Chapter 562

【Day Seven】

I told you this diary system is basically a wish-granting system!

Yesterday I was still wondering whether this girl knew how to cook, and today it rewarded me with a complete set of kitchenware!

Pots, bowls, ladles, pans, kitchen knives, cutting boards—even salt and soy sauce were included.

Xiaoguang exclaimed over how I’d managed to find such incredible supplies, and my nose practically went up to the sky!

This is the life of an overpowered cheat user!

With my permission, Xiaoguang used the fish I’d caught to prepare a feast!

Steamed fish fillets, fish-head tofu soup, braised fish chunks—my first truly lavish meal since arriving in this world!

The fish-head tofu soup had been simmered until it was rich and milky white, and I drank bowl after bowl!

It was thousands of times better than the shark fin I used to make!

She just propped her chin on her hands and watched me eat. When I asked why she wasn’t eating, she said that watching Brother Fang Qi eat filled her up.

I told her not to pull that kind of thing on me, but inside, I was practically dying of happiness!

She really is so much like Liguang! So much like her!

After dinner, we lay on the deck and looked at the stars.

I told her about My Yandere Mechanical Wife, said I’d come within a hair of unlocking Eternal Love, and asked which character she liked best.

She said, “Do you really need to ask?”

True enough. That was a pointless question.

She was cosplaying Liguang, after all. Of course her favorite character was the heroine, Liguang!

I asked her which of Liguang’s scenes she liked best.

She said it was when Liguang turned evil.

I told her I felt the same way! I even used to deliberately court death and make Liguang angry!

Especially when Liguang got that hollow look in her eyes. She was so beautiful! I could watch it over and over and never get tired of it!

She smiled and said, “Brother Fang Qi certainly has unique tastes.”

But there was something strange about that smile…

Her brows and eyes curved upward, but her eyes themselves didn’t seem to be smiling.

It was clearly a gentle, obedient smile, yet it sent a chill down the back of my neck!

I instinctively shifted backward a little, and she immediately switched back to her usual sweet expression and asked me what was wrong.

I said it was nothing. The sea breeze must have gotten to me.

Hiss…

Was she taking the act a little too far?

Her cosplay was way too professional. She could even switch her gaze like that?

Amazing. I actually found the real Li Guang!

Fang Qi, written aboard the little villa at sea, Day Seven.

……

……

【Day Ten】

The supplies rewarded by the diary have been getting more and more abundant these past few days.

Reinforced wooden planks, a bucket of tung oil, and a proper spear gun.

Yesterday it gave me a supply radar that could detect nearby floating supply crates. Pretty useful!

Two sharks showed up this morning, and they were both quite large.

I took the spear gun and stood at the edge of the platform, telling Xiaoguang to stay inside.

But when the second shark charged in from the side, I hadn’t had time to turn the gun toward it when she suddenly sprang out beside me!

She vaulted over the railing with one hand and drove a spear straight into its forehead!

It was incredibly cool!

She climbed back up, soaked from head to toe, wiped the water from her face, and smiled at me. She even asked, “Brother Fang Qi, are you all right?”

I said, “I should be asking you that!”

She said she’d learned a little self-defense.

A little self-defense, and she could vault overboard and engage a two-meter-long shark in close combat…?

All right, then.

That evening, she made shark steaks.

Shark meat is supposed to be pretty unpleasant, but somehow she made it delicious!

Still… something just feels off. She seems far more capable than I initially thought.

So how had she ended up so weak on her own raft before?

I suppose it wasn’t really a contradiction.

No matter how capable you are, you’ll still die of thirst without fresh water!

And having a teammate who can both cook and fight… I’ve really struck gold!

Fang Qi, written aboard the little villa at sea, Day Ten.

……

……

【Day Seventeen】

We’ve expanded the platform a great deal over the past few days.

The diary has rewarded us with quite a few reinforced planks and metal components, so I reinforced the entire edge of the platform to keep those sharks from chewing on it all the time.

Xiaoguang fenced in the platform and planted some seaweed seeds that had drifted in from the ocean.

She said that since they were floating around anyway, we might as well try growing them.

I never expected them to actually survive. Now there’s a lush green patch, and somehow it makes the place feel a little like home.

Oh, right. The diary rewarded us with a fish trap yesterday.

Xiaoguang improved it with vines and an old fishing net, then lowered it beneath the platform. When we pulled it up this morning, there were actually seven or eight hand-sized fish inside.

She was overjoyed and said she’d make grilled fish for Brother Fang Qi that evening.

I told her not to rush and asked when she’d learned all this.

She said she’d picked up a few things from her family.

I asked what her family did for a living. She was silent for a moment, then said they were just an ordinary family.

I get the feeling she doesn’t really want to talk about it. Maybe she came from a troubled home…?

So I didn’t press her.

Another shark came by in the afternoon. It wasn’t very big, and I dealt with it by myself.

Xiaoguang was cooking inside and didn’t come out. When I went back, she had already set three dishes and a soup on the table.

I stood in the doorway, holding the shark fin, and froze for quite a while.

How should I put it? The whole scene felt too unreal.

Before I crossed into this world, I’d lived in a lousy rented room where the kitchen was never used. Every day, I ate either takeout or instant noodles.

And now, stranded in the middle of the vast ocean, I’d somehow ended up living a life where someone cooked for me and waited for me to come home?

During dinner, I asked whether waiting on me every day tired her out.

She said, “How could it? Brother Fang Qi saved Xiaoguang’s life. It’s only right that I do these things.”

I told her to stop calling me her savior. It made it sound as though I were taking advantage of what I’d done for her!

She shook her head and said no, Xiaoguang had to remember it forever.

Then she asked me something else…

“Brother Fang Qi, will you always protect Xiaoguang?”

I said, “Of course.”

She smiled then, with such a sweet smile.

Honestly, how many days had it been? I was already getting used to it.

The sounds of her bustling around inside the cabin, the way she would poke her head out of the kitchen with a dish in her hands and smile at me, the little star-shaped earring dangling from her ear before my eyes…

It felt wonderful!

Fang Qi, written aboard our little home at sea, Day Seventeen.

……

……

【Day Twenty-Five】

The wind and waves were strong today, and the sea was rocking so violently that the platform creaked and groaned.

Xiaoguang was a little seasick and spent the whole morning curled up inside the cabin.

After finishing the work of reinforcing the railing, I went in to check on her. She was curled up on the bed, her face pale.

I asked whether she wanted some hot water. She said, “You don’t need to worry about me, Brother Fang Qi. I’ll be fine if I just lie here for a while.”

So I went to the kitchen, boiled a kettle, and brought it to her.

She cradled the cup in both hands and took tiny sips. Then she suddenly looked up at me.

“Brother Fang Qi, did you know? You’re the kindest person in the world to Xiaoguang.”

I said, “Isn’t that obvious? There are only the two of us in the world right now. Who else would I be kind to?”

She shook her head. “That’s not what I mean. Even if there were lots of people, Brother Fang Qi would still be the one who treated Xiaoguang best.”

Then she buried her face in the blankets and murmured, “That’s really how Xiaoguang feels.”

She’s getting cuter and cuter!

When the wind and waves died down that evening, she said she wanted to make dinner for me.

I told her not to push herself and that she could do it tomorrow.

She said, “No! Brother Fang Qi has been busy outside all day. You have to eat something good!”

Then she forced herself to get up and made a bowl of seafood noodles.

The noodles had come from a diary reward, while she had made the broth by simmering fish bones.

I was halfway through eating when I looked up at her. Her face was still pale, but her eyes were shining as she watched me.

It was as if seeing me eat mattered more to her than eating herself.

I put down my bowl and said, “Xiaoguang, I’ll cook for you from now on, too.”

She froze for a moment, then laughed. “Brother Fang Qi, do you even know how?”

I said, “I can learn if I don’t. You can teach me.”

She said, “Okay. Starting tomorrow, then.”

All right. Starting tomorrow.

Fang Qi, written at our little home at sea, Day Twenty-Five.

……

……

[Day Thirty-One]

This is seriously weird!

This morning, Xiaoguang and I were sunbathing on the deck when she asked me about my life before I crossed over.

I casually told her a few things about my old life—living in a rented apartment, slacking off at work, and playing video games every day.

Somehow, the conversation turned to a former female colleague of mine. She was pretty, with a round face, and she’d pursued me for a while!

I was in the middle of bragging about it when I turned my head and saw Xiaoguang looking at me with that sweet smile.

That same smile that made the back of my neck prickle!

She asked what happened afterward. Had I accepted her feelings?

The seashell in her hand cracked with a sharp snap!

It scared the hell out of me!

I hurriedly said no. I told her I’d rejected that girl on the spot. We’d barely spoken a few times, and besides, she wasn’t my type at all!

Then she asked what kind of girl I liked.

Without thinking, I blurted out, “Girls with silver hair and different-colored eyes.”

She froze for a moment, then smiled incredibly sweetly and said, “So Brother Fang Qi likes girls like Xiaoguang.”

I told her not to get smug.

Now I’m reviewing my performance at the time.

No…

Why was I so damn nervous? I hadn’t done anything wrong!

But at the time, I confessed everything on instinct. I didn’t even dare hide a single thing from her.

Mostly because… that smile of hers was just too terrifying!

Who could keep anything to themselves under a smile like that?

But honestly, although it made me feel uneasy, I was also inexplicably pleased.

Was she jealous?

A girl that beautiful was getting jealous over me—and over some old business from before I crossed over, at that! This really was…

Forget it, forget it. I can’t be thinking like this!

Besides…

She really does resemble Liguang a little too much.

Could she be doing it on purpose?

They’re way too similar. It almost seems like she’s putting on an act…

No, that’s not right.

She likes Liguang, after all, and even cosplays as her. Maybe… she simply has a personality like Liguang’s?

Tsk…

Is she really a yandere?

Did I actually run into one?

Heh heh. A natural-born Liguang fanatic!

Fang Qi, written at our little home at sea, Day Thirty-One.

……

……

[Day Forty]

Xiaoguang has been sneaking around a lot lately.

Several times, I’ve gotten up in the middle of the night and found her sitting in the moonlight, doing who knows what. Whenever I ask, she just shakes her head and hides her hands behind her back.

She’s the same during the day. Whenever she thinks I’m not looking, she secretly fiddles with something. The moment I turn around, she hurriedly stuffs it behind her back and smiles at me.

There’s definitely something strange going on!

I started getting suspicious. Could she be hiding something?

Although she’s been very well-behaved lately, that “kind smile” of hers is far too practiced, and she seems so much like she’s deliberately playing the part of Liguang…

These past few days, I’ve kept feeling that she’s hiding something beneath that obedient exterior.

Even though she’s always adorable and dependent on me, and I really like her…

We’ve only known each other for a little over ten days, after all!

It never hurts to be cautious around people!

So today, while she was out hauling in the fishing nets, I slipped into her room.

I searched around, but there was nothing unusual.

Her bed was made perfectly, and the shelves were lined with dried seaweed and seashells.

Then I opened the little wooden box beside her bed—and froze.

Inside was a collection of handmade things.

The seashell beads had been polished smooth and arranged in a gradient of colors.

There were also several half-finished bracelets, crafted with absurdly exquisite detail.

At the very bottom was a layer of little stars, each one woven from thin vines and no bigger than a fingernail. There were dozens of them, packed together.

I was still standing there in a daze when I heard footsteps behind me.

She stood in the doorway, still holding the fishing net she’d just brought back. Her hair was tousled by the sea breeze.

When she saw the wooden box in my hands, her face instantly turned red, and her eyes darted away.

She said she’d originally wanted to surprise Brother Fang Qi. Then she took two finished bracelets out of the box…

They were dark blue, with one of the little stars she’d woven threaded onto the middle of each.

She tied one around my wrist, put the other on herself, and held our wrists side by side.

“Look. Matching couple bracelets.”

Then she suddenly looked at me pitifully and said:

“Xiaoguang will take good care of her master. Master has to protect Xiaoguang, okay?”

“Out here on this ocean, Xiaoguang has no one to rely on except Master…”

She called me Master.

As I looked at the little star on my wrist, my heart skipped a beat.

All right.

Whether she was pretending or being sincere, there was at least one thing I knew for sure…

When she said, “Master has to protect Xiaoguang,” I genuinely wanted to protect her.

Had she gotten me completely under her thumb?

What a wicked woman, playing with a man in the palm of her hand.

But I’ve seen through her little tricks, you know!

Though…

It doesn’t look like there’s much I can do about it.

What a perfectly executed scheme.

Fang Qi, written at our little home at sea with Xiaoguang, Day Forty.

……

……

[Day Fifty-Seven]

Xiaoguang got sick.

This time it wasn’t seasickness. She was really ill.

She’d probably caught a chill after getting rained on and diving into the water to retrieve supplies yesterday. By evening, she had developed a fever.

Her forehead was frighteningly hot, and she was curled up under the blankets, shivering.

I dug out every warm thing we had and wrapped her in them, then boiled several kettles of hot water and placed them beside her bed.

She clung to my hand in a daze. Her lips were cracked and dry, and she kept muttering something.

I leaned closer to hear her.

She was saying, “Brother Fang Qi, don’t leave.”

I told her I wouldn’t leave. I was right here.

She didn’t seem to hear me and continued murmuring. She kept saying, “Brother Fang Qi, please don’t leave. Xiaoguang will do anything.”

She said, “Brother Fang Qi, do you know? Xiaoguang really, really likes you.”

By the end, her voice had gone hoarse, and tears rolled from the corners of her eyes.

I held her hand all night without closing my eyes.

When her fever was at its worst, her whole body was trembling. I was so anxious that I nearly emptied the emergency kit the diary reward had given me.

Fortunately, the medicine worked. Her fever finally broke just before dawn.

When she woke up, I was still holding her hand.

She blinked, looked at me, then looked at our joined hands. Her face immediately turned red.

She asked if I hadn’t slept all night.

I told her, “Of course not. How could I sleep when you were burning up like that?”

She was silent for a while. Then she lifted my hand to her cheek, closed her eyes, and let the corners of her lips curve into the faintest smile.

By afternoon, she was lively again. She insisted on getting up to cook as a way of making it up to me, just like she had after the last time she got seasick.

I told her, “Make it up to me? You just got better. Hurry up and lie down!”

She stood in the kitchen doorway with her hands on her hips and said, “Brother Fang Qi, you can’t control Xiaoguang!”

Fine. She won.

As I watched her tie on her apron and start bustling around again, I leaned back on our battered, windblown sofa and let out a long breath.

I’d been absolutely terrified last night.

If something really happened to her, I honestly didn’t know what I would do.

Out here on this blasted ocean, she was all I had.

Fang Qi, written at our little home at sea with Xiaoguang, Day Fifty-Seven.

……

……

[Day Eighty-Two]

I like her.

I’m sure of it. I like her.

Today, the diary reward gave us a whole crate of canned fruit and a bottle of red wine.

It couldn’t have come at a better time.

That evening, we drank on the deck.

Xiaoguang’s face turned red after half a glass. She leaned against the railing and smiled at me.

I don’t know where I found the courage, but I leaned over and kissed her.

She didn’t pull away.

Her lips were unbelievably soft, and her fingers tightened around my collar.

The waves swayed beneath our feet, and the entire galaxy stretched overhead.

Later, we went inside.

I won’t write about what happened. You know how it went.

She rested her head on my arm. As she slept, her breathing was soft, her eyelashes trembling ever so slightly.

I watched her. The bracelet on her wrist was pressed against mine.

I couldn’t sleep.

I stared at the ceiling, listening to the sound of the waves, but my mind was perfectly clear.

I like Xiaoguang.

Whether or not she was a coser, whatever the reason she was so kind to me, whatever secrets she kept hidden in her heart…

I like her, so I have to protect her.

I swear I’ll always treat Xiaoguang well.

In this survival world, I’ll reach Eternal Love with her.

Together with the real, living “Xiaoguang.”

I promise.

Fang Qi, written at the little home on the sea he shared with Xiaoguang, Day 82.

……

……

[Day 83]

Why…

Why, why, why…?!?!

Xiaoguang…

Xiaoguang, she…

She’s dead…?

Dead??

Dead???

Dead??!!

She took that blow for me…

The giant beast’s tentacle came stabbing from behind. I didn’t see it at all!

She screamed and rushed over to shove me out of the way, and then… then…!

That tentacle pierced straight through her chest.

Right through where her heart was…

I dug out every healing item I’d ever been rewarded with and piled all the hemostatic medicine and first-aid kits onto her…

It was useless…

Nothing could stop it…!

Her blood just kept pouring out!

There was so much blood. My hands were covered in it, but no matter how hard I pressed, I couldn’t stop it…!

Her face grew paler and paler, and her lips turned purple.

She was still smiling then.

She was actually still smiling!

She said…

Her life had been saved by Brother Fang Qi, and now she was giving it back to me.

She said…

It was just a shame that Xiaoguang hadn’t been able to fulfill Brother Fang Qi’s regret from before he crossed over. We… wouldn’t be able to achieve Eternal Love.

She said…

“Brother Fang Qi, will you still remember that, at some point in your life… there was once a girl like Liguang who fell in love with you?”

Then she closed her eyes, and her hand slipped from my palm…

I couldn’t hold on to her. I really couldn’t hold on.

I called her name again and again, but she didn’t answer.

The bracelet was still on her wrist, exactly the same as the one on my left wrist.

She had woven that little star herself.

Heh…

I wrapped her in a clean canvas sheet, built a small raft beside the cabin, and covered it all around with the seashells and beads she had collected.

I placed the little wooden box from beside her bed by her hand as well.

I pushed the little raft out to sea and watched it…

Drift farther and farther away.

The surface of the sea was calm. Her silver hair spilled out from beneath the canvas, soaked by the seawater as she slowly sank beneath the waves.

I didn’t cry.

I couldn’t cry.

It just felt like none of this was real.

Just yesterday…

Just yesterday, she had still been…!

And now she was gone. Everything was gone.

The diary system had just displayed a notification, announcing that the reward for defeating the deep-sea giant beast had been issued. It was an extremely generous reward.

I had no use for it anymore.

I picked up the half-finished star she had left beside my bed and threaded it onto my bracelet.

This world had only ever contained the two of us. Now, there was only me.

Now, I should go find her.

Fang Qi, written somewhere on an unknown stretch of sea, Day 83.

……

……

[WARNING: PROTAGONIST FATALITY IMMINENT]

[WARNING: REALITY ANCHOR UNSTABLE]

[OVERRIDE INITIATED]

[SOURCE: LI_GUANG]

[PRIORITY: ABSOLUTE]

[EXECUTING: REALITY RESET]

[MESSAGE QUEUED: “Aqi, you’ll never achieve Eternal Love~”]

[RESET COMPLETE]