Fujiang was genuinely angry this time. Even when Grandma Matsushima Yuko asked her to call Yu Duojiaye to eat watermelon, she refused to come. Even if they met, she would directly grab a piece of watermelon and hide in her room.
But Yu Duojiaye felt that his response wasn’t wrong at all—they had truly never been together!
Did they confess their feelings to each other? No. Did they engage in intimate interactions like a couple? Also no.
They couldn’t even be considered “having the reality without the name,” so they definitely couldn’t be counted as together.
As for whether there were feelings in his heart—yes, there were, brother, there were.
After all, Fujiang was so beautiful and captivating, not to mention that indescribable bewitching aura. Any normal man would have thoughts about her.
But the more that was the case, the more Yu Duojiaye didn’t dare to entertain deeper thoughts about her.
Because ever since Fujiang injected her cells into Yu Duojiaye’s body, saving him from the brink of death, Yu Duojiaye discovered that he seemed unable to remain completely immune to Fujiang…
Therefore, he didn’t want their relationship to develop to the point where he would end up like those other men—obsessed with possessing her and then killing her.
“Jiaye~”
Returning home from university, Little Tomie was as well-behaved as ever, sitting on the shoe cabinet in the entryway waiting for him.
Looking at the clothes on Little Tomie—which he had temporarily taken from a cloth doll and were not very comfortable to wear—Yu Duojiaye slapped his forehead in frustration.
“Tomorrow is the weekend, no classes. I’ll see if I can buy you a few sets of clothes.”
“Mhm mhm~ Hold me~”
Little Tomie stretched out her arms toward Yu Duojiaye, letting him cup her against his face, nuzzling against his cheek.
“Stop rubbing, my face is all oily.”
Placing the little one in his chest pocket, Yu Duojiaye started preparing dinner for the evening.
He skillfully chopped and prepared the ingredients. The smell of chili peppers made Little Tomie sneeze repeatedly.
“Go sit over there.”
At the dining table, watching Little Tomie lift a single grain of rice and take several bites to finish it, Yu Duojiaye suddenly understood why nobles in fantasy stories were so enthusiastic about raising little fairies.
Forget about those strange enhancements—just watching such a beautiful little creature eat adorably was a pleasure in itself.
The only trouble was the tableware. He could only try his luck tomorrow when he went out.
Early the next morning, Yu Duojiaye repeatedly refused Little Tomie’s request to follow him. Under her pitiful, pouting, and resentful gaze, he left the house and stepped outside.
“Slow down, slow down! If you break anything, you’ll have to pay for it!”
Yu Duojiaye turned his head toward the voice and saw a group of movers carrying some very old-looking furniture.
Their condition made Yu Duojiaye doubt whether these pieces could survive the move.
Come to think of it, someone actually dared to move in next door? If he remembered correctly, the previous owner of this house had taken his daughter and committed suicide by burning charcoal inside, hadn’t he?
Perhaps Yu Duojiaye’s persistent attention to the furniture irritated the bearded male homeowner, who suddenly shouted:
“What are you looking at? Never seen someone move before?”
Amid the man’s yelling, the woman next to him—who was dressed in a very flashy, provocative manner—frowned.
“Embarrassing…”
“You!”
The woman was fairly attractive, but standing next to her shabbily dressed husband, the couple seemed to come from entirely different worlds.
After giving them a brief glance, Yu Duojiaye turned and headed toward the bus stop.
While Yu Duojiaye was waiting for the bus, a girl with her head bowed low—her jet-black hair nearly covering her entire face—stepped off the bus, repeatedly murmuring apologies.
Yu Duojiaye noticed her not because he was lecherous, but because her inexplicably lowered head eerily resembled a malevolent spirit from a horror movie.
The girl wasn’t short; Yu Duojiaye stood just over 170 cm, yet she was almost half a head taller than him.
Watching her approach, Yu Duojiaye shifted aside to let her pass.
As they brushed past each other, for some unknown reason, Yu Duojiaye suddenly shuddered.
Blinking, he didn’t dwell on it and boarded the bus to buy supplies for the little one at home.
While Yu Duojiaye was out shopping, the courtyard gate specially designated for Fujiang was opened from the outside.
Familiar with the route, Fujiang crossed the lawn, tiptoed to retrieve the spare key from the corner under the eaves, and then opened the door to enter the house.
Inside, Little Tomie, who was sprawled across Yu Duojiaye’s comic book, heard the noise. Turning to see Fujiang, she raised her eyebrows and waved.
“Hello there, Fujiang~”
Fujiang frowned slightly at the greeting, observing Little Tomie lying on the comic book, kicking her feet back and forth like a carefree young girl.
“Idiot!”
Little Tomie knew the original was cursing Yu Duojiaye and frowned in displeasure but said nothing.
“You haven’t gathered any information after a whole night.”
“What could I do?~ I didn’t dare ask directly. If Jiaye found out our memories are transmitted in real time, he’d stop saying certain things.”
“Then what use are you? I might as well kill you now to avoid having someone compete with me…!”
Fujiang left the sentence unfinished, but Little Tomie understood perfectly well: the unspoken words were “to avoid having someone compete for Yu Duojiaye’s affection.”
As another version of Fujiang, Little Tomie was acutely aware of just how jealous, malicious, and vain she could be.
“Killing me won’t help. Isn’t this situation largely your fault? If you’d used even half the skill you employed to seduce those other men, Little Tomie would have emerged long ago~”
Fujiang frowned at the accusation.
“And what good does getting angry do? Without a confession or a real relationship, even I wouldn’t acknowledge being together. Given your current dynamic with Jiaye, it’s more accurate to call it ambiguous than a relationship.”
Little Tomie knelt on the table, flipped a page of the comic with both hands, and lay back down.
“But there’s good news: Jiaye does like me.”
“Yes, he, likes, me!”
Fujiang gritted her teeth, enunciating each word with emphatic rebuttal, drawing Little Tomie’s gaze.
The two locked eyes in silence for a moment before Little Tomie finally scoffed.
“Fine, whatever. Our memories and perceptions are shared anyway.”
Fujiang seethed with hatred but couldn’t outright kill Little Tomie without complicating things with Yu Duojiaye.
“Stop grinding your teeth. Instead of wasting energy being angry at me, why not ponder why Jiaye has always kept such an ambiguous distance from you?”
Little Tomie’s question plunged Fujiang into deep thought. After a long silence, Fujiang let out a sigh.
“Perhaps… afraid that like those ordinary people, he would kill me and then…”
At the mention of this topic, Little Tomie also fell silent.
Both Fujiang and Little Tomie clearly perceived that Yu Duojiaye held affection for them, yet he had always deliberately kept their relationship at a distance.
Maintaining it in a state that was neither too distant nor too intimate.
“You’ve noticed it too, haven’t you?”
“Noticed what?”
Little Tomie’s sudden question caught Fujiang off guard. Seeing her reaction, Little Tomie sighed.
“The malevolent thoughts. When we’re with Jiaye, our malevolent thoughts are greatly suppressed, aren’t they?”
Fujiang nodded thoughtfully. Just as Little Tomie said, when together with Yu Duojiaye, the malevolent thoughts within her—the desire to toy with others and derive pleasure from tormenting them—were significantly suppressed.
“So, Jiaye is special, isn’t he?”
Looking at Little Tomie, who had unknowingly straightened her back and sat upright facing her, the two Fujiangs—one older, one younger—exchanged glances before speaking in unison, their voices soft.
“Yes, he is special.”