"Hiss..."
Gripping the pink crab in his hand, Yan Huan stared blankly at the words "Bai Yi" carved into the reef before him, unable to stop himself from clutching his head.
He tried desperately to recall what kind of person Bai Yi was in his mories, but after thinking for a long ti, he could not even conjure up a blurry back view of her black hair.
Not only that, but more details about Bai Yi had beco extrely hazy.
He could not rember what her Modifier's effect was, or how he had initially discovered she possessed a Modifier...
The only slight impression he retained was from his childhood when he went to Yasaka Entertainnt Company to audition as a child star; he seed to have seen Bai Yi there.
"Hmm..."
Yan Huan shook his head, hesitating for a long ti before setting down the pink crab he had used to engrave the symbols.
The mont he put it down, the pink crab scuttled sideways rapidly toward the sea, quickly vanishing completely without a trace.
Only the na "Bai Yi" remained before him, as if staring back at him.
'I need to hurry and find the Fragnts to bring Myau-chan back,' he thought.
'Hm?'
'Co to think of it, what was the reason Myau-chan suddenly disappeared, and why did my Modifier suddenly beco unusable?'
"..."
Pondering this, Yan Huan shifted his gaze, looking at the newly refreshed items in the Crab Coin store for this week.
[Universal Key: Crab Coins x5]
[Single use only. When facing a lock that cannot be opened, calling it out will transform it into the key capable of opening that lock]
'Universal Key...'
'What was this used for?'
Yan Huan pinched his chin, feeling that the term before him was both familiar and strange.
After thinking for quite a while, he suddenly found himself unable to recall what he had done with this thing.
He only vaguely rembered that this item was connected to Myau-chan's disappearance.
[Currently, you have unlocked the Crab Coin Trading Post]
[Here, you can sell obtained "Items of the Palm" to acquire Crab Coins]
[Sellable Items of the Palm: Formless Transition]
[Value: Crab Coins x3]
'Items of the Palm, huh...'
'Speaking of which, if my Modifier is unusable, can the Item of the Palm drawn once a week still be used?'
With that thought, Yan Huan willed it, and an illusory interface imdiately surfaced before his eyes.
[You have already drawn the corresponding Item of the Palm for this week. Please wait until next week]
'It can still be used!'
Yan Huan stared at the interface in astonishnt, unable to help but heave a sigh of relief.
This way, even if he could not draw from the normal Reward Pool, he could still draw other things, ensuring he would not be completely empty-handed before Myau-chan returned.
"Buzz."
After confirming for a long ti that there were no omissions in the Demon's Shop, Yan Huan took one last look at Bai Yi's na engraved on the reef and ntally reorganized the information he still rembered.
'I know Bai Yi. Bai Yi is the host of the Naless Finger.'
'She seems to have traversed the tiline, causing
and everyone else to forget her...'
'Is this a side effect, or the result of her actions in the past?'
Yan Huan did not know, but he had just been able to search for her na on the web, so there must still be people who rembered her...
'For instance, her family, or her company?'
'So there are two current tasks. The first is to collect Fragnts to summon Myau-chan back. The second is to find Bai Yi's family and verify their mory of her!'
Having made up his mind, Yan Huan willed himself to exit the Demon's Shop and return to the hospital bed.
On the bed, barely a few seconds had passed.
On his mobile phone, the ti was clicking toward 4:44.
"Tick... tock..."
But it seed nothing happened?
"I feel like I've recovered completely. I can be discharged."
That night, Yan Huan rubbed his body as he lay on the hospital bed and spoke to Sakuramiya Hitomi, who was peeling an apple beside him.
Hearing this, Sakuramiya Hitomi's cheeks puffed out slightly as she flatly refused.
"Not yet, President! The doctor said we need to observe you a bit longer..."
"..."
Yan Huan revealed a helpless expression, but looking at Sakuramiya Hitomi, he ultimately could not hold back anymore. He reached out and pointed at the apple in her hand.
"How about... we just wash it? I'm fine eating it with the skin."
In Sakuramiya Hitomi's hand, the apple looked as though it had been hacked with a cleaver. It was full of sharp angles and had shrunk to less than half its original size.
anwhile, chunks of apple flesh mixed with skin had tumbled into the trash can, silently protesting Sakuramiya Hitomi's atrociously terrible knife skills.
On the table to the side, a similarly butchered pear rested on a spread-out napkin.
"Ugh..."
Upon hearing Yan Huan's remark, Sakuramiya Hitomi's small face inevitably flushed red.
Although Sakuramiya Hitomi was physically weak, she actually knew how to cook, which naturally involved using knives.
So, quite naturally, she had assud that peeling fruit would be a breeze for her, and she had wanted to show off her thoughtfulness...
Who would have known it would turn into such a disaster?
"This knife is just a bit hard to use..."
After wracking her brain for an excuse, Sakuramiya Hitomi angrily stabbed the knife into the apple's body, shifting the bla onto the tool.
Seeing her behave like this, Yan Huan could not help but laugh. He reached his hand out and asked,
"Let
do it?"
"..."
Pouting, Sakuramiya Hitomi indignantly handed the skewered apple over to Yan Huan.
"Shkk... shkk..."
Yan Huan expertly manipulated the knife, gliding it along the spinning surface of the apple, shedding a long, unbroken spiral of apple skin onto the table below.
Beside him, Sakuramiya Hitomi cupped her chin, staring intently, prompting Yan Huan to smile proudly and ask,
"How is it? Impressive, right?"
Yan Huan assud she was marveling at his apple-peeling skills, but in truth, Sakuramiya Hitomi had been staring fixedly at his side profile the entire ti.
Hearing his question, Sakuramiya Hitomi finally smiled, withdrawing her gaze and looking at the apple in his hand.
"Hmm, it's alright, I guess?"
"Right?"
However, as she watched Yan Huan cradle the apple in his palm and slice it into smaller pieces, Sakuramiya Hitomi caught sight of the blood-stained bandages beneath his hospital gown.
"Here, all done."
Yan Huan set the knife down on the table and placed the apple slices one by one onto the fruit plate on the nightstand.
Just as he was about to hand it to Sakuramiya Hitomi, her lips trembled slightly, and she spoke in a soft whisper.
"President..."
"What's wro—"
Yan Huan held the plate, and before he even turned his gaze, he saw Sakuramiya Hitomi stand up and tightly embrace him.
"..."
Yan Huan paused slightly, his eyes resting against her neck as he glanced at her long hair, which transitioned in a gradient from black to cherry blossom pink.
By his ear, Sakuramiya Hitomi's voice was light and gentle.
"President... next ti, please don't do sothing that worries
so much again, okay?"
Yan Huan knew she was referring to his injuries from the car crash.
But for so reason, Yan Huan felt that her sadness was incredibly heavy—seemingly much heavier than the injuries he had actually sustained.
It was almost as if he hadn't rely been injured in a car crash, but had truly experienced a life-and-death parting with her, leaving her utterly heartbroken...
'Hm?'
'I...'
'I really was injured in a car crash, wasn't I?'
Yan Huan felt perplexed, wondering why such a bizarre thought had crossed his mind.
"I'm perfectly fine now... Ouch!"
While in her arms, Yan Huan had barely finished speaking when he felt her pinch his ear, as if warning him not to say such things.
"..."
Sensing Sakuramiya Hitomi's earnestness, Yan Huan set the fruit plate back down, then tightly hugged the petite yet seemingly resilient girl before him.
"Alright, I promise you."
Yan Huan subconsciously pulled her deeper into his embrace, wanting her to fully lean into his arms.
However, afraid of pressing against his wounds, Sakuramiya Hitomi only allowed herself to hug him while standing.
"Mmh..."
"...Alright, if we don't eat the fruit soon, it's going to turn brown. You..."
Yan Huan gently patted Sakuramiya Hitomi's back. He had just started to speak when he suddenly noticed the door to the hospital ward was slightly ajar.
And standing outside the door was an extrely beautiful, long-haired woman, covering her mouth with a aningful smile as she observed the scene inside the room.
"Hehe..."
"!!"
Seeing this, Yan Huan imdiately furrowed his brows and asked loudly,
"Who's there?!"
"Ah?"
In his embrace, Sakuramiya Hitomi was also startled. She quickly straightened up, clutching at her clothes with a slightly flushed face as she turned to look.
She, too, saw the beautiful woman peeking in from the doorway.
Sakuramiya Hitomi felt both embarrassed and annoyed, thinking to herself that she was always the one peeping on others. Today, the tables were turned?!
After hunting eagles all her life, she had finally gotten her eyes pecked out?!
"Auntie?!"
Recognizing the woman, Sakuramiya Hitomi imdiately puffed up her cheeks and clenched her feminine fists, speaking with a hint of complaint.
Yan Huan blanked for a mont and looked at Sakuramiya Hitomi.
'Auntie?'
'Sakuramiya knows this woman?'
'Is she a relative of the Sakuramiya family, or...'
"Sorry, sorry, Hitomi, I just accidentally stumbled upon this... And you, you little brat, don't you even recognize your own mother?!"
At the door, the beautiful woman scratched her cheek awkwardly before finally pushing the door all the way open. She was wearing a well-tailored, expensive white dress and carried a designer handbag, exuding an aura of imnse wealth and elegance.
But upon hearing her words, Yan Huan's eyes went wide.
'Mother?!'
Yan Huan scrutinized the woman in front of him once more. Upon careful observation, he finally realized that the woman's facial features were strikingly similar to his own...
As the saying goes, sons take after their mothers, and it seed Yan Huan was no exception.
His handso appearance was at least fifty to sixty percent inherited from the woman standing before him.
And she was...
"You..."
At this mont, Yan Huan's brain was slightly short-circuiting. Yet he clearly rembered that shortly after his transmigration into this world, his parents had perished in a plane crash!
Now, why had his mother suddenly...
"Ah."
As soon as the woman saw Yan Huan staring at her with utter shock, she could not help but look down at her clothes and handbag.
Realizing sothing, she hastily covered her mouth.
"Oh no, I'm exposed... When I heard you were in an accident, I rushed back too quickly, so I..."
"Huh?"
Yan Huan was completely dumbfounded, entirely failing to comprehend what she was saying.
The woman before him pondered for a long ti before finally sighing. She walked over to the bed and held Yan Huan's hands.
"I'm sorry, Xiao Huan. Mom and Dad didn't an to lie to you."
'Could it be...'
'Could it be that all these years, their deaths were feigned?!'
This was the first thought that popped into Yan Huan's mind.
But the very next second, the woman pursed her lips and said hesitantly,
"Xiao Huan, Mom and Dad are actually very rich!"
"?"
Yan Huan blinked, his thoughts struggling to keep up.
He clutched his slightly aching head, instinctively wanting to cross-check the contradictions in his mories with the woman in front of him.
"Wait... Haven't I been living in public rental housing in the South Ward this whole ti...?"
Hearing this, the woman displayed an expression of guilt.
"Yes, that house... Your father and I specifically bought it to temper your character, and then we pretended to rent it to you..."
"?"
Yan Huan opened his mouth wide, then hurriedly added,
"But haven't I been living alone..."
"I'm sorry, I know... Dad and I let you down. Our work is very busy, and we frequently fly all over the world... We even told you we went to Dragon Country's port city for manual labor... Ugh... sob..."
"No, no, no, what I an is, didn't you guys pass away a long ti ago?!"
"!!"
"President!"
Hearing this, both the woman and Sakuramiya Hitomi widened their eyes in shock.
Afterward, Sakuramiya Hitomi imdiately spoke up to reprimand him and threw her arms around the woman to console her.
"Auntie Wang, the President doesn't an it... You just dropped this on him too suddenly, so he can't accept it right away..."
"Sob... I... I know... I've let Xiao Huan down..."
Yan Huan was actually on a completely different wavelength from the two of them.
Right now, Yan Huan's mind was entirely consud by the conflict between his original mories and this new reality. This dream-like dissonance inevitably had his left and right brain fighting each other in utter confusion.
anwhile, Sakuramiya Hitomi and his mother seed to mistakenly believe that Yan Huan had developed a deep resentnt due to their years of neglect and deception, to the point where he no longer wanted to acknowledge them as his parents!
"I—I'll call your father right now and tell him to hurry back... No matter what, we can't keep this charade going any longer..."
Wang Yulu wiped away her tears, and soon, her gaze gradually grew resolute.
She patted the consoling Sakuramiya Hitomi, took a deep look at her son, and then turned to step outside with her mobile phone.
"President..."
Off to the side, watching the woman leave, Sakuramiya Hitomi cast a sympathetic look at Yan Huan, unsure of what to say.
But Yan Huan...
...was already plunged into highly dramatic shock.
He hurriedly grabbed his mobile phone from the side and opened the plane app. Inside, apart from the absence of Bai Yi's chat box, everything was exactly the sa.
Except for two extra contacts.
"Dad"
"Mom"
Scrolling through them from top to bottom, he saw quite a few chat logs.
His communication with his dad was sparse; having a brief exchange once a week was already a lot.
But with his mother, there were ssages every day, even if it was just a greeting or two.
The mont he saw those two contact nas, Yan Huan's head throbbed.
And just then, the na of the woman from earlier surfaced in his mind.
'Wang Yulu.'
This was...
...his mother.
And she and his father had never died in the plane crash in the past; they had been alive this entire ti.
But...
Yan Huan's life trajectory didn't seem to have changed much.
His parents had always been running around the world for work, lying to him that their family was destitute. They made him live in a rental apartnt in the South Ward, only sending him money on ti every month.
Since Yan Huan possessed mories of his past life, he still worked hard, relying on his own efforts to get accepted into Far Moon Academy and beco the Student Council President.
This...
'Bai Yi?'
Even though his mories had beco blurry, seeing the deviation in reality before him, Yan Huan instantly realized sothing, his expression changing slightly.
Outside the door, through the slightly ajar hospital ward entrance, the sound of Wang Yulu's telephone conversation continuously drifted in.
"Yan Shuhan, stop talking. I know, your thod might be very effective, and Xiao Huan has indeed beco very excellent now... but isn't this enough? It's ti to end it..."
"..."
"This isn't about when you co back! He practically doesn't want to acknowledge us anymore!"
"..."
"Forget it! If we keep this up, he's going to accept Lan Lan as his real mother!"
"..."
Yan Huan stared at the doorway, blinking.
anwhile, Sakuramiya Hitomi still thought he was thoroughly devastated. Poursing her lips, she reached out her small hands and tightly gripped Yan Huan's hand.
"It's okay, President... No matter what happens, I will be here."
"..."
It did not take long for the conversation outside the door to end.
When the door opened again, Wang Yulu stepped back into the room.
She looked at Yan Huan, wrapped in bandages on the hospital bed, and forced out an affectionate smile.
"Xiao Huan..."
Looking at the woman before him, Yan Huan hesitated for a second and remained silent.
Wang Yulu took a deep breath and continued,
"For now, Dad still might not be able to make it back, but I'll be staying in Linn during this ti..."
Yan Huan felt sowhat at a loss, so he jokingly replied,
"Better forget it. With that tiny apartnt in the South Ward, you'd only be able to stay in a hotel if you ca."
He was joking, of course. That house could actually accommodate three people.
That was exactly how he had lived with An Le and Sakuramiya Hitomi previously.
"You don't need to worry about that, Xiao Huan. Mom has already made a decision."
Hearing his words, Wang Yulu smiled faintly, looking at Yan Huan with a face full of guilt.
"I plan to buy a villa directly for you and put it straight under your na!"
"?"
Yan Huan blinked, his mind flashing back to the unimaginably luxurious mansion at Aunt Ye's house.
Furthermore, that Western-style Mansion had a full five floors and over a dozen rooms!
It was located in the most affluent part of the Kyogo Ward, far more opulent than the run-down villa in the North Sea District where Ye Shiyu had imprisoned him!!
"It just so happens that your Auntie Lan Lan has been persuading us to move back, so we'll buy one—a villa just like hers, as a gift for you."
As she spoke, Wang Yulu rubbed her hands together and tentatively stepped toward Yan Huan, asking,
"What do you think? Will this make up for it, Xiao Huan?"
Yan Huan was absolutely stupefied, his mind frantically, albeit amateurishly, trying to calculate the astronomical price of a villa in that area.
Even in a dilapidated, abandoned place like the North Sea District, such a villa would start at ten million. But Aunt Ye's location...
Its value was likely imasurable!
'Am I...'
'...being instantly promoted to a second-generation rich kid?!'
"..."
Seeing Yan Huan hesitate, Wang Yulu thought he was still angry, resenting their deception.
Wang Yulu's face darkened slightly, but eventually, she offered a conciliatory smile.
"If Xiao Huan doesn't want to live with us, that's fine too. We'll buy two villas in her area. You can live right across from Auntie Lan Lan's house, and we'll just live in the sa residential complex as you..."
As Wang Yulu spoke, Yan Huan had yet to even react.
But standing to the side, the mont Sakuramiya Hitomi heard that the villa's location would be "across from Ye Lan's house," her eyes widened, and she subconsciously blurted out with absolute resolve,
"No, no, absolutely not!!"
"..."
At her outburst, both Wang Yulu and Yan Huan stared blankly at Sakuramiya Hitomi.
Feeling their identical gazes landing on her, Sakuramiya Hitomi's face naturally flushed red. Dodging their eyes, she quickly tried to explain,
"That place is horribly overpriced, Auntie... and there probably aren't two suitable properties available. It's really not fitting..."
"..."
The two of them remained silent, continuing to stare at Sakuramiya Hitomi.
eting their eyes, Sakuramiya Hitomi hesitated for a mont before weakly raising her hand. Then, with her true intentions fully revealed, she softly suggested,
"Actually... near my Western-style Mansion, there happen to be two reasonably priced villas for sale...
"Auntie Wang, President, what do you think?"
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