Chapter 10: The Unforeseen Assignment

“I’m home…”

“You finally decided to come back? Where on earth have you been gallivanting? Your phone was off, making Lan Xinyue wait for you for ages for nothing.”

“Huh?”

To be honest, I was completely baffled.

Why was Lan Xinyue waiting for me at my house?

“Alright, stop standing there dumbfounded. Go heat up your own dinner. It’s too late; I already told Lan Xinyue to go home and rest. Remember to apologize properly tomorrow.”

Having finished speaking, my mother paid me no further mind, turning off the TV before heading back to her room.

I, on the other hand, remained frozen in the living room doorway for a while longer, before finally letting out a sigh.

I placed my portion of dinner, which had been left on the table, into the refrigerator’s cold storage, then switched off the lights and went upstairs to my room.

It was only when I collapsed onto my bed that I truly felt a wave of relief wash over me.

The Young Lady certainly hadn’t lied to me.

Emilock in District 10, Cloud Sea Park in District 11, Light-Year Planetarium in District 12, Public Restaurant in District 13, Universal Theme Park in District 14, and the Romantic Seaside Night View in District 15.

Finally, the bus stop in District 4.

Although Nina had obediently gone home, she still seemed to harbor a lingering sense of unwillingness to leave.

I genuinely had no idea how I’d managed to endure it all.

Could it have been that angelic smile?

It truly had made me happy, nonetheless…

After lying face down for a bit, as sleepiness rapidly surged over me, I finally snapped awake.

I quickly scrambled up, shook my head, forced myself to change clothes, plugged my phone into its charger, and then headed downstairs to wash up.

Back in my room, I powered on my phone, and immediately a barrage of notification sounds erupted.

Skipping past my parents’ missed calls and Zhao Qingxia’s rather meaningless messages, the remaining notifications, as expected, were all missed calls and messages from the Young Lady.

In truth, it wasn’t much of a surprise, as, and I’m not afraid of being laughed at, my phone’s contact list, even to this day, only contained nine contacts.

Four of those were the manager of my part-time job and the employees who initially trained me.

This meant that, including Lan Xinyue and Nina, there were only five non-work-related contacts.

My chat app was no exception.

After all, my family was quite strict about these things.

It was only in my second year of middle school, by achieving good grades and making numerous concessions, that I finally managed to acquire a phone, primarily for mobile games.

At that time, not having friends was as natural to me as breathing.

Zhao Qingxia, who had a more lenient upbringing in this regard, was only permitted to own a phone in her second year of high school, around the same time as me.

[Young Lady: My end went very smoothly] 16:34

[Young Lady: What’s the situation on your side?] 16:34

[Young Lady: If you dare ignore me again, a human-shaped ornament will appear on the electronic clock tower tomorrow] 17:43

[Young Lady: Didn’t I tell you to keep an eye on Nina? What exactly are you doing?!] 19:41

[Young Lady: But, seeing as it’s for the sake of the dress, I can reluctantly let you off the hook this once] 19:42

Having reviewed the Young Lady’s messages and confirmed everything was in order, I felt an even greater sense of relief.

Earlier, when I realized my phone had automatically shut down due to low battery, I had expected to be mercilessly reprimanded by the Young Lady.

The current outcome, however, was that besides these messages, there were three missed calls and one rejected call, with no further follow-up.

The reason lay in the timing of the rejected call and the last two messages, which were only two minutes apart, both occurring when we were preparing to leave the restaurant and Nina had gone to the restroom.

Since my phone’s volume was usually set very low, it was only when Nina was in the restroom that she finally noticed my phone ringing.

Seeing the low battery and realizing it was a call from the Young Lady, she took the liberty of rejecting it first, then called back using her own phone and explained the situation.

She even sent a photo of Cloud Sea Park to the Young Lady afterwards, which led to those last two messages.

After that, my phone simply died.

While my phone’s low battery was undeniably linked to Nina, I was still incredibly grateful, as it spared me from the severe consequences I would undoubtedly have faced.

Placing my phone back on the nightstand, I drew back the curtains and peered towards the house next door.

Seeing that no lights were on in any of the rooms, I dismissed any further thoughts, turned off my own light, and quickly fell asleep.

However, eight hours later, I would profoundly realize just how naive I had been.

The Young Lady, who had quite naturally integrated herself into our family’s breakfast table, was both elegantly and swiftly eating her meal, while simultaneously delivering rough but precise kicks to my shin.

I couldn’t fathom how she managed it.

Neither the former, the latter, nor the combination.

“Young Lady, I know I was wrong, but can’t you be a little gentler?”

“I was already holding back.”

As usual, the conversation only properly began after we had walked a certain distance from my house.

‘But were you really holding back? I felt like my leg bone was about to snap then.’

“Now, I’ll give you another chance. Tell me why I kicked you.”

“Because I completely missed your calls and messages?”

‘Or was it because I was really taken to District 15?’

“Because I didn’t receive *any* spending notifications! How are you supposed to be a flower guardian (TL Note: A term for someone who escorts and protects a woman, often implying a romantic interest, but here used humorously to mean a chaperone)?”

“Huh?”

‘So that’s what it was about?’

It certainly caught me by surprise.

“But, I didn’t expect Nina to have a VIP card. At Emilock, she only chose that one dress, and even later, all the way to District 15…”

“Is that the issue? Is *that* really the issue? Do you think I don’t know Nina has a VIP card? You conveniently put things in her bag, didn’t you? You didn’t dare talk to the store assistant, so you stood by the store entrance, didn’t you?”

The Young Lady interrupted me, and with each question she posed, she forcefully bumped my arm with her shoulder.

“So you didn’t even wait by the changing room door for her, did you? You, dare, say, that, what, I’m, saying, isn’t, true?”

Her final words were a rapid-fire, syllable-by-syllable assault.

“I surrender! I surrender!”

I was practically being shoved into the wall.

“Sigh…”

The Young Lady sighed, at least temporarily letting me off the hook.

“You, honestly… I’m speechless.”

Indeed, if I had followed Nina closely after entering the store, I certainly wouldn’t have missed the scene where she presented her VIP card to the assistant.

Naturally, I also wouldn’t have overlooked the assistant’s trip to the cashier.

Thinking about it now, even I felt speechless.

‘It seems I was destined to be held accountable from the very first step.’

“Never mind, considering Nina had a good time, I’ll grudgingly give you a negative ten points.”

‘Hearing that, would I have gotten positive ten points if I had paid for her instead?’

But I truly hadn’t expected that the Young Lady’s shopping habit was to place her VIP card at the cashier first, then simply swipe it if she saw something she liked, and retrieve it to go to the next store if she didn’t.

It was completely unlike those web novel tropes where someone has to mock them first before they’ll show off their cards.

“However, things are a bit troublesome with the Iceberg Beauty, so you probably won’t have time to hang out with Nina these next few days.”

“What trouble?”

‘And why is it assumed that I *will* be going out with Nina? Couldn’t you just go to District 15 again yourself?’

“Hmm, didn’t I tell you? She seemed on the verge of success, but in fact… well, unfortunately, the other party is a complete scoundrel.”

“Oh…”

‘I see.’

‘Oh!~’

“Speaking of which, I happened to run into someone like that yesterday too.”

“Really? Are you sure?”

A hint of suspicion colored the Young Lady’s face.

“Yes, Ye Wenxuan from Class 5, you should know him, right?”

“Eh?”

The Young Lady paused her steps.

“Of course I know him; he’s quite popular in various ways. Go on.”

Without much thought, I continued speaking.

“First, at Emilock, I saw him walking with a girl from Lan Furong. At the time, I was thinking…”

“Ah, no need for your thoughts. Cut to the chase, preferably just the main points.”

“…”

‘Only the main points, huh?’

“Alright. Emilock, it was Lan Furong; Cloud Sea Park, it was Ruizhe; Light-Year Planetarium, it was Star of the Sea; at the Western restaurant, it was Fifth Public; Universal Theme Park, it was Roshirna; and by the sea, surprisingly, it was Saint Ezebuga. And at that time… huh? What’s wrong?”

I suddenly realized that for some reason, the Young Lady had stopped walking, creating a distance between us, and was staring at my face with a strange expression.

‘Oh, could it be the same thought I’m having?’

Indeed, it was quite strange.

Nina had clearly chosen the leisure spots spontaneously, yet, apart from the restaurant not being the same, we had encountered Ye Wenxuan at every single one.

Though even the restaurants weren’t far apart, which was how we’d spotted him again.

“Student Zhao, I’m very curious, approximately how many school uniforms can you identify?”

“Huh? Uh… As long as I’ve seen them, I pretty much remember them all. I can’t give you an exact number.”

Although the question was unexpected, I prided myself on my quick reactions in such matters.

Yet, I saw her blink a few times, looking somewhat dumbfounded.

“Then, if I recall correctly, your last monthly exam score was… around the top hundred in the entire grade?”

“Yes, 106th. Why?”

“106th out of a total of 188 students in the entire grade… and you still ask me ‘why’?”

“Uh…”

She seemed a little angry.

“Could it be that our club has rigid academic requirements?”

No sooner had I asked than I saw her eyes widen, then she lowered her head with a sigh, raising a hand to her forehead, seemingly unwilling yet greatly troubled.

‘(‘This guy, could it really be? Hmm~ It really seems to be~’)’

She seemed to mumble something.

“Haa…”

She quickly sighed again.

‘What on earth is wrong?’

“I understand. Then you should remember their distinguishing features, right?”

“…Do you really want to hear?”

“Yes, I’m interested. Take your time, details are fine.”

‘Then why are you so clearly angry?’

But from the moment I started describing the girl from Lan Furong until I finished, she simply listened quietly.

Afterwards, lost in thought, she didn’t say anything until we were following yesterday’s route, almost at the agreed-upon spot to separate and enter school.

Then she suddenly stopped.

“Let’s swap today then.”

“Swap?”

“I’ll be responsible for Nina and Makino Kaede. You’ll be responsible for tracking Ye Wenxuan.”

“Oh… huh?”

‘How did it turn into a situation I completely don’t understand again?’

‘Why do I have to track that Ye Wenxuan guy?’

‘Or rather, I’m sick of tracking things, so please don’t mention it casually, and definitely don’t do it, and most importantly, don’t make *me* do it.’

The Young Lady gave a meaningful smile.

“Listen carefully now, the person Su Yuanyi wants to ‘conquer’ is Ye Wenxuan.”

“…Huh?”

If I wasn’t mistaken, my brain’s main processor had just ‘snapped’ and crashed.

“Well then, Odd-jobber, I look forward to your report. The funds have already been transferred. Remember to collect them.”

By the time I came to my senses, the Young Lady had already left me with nothing but her retreating back.

I stood there for a moment, collecting my thoughts, before taking out my phone and opening the chat app.

Though I hesitated for a moment, I still clicked to confirm the receipt of funds.

After all, my wallet’s ‘HP’ was indeed low, and since I didn’t usually wander far, my regular train ticket only covered the round trip from Academy Island to District 7.

So yesterday, even the train fare had been spot for me by Nina.

If Ye Wenxuan was going on consecutive dates again today, his route probably wouldn’t be much different.

Without financial support, I truly couldn’t track him.

‘Huh?…’

“Why did ‘having to do it’ become a necessary prerequisite so naturally?!”

I couldn’t help but shout out loud, burying my head in my hands and squatting on the spot.

After a while, as I remained troubled and annoyed, a hand gently patted my shoulder.

“Hmm?”

I looked up and saw Su Yuanyi’s extraordinarily beautiful, yet expressionless, face.

“Oh, Student Su, good morning.”

“Mm… Morn… Good morning… Are you… alright?”

For some reason, although this was only the second time I had looked directly into those amethyst-like eyes, I could discern genuine concern within them.

Their expression remained unchanged, yet not just I, but anyone hearing that tone would know that they were actually quite nervous, yet still trying hard to express concern for others.

“I’m fine, sorry to make you worry.”

I stood up, dusting off my school bag, and suddenly felt that tracking Ye Wenxuan might not be so bad after all.