…Yes, it’s your childhood.]

Because creating a fictional memory consumes energy, the “Liu Sizhen” in Aunt Wang’s memories—those childhood videos—were actually the real events from Liu Sizhen’s past.

Before Liu Sizhen opened his eyes, he was often mistaken for a little girl.

During one Children’s Day performance in kindergarten, the teacher prepared a pink puffy dress for him, placed a shiny red dot on his forehead, applied blush to his cheeks, and even tied his hair into small braids.

In short… it was something he definitely didn’t want to remember.

“Zhenzhen was so cute back then!! I even have photos. Let me go get them for you…”

The male protagonist repeated the word “Zhenzhen” several times, as if one time wasn’t enough. The syllables just rolled off his tongue over and over, as though he couldn’t say anything else.

“Zhenzhen… Zhenzhen…”

Aunt Wang had originally just wanted to chat casually, but she didn’t expect Lin Bosheng to pick up the conversation so well. He was also very interested in Liu Sizhen’s past, and the two of them ended up chatting more and more enthusiastically.

[…She actually has photos!!]

Liu Sizhen, who was lying in bed in the room, started to feel embarrassed, his toes curling tightly, while Lin Bosheng and Aunt Wang continued their conversation, getting along even more.

“Aunt Wang said a lot about Liu Sizhen’s childhood. She mentioned how his parents were irresponsible and never took care of him when he was little. He spent every birthday alone, and just seeing that made her heart ache.”

“…”

Lin Bosheng didn’t say a word in rebuttal. When Aunt Wang said Liu Sizhen was a good child, he nodded, never interrupting her storytelling.

It was pretty much what he imagined—Liu Sizhen was very well-behaved when he was young. He would sit by the door, eagerly waiting for his parents, but the only thing he would end up waiting for was a busy phone call.

Actually, Lin Bosheng also spent his birthdays alone when he was young.

Liu Sizhen noticed that while Lin Bosheng was doing homework, he still managed to engage in a conversation with Aunt Wang without sounding dismissive. Liu Sizhen thought he was probably too shy to refuse.

To interrupt Aunt Wang from talking about his past and to allow Lin Bosheng to focus on his homework, Liu Sizhen pretended to just wake up. He slipped on his fluffy slippers and walked out, holding onto the second-floor railing and calling out:

“Aunt Wang—I’m a bit hungry.”

Aunt Wang couldn’t ignore his request and immediately responded, “Oh, what would little sir like to eat?”

“Anything is fine…” Liu Sizhen said, as long as it would get her to leave him alone.

Liu Sizhen wasn’t picky; he could enjoy both sweet and savory flavors. He glanced over at Lin Bosheng, who was doing homework in the living room, and gave Aunt Wang a look.

As expected, Aunt Wang, who had seen Liu Sizhen grow up, immediately picked up on the hint. Her face lit up with a smile as she asked, “Little classmate, what do you like to eat?”

Lin Bosheng couldn’t have been completely oblivious to their exchange. He looked up and caught Liu Sizhen’s gaze just as he was about to look away.

“What are you staring at?!”

Lin Bosheng lowered his eyelids, trying to suppress the smile that was threatening to form at the corners of his mouth. “Anything, I’m not picky.” He paused and added, “Just like little sir.”

Liu Sizhen didn’t hear the slightly lighter tone in the words “little sir” because by then, he had turned and was heading upstairs. As he was about to open the door, he could hear the sounds of a game from inside.

He wasn’t particularly interested in games… but he didn’t have the same obsession as they did.

“Liu Ge…”

The first to notice his arrival was Lu Xu.

Liu Sizhen took the controller and tried the game they were playing. To Liu Sizhen, this new game felt like an old version from years ago.

It seemed a bit nostalgic. Since he didn’t play games often, his reflexes were a little slow. He wasn’t in a hurry, but the guys around him were getting anxious.

“Right side! Ah!! Over here, come on!”

“Step back! Dodge, you should’ve dodged there!”

“…”

“Ah!!”

The character Liu Sizhen was controlling died again, and after a brief background music, the words “Game Over” appeared on the screen. He really wasn’t used to playing games with a controller…

He wasn’t an experienced gamer, so losing didn’t bother him much. After all, games were just games. But the others didn’t seem to take losing well.

One of them couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“Hey Liu Sizhen! What was that about? You could’ve dodged the second time! Why did you just stand there?!”

It seemed like the guy still had some anger to let out, but before he could say anything else, someone nearby pulled him back. He realized what had happened and fell silent.

The air became quiet for a few seconds until Lu Xu broke the silence.

“Ah… maybe Liu Ge was just still sleepy.”

With that, the tone of the conversation quickly changed.

“Yeah, yeah…”

“I saw Liu Ge was kind of tired in the car…”

“Right, it must’ve affected his performance.”

“…”

It wasn’t that bad, though. He wasn’t that petty…

Liu Sizhen hadn’t played many games before, especially with a controller like this, which was almost nostalgic for him. He had never been exposed to this kind of gaming before. Trying to focus on the screen while keeping an eye on the buttons, all while hearing people shouting instructions in his ears, made him play poorly.

“…Ah, you guys play. I’ll go see if Aunt Wang’s food is ready.” Liu Sizhen said expressionlessly as he tossed the controller aside and stood up. After walking a couple of steps, he seemed to remember something.

“Right, I was going to ask you what you wanted to eat…”

“Anything’s fine, haha, anything’s fine.”

“Yeah, same here, anything’s fine.”

“Mm-hmm, yeah.”

Everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing:

‘He’s not mad???‘

And Liu Sizhen thought to himself: How did I look when I was mad earlier?

258: ‘You call that being mad?‘