“Xiran… what exactly are you thinking…”
Linlin’s voice was soft, almost as if she were talking to herself.
“Linlin?”
Mom’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts.
“What’s wrong, Mom’s precious baby?”
Linlin snapped back to reality and realized she was still in Mom’s arms.
“It’s nothing…” she said. “I just feel a little tired and want to rest for a bit.”
“Alright.”
Linlin’s mom let her go.
Linlin stood up and handed the photo album back.
“Don’t rest too long, or you won’t be able to sleep tonight.”
Linlin’s mom leaned in and kissed her on the forehead.
A strand of Mom’s hair brushed Linlin’s eye. She closed her eyes for a second, then opened them again.
“Mm-hmm.”
She answered, turned around, and walked out of the room.
The door closed behind her.
Standing in the hallway, Linlin let out a long breath.
The puzzle pieces in her head were still spinning — Xiran disappearing at eleven, her whole family dying overnight.
The more she thought, the more tangled it got. She shook her head and headed back to her own room.
The moment she pushed the door open, she froze.
Ruan Yuan was squatting on the floor in front of A’Li.
The little pink fox was still tied up exactly as it had been since last night — Ruan Yuan clearly had no intention of untying it.
Because it was bound, A’Li’s four tiny legs couldn’t move at all. Its whole body was flipped onto its back like an upside-down turtle.
Ruan Yuan poked its belly with one finger.
A’Li let out a pitiful “Wuu,” waving all four paws helplessly in the air.
Ruan Yuan poked it again, then started pushing — rolling the little fox from left to right, then right to left, then left to right again.
A’Li tumbled across the floor like a fluffy little ball, belly up, completely unable to fight back.
“Wuu… wuu…”
Its cries were full of grievance.
Linlin stood at the doorway, watching the scene.
“…”
“Stop bullying A’Li.”
Of course, Linlin’s tone came out soft and almost coquettish.
She walked over, crouched down, and began untying the ropes around A’Li.
Ruan Yuan looked up.
“Linlin’s back? Where did you go?”
“I looked into Xiran’s past a bit.”
Linlin answered casually while her hands kept working.
The ropes were tied pretty tightly. It took her a while to loosen them all.
The moment A’Li was free, it flipped over, scrambled up, and shook out its fur.
Then it trotted straight to Linlin’s leg, plopped down, and rested its little head on her foot.
Its amber eyes stayed warily fixed on Ruan Yuan.
Linlin reached down and rubbed its small head. The fur was soft and warm.
“So? What did you find out?”
Ruan Yuan sat down beside her, resting her chin on her hand as she watched.
Linlin thought for a moment, then told her everything she had learned in Mom’s room — the photo album, the childhood pictures, Xiran, how she disappeared after age eleven, how her whole family had died overnight.
She even shared her guess that Xiran’s “being bullied” might be a form of self-punishment.
Ruan Yuan listened in silence for a few seconds.
Then she spoke.
“So in order to complete this task, we need to make Xiran open up and tell us exactly what happened between her and the original Bai Linlin when they were eleven.”
“Mm.”
“But when Xiran remembers the past she loses control, so we’ll need someone strong enough to stop her and calm her down.”
“Mm, that’s right, Ruan Yuan-jiejie.”
Linlin nodded.
Then she looked up at Ruan Yuan.
“By the way, I still don’t really know how strong you are.”
She paused.
“To be honest, I have no idea what the power gap is between high-level estates and low-level ones.”
Ruan Yuan blinked, then smiled.
“Looks like Linlin has really been underestimating me.”
She raised her hand and swiped through the air.
The familiar semi-transparent panel popped up.
But this time it wasn’t Linlin’s.
It was Ruan Yuan’s.
[Player Panel]
[Name: Ruan Yuan]
[Estate Level: Level 22]
[Class: Advanced Ark Knight]
[Health Limit: 3694/3694]
[Shield Limit: 3859/3859]
[Attack Power: 247.5]
(A single casual strike can pierce straight through a heavy armored vehicle)
[Armor Value: 210.4]
(Immune to all conventional firepower; only top-tier heavy weapons can break through)
[Critical Hit Attributes]
[Crit Rate: 311.7%]
[Crit Avoidance: 265.4%]
[Crit Damage Bonus: 53.5%]
[Crit Damage Reduction: 72.0%]
[Combat Power: 1400–1800 range]
[Evaluation: Walking Missile]
Linlin stared at the panel, her eyes slowly widening.
To be honest, most of the numbers made no sense to her.
Crit rate, crit avoidance, damage bonuses — they were all just gibberish.
But she understood the two remark lines perfectly.
“A single casual strike can pierce straight through a heavy armored vehicle.”
“Immune to all conventional firepower.”
And that evaluation.
“Walking missile.”
Linlin fell silent.
She thought back to her own evaluation:
Combat Power: 6
Evaluation: Good for nothing but being cute.
And the person in front of her had a combat power of 1400 to 1800.
That was… three hundred times hers?
Ruan Yuan watched Linlin’s slightly dazed reaction.
“Well? Scared yet?”
Ruan Yuan’s voice carried a smile; she was clearly waiting for the shocked expression.
Linlin looked up at her, then blinked.
Seeing Ruan Yuan’s proud face, Linlin decided to play dumb.
“I don’t really get it.”
She said, tone perfectly calm.
“But three hundred of me… so Ruan Yuan-jiejie must be really strong, right?”
Ruan Yuan froze for a second.
Three hundred Linlins?
A picture suddenly flashed through her mind.
Three hundred Linlins, all wearing pink skirts, lined up in a row.
All of them blushing, all of them staring at her with wide eyes.
All of them tiny, all of them soft, all of them smelling sweet.
Three hundred of them.
She could hug three hundred, smell three hundred, touch three hundred…
“Yeah.”
She blurted out.
“It would be so nice if there really were three hundred Linlins.”
She grinned from ear to ear, the corners of her mouth refusing to stay down.
Linlin stared at that silly expression.
She knew that look too well. It was the exact face Ruan Yuan made every time she thought of something weird.
“…”
She was speechless.
Wait.
Where the hell did this girl’s brain just go?
I was talking about combat power comparison! What are you imagining?!
Three hundred of me? Three hundred of me for you to touch and smell?
Are you daydreaming?!
A’Li, still lying against Linlin’s leg, looked up at Ruan Yuan’s expression, then at Linlin’s speechless face.
It scooted closer to Linlin’s calf and let out a tiny “wuu wuu,” as if saying, This person is not normal. Let’s stay away.
Linlin glanced down at it.
She sighed.
“Ruan Yuan-jiejie.”
“Hm?”
“Can you please think normally for once?”
Ruan Yuan tilted her head, looking perfectly innocent.
“But I am thinking normally.”
Linlin: “…”
Fine.
You win.