Chapter 89: An Ominous Premonition

Chapter 89: An Ominous Premonition

“Hmm, this should be child’s play for you, right? Why are you sneaking it back?”

On Monday night, at An Le’s home in Liao Qiao District.

On the computer desk, Little Pinky flicked its tongue and lazily draped its tail over a page of the book “Pleasure Purgatory,” glancing over at An Le, who was blow-drying her hair.

An Le blinked, her face turning slightly red as she shyly replied, “Because this book… it’s a story I created with a teacher from a forum before. So, it’s a bit… embarrassing to see.”

“Ah?”

Little Pinky was momentarily stunned, turning its gaze to the exquisitely designed cover, which read, “Illustration: Ice Cream Jelly” and “Script: Pingxi.”

It then cast a side glance at the coin pendant hanging from An Le’s backpack, where four coins were tied together, each engraved with a character that read, “Peace and Joy.”

Little Pinky flicked its tongue again, muttering, “So that’s how it is! No wonder you’re pretending to be all sweet and innocent; turns out you’re the one who churned out this ‘grain’ yourself.”

With that, it became quite interested and flipped to the first page, starting to read intently again.

“Stop, stop! I know nobody knew at the time, but especially with Little Huan around, I just feel so embarrassed.”

An Le covered her face, but her glimmering eyes peeked through her fingers at Little Pinky, explaining, “I used to frequent a forum called ‘Changganli,’ where there were a bunch of like-minded folks, often creating ‘childhood sweetheart’ works, novels, short comics, that sort of thing.”

“I wrote quite a bit back then and became somewhat known, and then this teacher asked if I wanted to collaborate on a project for the Linyi Gate exhibition or something.”

Little Pinky blinked, exclaiming, “Hah! But I don’t see anyone’s contact info in your plane.”

An Le smiled helplessly, explaining to Little Pinky, “I didn’t have a plane back then; we communicated through the forum.”

“We haven’t been in touch for ages now; I was still quite young then, and when she found out my age, she freaked out, thinking she’d corrupt me and that the police would come after her.”

“That teacher has made it big now; she’s a renowned illustrator. I think her pseudonym is ‘Sweet Parfait’ or something.”

Little Pinky didn’t care much about that; it only regarded the other person as someone probably just like An Le, deeply addicted to the “childhood sweetheart” attribute.

“Little Pinky, can you grab the comb for me? It’s in front of the mirror.”

Little Pinky eyed the mirror and instantly vanished, reappearing in front of it.

It snatched the comb and returned to perch on An Le’s shoulder, “Here you go.”

However, this whole maneuver startled An Le; she gaped in surprise, “Little Pinky, can you teleport?!”

“Hah? You just figured that out now? As long as I’m not too far away from you, I can move around freely and even choose to let others see me.”

With an expression of “This isn’t new,” Little Pinky tossed the comb into her hands and then vanished again, reappearing before the book.

“I’ve tested it; as long as I’m within a 15-meter radius of you, I can move around at will.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Little Pinky beamed with pride, saying to An Le, “Hmph, I’m the smartest little pinky around; this is my unique ability.”

“That’s amazing.”

An Le smiled faintly, instinctively giving her praise.

Little Pinky felt secretly pleased but kept a straight face.

Instead, it huffed and kept reading through the storyline, commenting, “Ugh, I have to say, the plot is quite interesting; the little girl is pretty imaginative about XX.”

“I told you not to say that!”

This book narrates how the female protagonist, a pharmacist who quit her job in the big city, is forced to return home and encounters her childhood sweetheart.

Initially disheartened and weighed down by life’s trials, the female lead finds healing through the male lead, stepping out of her anxiety from the big city and developing peculiar feelings for her childhood friend.

Just when she’s about to leave behind her former gloom and cultivate feelings for the childhood friend, she accidentally witnesses other females confessing to him in town.

Although he claims he needs to think it over, the female lead feels the despair of her “white moonlight” being stolen away.

Thus, to prevent losing her beloved childhood sweetheart, she utilizes her professional knowledge to concoct a potion that brings happiness, attempting to use this method to keep him.

Unintentionally, however, the potion plunges them both into an inescapable pleasure purgatory!

Little Pinky, like a storyteller, finished narrating the book’s ending and closed the last page, then looked over at An Le, who had her face buried in her pillow, blushing bright red, only her glimmering eyes peeking out at Little Pinky.

“Wuwu, don’t… don’t read anymore.”

Little Pinky flicked its tail, puzzled, “Hey, come on. You should know how to win over Yan Huan, right? Just replicate what’s in there and you could be living the good life!”

“What are you saying, Little Pinky! This is just a fictional story! Have you lost track of what’s real and what’s an illusion like Spencer?”

Little Pinky rolled its eyes, muttering, “Sometimes I really wish you could learn something from that Spencer. He may not be bright, but his courage is miles ahead of yours. When I went to the Student Council Office, his casual remark had you hesitating for two months.”

Mentioning this, An Le’s eyes lit up, “So Spencer said he would help me after all?”

“Ha, relying on others is never as reliable as relying on yourself, you know? And let’s be real, after you two reconnected, did Yan Huan show you any special feelings? At most, you’re just friends now.”

Little Pinky clicked its tongue, continuing, “But that Sakura Kyoko? She is like a duet with him. Today, another fair-skinned beauty idol pops up—my gosh, everyone is better than you! You should fight for him!”

These ordinary girls in this world were one thing, but even more terrifying was that Leaf Shiyu next to him.

Against Leaf Shiyu, Little Pinky had no clue how to win.

It advised An Le to find a new crush, yet she wouldn’t budge.

Indeed, Little Pinky noticed that Yan Huan’s luck was incredibly sweet.

Just standing there was like a book unfolding; no wonder the finger was fixated on him.

But hey, even if you’re powerful, I’m no ordinary little pinky.

An Le fell silent, reflecting.

Little Huan was still as wonderful as before, often coming to find her in class, sending her plane messages.

She also sensed that Yan Huan intentionally leaked the news about their childhood friendship.

So, these days, even if she had formed the “notorious” Comic Club with Spencer, no one had mocked her in the slightest.

Even if it was just a facade.

An Le understood; all this stemmed from the phrase “childhood sweetheart,” but it was only limited to that.

Closer than friends but far from lovers.

That kind of relationship.

Though she had previously said that as long as she and Little Huan recognized each other, she would be content.

As for whether he liked her or not, that was his choice; she wouldn’t push for it.

But now that it had really come to this, An Le’s heart greedily yearned to take a step further.

Deep down,

She actually wanted to—

Get Little Huan, right?

“Empty empty empty~”

As An Le bit her lip, grappling with her desires, Little Pinky sensed her shift almost instantly.

A thick shadow enveloped them, and behind Little Pinky, pink heart-shaped patterns suddenly brightened.

It flicked its tongue, yet feigned ignorance, saying, “Well, never mind, just let things unfold naturally. I won’t say much more; just do your best.”

“But seeing your book has actually sparked some inspiration; I want to experiment with something. Do you have any black tea at home? Bring me a cup.”

An Le snapped back to reality, looking at the white serpent before her, asking, “Huh? Black tea? We don’t seem to have any; would Pu’er be alright?”

“Hmm, honestly, any liquid will do. Just the effects of black tea will be better.”

“Oh, I see.”

An Le nodded, fetching a cup of hot water.

Little Pinky bared its fangs, biting the rim of the cup.

A drop of pink illusionary liquid fell into the cup, only to vanish without a trace.

Little Pinky examined the liquid in the cup, muttering, “Hmm, it actually worked.”

“Did it succeed? What’s the use of this?”

Little Pinky pretended to casually glance at An Le, saying, “Oh, it won’t do much. For instance, if you give it to your parents, their relationship will improve, and who knows, maybe you’ll have a little brother or sister someday.”

“Isn’t that just like my… my book?”

Little Pinky yawned, appearing quite sleepy, nodding before saying, “Well, it’s just an experiment; as long as it works, that’s what matters. I’m a bit sleepy; I’ll rest first. You can handle this stuff.”

“Ah? Oh…”

Little Pinky vanished as if it had never existed.

Leaving An Le staring at the seemingly ordinary cup of water, she paused for a moment before heading toward the bathroom, seemingly to throw it away.

“Click~”

The bedroom door opened, and the little gecko trapped in the box stared adorably at its owner leaving the room.

But soon after, the owner hesitated and sneaked back into the room, placing the cup beside her book on the table.

The transparent liquid in the cup swayed slightly, with exactly one drop added.

Through the light of the room, it magnified the title of the book beside it, “Pleasure Purgatory.”

In Jinghe District, within a certain luxurious mansion.

“Nairu, do we have a basement at home?”

“Huh?”

Nairu, who was unpacking a surveillance camera, looked puzzled, turning to Sakura Kyoko, who lay on the bed in a nightgown, blinking.

“Why do you suddenly ask this, Lady Sakura?”

“Just curious.”

Sakura Kyoko lay on her side, savoring something as she read by the bedside lamp.

This only ignited Nairu’s curiosity further.

Lady Sakura studied diligently, but this didn’t look like studying to Nairu at all.

What was she looking at?

Nairu hurriedly set the surveillance camera down and approached the bedside.

Curiously glancing at the material in Sakura’s hands, Nairu’s expression darkened as soon as she read the title.

“What are you even looking at?!”

“Huh?”

Sakura Kyoko propped herself up, glancing at the work in her hands, and replied, “Isn’t it obvious? It’s a doujinshi.”

“Thanks to you, for being so shameless and brazen about it, Lady Sakura.”

In response, Sakura simply scoffed, covering her mouth, looking at Nairu with a “what a dumb cousin” expression.

“Nairu, we’re all adults now~ Do you think I’m the kind of fool who can’t distinguish between fantasy and reality? An ignorant lady with a gap in her physiological knowledge? That’s quite the overreaction.”

Nairu rubbed her temples, sighed, and asked, “So, Lady, why do you want to know about the basement?”

“Hmm, I was thinking, if we could lock the president in the basement, it would save a lot of hassle. I’d know everything about the president, and at the same time, protect him; it’d be killing two birds with one stone.”

“You really can’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality, can you?! Idiot!!”

“Eh?”

Nairu snatched the doujinshi from Sakura Kyoko’s hands. She quickly sat up to reclaim it but was held back by Nairu’s finger pressed to her forehead, pushing her back down onto the bed.

“What are you doing, Nairu?!”

“Do you have any idea what would happen if your parents or siblings found out about this? Before they even knew I’m the one who switched identities, everyone in this mansion would be out on their ear!”

Sakura opened her mouth but didn’t attempt to take the book back.

After all, she had read it numerous times; with her genius intellect, she had long memorized the lines and scenes inside.

“Is it really that serious? I just think some of its ideas could be valuable.”

“What value could this doujinshi possibly have?”

Sakura Kyoko thoughtfully stroked her chin, saying to Nairu, “My goals are twofold: to know everything about the president and to protect him. But because our life paths are so different, I often have to expend great costs to achieve either.”

“If this continues… how can I protect anything?”

The latter sentence was more of a murmured self-reflection, and Nairu barely caught it.

But shortly thereafter, she seemed to have found an answer and looked at Nairu, saying, “If I can confine the president, I can achieve both goals at minimal cost.”

Nairu almost wanted to crack open Lady Sakura’s head to see what was going on inside.

“Do you really think Yan Huan, or any normal person, would agree to this? Freedom is invaluable; don’t you know, Lady?”

Sakura shook her head and replied, “So-called freedom is merely a product of the brain’s imagination. Since absolute freedom doesn’t exist, the limits of freedom are set by humans.”

She raised her fingers one by one, laying out her arguments.

“To you, the basement is merely a hidden, cramped space. But from my perspective, the concept of a ‘basement’ is limitless.

“As long as it remains [closed] and [controllable], no matter how large the area, living within is just another type of basement.”

She raised her finger until it stopped at the middle finger.

“If I can create a space that appears to be the same as the outside world to the president but is actually completely enclosed and under my control, then I will have effectively locked him in that basement.”

Nairu squinted, sighing, “This is a wildly twisted social experiment that’s certainly feasible, but you would have to spend a monstrous sum to build this virtual ‘basement.’

“And you’d need your dear Yan Huan from infancy so you could reshape his values from the ground up, making everything you’ve said part of his common sense.”

Nairu shook her head and spread her hands, saying, “This kind of thing only happens in sci-fi movies. Even if the Sakura family is powerful, they wouldn’t go to such lengths to satisfy your whims. Your main task now is to sleep, understand? Stop daydreaming.”

“…”

Expecting that this would shatter Sakura Kyoko’s utterly unrealistic fantasy, Nairu found instead that she merely paused for a moment, then smiled slightly, retorting, “Who said I need to use my family’s power for any of this?”

“…”

Nairu was momentarily stunned, covering her face in exasperation, saying, “I really think you’re tired, Lady, and starting to hallucinate. Just go to sleep; you need to wake up early tomorrow.”

“Of course, of course~ Goodnight, Nairu.”

Sakura Kyoko, seemingly having figured something out, was in a pleasant mood.

Nairu sighed, turned off the light, and then headed for the door.

Before she left, she suddenly recalled something, turning back to look at Sakura, saying, “Oh, by the way, your cousin Miss Liang wants to come over this Friday.”

“Let her come; middle school students don’t have class on Friday, and she will probably come home early. You handle it.”

“Very well, Lady.”

Nairu nodded, pulling back from the large bed that had now been engulfed in deep shadows after the lights were turned off.

“Goodnight, Lady.”

Sakura Kyoko lay quietly in the midst of that shadow.

“Empty empty empty~”

In a first-floor bedroom of a villa in Jinghe District.

The warm light illuminated a highly revised music video script on the tablet, while a newly crafted PDF file had just been packaged and sent to a user named “Golden Lion Group Manager.”

Indeed, this time, the company responsible for distributing Bai Yi’s new song was a subsidiary of the Golden Lion Group, with whom they had collaborated many times before.

After all, the former Linyi Gate host Milos had previously thrown Bai Yi a lifeline, and given the Golden Lion Group’s vastness, Bai Yi had no reason not to collaborate with them.

“The new script file has been received.

“We’ll begin preparations in the coming days, and the shooting location will be here.”

Location: Golden Lion Tower.

“When you arrive, contact us, don’t wander around, and keep a low profile.

“Especially on the top floor, where very important people reside; don’t go up there, or you’ll be responsible for the consequences.”

The secretary of Golden Lion Entertainment seemed to be still bothered by Bai Yi not following the rehearsal schedule last time, so she stressed several times not to run around.

Bai Yi merely replied with a “Okay,” after which the two lost contact.

At that moment, Bai Yi lay blushing on her bed, flipping through the otome doujinshi she secretly brought back earlier that afternoon.

“Geez, how did I end up bringing back something like this?”

As she kept reading, she felt her cheeks grow warmer, and she buried her head in the blanket.

Outside the door, faint voices of conversation drifted in, causing Bai Yi’s ears to perk up.

“You mean Yan Huan is also participating in the MV recording?”

“Yeah, it’s said that they’ve already discussed it.”

It was Zuo Jiangqin talking to Jiang Xiong.

“This won’t work! A same-age boy appearing in the MV—despite not doing anything suggestive, aren’t viewers bound to overthink it?”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. After all, Yi Yi has already decided to pursue a singing career. This industry depends on talent. It’s her singing that matters, and not her personal matters.”

“Do you really believe she can sing well?”

“The professionals at Golden Lion Group have said so.”

“I don’t care; don’t you realize it yourself?”

Bai Yi, who had been eavesdropping while lying on the bed, pursed her lips, furrowing her brows as she peered toward the door.

With her hand already on the doorknob, she suddenly found herself too afraid, or rather, unwilling to face another fierce argument with her mother.

Because whenever she acted this way, she ended up gaining nothing, only made things spiral further out of control.

Communicating didn’t work; opposing only brought her to apologize under societal pressures.

Thus, she had grown accustomed to avoiding conflicts, evading evaluations, and dodging harm…

Aside from that, she didn’t know how to confront her mother.

Bai Yi gritted her teeth, squeezing the pocket watch in one hand while the other held her phone tightly.

On the phone was her conversation history with Yan Huan on plane.

She had just sent him the new script, receiving his approval.

It felt as if the only shields she clutched were what kept her safe in this moment.

“Ding ding… empty empty empty~”

“Achoo!!”

A thick shadow loomed over, converting into the coldest winds of spring, making the handsome young man exposed to the night winds sneeze.

“Meow?”

The black cat on his shoulder tilted its head, looking at him with concern, “What’s wrong, meow?”

“It’s nothing, just this persistent sense of foreboding—I feel like I’m being watched by countless eyes, but I can’t see anyone.”

Yan Huan took a sip from the mug containing protein fluid, wiped his mouth, and spoke thusly.

Meow-chan displayed a speechless expression as it looked at him and said, “Well, who told you to run over here to Jinghe District so late at night? Maybe the place is crawling with surveillance—couldn’t you just wait till tomorrow to go find her at school?”

In response, Yan Huan merely smiled faintly and replied, “Of course, but if going tomorrow yields a result of one, coming now leads to a ten-fold effect.”

“Meow?”

After that, Yan Huan turned his gaze towards the front.

In the night, he found himself gazing at the luxurious Ocean Mansion belonging to Leaf Lan in Jinghe District.

He had just finished his training and taken the subway for quite a while to get here.

Taking in the mansion hidden in the shadows, he lowered his head and opened plane.

It was Leaf Shiyu’s chat box.

His fingers deftly tapped the screen, sending over a cute cat emoji, “Shiyu, are you there? I want to talk to you about something.”

“…”

After a long time, there was no reply.

It gave off the feeling of “not blocked but worse than blocked.”

Yan Huan wasn’t anxious; he knew Leaf Shiyu must have seen his message.

Thus, he waited for several minutes before sending a follow-up message, “Didn’t we say we would discuss it face to face on plane?

“I’m currently downstairs in your room, Shiyu.”

Just after sending the message, a cold wind suddenly howled.

He didn’t hear a thing, but at the end of the hallway on the third floor, a sound of something falling echoed in surprise.