Chang'an immediately became flustered and stood up from the long table.

"Is there anything I can help with? Or you can just tell me the truth, and we can figure out a solution together! Don’t worry about involving me!" he said urgently.

Around us, the other customers and staff briefly glanced in our direction before turning away, not particularly concerned with what was happening at our table.

Seeing Chang'an so panicked and anxious, even I couldn’t help but feel a flush of shame and guilt.

But I had already told the lie, so now I had to stick with it.

"Don’t be so nervous," I said deliberately in a strong and confident tone. "It’s not as dangerous as you think. I’ve already prepared a thorough response plan. Just treat it like I’ve caught a rather special contagious disease, and for now, I can’t casually interact with familiar people or talk... especially with those who have witnessed the basement, like me."

"Does it also relate to whether or not they’ve witnessed the basement?" he asked.

"I can’t reveal more," I added, taking on a mysterious tone.

In reality, there was no deeper meaning. From the beginning, it was all made up, and I only included that detail to consider whether Chang'an might accidentally see me interacting normally with others later on.

My thinking was quite simple—I intended to "temporarily" distance myself from him in the beginning, then gradually extend this period, until our relationship eventually faded. If he tried to approach me during this time, I could come up with more excuses, such as "Coming closer would actually escalate the situation and put us in more danger," and so on.

I felt really sorry for him, but this was to prevent him from getting caught up in the mess.

Chang'an sat back down, still unwilling to accept it, and asked, "Is there really nothing I can do to help?"

I answered firmly, "No."

"I see..." he said, dejected.

This time, it was my turn to stand up.

"Well, then, let's part ways here."

Looking at his face, thinking that this might be the last time we have a proper conversation, I didn’t know what to say for a moment. All I could do was repeat the same old advice: "You shouldn’t always go to places like nightclubs. Keep yourself clean. It’s not like you can’t find a girlfriend. Why not talk to a female classmate and have a proper relationship instead of looking for women at nightclubs?"

He gave a dry laugh and retorted, "How can you compare the two? Going to a nightclub to find women is just about a physical and financial relationship, but if I were to find a girlfriend at school, I’d have to deal with all kinds of messy emotions. I’m not stupid, why would I set myself up for that?"

This was a conversation we’d had many times before. I wasn’t angry at his response, just filled with an indescribable sense of melancholy and sadness. After that, I left the place.

---

Walking on the way home, I lowered my head and thought.

Given Chang'an's personality, he probably wouldn’t give up so easily. He’s just that kind of stubborn person. Perhaps he would go back to the fifteenth-floor room again, but the ritual array there had already been erased by Zhu Shi.

Even if, for the sake of argument, the ritual array still existed, it was originally a flawed creation with a probability of activation so low it could be considered astronomical—there was no need to worry about it... No, I still had to worry, because Chang'an had triggered the ritual array when he was alone before.

If I could open the basement because of Ma Zao's favor, could it be the same for Chang'an? Was it just because he was someone close to me, and he had been affected by Ma Zao's bad luck?

Luckily, the ritual array had been erased, removing the last dangerous factor. Although I wasn’t completely without regret about its disappearance, I still had video recordings of the ritual array, so it was possible to reopen the entrance to that "space that doesn’t exist in reality" somewhere else.

I bought two servings of spicy grilled pig’s trotters on the way, then entered my neighborhood. First, I picked up a package from the parcel locker, then returned to my front door.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Through the "firefly" setup I had in my home, I could see Ma Zao’s current state. She was still sitting on the couch as usual, staring at the view outside the floor-to-ceiling window, looking like a canary imprisoned by a bad person.

When she was alone, she would read books, or turn on the TV to watch current affairs news to understand how modern society functioned. However, moments like this, where she just stared off into space, were quite frequent. I didn’t know if she was reflecting on memories from her past life in the apocalyptic world, or if she simply enjoyed being still, like a plant, quietly letting time pass by.

At this point, I have already designed the "fireflies" that can store preset instructions, allowing them to monitor Ma Zao's activities even while I’m sleeping. However, just like how a person's memory fades over time, the "fireflies" also gradually forget my preset instructions as time passes. To maintain their effectiveness, I must regularly correct them.

The preset instruction stored in the "fireflies" near Ma Zao is: "If Ma Zao steps outside the boundaries of this home, send me an alert." Recently, Ma Zao has indeed been keeping her word, not once attempting to leave the place.

However, sometimes, I have other concerns. In the past, I refrained from having the "fireflies" follow Zhu Shi because I was worried that she might notice them. And since Ma Zao is also an extraordinary "superpower user" (at least, that’s what I believe), could she potentially sense the "fireflies" as well?

Has she truly not noticed so far because she can't? Or is it because her soul has been damaged, making her unable to sense them?

Or... could it be that she has always known I’ve been monitoring her?

Once I considered this possibility, my heart couldn't help but race.

But compared to this issue, I actually have a more urgent and pressing problem right now.

It’s the "third day."

Three days ago, Ma Zao and I made an agreement that she would stay at my house for only three days, and today is the "third day." In other words, tomorrow she will leave, but I still haven't found a way to convince her to stay longer.

If it’s just to extend it for another two or three days, that should still be possible. Because her recovery progress isn’t going that well, she still cannot use the so-called "blessing power." But after the extension ends? If possible, I hope she would willingly stay by my side.

Of course, it's not that she wouldn't want to stay, but rather, I just haven't figured out how to make her stay yet, otherwise, I wouldn’t have bothered to say goodbye to Chang'an just now. If I had no other choice, I could still resort to forceful methods. Even if she could use spatial transfer to leave, it wouldn't matter. I’ve already left my “mark” on her, allowing me to track her position at any time and, when necessary, switch to my "second form" to teleport directly to her location.

Those who can "teleport" aren’t limited to Ma Zao and Agent Kong; I can mimic similar techniques.

As for the "mark," it isn’t the "fireflies." Ultimately, the "fireflies" are external monitoring tools, unable to penetrate her body. This means that when she uses spatial transfer to leave, the "fireflies" won’t be able to track her.

The true identity of the mark is a "heat signature."

My ability isn’t just limited to creating flames with my mental energy; I can also convert the heat of the flames into a separate entity, and this heat is an embodiment of my mental power. The reason I was able to track Agent Kong, who escaped through the Shadow World, was because there was still residual heat from my flames within his body.

Leaving this thermal mark on Ma Zao’s body would, in theory, be even easier to detect than the "fireflies." After all, if someone has a part of their body that’s significantly warmer than the rest and it doesn’t fade away, they’d definitely feel something is off. However, it was thanks to the battle with Agent Kong that my thoughts were opened up.

Why did I have to leave the thermal mark on her outer body? Why not directly place it inside her organs?

Human internal organs are not as sensitive to temperature changes as the skin, and since internal organs are naturally warm, a slight increase in temperature in a specific area would not be noticeable. To be safe, I decided to place the heat signature while Ma Zao was asleep. By the time she wakes up, her body may have adapted to it, making the change even harder to detect.

I placed the heat signature in her stomach, thinking of it as warming her stomach.

However, I felt that this alone was still not secure enough.

I needed to take one more precaution...

With this in mind, I opened the door and walked inside.

Ma Zao, as usual, was quite sensitive to external changes. As soon as I opened the door, she immediately reacted, turning her head toward me.

Then she jumped off the couch and hurried over to me with quick steps.

I held out the plastic bag with two portions of spicy roasted pig's trotters in front of her.

"You bought food again? I'm not a kid. Don't always give me food. It makes it seem like I'm greedy," she said, looking speechless.

No, you're actually just a child.

"You're not going to eat it? It's really delicious, and if you leave it, it'll get cold," I said.

Although she had just said that, she was still quite fond of food. Upon hearing this, she reached out to take one of the roasted pig's trotters, but then hesitated.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"...Nothing," she replied.

She took one of the roasted pig's trotters and glanced at me. After I took a bite of the one in my hand, she followed suit, returning to the couch with a heavy heart.

I had a rough idea of what was on her mind. I had been trying my best to persuade her to stay, but tomorrow she was leaving.

If it had been when we first met, she would have simply stated her intentions outright. But it seemed she was very defensive against "other people's kindness"... No, that's not it. Perhaps she's not good at dealing with kindness, but before confirming whether it was genuine or not, she would become highly cautious.

She probably had high expectations for people living in peaceful societies, which was why she somewhat accepted me. Right now, she was probably thinking about how to say goodbye without making me sad.

Faced with her, I chose to walk over to the table, grab a pair of scissors, and open the package I had just picked up from the delivery locker. Inside was a well-made red bracelet.

This is a GPS bracelet I bought online.

I turned my back to Ma Zao, paired the red GPS bracelet with my phone, and then turned around.

Ma Zao was attracted by the sound and looked over with curiosity.

I then said seriously, "Ma Zao, I have a gift I want to give you."