No matter how many days I managed to delay Alice’s departure, it would never truly keep her by my side for good.

  There had to be a hard limit in her mind. The original “three days” she’d proposed was like an expiration date on food—there was always some buffer zone between the stated deadline and the actual point of no return. But once that buffer vanished, no amount of sweet talk would make a difference.

  That morning, after waking up and eating breakfast together, we sat in the living room watching TV. The local news was covering the “mysterious explosion at the unfinished building near Xianshui University”—the very incident I’d personally caused not long ago. An expert wrapped it up with absolute certainty, classifying it as a gas leak explosion. Regardless of what stance Luo Shan currently held on whether anomalies should still be concealed, it seemed the official side at least preferred to keep things under wraps.

  Once the program cut to commercials, Alice turned to me and announced her departure. The look on her face made it clear this wasn’t up for discussion—it was a courtesy heads-up, nothing more.

  Of course I wasn’t about to let it end there.

  Over the past few days, I’d finally figured out how to make her want to stay of her own accord.

  This was the first time in my life I’d put so much effort into manipulating a girl, and at the start I’d been clumsy in all sorts of ways. But as the saying goes, practice makes perfect. After several days of trial and error, I’d slowly pieced together what actually worked.

  My initial ideas—tempting her with food, making her sick so she’d have to stay, claiming the delivery would arrive “tomorrow,” and so on—were all cheap tricks. They could buy a little time, but that was it.

  The real reason she’d stayed this long was because she genuinely believed she needed to recover here and hide from pursuit. But now things had changed. She no longer passed out at the drop of a hat, she didn’t stumble when she walked, and her complexion had improved dramatically. It wouldn’t be surprising if she could already use spatial transfer again. In her eyes, I was no longer essential.

  There’s a world of difference between book knowledge and the real thing. The core truth was simple: I had to make her feel that I myself was indispensable.

  Once I locked onto that insight, ideas and schemes flooded my mind one after another, quickly coalescing into a concrete, detailed plan. Who knew I had a talent for this kind of thing? I never imagined that after slipping into certain dark tendencies, my thinking would actually become sharper. I kept refining the plan in my head, feeling more and more confident with every pass.

  By now Alice had already stood up from the sofa.

  She was no longer wearing my oversized gray T-shirt and sweatpants. Instead, she had on the clothes and shoes I’d ordered for her online.

  I used to quietly mock Chang’an’s terrible fashion sense, but truth be told, I didn’t know much about coordinating outfits either. I had only the vaguest grasp of color matching and even less clue about women’s fashion. My one shallow shortcut: when in doubt, black is almost always safe.

  Right now she wore a black printed hoodie, a short pleated skirt, black cotton tights that showed off her shapely legs, and black mid-calf Martin boots. The only splash of color was the red GPS bracelet I’d given her on her left wrist—an outlier in the otherwise dark ensemble. By my own standards, the look didn’t cross any major lines, and she hadn’t complained about it either.

  Seeing a beautiful girl wearing clothes I’d personally chosen for her stirred an entirely new sensation inside me. I couldn’t help but start mentally tweaking and improving the outfit in my head.

  As she headed toward the entryway and pulled her hood up to cover her face, I spoke up: “Let’s go out together.”

  “Together?”

  She stopped mid-step. After days of my smooth talking, she’d clearly built up some resistance. When she turned back to look at me, her eyes were full of caution.

  “You’re still unfamiliar with a lot of things in the outside world, right? I can show you around.” I stood up from the sofa too. “We can grab a meal out, walk around a bit, and then part on good terms. That way it feels like a proper goodbye—a real send-off from me.”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “If someone sees you with a wanted criminal like me…” She still had reservations.

  “It’s fine. Just put this on.”

  I pulled out the mask I’d prepared in advance: a black cotton one printed with white cat whiskers.

  She raised an eyebrow. “Won’t walking around with something that hides my face make me look even more suspicious?”

  “Trust me, these past few years it’s completely normal to wear a mask when you go out.”

  After a moment’s thought, she nodded, took the cat-whisker mask, put it on, and followed me out the door.

  Once we were downstairs, the morning sunlight bathed her entire body. She lifted her head to look at the sky, as though marveling at the open space she hadn’t experienced in so long.

  My own emotions were strange and complicated. We’d been living under the same roof for days, yet this was the first time we’d walked together in daylight. I wasn’t trying to dehumanize Alice in my mind—my feeling right now was closer to what it must be like the first time you take a cat or dog outside without a leash, terrified they’ll bolt and vanish somewhere you can’t follow.

  She glanced back toward my building, then at me, her expression softening.

  “What?” I asked, confused by her gaze.

  “Nothing…” She paused for two seconds before admitting what was really on her mind. “Don’t laugh at me. I know I’m small and not exactly curvy, but I think my face is pretty—at least, I think so. So… I’ve had this tiny suspicion the whole time.”

  “Suspicion of what?”

  “That maybe you’re actually some creep who wants to lock me up. That the reason you’ve been so nice is because you’re after my body…” She trailed off. “But now I can see I was wrong. I’m sorry.”

  “…” For a moment I didn’t know how to respond.

  I wasn’t the kind of person she imagined, but I had absolutely considered keeping her captive—and it was still my backup plan.

  I changed the subject, partly to deflect and partly to probe: “More importantly, how’s your body holding up? You’re not going to suddenly collapse, are you?”

  “Much better. The damage to my soul won’t heal overnight, but I could run right now if I needed to.”

  “I’ve noticed you zoning out a lot lately, though.”

  Her answer caught me off guard: “That’s because I’ve been meditating.”

  “Meditating?” I was stunned.

  Wasn’t that the legendary state of deep meditation I’d read about in books—the one I’d never managed to reach even after developing my powers?

  “Meditation helps my soul recover and conceals my presence. The effect lingers for a while even after I stop. It works in any setting or posture, so it’s perfect for my current condition.” She explained, “With my soul injured, I leak aura too easily. The person who ambushed me last time probably tracked me through that…”

  “The person who ambushed you?” I latched onto the crucial detail.

  She realized she’d said too much and immediately clammed up, refusing to elaborate further. She was acting like a brooding hero determined to shoulder everything alone.

  Once she went into that mode, she wouldn’t reveal anything else, so I filed it away to investigate later.

  We left the neighborhood and stepped onto the street. It was morning rush hour—office workers and students hurried past in every direction. At a roadside cart, I bought two pouches of sweet soy milk, making sure to pay in front of her by scanning the QR code with my phone.

  She noticed the transaction. She might have seen similar things on TV, but if she really was from an apocalyptic world, this was probably her first time seeing it in real life. Her eyes sparkled with curiosity at the unfamiliar sight.

  I handed her one pouch and explained as we walked away from the cart: “That was mobile payment. You scan a QR code with your phone to complete the transaction.”

  “Mobile payment… mobile device… so basically, just having a smartphone is enough?” she asked, probing.

  “Not quite. You also need to download the right app and link it to your bank card—and the card has to have money in it. Getting a bank card requires paperwork, including proof of identity.”

  “Proof of identity…” She processed the information carefully. “Can a wanted criminal even get a bank card?”

  “Of course not,” I said. “These days electronic mobile payments dominate society. People are moving away from cash, especially in big cities. It’s almost impossible to function or survive here without being part of that system. You’ve probably seen news stories about elderly people who can’t keep up with the changes and run into all kinds of trouble, right?”

  As I spoke, I watched her reaction closely. She lifted the bottom of her mask, took a sip of the sweet soy milk through the straw, and a thoughtful look crossed her face.

  Emphasizing—in front of her—a major obstacle she couldn’t overcome anytime soon, one that was necessary to overcome, and one she could only overcome with my help… that was my plan right now. I felt like a cunning interviewer trying to win over someone with an iron will.

  And this was only step one.

  Next, I needed to raise my own value even higher by offering additional information she desperately needed but didn’t yet have. For example: she wasn’t just being hunted by the visible authorities—there was also Luo Shan, operating in the shadows. Or the fact that the body she was currently using originally belonged to a girl who suffered from soul-loss syndrome.

  Soul-loss syndrome was knowledge exclusive to demon hunters. Based on what Alice had said, she hadn’t yet come into contact with the hidden underbelly of this era—so she most likely didn’t know about the condition.

  I was intensely curious how she’d react once she learned about it. But I had to be extremely careful when delivering that information. Right now, in her eyes, I was just an ordinary person. I’d need a solid excuse to reveal knowledge that no normal person should have.

  After mentally rehearsing my story, I began to lie once more.