Previously at the Xiangshan Club, Yan Ruoyun had led the way the entire time. Now, their positions were swapped, with Lin Zhu leading the man toward his residence.

The house he currently lived in was a large flat of over three hundred square meters, overlooking the artificial lake in the residential complex. Its orientation and floor level were both optimal choices, and its price was astronomically high, leaving the rest in the dust.

The drop point where the System had thrown Lin Zhu into the book’s world was the master bedroom of this very flat. According to the story’s setting, he had just happened to pull an all-nighter playing games and slept straight through to the afternoon.

And then he received Yan Ruoyun’s phone call.

“Beep, beep—”
Arriving at the place, Lin Zhu unlocked the door with his fingerprint.

After the door opened, the sensor lights in the entryway automatically turned on.

Lin Zhu took the lead and walked a couple of steps inside. He rummaged through the shoe cabinet for a new pair of indoor slippers, tore open the packaging, placed them in front of Yan Ruoyun, and said somewhat stiffly, “Please come in.”

Thinking about it carefully.
This was actually the first time he had ever brought someone home as a guest.

“Thank you,” Yan Ruoyun thanked him and changed into the slippers. His height wasn’t much different from Lin Zhu’s, so naturally, their shoe sizes were roughly the same. They fit perfectly.

Following that, the two walked along the entryway corridor into the living room. The smart home butler began to work, controlling the lighting and the indoor thermostat system, before stating in a monotone, default voice:
“Good evening, Lin Zhu.”

Since Lin Zhu possessed the memory data of the ‘scumbag ex-husband’ character, which included his habitual behaviors, he naturally replied: “Good evening, Butler Lin.”

At this time, the fully charged robot vacuum in the corner also hummed to life, slowly gliding across the living room with its circular signal light blinking.

As it passed by Lin Zhu, it also said: “Good evening, Lin Zhu.”

Lin Zhu’s mouth seemed to have been put on automatic as well, immediately replying: “Good evening, Cleaner Lin.”

This back-and-forth human-machine interaction made Yan Ruoyun pause for a moment, followed by a wave of amusement. He couldn’t help but ask, “A butler, a cleaner… Does your house have any other AI staff positions?”

Lin Zhu realized what he was doing and also felt this behavior was a bit childish. He thought for a moment and shook his head very honestly: “No more.”

Yan Ruoyun asked again, “Mind if I look around?”

“I don’t mind,” Lin Zhu touched his nose and quickly added, “Look wherever you want.”

…Didn’t he say he was going to do a spot-check?

Hearing this, Yan Ruoyun didn’t stand on ceremony with him. He really did look around very ‘casually’. Compared to Lin Zhu’s awkwardness, he seemed more like the master of this house.

Lin Zhu didn’t know if he should follow Yan Ruoyun. After pondering for a moment and seeing that the man had no intention of asking for his company, he simply took the bag of dirty clothes to the laundry room, stuffed them into the built-in washer-dryer combo, and then walked back out.

As soon as he came out, he saw Yan Ruoyun open the refrigerator door and take a casual look inside. “Why is there nothing in here?”

Actually, there was something—but it was all mineral water and various brands of carbonated drinks. At a glance, the variety seemed even richer than a vending machine on the street.

Lin Zhu thought back for a moment and realized that the scumbag ex-husband’s daily routine was highly irregular and unhealthy. The nanny Lin Cheng had hired for him originally covered both cleaning and cooking, but it gradually evolved into just coming at a fixed time purely to clean.

Solving the food problem was easy.
He either ordered takeout or went out to fool around all day. There was absolutely no need to cook at home, so naturally, there were no fresh vegetables or produce in the fridge.

Yan Ruoyun didn’t actually expect Lin Zhu to give him a detailed explanation on the spot. As if casually chatting, he asked whatever came to mind: “Right, you’re starting your third year of high school this term, aren’t you?”

Lin Zhu replied gloomily, “…Yeah.”

He got into a car crash, transmigrated into a book, and even crossed dimensions… but he was still a high school senior. It was like a game crashing completely just after painstakingly grinding to the final ending, corrupting the save file and throwing the player all the way back to square one.

It definitely messed with his mentality a bit.

It was now early autumn in October.
The start of the school year in September was already more than a month ago.

According to his character background, Lin Zhu was currently a fresh high school senior attending a highly exclusive private aristocratic high school in Beidu City. However, he frequently skipped classes, spending all day out at bars.

At any rate, he was still Lin Cheng’s biological son, so the school didn’t manage him much. Fundamentally speaking, there was no need to—this kind of unmotivated second-generation heir didn’t have to worry about getting into college; they weren’t on the same track as ordinary students.

Yan Ruoyun happened to ask, “Which high school do you go to?”

Lin Zhu immediately gave him the name of the school.

The man nodded in understanding and asked again, “Today is a school day, but it seems you didn’t go to school?”

That sentence was just a lead-in.
The second after Lin Zhu nodded, he followed the topic and continued to ask, “Then if you usually don’t go to school, what do you do outside all day?”

Lin Zhu choked up for a second and didn’t dare answer.

You have to know, his memories were basically entirely filled with the carefree, hedonistic daily life of a playboy rich kid…

Fortunately, the scumbag ex-husband had only turned eighteen last week. On normal days, he just hit up nightclubs, drank, played games, and incidentally flirted ambiguously with a string of delicate and soft Omegas. He hadn’t yet had the time to dabble in deeper entertainment activities.

The Lin family had deep roots in Beidu City, but because of Lin Zhu’s birth background, he was ostracized and looked down upon by the other proper second-generation heirs.

How could those people possibly let him play with them? Not mocking him outright was already giving face to the older generation. Therefore, the people around Lin Zhu were mostly shady fair-weather friends who were after benefits, constantly buttering him up.

As for what they did behind his back, that was another matter entirely.

Lin Cheng felt very guilty toward this son raised on the outside, but his parents and wife refused to accept the child. Since things had gotten so ugly back then, he had no choice but to compensate him heavily financially.

Because of this, despite Lin Zhu’s young age, he had far more disposable income on hand than many other rich heirs.

He had strong self-esteem but a twisted mind. Even though he clearly knew those superficial friends laughed at him behind his back for being unpresentable and gave him nicknames like ‘sucker’ or ‘fat sheep’, he never exposed them. Instead, he thoroughly enjoyed the sight of everyone bowing and scraping before him for the sake of money.

…Heh, they were all dogs.

Who was nobler than whom?

After finishing his trip down memory lane, Lin Zhu was in a rather foul mood.

According to the System’s explanation, he hadn’t possessed the body of the original scumbag ex-husband to replace him. Rather, he had fundamentally become this person—those past experiences and those emotions were one hundred percent integrated into Lin Zhu himself, already becoming a part of him.

Eighteen years old, two different lives.
The memories of each were incredibly clear.

Lin Zhu spaced out briefly but quickly snapped back to reality. He thought for a second and answered honestly anyway,
“Usually I either go out to play or stay home and play.”

Yan Ruoyun stared at him for a long time, probably for over a minute. Then, he silently walked over, raised his hand, and ruffled the slightly drooping head twice…

Finally, he patted it twice.

The force of his hand was neither too light nor too heavy, and his tone was nonchalant.
“Got it.”

Yet, Lin Zhu suddenly felt as though his heart had been fiercely gripped by this hand. Its beating and contracting were no longer under his control… With every breath he took, he inhaled the lingering post-bath fragrance emanating from Yan Ruoyun.

Cool, with the scent of sea salt.