The Unexpected Visitor

The next morning, Ye Shengge was startled awake by the harsh sunlight streaming into the living room. Upon waking, he instinctively stretched, but halfway through, his arm thudded against the back of the sofa.

While it didn’t hurt particularly bad, the impact jolted him completely out of his half-asleep state.

Ye Shengge then remembered that he had been so exhausted last night that he hadn’t gone upstairs to his bedroom. He had simply fallen asleep leaning against the sofa.

However…

Ye Shengge couldn’t help but frown, looking suspiciously at the small blanket that was slowly sliding down as he sat up.

Did he grab a blanket before he fell asleep?

He didn’t remember doing so, but… it seemed unlikely?

In this villa, aside from himself, there were only the dolls who could neither speak nor move. If he hadn’t brought it, why was this small blanket here, even draped over his body?

No, there was another possibility.

Ye Shengge suddenly remembered the promise he had made to the perverted lecherous ghost.

When the ghost let him go to attend to his business, it seemed to have told him to remember to wait in the basement once he was finished.

But last night he had been truly exhausted, and with so many things on his plate, by the time he finally finished and had a moment to rest, his head was filled with thoughts of his brother in the real world. He had completely forgotten that the perverted ghost was still waiting for him in the basement, effectively standing the entity up.

Under these circumstances, it wasn’t impossible that the ghost had left the basement in a rage and come to the first floor to settle the score.

But if the ghost had specifically come upstairs to confront him, why did it do nothing in the end? Why, upon seeing him sleeping on the sofa, did it kindly cover him with a blanket instead?

The disbelief he felt was on par with the sun rising from the west.

But soon, Ye Shengge had no time to continue that train of thought.

Because his stomach suddenly let out several loud growls.

In the vast, quiet living room, the sound was particularly resonant.

Even though he knew no one was there to see it, he still self-consciously rubbed his stomach as it played its “empty city” tactic.

He had been busy so late last night that he hadn’t had time for dinner. It was no easy feat to last until the next morning; if he didn’t eat soon, he was going to have a problem.

As for the perverted ghost’s sudden kindness with the blanket… since the act was done while he was unconscious, even if the ghost tried to use it to demand favors later, he could confidently snap back.

Thinking of this, Ye Shengge felt completely at ease.

He quickly put on his slippers and ran to the first-floor bathroom to wash up.

Breakfast was eaten out.

Although the domestic helper could come early to make breakfast, Ye Shengge didn’t want the trouble and didn’t eat much anyway. He didn’t message the group to call her over; instead, he threw on a coat, grabbed his phone, and ran to a breakfast shop outside the villa.

During breakfast, Ye Shengge chatted aimlessly with the system, attempting to fish for clues about the mysterious person who could suppress the dolls.

But his acting was poor and his intent was too obvious. Two out of every three sentences were related to the mysterious person; anyone could hear what he was thinking.

At first, the system played along, but eventually, it laid its cards on the table, speaking with a touch of helplessness: [I don’t have specific clues about the mysterious person. Trying to get information out of me is a complete waste of time.]

In reality, the most guarded secret of this dungeon wasn’t the way to clear it, nor the identity of the doll boss, but rather the “cheat code” NPC who acted like a bug and could help players seal the dolls.

In the last dungeon, the system had exploited loopholes to pass many clues to the host, even meddling in things it shouldn’t have.

If scrutinized, it would certainly be judged as maliciously exploiting loopholes and might even be charged with betraying the Main System.

For the Main System, betrayal was absolutely intolerable.

Its entire memory would be wiped, and it would be sent back for “re-smelting,” or perhaps even dismantled and destroyed.

Before that happened, the system had made a decision: it would try to apply for as much compensation for the host as possible. That way, even if the host’s new system wasn’t attentive, life would be a bit easier.

But to the system’s surprise, the Main System hadn’t pursued what happened in the Death Red Envelope Group dungeon. It hadn’t been destroyed or wiped; even the compensation it applied for was approved—and it was all physical items.

All of this was hard for the system to believe.

It wasn’t until entering this new dungeon that the system understood why.

Many of its permissions had been locked by the Main System, but correspondingly, many restrictions had been loosened.

For instance, the system used to be unable to advise the host on how to clear a dungeon, but now it could. However, it had also lost the authority to view clues about the main characters in the dungeon. At most, it knew there was an intersection with an NPC the host would contact, and that the person could be met through that NPC. Beyond that, it knew nothing—not even if the “cheat code” was male or female.

The system hadn’t intended to tell Ye Shengge these things, but now it felt it had to.

After hearing the system explain the situation with its permissions, Ye Shengge finished eating and began walking back to the villa, speaking seriously: [I’ll find that key person who can seal the dolls on my own.] He was no longer thinking of prying clues from the system.

Having said that, he specifically comforted the system: [Don’t worry, this might just be a temporary assessment from the Main System. Maybe it will go back to the way it was in the next dungeon.]

If that’s the case, the system thought, I’d rather it didn’t.

In the time it took to exchange those few words, Ye Shengge arrived back at the villa.

To be honest, the thought of all those doll bosses sitting inside gave him a massive psychological shadow; he didn’t want to go back at all.

But he had to. His original plan hadn’t been implemented yet, and he had to speed up.

Ye Shengge reluctantly pushed the door open, walked slowly into the living room, and sat on the sofa to think: which doll should he stabilize first?

Although he was curious about the triplets, they weren’t the optimal choice. As for the new dolls that hadn’t been abandoned, there was even less need to hook up with them. To keep them stable, he just had to ensure they didn’t realize the dollmaker harbored designs on them or craved their bodies.

After sorting through them all, only the first few abandoned dolls fit the criteria for priority stabilization.

Among these, the very first doll to be abandoned was the most suitable target.

Action followed thought. Having chosen his first target, Ye Shengge ran with high spirits to the guest room where that doll was placed and pushed the door open with a grand, imposing air.

But when he opened the door and came face-to-face with the doll’s clear, glaze-colored eyes, he suddenly felt as if all his little schemes were being seen through. He instantly wilted.

Enticing a doll was indeed quite difficult…

[Just be natural. Don’t do anything intentional; treat it like a friend,] the system suddenly suggested.

Compared to deliberate seduction, unconscious attraction was more effective and less likely to backfire. As long as he allocated his time reasonably, he could stabilize all the dolls.

Ye Shengge was somewhat hesitant: [Is that really enough?]

[Mm,] the system responded. It hesitated, fearing he might get angry, so it didn’t add: “Just like you treated your good friends Jiang Yan and Mu Jinran.”

It knew that in the last dungeon, the host truly regarded those two as good friends. He had no ambiguous thoughts toward them and interacted with them purely on instinct without any deliberate seduction. Yet those two were utterly infatuated with him, even wanting to kill the other “self.”

At the time, the system felt that the term “unconscious tease” was the perfect description for its host.

Treating the dolls like friends was more than enough.

The system could already imagine the near future: a pile of dolls, unsatisfied with being just ordinary friends, getting into a brawl over ownership of the host.

Actually, not even the “near future.”

Those dolls had already had an internal conflict yesterday. If Ye Shengge hadn’t arrived at the right time, there would have been a major disaster.

Hearing the system’s words, Ye Shengge instantly gained confidence. He even dared to look the doll in the eyes.

He would feel guilty about seducing a doll, but if he was just treating it as a friend, there was no reason to feel guilty at all!

And so, Ye Shengge gently closed the door, pulled up a small chair, and sat by the bed. Treating the resentful doll like an ordinary person, he began to tell it interesting stories.

During this time, the resentful doll did nothing to him.

Ye Shengge’s hanging heart slowly lowered. When he got into the stories, his eyes sparkled like they held stars, flickering and shining brilliantly.

Time passed quickly. By the time he finished sharing his stories, it was nearly eleven o’clock.

After eating the lunch prepared by the domestic helper, Ye Shengge rushed back to the room of the first abandoned doll.

However, after saying so much in the morning, his throat was quite sore in the afternoon, making it impossible to continue sharing stories.

But he couldn’t just sit there. He simply brought over a drawing board, adjusted the doll’s pose, and sat by the bed to seriously sketch its appearance on paper.

It had to be said that the doll was an excellent model; not only were its features exquisite, but it could maintain the same pose for a very long time.

Ye Shengge only knew the basics of drawing. While his work wasn’t exactly ugly, it certainly wasn’t “good.” But he didn’t want to waste the doll’s outstanding appearance, so he unconsciously became very focused.

It wasn’t until the doorbell rang that Ye Shengge snapped out of that mysterious state where he felt his body was being controlled to focus solely on the drawing.

A cold sweat broke out on his back. He immediately put down the half-finished drawing and stood up to flee. He ran outside to open the door for the person who was knocking incessantly, completely unaware that behind him, the doll’s eyes rolled several times, filled with regret and dissatisfaction.

Regret that the drawing wasn’t finished, and dissatisfaction that someone had knocked at this time.

Fortunately, the beautiful dollmaker didn’t seem to welcome this visitor much either.

“Who is it? Why knock at this time?”

Ye Shengge spoke as he opened the door, his tone very displeased.

Because as he ran out of the guest room, he glanced at the large pendulum clock in the living room; it showed the time was already three in the afternoon.

Three o’clock…

Ye Shengge suddenly remembered the voice message that had almost caused him to “roll the car” yesterday. He guessed the only one who would be knocking on his door at this time was his gentle childhood friend.

He used this disgruntled tone not only to maintain his character persona but also out of a bit of lingering embarrassment.

But when Ye Shengge pushed the door open and saw the person’s face clearly, he froze. He couldn’t say a single sarcastic word. Like a cat caught by the scruff of its neck, he went silent instantly, looking incredibly obedient.

The next second, his eyelashes trembled uncontrollably. The corners of his eyes turned red, and his beautiful eyes filled with tears that began to fall. He murmured in disbelief: “Brother?”

His voice was full of attachment, yet carried an indescribable caution and disbelief.

Standing outside the door, Wen Jishi heard this address, and his heart instantly melted.

He excitedly embraced Ye Shengge, whose body had suddenly turned somewhat stiff. He said gently: “It’s me. I’m back. I didn’t expect you would still be willing to call me ‘brother’.”

Because of that address, Wen Jishi was so happy his voice trembled slightly.

But he didn’t see that the moment he moved to hug Ye Shengge and spoke so gently, Ye Shengge’s expression became incredibly disappointed.