My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 25

Fish in Troubled Waters​¹

With the bus and van no longer blocking the way, the view of the open space became much wider. The mutated beasts that had been trying to launch a sneak attack had lost their cover, and under the vine whip of a weapon of mass destruction​² like Mu Ning, they were all cleaned up in no time.

However, no matter how strong Mu Ning was, after consuming her esper ability for such a long time, her complexion was visibly unwell when she returned to the house. As a result, Chen Gu​³ and the others’ resentment towards Ren Chenxi, who had been paddling water​⁴ on the sidelines the whole time, grew even deeper.

            

Yes, the reason they said Ren Chenxi was paddling water was that after she returned to the house, she just stood by the window and started throwing little stones at the mutated beasts and zombies. Not only did these useless little stones fail to inflict any damage on the mutated beasts or zombies, but they also served to enrage them.

Of course, the reason Ren Chenxi did this was to “claim” a few targets so that she could get extra drops after those targets were killed. But in the eyes of others who didn’t know the truth, Ren Chenxi was simply taking advantage of their Boss’s protection to deliberately provoke the mutated beasts and zombies.

Now, Chen Gu and his group were even more annoyed with Ren Chenxi. Tsk, does this woman have any sense at all? If you’re injured, just stay put in the house. Or at least help out like your teammates. What’s the meaning of throwing stones like this?

            

Chen Gu’s group had strong opinions, but their Boss was actually very happy to see this woman’s childish behavior. She even deliberately lured a few zombies over to make it easier for that woman to throw stones!

Chen Gu and the others could only vent their frustration on the zombies and mutated beasts for the time being. When they finally cleared the monsters from the open space, they returned to the house and saw their Boss’s somewhat pale face. One person couldn’t hold it in any longer and said in a sarcastic, passive-aggressive tone​⁵, “Some people, if they can’t help, that’s fine. But if they could just not be more of a hindrance than a help​⁶ and increase the difficulty of us clearing zombies, we’d thank heaven and earth!”

“Zhang Tongqi​⁷!” Mu Ning shot the girl a warning glare.

            

This girl who couldn’t hold back was the same one who had been so sharp-tongued with Tang Ying​⁸ earlier. She was already dissatisfied with Ren Chenxi for using their precious wound medicine. Seeing this woman playing with stones in the house while they were focused on fighting zombies and mutated beasts, her dissatisfaction reached its peak. And now, with their Boss defending this woman so staunchly, Zhang Tongqi finally couldn’t take it anymore. She cried out aggrievedly to Mu Ning, “Boss! Why are you protecting this person so much! You used Xiao Jia’s wound medicine on her, but what about her? She doesn’t know the first thing about gratitude and was just making a mess over there…”

“Uh… Xi-jie, she… she wasn’t making a mess. She was just practicing her shooting accuracy…” Jian Dan​⁹ hurriedly explained on Ren Chenxi’s behalf.

As for Ren Chenxi, upon hearing what this girl named Zhang Tongqi said, she finally understood. That wooden goddess actually used the wound medicine meant for her own teammate on me? Was that really necessary? Just because I’m Ren Muhui’s sister now? Heh! What is this? You only start treating his sister this well after “Ren Muhui” is no longer even in this game world? Is there any point?

            

Noticing the complex emotion that flashed through Ren Chenxi’s eyes, Mu Ning’s voice was heavy as she warned Zhang Tongqi again, “I said I’ll go to the neighboring city tomorrow to look for more wound medicine. Don’t keep harping on about it…”

The moment Mu Ning’s voice fell, Ren Chenxi’s followed right after, “What wound medicine?”

“Don’t mind her. I’ll find the wound medicine myself…” Hearing Ren Chenxi’s question, Mu Ning quickly turned to soothe her. “Just focus on getting better. If the medicine isn’t enough… I-I’ll find more tomorrow…”

            

“Tch! Boss, do you think wound medicine grows everywhere like mushrooms these days? You think you can find it just by looking around?” Zhang Tongqi retorted, unconvinced.

“You…”

Without giving Mu Ning a chance to scold Zhang Tongqi, Ren Chenxi cut her off by tossing out a medicine box.

            

“What wound medicine? I have plenty of medicine here. Besides this box of anti-inflammatories, I also have hemostatic powder…” As she spoke, Ren Chenxi tossed out a large bag of medicinal powder. Instantly, a strong smell of Chinese medicine filled the room.

During her travels, Ren Chenxi had not only prepared a wide variety of medicines, but she had also collected many potent-looking Chinese herbs she encountered on her journeys. For example, this large bag of hemostatic powder was something she had bought from an old Chinese medicine doctor. The powder was ground by the doctor himself and could not only stop bleeding and reduce inflammation but was also very helpful for wound healing. Ren Chenxi had happened to be traveling in the area when she fell and scraped a large patch of skin off her knee. A kind local had given her some of this powder and told her she could buy more from the old doctor.

And so, from this highly skilled Chinese medicine doctor, Ren Chenxi had not only bought a lot of this hemostatic powder but also various other Chinese medicines for things like colds and fevers. Since her backpack had so many slots, she wasn’t worried about these medicines taking up space.

            

It was just a pity that no matter how skilled the old doctor was, he probably couldn’t cure the zombie virus that had spread across the entire world. She wondered how that old Chinese medicine doctor was doing now.

Suddenly recalling the old Chinese medicine doctor she had met on her journey, Ren Chenxi’s mood grew heavy. In contrast, Chen Gu and Zhang Tongqi, who had been looking at Ren Chenxi with displeasure just moments ago, suddenly became incredibly friendly and warm towards her—to the point of being sickeningly sweet.

“Aiya! Xi-jie, this wound medicine of yours… you have so much of it~~~?”

            

“Oh, Chen Gu, what a silly question~ Have you forgotten? Sister Xi has a spatial ability! So her space must be filled with all sorts of medicines, right? Maybe Sister Xi looted an entire pharmacy~”

The disdain in Zhang Tongqi’s eyes as she looked at Ren Chenxi was gone, replaced by pure, unadulterated expectation.

Ren Chenxi was unfazed by Zhang Tongqi’s starkly different attitudes. This is the apocalypse. It’s normal for them to be upset when medicine that’s so important to their close teammate is used on an unrelated stranger like me. If it were me, I’d definitely be upset with Mu Ning too.

            

Turning to meet Mu Ning’s sparkling eyes, which seemed to be waiting for her answer as well, Ren Chenxi suppressed the urge to roll her eyes hard and looked away, bluntly shattering Zhang Tongqi’s fantasy. “My space doesn’t have a whole pharmacy’s worth of medicine, but what I have is more than enough for your teammate!”

“You need to use it too,” Mu Ning said, pointing to the wound on Ren Chenxi’s shoulder with a concerned expression. She reminded her thoughtfully, “Your injury is also very serious. The wound is deep and might have reached the bone. It’s best to see a doctor when we get back to the base…”

“Don’t worry, of course I have enough medicine for myself!” Ren Chenxi impatiently cut off Mu Ning’s concern. Back when I was trying to romance this wooden goddess, she never gave me any response no matter how much I doted on her. Most of the time, she’d just give me a cold look and turn her back. Now she’s being so long-winded with me… What is this? Is this a case of what goes around, comes around?​¹⁰

            

Ren Chenxi’s obviously hostile attitude first stunned Mu Ning, who then stared intently at Ren Chenxi’s averted face, her eyes filled with an unreadable darkness. The moment she had met Ren Chenxi, Mu Ning’s heart had been filled with the ecstasy of having lost and found her again, so much so that she had completely ignored the faint resistance Ren Chenxi had shown her from the very beginning. Now that the danger was temporarily gone and the two had more time to sit and interact, Mu Ning finally realized that the person she had been searching for all this time had returned, but… she seemed to have changed. It wasn’t just her gender and name that had changed; even the way she used to cling to her was gone.

The Ren Muhui of the past had always looked at her with a tenderness and adoration that could drown a person. But this Ren Chenxi now would only dodge her probing gaze. Even on the rare occasions their eyes met, hers were only filled with resistance.

Could it be… that I really got the wrong person? This Ren Chenxi really isn’t Ren Muhui?

            

Mu Ning wanted to question Ren Chenxi further about Ren Muhui, but her gaze inadvertently fell upon her injured shoulder. She held back and, in the end, simply lowered her head and sighed.

Hearing Mu Ning’s heavy sigh, Ren Chenxi’s heart couldn’t help but tremble. Crap, why was I so focused on speaking rashly for temporary satisfaction​¹¹ that I forgot about this wooden goddess’s blackening value​¹²? If she gets upset and whips me, won’t I get a game over on the spot? And also, the wooden goddess has a water-system esper ability. I’m counting on her water supply to survive from now on! If I get on her bad side now, how can I have the face to ask her for water later?

I already told myself to stay calm, to treat the wooden goddess like a stranger. How could I lose control and vent all that pent-up resentment from the past!

            

Ren Chenxi berated herself while desperately trying to think of a way to fix the situation. But she couldn’t suppress the strange little emotions welling up in her heart. In the end, she could only purse her lips and force out an explanation in a stiff voice, “Sorry, I… my shoulder still hurts a little, so I’m not in a great mood. That’s why I sounded… a bit harsh…”

The tense atmosphere between the two made everyone around them tremble with fear. This was especially true for Mu Ning’s teammates; normally, no one would dare to show their Boss such displeasure​¹³. Before, they would have been happy to see their Boss teach this ungrateful​¹⁴ woman a lesson, but now… they were counting on the life-saving medicine in that huge space of hers to treat Xiao Jia!

“Aiya, she’s an injured person, after all! It’s understandable, totally understandable~ Xi-jie, uh, if your wound is uncomfortable, you should get some rest for now!”

            

“Yeah, yeah, she was bitten by a mutated wolf, so it’s normal to be in a bad mood. The Boss also fought for a long time just now. While there are no mutated beasts or zombies bothering us, let’s all take a good rest~”

While Chen Gu and Zhang Tongqi were busy trying to smooth things over, Tang Ying pulled Song Xin​¹⁵ and Chang Ling​¹⁶ aside to whisper, “Why do I smell the stink of angsty romance​¹⁷! Ah! The substitute lover trope​¹⁸… I love you so deeply, but you only see me as him… Ugh, it’s so tragic!”

Song Xin & Chang Ling: ???

            

We don’t understand, but we are deeply shaken!

---

The author has something to say:

It’s not a substitute romance trope, it’s not a substitute romance trope, it’s not a substitute romance trope. Important things must be said three times.

            

Strange, where did everyone get the idea that this is a substitute romance?

---

---