Chapter 10: The Butterfly Effect

Chapter 10: The Butterfly Effect

The elevator was set to the "Iceberg" theme this time. The simulated cold wind blowing from the air conditioning seemed to perfectly match Fang Xiaoling’s current mood.

"So heartless... If I had known it would be like this, you shouldn't have bothered saving me earlier. You should have just let me fend for myself," Fang Xiaoling muttered, her head drooping. "I spent three years in the same university classes as Shen Yi, and during our internships, I even found a company right next to his. Yet, I never managed to have any real interaction with him. Aside from basic academic exchanges, we never even exchanged a flirtatious word. And you’re telling me to complete this mission on my own?"

To Fang Xiaoling, Luo Lan’s approach felt like two people falling into a bottomless pit, only for one of them—a master of lightness skills—to leap out and call back to the other, who possessed no such ability, "I’m going on ahead! I’ll wait for you in the wonderful world outside!"

Clearly, Luo Lan was that master of lightness.

When the elevator doors opened, a wave of warm air greeted them. Luo Lan stepped out, but when she looked back, she found Fang Xiaoling squatting in the elevator, refusing to budge.

"Don't worry, I’ll teach you some techniques for dealing with guys. It’ll be more than enough to handle a high school student. As long as you study hard, you’ll definitely complete the mission." Luo Lan stepped back into the elevator and reached down to pull on the sleeve of Fang Xiaoling’s school uniform, but the girl swatted her hand away.

"You don't have to worry about me! Just go!" Fang Xiaoling pouted, looking away. "I’m just a cast-off that nobody cares about anyway. Just leave me in this elevator and wait for the next pervert to carry me off!"

"Why are you throwing a tantrum like a child again?" Luo Lan said, at the end of her patience. "I have been patient enough with you. Don't push your luck!"

Fang Xiaoling stopped her pouting. She stared at Luo Lan in silence for a moment before suddenly bursting into loud, wailing sobs.

Luo Lan was defeated.

Resigned, she squatted down and began to stroke Fang Xiaoling’s head patiently. "Alright, alright, I shouldn't have snapped at you. It’s noon already; aren't you hungry? How about this: let's go get something to eat, and I’ll tell you some of those techniques..."

"No!" Fang Xiaoling interrupted, shouting, "You’re only teaching me techniques to ease your own guilt for leaving me behind! I don't want them! I want you to feel guilty for the rest of your life!"

Luo Lan gritted her teeth, her mouth twitching. She thought to herself, *Guilty? What the hell am I guilty for? If you weren't potentially useful in helping me break this curse, I wouldn't care about you at all!*

But despite her inner thoughts, Luo Lan immediately resumed her gentle, squinty-eyed smile. She said as softly as she could, "Actually, I’m doing this for your own good. Now that you’re capable of time-traveling too, what if we don't end up in the same place next time? You need to learn some skills so that your big sister can rest easy, right?"

Fang Xiaoling’s eyes widened in surprise. "So, big sister was actually thinking of me when she decided to go on ahead? Heavens! It was a training mission filled with your love and concern all along. I misunderstood you..."

Luo Lan was even more surprised than Fang Xiaoling. She actually believed such nonsense? But since things had reached this point, Luo Lan was happy to go along with it. She stood up, placed her hands behind her back, and said meaningfully, "Spare the rod and spoil the child. Little sister, I had no other choice but to be strict."

Fang Xiaoling looked up at her and corrected her weakly, "Big sister, don't you think 'a strict teacher produces talented students' would be more appropriate?"

Luo Lan maintained her posture. "Don't sweat the small details. In any case, this time you must complete the mission by your own ability. Don't let your big sister’s painstaking efforts go to waste."

"Yes!" Fang Xiaoling nodded firmly. She stood up, walked out of the elevator, and said to the artificial intelligence standing by the door, "I will definitely do my best!"

A smirk of successful manipulation played on Luo Lan’s lips. She stepped out of the elevator, satisfied, and asked Fang Xiaoling, "What do you want to eat?"

But Fang Xiaoling didn't answer. She stood like a statue, maintaining the pose she had struck upon leaving the elevator, staring unblinkingly at the AI.

Luo Lan followed her gaze. Having lived for tens of thousands of years, she couldn't help but take a step back in shock. "What... what is this?"

The AI’s avatar was a woman wearing a turtleneck sweater and overalls. She looked like a normal human being. While not particularly frightening, for Luo Lan and Fang Xiaoling, it was enough to make their skin crawl, because the AI’s appearance was identical to Fang Xiaoling’s true self.

"Hello, Ms. Luo." The AI looked at Luo Lan, not shifting into a gentleman's form, before turning its gaze in another direction. "Hello, Mr. Shen. Welcome home."

Luo Lan and Fang Xiaoling both imagined the same impossibility. When they turned around in unison, that impossible thing had indeed happened—Shen Yi was standing right behind them, smoothing out his rolled-up sleeves as he asked, "Young ladies, do you live here?"

Luo Lan regained her composure, but before she could answer, Fang Xiaoling cut in, asking, "Do *you* live here?"

"Oh, I only officially moved in a week ago," Shen Yi said with a smile. "The registration process for the Tower is quite complicated. Just sorting out all the qualification documents took over a month."

Luo Lan was about to speak, but Fang Xiaoling stepped forward again. It might have been an illusion, but Luo Lan felt as if flames were burning all over Fang Xiaoling. She said angrily, "What qualifications? What kind of qualifications could you possibly have? Without me, you couldn't even afford a used car. How are you qualified to live here? Did you win the lottery?"

"Young lady, I think you have the wrong person. I don't know you," Shen Yi said, feeling baffled. He brushed past her and said to the AI, "Call the elevator, Iceberg theme."

Fang Xiaoling was so angry she was on the verge of tears. "You’re too much! Why did you set the AI to look like me? You set this up, didn't you?"

Luo Lan reached out and pulled Fang Xiaoling behind her, saying politely, "I’m sorry, sir. Could you wait a moment before going up? I have some questions I’d like to ask."

Seeing Luo Lan speak, and recalling that the AI had indeed addressed her as "Ms. Luo," Shen Yi assumed she was a resident. Although the girl looked like a high schooler, he figured that since he was a newcomer, it wouldn't hurt to learn more about the residents of Canglan International.

"Go ahead and ask." Shen Yi’s finger hovered a centimeter from the elevator button.

Luo Lan kept her polite smile. "The appearance of this AI reminds us of our long-lost second aunt. Have you ever seen someone who looks like this in real life?"

"That must be a coincidence. At the time, there were no preset avatars I liked, so I used the face-sculpting system to customize one myself. I just thought it looked quite amiable."

As Shen Yi said this, Fang Xiaoling’s rage vanished. The expression on her face shifted subtly, and the corners of her mouth turned from a downward pout to an upward curve.

However, Shen Yi immediately added, "It’s what I imagined an ideal servant should look like."

Fang Xiaoling was like a firework with a lit fuse. If Luo Lan hadn't been quick enough to hold her back, she would have charged into the elevator. She clawed at the air and screamed, "You bastard! You get over here!"

Seeing this, Shen Yi tapped the elevator buttons as fast as a chicken pecking at grain. By the time the doors closed, Fang Xiaoling was still outside, waving her arms frantically, as if trying to conjure a hurricane to destroy the entire building.

"Alright, calm down. He’s not the Shen Yi from that world," Luo Lan said, though she pondered in her heart. Everything was different from her previous assumptions. Theoretically, people in this world should have forgotten the existence of the traveler, but their lives should have remained unchanged—let alone their status or identity.

Fang Xiaoling stopped, exhausted, and panted, "Did you see that guy? He looks younger, and his facial features are sharper than before. He’s even more handsome than the Shen Yi in the other world. Why? How is he doing so well without me?"

"This is truly beyond my expectations," Luo Lan said, staring intently at the elevator. "It’s too strange. During my last jump, I confirmed with your body that all our friends and relatives remained unchanged, except for the fact that they didn't know who Luo Lan was."

Fang Xiaoling straightened up. "No matter what, I’ve realized one thing: this is definitely a fictional, alternate world with no logic whatsoever. Even if Shen Yi were the Monkey King reincarnated, he couldn't have changed this much!"

Luo Lan pondered for a moment, narrowing her eyes. "Is it possible that for my relatives and friends, my absence didn't change anything? That whether I was there or not made no difference to them?"

Fang Xiaoling detected the despondency in Luo Lan’s tone. She gave an awkward smile and comforted her, "How could that be? Haven't you read *The Butterfly Effect*? Every move you make, every decision, could affect someone else’s entire life."

Luo Lan recalled, "But aside from knowing we existed, I really didn't have much contact with those relatives and friends. I never reached out to them, and they never reached out to me."

"That’s too eerie," Fang Xiaoling couldn't fathom it. "How could that be? You have to interact with your parents, right? Even if the relationship isn't great, you’d at least eat together during the New Year, right?"

Luo Lan looked up at the ceiling, as if gazing into an endless universe. "Parents, you say... I can no longer remember what they look like."

Fang Xiaoling fell silent. She looked at Luo Lan, whose expression had dimmed, and felt as if she had found a visible crack in a flawless sculpture. It was this very crack that made her feel a sense of excitement—not out of schadenfreude, but because Luo Lan seemed, for the first time, to be someone she could truly reach.