Chapter 39: Reluctance

Ever since Nian Zhi’an and Mu Yixuan had confirmed their romantic relationship, the happiest entity—aside from the two involved—had to be the System. It could finally live without constantly living on tenterhooks every day. Love was a truly magical thing; it had been a long time since it had sensed any dangerous aura from the Host. She seemed to have completely given up on the idea of stirring up trouble.

Everything was heading in a positive direction. Long Chendong still hadn’t woken up, so he had no chance to cause chaos. It wasn’t out of the question that the Host had done something to him beforehand, but as long as the guy stayed alive to keep the world running, it didn’t matter if he was awake or comatose—perhaps being comatose was even better.

As for Long Chendong’s side of things, no one took care of him except his wife. After the Female Lead’s flower shop burned down, she received a compensation payout from the Huo Family, but with her body growing heavier by the day, rushing back and forth to manage both the shop and her husband had become too much for her. So she hired a student to help watch the store.

Unlike her husband, the Female Lead was timid and averse to trouble, preferring a peaceful life. She had no idea about the true grudge between her husband and Mu Yixuan—that her husband had killed Song Qi’an—and thus saw it as an irreconcilable blood feud. She believed that as long as she stayed out of Mu Yixuan and Nian Zhi’an’s sight, she could live her days in peace.

Even more importantly, there had been that accidental rescue. Although Mu Yixuan had done it reluctantly and the Female Lead was unaware, she suddenly felt that the other woman wasn’t as vile as her husband had described. On the contrary, as her husband’s bedside partner, he was the one who showed malice toward Miss Mu every day, constantly picking fights with her. After his business failed, he had tried to kidnap her, only to clash with the hired bandits. In the end, he had tumbled off the mountain and turned himself into a vegetable.

When he finally woke up—if he did—she feared he would face prison time. Every time she thought about it, tears streamed down the Female Lead’s face. She didn’t even know if it would be better for their child, once born, to face a vegetative father or one who could only be seen behind bars.

The Female Lead washed her face with tears every day. Deep down, she still hoped her husband would wake up. But she never imagined that she could live peaceful days while he lay comatose in bed. If he woke, that would be the true disaster for her.

The System had monitored Long Chendong for months, watching as the Huo Family and several other allies of the Long Corporation all fell apart. He still hadn’t woken. This convinced the System that the Host was absolutely behind it.

The Host had used some unknown method to trap the Male Lead in bed forever. That was for the best.

The System assumed Nian Zhi’an had made foolproof preparations, ensuring the Male Lead would never wake up in this lifetime. For this world, it was the best possible outcome. Just as it prepared to celebrate with the senior who often helped it out, an unexpected turn occurred.

Long Chendong woke up—on the second day after his son was born.

It had snowed heavily that day, forcing Nian Zhi’an’s amusement park plans to be put on hold temporarily. But once the snow stopped, Mu Tiantian clamored to go build a snowman. Mu Yutian, who had only recently returned from the sanatorium, was even more excited than her daughter. The mother and daughter pair didn’t seek out their older sister or aunt; instead, they gazed at Nian Zhi’an with identical expectant looks.

The little one might not yet understand what “giving someone puppy eyes” meant, but she knew how to imitate her birth mother—and her mom was the slyest of the sly.

“All right.” Nian Zhi’an nodded, and the mother-daughter duo let out excited cheers.

“Put on more layers.”

“Okay, okay.” Mu Yutian sidled up to her sister, pursing her lips. “Sure enough, talking my ear off doesn’t work as well as getting my sister-in-law’s nod.”

Mu Yutian stuck her tongue out at Nian Zhi’an secretly, then scooped up her daughter and dashed into the room to add more clothes, not giving her sister-in-law a chance to scold her.

“This little rascal…” Nian Zhi’an put her hands on her hips. Her seemingly annoyed expression didn’t hold for three seconds before she burst out laughing. “She’s recovered really well—more lively than before.”

“It’s all thanks to you.” Mu Yixuan hugged her from behind, her voice laced with relief. “If you hadn’t come back…”

“But I did come back. No need to dwell on that. What about that Zhao guy? You took him away, right? What’s the situation now?” Nian Zhi’an had made solid progress over these months; at least she no longer blushed from a stolen kiss. Progress indeed.

“He’s gone mad, so I sent him to a place where he belongs.” A very special psychiatric hospital.

“He got off too easy.” Nian Zhi’an snorted coldly. In a higher-level world, she would have condemned his soul to eternal torment in Avici Hell. “You should go add a layer too—don’t catch a cold again by accident.”

They took the bundled-up Mu Tiantian, wrapped like a little bear, to the community lawn, where other children were already building snowmen.

The sky after the snow was an incredibly vivid blue. Nian Zhi’an looked up, squinting slightly at it.

Outsiders might think she was admiring the sky, but in truth, she was observing a kind of power fluctuation invisible to ordinary people. That power had been subtly flowing toward Mu Yixuan—a change so gradual even the System hadn’t noticed. But in that instant, its flow suddenly accelerated, fast enough for even the slow-on-the-uptake Little System to detect. And it wasn’t just this little one; the Main System must have seen it too.

So she quietly turned down the System’s volume.

【Aaaahhh! What’s going on?!】

The Huo Family had gotten Huo Jiaojiao out early on, using her mental issues as an excuse while things weren’t too dire yet. But later, as the family scrambled amid the chaos, they accidentally let the confined Huo Jiaojiao escape.

She didn’t seek revenge on Mu Yixuan. Instead, she went to the Female Lead, trying to snatch away the still-vegetative Long Chendong. In their argument, she shoved the Female Lead down. Fortunately, the incident happened at the hospital, so the Female Lead received prompt treatment—but the child was born prematurely as a result, exceptionally frail.

At least the child’s life was preserved. That was part of the “mysterious person”‘s deal with the Female Lead.

The moment that child was safely born, the “mysterious person” became an ordinary person, and the world accepted the “backup” she had chosen for it.

That was when the Little System began screeching in terror. As its programming glitched and it started reassessing the world, it almost wished it could sprout a mouth to chomp on Nian Zhi’an’s head!

【Host! What’s happening?!】

“Just as you see it—this world’s pillar is changing hands.” Nian Zhi’an’s tone was remarkably casual, as if she were merely saying she’d switched her breakfast from porridge to buns.

【…Host, Ancestor! Th-this—this kind of thing! Aren’t you afraid the Main System Lord will find out and erase you?! You’re being way too reckless! Are you trying to make Mu Yixuan a widow?!】

“Calm down, don’t get worked up.” While no one was looking, Nian Zhi’an rubbed the Little System’s bald little head. “See? Has the Main System come for you?”

【No.】

“Exactly. Because it’s given its tacit approval.”

【No way!】 The Little System couldn’t believe it. 【There’s no way the Main System Lord would approve something like this! Don’t think you can fool me just because I’m young!】

“It’s true.” Nian Zhi’an’s lips curved slightly. “You really are still young. Live to my age, and maybe you’ll uncover more of the Main System’s secrets.”

The Little System drooped dejectedly, floating off to the side. If even the Main System was okay with the Host’s actions, it could only grumble a bit at most.

【Host…】 The Little System gazed at its inscrutable Host and decided to stop thinking about it.

“What?”

【I wanted to remind you…】

Smack! A snowball hit Nian Zhi’an square in the face. Luckily, the thrower hadn’t packed it too hard; it didn’t smack like a rock.

【Uh, yeah—like that. Mu Yutian and her daughter are having a snowball fight. You might get hit by accident.】

With Nian Zhi’an’s skills, she could have dodged easily. But she’d been talking to the System and mulling over the Main System, so she took the stray hit.

“You two!” Her lofty demeanor crumbled in an instant. Nian Zhi’an immediately crouched down, formed two snowballs, and hurled them at the mother-daughter pair. She threw with the force of ten people, sending the duo squealing and fleeing with their arms over their heads.

…On the bright side, the Host no longer had that old suicidal urge to drag the whole world down with her. For Mu Yixuan’s sake, she’d have to protect this world now. The System sighed several times.

It hoped Mu Yixuan could properly reform its Host and keep her from doing anything extreme in the future.

Huh? Right—it remembered it was a Redemption Department System. Its mission in this world was to reform Mu Yixuan. How had things flipped around?!

It just had to encounter something this weird. After retirement, it would definitely write its autobiography to commemorate its tumultuous System life!

The System finally grasped the art of slacking off. Let the Host do whatever; as long as she didn’t blow up the world, it would just sip tea, munch melon seeds, and enjoy the show.

Though the Male Lead’s awakening had made the Little System tense for a moment, it soon discovered that the guy—his protagonist halo teetering on the brink—could barely do anything but take out his frustrations on his wife and child.

The connections who had once lent him a hand were also squandered by him. Alongside the kidnapping charge pinned on his back, he faced other accusations—that he had killed a man ten years earlier.

Misfortunes came thick and fast. This time, he had no doting father to bail him out. During that period, he even drove away his wife and became truly alone in the world.

He didn’t even have the money to hire a decent lawyer.

No wonder the Host showed no reaction after Long Chendong woke up. She had long guessed it would come to this.

Though it seemed this was the end of the road for him in this lifetime, the Little System still didn’t relax its surveillance. What if this creep lost his head and tried some desperate act of mutual destruction? Even if he failed, it would be disgusting enough.

Its Host’s wedding was fast approaching. It couldn’t let a jinx like him pollute the festive mood.

April was the perfect time, with spring warm and flowers blooming—not too cold, not too hot.

Yet in one corner of the wedding, the Third Secretary went through several packs of tissues wiping away her tears. After Nian Zhi’an’s true nature was no longer hidden, even someone as sharp as her had pieced some things together. After all, with ghosts in the picture, what else could be impossible?

President Mu and that woman looked truly happy. That was wonderful… wuu…

“Don’t cry anymore. You’ve been bawling from start to finish. Don’t tell me you actually have a crush…” The Second Secretary was cut off before she could finish.

“Pah, pah, pah! What nonsense are you spouting? I’m just moved, that’s all! President Mu has had such a hard time these years. Seeing them finally together after all that hardship… it moves me to tears!”

Ah, she had almost forgotten that Cheng Pingle was the type who seemed rational on the outside but was deeply sentimental within. The Second Secretary popped a wedding candy into her mouth. “Then don’t cry for so long. Others will get the wrong idea. Here, eat a candy and share in our President Mu’s joy!”

The Chief Secretary, who had followed Mu Yixuan the longest, also silently peeled a candy and ate it. She had been by Mu Yixuan’s side even before Song Qi’an died, so she naturally knew the President had always carried a deep scar in her heart. But now, she must have fully healed. It really hadn’t been easy. Guo Yuzhen was a good girl too—they would surely grow old together.

For them, growing old together meant the longest companionship, the most perfect love. But for Nian Zhi’an, it was a feeling she would etch into her memory across even longer years.

The main reason she didn’t want to waste more mental energy on Long Chendong was precisely this. Decades were a lifetime for ordinary people, but for her… they were merely a brief stretch amid endless time.

Decades later, she would be alone again, spending an endless future in utter isolation. Yet Nian Zhi’an never regretted meeting Mu Yixuan.

She cherished every day with her wife. Each year, she planned trips to many places. Every birthday, they visited an amusement park. On various anniversaries, she prepared unique little surprises. Once Mu Tiantian grew up, she began handing the company over to her. Though she griped endlessly day after day, she had a steadfast friend to help, so it wasn’t all that bad.

Nian Zhi’an backed up these memories, lest one day in the future she forgot them.

Mu Yixuan was, after all, a full ten years older than Guo Yuzhen. No matter how diligently she maintained her health or how carefully Nian Zhi’an protected her, time marched on mercilessly. When her body could no longer handle constant travel, Nian Zhi’an bought a small villa in a picturesque spot where they could retire.

The cost of working herself to the bone in her youth—of overtaxing her body—came due in old age. After Mu Yixuan entered the ICU once more and awoke, she suddenly felt a wave of lingering fear.

Her beloved still harbored, to this day, one secret she had never dared voice aloud.

After her own two hospitalizations, she would occasionally hear, in her semiconscious haze, her partner sobbing, “Can you stay with me just a little longer?”

How could she refuse? If it were possible, she wanted to stay by her side forever.

But Qi An, where are you going this time?

Even on her deathbed, Mu Yixuan still didn’t know the answer. Yet she seemed to understand at last—her wife wasn’t unwilling to say, but unable.

Her wife, who had cried herself into a tear-streaked mess, softly begged once more for her to stay longer. It was as if she feared leaving her uneasy; her voice was so faint that Mu Yixuan could barely hear it.

“Good.”

Don’t be afraid. I’ll stay with you.