Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 241 - 226 Love-Deprived Zhu Shi_2

Chapter 241: 226 Love-Deprived Zhu Shi_2

After much deliberation, I feel like I might have stumbled upon a possibility: "——Could it be that you have no sexual desire?"

"Ah?" Zhu Shi was stunned, "Why would you think that?"

"I’ve heard that love between a man and a woman is a mixture of friendship and desire... Although I’m not sure if this is correct, if you can regard me as a good friend, but can’t develop romantic feelings for me, then it probably means you lack... that kind of desire towards me and all other men, right?" I asked.

"No no no, that’s really... uh..."

While she was objecting, she also seemed to be desperately searching for counterarguments, then fell silent. After a moment, she continued, "It seems... it seems to be like that, yes... I don’t have that kind of desire towards men."

"What about towards women?" I probed.

"That’s even less possible!" She said, her face turning red.

Curious, I asked, "Since you only realized this now, how did you confirm before that you didn’t have romantic feelings?"

"It’s not that I was born without romantic feelings, but rather I lost this emotion after experiencing an incident. Because I have a clear understanding of the incident itself, I also know exactly what I lost from it." She explained.

"Is it a supernatural incident?" It was hard not to be concerned, "Does Mr. Zhu know about this?"

"It’s not entirely a supernatural event." She shook her head, "As for Grandpa... He doesn’t know about it. Neither does Mom or my brother. Apart from myself, you are the first one I’ve told. Since Grandpa always wanted to bring you and me closer, I thought I should at least let you know."

"You say you want me to be informed, but it seems like you have no intention of telling me the details of that incident." I caught on to her emotional nuance.

"With your relentless pursuit of supernatural incidents, if I disclosed everything to you, you would definitely try to delve deeper into this incident afterward."

Speaking of which, she seemed troubled and continued, "No, now that I’ve already mentioned it to you, even if I don’t go on, you might try to dig deeper..."

"It’s not just for that reason, I also want to help you." I said, "You are a very important friend to me, and if you lost a part of yourself because of a supernatural event, then I must help you retrieve it no matter what."

"That’s where you’re breaking the rules, Senior Brother Zhuang. If you really do help me to that extent and I regain the capacity for love, what if I end up falling for you?" She started with a joke, then added, "Just to clarify, even if I lost the ability to love, it’s not a problem. It won’t pose any danger to me; in fact, it saves me from a lot of love-related hassles."

"If you want to know the full story of that event, I can tell you, but now is not the time to explain."

I went straight to the point and asked: "When can you talk about it?"

"At least..." She hesitated for a moment and then said, "At least wait until my brother’s matter is settled. Also, I hope you don’t mention what I told you today to anyone else."

"I understand."

While agreeing, I felt somewhat happy inside. She had shared her own secret with me, and this secret became something only the two of us knew. Even if I couldn’t learn the core content that I was most curious about right away, this was enough to satisfy me for the time being.

"So, regarding Mazao, do you have any other questions that you need to consult me about?" She asked.

Indeed, I did.

However, I didn’t know whether I should seek help from Zhu Shi. Right now, the atmosphere between Mazao and me was awkward, and Zhu Shi, being a woman, might be able to give me helpful advice to break the ice. The root cause of the situation, however, was almost like a confession of "hints" from me to Mazao. As mentioned before, Zhu Shi is a sensible person, and if she knew the truth, she might become an obstacle.

After much deliberation, I decided to seek her help in a roundabout way.

"Zhu Shi, let me pose a hypothetical, just a hypothetical... In order to avoid Mazao finding out about my real motives for persisting, I said something before that made her think I liked her..."

I briefly summarized the previous events, and concluded, "...Now our interactions are quite stiff, what do you think I should do?"

Zhu Shi was utterly dumbfounded.

"You actually said that kind of thing to Mazao?"

"Suppose, just suppose," I said.

"Alright, let’s take it as a supposition. But I can’t help you with this because I also don’t know what Mazao is thinking. Her common sense is vastly different from ours, you are aware of this, right? So it’s hard to say whether she dislikes you now, or she simply doesn’t know how to face you," she said, "However, you’d better prepare yourself for the possibility of being disliked, since a significant portion of women do dislike ’lolicon’, and it would not be surprising if Mazao thought so too, and furthermore..."

"And furthermore?" I had a bad feeling.

"And furthermore, when I was chatting on the phone, I said a lot of bad things about ’lolicon’ to Mazao." Zhu Shi coughed, "Like how ’lolicons’ usually have a tendency to like ’shota’, because both lolis and shotas have flat chests, and if you dress up a good-looking shota a bit, he’ll look similar to a loli..."

"Sister Zhu."

"...Uh, Senior Brother Zhuang? Why are you calling me Sister Zhu at a time like this?"

"You really are my good sister, aren’t you?" I couldn’t help but emphasize my tone.

Sister Zhu shivered and hastily steered the conversation in a different direction. At this point, I couldn’t find the energy to pursue it further. After all, the person who was truly in the wrong was me.

I went along with her change of topic: "Has Xuanwu replied recently?"

About ten days had passed since Mr. Zhu used a token to send a message to Water Navy Xuanwu, and according to what was said last time, the latter should reply within about half a month. That is to say, it would be normal to receive a response by now.

The elixirs of Water Navy Xuanwu were key in healing Mazao’s soul trauma. Although the current Mazao was also using regular soul healing medicines, the effects of such medications are quite limited; at most, they prevent Mazao from fainting every time she uses her powers. Moreover, leaving soul trauma unaddressed for a long time could lead to significant hidden dangers, and there might even be what is called "the best treatment window," and continuing to delay could mean missing it.

Zhu Shi replied that there was no response yet, but it should be within these few days.

Our call should be coming to an end, and finally, Zhu Shi seemed unable to hold back. Even though there was no one around listening, she still lowered her voice and whispered, "Senior Brother Zhuang, you’re not really a lolicon, are you?"

"I don’t think so."

At least I have never had those kinds of thoughts about other girls Mazao’s age, and I also harbor a healthy desire for Zhu Shi.

However, Zhu Shi said earnestly, "That’s generally what a lolicon would say."

What do you want me to say then? I thought to myself and then ended the call.

Turning my head, Mazao was still standing not far away, blowing in the night wind, and she did not initiate conversation with me during my call with Zhu Shi. Although her being reserved was usual and nothing strange, now it made me overthink.

At that moment, a faint and unfamiliar mana fluctuation came from a distance.

Both Mazao and I looked in that direction.

The source of the fluctuation was slowly approaching us.

Different from the past, I might have been too strong before, incapable of sensing mana fluctuations below the Great Success Rank due to their weakness, but now I could normally detect others’ mana fluctuations. The mana fluctuations of the demon hunters who had conspired with Lu Youxun to kidnap Mazao last time were also within my perception, and the current fluctuation coming our way was also detected by me.

On this basis, I had an intuition, that the source of this mana fluctuation might have the potential to threaten my life.

The comer was at least of the Great Success Rank.

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