Chapter 45: Chu Liunian Will Not Like Men from the Third Dimension

The convention venue was packed with people. Chu Liunian vanished from Qin Luo’s line of sight for just a moment, and already he was having trouble finding her.

Looking around, one could see all sorts of bizarre and elaborate costumes everywhere, dazzling the eyes to the point of sensory overload.

At first, Qin Luo had thought these cosplayers—especially the pretty, cute girls—were quite pleasing to the eyes, but now he found it somewhat irritating. All those pale, bare thighs were entirely unappealing to him right now.

Fortunately, this state of mind did not last long.

After searching a bit further ahead, Qin Luo spotted Chu Liunian standing beside a booth.

Her body was curled up into a ball, crouching on the ground with her hands over her head. Her long, silvery-white hair cascaded downward, completely veering and concealing her breathtakingly beautiful face.

At this moment, she looked just like she had when Qin Luo first laid eyes on her today: like a young, helpless beast whose life was under threat, trembling uncontrollably.

Right beside her, there was a cute girl dressed up as Klee, holding a black rabbit plushie in her hands and apologizing to Chu Liunian with an expression of utter anxiety.

"I'm really sorry, I truly didn't mean to bump into you just now. Here is your rabbit plushie, take it..."

She kept apologizing while offering the rabbit plushie to Chu Liunian, but Chu Liunian remained utterly unresponsive. She just crouched there with her head in her hands, as though she had completely blocked out all sounds from the outside world.

This left the girl dressed as Klee extremely anxious and somewhat frightened, wondering if the person in front of her had suddenly fallen ill or something.

Panicking, she looked around, trying to seek help from anyone nearby.

Just then, a tall and handsome figure caught her eye.

"Let me handle this," Qin Luo said, reaching out his hand toward her. "I'm her friend."

The Klee cosplayer subconsciously handed the rabbit plushie to Qin Luo, then hesitated and said, "I wasn't paying attention for a second and bumped into her, and then she just crouched down there and stopped moving. She won't answer when I talk to her, I don't know what's wrong with her, I'm really, really sorry..."

After saying that, she didn't forget to offer one more apology to Qin Luo, clearly showing she was a kind-hearted girl.

"It's not your fault, she's just..."

Qin Luo deliberated for a moment, unsure of how to explain, so he simply shook his head and said no more.

The girl felt a bit scared, so she tentatively took a couple of steps to the side. Seeing that Qin Luo had no intention of stopping her, she scurried away on her short legs.

Qin Luo glanced down at Chu Liunian, who was curled up and shivering, then back at the rabbit plushie in his hand, his expression turning somewhat subtle.

Earlier, he had actually been slightly puzzled. Even though the anime character Sora Kasugano was an autistic shut-in, she wouldn't be terrified to that extent when facing criticism from others; sometimes she could even be quite fierce.

Yet Chu Liunian had acted cowardly to an absurd degree when facing those three gas-tank-like bullies earlier.

And that included her current behavior, which mirrored her earlier state.

While Qin Luo had previously wondered why she acted this way, he now understood: the root of the problem lay with the rabbit plushie, or rather, the act of "role-playing" itself.

Chu Liunian was currently portraying Sora Kasugano, and the rabbit plushie was an essential part of that role-play. Because she lacked the rabbit plushie, her performance was incomplete, which prevented her from fully immersing herself in the character of Sora.

So the question arose: if she was acting this way because she failed to fully enter Sora's role state, then what aspect of her true self did this current reaction reveal?

Qin Luo could not arrive at a definitive answer, so he pulled out the Mind-Listening Earphones and plugged them into his ears.

The very next second, Chu Liunian's innermost thoughts echoed directly within his mind.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

"So scared, so scared, so scared..."

"Save me, save me, save me..."

"I want to die, I want to die, I want to die..."

Qin Luo: "..."

His expression instantly darkened.

Even though Chu Liunian was currently displaying intense fear and a severe lack of sense of security, he never imagined her inner panic would reach such an extreme level.

The thoughts laced with helplessness, terror, and despair ringing in his mind for a moment caused even his breath to stall. He could hardly fathom what kind of immense trauma a person must have suffered for their inner self to be terrified to this degree.

No wonder those three bullies had been able to torment her like that before...

Qin Luo's brow furrowed deeply. Out of concern for Chu Liunian's psychological state, he stopped analyzing the situation and directly thrust the rabbit plushie into her arms.

The moment they made physical contact, Chu Liunian's body jerked violently before going rigid, suddenly turning as lifeless and immobile as a statue.

This process lasted for about three seconds, until Chu Liunian gripped the rabbit plushie tightly with both hands, finally returning to normal.

Under Qin Luo's watchful gaze, Chu Liunian slowly stood up.

She gently brushed away the messy strands of hair from her temples, clutched the rabbit plushie tightly to her chest, and stared at Qin Luo with a resentful glare.

With a soft "Hmph," she turned her head away, her tone dripping with grievance: "You clearly wrote such outrageous lines, and now you actually have the nerve to chase after me?"

Qin Luo's gaze toward her was complex to the extreme. Compared to the Chu Liunian who had been curled up and shivering on the ground just a moment ago, she was acting like an entirely different person now.

It was as if the incident moments ago had never even happened. Her reaction was so completely natural, resembling the normal response of a girlfriend who had stormed off after a quarrel only to be caught up by her boyfriend.

The fog surrounding her was simply too thick. Qin Luo wanted to investigate further, but considering that the Mind-Listening Earphones only had one use left, he ultimately decided to take them off.

"Sorry, it was my fault."

Qin Luo apologized softly to Chu Liunian. He completely discarded his previous friendly demeanor, adopting a tender expression and tone as though he truly viewed Chu Liunian as his lover.

Since she regards herself as Sora, I'll play the role of Yuu just this once... he thought to himself.

Of course, this was the pure-love version, and his sole intention was to protect Chu Liunian's fragile psychological state.

Chu Liunian noticed Qin Luo's transformation, prompting a flicker of astonishment in the gaze she directed at him.

She opened her mouth as if wanting to say something, but in the end, she simply turned her head aside, presenting her slightly flushed profile to Qin Luo as she said with a hint of haughty pride: "Well, you're an idiot anyway... Forget it, I'll forgive you this time."

Qin Luo shook his head, his tone remaining exceedingly gentle: "You can forgive me, but I can't forgive myself. After all, it was my fault you were so scared just now, so I have to make it up to you."

Chu Liunian turned back to look at him, asking with a mixture of expectation and curiosity: "How do you plan to make it up to me?"

Qin Luo smiled without a word and walked over to a nearby figure booth.

After browsing for a moment, he picked up an exquisitely crafted figure of Sora, paid for it, and presented it to Chu Liunian.

"Here, for you," Qin Luo said.

Chu Liunian accepted the Sora figure, the corners of her mouth curling upward uncontrollably, even as her words completely contradicted her inner feelings: "You call this making it up to me? You're just giving me a figurine, you have no sincerity at all."

Qin Luo blinked and asked her, "Since you think I lack sincerity, then... how about I take you to a place?"

Chu Liunian asked instinctively, "What place?"

Qin Luo smiled and said, "A place where no one knows us, a place that belongs only to the two of us."

This was a line Yuu had said to Sora in *Yosuga no Sora*. Because it was a line from the ending, Qin Luo still remembered it vaguely, having just recalled it moments ago.

Moreover, he was certain that Chu Liunian would understand the reference.

Sure enough, upon hearing these words, Chu Liunian froze in her tracks.

She stared blankly at Qin Luo, her pupils dilating and contracting as if she had suffered a massive psychological shock.

After a long while, she finally calmed down, clutched the Sora figure and the rabbit plushie tightly to her chest, turned her back to him, and said coldly: "There's no such place in this world, and even if there were, why would I go with you?"

"Eh? Aren't you my Sora?"

"I am Sora right now, yes, but I am also Chu Liunian."

Chu Liunian turned back around, fixing her gaze firmly on Qin Luo: "Chu Liunian will never fall for a three-dimensional man."

Qin Luo: "..."

Back when his [Scumbag] persona had just been bound, and he wanted to establish his scumbag reputation through Xu Ke's roommates, he had conducted a brief psychological assessment of the girls in the goddess group.

Based on their personalities, charm, and popularity, he had deduced that the hardest to pursue would be Xu Ke and Tang Yu. The former's heart was too cold and hard, as if she could never develop feelings for anyone, while the latter appeared gentle as water yet constantly maintained a distance from everyone, making pursuing her feel like punching cotton.

Little Enchantress ranked just behind them because, despite her poor reputation and apparent eagerness to flirt with men, her special score was actually above 90. This meant she was also shrewd, and since she claimed to be a scumbag girl herself, every word and action she took contained hidden套路 (tactics), making her definitely not easy to pursue.

As for the Chu family twins, Qin Luo felt that if he wanted to pursue Chu Shijin, the little foodie would basically fall for him effortlessly.

He had initially thought her younger sister Chu Liunian wouldn't be much harder, but after interacting with her today, he realized that ranking needed to be revised.

The little foodie's ranking remained unchanged, everyone else could move down, and Chu Liunian took the absolute number one spot.

Because if one took her words—"Chu Liunian will never fall for a three-dimensional man"—at face value, it implied that no one in this world could ever capture her heart.

People at school dismissed her words as a clumsy excuse to reject suitors, but Qin Luo knew she was entirely serious.

After buying the figurine, Qin Luo had originally intended to continue strolling around the convention with Chu Liunian to see if he could uncover any more of her secrets.

However, Chu Liunian announced that she had to leave, leaving Qin Luo with no choice but to shelf his plans and walk her out of the convention center.

"How are you getting home? Are you taking a taxi?" Qin Luo asked.

Chu Liunian shook her head and pointed at a car not far away. "My sister is here to pick me up."

Qin Luo followed the direction of her finger and saw a luxurious, majestic Rolls-Royce.

For a split second, Qin Luo felt that the ten thousand yuan Chu Shijin had transferred to him today was well-spent—Chu Liunian's rabbit plushie and wig alone probably cost more than ten thousand...

"Alright then, off you go," Qin Luo nodded in acknowledgment.

Chu Liunian nodded, took two steps forward, and suddenly turned back. "Wait for me."

With that, she trotted all the way over and scrambled into the back seat of the Rolls-Royce.

The car windows were tinted, and coupled with the distance, Qin Luo couldn't see what was happening inside.

Before long, the rear door opened, and Chu Liunian stepped out again, running back toward Qin Luo in a light jog.

Qin Luo quietly looked at Chu Liunian and noticed her appearance had changed.

The white wig and black rabbit plushie were gone; her pure, lovely gothic dress was also gone, replaced instead by a trendy JK (Japanese high school girl) uniform.

A white shirt paired with a black and red pleated skirt; the legs beneath the