My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 39

by Little Panda

Poisoned

Watching the person and the cat hugging each other so intimately again, accompanied not only by soft “meow meow meows” but also a constant stream of praise like “Tantan, you’re so amazing!” and “Tantan is so incredible~,” Mu Ning inevitably felt sour with jealousy again.

She had just dropped so many hints about how well she had treated this little cat. She wasn’t expecting much gratitude from Ren Chenxi; it would have been enough if her attitude just improved slightly in the future. But what was the result? This person had completely ignored her words about how she gave Tantan good food, good drink, and a good bed, and only heard the part about Tantan being a mutated cat? So in your eyes, there’s only the cat, is that it?

She glared coldly at Ren Chenxi and Tantan. But when she saw the bright smile on Ren Chenxi’s face, Mu Ning froze. Back then, Ren Muhui had worn the same kind of smile—happy, proud, like he was presenting a treasure—when he wanted to introduce Tantan to her. Tantan must have truly been Ren Muhui’s treasure, right? And back then, whenever Ren Muhui had anything even slightly good, he couldn’t wait to present it to her.

It was just a pity…

That bright smile had ultimately frozen in an instant because of a single sentence from her, and then it vanished. In its place was heartache? Sadness? And many more… emotions she couldn’t decipher…

Mu Ning stared greedily at the rare smile on Ren Chenxi’s face. The more she looked, the more she felt… they were identical. Ren Chenxi and Ren Muhui were truly identical! They were merely twin siblings, so could their habits, smiles, and even auras be the same?

Ren Chenxi didn’t notice the color in Mu Ning’s eyes deepening as she stared, so deep it was as if she wanted to swallow her whole. She was just happily lifting her chin, dodging Tantan’s repeated affectionate nuzzles and snuggles.

“Alright, Tantan, that tickles~” Though she said that, she couldn’t bear to loosen her arms around Tantan for even a second.

Nearby, Jian Dan watched Ren Chenxi’s endless cat-petting with envy, desperately resisting the urge to go over and get a touch herself. She praised softly, “Tantan is so cute and beautiful~ Look at its fur, so smooth and sleek. It’s been raised so well!”

Jian Dan’s words finally made Ren Chenxi’s frantic petting pause. Although she didn’t want to admit it, for the past two years of the apocalypse, Mu Ning, who hated cats, seemed to have… actually taken good care of Tantan…

Ren Chenxi gently smoothed down Tantan’s long fur. It was very sleek, very smooth, without a single tangle…

“Thank you.”

It was a long-awaited “thank you,” but Mu Ning no longer cared. What concerned her more right now was…

“I raised Tantan for two years, and Zhang Tongqi and Sun Jia also took care of it for two years. But in these two years, it went from initially flattening its ears into ‘airplane ears’¹ and hissing at us defensively, to gradually trusting us and starting to eat the food we prepared. It would obediently let us bathe and groom it, and occasionally, when it was in a good mood, it would let us pet its back. But that was it. It has never been as intimate with any of us as it is with you. And the last person it was this clingy with was Ren Muhui.”

After she drove Ren Muhui and Tantan away that day, he never brought Tantan to see her again. But in fact, Mu Ning had seen Tantan a few more times at the university—on the lawn, by the sports field, under a long bench. Every time, Ren Muhui was by its side. Towards other curious students who passed by, Tantan was always completely aloof, just as it had been towards them for the past two years. But with Ren Muhui, Tantan would circle his legs, nuzzle his chin coquettishly, and meow in a voice that was both delicate and soft.

Yes, just like the sounds it was making at Ren Chenxi right now. The meows came one after another, mixed with a very, very loud purr. But in the two years after Ren Muhui disappeared and before Ren Chenxi appeared, she had only ever heard Tantan’s wary and threatening hisses. Later, after they became familiar with it, Tantan seemed to have gone mute, not even letting out a single “meow meow meow”…

Would Tantan be so affectionate, so clingy, with its owner’s twin sister whom it had never met?

After listening quietly to Mu Ning, Ren Chenxi showed no sign of panic. She just rubbed Tantan’s little head again as it tried to continue nuzzling her chin, and replied lightly, “Hmm… is that so? Then maybe it’s just fate between me and Tantan? It likes my brother, so now, loving the house and its crow², it likes me too?” After asking, Ren Chenxi proactively rubbed her chin against Tantan’s fluffy little head and asked with a smile, “Is that right, Tantan?”

And Tantan cooperatively meowed even more enthusiastically.

Mu Ning’s face was grim as she watched the affectionate person and cat. She didn’t believe a single word of Ren Chenxi’s answer. But even if she didn’t believe it, what could she do? The person before her, whether in appearance, habits, smile, or even Tantan’s affection for her, was identical to the Ren Muhui in her memory. The only thing that was completely different was the look in her eyes when she looked at her.

Mu Ning fell silent, and Ren Chenxi didn’t care. So what if Mu Ning suspected her? Her player information had been altered by the system! So Ren Muhui was Ren Muhui, and Ren Chenxi was Ren Chenxi. If Ren Muhui dared to let her carry the pot³, she could just push all the blame onto him. What was there to be afraid of? Ren Chenxi smiled faintly, holding Tantan. She paid Mu Ning no more mind and turned to ask Zhang Tongqi frankly, “Where’s that injured friend of yours?”

“Ah? Oh! Sun Jia… Sun Jia is still inside! Strange, why is it so quiet?”

Prompted by Ren Chenxi, Zhang Tongqi, who had been in a state of shock, finally came back to her senses. She shot a resentful glance at Tantan, who was refusing to leave Ren Chenxi’s arms, and led Ren Chenxi to Sun Jia’s room.

For two years, she had practically worshipped Tantan like a little ancestor⁴. And what did she get in return? When it was happy, it would grudgingly let you pet its back, and only its back—everywhere else was off-limits. When it was unhappy, it would turn hostile without a second thought. No matter how eagerly you called, it would just lie there pretending to be a blanket and wouldn’t even bird you⁵.

Zhang Tongqi had always thought this was because Tantan, like most cats, was just that aloof by nature. But the moment this Ren Chenxi appeared… what aloofness, what ancestor! This was clearly a licking cat⁶, wasn’t it?

And so, Zhang Tongqi led the way at the front with Ren Chenxi following, and Mu Ning trailed behind Ren Chenxi. Although there was a person between them, their moods were identical at that moment… sour. One was sour over a person, the other was sour over a cat.

The door to Sun Jia’s room was ajar, probably because Tantan hadn’t closed it when it ran out. Zhang Tongqi told Ren Chenxi that when their team went out to search for medicine and other supplies, they couldn’t rest easy about Sun Jia, so they left Ge Yijin, a speed esper, to stand guard outside the room. Inside, Sun Jia had the 4th-order mutated cat, Tantan, for company. Ge Yijin wasn’t here now; he had probably gone back to the third floor to catch up on sleep after standing guard all night. As for Tantan, it likely heard the voices outside and opened the door to run out on its own.

Tantan was very smart. If a door wasn’t locked, it would jump up and hook the handle to open it. Ren Chenxi had seen it do that back at the apartment. So when Zhang Tongqi said Tantan had opened the door itself, Ren Chenxi wasn’t surprised at all. Instead, she looked down, stroked Tantan’s little head again, and praised, “Tantan is so amazing, you can even be a little bodyguard now~”

“…” Tsk tsk tsk, this person and cat are disgustingly lovey-dovey!!!

Zhang Tongqi turned her face away, feeling sour. She turned to push open Sun Jia’s door, calling out loudly as she did, “Xiao Jia, are you up? We brought back medicine for you… Huh, why is Xiao Jia still sleeping?”

“Still sleeping? Could it be that her wound was hurting all night again, so she didn’t sleep well and hasn’t woken up yet?” another girl asked, looking into the room with a worried expression. Her voice was soft, as if afraid of waking Sun Jia.

“Does this happen often?” Ren Chenxi noticed the word “again” and also looked into the room, though the dim environment made it hard to see clearly due to the curtains.

“Boss, should we wake Xiao Jia up?” Zhang Tongqi carefully backed away from the doorway, her hand on the door, unsure if she should close it again for Sun Jia.

Mu Ning glanced at the dim room, then at Ren Chenxi, and said in a low voice, “Wake her up, right? We don’t know how long she’s been asleep or if she’s had breakfast. Let’s wake her up for lunch first.”

“That’s right! It’s almost time for lunch!” At Mu Ning’s words, Zhang Tongqi hurried into the room and walked straight to the window. With a swish, she pulled the curtains open.

Sunlight from outside rushed into the room, and the once dim space instantly brightened. But what surprised Ren Chenxi was that, despite the room being filled with sunlight, the injured person on the bed showed no sign of waking up.

This… isn’t she sleeping a little too soundly? Ren Chenxi followed them into the room and looked strangely at the lump on the bed. The first thing that caught her eye was the health bar, which was only half full. And then, next to the health bar, was… a debuff!

Seeing that two-layer debuff, Ren Chenxi’s expression instantly turned ugly.

“What’s wrong?” Noticing Ren Chenxi’s expression, Mu Ning asked hurriedly, “Is Sun Jia’s condition very bad?”

“…” This is way beyond a question of ‘bad’ or ‘not bad’ anymore! Ren Chenxi looked at Mu Ning hesitantly, her gaze returning to that debuff. “This friend of yours, does she… also do drugs?”

That’s right. The debuff on Sun Jia was identical to the one Ren Chenxi had just seen on Fan Juntian. The only difference was that Sun Jia only had 2 layers, while Fan Juntian had 5.

“How could that be! Don’t talk nonsense! Xiao Jia never hangs out with Fan Juntian and his group, how could she… do drugs!” The girl who had been looking worried also followed them into the room. After hearing Ren Chenxi’s words, her face immediately darkened, and her tone was no longer as polite as before.

“Wu Tong, calm down.” Mu Ning gave the girl a light glance, then turned back to Ren Chenxi. “How can you tell that Sun Jia is on drugs?”

How could she tell? From the debuff, of course! But not knowing how to explain a debuff to someone, Ren Chenxi was considering just bullshitting about being able to do physiognomy⁷ when she had another realization. The debuff was “drug addiction,” which only proved that this Sun Jia was poisoned and had acquired an addiction status. It didn’t necessarily mean she was using drugs recreationally, right? And judging by the attitude of Mu Ning’s group, they were clearly at odds with Fan Juntian. This gentle and delicate-looking girl didn’t seem like the type to fool around⁸ and do drugs with a scumbag like Fan Juntian!

But Fan Juntian… Ren Chenxi had a gut feeling that Sun Jia’s addiction was still related to him. Looking at the girl on the bed, her eyes still tightly shut and her face pale, a bold conjecture arose in Ren Chenxi’s mind. She didn’t answer Mu Ning’s question. Instead, she stared straight at the girl named Wu Tong and asked in a slightly more tactful tone, “Are you sure Sun Jia has never been with Fan Juntian’s group?”

“Nonsense! I’m certain! And after Xiao Jia got injured, she’s been recovering in her own room. We even bring her meals. How could she possibly go do drugs with Fan Juntian!”

“What about before she was injured?”

“She was with us before she was injured! We all move together, so how would I not know if she was doing drugs?”

Seeing how much Wu Tong cared about her saying Sun Jia was on drugs, Ren Chenxi offered a sincere apology. “I’m sorry, I misspoke. Sun Jia probably isn’t doing drugs, but… she might be poisoned…”

The author has something to say:

Why are you all so impatient! You can’t eat hot tofu when you’re in a hurry!⁹ Have some taste, will you! Of course, an identity¹⁰ has to be exposed slowly to have any flair~~~

Footnotes

‘Airplane ears’ is a term for when a cat flattens its ears and points them to the side, resembling the wings of an airplane. It is a sign of anxiety, fear, or aggression.
A Chinese idiom, ‘ai wu ji wu’, that literally means ‘love the house and its crow’. It means that if you love someone, you love everything and everyone connected to them.
To ‘carry the pot’ (beiguo) is slang for taking the blame or being a scapegoat for something, often unfairly. It is the counterpart to ‘shuai guo’ (throwing the pot), which means to shift blame.
A term of endearment, literally ‘little ancestor’ (xiao zuzong), used for someone who is doted on, pampered, and often difficult to please, as if they were a revered elder.
A vulgar slang phrase, ‘niao dou bu niao ni yixia’, meaning to completely ignore someone. The character ‘niao’ (bird) is also slang for a penis, giving the phrase a dismissive and contemptuous flavor.
A play on the internet slang ‘tian gou’ (licking dog), which refers to a sycophant or ‘simp’. A ‘licking cat’ (tian mao) is therefore a cat that is being uncharacteristically fawning and clingy.
Physiognomy, or ‘kan mianxiang’, is the traditional practice of assessing a person’s character or future from their outer appearance, especially the face.
The original term is ‘guihun’, which literally means ‘ghost mix’. It’s slang for fooling around or messing about, usually with negative connotations like having illicit affairs or hanging out with a bad crowd.
A classic proverb, ‘xinjí chī buliǎo rè dòufu’, meaning that impatience will not lead to success. It’s the equivalent of ‘haste makes waste’ or ‘more haste, less speed’.
‘Mǎjiǎ’ (vest) is internet slang for an online alias or alternate identity. To ‘bā mǎjiǎ’ (strip off the vest) means to expose someone’s real identity.

Footnotes

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