"Now, we're even."
Gu Ruoxue placed the necklace in Su Cheng's hand, gazed at it for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled brightly. "Feels like a new chapter in life has begun—for both of us. Anyway, good luck."
She turned to gather her things from the sofa when she felt her wrist seized in a tight grip.
The silence around them grew heavy and suffocating.
Gu Ruoxue glanced back, first at her restrained wrist, then up at him with a composed expression. "Seems we’re not on the same page?"
"Even?" Su Cheng retorted, his voice laced with reproach. "How are we even? I owe you so much—how could it ever be settled?"
His tone carried such anguish that Gu Ruoxue couldn’t tell whether he was more upset about losing his advantage or genuinely remorseful for his actions.
"Besides… once something is given, it shouldn’t be taken back." Su Cheng clenched the ring in his palm and held it out to her, emphasizing, "You’ve misunderstood me."
"So, since you don’t want it back, you’re planning to do to me what you did to those other two these past few days?"
Gu Ruoxue blinked, her fair face naturally twisting into a look of mild disgust.
"I… What I mean is…"
Su Cheng took a deep breath, his voice low and strained, as if struggling to piece together the words he’d buried for so long. "I actually want to give you everything. Only then can I feel like I’ve made up for even a fraction of what I owe you."
He spoke deliberately, laying out his thoughts.
"Maybe you don’t expect it, but I’ll stand by this decision—whether you accept it or not. Life is full of things we can’t predict or control, but we can choose how we face them. Maybe I’m just a passing shadow in your life, a distortion in your path. But life is never straight or smooth to begin with."
His speech faltered several times, but each pause only steeled his resolve to continue. "On this twisted road, whether you take it or not, I want to leave something real behind—something meaningful. A kind of compensation for you to reflect on your life and your worth."
Finally, he finished without a single misstep. He released her wrist and stepped back.
Gu Ruoxue didn’t interrupt, listening quietly until Su Cheng fell silent. She studied him from head to toe, her gaze lingering on the ring in his hand. The silence stretched for long seconds, making Su Cheng uneasy before she finally spoke.
"You don’t seem like you’ve suddenly had an epiphany and abandoned your absurd plan to stick with me to the end. So, this speech of yours isn’t mainly about emotions."
She glanced at him, confirming his lack of objection, then continued.
"In that case, this 'everything' leans more toward the material. And the only thing you can offer now that I can’t easily obtain would be—"
Her expression turned grave as she fixed her eyes on him. "Why are you giving me all your system items?"
"Didn’t you always disapprove of me misusing them?"
Seeing a possible opening, Su Cheng tentatively pressed on. "So, I’m handing them over to you. That way, you won’t have to worry. Besides, they’re useless to me anyway."
Gu Ruoxue stared at him for three full seconds before shaking her head. "To me, these items are still dangerous. I don’t want to rely on uncontrollable external forces to get things done. So, in the end, they’re useless to me too."
"How are they useless?! If anything, you’re the one I’m most worried about!"
Su Cheng’s persistence was unshakable. He conjured two packs of red cigarettes—one hard, one soft—and waved them in front of her. "See? If you run into a vicious dog, you can just ask it to 'give you face' and walk away unharmed."
Without waiting for her reaction, he stuffed the cigarettes into Gu Ruoxue’s ring.
Next, he pulled out a red potion and shoved it into the ring. "With this, even if you get bitten by a dog every day, you’ll be fine."
Then came a knife and a pair of glasses, which he added with solemnity. "Now you can face any dog with a straight face and pull off an invisibility combo!"
"Do you have any better excuses?"
Gu Ruoxue massaged her temples, exasperated, and rolled her eyes at his absurd reasoning.
"Who told you to have this flaw?"
Su Cheng shrugged, spreading his hands. "But I’ve never thought it was a bad thing. In fact, I find it kind of endearing."
Yet, Gu Ruoxue’s gaze lingered on the ring in his hand, her eyes dark and unreadable, betraying nothing of her inner turmoil.
Su Cheng took two cautious steps forward. Just as he was about to proceed further, her sharp words stopped him cold.
"I get it now!"
"You… get it?"
Gu Ruoxue fixed him with a piercing stare, equal parts annoyed and amused, and launched into a half-scolding tirade.
"You’re still the same old schemer, using me as your safety net."
She flopped back onto the sofa, leaning against the cushions while rubbing her forehead, accusing him of outright capitalist behavior.
"In your plan, you’re cutting ties with that system completely. To maximize your chances, anything related to it should neither be used nor kept on you. Ideally, it should all be destroyed once you confirm success.
But since this isn’t a foolproof plan, if things go south again, you’ll need these items to deal with it."
She shot him an irritated glare. When he responded with a sheepish grin, she knew she’d hit the mark. Annoyed, she raised her voice slightly.
"So, you need someone trustworthy to hold onto them. It can’t be Li Guanqi—she’s not sharp enough to handle this.
And it definitely can’t be Ji Qingyi or her maid. If they got their hands on these, they’d use them on you first before even considering mercy. Not to mention, with Ji Qingyi’s competitive streak flaring up, she wouldn’t go easy on Li Guanqi either."
"Therefore."
She tapped the table with her finger.
"After all that deliberation, you circled back to me—the original victim. Someone with both the ability and motive to manage these items and handle any fallout. And just enough restraint not to use them to settle scores with your other… rivals."
At this point, Gu Ruoxue wasn’t sure whether to praise Su Cheng first for having grown from his former clueless self into someone with so many cunning schemes, or to scold him for trying to take advantage of her again. She could only cross her arms and continue with a huff.
"You used emotions to stabilize Li Guanqi, used competitiveness to guide Ji Qingyi, and now you want to bind me with a sense of responsibility. I can see you’ve gained quite a bit from this system—your mind has sharpened quite a bit, hasn’t it?"
Su Cheng fell silent for several seconds before speaking slowly.
"You and I both know how dangerous it is. At the same time, it won’t just let you or me walk away freely. No matter what, this is for all of us to find happiness."
He rubbed the ring in his hand and looked at Gu Ruoxue.
"Xiaoxue, I know I’ve wronged you in many ways, and I can’t make you any more promises now. But if… if you find me first in the future, then I’ll do whatever you say."
"Hmph."
"So… may I put this on you?"
Su Cheng asked hesitantly, his voice as soft as a mosquito’s hum, but his movements were anything but hesitant. He held the ring as if ready to slip it onto her finger himself, yet his wrist hovered midair, afraid of overstepping.
Gu Ruoxue studied him for a moment before smiling faintly. She stood, walked over to Su Cheng, snatched the ring from his hand, tucked the necklace away into her inventory, and then slid the ring onto her left index finger herself.