Autumn in the university campus spilled a box of warm-toned paint.
Sycamore leaves baked into red, ginkgo scattered golden fragments, the caramel edges of sycamore leaves hung on the branches.
With a gust of wind, they rustled down onto the path where autumn eggs lay.
Chi Qing waved her hand in front of Su Rui.
Only after seeing Su Rui’s gaze shift to her did she feel Su Rui was alone.
“Shouldn’t you be explaining things about university to me like a senior?”
Chi Qing said. Su Rui was too cold.
She said she was taking her to tour the campus, but she really was just touring—no introduction at all.
Su Rui’s gaze turned toward her, her expression unchanged.
“Actually, I don’t know the names of some of the university buildings either. If you want to know the names, you can check the school’s official website. Or I could introduce them—I’m sure I’d add a few points for you to be bored.”
Hearing Su Rui’s words, Chi Qing felt a little frustrated.
But then she looked at Su Rui’s cute appearance. When she worked as a companion player, her tone was always that bland, indifferent style.
How did she even manage to be a companion player like that?
She wanted to ask, but since she was the one who hired Su Rui as a companion player, she dropped the thought.
She felt it was a pure loss, but cuteness—and her sister—made it worth it.
Maybe Su Rui was specifically targeting clients with too much money.
Or she was an ATM succubus.
A succubus that specialized in sucking money out of ATMs.
“Then tell me about your sister. Otherwise, I feel like the tour fee for this quest line is too much of a loss.”
Chi Qing said as she looked at her phone. From a while ago, her chat interface with her sister had been showing “typing…”
Even now, it still showed “typing…”
She felt her sister had something to say, but couldn’t quite say it.
“There’s really nothing much.”
“It’s just that when I was bored and had nowhere to go, your sister took me in.”
“The road had fruit and tired spots.”
“Then she kicked me out again.”
Su Rui’s tone was calm, as if she were talking about something that had nothing to do with her.
“Why do you think my sister kicked you out?”
From Chi Qing’s perspective, she already knew the whole story.
But she was curious what it looked like from Su Rui’s perspective.
Seeing things from different angles made it easier to understand a person.
“Nothing much. It’s just that when you live together for too long, you get tired of each other.”
“Besides, I was living under someone else’s roof. Your sister was used to being alone before, and then suddenly someone was walking around in front of her every day. It’s normal for her to feel uncomfortable.”
Even when mentioning the past, Su Rui’s emotions showed no fluctuation.
Even though the person in front of her was Chi Qing’s younger sister.
Su Rui had no emotional response.
In her mind, Chi Qingya was Chi Qingya.
Chi Qing was Chi Qing.
The two were still quite different.
At least until she discovered that Chi Qing and Chi Qingya were the same type of person.
Actually, when many decisions are made, the person making them hasn’t truly made up their mind. So it’s natural for conflicts to arise later.
Maybe when your sister decided to take me in, she hadn’t thought about whether she really wanted to do it.
It was just a momentary impulse that led to that decision.
As Su Rui spoke, Chi Qing looked at her, trying to find dissatisfaction on Su Rui’s face.
But there was none.
If it were her, living in someone else’s home, serving them every day.
Pouring tea, fetching water, washing clothes, cooking meals.
And then finally getting kicked out.
She would be furious.
Not that she would bother the other person every day.
But at the very least, she wouldn’t make it easy for them.
Parting on good terms?
No way.
If she had a falling out with someone, it definitely wasn’t her fault.
Otherwise, why would they hate her?
But how did Su Rui manage not to show even a trace of emotion?
Was she really an AI?
How could there be an AI like that in this world?
Chi Qing didn’t want to believe it.
If it weren’t for the unique model, and if it weren’t for someone so good that they seemed like an AI, she might believe it.
But Su Rui was too beautiful, and she even had some awareness.
How could someone like that be an AI?
Could it be that this world really had advanced NPCs?
This thought suddenly popped into Chi Qing’s mind.
After taking in an NPC for a while, the NPC would serve you, do this and that.
Because it was an NPC, it did those things excellently.
And when it was driven away, it would even leave you some money.
As payment for the time spent there.
It had to be that.
If Su Rui weren’t an NPC, how could she show no expression at all?
And besides…
When she asked Su Rui to take her onto campus, the other didn’t hesitate at all and agreed.
It seemed a lot like an NPC accepting a commission.
The person in front of her, Chi Qing, had been trying to find evidence that this world was a big game.
But she had never been able to find proof.
And when she told others about this idea, they all thought she had a screw loose.
Now she had finally found a clue.
Su Rui!
If this world was a game, then everything made sense.
Why would she meet Su Rui in a game? The probability was so small, yet it happened.
And then Cute Yuyu Roll added her as a friend, saying she liked Su Rui.
If she treated Cute Yuyu Roll as a player and Su Rui as an NPC—
A player trying to get an NPC’s favor—then it made much more sense.
So, was her sister also an NPC?
She should be, right?
Chi Qingyao wasn’t sure either.
But thinking about it carefully, her sister had done some things that weren’t quite human.
For example, her personality suddenly changed drastically, filling her phone with junk.
And…
She was obviously a pushover, someone who was bullied.
But in the end, she chose to bully Su Rui.
If it was an NPC’s setting, everything became reasonable.
But if her sister had a connection with Su Rui… could it be…
Was her sister also a player?
Or was she mistaken?
Maybe everyone was an NPC—Cute Yuyu Roll, too.
She was the only player.
She was the protagonist of this world.
Or maybe only Su Rui was an NPC.
Chi Qingyao stared at Su Rui’s expressionless face.
Her mind was full of guesses.
Either way, no matter how she looked at it, she was the only protagonist.
If she had to find something in common between Cute Yuyu Roll and her sister, it was that both of them couldn’t forget Su Rui.
And both had given her money.
And…
They had also given Su Rui money.
Could it be?
Me = Su Rui?
Am I also an NPC?