Chapter 272: Various [Time Worldlines] of branching, intervention, and correction

Inside the apartment.

As Xian Enjing's gaze scanned back and forth like a searchlight over the radiant face of Sweet Enjing in front of her, the guess in her heart was already 80-90% confirmed.

So she first glared fiercely at Lin Xiuyuan behind her, who was trying to lower his presence, the meaning in her eyes self-evident: I'll settle the score with you later!

Then, taking a deep breath to suppress the inexplicable irritability in her heart, Xian Enjing walked toward the sofa and stood still across the coffee table from Sweet Enjing, trying her best to make her tone sound like pure concern, "How is it? Heard from Xiuyuan that your leg flared up again, nothing serious, right?"

Sweet Enjing, leaning on the sofa armrest, smiled slightly, her tone as relaxed as if discussing today's weather.

"Mm, really nothing serious, just an old problem, it's just that this time it flared up quite severely. You should know too; in the past, when I was extremely tired, it would just swell or ache, but this time the rehearsal was too intense, and it tore a bit."

After hearing this explanation, Xian Enjing's brow didn't relax; instead, it furrowed even tighter.

Almost subconsciously, with a bit of venting resentment, she blurted out a "sharp-tongued" concern, "So you should know how old you are yourself, right? You're already suffering from osteoporosis, so why are you pushing yourself so hard? Can you take it easy? Don't really end up needing a cane for the rest of your life; that would be a real big problem."

As soon as these words came out, Sweet Enjing was clearly stunned.

After all, as Enjing herself, she knew "herself" too well.

Under normal circumstances, without any special situation, her tone should be restrained and subtle, not this kind of straightforward "aggressiveness".

Thinking of this, she subconsciously straightened her body, cast a questioning gaze at Lin Xiuyuan, and asked aloud, "Xiuyuan, did you provoke her? I wouldn't say such stinging words; what's going on?"

Lin Xiuyuan, who was named, stood there looking at Sweet Enjing, a helpless smile on his face, while simultaneously extending his finger to point at his own face in the air and making a funny face-wiping gesture, signaling to her: Think about the reason yourself, it's all hanging on your face.

Sweet Enjing looked at his movements, first blankly, then as if suddenly remembering a key point, she realized with a start and said "Ah".

So when she looked at the unhappy Xian Enjing again, her eyes were filled with a look that was both angry and amused, mixed with a trace of indescribable weirdness.

"What's up?" Sweet Enjing, leaning back on the sofa, said in a playful tone, even with a hint of deliberate provocation, "This is a matter between me and Xiuyuan; why are you sulking here? It doesn't involve you, right?"

After speaking, as if to prove something, or perhaps deliberately to stimulate this "young" Xian Enjing.

She looked at Lin Xiuyuan with burning eyes and said with a bright smile, "Xiuyuan, it seems Zhiyan really wasn't wrong; you seem to have a 'miracle effect' on my injury. Look, I can walk slowly now without a cane, just relying on the booster frame. Although it still hurts a bit, it's already much, much better than yesterday."

After this sentence was said.

Lin Xiuyuan immediately looked at Sweet Enjing in shock, his voice somewhat incredulous, "Are you crazy? Are you sure this has anything to do with me? I'm not some miracle medicine; don't talk nonsense."

He didn't dare to take the blame for this; even if it were true, he wouldn't want to admit it; it was too big and would kill people.

And Xian Enjing, who was equally surprised, captured another key piece of information, lowered her head to look carefully at Sweet Enjing's wrapped left leg again, and pursued, "When exactly did this injury happen?"

"A few days ago, not even a week." Sweet Enjing answered truthfully, while her eyes looking at Lin Xiuyuan became even more intense and... expectant?

As if saying: Look, the effect is significant, continue next time??

Even if that intense gaze wasn't directed at her, Xian Enjing still felt uncomfortable all over, so she turned her head back, her gaze like a torch shooting at the protagonist, Lin Xiuyuan.

And when Lin Xiuyuan felt his scalp go numb from being stared at by these two gazes, he quickly retreated tactically, turned, and slipped toward the kitchen, shouting, "I'll go find something to drink, wash some fruit, you guys chat, you guys chat."

His behavior clearly showed he didn't want to participate in this dangerous topic.

It's just that this clumsy attempt to cover up really made Xian Enjing both angry and amused.

Turning her head back, her gaze locked directly onto Sweet Enjing, no longer beating around the bush, she asked the question she most wanted to know, "So how far have you two actually gone?"

Sweet Enjing met her gaze without any evasion, instead smiling frankly with a hint of regret and ambiguity.

"Still a little bit off. If it weren't for these legs being uncooperative, I guess we would have completed a home run; it's really a pity."

Although she didn't say it directly, her vague answer left more to the imagination than a direct admission.

It also made Xian Enjing, listening to these words, frown tightly, her heart filled with mixed feelings.

Finally, it turned into a helpless sigh, "You make me feel very awkward doing this."

It was that weird feeling of "I'm greening myself" or "being NTR'd by my future self" that made Xian Enjing truly go crazy.

Sweet Enjing, however, adjusted her sitting posture without caring, expressing her attitude with a free and easy tone, "What's so awkward about this? You are you, I am I. We aren't some two-souls-in-one ghost story; I do my thing, you play your game, we don't interfere with each other."

"But aren't we essentially the same person?" Xian Enjing tried to sort out this chaotic logic.

"That's hard to say; after all, two time-spaces, we'd have to check DNA. And even if the DNA matches, I still feel that we are completely different on the ideological level, so I personally think you can treat us as two people who look very similar."

After giving a reasonably logical solution, Sweet Enjing continued to add seriously, "If you think about it this way, would it make you feel better mentally?"

Xian Enjing was directly laughed at by this powerful logic, "Self-deception?"

"That's too harsh." Sweet Enjing waved her hand elegantly, looking like she had seen through the world, "I think the phrase 'rare to be muddled' is very appropriate here."

The warm afternoon sun spilled diagonally into the living room through the clean glass window, pulling long light and shadow on the clean floor, and the dust in the air floated slowly in the light beams.

Two women who looked almost exactly the same, one languidly curled up on the sofa, the other standing slightly tense to the side, were having this weird conversation about identity, feelings, and ethics.

Just at this moment, Lin Xiuyuan in the kitchen probably felt safe, or just wanted to break this weird atmosphere, so he poked his head out and asked, "That, I found this fruit is quite fresh, do you want to eat some?"

Sweet Enjing responded actively, "Yes, I just wanted to eat some."

Lin Xiuyuan said "Oh", and before long, he brought out a fruit plate with washed, water-beaded grapes, strawberries, and sliced apples.

In his other hand, he held three cans of iced drinks.

Entering the living room, he saw Xian Enjing still standing there like a wooden stake.

So he naturally occupied the only single sofa seat next to the sofa, and then looked up at Xian Enjing, pointing his chin at the empty seat next to Sweet Enjing, his tone as casual as if greeting an old friend.

"Sit down, why are you standing there like a fool? It's not like you're an outsider."

Hearing this, Xian Enjing glared at Lin Xiuyuan somewhat depressedly, but finally resigned herself to sitting on the long sofa where Sweet Enjing was, and then picked up a few grapes and stuffed them into her mouth.

The sweet juice burst in her mouth, but it failed to relieve the irritability in her heart at all.

After swallowing the fruit, she looked at Sweet Enjing again and asked, "So according to that theory of yours just now, what does it mean? How exactly is 'rare to be muddled' muddled?"

"What do you mean?" Sweet Enjing chewed the apple slowly, playing dumb.

"It's that 'self-deception', the idea of treating us as two people." Xian Enjing was unrelenting; she needed a clearer explanation.

Or rather, she needed a way to justify it to herself.

Even self-deception needs a reason to convince oneself.

Being pressed to this point, Sweet Enjing clicked her tongue, finally put down the half-eaten apple, thought seriously for a moment, organized her language, and answered.

"Actually, from the first time I crossed that door with Xiuyuan and realized your existence, I thought about this problem."

The injured foot made her have to adjust her sitting posture every once in a while, and she continued, "Think about it, when Xiuyuan, this variable, appeared in your 13-year time-space, from the time node he contacted the Time Gate, the world you are in might no longer be the single future I remember, the one I experienced."

"It's more likely a parallel world derived from it."

When saying this, Sweet Enjing extended a finger, pointing into the void, as if depicting that invisible timeline.

"The same logic applies when Xiuyuan pushed open the Time Gate and officially stepped into 2025. From that precise point in time, the world line afterward also branched, and even had an impact from the moment Xiuyuan was born."

Xian Enjing heard this, and her understanding, which was always fast, learned to preempt, "One is a world line where Xiuyuan intervenes and continues to have an impact, just like the one we are in now. The other is a world line without Xiuyuan, or where he is just an NPC without a Time Gate, eventually returning to the 'normal' trajectory. You want to say this, right?"

Sweet Enjing nodded approvingly, "Bingo!! So my meaning is very simple; you really don't have to dwell on what happened between me, the 'Enjing' of this parallel world, and Xiuyuan. In countless possible parallel time-spaces, you are you, I am I. What happens between him and me essentially won't directly project onto you, nor will it forcibly change your choices and destiny."

"Whether it is the body or the mind, we are all independent existences."

After listening to this "parallel space-time theory," which sounded rigorous but seemed more like an excuse for certain behaviors, Ham Eunjung felt not relieved, but even more troubled.

So she directly held her forehead and sighed, "I thought you wanted to say something else, but you probably guessed wrong. The 'influence' issue isn't what I'm struggling with at all."

Sweet Eunjung was taken aback, blinking in confusion, "Then what is it? What are you worried about?"

She had assumed Ham Eunjung was afraid of some butterfly effect, or that some strange telepathy had made her feel the enjoyment of playing poker.

Ham Eunjung opened her mouth, the real reason for her awkwardness turning on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't bring herself to say it; it was simply too shameful.

Helplessly, she had to cast her gaze once again toward Lin Xiuyuan, who was trying to play invisible on the side, her eyes filled with accusation and the implication of "you say it."

This time, Lin Xiuyuan knew he couldn't hide from it. He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment and tentatively replied, "Eunjung, do you feel that ever since just now, the way I've been looking at you has been a bit strange?"

Ham Eunjung didn't answer directly, but the corners of her mouth, which tightened in that instant, silently acknowledged the statement.

Now Sweet Eunjung was even more confused. She looked at Lin Xiuyuan curiously, "Eyes? What's so strange about eyes?"

Lin Xiuyuan coughed dryly and explained as tactfully as possible, "It's just that they're a bit too direct, or perhaps naked? It's probably similar to what Xiujing complained to Zhenli about before, saying that the way I look at her has become very strange, as if I can see right through her."

"Hmm?" Sweet Eunjung looked at him.

"Krystal~" Lin Xiuyuan threw out the answer.

"Krystal?" Sweet Eunjung repeated in a low voice, then suddenly realized, "Ah, you mean the Zheng Xiujing from 2013?"

Then her gaze immediately swept back and forth between Ham Eunjung and herself several times. After associating it with a certain possibility, she suddenly burst into an undisguised, even slightly gloating, laugh.

"Hahaha!! I get it! I understand! Hahaha!!"

On the sofa, Ham Eunjung watched her laughing until she was shaking, and she was truly so angry that her teeth felt itchy.

She really wanted to slap her injured leg to make her "sober up" properly.

After laughing for a long while, Sweet Eunjung finally managed to stop her laughter, looked at the depressed-looking Ham Eunjung, and spread her hands.

"Then what can I do? This kind of look and reaction isn't my problem. You can't expect me to live like a widow here, right?" As she spoke, she deliberately used the words Ham Eunjung had just used to mock her, her tone carrying exaggerated grievance, "You're young and full of energy, you have plenty to keep you busy. And since everyone says I'm 'osteoporotic,' isn't it just a matter of needing some 'milk' to supplement the calcium~"

Hearing these incredibly explicit and bold words, Ham Eunjung's cheeks turned completely red with a "boom." Shy and annoyed, she once again cast her gaze toward Lin Xiuyuan.

It was just a pity that Lin Xiuyuan was currently looking down at his phone with extreme focus, his fingers sliding rapidly, as if there were major news on the screen concerning the survival of the world.

He was perfectly playing the part of an ostrich, "see no evil, hear no evil, you say what you want, it has nothing to do with me."

Right in the midst of this suffocating awkwardness and chaos, a flash of lightning seemed to cross Ham Eunjung's mind, and she thought of Lin Xiaolu's face from when they were eating earlier.

Immediately after, she widened her eyes, looked at Lin Xiuyuan in disbelief, and raised her voice an octave, "Wait a second, Xiuyuan~ regarding YoonA, the two YoonAs have long since seen through this point, right?! That's why they are still so calm when they get along."

Facing this soul-piercing interrogation, Lin Xiuyuan's body stiffened, and he immediately began his practiced three-part denial.

His head shook like a rattle-drum, and his eyes drifted uncertainly.

"I don't know! I don't understand this! Don't ask me! You have to go ask YoonA herself about this question!"

(End of chapter)