NOVEL NEXT Chapter 25 - You know which kind of ‘like’ I mean
The power went out.
The romantic atmosphere was instantly shattered.
Tang Yuan avoided Jiang Zi’s hand and stepped back a little.
Adjusting to the darkness took some time. Now, Tang Yuan could only see darkness, and she could clearly hear her own heartbeat, even wondering if Jiang Zi, so close, could hear it too.
She was somewhat relieved that with the power outage, Jiang Zi couldn’t see her flushed cheeks, which were burning with embarrassment.
Tang Yuan leaned back on the bed, covering her face with her hands.
Jiang Zi’s upright figure remained stiff in the dark, only a blurred outline visible.
No one spoke.
After Tang Yuan slightly turned on her side and calmed her emotions, she spoke up, trying to break the silence.
“Chu dogs estate really sucks; it’s even prone to power outages.”
Jiang Zi’s hand hung by her side as she rubbed her fingers, the delicate sensation lingering.
She liked it.
Jiang Zi felt a bit annoyed that the power outage happened at such an inconvenient time.
She saw the same confusion and infatuation in Tang Yuan’s eyes as she felt herself.
Was it just an impulse?
Or perhaps it was genuine emotion.
Regardless of which answer it was, it inexplicably thrilled her to the point of trembling.
She thought to herself that she couldn’t scare away her little Tang Yuan.
She was also relieved that the power outage happened at a convenient time.
Seeing that Jiang Zi was uninterested in her topic, even ignoring it, Tang Yuan could only pinch her ears and fall silent.
Jiang Zi placed the tablet on the table, took out her phone, and sat beside Tang Yuan.
Tang Yuan exited the game and started playing another casual game.
The power was restored soon, just five minutes later.
Looking at the time, it was only eight-thirty in the evening.
Tang Yuan got up from the bed after quitting Plants vs. Zombies and saw Jiang Zi browsing their CP topics on her phone.
Jiang Zi was even liking each post.
Tang Yuan leaned over and sat beside her, saying, “Netizens have quite an imagination, don’t they?”
Jiang Zi’s fingers paused momentarily, then she clicked on a bold fanfic, “Indeed, it’s quite imaginative, and the descriptions are vivid.”
Tang Yuan skimmed through the first two lines, and her heart raced with embarrassment.
No! That kind of position… How could anyone write or even imagine that?!
Tang Yuan wanted to cover her eyes; she couldn’t bear to look at what the netizens dared to write.
She hurriedly swiped her phone screen to exit but accidentally liked the post.
With Jiang Zi’s real authentication account, she liked her own fanfic, which was filled with spicy content.
Tang Yuan: ……?!
She quickly tapped to cancel it, muttering, “Clicked wrongly, clicked wrongly.”
When she looked up, she saw Jiang Zi calmly staring at her.
Tang Yuan felt her face burning with embarrassment.
“Don’t look at these strange things in the super topic,” she said, sounding like she was lecturing, but her voice was soft and gentle.
Jiang Zi raised an eyebrow nonchalantly, “I just think the netizens have quite a flair for writing.”
Tang Yuan spoke more anxiously, “You shouldn’t look at these. They’re not good.”
Jiang Zi’s eyes sparkled with amusement as she teased, “Which ones?”
Tang Yuan realized she was being deliberately teased, so she huffed and decided not to say anything more.
Tang Yuan picked up her phone and checked the super topic, noticing it now had 70,000 followers.
[At first, I just wanted to promote the CP, but it turns out the netizens are really good at finding their own candy.]
[Will sister find it strange? It must be the first time she’s had a scandal with a girl.]
Jiang Zi looked at the small tuft of hair sticking up from Tang Yuan’s head and really wanted to poke it down.
Why does Tang Yuan keep worrying about whether she would be bothered? In reality, it’s Tang Yuan herself who cares, isn’t it?
Actually, Jiang Zi hadn’t truly heard what Tang Yuan’s mission was; she could only guess from the fragments of her thoughts.
What she was sure of was that with each mission Tang Yuan completed, the polt’s restrictions on her would be weakened.
She also learned from Tang Yuan’s thoughts that she was the conquer target of her mission. What does it mean to be a conquer target? There are many answers online, but it boils down to increasing the target’s favorability towards the tasker.
Tang Yuan’s heart is in the mission, but is her heart also on her Jiang Zi as a person? Is it just because of the so-called system mission?
After learning about the so-called mission, Jiang Zi had seen many novels online with similar setups.
In those stories, the targets always ended up with a happy ending.
She couldn’t help but wonder if such happiness and fortune would also come to her.
With these turbulent thoughts, Jiang Zi splashed cold water on herself to force herself to calm down.
She knew she hadn’t completely freed herself from the control of the plot, which was unfair to Tang Yuan.
If in the future, under the control of the plot, she were to hurt Tang Yuan…
[Alert! The female lead’s self-destructive value has increased by 5%. Please stop the female lead’s self-destructive behavior in time.]
The system’s voice was like an alarm bell, causing Tang Yuan to look up at Jiang Zi and meet her gaze immediately. She saw a strange, suppressed emotion in Jiang Zi’s eyes.
Tang Yuan reached out and pinched Jiang Zi’s cheek. “What’s wrong? Are you unhappy?”
“I’m not ignoring you on purpose. You’re not angry with me, are you?”
Jiang Zi held her hand in hers, looking down and avoiding eye contact. “I’m not angry.”
“Don’t lie, okay? Are you really not angry?”
[She’s clearly lying, her self-destructive value is so high, at 75%!]
Jiang Zi heard a new term from Tang Yuan’s thoughts—self-destructive value.
Little TangYuan’s system can read her emotions?
Jiang Zi’s knuckles turned white as anger surged within her—not from the plot’s control but from another force’s surveillance.
Tang Yuan’s hand ached from Jiang Zi’s grip, but she only frowned and reached out with her other hand to touch Jiang Zi’s hand, her eyes filled with visible concern.
“Sister?”
Jiang Zi relaxed her grip, closed her eyes, and shook her head, her voice calm. “I’m fine.”
She could accept all the falsities of this world as long as Tang Yuan was real. That was enough for her.
She didn’t want much. This was enough to satisfy her.
Then Isn’t it good that the system could relay her situation to Tang Yuan? At least Tang Yuan cared about her.
“Tang Yuan.”
“Hmm?”
“I don’t like…”
I don’t like Chu Yu.
She still couldn’t say it.
After a pause, she asked another question: “Do you like boys or girls?”
Tang Yuan felt an inexplicable shiver at the question as if choosing wrong would send her plunging into an abyss.
Before she could answer, Jiang Zi added, “You know which kind of ‘like’ I mean.”
Tang Yuan swallowed hard, her gaze unwavering as if making a solemn vow, and declared firmly, “Of course, I like girls!”
“The men I’ve interacted with before are all like Chu Yu, which has made me indifferent to men.”
“Girls are so much better—fragrant and beautiful, like you, sister.” Her eyes were sincere and genuine.
Jiang Zi didn’t dare to look directly at her and, with a subdued voice, asked, “Little TangYuan, are you seriously confessing to me?”
Tang Yuan opened her mouth, the words swirling on the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed them back.
Jiang Zi asked too seriously, that Tang Yuan couldn’t be sure either.
Because she herself didn’t know clearly.
Is Jiang Zi just her mission target or Tang Yuan’s romantic interest?
She was a bit confused herself.
Jiang Zi released Tang Yuan’s hand and responded earnestly, “Tang Yuan, it’s okay if you don’t answer right now.”
Jiang Zi knew that as long as she wasn’t free, she couldn’t freely express her feelings.
So, Tang Yuan still had time to consider.