My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 131
by Little PandaImpossible to Hide
This time, in order to disguise herself as Zhou Zhilong, Ren Chenxi had used all the remaining Illusion Cards in her inventory on herself. Furthermore, to investigate certain matters, she had synthesized all her Illusion Cards into SSR-rank Illusion Cards. A single SSR Illusion Card could maintain the transformation for six hours, yet she only had four. She’d stacked three of them for today’s wedding, used one to deal with the Zhou family, and spent her remaining few SR Illusion Cards on keeping up appearances with the others at Ning’an Base.
Still, thanks to those Illusion Cards, she’d mostly cleared up what she wanted to investigate. Having completed her investigation and understood why Mu Ning’s powers had suddenly become unusable—and how they could be restored—Ren Chenxi had finally decided to go find Mu Ning, hoping to get her to leave Ning’an Base.
Only… who could’ve guessed that Mu Ning, who’d always shown nothing but resistance toward Zhou Zhilong, would actually agree to marry him! Ren Chenxi still remembered the agonizing, heart-wrenching pain that had swept through her entire body when she’d heard Mu Ning personally declare her willingness to marry him. Enduring that grinding heartache, she’d asked Mu Ning again just to be sure. When she’d received the same affirmative answer once more, she hadn’t known what to do.
In Ren Chenxi’s imagination, Mu Ning would absolutely refuse to marry Zhou Zhilong; in that case, she’d be able to find a way to persuade her to leave Ning’an Base. But reality proved far crueler than her fantasies. Mu Ning’s unexpected response instantly shattered all of her subsequent plans.
At that moment, Ren Chenxi truly hadn’t known how to play her next move; she’d only been able to dazedly agree to marry her. But looking at the current situation, had Mu Ning already guessed that Zhou Zhilong was her in disguise, and was that why she’d insisted on marrying her?
Why? Especially when she’d already hurt her so deeply!
Thinking of this, Ren Chenxi tightened her grip around the slender waist between her hands, then looked up at Mu Ning and asked softly, “When did you recognize me?”
“When else? Naturally, the day Zhou Zhilong suddenly became quiet and taciturn!” Facing Zhou Zhilong’s face, Mu Ning rolled her eyes without the slightest hesitation. But she deeply enjoyed being held around the waist by Ren Chenxi right now, so no matter how much she detested this face of Zhou Zhilong, she could still force herself to sit on Ren Chenxi’s lap.
“Ren Chenxi, back when you took Ren Muhui’s place to pursue me, I already deeply regretted not recognizing that you weren’t him! So do you honestly think I’d fall for the same trick a second time? Do you really think your little habits and quirks can be hidden from me? Let me tell you, Ren Chenxi—even if you’re wearing Zhou Zhilong’s skin and using his voice, all it takes is a single look or one movement, and I can tell with a single glance that the person under that skin is you!”
“…” Hearing Mu Ning’s reply, Ren Chenxi didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. After a long pause, she mumbled hesitantly, “Since you already knew Zhou Zhilong was actually me back then, why did you still… still…”
“…” Ren Chenxi was speaking in her soft, delicate voice, yet she was still wearing Zhou Zhilong’s face. The contrast immediately gave Mu Ning a full body of goosebumps. Mu Ning turned her head away with difficulty, leaving the question unanswered, and asked instead, “When on earth are you going to change that face back?”
“… There’s still a little over an hour left.” Originally, the duration of her SSR Illusion Card should’ve expired almost immediately. However, after her frantic round of card-drawing and card-synthesizing to remedy the situation just now, she’d applied two more SR Illusion Cards to herself.
Upon hearing Ren Chenxi’s answer, Mu Ning let out a heavy, displeased “Tsk” before saying, “And I haven’t even asked you yet! How did you suddenly run all the way from Nanhai Base to Ning’an Base? When did you get here? Don’t tell me you followed right on my heels when I came to Ning’an Base? Oh, right! Also, Mu Xiao’s sudden frenzy that day—did it have something to do with you? Were you standing right there while invisible?”
“…” Ren Chenxi hadn’t expected Mu Ning to be so sharp! She’d not only realized she was disguised as Zhou Zhilong but had also deduced that she’d been right there on the scene while invisible!
In truth, it was exactly as Mu Ning had guessed. Although Ren Chenxi had set out half a month late to catch up with her, fortunately, Zhou Zhilong’s group had dawdled along the way due to water issues. This had given Ren Chenxi, who was driving her off-road vehicle day and night, a chance to catch up. In the end, she arrived almost at the same time—with Zhou Zhilong’s group setting foot in Ning’an Base first, and Ren Chenxi lagging behind by only a few dozen minutes.
In any case, by the time Ren Chenxi followed the chatter of the gossiping busybodies around Ning’an Base and located the Mu family’s large villa, Mu Ning was already arguing with her family. To be more precise, it was the Mu family unilaterally venting their emotions at Mu Ning, while she silently endured their vile insults.
Previously, when she’d heard Ren Muhui speak of Mu Ning’s family, Ren Chenxi’s general impression of them had been limited to a bunch of selfish, unfit elders. She’d never expected that seeing Mu Chengzhi treat Mu Ning so unfairly with her own eyes would fill her with such rage and regret.
It turned out Ren Muhui had been completely right. Mu Ning had grown up in this kind of environment since she was a child; it was already a miracle that her personality hadn’t warped to the point of seeking revenge on society. No wonder she’d later harbored such distrust and resistance toward her. When even her closest family treated her like this, how could she trust outsiders who approached her with ulterior motives? Yet, no matter how much Ren Chenxi’s heart ached for Mu Ning, it was already too late. She’d already hurt Mu Ning and failed to stop her from leaving. By the time she’d rushed day and night to Ning’an Base, Mu Ning was already once again suffering at the hands of her closest family.
To be honest, when she’d seen the members of the Mu family ganging up on Mu Ning, Ren Chenxi had felt a sudden, fierce urge to blow all their heads off. But she’d quickly suppressed that impulse. She still remembered her purpose in coming to Ning’an Base. Before she could “drive” Mu Ning back to Nanhai Base, she couldn’t afford to expose herself.
Mu Ning was all too familiar with several of her cards, whether it was the Explosion Cards or the Invisibility Cards. Thus, Ren Chenxi could only swallow her rage, forced to listen to the Mu family’s abuse grow increasingly outrageous, until Mu Ning finally began to fight back, releasing her esper pressure to intimidate them, and then that hypocrite Zhou Zhilong stepped forward to play the good guy.
Afterward, entirely disregarding Mu Ning’s wishes, they’d begun discussing her marriage. It was also then that Ren Chenxi realized Mu Ning actually had no desire to marry Zhou Zhilong. She’d only returned to Ning’an Base for her grandmother, the only person who’d ever truly loved her. Sadly, Grandmother Mu had already turned into a zombie. When Ren Chenxi realized Mu Ning no longer had even a single close relative left, her heart inevitably began to ache for her all over again.
But back then, she’d been worried about exposing herself, and worried that Mu Ning would hate her and refuse to go back to Nanhai Base with her. Consequently, she could only watch everything that unfolded afterward while quietly remaining invisible. Until… Zhou Zhilong suddenly called in a group of espers, and their leader—a thin, gaunt man—made Mu Ning’s powers vanish.
The moment she’d seen Mu Ning press the dagger she’d gifted her against her own throat to resist those scumbags, Ren Chenxi’s heart had nearly stopped beating from sheer terror. Casting all fear of exposure aside, she’d hurriedly cast a Recovery Card and a Shield Card on Mu Ning. Then, when Mu Xiao suddenly went crazy and lunged to slash Mu Ning, she’d used a Puppet Card to seize control of him.
Yet even though Ren Chenxi had used the Puppet Card on Mu Xiao, she still didn’t dare go too far, fearing she might arouse Mu Ning’s suspicion. Thus, she’d only restricted one of his legs, causing him to stumble and almost fall. Then, guiding his clumsy direction, she’d made him swing his mutated hand-blade in an involuntary arc, slashing directly toward Zhou Zhilong. Once Zhou Zhilong kicked Mu Xiao away, Ren Chenxi stopped controlling him. Although her original intention had been to control Mu Xiao further to heavily injure Mu Chengzhi as well… a man who’d already been kicked half-to-death by Zhou Zhilong suddenly springing back to life to slash Mu Chengzhi would’ve definitely aroused Mu Ning’s suspicion!
Consequently, Ren Chenxi could only temporarily abandon her revenge against Mu Chengzhi, turning her worried attention back to Mu Ning, who was standing there silently, still holding the dagger against her neck. Fortunately, after that sudden farce, neither the Mu family nor Zhou Zhilong targeted Mu Ning anymore. Ren Chenxi waited until Mu Ning had laid out a series of demands that nearly drove Mu Chengzhi to a stroke, securing her stay at the Mu family home. Only then did she turn around to go look for Zhou Zhilong and that esper who’d stripped Mu Ning of her abilities.
After several days of tracking, Ren Chenxi learned that the 6th-order esper who’d neutralized Mu Ning’s powers was named Cai Ping, and his ability was to restrict other espers from using their abilities. As a 6th-order esper, his maximum limit was restricting another esper for seven days. At first glance, his ability seemed incredibly formidable, but in a place like Ning’an Base, which was controlled by the military, he couldn’t stir up any real trouble1 at all.
After after all, to those battle-hardened, iron-blooded soldiers of Ning’an Base, even if they lost their esper abilities, they still had firearms and heavy artillery. Even without weapons, the strictly disciplined and combat-experienced soldiers were more than capable of banding together to deal with any espers attempting to instigate a riot.
Furthermore, while Cai Ping could restrict others from using their powers, there was also a limit to the number of people he could restrict; it was also tied to the target’s rank and the duration of the restriction.
For example, to restrict a 6th-order esper like Mu Ning for seven days, Cai Ping’s energy would be almost completely exhausted. That was why Zhou Zhilong had spent 1,000,000 Level 1 crystal cores to hire Cai Ping to deal with her.
Once she learned the limitations of Cai Ping’s ability, Ren Chenxi had originally planned to kill him directly. However, Cai Ping was quite well-known in Ning’an Base; if he suddenly met with an accident, it would surely cause some unrest in the base. Besides, although the guy was detestable, he’d only acted against Mu Ning on Zhou Zhilong’s orders. After analyzing the situation, Ren Chenxi decided to temporarily spare Cai Ping and instead sneaked into the Zhou family.
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