Chapter 173

"Sorry, I seem to have eaten a bit too quickly."

Noticing Anna's skeptical gaze, Princess Veronica did not panic at being exposed; instead, she confessed with a hint of embarrassment:

"Today has been full of unexpected events—first, your brother suddenly proposed to me, then we were attacked by rebels. I haven't eaten anything since morning, and just now I couldn't hold back. I'm sorry to have embarrassed you."

So that's how it is…

Watching the princess openly admit she had been "scavenging meals," and recalling her still-elegant manners despite the haste, Anna's suspicion faded slightly, replaced by concern as she asked about the new topic:

"So… how is Li Ang? Were you together today? Since you were attacked by rebels, did he get hurt?"

"Don't worry—he ran into a little trouble, got hit by a small stone on the shoulder. The wound's probably healed already."

After answering about Li Ang's condition, seeing the frail girl visibly relax, Princess Veronica smiled and gently took Anna's hand, speaking warmly:

"To be honest, when I first saw you, I was genuinely startled."

"Huh?"

Hearing the term "sister-in-law," the frail girl trembled slightly, as if her secret thoughts had been exposed, forcing a weak smile:

"W-why?"

"Of course, because of you."

With no food and no place to stay, the princess—who had once navigated the turbulent waters of politics—used her social finesse to smile warmly and praise:

"Li Ang told me he had a sister his own age, but he never mentioned you were this beautiful."

Watching the frail girl, blushing shyly beside her, her simple white dress failing to hide her radiance, Princess Veronica couldn't resist slipping an arm around her slender waist, then sighed with three parts flattery and seven parts sincerity:

"Truly… you're so beautiful it makes me jealous, especially your waist… oh my, really… when Li Ang and I get married, you absolutely must be my bridesmaid!"

"But you must promise not to dress too beautifully—otherwise, no one will look at me. Everyone's eyes will stick to you, and I'll lose all face."

"W-where's it that exaggerated…"

Flustered by Princess Veronica's words, Anna's pale cheeks flushed crimson as she waved her hands, insisting she wasn't nearly as wonderful as described.

Suppressing the small ache in her heart, Anna gazed at the beautiful, graceful, perfectly proportioned woman before her—someone flawless in every way—and sighed inwardly, then firmly returned the princess's grip:

"Sis… you're the truly beautiful one, and you're so… well-built. Even if I dressed my best, everyone's eyes would still be drawn to you… by the way, how old are you?"

How old am I…

At Anna's question, the princess's expression stiffened slightly, then she forced a smile and evaded:

"I'm just a little older than your brother."

A little older? My brother is sixteen. A little older means… seventeen or eighteen? Eighteen or nineteen?

After thinking it over, Anna studied the mature, voluptuous beauty before her and ventured a higher guess:

"Sister… are you twenty already?"

Does that mean… I look younger than twenty?

Hearing Anna's question, the twenty-eight-year-old princess felt a surge of joy—her smile instantly brightened a hundredfold.

Li Ang's sister isn't just beautiful and gentle—she cooks wonderfully too. Oh my, I truly came at the right time today!

"Mm-hmm, about right, about right!"

After shamelessly accepting Anna's guess, the smiling princess kept chatting, and with both sides eager to bond, the conversation flowed endlessly until late into the night.

…

"Oh no, we talked so happily, I lost track of time!"

Glancing out the window with her peripheral vision and seeing most streetlamps extinguished, the princess realized the last bus had already left—she rose abruptly, looking distressed:

"I only meant to drop by and check on you, never expected to stay so long. I'm truly sorry—I should go now!"

Is it really this late?

Seeing the street plunged into darkness as most lamps had gone out, Anna quickly stood to stop her:

"No, no! It's so late—why don't you just stay the night?"

"How could I possibly impose?"

"What's the big deal? You'll be marrying into this family anyway—this is just an early night before the wedding."

"But Li Ang and I aren't officially married yet—isn't it a bit…"

"It's fine—he's not home. Besides, it's this late, maybe even the last bus is gone. What if you run into danger on the way?"

"T-then… alright…"

Unable to refuse her future sister-in-law's earnest invitation, the princess, ever so "reserved," was led into Li Ang's room to sleep.

After comparing her own dress and realizing it wouldn't fit, Anna thoughtfully fetched several of Li Ang's old clothes and placed them on the bedside.

Holding up the clothes and finding them a perfect fit, Princess Veronica smiled and thanked:

"Thank you. I've really disturbed you tonight."

"Don't mention it—you're… uh… it's getting late."

Watching the princess sneak a small yawn, her eyelids drooping, Anna smiled and said:

"You've had a long day—I won't keep you awake. My room is next door. If you need anything, just call me."

"Thank you for your trouble."

After seeing Anna out and removing her ill-fitting dress to change into Li Ang's old clothes, the princess's weariness vanished instantly.

Quietly pulling the covers over herself, she sighed softly, lying flat on Li Ang's small bed, staring fixedly at the slightly worn ceiling above.

Sleep was impossible. The original princess had already gathered every condition—only one step remained to fulfill her dream.

Yet suddenly, she vanished from everyone's memory—even her own home was unreachable—and now she relied on knowledge of Li Ang to scavenge food and shelter, barely avoiding the streets.

Now, she needed time to think, to ponder her future, to find a way to reclaim what she had lost. For Princess Veronica, tonight would surely be a sleepless one.

But she was not the only one destined to lie awake tonight—Anna in the next room was the same.

…

Brother is really getting married…

Lying awake, staring at the ceiling, the frail girl turned her head to glance toward Li Ang's room.

The sudden appearance of this beautiful "sister-in-law" shattered the one truth Anna refused to face: Li Ang would eventually marry.

Once he had his own family—his own wife and children—even if he still recognized her as his unrelated sister, he would never again be as close as he was now.

Then Li Ang would likely move out. The one who prepared his meals, waiting for him under the lamplight each night, would become another woman—not her.

And besides that, there was that strange man whose expression looked like he was crying!

Recalling the mysterious man who had visited days ago, Anna shivered, pulling deeper into her blanket, then gazed with complex emotion toward the next room.

If that man truly took the "photo" and made Li Ang forget everything, she might still have had a chance to find him, to try another way to become family again.

But now, her brother already had a fiancée—could she still stay by his side? Would her home still exist?

With deep sorrow and worry, she stared at Li Ang's room, remembering the woman so perfect she couldn't even bring herself to hate her—and a strange, intense thought surfaced in Anna's tangled mind:

With a heart full of melancholy and worry, after staring at Leon's room for a while, Anna's tangled thoughts faintly surfaced an odd, intense notion—the woman who was so perfect she had no way to resist, not even to hate her.

If… if I were her… how wonderful would that be?

"Sssss…"

A strange sound came from the small mirror Li Ang used to store things—the puppy, mid-chewing on the sniper rifle barrel, froze.

A strange sound came from the small mirror Leon used to store things, startling the puppy, who had been secretly gnawing on the barrel of her sniper rifle.

(What's that?!)

Releasing the rifle barrel, the puppy shook its golden fur, turned, and cautiously pawed through the pile of junk Li Ang had tossed in, locating the source of the noise.

After releasing the sniper rifle barrel from her mouth, the puppy shook her small golden fur, turned around, and stared at the pile of junk Leon had tossed in; she cautiously extended her paw, poked at it, and found the source of the strange noise.

(This photo… something's off, right?)

Watching the photo on the floor tremble slightly, its figures shifting between three people and one, the puppy tilted its head in confusion, deciding she should tell Li Ang.

Looking at the strange photo on the ground, faintly trembling, its figures shifting between three people and one person, the puppy tilted her head in surprise, then decided she should tell Leon about this.

(Li Ang! Something's wrong! Take the mirror out of your pocket!)

But Li Ang, for some reason, gave no response—even as the puppy barked into the mirror and nudged him with its head.

Growing anxious, the puppy circled a few times, then pressed its shiny black nose, sniffing Li Ang's scent, following the shifting edges of the mirror world until it found an exit near him.

Anxious, the puppy circled a few times, then forcefully twitched her shiny black nose, sniffing Leon's scent, following the shifting edges of the mirror world until she found an exit close to him.

(He's drunk… humans are so unreliable…)

Poking its head out from the whiskey bottle, the puppy glanced at Li Ang, slumped drunkenly on the table, then rolled its eyes and prepared to bite him awake—to warn him about the photo's strange change—when…

Poking her dog head out from the whiskey bottle, she glanced at Leon slumped drowsily on the table; the puppy sighed and curled her lips, then prepared to bite him awake to tell him the photo he'd put in the mirror world had changed strangely—yet…

With crimson-tipped fingernails, the red-haired director pinched the puppy's scruff, lifting it from the bottle, then grinned drunkenly and poured whiskey down its throat without hesitation.

"Don't be shy—I'm treating everyone tonight! Humans, dogs—everyone gets properly drunk!"

"Wang! Wangwangwang!"

(I! I don't @#￥%! )

"Sssss…"

As the unfortunate puppy, now forced to replace Li Ang as the drinking companion, struggled in the red-haired director's grip, the photo inside the mirror world finally fell silent.

When the last strange distortion ceased, the family photo vanished entirely, replaced by a young, voluptuous, beautiful woman—her appearance identical to Princess Veronica.

When the final strange writhing ceased, the family photo vanished entirely, replaced by a lush, lovely young woman who looked exactly like Princess Veronica.

"Ding!"

As the family photo transformed into the smiling face of Princess Veronica, a sharp, grating noise pierced the air, jolting the elderly man dozing in his chair.

Just as the family photo transformed into the smiling face of Princess Veronica, a sharp, grating noise suddenly blared, jolting the elderly man dozing in the nearby lounge chair awake.

What is this?!

Following the shrill noise, he looked down at the wristwatch on his arm and, seeing all six hands suddenly moving, the old man with gentle eyes, a naturally smiling face, widened his eyes in delight.

All set! The final condition has finally been met!

He lifted his wrist to examine the last hand that had just begun to move.

Seeing the number that appeared was 0006, the naturally smiling old man—or rather, the Aquarius Director—paused slightly.

0006? But wasn't that one a failure?

With a skeptical expression, he rose from his recliner, sat down at the desk, opened the drawer, and pulled out a thick notebook labeled "Full Serial Number Log of Test Subjects," flipping through it rapidly.

"0006… 0006… Found it!"

After a cursory glance at the record, confirming it was the item he knew, the Aquarius Director frowned in thought, wrote a few lines, tore out the page concerning Test Subject No. 6, flipped to the back cover of the notebook, and clipped this page together with the other five records.

…

Serial Number: 0006

Name: Anna Lane

Form: Photograph

Breeding Level: Maximum

Target Ability: Identity Replacement, Past Modification

Experimental Protocol: Exploit the test subject's longing for a happy family to induce the desire to replace another, selecting photographs—symbols of past memories and experiences—as the vessel, to deliberately cultivate the anomalous object's functionality for "Identity Replacement" and "Past Modification."

Record 1: Failure.

Upon learning of her parents' deaths, the test subject developed an intense longing for family, but after being exposed to numerous happy families, she never developed an impulse to replace their children; instead, she grew more determined to reclaim her own parents.

Note: Judged that, due to her relatively happy home environment, the subject did not envy others' lives but rather envied their possession of true family. Recommendation: Abandon cultivation of "Replacement" ability; instead, induce resistance to reality to foster the desire to modify the past.

Record 2: Failure.

Even after witnessing her parents' pension being embezzled and being evicted from the house she grew up in, the subject still did not develop any resistance to reality, nor did she harbor hope that her parents could truly be resurrected.

Note: Judged that, though very young, the subject possessed strong willpower and had already understood the meaning of death—she did not believe her parents could return, and her inherently kind nature prevented her from completely losing faith in humanity, hence the induction failed.

Record 3: Failure.

The subject activated the anomalous object, but its effect was entirely unrelated to the target abilities; instead of identity replacement or past modification, it resulted in regaining her family.

Note: Experiment temporarily archived. Await subject's adulthood, when her mental state is fully stable and unchanged, then attempt recovery and seek other test subjects with similar qualities.

Record 4: Total Failure!

Upon follow-up visit, it was found that although the subject's mental state was not yet fully stable, she had personally destroyed the created anomalous object and sincerely denied its very meaning. Even after repeated deliberate provocations, no new changes occurred—success is virtually impossible.

Note: Due to the subject's "family" unexpectedly joining the Cleanup Bureau *** Branch, the photograph anomalous object she created came under the control of Blood-Haired Lady; retrieval is extremely difficult.

Record 5: Success?

Just before bedtime, the 【Dream-Seeking Wristwatch】 was suddenly activated; the subject's mental state appears to have suffered a massive shock, her inner longing shifted, triggering corresponding changes in the anomalous object, and the new ability precisely matches the "Replacement" and "Modification" criteria.

Note: Requires verification.