Chapter 6

I pretended to play the cruel supporting villain, while secretly waiting for Gu Junheng to walk right into my trap.

That night, my need for skin-to-skin contact was completely cured.

As reluctant as I was…

Gu Junheng and I ultimately belonged to different worlds.

I understood that perfectly.

No matter how much I liked him, I wouldn’t stay in a world where Shen Nian was destined to die.

But…

How had Gu Junheng figured it out?

“You’re wondering how I knew, aren’t you?”

Gu Junheng’s hand traced down my back. He lifted the hem of my shirt and slipped his hand underneath.

No matter how hard I struggled, I couldn’t escape his touch, as constant as my own shadow.

It was like being tightly coiled in a snake’s embrace, unable to move.

“When that night was over… you thought I’d fallen asleep, didn’t you?”

“How could I?”

“I’m the kind of person who can watch the face of the person I love while she sleeps until dawn.”

Gu Junheng’s smile sent a chill down my spine.

I’d thought he was truly asleep then, so I’d taken the chance to speak from my heart while the system was away.

Maybe those unguarded words had helped him piece together the truth.

I’d been careless.

I started calling for the system.

【System, Shen Nian’s part should be over now, right? Even if things went a little off script, I can log out now, can’t I?】

The system was still sulking because I’d tricked it, and didn’t want to talk.

I gave it a slap without ceremony.

【Doesn’t this count as completing the mission? What do you care what I came here for?】

【Fine… You’re the Host. Whatever you say goes.】

【This is so embarrassing. The system got tricked by its own Host. My coworkers will laugh themselves to death if they hear about it.】

While I was still trying to figure out how to escape from Gu Junheng, he pinned me firmly to the bed.

“You’re asking your system for help again, aren’t you? You want it to get you out of here?”

“Why do you have to leave?”

“Don’t you like me?”

His grip on my arm was alarmingly strong.

His amber eyes had begun to redden.

“I…”

My lips parted.

I couldn’t say yes.

I couldn’t say no, either.

It was true that I’d used him.

It was also true that I liked him.

But stay here?

Impossible.

Gu Junheng kept me under incredibly tight confinement.

I could only move around one bedroom, and he brought me all three meals himself.

I even wondered whether his newly founded company had no work for him to do.

How did he still have time to keep an eye on me?

I raised my head.

There was practically a camera every few steps around the room.

Full 360-degree surveillance, not a single blind spot.

Honestly…

Even a novel wouldn’t dare write something like this.

【System, are you ready?】

【Your mission has been confirmed complete. You will automatically leave this world in one minute.】

I smiled.

At last, I could go back to my ordinary life at school.

With ten seconds left, I looked at the camera in the upper-left corner.

“Goodbye.”

I curved my eyes into a smile for the camera.

My body grew light. My soul began to separate from it, drifting higher and higher.

My last conscious image was Gu Junheng flinging open the bedroom door and rushing inside.

The only thing left in his arms was Shen Nian’s body.

As for me—

Through the space-time tunnel the system opened, I returned home.

12

The September sky was high and clear, with a cool breeze.

I had successfully cured my need for skin-to-skin contact and returned to school as usual.

The mission was already complete, yet the system clung to my mind like chewing gum and refused to leave.

【Do you know how much effort it took me to keep our communication channel open? Don’t be so ungrateful!】

【You tricked me first, so now I’m going to annoy you forever!】

【I’ll haunt you for the rest of your life, even as a ghost.】

I rolled my eyes.

【You’re just a string of data. How are you going to haunt anyone?】

I arrived in class three minutes before the bell.

As expected, most of the seats in the back were taken.

I had no choice but to sit toward the front.

“Hey, have you heard? We have a new substitute teacher this semester. They say he’s super handsome!”

“Oh my god, I’d be so happy if a handsome guy like that taught us. I have to ask for his contact info later…”

“A new substitute, huh?”

As long as he didn’t fail me at the end of the semester, I didn’t care.

Before I could even open my book, a shrill scream came from behind me.

Looks like the teacher had arrived…

Wait.

I froze in my seat.

I stared at the man standing at the lectern, unable to blink.

“Hello, everyone.”

“I’ll be teaching this course as a substitute this semester.”

“My name is Gu.”

“Gu Junheng.”

The refined, gentle-looking man pushed up his glasses.

Those amber eyes gradually overlapped with the crazed gaze from the darkness.

【System, how can a character from a novel come to the real world?!】

【Ah… Well… um…】

The system broke into a cold sweat, unable to explain.

【Come on, System. Say something!】

It suddenly fell silent.

A familiar scent swept over me.

I looked up.

Gu Junheng was standing right in front of me.

“Professor Lin mentioned that…”

“You seem to be the class representative for this course.”

“I look forward to working with you.”

“Come by my office after class.”

Every hair on my body stood on end.

Just then, the system’s voice crackled in my head.

【Host… Gu… Junheng… forcibly broke through… to the real world…】

【Please stay safe…】

After a burst of garbled static, the system went completely silent, no matter how much I called it.

I could barely breathe.

“All right, everyone. Let’s begin.”

I looked up.

Gu Junheng’s eyes met mine.

He smiled and silently mouthed a few words.

I knew how to read lips.

I understood him at a glance.

“You can’t escape me.”

(The End)