“Alright, that should be enough for now.”
After walking for a while, Juncheng let go of my hand. A slight feeling of regret passed through my mind. I quickly adjusted my mindset, calming myself down and stopping myself from thinking about emotional matters.
“Juncheng, you’re not going to start thinking about what to do next, are you?”
“Hmm? Of course not. No matter what you do, you still need to have some idea in mind, right? Acting without thinking about anything is just being a simple idiot.”
*You are that simple idiot…*
“Wait, what’s with that look? It’s like you’re saying I’m that idiot. Could it be that I’ve managed to fool Ziai’s love too? Oh ho, so my ability to feign ignorance has finally improved! I don’t have to experience that feeling of being mind-read and having my words snatched away every time anymore.”
“Huh? Don’t tell me Juncheng, you weren’t actually thinking about nothing?”
I never expected Juncheng to be faking it!
How could this be? This is Juncheng we’re talking about. A man whose name, Juncheng, is as honest as it sounds, with everything written on his face. He’s arguably the most trustworthy man in the world, and yet he’s learned to hide his inner thoughts?
…A good guy is gradually transforming into a bad guy…
This is terrible! Doesn’t this mean that Juncheng could find other women elsewhere, or even establish another harem, and we wouldn’t know?
Wow, am I witnessing something incredible right now?
book.SFA.
This might actually be the most serious problem.
SF Light Novel
But Juncheng himself didn’t realize this problem. He just proudly explained to me.
“Of course, I did say I didn’t know just now, but that was referring to not having decided ‘what to start doing next,’ not that I hadn’t thought about what to do at all.”
“He’s using wordplay and psychological games now.”
“After all, I can’t deceive Zihua, so I had to use this method. Fortunately, it worked.”
“Zihua didn’t notice? I remember she has a talent that’s as good as mind-reading.”
“No, it’s less like mind-reading and more like a lie detector. First, you have to determine if the other person is lying or hiding something, and then you can probe their inner… But I wasn’t lying, nor was I deliberately hiding anything. I was genuinely troubled by that question at the time, which is why she couldn’t see through me.”
“This is like finding a solution to a problem… I didn’t expect Juncheng to understand to this extent.”
“Well, I am very familiar with Lan… Yes, from the inside out.”
Hearing the suggestive remark at the end, I couldn’t help but tease him back.
“Double entendre? Juncheng, do you want to get to know my ‘inside’ too?”
“Uh, cough… Sorry, I was joking… Uh, how did I start telling dirty jokes too… and Ziai’s love as well…”
“Perhaps we’ve all been influenced by her. Zihua is a pure spiritual entity. Her spirit is diffused, subtly influencing those around her.” o2E childhood friend治
“That’s quite something… But even so, we still don’t know what she’s thinking.”
Zihua is still holding back from us. Besides future events, there are many things she hasn’t told us, and it seems she doesn’t intend to.
After all, Zihua doesn’t seem to have any intention of telling us Li Nai’s address.
“If we find Li Nai, it will have a huge impact on her. So, to ensure the future doesn’t deviate, Zihua doesn’t want us to look for Li Nai.”
“Then it seems finding Li Nai is really a matter of luck, a low-probability event. Or perhaps Juncheng, you have a good way?”
“What method could I have… Although I’m in the Investigation Department, in the end, my information gathering ability is almost zero. I’m usually the one overlooked in class, and my sources are also very closed off. By the time something known to others reaches me, it’s almost outdated. This is already the case at school, let alone expanding the scope to the entire city.”
“That’s true.”
I was too naive to expect any solutions from Juncheng.
Finding one person in such a vast city is extremely difficult. In a city as large as Song, who knows how many people are named Li Nai.
This means, without Zihua, it’s very difficult for Juncheng and me to find Li Nai.
“From her perspective, she wants us to do less. Probably until the zombie crisis truly erupts… No, even after it erupts, she wants me to stay by her side obediently and do nothing.”
That’s right, she insists on this.
F Mother’s little game
It’s very obvious that after Zihua confirmed Juncheng’s choice to abandon his daily life and come to our side, she seemed completely at ease and stopped caring about anything.
At a critical juncture where every second counts, her attitude is extremely passive, as if doing nothing is fine.
“Because only then will things go without a hitch, proceeding exactly as she wishes. Perhaps if we just stay in the hotel and do nothing, it will be fine. By then, Zihua will have done everything. She will definitely be able to prevent Li Nai from turning into a zombie, and she’ll also be able to revive me smoothly.”
“But.”
“Yes, but she doesn’t care about the lives of others.”
This means that the end of the world might actually happen.
“To save me and Li Nai, she’s willing to let the whole world head towards its end… That price is too great.”
“If the zombie crisis is just a drama staged by the organization, they must have already prepared countermeasures. We don’t need to do anything, just hide aside and watch others save the world. But what if that’s not the case…”
“There are too many uncertainties.”
Due to insufficient information, we cannot determine the truth of various matters, nor can we predict future events. In summary, we just don’t have enough time. If we had more time, we could investigate slowly, but with only+… we truly have the will but lack the means.
“So, Juncheng, you had Zihua monitor Li Nai to keep her away and prepare countermeasures?”
“Something like that. There are actually many things to do. Roughly, there are three. First is to find Li Nai. Zihua definitely won’t tell us Li Nai’s address, so we have to find her ourselves… Second is to recover my lost memories. If I can recover these lost memories, I’ll also know what happens after the zombie crisis erupts. Lastly, if possible, I want to find the Yata no Kagami first. Having the Yata no Kagami on hand would make things much easier.”
“Ah, the Yata no Kagami again…”
Hearing this familiar objective, I couldn’t help but sigh tiredly.
“Again?”
Juncheng was puzzled. After all, he didn’t know how many disputes had arisen between us during his absence while trying to find the Yata no Kagami.
“No, it’s nothing. It just feels like in every world, the main mission seems to always involve finding the Yata no Kagami.”
A divine artifact is a divine artifact. It’s always an indispensable item, no matter when.
“In any case, the first and third tasks are relatively difficult and may not be achievable, so let’s start with the simpler one.”
“Excluding the first and third… The second task, recovering memories? How is that simple? Recovering memories is the most clue-less thing!”
“If it were just me thinking about it, that would be true. But in this world, we can use the associative memory method!”
“Associative memory?”
Juncheng snapped his fingers and declared:
“Yes… Next, it’s time to meet myself!”
