***
Bonus chapter! Thank you to UnholyHuman for the donation! ^^
***
Ning Su walked away with two ties.
One around his collar, another tucked in his pocket.
On his way home, he ran into Zhu Shuangshuang, who had just stepped out of the mutual aid society.
“Su Su!” Zhu Shuangshuang waved cheerfully at him from several meters away.
Ning Su was carrying two bags of vegetables and meat. On his left, Gui Sheng held a large, eye-catching bouquet of bright flowers, while on his right, Manman hugged a paper bag filled with bread and pastries.
At a glance, Zhu Shuangshuang could tell that Ning Su’s standard of living had recently shot up.
“Earned a lot of points these past few days?” Zhu Shuangshuang asked with a smile.
Ning Su snapped back to attention. “Yep! Just cleared a dungeon—made a ton of points!”
Zhu Shuangshuang: “Was it that level-six dungeon, <Shared Memories>? Lots of people in the base are talking about it. The rewards for a level-six dungeon start at five or six hundred thousand, right?”
“No, the system deducted all my points. I earned them from other players.”
Since leaving the dungeon, eight players had transferred him a million points each. The Gu Witch refused to take any, and Ning Changfeng certainly wouldn’t accept any either. The other players said they hadn’t contributed much and declined as well.
Just like that, Ning Su went from comfortably off to well-to-do.
Zhu Shuangshuang: “…”
Same old tricks.
The methods were familiar, but this time, when she looked at Ning Su, Zhu Shuangshuang could clearly sense a change in him.
Noticing her gaze, Ning Su was reminded of that question again. He asked Zhu Shuangshuang, who came from a wealthy family: “Does this shirt not look good on me?”
Zhu Shuangshuang: “It looks great! You’re tall and slim, with broad shoulders and a slender build—shirts look amazing on you!”
“Your pale complexion suits pink really well. Oh, and this tie is gorgeous! The black and gray tones balance the pink perfectly!”
“There’s such delicate embroidery on the tie too… Qingyi, Ling… what?”
Ning Su quickly tugged at his tie. “It’s a school uniform tie I brought back from the dungeon. The name of the school was Qingyi.”
“Oh.” Zhu Shuangshuang said, “You scared me for a second. I thought it might be someone’s name.”
Ning Su: “…”
He blinked and asked earnestly, “Why would it being someone’s name scare you?”
Zhu Shuangshuang gave an inscrutable smile. "You'll know if you try."
Ning Su: "..."
So both of them wanted him to try.
Was this a case of "try and die"?
After chatting a while longer, Ning Su learned that Zhu Shuangshuang and Su Wangsheng had already been through two level-four instances, and Zhu Shuangshuang had obtained another decent offensive skill weapon.
"Later, us fellow villagers should team up for an instance—call it a team-building exercise. Speaking of which, it's been a while since we've seen Fang Qi. I wonder how he's doing."
Ning Su readily agreed. "In a couple of days, I'll invite him out for a meal."
After making plans, they each headed home.
Zhu Shuangshuang walked a few steps, then suddenly stopped.
Wait a minute. Ning Su was a little miser who didn't care about clothes at all, so why would he break the rules specifically to bring a school uniform tie out of an instance world?
"Su Su," Zhu Shuangshuang called out suspiciously, turning back.
But Ning Su had already fled with the two children and the food as if he had wings, leaving only a cloud of dust in his wake.
Zhu Shuangshuang: "..."
She was even more convinced now that there was something fishy going on.
She felt that Ning Su seemed different from before. She had initially thought it was because of his changed attire, but upon careful recollection, his eyes were especially bright, and his ears were slightly red.
Zhu Shuangshuang: "!"
He looked like someone in love!
So, could it be that there was really someone's name on that tie?
That large "qingyi" embroidery probably wasn't a name—it must have been the small embroidery in the corner that she only caught a glimpse of: "lin."
Was it the surname Lin? Lin? Or perhaps another character pronounced "lin"?
Or maybe the surname Li? Li? Or another character pronounced "li"?
Or maybe "lin" was part of a given name?
Someone deliberately tying a tie embroidered with their own name around Ning Su's neck—this person seemed a bit possessive... No, if it was a tie, it could very well be a guy.
If it's a guy... yikes—
Ning Su ran all the way home and only breathed a sigh of relief after collapsing on the sofa. "So this is what it means to be a screenwriter who’s good at observing life? Zhu Shuangshuang’s eyes are way too sharp!"
Not to mention others—even Ning Su hadn’t noticed there was a name on the tie at first. The tie already had embroidered artistic lettering with the school’s name in English and pinyin. The student’s name was tiny, tucked away in a corner, and extremely inconspicuous amid the other details.
Gui Sheng: "Mm!"
Manman: "But, Mom, why did we run?"
Ning Su: "..."
He didn’t really know either.
Gui Sheng tiptoed to put the newly bought flowers into a vase, then sat on the carpet at Ning Su’s feet and began rummaging around in his own belly.
Gui Sheng: "Hnnn— hnnn!"
Ning Su: "...?"
The sound, reminiscent of straining during constipation, caught Ning Su’s attention.
Just as he looked over, Gui Sheng pulled a black branch out of his stomach.
Gui Sheng handed it to Ning Su, who ruffled his tufty hair. "Gui Sheng is getting more and more impressive."
Gui Sheng happily hugged Ning Su’s leg and nuzzled against it. "Raised well!"
Look at that, he’s even starting to form sentences now.
But it was indeed true.
Back in Huaiyang Village, when Ning Su still thought of the energy inside himself as nothing more than a zombie virus, he had been feeding Gui Sheng little by little. Under his careful, minimal feeding, Gui Sheng had already begun to change even back then.
It was the same for Manman. Ning Su had been feeding her since the ancient castle incident, and she had awakened earlier than the other ghost friends.
After such a long period of feeding, Gui Sheng, this half-yin, half-yang little ghost master, seemed to have finally developed a minor underworld realm of his own, separate from the yin world of Huaiyang Village.
Ning Su poked Gui Sheng’s belly. "It’s just... how come you haven’t grown even a little bit?"
Then he picked up Manman and held her, brimming with pride. "My daughter just gets more and more beautiful."
When he first met Manman, Ning Su already thought she was the most beautiful little girl he had ever seen. Now, she was so stunning that his old father’s heart couldn’t help but feel a twinge of worry.
Gui Sheng immediately stood up: "Pretty! Super pretty!"
Manman turned to look at the glass window. Reflected in it was a little girl with black hair flowing over her shoulders and deep, dark eyes. "Did I also become scarier? The kids in class don't dare to get close to me."
Ning Su didn't know about this.
Gui Sheng was in a position to know. He raised his little hand and said, "Because, too pretty! They all, sneak looks!"
Ning Su was satisfied. "See, I told you. That girl who came to our house last time liked you so much, her eyes were on you the entire time."
Gui Sheng: "Yeah! She's the class flower!"
He put his hands behind his back, proudly lifting his little head. "Sister is the class flower~"
Ning Su: "..."
"You even know what a 'class flower' is now?"
Gui Sheng: "Yeah! The prettiest girl in the class is the class flower!"
Ning Su: "I should have known. You're quite the expert on girls, Gui Sheng."
Gui Sheng hugged Ning Su's leg again, too shy to speak.
Ning Su picked him up and sat him next to Manman. He fed energy to each of them with one hand for a while. When they were full and went off to clean, Ning Su picked up the black branch that Gui Sheng had taken out to look at.
This was the core item the system had deducted all his points for. In the instance, the school authorities called it the Memory Transfer Neuron, the very item they used to transfer memories at the end.
