The cycle begins to repeat itself today.

"Hmm?" My sister turned to look at me, her face full of surprise. "Such a high evaluation? Looks like I'll have to do my best tomorrow. Is it because you have a girlfriend that you've become so good at talking?"

"I don't have a girlfriend."

"Don't give me that." The younger sister rolled her eyes. "I know you better than you know yourself. You think you can fool me? But if you think I did a good job, you can just tell me. Cooking you a meal is no big deal, is it?"

"This is probably because your parents went out together this time. Otherwise, they would never let you cook. They would just tell you to go to your room and read."

"Hahahaha." She laughed, "My parents don't have such high expectations of me, but they're still a bit better than you. They're actually quite busy, and they wouldn't refuse if I offered to help with cooking. It's just that cooking is actually quite troublesome..."

She raised an eyebrow at me, and I quickly understood what she meant: "Tell me, what do you want?"

"Hey, smart, no wonder you're siblings." She walked up to me with a mischievous grin, and as if she had something inappropriate to say in public, she whispered in my ear, "Tell me what you two did the other night. For a month, I'll cook for you as much as you want, how about that?"

The night before last? Today is Saturday, so the night before last was Thursday. If that's what you're saying, did something happen on Thursday night? I'd also like to know what exactly happened these past few days.

I couldn't let my guard down, so I bit my head and quickly came up with an excuse: "You've got a really good plan. A month seems like a lot, but you're in class six days a week, and you can only cook breakfast and lunch once a week, and dinner twice a week at most. Even if you cook four weeks a month, that's only sixteen times. I can't let you off so easily."

Although I think sixteen times is quite a lot, I must stick to my point.

"You're so stingy! Sixteen times is already a lot! Don't I always cook for you when you eat at home?" The younger sister pouted. "It's not like you'll lose a piece of meat if you just tell me a little."

"Do you think this is a fair trade?" I continued to bluff, trying to confirm how important the matter was. To my surprise, after hesitating for a moment, my sister suddenly stood on tiptoe, tilted her head back, and kissed me on the cheek. Her face turned red, and although I couldn't see it, I imagine my own face was full of astonishment.

"Brother~" she tugged at my arm, as if she were being affectionate. I thought, if I knew about that, I would definitely tell her, even if it meant cutting or modifying some parts, at least I wouldn't remain silent. If I knew.

I shook my head: "It still doesn't work."

"You!" My sister glared at me, looking a little unhappy. "Hmph! You want me to cook dinner for you? Go cook instant noodles yourself."

After saying that, she walked towards the kitchen exit. I grabbed her hand, and she reluctantly turned back to look at me: "What?"

I don't know what she wants to know right now, so I can't explain it clearly. But there should be an opportunity tonight... I have to go out tonight.

I showed my sister a picture of Yezi before, which led her to misunderstand my relationship with Yezi… or perhaps it wasn't exactly a misunderstanding, but it doesn't make much difference now. Since my sister mentioned a girlfriend, it must be related to Yezi. If I ask Yezi, given her personality, she shouldn't hide it from me. Anyway, I was going to find out what happened these past few days anyway.

"Don't be angry, I'll tell you when I get back tonight."

My younger sister asked with a skeptical look, "Really?"

"real."

"That's more like it." Her doubt turned into joy, and then she turned her arm around and pulled me from the kitchen to the living room: "Go and rest, don't bother me."

Then she went back to the kitchen.

The problem that occurred in Chapter 205

Sitting on the sofa in the living room, I found myself surprisingly calm, but the things I was thinking about shouldn't be things that could calm me down.

I took a deep breath, and even my own thoughts calmed down.

Yes, why do I think that the only people who are constantly changing are actually Ye Zi, San Yue, and Lin Yin?

My sister and I do have a pretty good relationship, but in my understanding, that "pretty good" only applies relative to our parents. While our relationship might be more peaceful compared to siblings in ordinary families, it's definitely not to this extent—to the point where she can stand on tiptoe and kiss me on the cheek. Even though we are siblings and have a good relationship, to go this far seems somewhat unlikely. It's too much.

Considering the recent events, are the changes in Ye Zi and the others only affecting the three of them? Or is it that these changes are not limited to the three of them, but are happening to everyone within a certain range of people who meet certain conditions?

I became aware of this new possibility, but it didn't make me happy. First, the scope of those affected has expanded, which isn't good for my investigation. Second, even if I didn't care about the scope, the changes in my sister made me even more wary of this possibility.

To be honest, I don't want to admit it, but the facts are right in front of me. I never believe that anything happens without a reason, and my sister couldn't have become like this without a cause.

Now, we know that if my sister has indeed been influenced in the same way as Yezi and the other two girls, then they should share some commonalities. Confirming this isn't particularly difficult, because Yezi, Sanyue, and Linyin are all very obedient to me and even try to get close to me. I can easily figure out some things I want to understand, which is a good thing for me, because I can more efficiently look for common characteristics among them. Then I just need to project these common characteristics onto my sister and see if anything similar is at play.

If so, then that's very likely the reason they've gradually changed; if not, then I can rule out that possibility. What I'm doing now is something similar to that.

Of course, this is all on the premise that my sister has actually been affected. If that's the case, then I should be able to find some clues. If not, that's even better; I don't want my sister to get involved in this.

However, with new possibilities emerging, I feel there's no reason to limit the scope to just them; perhaps others have also been affected. This is something that needs to be confirmed, because a larger sample size will certainly yield more accurate results. But I don't yet know who to get tested on this idea.

I composed myself and thought about the problems I might face later. I have a strong sense of distrust about everything happening around me right now, even though I can't find reasonable evidence to support my suspicions. This feeling still lingers. I can't say whether this is a good thing or not, but it probably isn't a bad thing for me right now.

First, what I need to understand now is what exactly happened during those 72 hours, and why I have no memory of anything from that afternoon nap on Wednesday until I woke up at noon today. Time cannot be erased for no reason, and I am certain that I spent those 72 hours.

The evidence comes from what my sister said earlier. She wanted to know what I did the night before last, meaning that there must have been something different about me than usual, something must have happened, and my sister knew about it and was very interested in it. She even kissed me on the cheek as a gesture of affection to get me to talk.

Considering my younger sister might also be affected, her curiosity might be a little exaggerated, but it shouldn't be too significant. The fact that she's so interested in something that happened to me, coupled with her previous explicit or implicit hints, suggests that this matter is probably related to Yezi and the others. After all, this is probably what my sister is most interested in right now.

However, there's still one question. Why the night before last? While it might seem like nitpicking, the timing does bother me. From the time I fell asleep until I woke up, I experienced three nights: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Today is Saturday, but it's only early evening, not even dark yet—far from nighttime. So why exactly Thursday night?

Why did this incident happen on Thursday of all three days? This nitpicking leads to another question:

Why did my sister wait a whole day to ask me about this?

If she were curious, she should have asked me that very evening, or even the next day. Why did it take a whole day this time to ask me about what happened the night before last? Isn't that a little unreasonable?

What exactly happened that night? What happened to me? Why did my sister ask me about what happened the night before only a day later? She has every opportunity to ask me every day. If this incident didn't initially pique her interest, how was her interest aroused afterward?

I shook my head. Although the overall picture of the problem had been mostly clarified, it was an undeniable fact that new problems were constantly emerging. I probably couldn't even remember all the problems I needed to sort out now. Fortunately, at least I still understood what I needed to do.

I'll try to get some information from my sister during dinner, hoping she won't notice anything amiss.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and leaned back on the sofa, trying to sleep for a while, but I just couldn't fall asleep.

Chapter 206 What Happened

"Time to eat." I heard my sister's voice and opened my eyes. She was already standing next to me. I wasn't asleep, but I still didn't notice her coming next to me. This kind of thing didn't make me suspicious for the time being. I stood up and looked at my sister. She had put on an apron at some point and didn't seem to have any intention of taking it off.

She noticed me looking at it and seemed to understand my confusion: "I still have to wash the dishes after I finish eating, I'm too lazy to change it. We'll talk about it after I wash the dishes. Or are you going to help your cute little sister wash the dishes or something?"

"Normally, I wouldn't mind. But I have something to do later, so I need to go out and talk to them."

I had no intention of hiding my whereabouts, and my sister was quite clever; she knew what my words meant, and her face immediately lit up with interest: "Are you going to see your girlfriend?"

"More or less." I nodded, not particularly concerned about my own words. Even if my sister was very smart, she probably wouldn't guess my current situation.

"When are you coming back? I'm still waiting for you to tell me about that."

"They should be back later, right? Don't worry, it's only Saturday, there's still a morning to go tomorrow."

"Wow..." She made no attempt to hide the interest on her face, even though it made me feel very awkward.

"Let's go, let's go eat." I pushed her towards the kitchen.

"Tsk tsk." She clicked her tongue, but I still pushed her into the kitchen. My sister had already set the table. I sat down and picked up my chopsticks, and my sister sat down opposite me.

"Oh, by the way, there's something I want to ask you." I asked my sister eagerly as soon as I picked up the bowl. She looked at me strangely but didn't say anything.

"You want to know what happened the night before last... Do you remember what happened the night before last?"

"Don't you know what happened?" The younger sister's face turned slightly red.

"If you didn't actually see anything, wouldn't I have been tricked? I'm not going to do something so unprofitable." I shook my head, not showing any strange expression, although my sister already thought my behavior was odd enough, since I was asking about what I had done the night before last. But she probably wouldn't care about that and would tell me what I wanted to know.

"You, hmph. All you ever think about is your own sister."

"If you don't tell me, I won't tell you when I get back either."

"Alright, alright, I'll tell you." My sister pouted and said while eating, "The night before last, when I just got back, you know I usually get home earlier than you, but that day after ten o'clock I suddenly got a little hungry. There wasn't much food at home, so I thought I'd go out and see if the convenience store was still open, and if it was, I'd buy some instant noodles or something. But... but then I saw you and your girlfriend at the entrance of the neighborhood... all lovey-dovey..."

She considered her words for a moment, perhaps feeling that the scene was difficult to describe. But I wasn't fooled by her words. I thought that if I were with any of Yezi or her friends, and it was after school in the evening, it would definitely be past ten or even eleven o'clock. There probably wouldn't be many people on the street, which was probably inevitable. If there were people around, I wouldn't have any close contact with Yezi or her friends. But since we did have contact, it couldn't just be something like being all lovey-dovey. I was quite self-aware of this.

Moreover, that person should be Ye Zi. Neither San Yue nor Lin Yin could possibly be in this area at that time. San Yue's parents should still be around before the weekend; the only one who could be there is Ye Zi. However, if it's Ye Zi, then another problem arises that we must consider.

Why was Yezi there last night? Yezi isn't the type of girl who would do these things on her own initiative. Although she's changed somewhat, her tendency to worry about upsetting me probably wouldn't lead her to act rashly. So, it's likely that her presence there is related to me.

In my current state, I have absolutely no recollection of what happened in those seventy-two hours. It's impossible for me to remember why Yezi was there that night. But since she was there, it must be related to me. Perhaps I can get the answer from Yezi.

But tonight I'm going to March's house, and regarding Yezi's matter... I might have to wait until tomorrow at school to ask Yezi. Or maybe after I go to March's house tonight, I'll go directly to Yezi's house to verify this and ask her what exactly happened that night.

This is probably the best clue I have so far that allows me to understand what happened during those 72 hours. If I can connect the dots from these past few days, I might get some unexpected insights.

"You actually saw it..." I scratched my head and said, pretending to be a little troubled. My sister quickly put on a smug expression: "Of course! Why would I lie to you? So you can't hide this from me."

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you later. I don't understand why you're so interested in this." I continued eating, trying to end the conversation there.

"Everyone is curious," she said with a smile. Although I felt that curiosity was a little inappropriate in this context, I had already successfully ended the topic and did not want to delve into it further.

After a quick lunch, my sister cleaned up the dishes and prepared to wash them, while I, unable to contain my curiosity, eagerly wanted to go to March's house to find out what was going on. There must be a lot of useful information hidden in March's house, and this was a good opportunity to find out. Even though it seemed a bit too coincidental that March's parents weren't home at this time, I still couldn't resist the temptation.

I said goodbye to my sister, and she reminded me to take my phone and call her if I came home late. I checked my phone; although it only had half battery left, based on its past performance, it should last a long time. I left the house and headed towards March's house.

Chapter 207 Specific Location

After I went out, I quickly arrived at the building where March lived, the building opposite the bridge. I looked up and suddenly realized that I had forgotten something very important—I only remembered the general location of March's house, but I didn't know which floor she lived on. Moreover, although March had a cell phone, according to her, it didn't have a SIM card, so I naturally had no way to contact her.

I was thinking about whether I should go back to school and take the opportunity to go to the office to look through the student roster to see the exact address of March's home. If possible, I could also check the phone number that March left on it. Although there was no way to find out whether the phone number was real or fake at the moment, confirming it in advance would serve as a kind of information for backup.

But I quickly realized this idea was a bit unrealistic. It was just past dinner time, around six o'clock, and I checked my phone; the time was indeed 6:20, just as I expected. My class, according to the school's classification, should be the best humanities class, and that building is actually the teaching building for the top classes in the senior year. Although I felt our class didn't quite deserve that classification, that's how the school divided things, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Moreover, I myself am in it.

However, precisely because of this, I am very clear about the current state of our class. Although it is Saturday and the time is 6:20 PM, there are definitely people in that old teaching building, and quite a few at that, because many students in that building are actually boarders, and many of these boarders are particularly hardworking. It is 6:20 PM now, and they have probably already finished dinner and gone back to their classrooms to study.

This raises a problem. Today is Saturday, and teachers don't have classes in the evening. They should all be going home for dinner. Who would come to school for no reason? At least that's the case in our class. This means that the main door to the office next to the teachers' office is definitely locked. The only way to get in is probably through the side door inside the classroom, but that would mean my whereabouts would be discovered by the students in the classroom.

My presence in the classroom would be extremely strange to them; no one would fail to notice me, and I would certainly be discovered if I tried to go into the teachers' office to do something. This won't do.

My only chance to break into that office again is late at night when no one is around, but I no longer have time to wait until then.

In March, she clearly indicated that I should go to her house after dinner. Due to the time jump, I don't remember what happened in the previous 72 hours, which seems to have made March a little unhappy with me. If I stand her up... the consequences will probably be quite bad. This is a bit of a problem for me. I looked up and down at the building where March was, but I still couldn't remember which floor she was on or how I was supposed to find her.

I started thinking. If all else failed, I'd have to go door-to-door ringing and asking around. But before that, a possibility suddenly occurred to me, and I picked up my phone to check. I wasn't sure if I'd get any clues, but it might be more worthwhile to spend a little time confirming if I had any information than to go door-to-door asking.

However, I actually found it.

Because my social network is very, very simple, I saw the clue I was looking for instantly when I opened my contacts. Aside from my parents' and sister's contact information, I had two other phone numbers on my phone. One was labeled "Ye Zi" (叶子), and it was a phone number; this should be Ye Zi's number, but I don't remember when I saved it.

The other one is labeled – March Xiaoyin's Home (Don't call unless it's important)

The specially noted information bothered me a little, but I quickly came to terms with it. After all, I didn't have my own contact information in March; all she had to give me was her home phone number. Since it was her home phone, I couldn't just call her all the time; that would definitely cause problems.

But there shouldn't be any problem now, because my parents seem to be away from home for both weekends in March, which is also the direct reason why I was able to come to Yezi's house.

I also don't know when this phone number was added to my phone, but since I have it, I naturally want to make use of it. I dialed the number, and the call was answered after two rings.

"Hello?" I heard a girl's voice, soft and gentle, it sounded like Lin Yin's voice.