The man quickly pulled Lingdang back onto the shore.

Lingdang was mostly fine. She’d just swallowed a few mouthfuls of water, and kept coughing.

Liang Sheng studied the two people sitting on the beach, both still gasping for breath, then asked, “Do you two know each other?”

The man shook his head and asked back, “What’s up with this girl?”

“There’s a bit of a problem here, I guess.” Liang Sheng pointed at her own head.

“You her family?”

Liang Sheng shook her head and denied it. “No. I don’t know her. We’ve only met once.”

“What’s your name?” the blond guy asked Lingdang.

Lingdang told him her name, and the blond guy started asking where her home was.

Liang Sheng stopped him and said, “This girl has amnesia. She doesn’t remember where home is. In a little while, she’ll even forget you.”

“And you? What’s your name?” the blond guy asked Liang Sheng again.

Liang Sheng made one up on the spot. “Liang... Liang Feng.” She didn’t want to tell a stranger her real name.

The guy laughed happily. “This is my first time hearing such a weird name. Liang Feng? Hahaha.”

He didn’t look like a heroic lifesaver at all anymore. If anything, he laughed like an idiot.

“What’s your name?” Liang Sheng ignored his mockery and, out of spite, decided she’d make fun of his name too.

“He Wennuo.”

A perfectly proper name. There was absolutely nothing to pick at.

Just as the two fell into awkward silence, a shout came from the distance.

Talk about bad timing. That old maid came wobbling over again from afar. Not that she’d come early, and definitely not at a good moment. If that blond man hadn’t shown up to save her, Lingdang would’ve been dead by now.

“Oh, my poor miss—!” The old maid threw herself onto Lingdang, bawling her eyes out, snot and tears everywhere. “If you died... how am I supposed to live on? My poor miss—!”

The way she carried on, with that huge mouth of hers, it was like she wanted to bite a chunk out of the sky.

So dramatic...

Liang Sheng’s mouth opened a little too. She felt like she could never open hers that wide.

“I miss him...” Lingdang covered her face and cried.

“I’ll call him and have him come over!” The old maid pulled out her phone and made the call.

“Hello?”

An icy voice came through the phone, cold to the bone.

Liang Sheng tilted her head and listened carefully. She’d never heard that voice before. It was too cold, like it didn’t belong to this world.

The old maid started sobbing again. “Oh, please come back quick! Miss is having another episode! She misses you again, and this time she almost... almost drowned!”

The voice on the other end finally gained a trace of human warmth. There was panic in it now.

“Where are you? I’m coming right now! Calm Lan Yueying down first!”

Lan Yueying?

Why Lan Yueying?

Wasn’t this amnesiac girl’s name Lingdang? How did it suddenly become a different name?

Liang Sheng stared at Lingdang in shock.

Lan Yueying. That name sounded so familiar. She had definitely seen it in the book before. So why couldn’t she remember? Her mind was completely blank.

“Is he coming to see me?” The girl who was apparently either Lan Yueying or Lingdang let a tear slip from her eye. It hung from her chin, trembling, refusing to fall.

The old maid didn’t answer Lan Yueying’s question. She looked at the two of them warily and asked, “Could you step away for a bit? We have something private to discuss.”

Liang Sheng didn’t really care, but she did feel a little indignant on behalf of He Wennuo, who had risked himself to save someone. He saved your young lady, and you can’t even say thank you?

Still, it had nothing to do with her. She only sighed inwardly and left.

“How about I treat you to a meal?” He Wennuo stuck close behind Liang Sheng and took the initiative to invite her out.

“No...” Liang Sheng had been about to refuse.

But then she thought about it. Free food was free food. Why turn it down when someone was offering to pay?

So she instantly put on a master-level face change.

Liang Sheng turned around at once with a cheeky grin, smiling in a way that looked almost monkey-like, and agreed.

As she looked He Wennuo up and down, she noticed he was soaked through from head to toe.

“Watch out, sweetheart,” He Wennuo suddenly said.

Huh?

Who?

What sweetheart?

Who was sweetheart?

Liang Sheng stared at He Wennuo in confusion.

“Watch out, sweetheart!” he shouted even louder this time.

Liang Sheng was stunned. No way. They’d only just met, and this guy was already this enthusiastic? Sigh, it must be because her charm was just too—ow, f*ck!

Bang.

Liang Sheng dropped to the ground on impact.

He Wennuo looked at Liang Sheng, who was crouched there tearfully clutching her head, and went speechless. Then he burst into merciless laughter.

“I told you to watch out for the pole, watch out for the pole! Why are you this dense?!”

Liang Sheng suddenly remembered. Before she’d transmigrated, she’d seen videos like this while scrolling online.

She really was stupid...

Liang Sheng covered her face and howled.

“Big brother~ pick up the phone~ pick up the phone, pretty please~”

A loli-style ringtone rang out. Liang Sheng looked He Wennuo over like she was inspecting some creepy uncle, because the sound had clearly come from him.

But he didn’t look embarrassed at all. He openly took out his phone and answered it.

“Hello? Excuse me, is lia... is that girl from earlier next to you?”

That same cold, detached voice came through again.

He Wennuo was obviously taken aback. He glanced at Liang Sheng, who was crouching on the ground and holding her forehead, then gave a quiet “Mm.” He had no idea what was going on.

“Can you let her answer the phone?”

It was clearly phrased as a question, but it carried a force that couldn’t be refused.

Liang Sheng took the phone and asked warily, “How do you know He Wennuo’s number?”

The other side chuckled softly and didn’t answer.

“Can you come over for a moment? Lingdang says she wants to see you.”

Liang Sheng hesitated for a while, rubbing the ground with her heel, then asked carefully, “Can I not go?”

Silence.

Then Lingdang’s voice came from the other end. “Liang Sheng, can you come over for a bit? I have something to say to you.”

“See?” the cold male voice said again. “Lingdang wants to see you, not me. So you don’t need to be so wary.”

Liang Sheng didn’t hesitate any longer and agreed to go. She’d wanted to get to the bottom of the truth for a while now anyway.

Still... basic precautions were necessary.

He Wennuo asked if she wanted him to go with her. Liang Sheng shook her head and said, “You should stay out of this. You’re a good person.”

Ding. Good Guy Card issued.

Back in the dorm, she opened her suitcase and took out a black plastic bag buried at the bottom.

Inside was a can of pepper spray, a stun baton, and a fruit knife.

When she saw the fruit knife, Liang Sheng suddenly missed Huanai terribly.

If Huannai were here, she definitely wouldn’t have to do this herself. A protective yandere like that was really hard to find.

What would happen next, Liang Sheng didn’t know.

But she wanted to see for herself who this person really was, and who Lingdang really was.

Or maybe... what hidden secrets this world, and this system, were really hiding.

The best choice was probably not to go, right?

Liang Sheng had almost reached the seaside when she suddenly chickened out. She was just a weak girl. There was no way she could beat some tall, burly man.

Forget it. Better... run.

“Mmph! Mmph mmph!”

A large hand suddenly clamped over Liang Sheng’s mouth. Before she could react, everything went black, and she passed out.

When she slowly came to, the first thing she saw was a man’s back.

He stood by the blue sea, and she couldn’t make out his face.

“Who are you?” Liang Sheng’s mouth wasn’t gagged, but she was extremely tense.

The man slowly turned around.

It was a stranger’s face.

Was this... a ghost?

Scars crisscrossed all over the man’s face. His eyes were gloomy and lifeless. He looked terrifying. Cold sweat had already soaked through Liang Sheng’s back.

This man was probably in his thirties.

Her teeth chattered nonstop. Liang Sheng didn’t dare fight him head-on, so she could only beg in a low voice.

“Please let me go. I can give you money, and I haven’t done anything to offend you...”

The man walked toward Liang Sheng step by step, crouched down, and stared straight into her eyes.

“Do you know who Lingdang is?”

“I... I don’t know.” Liang Sheng’s voice had started trembling too.

“She is my lover. My wife. My little sister. My daughter. My savior. My god. My body and soul. My everything.”

The man’s voice grew stranger and stranger. What he said sounded very similar to what Lingdang had said not long ago.

“Speak!” The man grabbed Liang Sheng by the jaw and asked through gritted teeth, “Why did you push Lingdang into the sea?!”

“I didn’t!” Liang Sheng cried out in pain. His grip was so strong, it felt like he was going to crush her bones.

The man flung her face aside, pulled out a handkerchief, wiped his hand with visible disgust, then tossed it into the sea.

He beckoned to the old maid in the distance. She hurried over with quick little steps, bent at the waist like a giant shrimp that couldn’t straighten up, not daring to look him in the face.

“Was she the one who pushed Miss into the water?” the man asked, pointing at Liang Sheng.

The old maid nodded frantically. “It was her, yes, her! I saw it with my own eyes! She’s the one who pushed Miss into the water!”

“You... you’re slandering me!” Liang Sheng was so furious her mouth twisted.

“Where’s Lingdang? Ask her! She went into the sea herself. It had absolutely nothing to do with me, okay?!”

The man’s face remained expressionless. “Lingdang needs rest. And she doesn’t remember being pushed into the sea.”

Liang Sheng regretted this so much.

Why had she come?

Curiosity really did kill the cat.

“I really didn’t push her! I swear it to heaven!” Liang Sheng’s hands were tied, so she couldn’t raise them. She could only tilt her face toward the sky, hoping he’d understand how sincere she was.

After a long silence, the man said, “Untie her hands.”

“Thank you, thank you! Um... big bro, you really are a good person, haha!” Liang Sheng was overjoyed.

The man crooked a finger at her. “Come here.”

“N-no, it’s fine, big bro. I’m dirty. I haven’t bathed in ages!” Liang Sheng was terrified and started babbling nonsense.

“Come here. I won’t hurt you.” The man’s tone suddenly turned gentle.

“I...” Liang Sheng didn’t move. She kept backing away, preparing to run.

The man’s expression turned vicious. He strode over to Liang Sheng. She spun and ran, but there was no fighting strength with strength. She was lifted up like a chick.

Splash.

Water exploded around her.

A cold laugh sounded by her ear.

“Heh. You can have a taste of what Yueying just went through.”

End of Volume One