My Dating Sim Just Got an Update - Chapter 18

“Turn right ahead. Do you see that cluster of strange, giant leaves? Go around them, and there’s a path that leads straight to H City.” After a long silence, Ren Chenxi finally spoke. Even though she was in a foul mood and didn’t feel like talking, she still had to guide Chang Ling as their navigator.

On the mini-map, Ren Chenxi could clearly see a narrow trail. Once the bus turned onto the path she indicated, the group finally livened up again.

“Hey! Sister Xi, your eyesight is incredible! With all these dense trees, you actually managed to spot this tiny road.”

“I have a feeling. This path was carved out by hand. Look at the ground up ahead; there are very clear tire tracks!”

“Maybe it’s the ability users from H City? They might have cleared this path to get in and out since that main highway collapsed.”

Perhaps sensing Ren Chenxi’s mood, everyone collectively avoided the topic of “Senior Ren” which they had been enjoying earlier. Instead, they struck up a new conversation. However, it was Ren Chenxi herself who brought the topic back—though not to her “brother,” but to “Senior Sister Mu.”

“I heard Jian Dan and the others mention that your Senior Sister Mu went to H City to find her boyfriend. Since she already has one, why did you all say she fell for my brother?” After all, the Wood Goddess’s affection level was still sitting prominently at the top of her quest bar. Ren Chenxi didn’t doubt what the young girl Tang Ying had said; she was just confused.

“Well… Senior Sister Mu said so herself. After the apocalypse started, she rescued us all from S University and was heading to H City. Senior Fan tried to stop her and even confessed his feelings, but Senior Sister Mu said she already had a boyfriend. She said her boyfriend was Senior Ren, and she was going to find him…”

Ren Chenxi was suddenly reminded of that old nightmare: the Wood Goddess, soaking wet and holding a vine whip, whispering eerily, “Where did you go? I’ve searched so hard for you… You’re so cruel. You finally won my heart, only to throw it away? In that case, I’ll just have to cut out your heart so it can be with mine forever…”

As the bus neared the edge of the forest with H City coming into view, Ren Chenxi suddenly found herself not wanting to go there at all.

“Why did your Senior Sister have to go to H City of all places…”

Filled with annoyance and resentment, Ren Chenxi let out a soft sigh.

However, Tang Ying didn’t catch the bitterness in her voice. She answered quite earnestly, “Senior Sister Mu went to see Senior Ren’s friends. She heard it from one of them—that Senior Ren wanted to see the ocean and had mentioned going to H City for that. So back then, everyone guessed that his summer trip was probably to H City.”

Did she ever tell a friend that? Which friend? That blabbermouth! Why did they have to tell everyone everything!

Ren Chenxi started sighing again.

Tang Ying, whose idol’s persona had collapsed and whose favorite “ship” had sunk, sighed right along with her.

“Sigh, Sister Xi, once you get to H City and meet Senior Sister Mu, you should tell her the truth about Senior Ren being gone… When the apocalypse first hit and things were so dangerous, she didn’t care about her own safety; she insisted on finding him. Two years have passed, and I’m afraid she’s still out there searching. Actually, two months after the semester started and he hadn’t returned, people told her something might have happened to him, but she wouldn’t listen. But if Senior Ren’s twin sister tells her, she’ll definitely believe it, right?”

Tang Ying’s words were like a beacon of light for Ren Chenxi, who had been sinking into the darkness of her past nightmares. That’s right! How could she forget? She was Ren Chenxi now, not Ren Muhui. She just needed to live her own life in this world. The Wood Goddess had nothing to do with her anymore!

So. even if the Wood Goddess was in H City, even if they actually met, she could just treat her like a complete stranger she’d never met before!

Having reached this realization, Ren Chenxi gave the adorable Tang Ying a brilliant smile. “Alright~ If I see your Senior Sister Mu, I’ll let her know~” She would tell the Wood Goddess that Ren Muhui was gone, and that she was Ren Chenxi.

Ren Muhui’s relentless pursuit of the past had nothing to do with her now.

Ren Chenxi’s smile was so radiant that Tang Ying’s gloomy mood vanished instantly. Blushing, she nudged Yang Xiangrui with her elbow and whispered, “Oh man, I was just thinking… if Senior Sister Mu meets Sister Xi and they start some kind of ‘substitute lover’ angst story, that would be. so tragic and beautiful.”

Why do you look so excited then?

Yang Xiangrui stared at the “shipping-obsessed” Tang Ying with a look of utter speechlessness.

The bus finally cleared the thick, suffocatingly dark forest. Just before the sun dipped below the horizon, they caught the last glowing embers of the sunset. The entire bus erupted into cheers of relief.

As they entered the outskirts of H City, Jian Dan’s old maps became somewhat useful again. However, they weren’t sure exactly where the South Sea Base was located. Pre-apocalypse maps didn’t exactly come with “survivor base” markers, but the locations were clearly marked on Ren Chenxi’s game map.

“Tang Ying, do you guys know where your Senior Sister is in H City?” Jian Dan asked, frustrated as she flipped through the map book.

“I don’t know. We haven’t been in touch for two years…”

“I know. It’s in a middle school in Yanghu Village, Zuoning Town,” a quieter boy replied.

The S University students all turned to look at him. “Fang Hong, how do you know that?”

The boy named Fang Hong curled his lip in disgust. “Li Jie mentioned it before.”

“Tsk! Li Jie? How did that guy find out?”

The mention of Li Jie caused everyone’s expression to sour. Song Xin asked, realization dawning on him, “Li Jie? Is that the loud, self-important guy? Oh right, why isn’t he with you guys? Actually, it looks like a few people are missing.”

As soon as Song Xin finished his question, the atmosphere turned even darker.

“We… had a falling out with Li Jie’s group on the road. One night, they took advantage of the situation, stole all our food and water, and ran off. Without supplies, we had to spend extra time scavenging in small towns and villages. That’s why it took us so long to reach H City.”

In the apocalypse, stealing someone’s food and water was practically a death sentence. It was no wonder the students looked so bitter when mentioning that group.

Silence fell over the carriage for a moment. After a while, Yang Xiangrui continued asking Fang Hong, “That idiot Li Jie. how did he know Senior Sister Mu was at that middle school? If they got there first to sponge off her, she’s in for some real trouble being stuck with trash like them.”

“They probably weren’t looking for Senior Sister Mu, but for Senior Fan. Senior Fan’s hometown was in M City, right next to H City, remember? A year into the apocalypse, people from his family came to pick him up and take him to H City. Back then, he even bragged to us that he was going to win Senior Sister Mu back. He probably told Li Jie before he left. You know Li Jie and Senior Fan were tight.”

“Puh-lease, Senior Sister Mu never even accepted his pursuit, so how can he ‘win her back’?” Tang Ying, who hated seeing a third party interfere with her favorite ship, was the most revolted. “I used to just think Senior Fan was shameless and unscrupulous in how he chased her, but looking back, if he could be best friends with a piece of trash like Li Jie, he couldn’t have been a good person himself!”

“He wasn’t!” Yang Xiangrui rolled his eyes. “Calling him ‘Senior’ was being generous. Since we’re not at S University anymore, I’m not calling him that ever again!”

Ren Chenxi sat nearby, feeling quite speechless. To be fair, she had been pretty shameless herself when she was trying to complete quests and woo the Goddess. However, Fan Juntian’s tactics to sabotage her had indeed been vile. Ren Chenxi remembered that Fan Juntian didn’t take her seriously at first, but one day, he suddenly viewed her as his biggest rival. He even sent a group of thugs to “warn” and teach her a lesson.

How did she escape? Simple: she threw money at the problem. The thugs were there for a paycheck, so she simply outbid him to make them go away. As for why she didn’t just pay them to beat up Fan Juntian instead? Simple: she didn’t have his family’s deep pockets. Besides, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t just take her money and tell on her, which would only lead to Fan Juntian using even dirtier tricks. She didn’t want to get expelled before finishing her mission.

While she couldn’t face Fan Juntian head-on, she could certainly play dirty from the shadows. If Fan Juntian wanted to be cruel, she didn’t have to be kind.

What’s the fastest way to ruin a “star” student’s future? Make them a drug addict. When Fan Juntian sent those thugs, their plan was to force-feed her white powder. From that moment, Ren Chenxi knew he was scum, so she felt no guilt in retaliating.

Using her magical game inventory, when the thugs pulled out the drugs to force her, Ren Chenxi threw out a massive pile of cash from her bag. To make sure they stayed distracted, she threw out a lot. While the thugs were frantically scrambling for the money, she snatched the bags of powder into her inventory. Back at her apartment, she carefully emptied the powder from its containers and stored it “loose” in her inventory.

Once the powder was in her inventory without a container, the rest was easy. Fan Juntian didn’t eat at the cafeteria, but he loved playing basketball to show off and listen to the girls scream his name. All Ren Chenxi had to do was wait for him to finish a game. While he was drinking water, she stood within the required three-meter range and “returned” the powder from her inventory directly into his water bottle.

In that era, universities weren’t covered in surveillance cameras like in Ren Chenxi’s original world. Wearing a hat and a scarf, she was just another person “passing by,” and no one suspected a thing.

Shortly after, Fan Juntian collapsed on the court, twitching and convulsing. Ren Chenxi had returned all of the powder to him, so the effects hit hard and fast.

The school suppressed the incident, claiming he had a sudden seizure due to a hereditary condition. The naive students didn’t suspect anything, let alone imagine that something as dangerous as drugs had entered their campus.

After that, Fan Juntian took a long medical leave. When he returned a year later, he was much gloomier and significantly more subdued—likely warned by his family. His family had gone to great lengths to clean up his mess, and while he might have suspected Ren Chenxi, he had zero evidence.

And so, after that lesson, Fan Juntian didn’t dare make any more big moves. This allowed Ren Chenxi to spend another year smoothly playing the devoted admirer to the Wood Goddess.

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