The next morning, everything was as usual.
After spending the night together, all the conflicts between the mother and daughter had dissolved.
Fu Nanzhi, aside from tossing and turning a bit at first because she missed Shen Yi, slept quite soundly beside her mother later.
After finishing the breakfast prepared by Ji Shulan, Fu Nanzhi headed to the company as usual.
Once she finished handling her tasks, she took out her phone and started bothering Shen Yi.
Yes, Fu Nanzhi had now also learned to slack off.
Learning good habits is hard, but picking up bad ones is effortless.
Her fingers tapped rapidly on the screen as she complained to Shen Yi about how much she had missed him the previous night.
Shen Yi’s reply was,
“The revolution is not yet complete, comrade. Keep up the good work, and please continue your undercover mission, Comrade Nanzhi!”
Fu Nanzhi curved her lips in a smile and joined in the playful tone,
“Understood! Mission assured.”
She then sent a sticker of a cat saluting with the caption “Yes, sir!”
She decided to secretly devise a comprehensive plan to first comfort and then win over her mother, hoping to persuade her to switch sides.
“Good. When victory comes, the organization will commend you!”
Shen Yi’s reply made Fu Nanzhi hug her phone and giggle foolishly.
Just as she was about to ask about the specifics of the commendation, there was a sudden knock at the door.
“Knock knock knock…”
“Come in.”
Fu Nanzhi straightened up immediately, assuming a serious expression and pretending to look through some documents, while secretly typing a quick message under the table.
“Love you.jpg.”
She didn’t have time to type anything more.
The door opened a crack, and Zhang Rui poked his head in, saying,
“Attorney Fu, the department is organizing a free health check-up. Are you signing up?”
“If you want to join, just let us know in the group chat.”
Fu Nanzhi was momentarily taken aback and instinctively replied,
“Alright, got it. I’ll think about it.”
Zhang Rui had just been passing by to notify her, so after getting her response, he closed the door and left.
The room fell quiet again, and Fu Nanzhi unconsciously touched her lower abdomen, lost in thought.
After a while, she picked up her phone and typed a few words in the group chat.
At a large company like Tiancheng, not only did they offer health check-ups upon joining, but they also provided a certain number of free check-ups every year.
While it was technically voluntary, very few people turned them down. After all, it’s always good to check on your health, and it’s free.
Signing up also meant getting half a day off to slack, so why not?
But Fu Nanzhi declined. She knew that the final health reports would be compiled and submitted to the company, and there was no way to hide her condition.
She didn’t want to expose her health status.
Sitting at her desk, Fu Nanzhi pondered for a while.
She wouldn’t participate in the company’s check-up, but she could go for a private one at her own expense.
Although she had a vague idea of what the results might be, she still held onto a sliver of hope.
…
Putting down his phone, Shen Yi shook his head and chuckled.
Fu Nanzhi’s personality always seemed at odds with her appearance.
No one would guess that beneath her serious and professional lawyer exterior lay a cute and fun-loving soul.
He scrolled through his phone to see if there were any messages he hadn’t replied to.
Since resigning, the world had seemed much quieter. Hardly anyone reached out to him these days.
Apart from Fu Nanzhi, the only person who regularly checked in was his mother, asking if he had eaten or similar things.
Then there were a few group chats, but Shen Yi had muted them all.
They were either eerily silent or overwhelmingly noisy, like his college alumni group or the casual hangout group with a few close friends.
As he scrolled to the bottom, a hand-drawn black flower avatar caught his eye.
Cheng Jun.
They had added each other as friends the day they parted after dinner, but neither had reached out in the past two days. Not a single word had been exchanged.
His feelings toward Cheng Jun were complicated.
There was a mix of guilt, affection, and a bit of vanity at play.
Cheng Jun’s love was intense, overwhelming, and caught him off guard.
She hadn’t contacted Shen Yi, and he hadn’t reached out to her either.
Every time Shen Yi opened the chat window, he didn’t know where to start.
Her previous declaration was still fresh in his mind, and the longer she stayed silent, the more uneasy he felt.
He was afraid she might be planning something big.
Putting his phone aside, Shen Yi sighed lightly and headed to the bathroom.
He had just come back from a run and was a bit sweaty, so he decided to take a shower.
Exercise was truly addictive. Nowadays, if he didn’t run a few laps every day, he felt restless.
After drying his hair, he sat down in the living room.
On the table was a stack of books he had bought during his morning run to the bookstore.
Opening the system, Shen Yi clicked on the [Text Simulation] option.
“Dating Assistant Reminder: Text Simulation is a realistic simulation that randomly retrieves suitable individuals around the player as potential targets. Two targets will be selected, and you can choose one to pursue.”
……
……
“Would you like to start matching?”
“Start matching!”
[Searching…]
[Matching successful!]
Two new potential targets appeared, and Shen Yi glanced at them—unsurprisingly, he didn’t recognize either.
Their overall scores were decent, one at 71 and the other at 66.
Shen Yi casually selected the girl named Xin Xia.
Her score was higher, and he didn’t bother spending points to unlock her features. After all, this was just to test his theory.
Clicking start.
[Selected: Xin Xia]
[Simulation begins!]
[You are Shen Yi, a 25-year-old high-quality human male. You are healthy, decent-looking, have both parents, and come from a harmonious family. You are the envy of many.]
[Your goal is to find Xin Xia and successfully start a relationship with her.]
[You gather your thoughts and realize you’re not actually interested in Xin Xia but rather want to focus on self-improvement.]
[You give up on finding Xin Xia and choose to sit down instead.]
[You pick up a book from the table and start reading intently.]
……
“Nice!”
Shen Yi had been closely following the text development, and when he saw that the simulated version of himself had started reading, he clenched his fist in excitement.
Yes, he had always known that the simulation could impart knowledge, but previously it had been passive.
This time, he wanted to test whether he could actively learn knowledge by entering the simulation with a strong subjective intention.
To use a gaming analogy, he was essentially doing an idle farming strategy.
The simulated version of himself was diligently learning new knowledge, while he, the real person, only needed to wait and reap the rewards.
Shen Yi watched the blinking ellipsis at the bottom of the text with growing excitement.
If this worked, he wouldn’t have to worry anymore.
This bug-exploiting method would allow him to benefit from the simulator’s abilities while avoiding attracting new potential targets—a win-win situation.
He had no intention of getting involved with this girl named Xin Xia. Surely the system wouldn’t force any memories on her, right?
Using the lowest-rated scenarios to farm money and exploiting the text simulation to learn knowledge—Shen Yi was impressed by his own genius idea.
Then, as the ellipsis on the screen continued to blink,
New text appeared.