Chapter 213

Chapter 213

“After the Ferris wheel turned old, I looked through the window. I was still in midair then,” Shi Chen said.

Jian Fan glanced at him and crushed his final attempt at denial. “The scene faded gradually.”

Shi Chen: “???”

So when he looked outside, the illusion hadn’t fully disappeared yet? Thinking back, Shi Chen realized that… he really hadn’t looked out again afterward.

He fell silent.

Suddenly, being trapped on the Ferris wheel didn’t seem quite so tragic. After all, he had climbed aboard to save his life because he had no other choice. Being trapped was still better than sitting there wallowing in self-pity when he could have escaped at any time, acting as though he was helpless and could only wait for the Big Shot to carry him to victory, wasn’t it?

Shi Chen shut down emotionally.

Seeing his despair, Yang Zhen felt much better.

People really did need comparisons.

Next to Shi Chen, her own experience no longer seemed so unacceptable. At least she hadn’t done anything that stupid.

Jian Fan had no interest in Shi Chen’s inner turmoil. He brought the discussion directly back to business. “What did you discover in the amusement park?”

At the mention of serious matters, Shi Chen immediately rallied.

“Not much. And I’m not even sure whether any of it counts as a clue,” he said.

“Tell us,” Jian Fan replied.

Shi Chen promptly gave them a complete account of everything he had found.

His first clue came from a small shop in the amusement park.

The shop was empty, but a television inside was playing a news report about the opening of a local amusement park.

Shi Chen had watched for quite some time.

The park on the broadcast was the same one they now occupied, and the presenter mentioned that it had been “independently funded and developed by Jian Corporation.”

The report briefly introduced both the park and Jian Corporation, a major local company specializing in medical equipment. Its owner had spent heavily to develop the amusement park as a coming-of-age gift for his daughter.

“That was the only story on the television. It just kept repeating. I figured it had to be useful, but I couldn’t work out what was wrong with it,” Shi Chen said, frustrated.

Naturally, Shi Chen couldn’t have inferred the information behind the report by himself.

Combined with the clues Qin Nan and the others held, however, the picture became much clearer.

“So it really did belong to Little Princess’s family,” Yellow Hair marveled.

“In other words, Little Princess’s parents built the amusement park as a coming-of-age gift for her. Later, the family went bankrupt, the park closed, and her parents killed themselves there because they had no way out?” Qin Nan shook his head. “But if they were bankrupt, why not sell the park and the villa?”

Jian Fan suddenly asked, “How do you know they didn’t?”

“Huh? If they sold them, how could both places still be abandoned?” Qin Nan asked.

Jian Fan didn’t answer, because Qin Weiyi got there first. “This isn’t the world where Little Princess lives.”

Qin Nan stopped short.

Their world and Little Princess’s were separate. No one knew what had ultimately happened to the villa and amusement park in her actual world.

But that wasn’t important.

“Forget that for now. What effect would her family’s bankruptcy have on the backstory?” Qin Nan asked, looking at Mu Xin.
Mu Xin shook her head. “In games I’ve played, if the heroine’s family goes bankrupt and the story explicitly establishes that background, she usually enters the same industry and rebuilds the family business. Little Princess does work in medicine, but psychiatry is still very different from her family’s medical-equipment business.”

Then she looked at Lin Junruo. “What do you think?”

Lin Junruo shook her head. “If this were a game, that would normally be the plot.”

“What if it isn’t a game?” Jian Fan asked suddenly.

Lin Junruo thought about it. “If it isn’t a game, could something like this truly exist in reality?”

Jian Fan considered her question but withheld his own thoughts, looking at her to indicate that she should continue.

“First, of course rich and beautiful heiresses exist. But would several outstanding men all remain wholeheartedly devoted to one, especially when those men are exceptional in their own right?”

“And in a game, although the female lead has separate romantic routes with multiple male leads, each man sees only his own route with her. In reality, how could several men fail to notice each other’s existence?”

“I don’t have much faith in love, but if it exists, then I imagine someone either lets go and wishes the other person well, or fights to win the person they love. A relationship with this many people… I don’t think anyone would agree to it.”

Lin Junruo paused, then said, “Wait. Something’s wrong.”

“What?” Qin Nan prompted.

Lin Junruo looked at him. “If it were a game, the female lead would already have relationships with these men before her family went bankrupt, and their families should all be wealthy too. They couldn’t possibly stand by and do nothing when her family collapsed. Wouldn’t they invest and help the family through the crisis? At the very least, they’d buy the amusement park and villa to revive the business.”

“Maybe the park and villa were abandoned because the male leads bought them, but Little Princess refused to accept their help?” Qin Nan suggested.

Mu Xin was the first to shake her head. “Then Little Princess’s parents would never have killed themselves.”

“And even if Little Princess refused, romance-story logic says the villa would have been preserved exactly as it looked when she lived there. Nothing would be allowed to change,” Lin Junruo added.

Mu Xin nodded. “Right.”

“Then what in the world happened?” Yellow Hair asked, entirely lost.

Mu Xin and Lin Junruo both fell silent.

Neither could answer.

“What are you even talking about?” Shi Chen finally found a chance to ask once the others quieted.

Yang Zhen looked equally baffled.

Yellow Hair was about to explain the broad situation when Jian Fan abruptly spoke.

“What if it isn’t a game? In reality, what circumstances could produce something resembling this game setting?”

Lin Junruo looked confused. “Which setting?”

“Several men orbiting Little Princess, utterly devoted to her and indifferent to one another’s existence,” Jian Fan said.

Lin Junruo gave a mocking smile. “Impossible. If something like that really happened, there would have to be a profit in it for them.”

At her words, Jian Fan’s lips curved. “A profit? I understand.”