Shen Yi hung up the phone. Sasa turned around and tossed her a spare phone, "When we have time, the three of us can play games together, queue up as a trio."
Might as well, since we're just idling around anyway.
When they didn't have any work, they basically killed time by playing games.
Because of their special identities, they rarely went out, practically immersing themselves entirely in games. Otherwise, they wouldn't have met Shen Yi online.
Chen Yu resigned himself to his fate and arranged a clean, temporary room for her.
The next day, Shen Yi woke up bright and early, full of energy. She banged on Li Jianwei's door loud enough to wake the dead, urging him to take her out to dye her hair.
It was six in the morning.
When Li Jianwei was woken up, his brain was in a daze. He glanced at his phone.
He subconsciously pulled the covers over his head.
Was she a rooster? Waking up this early.
Shouldn't kids be sleeping in at this hour?
At his age, Li Jianwei was in a state of being "barely alive."
You could say he was alive, but he had no energy. You could say he was dead, but he was still breathing.
He sat up in bed expressionlessly, yanked the door open, his irritation uncontrollable: "Kid, you should be sleeping at this hour."
Shen Yi: "But..."
"No buts."
"But I want to dye my hair," Shen Yi interrupted him. "And I can't find the exit to your organization's base."
This place was like a rat hole with passages going in all directions; every corridor looked exactly the same.
Li Jianwei took a few deep breaths, forced a smile, and leaned sideways against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest. "I can send you out right now. Do you want to leave, kid?"
Shen Yi: "I'm not leaving."
Li Jianwei gave up.
He hadn't rested much these past few days, busy passing words and messages to the outside, planning how to block internal information. He had finally managed to shut his eyes for a moment, only to be woken up by this brat.
With the mindset of getting it over with, he washed his face and took her out to dye her hair.
Once again, she was blindfolded on the way in and out.
Shen Yi silently memorized the route back and forth in her heart.
She realized that the paths taken the two times were different.
It seemed there were many exits leading to the outside world from here.
Shen Yi had been pondering how to deal with the character of Li Jianwei.
The system had explicitly told her that he couldn't die for the time being, and in the script, he played the role of a life mentor to the main protagonist group.
He was a convenient tool character, placed wherever he was needed.
For example, if Song Yi and the others lacked intelligence on the villains, Li Jianwei could provide accurate clues.
A rather insidious existence. Yet, she couldn't kill him. What a thorny problem.
Perhaps she could find an opportunity to recruit him?
Shen Yi made a superficial judgment: Li Jianwei seemed to be someone with somewhat normal values.
He possessed the most basic bottom line and moral integrity of a person.
Shen Yi had tried all sorts of ways to torment him over the past two days, but he still maintained a certain level of tolerance and kindness toward a teenage assassin.
If she really wanted to recruit him, the difficulty would actually be quite low.
She just needed to wait for the right opportunity.
-
After a trip to the hair salon, Shen Yi chose an emerald green hair dye.
Once dyed, she looked like a brightly colored mushroom.
Shen Yi amused herself for a long while, turning left and right in front of the mirror, extremely satisfied.
Li Jianwei sighed silently, staring at the color of her hair.
You couldn't exactly call it ugly; it was actually quite vibrant.
"Shen Yi, how about you let me go, and I let you go?" He lost his initial moody demeanor, his tone even carrying a bit of genuine exhaustion. "Stop pestering me. I'm very busy."
"Busy with what? Chen Yu said you're just a background character in the organization. Are you somehow busier than your teacher?"
Li Jianwei looked at her faintly.
He wasn't sure if Shen Yi had guessed something and was deliberately testing him, or if she was just purely brainless.
Based on his understanding of this goofy girl, the latter was much more likely.
"Shen Yi," he reached out and pressed down her fluffy green curls, his brown eyes curving slightly, "My tolerance for you has always been very high."
This statement was true.
If it were anyone else, he would have quietly disposed of them long ago.
But when she said she wanted to dye her hair, he took her.
When she wanted to stay, he turned a blind eye.
Now that she was pestering him, he was still enduring it.
"I think you're still young, not quite beyond saving."
Plus, she was genuinely a bit silly.
Li Jianwei always felt a sort of compassionate care for her, like one would for a special needs group.
This wasn't meant to be sarcastic in any way.
Since childhood, he had been dealing with all the shrewd people in the Que organization, where every sentence was twisted and full of calculation.
To be honest, he actually quite liked dealing with an unthinking, straightforward assassin like Shen Yi.
At least he didn't have to guess.
"Also, your hairstyle is really ugly. It looks like Broccoli."
The man reached out and unscrupulously ruffled her mushroom head, carrying a hint of teasing.
Shen Yi: "???"
"Li Jianwei." Shen Yi reached out and yanked his hair hard, enunciating every word, "You messed up my hairstyle!"
She was very strong.
Li Jianwei's expression twisted from the pull.
Fuck.
His somewhat androgynous face darkened: "You rude little brat!"
Shen Yi: "Touch my hair again and I'll beat you to death!"
"......"
Li Jianwei still didn't have an accurate assessment of her combat power.
But considering she came from the Archives, a weakling like himself definitely couldn't beat her.
He weighed his options for half a second.
He chose to beg for mercy: "Can you let go? I'm begging you. Are you this rude at home too? Do your parents not discipline you?"
So impolite.
Shen Yi had actually pulled the hair of most of the males in her family.
Growing up, she had gotten used to doing it.
"Sorry." Shen Yi realized she was in the wrong and let go, but added, "But you shouldn't just touch people's heads either."
She didn't let unfamiliar people touch her head.
Li Jianwei rubbed his aching scalp and took a deep breath.
"I get it, sorry. Can you just behave a little?"
"Sure," Shen Yi agreed.
Li Jianwei didn't believe for a second that she would behave.
These naturally airheaded types were the most vicious.
Her apology was real, but so was the fact that she would do it again next time.
"Let's go, Broccoli." He turned and walked out, hands in his pockets, his back looking as lazy as a willow branch bent by the wind.
Shen Yi: "???"
...
Shen Yi, with her newly dyed hairstyle, returned to her temporary room and immediately made a video call to her older brother.
Shen Zhizhao was chatting with his assistant. Seeing Shen Yi's video call, he casually answered it.
The first thing that caught his eye was a bright green mushroom.
It looked like a spring lawn had come to life.
"Does it look good, Big Brother?"
She gently tugged at her curly short hair.
The man's smile faintly vanished into thin air.
He didn't speak immediately. Clasping his hands together, his fingertips slowly rubbed his knuckles as he stared at the screen.
After three seconds of silence, he muttered to himself in a tone bordering on sleepwalking:
"Shen Yi, seeing your hairstyle, my heart is suddenly beating so fast."
His voice was very soft, as if speaking to himself: "Could this be what it feels like to fall in love?"
"....."
