Miss Wheelchair - Chapter 24

The lab results for the tea sample came back. Every indicator was perfectly normal, except for one specific element marked with three prominent plus signs.

Tan Xin didn’t recognize the word—it was probably located somewhere in the bottom few rows of the periodic table—but one thing was absolutely certain: it was highly detrimental to human bone growth.

“I asked Dr. Lu about it.”

The moment Tan Xin got her hands on the report, she went straight to find Gu Ci. She placed the lightweight sheet of paper onto Gu Ci’s office desk and gently slid it across to her.

“If someone regularly ingests this during their adolescence, it severely damages bone development. In severe cases, it leads directly to paralysis.”

Gu Ci glanced at the report. Her eyelids didn’t even flutter, and her expression remained as frostily detached as ever, as if the person who had been paralyzed wasn’t her at all.

“What are you trying to say?”

Now, it was Tan Xin’s turn to be caught off guard. She stared intently at the space above Gu Ci’s head, trying so hard she could have burned a hole through it.

This isn’t right.

“What isn’t right?” Gu Ci asked.

Staring at the completely barren space where no color value was appearing, Tan Xin was thoroughly baffled. She muttered to herself, “You should be angry. They drugged you and paralyzed you. Or, if you’re not angry, you should at least be sad. Hell, I’d even take murderous intent! How can you be completely indifferent?”

The space above her head was entirely too clean. There was literally nothing but hair.

Oblivious to Tan Xin’s visual buffs, Gu Ci simply assumed this was another one of her “mind-reading” tricks picked up from web novels. She let out a cold snort.

“Read fewer novels.”

Tan Xin flared up, frustrated by her lack of outrage. “What does this have to do with novels? This is about your legs! Your life! They ruined you like this, and you don’t even want to get revenge? And, furthermore.”

“Furthermore, what?”

“Furthermore, I heard that Gu Peisheng and Xu Qiuxin were already released on bail last night! It was literally attempted murder, and they just get to walk out on bail?”

If she hadn’t possessed the system’s cheat codes to know there were sleeping pills in the honey water.

If she hadn’t used her quick wit to dump the liquid into the couch.

If she hadn’t timed it perfectly to pull the handbrake the second she heard the sirens.

She would have already met a tragic end inside this simulation. Yet Gu Ci, who had gone through the exact same near-death experience alongside her, remained entirely unbothered.

“The police lack definitive, concrete evidence, so they can’t legally hold them. Bail was a certainty.”

Gu Ci analyzed the situation entirely from a third-party perspective, her tone even colder than if she were discussing a corporate project.

Tan Xin grew anxious. “And you can just swallow that? They paralyzed you, and now they want you dead!”

Hearing this, Gu Ci slowly raised her eyes from the lab report, her voice flat. “How do you think Gu Peisheng went bankrupt in the first place?”

A single sentence stirred up a thousand waves. Tan Xin’s eyes instantly lit up, and she asked with a thrilled, testing whisper, “It was you?”

Gu Ci shrugged. “He made a poor investment calculation on his own. It has nothing to do with me.”

The moment she finished speaking, Tan Xin’s face blossomed into absolute delight, like a little yellow wildflower in springtime. She wanted to laugh but tried desperately to hold it in, forcefully biting her lip until her mouth formed a tight, upside-down bracket.

Gu Ci, who had remained indifferent the entire time, finally showed a flicker of confusion. Orange: +10 appeared above her head.

“What are you smiling at?”

Tan Xin snapped out of it, her gaze clearing up instantly. “Huh? Nothing. Did I smile?”

Gu Ci ruthlessly exposed her. “Your face is completely flushed from holding it in.”

Tan Xin dug her heels in. “No, it’s not. I just slapped myself twice across the face earlier.”

Gu Ci: “?”

“Anyway, I still have things to take care of, so I’ll head back first!” Tan Xin added quickly. “If you finish up with work, come home early.”

With that, she suppressed the wild euphoria surging in her chest and backed out of the office.

I knew it! She cheered internally. How could an ambitious, highly capable powerhouse like Gu Ci repeatedly take hits from her toxic biological family without striking back? Given her personality, she must have known ages ago that Gu Peisheng and his wife harbored malicious intent, and she had been quietly moving her chess pieces in the shadows. Otherwise, Gu Peisheng’s bankruptcy would never have happened so rapidly.

Tsk, my wifey is truly magnificent. Pass on the fragile innocent trope; give her more of the calculating femme fatale.

Giggling to herself, she began pulling the office door shut. A split second before the door clicked into place, a cool, quiet voice drifted out from inside.

“Tan Xin. Thank you.”

Tan Xin froze on the spot. Her heart felt as though it had been blasted by a pink bubble machine, bursting with 9,999 little peach blossoms.

Wifey thanked me.

Her icy, aloof, high-and-mighty wifey actually thanked her! And she had used her full name—such a solemn, formal thank you!

Unable to control the massive grin splitting her face any longer, she called back, “Hey! It was nothing!”

She shut the door and walked a good two hundred meters, a goofy smile still plastered on her face. Once the initial rush subsided, her romance-brain switched off, and her logical brain booted up:

Wait, what exactly was she thanking me for?

“Hello, Tan Xin. We will now calculate your Favorability Value.”

When the system materialized, Tan Xin had just finished taking a shower. She was lounging on her plush, king-sized bed in a pink, puff-sleeved nightdress, daydreaming about a future where she and Gu Ci would cuddle close and whisper sweet nothings.

“Sure, go ahead and calculate.”

The rosy afterglow of her hot shower hadn’t faded from her cheeks yet, making her face look even softer and pinker than her nightdress.

The holographic screen flickered to life. Long, dense strings of code rapidly scrolled upward from the bottom of the display. After two sharp electronic beep-beep sounds of computation, the screen flashed the final result:

[System Notice]: “Congratulations! Gu Ci’s favorability has increased by [+10]. Total Favorability Value: [0].”

Tan Xin leaped straight out of bed, her momentum causing her to bounce a couple of times on the mattress when she landed back down.

“Nice!”

She knew it would go up this time. Even though she had anticipated it, she still couldn’t control her excitement the moment the official announcement dropped.

“Do you know what zero signifies?” Tan Xin asked proudly.

The system immediately ran a search through its internal user database to generate an answer:

[System]: “In specific relationship dynamics, a ‘0’ typically represents the receptive partner, whereas a ‘1’ represents the dominant partner. In bed, usually—”

“Who on earth asked you about that?”

Tan Xin hurled a pillow across the room. It traced a perfect parabola right through the holographic screen and landed on the bay window.

“Furthermore, I am clearly the ‘1’ here! You’re the ‘0’! Your entire family lines are ‘0’s!”

The screen interface instantly glitched, flashing a solid, bright-red exclamation mark.

[System]: “Warning: Insulting the system detected. Commencing punishment. Commencing punishment.”

Tan Xin was utterly baffled. “What are you doing.”

The next millisecond, her body was forcibly launched off the mattress, throwing her through the air until she crashed heavily onto the floor.

“Ow!”

Though Tan Xin used her quick reflexes from years of Taekwondo training to brace for impact, she was a fraction of a second too late. Her rear end made an intimate, brutal collision with the hardwood floor.

“Ouch.”

She curled up on the ground in sheer agony. Thank goodness her glute muscles were incredibly toned from martial arts, or that fall would have seriously broken something.

Glares burning with resentment, she pointed a finger at the floating screen and snapped, “Don’t you forget that I paid a twenty-thousand-yuan membership fee to get in here! I am a paying consumer!”

The system whirred and spun through two processing cycles before chiming back smoothly:

[System]: “I am the 1.”

“The hell you are!” Tan Xin snarled. “I’m the 1 here! A total top, a stone top, an absolute diamond top!”

It was a good thing her favorability value wasn’t high enough yet. Once she managed to charm the beautiful Gu Ci into her bed in the future, she would absolutely summon the system to force a live broadcast, making it witness her legendary journey as an absolute top with its own digital eyes!

The moment she thought of Gu Ci, a wave of warmth surged through her chest. The cool voice echoing from the crack of the office door that afternoon returned to her ears: “Tan Xin. Thank you.”

How could anyone’s voice sound that incredibly beautiful?

It was crisp without being icy, like a crystal-clear mountain spring washing over glass wind chimes. Simply divine.

And what were those lips like when they uttered those words?

Did they carry the same natural chill as a mountain spring, or did they possess a blazing warmth—soft, delicate, and tender?

Nope. Stop. The world inside her head was already spinning uncontrollably into Rated-R territory.

Is this the true meaning behind the Erotic Romance System?

After banishing the system from her room, Tan Xin tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. The static electricity generated from her hair rubbing against the pillow was practically enough to power the Three Gorges Dam. Yet, her chest still felt as if it were being scorched by a spiritual fire, her lungs burning hot.

The moment she closed her eyes, she saw Gu Ci dressed in her tailored suit, sitting in her wheelchair, her lips parting to whisper: “Tan Xin. Thank you.”

How could a person be so effortlessly seductive?

Who gave her permission to thank her?

Who allowed her voice to sound that beautiful?

And who allowed her tone to become so adorably strained when she said it?

Was this not a blatant attempt to reel her in with a massive golden fishing hook?

No, this won’t do. I need to go get some cold water to calm down. Otherwise, sleep would be completely out of the question tonight.

Stepping out of her room, Gu Ci’s bedroom stood directly across the hallway.

The door was tightly shut. At this hour, she was likely already fast asleep.

Tan Xin stared intensely at the heavy, solid wood, wishing she could project her soul right through the panel, charge into the room, and fiercely devour those soft lips of Gu Ci’s.

Dammit. Why didn’t this broken system track her favorability value? She guaranteed it would have skyrocketed to 100 on day one, clearing the bases for a home run and a three-hundred-round battle that very night.

No, no, absolutely not.

Wooing a wife required a step-by-step approach. She had only just broken past the zero-point barrier, putting her a mere ten points above the general, annoying masses. She couldn’t afford to drop the ball at such a critical milestone.

Stay composed. Absolutely composed.

As she rounded the corridor, she noticed the light in the pantry was on.

Furthermore, it wasn’t the harsh overhead lighting, but the soft glow of the countertop ambient lamp.

A deep, muted gold illuminated the compact room in warm amber hues, draping every surface in a delicate, golden veil. The rich, dense tones made the entire scene look exactly like a classic oil painting.

And right in the center of the canvas sat Gu Ci in her wheelchair. She held a crystal goblet by the stem with one hand, the deep crimson wine swirling gracefully inside the glass.

Hearing the footsteps, she looked up toward Tan Xin. Her icy eyes seemed to catch a fraction of warmth from the ambient glow. The corner of her lips curved upward, filling the quiet space with an immediate, intoxicating allure.

“Come here,” she said to Tan Xin.