The landlord has multiple personalities and wants everyone to pay him.

The small car stopped at the entrance of Ye Shu's quiet little courtyard.

After paying the fare, Ye Shu eagerly climbed out of the crowded and stuffy car, stood on the familiar ground, and stretched out his arms and legs. This was the most refreshing time to stretch.

Ye Shu felt three things that were satisfying: first, the stretching after a long period of curling up; second, the burping sensation after drinking a large bottle of carbonated beverage; and third, the screen protector she peeled off when buying her new phone.

He bent down, picked up Xiao Nuan's suitcase, and turned around to push open the half-closed courtyard gate.

Just as his hand was about to touch the door, the hem of his clothes was gently tugged from behind.

Ye Shu turned around and saw that Xiao Nuan was still standing a step behind him, not following.

She tilted her head slightly, looking at him, her eyes still revealing nothing of what she was thinking.

"What's wrong?"

Xiao Nuan's gaze passed over him, looked at the door, then back at him. In her calm voice, she uttered a reason that Ye Shu had never expected to hear from her, a reason that carried a hint of weakness:

"When I enter the room, according to the usual social process, I need to greet you, exchange pleasantries, and exchange basic information. I've observed similar scenarios before, but I'm not good at handling situations that require immediate emotional feedback and vague social rules."

If you're socially anxious, just say so. Why go on and on like that?

Ye Shu found it somewhat amusing. It turned out that even the person in front of him, whom the other three personalities regarded as the strongest system, had things he couldn't handle? And what he couldn't handle was actually visiting someone's house to say hello?

He couldn't help but smile and offered words of comfort:

"So you have things you can't handle too? It's nothing, it's just a friend coming over to visit and say hello, what's there to be afraid of? It's just my dad and grandma at home, they're not going to eat you, let's go."

Xiao Nuan looked at the relaxed smile on his face and didn't say anything more. She just lowered her head slightly and followed behind Ye Shu. It was clear that she was indeed nervous.

Pushing open the door, his father was still sitting on the old sofa, a half-smoked cigarette between his fingers, his eyes fixed on the TV screen. His posture and expression were almost exactly the same as when Ye Shu left in the morning, as if time had stood still in this room, or as if his father really hadn't moved an inch all morning.

Hearing the door open, Ye Shu's father turned around and saw his son return. His gaze naturally fell on the extra suitcase in his son's hand. Just as he was about to ask, "What are you carrying?", his eyes went over Ye Shu's shoulder and saw the unfamiliar girl who followed him in.

!

The half-sentence Ye Shu's father was about to utter, along with the puff of smoke he was about to inhale, got stuck in his throat.

His fingers, holding the cigarette, froze in mid-air, the rising smoke blurring his momentarily bewildered face.

His gaze swept quickly over Xiao Nuan. She was not short, quite pretty, dressed simply, and with her head down, his expression was obscured. She seemed like a quiet young girl, quite different from the type of friends his son might make.

The room fell silent instantly, save for the occasional burst of gunfire from a TV drama.

Ye Shu sensed the awkward atmosphere and quickly stepped aside to let Xiao Nuan, who was behind her, pass by, and introduced her as follows:

"Dad, this is my friend. She's... the one who rented the apartment for me in Nancheng... the landlord's... uh, I guess you could call her his sister. Her name is Xiaonuan."

He tried to keep the relationship simple and didn't need to explain it so clearly.

After finishing his introduction, he quickly nudged Xiao Nuan, who was still looking down, with his elbow and whispered a reminder:

"Xiao Nuan, this is my dad. Say hello."

After recovering from his surprise at his son bringing the little girl home, Ye Shu's father mumbled an "uh-huh" in response to his son's introduction, but his gaze remained fixed on Xiao Nuan, waiting for the girl to speak.

Logically speaking, Xiao Nuan should have said "Hello, Uncle" first, and then Ye Shu's father should have said a few polite words.

However, Xiao Nuan kept her head down, closed her eyes, and remained silent.

She stood there, her back ramrod straight, her hands hanging at her sides, her fingers slightly curled.

The silence lasted for a few seconds, amplified greatly in the living room, and the awkwardness began to spread.

Ye Shu's father looked at the girl with her eyes closed, like a high monk in meditation, and hesitated for a moment before pointing at Xiao Nuan with the last puff of his cigarette butt between his fingers and asking his son:

"This girl... is she tired or sleepy from the car ride? Why don't you come inside and rest for a while?"

"No way, it was fine just now!"

Ye Shu was also anxious; this was the first time he had ever seen such a situation.

Could it be that Xiao Nuan has really crashed? How about restarting it now? If that doesn't work, I'll just bang it a couple of times like I'm fixing a TV, but I don't know if that will work.

He bent down to look at Xiao Nuan's downcast face, his voice filled with worry:

"Xiao Nuan? Are you alright? Are you feeling unwell?"

Just then, Xiao Nuan's eyelashes trembled slightly.

Then, those eyes, which had been tightly closed, slowly and with some effort, opened.

When she first opened her eyes, they were somewhat vacant, her pupils seemed to contract slightly because they were not used to the indoor light, and her gaze was unfocused, fixed on a point in the void.

Immediately afterwards, her eyes shifted slightly, her gaze instinctively searching, and then settling on Ye Shu's face, which was filled with worry, so close to hers.

The emptiness in his eyes vanished as quickly as the tide receded.

Instead, there was a gentleness and dependence that Ye Shu was extremely familiar with, as well as a hint of weariness and grievance hidden beneath.

She blinked, as if to confirm whether the person in front of her was a hallucination. Then Ye Shu's silhouette and voice appeared before her with uncanny realism.

Almost without hesitation, she reached out her arm, took a step forward, and hugged Ye Shu's neck tightly.

"Little Shu...you're back..."

Ye Shu froze on the spot. The soft touch and warm breath on his neck felt so real. That slightly tearful "Little Shu, little brother"... it was... Sister Zhi Qiu?! Xiao Nuan had run away on her own!!!

Meanwhile, Ye Shu's father, sitting on the sofa, watched as his son was suddenly embraced by a strange girl who had just entered the room and was still silent with her eyes closed. The girl sounded so aggrieved that she was about to cry, leaving Ye Shu's father at a loss for what to do.

Zhi Qiu kept her face buried in Ye Shu's neck, where she could smell a familiar, comforting scent mixed with a hint of sunshine—the scent of her little brother, Shu.

This real touch and scent, like an anchor, slowly pulled her back from a chaotic void.

Chaotic thoughts, like turbulent water, gradually settle.

As reason returned, her physical sensations became clearer. She was holding Ye Shu tightly, her arms wrapped around his neck, almost hanging on him. This realization made Zhi Qiu's body stiffen slightly.

What...what is she doing? This doesn't feel like home...the lighting, the smells, the faint sound of the television...it's all wrong.

The speed at which reason returns can't keep up with the body's instinctive reaction.

She had just been forcibly awakened, or rather, switched online, and her consciousness was still in that empty, dissociative state, as if floating on clouds, with everything around her separated by a layer of frosted glass, blurry and unreal.

In this unreal world, the only clear, warm, and tangible thing was Ye Shu's face before her. So, her body acted before her thoughts, following her most instinctive instincts: she grabbed him, hugged him, and confirmed that he was back.

But now, her mind was gradually clearing. She realized that her behavior... seemed too impulsive, and... too inappropriate.

With a hint of reluctance, she slowly loosened her arms from around Ye Shu's neck. As her fingertips left his skin, they even unconsciously curled up slightly, as if trying to hold onto that warmth.

She took a small half-step back and looked up at Ye Shu.

The blush on her cheeks from excitement and burying her face in his neck still lingered, and her eyes held a lingering dependence, but more than anything, a gentle tenderness she tried to maintain and a hint of barely concealed embarrassment.

"Little Shu, where...where...are we? Aren't we at home?"

As she spoke, her eyes never left Ye Shu's face, and she didn't even realize that there was a living person sitting on the sofa.

He scratched his head somewhat awkwardly, feeling his ears starting to burn, and stammered an explanation:

"This...this is my home."

He paused, then, forcing himself to speak, added in an even softer voice, while gesturing vaguely towards the sofa with his finger:

"That...that's my dad."