The dead mouse on the floor seemed even more glaring, as if mocking her current state.
But this line of thought lasted only three seconds before Luo Xizhi proceeded to her second step. She pressed the keypad, bringing up the password interface. As the light appeared, Luo Xizhi deftly entered a string of numbers her own birthday.
Beep, password incorrect!
The electronic lock rejected Luo Xizhi once again, indicating that her previous methods or other tactics had only worked on the previous group of transmigrators but were ineffective against Hua Lian.
Luo Xizhi had no choice but to take a deep breath and decisively resort to the third method. A faint glow emanated from her hand, with code-like symbols swirling around her arm. This time, when Luo Xizhi touched the electronic lock, it emitted a nearly silent sound and opened the door.
Simultaneously, Luo Xizhi cloaked herself in the system’s interface once more. Of course, she had no interest in what Hua Lian was doing inside. What mattered was that she had just attempted to unlock the password using her own identity and had even entered it incorrectly. That meant her image would be stored in the electronic lock’s cloud storage, and Luo Xizhi had to delete it.
Entering the room, she didn’t see Hua Lian in the outer area. It wasn’t until she heard the faint sound of water that Luo Xizhi realized the real reason Hua Lian had muted the sounds. She approached the phone, used her privileges to unlock Hua Lian’s device, and deleted the footage of the password attempt.
Of course, she also saw Hua Lian’s settings interface even that Yang Yiyi had been deleted, leaving only Hua Lian alone in the emptiness. Luo Xizhi felt a bit more pleased. She wanted to put the phone down but worried that similar incidents might occur in the future, so she implanted a program into Hua Lian’s phone. This way, she could remotely control the functions of Hua Lian’s phone and even track her location.
This isn’t protection; it’s surveillance.
Luo Xizhi reminded herself of this, placed the phone back as close to its original position as possible, and was about to leave when she suddenly heard the sound of the bathroom door opening. Startled, Luo Xizhi ducked under the bed. Perhaps her earlier actions had been a bit excessive, making her feel somewhat guilty.
Hua Lian remained completely unaware of the anomaly, playing with her phone. She was unusually quiet, making it hard to believe someone like her could be a chatterbox. Luo Xizhi stayed still, patiently waiting. While in the system’s state, she could become invisible, but this invisibility was ineffective against Hua Lian. Moreover, Luo Xizhi had missed the optimal time to reveal herself and didn’t want to give Hua Lian the mistaken impression that she cared about her.
About ten minutes passed, and sounds began to emanate from the room. Luo Xizhi focused on watching a documentary about gray wolves, seemingly fascinated by the idea of raising such creatures.
Feeling exasperated, Luo Xizhi had no choice but to activate the program she had just implanted and pressed the doorbell.
At the same moment, Hua Lian seemed startled and abruptly muted the sound. Her breathing pattern changed, as if she were frightened by the unknown presence at the door. Shortly after, the sound of Hua Zhengtai yelling loudly, unable to enter the room, followed.
“Hua Zhengtai should have left. So, who could it be now?”
Strangely, the knocking sound just now didn’t appear in the surveillance footage. Hua Lian muttered to herself, as if only by doing so could she calm down. But after wrestling with the decision for another five minutes or so, she still didn’t open the door.
“…”
Luo Xizhi, still hiding under the bed, was utterly speechless. She even suspected that in this situation, she might not be able to leave tonight. She was considering whether to use the system’s identity to deceive Hua Lian again when the doorbell rang once more.
It was almost midnight now, and the sound felt like a ghost coming to claim a life. Luo Xizhi couldn’t help but grow alert. The transmigrator might not understand how terrifying the people in this world could be, but she knew all too well. However, Hua Lian, who had hesitated for so long earlier, now eagerly got out of bed. Luo Xizhi wanted to stop her, but before she could act, Hua Lian had already opened the door.
“Young Miss, there’s a dead mouse at your doorstep.”
Standing at the door were the butler and the night patrol guards. The butler was wearing pajamas underneath his butler’s uniform, as if he had been called over urgently.
“Young Miss, do you know who might have done this?”
Hua Lian shook her head, though her first suspect was Hua Zhengtao. However, from the surveillance footage earlier, it seemed Hua Zhengtao hadn’t placed the mouse. That meant someone else had done it, or perhaps something else had happened that Hua Lian wasn’t aware of, but the footage of it had disappeared.
“Thank you, Butler. Please take care of this mouse.” Hua Lian spoke in an entirely normal tone, so normal it was as if she were the original owner herself.
The butler didn’t notice anything unusual and tried his best to avoid Hua Lian’s gaze, afraid of being bewitched by her disheveled hair and pajamas. But this was just her normal appearance after a bath, and the most conservative pajamas in the original owner’s wardrobe. She couldn’t afford to act in any way that seemed out of character, lest someone notice something amiss.
“It’s no trouble at all, Young Miss. However, this matter could be minor or serious. Should we inform the Master?”
“Go ahead. Also, please install a few more cameras around my area tomorrow, ones I can monitor from inside.” Hua Lian added new instructions, intending to take control of the situation.
The butler didn’t question it and soon left after reminding Hua Lian to stay safe. The door closed, but this time Hua Lian chose to lock it from the inside. Still feeling insecure, she pushed a nearby table against the door, completely eliminating the possibility of anyone breaking in.
After doing all this, Hua Lian collapsed onto the bed.
Luo Xizhi remained patiently waiting, though Hua Lian’s actions had turned the room into a sealed space. Later, she would have to leave through the window. Just as Luo Xizhi began planning her escape route, Hua Lian suddenly called out into the air.
“Xiao Hei, are you there?”
Under the bed, Luo Xizhi felt a chill run down her spine. She couldn’t understand how Hua Lian could be so sharp and attentive in such strange situations. Just as Luo Xizhi was about to crawl out from under the bed, Hua Lian’s voice, tinged with disappointment, sounded again. “I knew it. Novels are all lies. Systems don’t appear one-on-one they must have many hosts out there.” Her tone was resentful, and because her face was buried in the blanket, her voice sounded muffled and unclear.
Luo Xizhi still hadn’t appeared, but she thought this setup was quite good. If Hua Lian didn’t listen to her, she could use this to make Hua Lian do bad things. After all, it was clear that Hua Lian liked her very much.
“But never mind, tomorrow I’ll have them to keep me company.”
In an instant, Hua Lian’s mood brightened again, her tone lifting as she resumed watching videos about big gray wolves.
Luo Xizhi’s feelings were rather complicated, and the words “heartbreaker” involuntarily surfaced in her mind. One could even say Hua Lian was the type who acted like a heartbreaker without realizing it. Of course, it was just that she clearly had no interest in humans her “heartbreaking” behavior was directed at animals.
Time passed unknowingly, yet the sound from the video didn’t stop. Luo Xizhi remotely checked Hua Lian’s camera and found that Hua Lian had long since fallen asleep while holding her phone.
“…”
Luo Xizhi crawled out from under the bed at this moment, her emotions mixed. Hua Lian was completely unaware of her situation, sleeping peacefully. A smile lingered at the corner of her lips as she dreamed about big gray wolves. Luo Xizhi found the scene somewhat irritating and turned off the video. However, as she moved, Hua Lian’s eyes fluttered open drowsily. Luo Xizhi froze, not daring to move a muscle. But Hua Lian was clearly in a half-asleep, half-awake state, leaning closer and snuggling into her arms before falling back asleep.
For a moment, Luo Xizhi couldn’t tell whether she had come out to torment herself or if torment had sought her out. She was trapped again, and only after confirming that Hua Lian was asleep did she finally manage to slip away. Moreover, because Hua Lian had arranged the scene like a sealed room, she couldn’t restore everything and had no choice but to open the window, jump onto another balcony, and only then truly leave.
The events of the day replayed in Hua Lian’s mind, though it was hard to describe them. But even though it was late at night, an enforcer’s night offered no rest. She jumped down to the ground, pulled a motorcycle from her system backpack, quickly left the Hua residence, and resumed her busy late-night work.
Her appearance wasn’t fixed in the eyes of those she crossed paths with. Whenever someone liked a certain type, her appearance would subtly adjust to align with their preferences. She possessed an allure that could drive people to commit crimes, yet Luo Xizhi now realized it was completely ineffective on Hua Lian.
‘But it can only last a few days. After all, even if she doesn’t like humans, human flaws are impossible to change.’ After extracting the sinful soul before her, this thought arose in Luo Xizhi’s mind. She still believed Hua Lian couldn’t maintain this state forever—when interests were at stake, even animals would reveal their true nature.
Morning arrived, and Hua Lian had no desire to get up at all. The excessive social interactions from the previous day had left her wanting to avoid people. However, someone outside kept knocking on the door, and Hua Lian struggled before finally rising. As she moved, the awkward sleeping position left her with aches and pains all over.
She began to recall what had happened last night like falling asleep while watching a video about a big gray wolf. Then the system appeared, helped her turn off the video, and stayed with her for a while. But the whole experience felt both real and unreal. Hua Lian pressed her phone to confirm whether it was all true, only to find that her phone had run out of battery. That meant the system hadn’t actually come over wearing that black cat plushie skin yesterday it was just a figment of her imagination born from loneliness.
“Young Miss, are you there?”
The calls from outside continued, the voice already growing hoarse. Clearly, with Hua Lian’s phone dead and her having revoked everyone’s permission to enter her room, the only option left was to shout physically.
Hua Lian had no choice but to open the door. She wore a stern expression, mentally preparing a sentence to tell the maid not to disturb her on weekends. However, as the door opened, aside from the maid, there was also the female lead, Luo Xizhi.
‘Does this Luo Xizhi really like the original owner that much? Why is she here every day?’
Hua Lian glanced at Luo Xizhi before turning her gaze to the maid’s unremarkable face. Strangely, it gave Hua Lian an intense sense of reassurance.