My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 103
by Little PandaAt the Last Hurdle
Under Mu Ning’s gaze, which seemed to have seen through everything, Ren Chenxi now just wanted to dig a hole and bury herself. How could this happen? How could this happen? She had told Ren Muhui so many little details about her pursuit of Mu Ning before the apocalypse, so how could she have forgotten about Tantan?
Oh! Right! Because Mu Ning used to dislike Tantan! In all those little details of pursuing Mu Ning, Tantan wasn’t involved at all! She had been entirely focused on telling Ren Muhui about Mu Ning’s likes, but had completely forgotten to tell him about what she disliked!
Moreover, it was just too coincidental! That day, when she and Mu Ning returned from the seaside, they found out Fan Juntian had returned and taken Ren Muhui hostage. Ren Chenxi had been anxious to check on Ren Muhui, and Tantan was pestering her for lunch, so at the time she could only entrust the cat to Sun Jia’s care. By the time Ren Chenxi brought Ren Muhui back to the Villa Area, Sun Jia had already finished feeding Tantan, and Tantan had habitually run upstairs to sleep. Cats, after all, could sleep for over ten hours a day. So, when Ren Muhui came to the Girls’ Building to cook porridge, he never saw Tantan.
For the next three days, Ren Muhui’s body was still weak. Ren Chenxi didn’t let him go out hunting with everyone else, only letting him rest in the Men’s Building. Every time she cooked porridge for him, she delivered it to the Men’s Building 2nd floor. As a result, over those three days, Ren Muhui was entirely focused on playing video games on the second floor and still hadn’t laid eyes on Tantan.
Today was the fourth day. Ren Muhui had finally escaped the torment of endless porridge and eaten a grand seafood feast. His complexion had grown much rosier, and at Chen Gu’s invitation, he planned to check out the seaside today. As a result, didn’t he run straight into Tantan!
But in truth, Ren Chenxi understood perfectly well that as long as Tantan was around, whether she told Ren Muhui earlier or later, the issue was bound to be exposed sooner or later. Facing the current situation, she really couldn’t fabricate any suitable excuse to explain it. Since she couldn’t make one up, she simply wouldn’t! Why did she have to answer whatever Mu Ning asked?
Standing off to the side looking utterly dumbfounded, Ren Muhui—no matter how dense he was or how much his foot ached—finally realized something was wrong. What did she mean, ‘my favorite Tantan’? What the hell was a Tantan? Was it this cat? Looking again at the little kitten rubbing affectionately around his sister’s ankles, taking in the shocked expressions of the people around them, and connecting the dots with Mu Ning’s question, Ren Muhui finally realized in hindsight: while his wretched sister1 was playing on his account, she had raised another cat!
Looking anxiously at Ren Chenxi, Ren Muhui only hoped his sister could resolve the trouble she had stirred up herself. Yet, he stared at his sister for a long while, and she just kept her head down in continuous silence. Say something! Say something, sister! If you don’t say something soon, Goddess Mu is going to suspect me!
Just as he was worrying about arousing Goddess Mu’s suspicions, the very next second, the goddess’s icy gaze landed on him. Swept by Mu Ning’s frigid stare, Ren Muhui instantly shuddered and subconsciously blurted out, “Th-that is, on the day doomsday descended, not only was my arm crushed, but my head was also hit. It caused a very severe concussion at the time, and I completely forgot a lot of things…”
“Oh? Amnesia?”
Hearing Mu Ning’s mocking tone, Ren Chenxi stared at the ground expressionlessly. She wasn’t exactly cheering for Ren Muhui’s sudden stroke of brilliance. Because…
“I can understand that your amnesia means you don’t recognize Tantan, but then… why doesn’t Tantan recognize you either? Look at this. It even attacked you!”
Questioned like this by Mu Ning, Ren Muhui instantly cursed his own itchy foot2. Everything had been perfectly fine just a moment ago; why did he have to go and provoke that little cat with his foot! But since he had already provoked it and been scratched by the kitten, Ren Muhui could only bite the bullet and continue spouting nonsense: “M-maybe, during these two years of the apocalypse, this little cat… forgot about me too? Isn’t that just how cats are? No matter how well you treat them, once enough time passes, they’ll forget you all the same.”
“Heh…” Ren Muhui’s answer drew another ruthless scoff from Mu Ning. “But after two years, why is this little cat of yours so incredibly clingy toward this sister of yours it has supposedly never met?”
As if to corroborate Mu Ning’s words, the moment her voice fell, Tantan’s clingy cries immediately rang out: “Meow meow meow meow meow~” While meowing, it continuously purred at Ren Chenxi.
“…” Ren Muhui looked awkwardly at Tantan, who was impossibly attached to Ren Chenxi, and then at the expressionless Ren Chenxi. He simply gave up and fell into a despairing silence alongside her. Forget it, let whatever happens, happen! The goddess could guess whatever she wanted; regardless of anything else, he was Ren Muhui. That much was certain!
And Ren Chenxi seemed to have given up resisting as well. She bent down, scooped up Tantan, and met Mu Ning’s gaze with utmost candor. “That’s right, Tantan is just closer to me. So what? What are you trying to say?”
She was waiting. Waiting for Mu Ning to lay out everything she had guessed and thought of. Having kept it hidden for so long, the more lies there were, the harder they were to cover up. She was tired, weary of it all. She didn’t want to hide anything in front of Mu Ning anymore. Hadn’t this person practically guessed it all anyway? Then let everything be dragged out into the light!
Mu Ning just looked quietly at Ren Chenxi, and Ren Chenxi openly stared right back. The inexplicable atmosphere between the two left Ren Muhui trembling in fear, terrified that these two were about to start fighting. When that happened, should he help his goddess? Or his own biological sister?
However, Ren Muhui’s worries were superfluous. Mu Ning stared deeply at Ren Chenxi for a long while. After meeting that fearless gaze, her heart tightened. She abruptly withdrew her gaze and sharply turned away.
“Let’s go. Head to the seaside early so we can come back early. It’s getting dark sooner and sooner nowadays.”
T-that was it? It was over just like that? The surrounding crowd of onlookers felt as though they were following a TV drama, watching the climax and grand finale approaching, only for it to suddenly end in an anticlimax3? Watching this gossip unfold felt incredibly unsatisfying! Especially Tang Ying, who even muttered softly in great pity, “Honestly, I thought Xi-jie and Mu xuejie were going to kiss!”
??? Ren Muhui, who was squatting right next to Tang Ying, snapped his head up and glared at this somewhat familiar little junior. What kind of messy nonsense was filling the heads of little girls these days! That was clearly a posture ready for a brawl! How could they possibly kiss!
At Mu Ning’s call, the group of people—even though their thirst for gossip wasn’t satisfied and their hearts held many doubts—could only obediently follow her. Since Mu Ning wasn’t pursuing the matter, they didn’t dare to ask either. Ren Chenxi, holding Tantan, only hesitated for a moment before following along as if nothing had happened. She was equally puzzled in her heart, wondering why Mu Ning had let them off when she and Ren Muhui were both so full of loopholes. Clearly, one second ago she was relentlessly interrogating Ren Muhui, yet the next second, she suddenly gave up. Why?
You were clearly only one step away from uncovering the truth you had been desperately searching for all this time. So why, right at this final hurdle, did you shrink back?
Ahead, Mu Ning’s cold and aloof back grew further and further away. Ren Chenxi tightened her hold on Tantan in her arms and quickened her pace. Since Mu Ning wasn’t exposing the truth, she couldn’t be bothered to ask her for the reason. Acting as if everything was fine like this, playing dumb with each other, was actually pretty good. Life still had to go on. She still had her main quest to survive the apocalypse to complete!
Everyone left, leaving only Ren Muhui squatting foolishly in place, cradling his injured foot. After a good while, Ren Muhui finally let out a devastated wail, “Then what about me! The doors are all locked, where am I supposed to go now!”
Fortunately, Ren Muhui wasn’t too stupid. He eventually remembered Liang Ke, who had drawn several large vials of his blood a few days ago, so he limped off to find her for help.
By the time Ren Chenxi’s group returned with a bountiful harvest, Ren Muhui had already finished bandaging his foot. Wearing slippers on both feet, he sat pitifully at the entrance of the Men’s Building. The moment she saw Ren Muhui, Ren Chenxi finally remembered—oh right, she had completely forgotten about her older brother.
Tantan, covered in sand and seawater, closely followed at Ren Chenxi’s heels. Upon seeing Ren Muhui, it immediately raised a paw and let out an aggressive “Hiss,” frightening Ren Muhui into shrinking back against the main doors. Once again, he cursed his own itchy foot in his heart.
Fortunately, with Ren Chenxi stepping in to stop it, Tantan didn’t cause Ren Muhui any secondary injuries after all.
Because of this Tantan incident, Ren Muhui hardly dared to step foot into the Girls’ Building again. On one hand, it was because of Tantan; on the other, it was because of Mu Ning. Ren Muhui always felt that under Goddess Mu’s icy gaze, there was absolutely no need for him to pretend or hide anything anymore.
Whatever. The pre-apocalypse goddess hadn’t been that easy to pursue, and post-apocalypse, the goddess’s thigh wasn’t that easy to cling to4 either. Anyway, all of this was his sister’s fault for secretly playing on his game save, causing things to turn into this mess! Since his sister seemed to have become pretty strong now, she naturally had an obligation to cover her older brother in completing his main quest!
That’s right, Ren Muhui was just this shameless and self-righteous about it. Who told Ren Chenxi to steal his game save? Serves her right!
For the next two days, Ren Muhui simply used his foot injury as an excuse to laze around inside the Men’s Building without stepping outside. Although Ren Muhui’s foot injury was entirely his own doing, it was ultimately Tantan who had scratched him, so Ren Chenxi couldn’t really force him to do anything. He was her biological older brother, after all. Ren Chenxi still had to patiently persuade him to at least level up the only skill the game had given him. What if this seemingly useless skill became incredibly powerful at higher levels?
Ren Muhui thought this made sense. So, he cooped himself up in the Men’s Building for two days. Although Chen Gu and the others—out of consideration for his familiarity with his sister and Goddess Mu—wouldn’t make things difficult for him at all and still warmly hosted him for every meal, it was exactly this warmth that made Ren Muhui too embarrassed to keep loitering around. Couldn’t he see that even those ordinary people without esper abilities actively joined the outings every time!
The Recovery Card Ren Chenxi had given him worked wonders. By the third day, combining it with the wound medicine Liang Ke had prescribed, the deep scratch marks on his foot had fully healed. Since his foot injury was healed, when Ren Chenxi once again persuaded him to head to the seaside together, Ren Muhui agreed.
He heard from Ren Chenxi that the seaside beach was full of those foolish shellfish seafood that wouldn’t casually move around. As long as you didn’t get too close to them, they were pretty good for practicing and leveling up skills. Right now, his “Whoever I Glare At Gets Unlucky” skill was only at Level 1, with an attack range of only 1 meter and an attack target limit of 1. Presumably, once his skill level increased, the attack range and number of targets would also increase, right?
It was just a pity that Ren Muhui had only been going to the seaside for two days when the temperature suddenly plummeted. At the same time, torrential rain fell continuously for several days. It was amid this endless heavy rain that Ren Chenxi’s first winter since arriving in this post-apocalyptic world had finally come.
Footnotes
- A Chinese slang term ('chòu mèimei') acting as a derogatory but affectionately exasperated insult directed at a younger sister.
- A slang term ('jiǎo jiàn', literally 'cheap foot') referring to bringing trouble upon oneself by unnecessarily using one's feet to provoke something.
- A Chinese slang term ('làn wěi', literally 'rotten tail') referring to a story or project that starts well but ends poorly or abruptly.
- A Chinese internet slang term ('bào dàtuǐ', literally 'cling to the thigh') meaning to latch onto someone powerful or skilled for support or protection.
0 Comments