Huh?

Nana Toki didn’t even look back. She whipped her arm, a wind through bamboo, and slapped toward the sound behind her.

"Hiss... Suo Sen, are you out of your mind?"

Chongming Yan snagged her wrist. Warm anger climbed his face like a rising sun before a storm. He inhaled to lecture her. "You—"

Before the word landed, pain drilled into his gut like an iron spike.

He dropped his gaze. Nana’s other hand held a knife, a silver fang from nowhere, driving for his abdomen.

She didn’t pull the blow; the force hammered in like a falling stone.

Pain bit him. His fingers loosened. Nana slipped her trapped hand free like a fish in dark water.

This Protagonist Lord is kinda twisted, trying to cop a feel in shadowed corridors.

Host, are you truly shameless, or just pretending?

The System was stunned, thunderstruck under clear skies.

Even words this brazen—he had the nerve to spit them like seeds on dry earth!

Mind your own business.

Nana pushed the knife in again, a cold river cutting deeper. Since we’re here, might as well finish it—save me future moth-troubles.

Quit being edgy, Host! You can’t kill him.

The System didn’t even want to snark; its voice was a tired wind.

If you could kill the Protagonist Lord, what plot would be left to grow?

Before the System finished, Nana saw the Protagonist Lord she’d stabbed ignore the bleeding wound. He swung, a thunderbolt, fist rushing for her face.

"Hiss..."

If I hadn’t reacted, that punch would’ve sent me flying like a leaf in a squall.

Dodging Chongming Yan’s strike, Nana felt a cold ripple in her chest. That speed and weight weren’t something a normal male high-schooler could summon.

Did this guy turn on cheats?

Yeah. Cheats are on.

The System went speechless, a crow on a bare branch.

He’s the main character. Even in a broken world, a protagonist carries a halo, a tide that lifts him. How can a mere Host match that?

Host, go wash up and sleep.

Nana Toki: "..."

What a slippery thing.

Can’t you just do the mission cleanly, not tangle with them?

They came to me first, okay?

Nana felt wronged, like rain blamed for the flood. The heroine chatted me up out of nowhere, then the hero tried to take advantage.

Ah—what an unfair world, like dice loaded in someone else’s hand!

System: "..."

Host, enough.

"Chongming! Chongming, are you okay?"

Closest to Nana, Yiyi Chen saw blood seeping from his belly. Her little face went pale, like paper under winter light.

Her finger shook as she pointed at Nana’s hand.

"You... you lunatic!"

"Eh—take it as a compliment."

Nana tucked the knife back into her pocket, then put on a smile bright as lacquer, and looked at Chongming with exaggerated concern.

"Oh ho, isn’t this our wise and mighty boss of Tinglan? My bad, my bad, I thought a creep was sneaking up on me. My hand went heavy—terribly sorry! You alright? Ah, there’s blood. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Get him patched up; he won’t die."

She said sorry with a breeze, but Chongming Yan saw no apology on her face, only the chill shimmer of mockery.

"Uh..."

Chongming pressed his wounded belly, his face dark as the bottom of a wok.

In that instant, he’d thought he was going to die—eyes opening to the cold moon.

This woman meant it.

No joke in her breath. She stabbed with a must-kill intent, that ghost-born knife from nowhere.

Yet for some reason, she’d stopped at the edge, like a blade biting bark.

"Suo Sen, what do you mean by this?"

With Yiyi Chen’s help, Chongming stood and clutched his abdomen, his expression black as storm-cloud.

"What do I mean?" Nana laughed where she stood, sun on still water. "I already said it. It wasn’t on purpose. Don’t tell me you plan to pin this on me."

"Bullshit! You clearly tried to kill Chongming!"

Holding him up, Yiyi stared at the blood slipping through his fingers like red threads, and she shouted at Nana, voice sharp as a broken flute, "You maniac!"

"I’m not deaf. Why scream?"

Seeing Yiyi blazingly furious, Nana kept her face calm, plucking at her ear as if picking a peach. "And if I did want to kill him, so what? You gonna stop me? If not for a damn luck aura shielding him, he’d already be dead."

Saying that, Nana drew the sharp knife from her pocket again, a sliver of winter moon. A playful smile curved her lips.

"Shall we continue? See how long that dogshit fortune can hold?"

"You—!"

Yiyi Chen blanched and fell silent, fear dimming her eyes like dusk. She could only stand by Chongming and keep him steady.

"Why are you bullying Yiyi?"

Chongming pulled Yiyi behind him, a wall against wind, and glared at Nana. "Can’t you stand seeing her live better than you?"

His tone carried that iron-disappointed weight, like a teacher with a broken ruler.

"Suo Sen, you don’t strike me as a vain woman."

"No, no, no. I am exactly the woman who can’t stand others living better than me."

Nana let out a cold laugh, knife balanced like a heron on a reed. "And which eye saw me bullying Yiyi? Does every accident in this place get stapled to me?"

"It’s just you and Yiyi around here. Who else could it be?"

"Maybe she tripped herself."

Nana pointed at Yiyi’s face, amusement rippling like fish scales. "She’s a top student. Maybe she was thinking hard and walked right into a utility pole."

"No... that’s not right!"

Suddenly, Yiyi popped out from behind Chongming to stir the pot. "It was—you pushed me!"

Then she shrank back again, masking fear like a doe in thorns.

Watching that performance, Nana almost clapped, laughter like bells kept in a pocket.

So that tigress turned into a frail willow because the Protagonist Lord is backing her.

Impressive. Impressive.

Worthy of a leading lady—such soap-opera flair should be on a set, not a sidewalk.

"Suo Sen, at this point, what else can you say!"

Chongming held his bleeding belly, anger thickening on his face like gathering storm. "I thought the last plan leak was just your slip-up. Looks like it’s more than that!"

I’m done.

Nana was speechless, a kite twist-tangled in the wind.

Urban school romance, huh. A male lead that trusts the female lead unconditionally—that lightning strike actually got me.

Think whatever you want.

Nana rolled her eyes, not eager to squabble with this duo. Her mood was a pond under frost.

If I could kill them, I’d have done it already, clean and quiet. Why leave time for clowns to jump?

"If you don’t apologize to Yiyi today, you’re not leaving."

Seeing Nana turn to go, Chongming thought she was guilty and surged forward to grab her wrist.

But—

"Get lost."

Nana turned her head. Her expression was ice on stone.