He Qingxia agreed without even asking a single question. Gu Jingye then said he wanted to come too, and Wen Zhilu asked in the group chat whether Xuan Yanyu was going. After Yan Yunning replied that he was not, he said he wanted to go as well.

At the airport, Gu Jingye pulled He Qingxia away, and the two of them did not board the same flight as Yan Yunning and Wen Zhilu. Yan Yunning suspected it was probably because Gu Jingye wanted to sit with He Qingxia — since, had all four of them taken the same flight, Gu Jingye would have ended up sitting next to Wen Zhilu, while He Qingxia would certainly have sat with Yan Yunning.

“I have no money. I’m completely broke.” Guo Si had the look of someone facing a formidable enemy.

Hadn’t Young Master Xuan promised to protect him?

How had the little Yan family princess managed to find him???

This was completely unreliable!!!

Yan Yunning blinked and took a sip of her milk tea. “Why did you run the moment you saw me?”

“The four of you clearly came looking for me. I’m just one person — I’m not an idiot. If I didn’t run, what was I supposed to do — wait for you???”

He Qingxia chewed on a piece of coconut jelly in her mouth and asked with curiosity, “How did you figure that out?”

Guo Si put on a hollow smile. “I’m not blind.”

He Qingxia: “……”

Yan Yunning took out a fruit knife she had just bought from the supermarket, held it up in her hand, admired it for a moment, then said unhurriedly, “I have some questions for you. You should find it convenient to talk, I imagine.”

Guo Si swallowed, subtly glancing at the routes around him. “No, actually — Miss, I don’t think we know each other. Are you sure you haven’t got the wrong person?”

“We do know each other.” Yan Yunning raised an eyebrow and smiled lightly. “Think carefully about your options. I only want to ask you a few questions. But if you insist on running, then there’s nothing I can do — I’ll just have to ask my father to inquire on my behalf.”

Weighing his options, Guo Si gave a nod. “Fine.”

Yan Yunning curved her lips into a smile and turned to look at Wen Zhilu and the others. “Wait for me a moment.”

There were some things they were better off not hearing.

Wen Zhilu frowned. “Can’t we come along?”

“I’ll go by myself.” Yan Yunning tucked away the fruit knife, took another sip of milk tea, then followed Guo Si into the residential complex.

They went upstairs and entered his room. Yan Yunning looked around — the furniture was complete, there was still half a pot of tea on the coffee table, and the place was kept reasonably tidy.

There were quite a few potted plants too, and curled up on a cotton quilt was a small cat, lazily blinking its eyes.

From the look of things, Guo Si was planning to stay here long-term.

“Miss Yan, please have a seat.” Guo Si took a bottle of mineral water from the refrigerator and held it out to her, then thought better of it and set it down, took a disposable paper cup instead, and poured her a cup of hot water from the dispenser.

Yan Yunning did not take it. Her smile did not reach her eyes. “Didn’t you just say a moment ago that we don’t know each other?”

Guo Si bit down, then relented. “Miss Yan, this…… please don’t blame me — really, it has nothing to do with me. If you want to blame someone, blame…… blame…… blame Shiyao. If it weren’t for her and Qi Qingchen, none of what happened afterward would have come to be.”

“So then — why did I inexplicably end up transmigrated into the historical novel you wrote?”

Guo Si cleared his throat. “You know I like doing research — I was studying a book-transmigration device. I originally intended to try it myself, but then Young Master Xuan found out about it. He came to me directly, gave me character profiles and other materials, and asked me to write a historical novel……”

“Well…… I mean, before and after — you probably already know the full picture. None of us were certain it would work for sure, and the transmigration device was already running, but Young Master Xuan insisted on giving it a try.”

“He offered money, so I agreed. To be safe, when I uploaded the chapters, I also wrote Young Master Xuan a wife — I wrote her according to Miss Shiyao’s description. I had intended for Miss Shiyao to enter the book alongside Young Master Xuan.”

“And your role was the Second Young Miss in the later portion of the story — the one who…… who gets killed off.”

Yan Yunning’s brow furrowed slightly. “So you’re saying — if I hadn’t transmigrated, according to your original plot, that Second Young Miss was truly nothing more than a disposable cannon-fodder character who ends up dead in the end???”

“Yes, it was all fictional — the plot was made up. Don’t take it personally. But I never expected things to go so sideways. You ended up transmigrating instead of Miss Shiyao. I have to admit, the transmigration device is actually quite impressive — it could identify who Young Master Xuan’s true wife really was.”

Yan Yunning’s eyes lifted slightly. “So — why did I transmigrate???”

“……” Guo Si pinched the bridge of his nose, at a loss. “Because the plot designated Young Master Yanyu’s wife as someone who shared a destined connection with him. You and Young Master Xuan are a matched pair — so the transmigration device pulled you into the book. In a story full of fictional characters, he was the only real male lead, and naturally there had to be a real female lead to match him.”

“Everything was meant to be. Some things simply can’t be explained.”

“It’s fate — even without this accident, the two of you would have found your way to each other eventually, going round and round.”

Yan Yunning’s eyes shifted slightly. She asked again, “Then the child — why……”

“That was something I arranged. At the time, I didn’t know that Young Master Xuan and Shiyao were a fake couple. I was worried that when you returned and saw the two of them together, you would be devastated, so I devised a plan.”

“I had Fafa create a false illusion. Both the physicians and everyone around you were led to believe the child had been lost in a miscarriage, and then I wrote in the story that your character was frail in health, prompting Young Master Xuan to marry Yan Shiyao. That way, you — having lost the child — would certainly become disillusioned with Young Master Xuan. I just never expected that Young Master Xuan would refuse to go along with it.”

He paused, then Guo Si added an explanation. “Fafa is an intelligent system developed alongside the transmigration device. I’m its master — I can input commands into it.”

“A false illusion?” Yan Yunning had no mind to ask about what had apparently been Xuan Yanyu being made to marry Yan Shiyao — she was too stunned to ask anything else. “Then my child is still here?”

Guo Si raised an eyebrow. “Of course. The characters in the book are all fictional — who could ever hurt you?”

Yan Yunning closed her eyes. Through her mind flashed the last words Fafa had ever said to her: “Master, there’s a surprise in store for you. Whether you want it or not — that’s for you to decide.”

No wonder she hadn’t felt any pain at the time, and why she had been craving sour things and feeling fatigued.

After returning, she hadn’t given it much thought because she wasn’t very visibly showing yet.

Had she eaten anything she shouldn’t have since coming back???

She didn’t think so — thankfully, she hadn’t.

And she was also grateful that on that particular day, Ranran had suddenly wanted to sleep in her room. Had that not happened, and some accident had occurred, it would have been a real disaster.

But……

The biggest problem right now was how to explain everything.

Before she could even open her mouth to ask anything further, Guo Si continued in his rambling way. “I transmigrated into the book too — I became the Imperial Advisor. And then one day, Young Master Xuan came looking for me, and I lied to him, telling him he had to marry Yan Shiyao so that you would be allowed to remain by his side. The goal was to make you lose your heart to him before you left.”

“But he didn’t do it.”

Yan Yunning thought it over carefully — she hadn’t known any of this at the time.

Guo Si took a drink of water. “No more questions? I’ve explained everything clearly, haven’t I?”

Yan Yunning narrowed her eyes at him. “So you were afraid I’d come after you to settle accounts — that’s why you hid abroad?”

Guo Si cleared his throat. “Why else would I be here???”

If Young Master Xuan and Shiyao had truly been a couple, then both this little Yan family princess and Young Master Xuan would surely come after him.

That was precisely why he had asked Young Master Xuan to send him abroad and keep him out of harm’s way.

Yan Yunning glanced around the room. “Do you still have the novel you wrote? I’d like to read it.”

Guo Si was quiet for a moment, then went into the bedroom and came back with a copy, which he handed to her.

Yan Yunning took the hefty self-printed volume in her hands, sat down on the sofa, and turned through the pages one by one.

When she reached the later portion of the novel and came across the part about having two sons, Yan Yunning was furious. “What kind of writing is this — why didn’t you give us a daughter?”

Guo Si’s mouth twitched. “Miss Yan — it’s fictional. I just wrote whatever I felt like. If you want a daughter, go ask Young Master Xuan. Who knows, maybe the one in your womb is a daughter.”

“It’s fictional — so why didn’t you just make all of them daughters?” Yan Yunning fumed. “And why didn’t you let us stay in the book until the grand ending before sending us back to the modern world???”

Guo Si was startled. “My dear, however many people go into the book through the transmigration device, that same number must come back out. If you waited until the book’s grand finale — what would become of your children?”