Inside the Lefort manor.
Zuojian sat in a chair with his elbows braced on his thighs, looking like a man whose soul had already burned out.
With slightly trembling fingers, he opened his wallet. When he saw that the few large-denomination Victorian pounds he had started with had, after just one trip বাইরে, been reduced to a handful of scattered coins, he couldn't help feeling a painfully familiar sense of despair.
Why the hell was this feeling of having only a few coins left in his pocket—of not even being able to afford food tomorrow—still chasing him?
At that thought, he couldn't help remembering the time he had first arrived in Lungmen.
And even earlier than that, the night after he had just graduated from university in his old world, paid his rent, and found himself practically penniless.
Including this time, although it wasn't the same moment, the same place, or even the same world, he had still somehow once again ended up in the exact same situation: a pocket emptier than his face.
"Don't tell me that even inside a simulation I still have to go work some soul-crushing job just to make money...?"
"I have fallen on hard times three times, and worked like a beast twice..."
At this point, Zuojian seemed to be drifting into the beginnings of delirious self-talk.
And this state of his happened to be noticed by a young girl standing outside the door.
Loughshinny carefully closed the door to a narrow slit, then glanced at the shopping bag in her hands. Inside were the changes of clothes Zuojian had bought for the sisters. In addition, each of them was holding a fluffy stuffed toy.
Those were the "free gifts" from the outrageously overpriced kids' meals at the fast-food place.
And in Loughshinny's bag, there was even an extra new storybook.
Looking at everything in her hands, recalling the scene of the man taking them shopping, then comparing it with the troubled look he had just shown while shutting himself alone inside the room, the young girl couldn't help but feel a trace of guilt.
"Um... Sister, did we... cause him a lot of trouble?"
She lowered her eyes to the toy in her arms and asked in a subdued voice.
Meanwhile, Eblana leaned against the wall, looking utterly uninterested as she examined the stuffed toy in her own hand—the same as her sister's, just a different color. She couldn't understand why her sister found such an ugly thing appealing.
Holding it casually, she let it drop onto the shopping bag on the floor, then glanced at her foolish little sister with that utterly guilty expression and gave a quiet sigh.
"Why would you think that?"
"Because... he looked like he was worrying about it..."
"Or perhaps he was only pretending, knowing you'd peek."
Eblana's voice was cold as she stated her suspicion.
No—more than suspicion.
In her mind, it was almost certain fact.
This man was actually very good at disguising himself. She did not believe for a second that what he had shown them was his true face. Eblana was, if anything, ninety percent sure that he had deliberately put on that act to guide her poor, simple, completely unguarded little sister into feeling exactly the guilt he wanted her to feel.
"And in reality, for anyone living alone, suddenly having two extra mouths to feed is already the greatest trouble of all. In other words, our very presence here is his biggest burden. But he still accepted us without the slightest hesitation. If he truly found us troublesome, then he should never have let us through the door in the first place, instead of taking us in and then drooping over a little bit of money afterward."
"Can't you see it, Loughshinny? This is all an act. He's performing for you on purpose, so you'll feel indebted to him—and once you do, it'll be easier for him to make you obey him in the future."
Eblana stepped forward, cupped Loughshinny's face in both hands, and forced their eyes level with each other.
"My dear little sister, do you remember what I told you? Don't hold any childish expectations toward the person who takes us in—especially not when he already knows the truth about our bloodline. All those pleasant illusions are just carefully wrapped sugar-coated poison he prepared for you. His goal is to kill your sense of self and turn you into a puppet who obeys him without question."
With her cheeks pinched between her sister's hands, Loughshinny's words came out a little slurred. But even so, she suddenly mustered the courage to argue back.
"But, Sister... I feel... I feel like... he isn't pretending..."
The instant she finished saying it, she realized she had probably done something foolish. She shrank back a little, not daring to look directly at Eblana, whose face had suddenly gone cold.
"I... Sister..."
Before she could say anything more, Eblana let out a sigh and shook her head.
"It seems I misjudged things. What he fed you wasn't slow-acting poison at all. On the contrary, it worked very quickly. You're already under its influence, Loughshinny."
With that, she picked up the shopping bag containing their fresh clothes and headed toward the place Zuojian had pointed out earlier—the room called the bathroom.
Before leaving, she didn't forget to say to Loughshinny, who remained standing where she was:
"Don't worry, my foolish little sister. I'll pull you out of this unrealistic fantasy. And while I'm at it, I'll show you exactly what kind of sinister purpose and grand ambition this man is hiding."
"Sister..."
Loughshinny instinctively hugged her toy a little tighter as she watched Eblana's back disappear around the turn in the corridor.
At that very moment, the nearby door opened.
Zuojian stepped out, his face still carrying a trace of weariness. At a glance he spotted Loughshinny standing outside.
The instant he saw her, he almost immediately wiped away the fatigue and embarrassment lingering on his face and replaced it with his usual warm gentleness. Bending down a little, he asked:
"Loughshinny, what is it? Why are you standing here alone? Where's your sister?"
"She... she went to take a bath."
At the thought of her sister's words, for a brief instant Loughshinny almost imagined that beneath Zuojian's smile was some hidden face baring sharp fangs.
But the next second, that suspicion was scattered away by his gentle voice and the warmth of his hand on her head.
"Oh, is that so? Then why haven't you gone yet? It's already getting late. Once you've washed up, it'll be time for bed. Good kids aren't supposed to stay up too late."
After saying that, Zuojian ruffled her hair and turned as if to leave.
But just as he was about to step away, he felt a light tug at the corner of his clothes.
Turning back, he saw Loughshinny with her head lowered, clutching a piece of his sleeve, asking in a tiny voice:
"Um... did we cause you trouble...? I'm sorry. If... if that's really the case, then we can give back the clothes, and the toys, and the book too. We can return them all."
The moment he heard that, Zuojian's heart clenched.
Looking at her obedient, careful little expression, he felt as though some invisible hammer had slammed straight into his chest.
And for the first time, he saw in her a faint reflection of his own childhood self—the same careful tone, the same fear of causing trouble for others.
Only this time, he was no longer the child looking up.
He was the one standing above, looking down at a girl who had lowered her head so much that even the tail behind her looked wilted.
Then Loughshinny suddenly heard a soft thump.
Her eyes widened.
A warm embrace had suddenly wrapped itself around her.
Zuojian had gone down onto his knees so that their heights matched, then pulled Loughshinny into a hug—one hand gently stroking her head, the other soothing her back.
For two people who had known each other less than twenty-four hours, it was, strictly speaking, a very intimate gesture. Under normal circumstances, a girl her age should have found it strange at the very least.
And yet, for some reason, nestled in his arms, Loughshinny instead felt a long-forgotten sense of safety.
And... strangely, a faint sadness too.
It was as if he were holding her while also holding some version of his past self.
A moment later, Zuojian released her and looked at her with a bright, easy smile.
"There's no need to worry, Loughshinny. It's not a big deal."
"But Sister said you spent a lot of money..."
"But the money didn't disappear, did it?"
"Huh?"
Loughshinny tilted her head.
Then she watched as Zuojian picked up the toy and stuffed it back into her arms before gently pinching her cheek.
"See? That money turned into real things that can stay with you, and it also turned into the smile on your face that stays with me. So how can you say it disappeared?"
"But..."
"Making a child worry about the family's finances is the failure of the adults in the house..."
"So don't worry. Things are nowhere near bad enough that you need to trouble yourself over them. But if little Loughshinny starts frowning because of it, then that really would be something worth worrying about."
"All right, now go take a bath and get a good night's sleep. And if you're really still worried about that money, then just smile for me, okay? After all, isn't spending money in places like this supposed to be about making children happy?"
Zuojian coaxed Loughshinny all the way to the bathroom, then stood outside the door and let out a long, deep sigh.
Then he blinked.
At that moment, he noticed the system's displayed Love Value—ugh, that name really was unbearably awkward. He'd rather just call it Favorability. "Love Value" made it sound like the sort of stat you'd only see in some weird galgame.
In any case, he noticed that the number had risen again.
[Love Value... renamed to 'Favorability' per Host request.]
[Favorability increased — Current Favorability: 5%]
Looking at the number, Zuojian raised a brow.
It went up that much?
Looks like he really had to thank Loughshinny for that. Practically the entire five percent so far had been contributed by her alone. And just thinking about how she had stood outside his door worrying that the money spent on her might become a burden to him...
Honestly, when he saw her standing there, head lowered, speaking in that small careful voice, he felt like his heart was going to melt.
At that, he could only declare:
Money exists to be spent!
Spent money is money! If you cling to it forever, what's left is just paper and metal!
And especially when he thought of Loughshinny's sweet, obedient little manner, he suddenly found himself understanding the attitude of those fathers online who doted shamelessly on their precious daughters.
Sure, it had drifted pretty far from the original concept of a "love simulation."
But honestly?
Zuojian didn't think that was a bad thing at all.
On the contrary, this feeling left him more captivated than anything he had expected.
So this... was what the bond between a father and a child felt like?
He got up and started walking toward the manor's study.
Because if Loughshinny was going to worry about money, then Zuojian felt he ought to put in a little effort.
What, get a job?
Of course not.
He had already gone broke three times and worked himself to the bone twice. If even in a simulation he still had to go out and grind for wages, that would be too tragic for words.
Thinking of that, Zuojian gazed at the enormous manor and reached a genius-level decision.
"I don't know whether the Lefort ancestors ever really existed, but since I'm the last head of the house now, I'll have to trouble whatever family property you left behind a little. After all, I'm feeding three mouths now. Under the circumstances, I'm sure you can all be reasonable about it, right?"
Zuojian stepped into the study and began rummaging through the shelves.
From the labels beneath the portraits of previous heads of the family in the corridor, he already knew that during the Leforts' golden age, several of them had been accomplished architects. The present manor itself had been designed and expanded into its current scale by those same forebears.
If that was the case, then...
"If the manor was designed by those former family heads themselves, then naturally the things they created with their own hands must have meant a great deal to them... Found it."
Without too much effort, Zuojian found exactly what he was looking for in a corner of the bookshelves.
The manor's floor plans.
They were preserved inside a hardbound volume that looked almost like a photo album. The yellowed pages testified to the passage of time—and to the long decline of the family itself.
The plans were spread across several pages, dense and intricate. The sheer number of rooms was enough to make one's scalp tingle, and on top of that there were a large number of hidden-room-like structures marked throughout.
And if you asked what this had to do with Zuojian's plan to make money...
Well, the connection was enormous.
He grinned and shook his head.
"Hah. There's no way a family this huge declined so thoroughly that there isn't a single valuable thing left to scrape out of it. Just look at all those dust-covered decorations in the hallway—they already look worth a fortune."
That was right.
Zuojian's objective was obvious.
With the manor blueprints in hand as his map, he was going to go full dungeon-rat and thoroughly loot this place from top to bottom.
He refused to believe that an estate this large couldn't cough up something valuable.
As for the idea that "these are ancestral belongings, they mustn't be touched or sold"—
Please.
Those were Zuojian Lefort's ancestors. What did they have to do with him, Zuojian?
Besides, ancestors from some randomly generated simulation backstory could sit at the same table as cyber-parents for all he cared.
He was raising two daughters now.
He did not have the leisure to be sentimental about imaginary family heirlooms.
Smiling to himself, Zuojian carefully folded up the manor plans again, ready to start rummaging through this great big house immediately.
But just as he lifted his head from near the floor—
His face bumped directly into something soft, lightly perfumed, and smelling faintly of bath soap.
"?"
Confused, he instinctively grabbed at the thing, then finally saw what it was.
"Eblana...? Why are you here?"
Eblana was sitting on the writing desk, idly swinging her legs, looking down at him with a sweet smile that nonetheless carried an unmistakable edge of mockery.
"What's wrong? Don't you like this? I seem to recall you kept staring here back at the fast-food restaurant."
Resting one cheek in one hand, she swung her legs leisurely. Though still very young, the smile on her face carried a startlingly provocative confidence, as though she were deliberately testing him.
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