Bai Youwei’s gaze went cold. She released both hands, and the sign she’d been holding instantly dropped, cutting off the groping hand reaching toward her.

The young man was slightly taken aback.

Before he could react, Bai Youwei had already impatiently swung the sign and walked out of their encirclement.

“She really is a real person!” The man behind her sounded delighted and came chasing after her to flirt. “Hey! Girl, what’s your name? You’re looking for Shen Mo? I know him really well — just call me ‘big brother’ and have dinner with me, and I’ll take you to find him. How about it?”

“No need.” Bai Youwei suddenly dropped the sign, her eyes unblinking as she stared straight ahead.

She had found him…

Walking out of the station exit — that man in the form-fitting combat suit, pitch-black eyes, lips pressed into a light line, his detached expression as cold and composed as ever.

In an instant, Bai Youwei could see nothing in the world but him.

She ran toward him with pure joy, and flung herself straight into the man’s arms —

“Husband!!!”

Shen Mo: “……”

Two men and a woman followed behind Shen Mo as he walked out of the subway station. They teased: “Mo ge, how many people have come to claim a connection with you this week now?”

Bai Youwei caught the implication in those words, and the surge of emotion in her heart deflated considerably. She tipped her head back to look at Shen Mo’s face. “What do you mean? Someone else was pretending to be me?!”

The red-haired woman behind him laughed. “Ha! No one claiming to be his wife — but people claiming to be his older sister, younger brother, his *son*, all of those have shown up!”

Bai Youwei stared with wide eyes in disbelief.

How could this be?! The nerve of some people!

Another man with a short ponytail said with a grin: “Mo ge, you’ve really got it made. You’ve only been in the Combat Zone a few days and you’ve already got a full set — brothers, sisters, a dad — and now a wife too.”

Everyone laughed, clearly assuming Bai Youwei was just like the others, here to try and leverage a connection.

Bai Youwei’s heart clenched, and she quickly looked at Shen Mo’s face.

His face was as expressionless as ever — she couldn’t read anything from his expression — but the depths of his dark eyes seemed to carry a flicker of doubt.

Bai Youwei knew at once that this was bad. Given how he looked, the system had almost certainly blocked his memories. What was she supposed to do now?

“You really don’t remember me?” Bai Youwei’s eyes reddened — part genuine heartache, part performance. “I transferred all the way from the Life Zone just to find you. How could you not remember me? Sniff sniff…”

Hearing this, the others let their smiles fade slightly and asked Bai Youwei in surprise: “You transferred zones to come here?”

“Yes…” Bai Youwei still clung to Shen Mo without letting go, two teardrops hanging at the corners of her eyes. “Otherwise, why would a helpless, frail little woman like me suffer through coming to a place like this? Sniff sniff…”

Shen Mo: “……”

“The way she looks, she really doesn’t seem like someone from the Combat Zone.” The red-haired woman raised her elbow and gently nudged her companion beside her. “…Could she really be his wife?”

That kind of thing — who could say for certain?

Her companion muttered quietly: “Who knows…”

The man with the short ponytail, for his part, was happy to welcome the development: “Real or fake, just take her in and figure it out later! This zone is so short on women it’s getting ridiculous — even our tough girl is getting fought over by a pile of men…”

“Hey! Who are you calling a tough girl?!” The red-haired woman shot him a glare.

The short-ponytail man immediately made a conciliatory gesture, laughing sheepishly: “Me! I’m saying *I* look like the tough girl!”

The red-haired woman snorted coldly. “You really are neither one thing nor the other.”

Short-ponytail man: “Hey now, that’s going a bit far…”

Shen Mo swept a glance at their surroundings. The delay at the station exit had already drawn a crowd of onlookers.

He said plainly: “Let’s head back and talk there.”

With that, he naturally draped his arm around Bai Youwei’s shoulder and walked forward.

The others behind them exchanged glances, whispering among themselves:

“Hm, maybe it really is her.”

“Yeah, I’ve never seen him be that familiar with anyone before…”

“No comparison! The people who came looking for Mo ge before were all so… rough-looking!”

“That’s true…”

“But is she actually real?”

……

—