Xu Zhiyi adjusted her mindset very quickly. She was the type who would be arguing with her brother one second, then happily lean over to share a funny post she'd just scrolled past with him the very next—a goldfish memory.
So barely two seconds after storming off, she slowed her pace again, her face tilting slightly to the side, which meant—
Where is he?
Her shoulder suddenly felt lighter.
The heavy laptop bag on her back was smoothly lifted off by Lin Yan, who slung it over his own shoulder with practiced ease. His free hand gently caught her dangling wrist and held it for a few seconds.
Xu Zhiyi let out a soft hum.
The two of them walked downstairs one after the other. The old residential building had no elevator, but fortunately, they only lived on the fourth floor.
By the time they reached the bottom, she had already forgotten the frustration of her stolen kiss being intercepted. She proactively reached out to hold Lin Yan's hand again, wearing a deeply contemplative expression as she discussed life with him: "Brother, why do college students still have to take exams…"
Lin Yan's fingertips slowly traced across the back of her hand.
So quickly, she'd already stopped caring about that kiss.
In her eyes, it was probably just a way to get the attention of her elders—perhaps not even as intimate as the act of holding hands.
He wouldn't mistake her playful closeness for equal desire.
Lin Yan hummed in acknowledgment. "After the exams, I'll take you somewhere nice to eat."
Xu Zhiyi nodded eagerly. She had no idea how many tangled thoughts Lin Yan was spinning through his head. She kept complaining about school while secretly stealing glances at him from the corner of her eye.
—Since he still hadn't let go of her hand, deliberately avoiding any distance, that meant he didn't hold a grudge about what just happened, right?
Back in her first year of high school, because she had pushed open Lin Yan's door without knocking, he had distanced himself from her, both openly and subtly, for quite a while.
A full three and a half days.
Which, especially for Xu Zhiyi, felt about the same as thirty years.
During those days, even though Lin Yan still did the housework as usual and supervised her studies, he no longer smiled at her gently. Even the minus-ten-degree winter weather couldn't compare to the coldness of his face back then.
That left a terrifying impression on Xu Zhiyi.
Most of the time, her brother's world was completely open to her, but sometimes, a tiny bit of offense would make him retreat far away.
She was very afraid of that possible distance.
But that didn't mean she would accept Lin Yan's behavior. If he gave her the cold shoulder today because she'd pushed the door open directly, then tomorrow, she would walk in without knocking several times, continuously dancing on the edge of his boundaries.
In the end, that incident concluded with Lin Yan compromising under her increasingly aggrieved gaze, promising her that he wouldn't treat her badly over such a small matter again.
Xu Zhiyi also offered a sincere apology.
And the next time, she'd go back to pushing the door open and walking in as she pleased, clutching her textbook and sidling up to Lin Yan as he studied at his desk, acting as if it were her own room.
Although she never learned her lesson, Xu Zhiyi still considered herself a very well-behaved younger sister. The evidence was that Lin Yan had never called her rebellious or hard to manage, and he always praised her.
The well-behaved Xu Zhiyi pressed her lips together—the lips that had been rejected—and let her gaze sweep across Lin Yan's handsome profile. Her eyes blinked twice, innocent and harmless.
Within a few seconds, she had already decided where her next act of transgression would take place.
The siblings exchanged a glance, each harboring their own schemes, without saying anything more to each other.
They lived in a remote area, though the subway station wasn't too far from the residential complex. Xu Zhiyi dawdled along the way, but she still eventually reached the entrance of the subway station.
Before stepping onto the escalator, she cast one last wistful glance back toward home, her brows slightly furrowed. "Brother… I keep feeling like we forgot something."
Of course, Lin Yan took this as her excuse to avoid going to school. He narrowed his eyes mercilessly and dragged her onto the escalator.
But this time, he had wronged Xu Zhiyi.
After sitting down side by side with Lin Yan, she leaned close to his ear and whispered in a tone laced with barely concealed smugness.
"Brother, didn't you tell me to study the Instance notes you wrote down? But you forgot to give them to me."
Lin Yan froze.
Perhaps it was the warmth of her breath against his earlobe, or perhaps it was the fact that his own hidden selfish motive had been exposed—his lips moved, but no words came out.
"So should we go back and get them?" Xu Zhiyi said cheerfully.
"…No need." Lin Yan pressed down on Xu Zhiyi, who was already preparing to get off the train. "I'll call you this afternoon and explain it to you."
"But what if I get pulled into an Instance on my way to school?" Xu Zhiyi put on a display of great studiousness, as if she would stop breathing the moment she couldn't see the notes. She tugged at his sleeve and spoke threateningly. "Lin Yan, how could you be like this? Don't you care about your dear sister's safety?"
"There's an electronic version. I'll send you a copy."
"…"
Xu Zhiyi let out two disbelieving laughs, then fell silent as she watched Lin Yan pull out his phone and actually send her a PDF file named "Xu Zhiyi."
Her phone dinged.
"…"
Lin Yan smiled warmly and patted the back of her hand. "Dear sister, for your safety, I'll explain it to you right now."
"…"
Xu Zhiyi tried to dodge. "Oh, brother, I just remembered—it's almost the end of the month, and I don't have enough data to open this file."
Lin Yan smiled. "Alright, then look at my phone."
Having made the request herself, Xu Zhiyi had no choice but to hang her head in defeat, staring at the phone with a resentful look. But after reading only two lines, she whispered again, "Then this afternoon… will you still call me for a video chat?"
She sounded just as pitiful as a left-behind child saying goodbye to parents who were going to work in the city.
Lin Yan stroked her drooping, dejected hair and began to wonder why college students even had to take exams in the first place.
Clearly, his sister couldn't bear to be apart from him right now.
"I'll always be with you." Lin Yan said softly. "No matter where you are… I'll be by your side."
The notes were written in a very accessible, easy-to-understand manner. After receiving Lin Yan's reassurance, Xu Zhiyi patiently read through them.
The intervals between Instances were irregular, but generally players were given enough days to fully recover their bodies.
From what she read, it seemed possible to exploit this rule—like breaking a leg inside an Instance to buy two or three months of undisturbed real life.
But Lin Yan had also written that those who tried this almost always faced retaliation in the next Instance—break a leg, and you'd get a long-distance running escape Instance; lose your eyesight, and you'd be thrown into a spot-the-difference game to choose from.
How petty!
Xu Zhiyi prudently only criticized the Game System in her head.
She turned the page, and the first line of the next page seemed to respond to her thoughts in real time: In reality, you can freely criticize the Game System—they don't excessively monitor what happens in the real world.
Only then did Xu Zhiyi lift her head and repeat her inner thoughts out loud to Lin Yan.
Even though she hadn't genuinely wanted to look at the notes earlier, now that she was holding Lin Yan's phone, she had indeed absorbed quite a bit. But the journey to school was far too short—an hour later, they had to get off the train.
Xu Zhiyi arrived at the dormitory building at eleven o'clock, with an hour to spare before check-in. She was about to head back to catch up on some sleep, but by some instinct that belonged to every student, she glanced at the professional course group chat.
Last night, the course instructor had posted the time and classroom for today's key-points session.
It had been posted exactly ten minutes ago.
"…"
Xu Zhiyi grabbed a shared bike and rushed over, not even taking the time to put down her backpack.
But by the time she arrived, she had already missed it.
Going through a book and marking key points was quick—by the time she got there, her classmates were already filing out one by one, and the instructor at the podium was surrounded by a few students asking questions. It was clearly already over.
Xu Zhiyi, who had made the trip for nothing, felt her eyelid twitch. She thought to herself that she might as well have stayed in the dorm and waited for her roommates to come back so she could copy theirs.
Just as she was about to turn and leave, someone called out to her from behind.
It was one of her roommates.
Also the top student in their professional course—Ning Siyu.
"The other two in the dorm didn't come to get the key points either, and they're waiting to borrow my book. But I'm heading to the library now, so I won't be able to give it to them anytime soon," she said. "I'll tell you the key points here, and you can pass them on to them when you get back."
Xu Zhiyi immediately pulled out her book, sat down beside her, and listened attentively.
They hadn't seen each other for a few days, and for some reason, Ning Siyu's complexion looked terrible—dark circles so heavy it seemed she hadn't slept in days. But from what Xu Zhiyi knew, this top student had always kept a regular schedule and even found time to run at the gym.
Though they were roommates, Xu Zhiyi wasn't particularly close to her. She asked after her with a couple of concerned words, but when the other clearly showed no intention of telling her what was wrong, she gave a bitter smile and simply urged her to hurry up and mark the key points.
Xu Zhiyi didn't press further.
Once the key points were marked, Ning Siyu packed up her book, slung her bag over her shoulder, and left the classroom.
On Monday at noon, the counselor was scheduled to hold a routine meeting in the classroom with Bluetooth check-in. Xu Zhiyi mulled over the remaining time and decided to stay in the classroom. After the meeting and check-in were done, she'd eat and then head back to the dorm.
When the time came, her two other roommates arrived.
By the time the counselor finished speaking, they had finished copying the key points.
Xu Zhiyi also decided to eat before going to the library, so she said goodbye to the two of them, slung her backpack on, and headed toward the cafeteria closest to the library.
On the plaza in front of the cafeteria, club booths were sometimes set up, but there hadn't been any events recently. Yet two long rows of tables were still set up there.
On the tables were vases and antiques, dusty and looking like they had some age to them—but who would be selling antiques on a university campus?
There weren't many people gathered around to look at the fakes—just five or six—but among them was actually Ning Siyu.
She was carrying her backpack, her expression downcast, shoulders trembling slightly, and the hair by her temples was a bit disheveled, as if she had just been crying hard.
Xu Zhiyi remembered her as a girl with very high self-esteem, her back always ramrod straight, never letting anyone see her sad or upset.
How could someone like that be crying in front of the cafeteria, where foot traffic was so heavy?
Having just copied her notes, and being her roommate, Xu Zhiyi couldn't bring herself to look the other way. She patted her slightly hungry stomach and walked over, planning to treat her to the molten custard buns from the first floor.
Approaching, before she could speak, the weeping Ning Siyu suddenly lifted her face.
Seeing Xu Zhiyi, she stumbled back several steps in terror and shouted at her, "Don't come near me!"
Xu Zhiyi froze for a moment.
Soon, she understood why Ning Siyu was so distraught.
Because the mechanical voice overhead rang out.
[Congratulations, you have entered this round's Instance game. This Instance is expected to have eight players, with seven currently present. Once the final player enters the Instance Domain, the game will begin. Please continue waiting for nearby players to join.]
Xu Zhiyi: "…"
Wasn't it said that players were usually given enough time to rest and recuperate?
She'd only rested for one day!
[Confirming player count…]
[Confirming player count for the second time…]
Ning Siyu was truly on the verge of collapse. She crouched on the ground, sobbing, "I'm sorry… Xu Zhiyi… I didn't mean to drag you into this…"
Xu Zhiyi crouched down as well. After a moment of hesitation, she placed her hand on Ning Siyu's head, patted it gently, and comforted her in a tone she recalled from Lin Yan: "It's fine. Clearing an Instance isn't that hard."
She didn't notice Ning Siyu's gaze flicker, nor her hand clenching into a tight fist.
[Player count confirmed.]
In the blink of an eye, all the people and buildings around them faded away. Ning Siyu disappeared, and Xu Zhiyi found herself in that quiet, pure white space, with the System Sphere floating silently in the air.
A piece of paper drifted down from above, landing lightly beside her.
The title read: New Employee Guidelines.
[Congratulations, you have joined Antique Culture Co., Ltd. as one of our many prospective artifact appraisers.]
[Your probation period is five days. Please use your keen eye and investigative abilities to find the most valuable item in the antique market and pass the employment exam!]
Xu Zhiyi remembered that phones couldn't be brought into the Instance. Seeing the probation period, she finally understood how Lin Yan had left her messages about his departure times before. She immediately pulled out her phone and began typing miserably: Bro, I have to participate in a five-day Instance TT
She followed up with several crying emojis.
Oh, it might even be longer than five days, because who knew when the eighth person would show up.
As Xu Zhiyi was shedding tears into her screen, two warm words suddenly popped up on the cold phone display:
: Turn around