The phone didn’t vibrate with a message for a long time.
Shen Cishu knew exactly what that meant.
The message she sent—Su Li completely ignored it.
‘She’s not my mother at all.’
‘No matter how well she pretends, what’s the point?’
‘Fake is fake.’
‘She can never put herself in my shoes like Mom did.’
‘Why should I waste time on a fake?’
But…
‘I miss Mom.’
‘I want to eat the food she used to make.’
‘I don’t know where else I can go to taste that flavor.’
‘The only hope is Su Li.’
‘Even if she’s Bai Huizi’s lackey.’
‘Since I was little, I’ve never won against Bai Huizi in any competition.’
‘Just because she was born before me.’
‘So she always snatches everything from me.’
Remembering all those scenes from the past, Shen Cishu curled up and suddenly started sobbing loudly.
“Mom, where are you?”
“I miss you.”
“Sister… Sister has been ignoring me lately!”
“Mom, go talk to Sister.”
Shen Cishu whimpered softly, but no one answered her.
Since Mom passed away, no one had ever answered her.
The room was empty. Even though she curled up as tightly as she could, she couldn’t gain the slightest sense of security.
An overwhelming feeling of helplessness washed over her. Shen Cishu didn’t know what to do.
Her heart was full of grievance.
‘I don’t understand why Mom left me alone.’
‘She was the one who brought me into this world, yet she doesn’t take responsibility.’
‘Since she selfishly decided to bring me here, she should fulfill her duty as a mother.’
‘Raise me.’
‘Give me a carefree life.’
‘What does running away halfway mean?’
‘Leaving me alone in this world—what does that mean?’
The more she thought, the more aggrieved she felt.
But she had no one to tell about this grievance.
She buried her face in her knees, not knowing how to live through the long life ahead.
She was scared and helpless.
‘I don’t want to be alone.’
‘I want Mom to stay with me.’
Shen Cishu picked up her phone again.
The message she sent still hadn’t received a reply.
‘Why?’
‘Why won’t Mom answer my message?’
‘Is Mom angry?’
‘If she’s angry, just tell me.’
‘Why does she have to act like this and say nothing?’
‘Liar! Big liar!’
‘It must be because Mom is with Sister now, and Sister won’t let her reply to me—that’s why Mom doesn’t answer.’
‘Mom is like that; she always favors Sister.’
‘Why? Why does Mom always stay with Sister and favor her?’
‘Why can’t Mom look at me more?’
Shen Cishu felt her heart incredibly restless and agonized.
‘I don’t understand, what did I do wrong?’
‘Why is Mom punishing me like this?’
She gripped her phone tightly, feeling utterly alone inside.
…
When Su Li saw Shen Cishu’s message, she didn’t reply.
She didn’t know how to reply to Shen Cishu.
More importantly, she didn’t know how to respond so that the other party wouldn’t bother her and waste her time.
If she replied to this message, Shen Cishu would most likely keep messaging her to harass her.
She didn’t know how long it would take to end the conversation.
If Shen Cishu paid a red envelope, Su Li would definitely be willing to chat with her.
Although she had Bai Huizi’s mission, her attitude toward a client who had previously skipped out on payment was very bad.
Of course, if Shen Cishu could realize her mistake like MOKA and correct it, Su Li thought she could give them a chance.
Chi Qingyao silently watched Su Li from the side, observing her reaction.
She had clearly received a message, but there wasn’t the slightest change in Su Li’s expression.
Or rather, from the moment Chi Qingyao first met Su Li, there had been no expression changes on her face.
‘Who could it be? An online friend?’
Chi Qingyao suddenly felt that Su Li knew a lot of people.
But after thinking about it, if this world was an open world, it would be normal for an NPC like Su Li to know many people.
After all this time contemplating, she still hoped there would be more players.
Otherwise, being the only player would be quite lonely.
Although NPCs had high intelligence and could even understand and grasp her thoughts, Chi Qingyao still wanted to meet more players so they could exchange experiences and have discussions.
Seeing that Su Li showed no intention of replying, Chi Qingyao came up with a new guess—could it be that this person had negative favorability?
Only with negative favorability would Su Li not reply, right?
After all, even that online friend with zero favorability had gotten a reply.
‘Sure enough…’
‘It’s not that Su Li deletes friends as soon as favorability turns negative.’
‘She must only delete them when favorability drops to a certain level.’
‘Hmm…’
‘It seems Su Li’s favorability toward my sister has already hit rock bottom.’
Chi Qingyao felt she had learned quite a bit more about Su Li.
But one thing she wondered: if someone had negative favorability like her sister, did they, in a sense, lose the opportunity to communicate with Su Li?
She didn’t know if there was still a chance to recover favorability once it turned negative.
Su Li put her phone aside and stopped caring.
For now, Shen Cishu hadn’t realized her mistake.
Rather than waste time on her, it was better to see if she could wake up in time and turn back.
…
When the first snow quietly arrived, the neon signs on the S City Elevated Bridge blurred into frosted-glass halos through the snow veil.
The withered branches of plane trees held thin layers of snow, like a layer of moldy sugar sprinkled on top.
The wind swept across the glass curtain walls of office buildings, and shredded cotton-like flakes fell in flurries.
The convenience store’s warm curtain rustled, shaking off ice crystals.
The steam from the oden condensed into white mist above the cashier counter.
A schoolgirl in uniform stepped on the undecayed autumn leaves on the sidewalk, and her faux-fur scarf dotted with snowflakes left dark wet circles.
When Su Li returned home, Cat was crouched by the window with several other kittens, watching the fluttering snow outside.
Only Zhihe was dozing in her cat bed.
This was the first winter she spent with Cat.
And also the Nth winter she had spent with Cat.