135: Chapter 135 My wife's name is Su Jie, not Su Mei?

Li Taiping felt his temples throbbing violently.

Here it came again.

It was that familiar, hard-to-refuse demand.

On the Many Children, Many Blessings, Su Mei would look exactly like this every time she wanted to drain him dry.

Her gaze, her tone, and even the small movements of her body pressing against him were identical.

If his rationality weren't struggling to hold on, telling him that the woman before him was just an NPC who looked like Su Mei, he might have truly surrendered.

"I said, I have a headache."

Li Taiping's voice turned a few degrees colder as he reached out, wanting to push Su Jie away.

However, Su Jie acted as if she hadn't heard him, instead hugging him even tighter.

She buried her face in his chest, her voice sounding muffled.

"Liar. Every time you don't want to deal with me, you say you have a headache."

There was a deep sense of grievance in her tone.

"Hubby, are you tired of me? Do you think I can't satisfy you?"

Li Taiping's brow furrowed even deeper.

What on earth was this?

How could an NPC have so many messy emotions?

"What exactly do you want?" he asked, somewhat impatiently.

"I don't want anything." Su Jie looked up at him, her eyes red. "I just... I just want you to be a little happier."

"These past few days, you've been spacing out by yourself, muttering that name 'Su Mei'. I know those were just nightmares you had."

"But I'm scared."

A sob entered her voice.

"I'm afraid that one day you'll really get trapped in your dreams and won't come back. I'm afraid you won't want me anymore."

Li Taiping's heart inexplicably twinged.

Dammit!

This damn dungeon, the AI data was made too fucking smart!

It could even simulate this kind of emotional resonance?

He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing that strange feeling in his heart, and his gaze turned cold again.

No, he absolutely couldn't soften his heart.

On the Many Children, Many Blessings, there was still a ship full of girls waiting for him to return.

Those were his real women.

And the one before him, no matter how real or pitiful she acted, was just a fake phantom composed of data.

"Remember this." Li Taiping stared into her eyes, saying each word deliberately. "My name is Li Taiping. My woman's name is Su Mei."

"As for you..."

He paused, his tone devoid of any emotion.

"You are just a stranger who looks like her."

After speaking, he used force to push Su Jie away.

Su Jie stumbled back two steps and fell onto the cold floor.

She looked at Li Taiping in disbelief, her beautiful peach-blossom eyes instantly filling with tears.

"A stranger?"

She murmured to herself, as if she had heard some cosmic joke.

The next second, she suddenly laughed.

It was a desolate laugh, a laugh of despair.

"Fine, quite the 'stranger'."

She stood up from the floor and walked toward Li Taiping step by step.

She didn't cry or make a scene,

She just stared at him intently with the look one would give a heartbreaker.

"Li Taiping, look at me."

"Tell me, who was the one who secretly gave her first time to you on the day you turned eighteen?"

Li Taiping's pupils shrank suddenly.

"Tell me, who was the one who supported you with her monthly salary of eighteen hundred when you were so poor you couldn't even afford to eat?"

Su Jie had these things in her memory?

"And tell me, who was the one who stayed with you in this tiny rental room for so long, so very long, without a single word of complaint?"

Li Taiping opened his mouth, but couldn't say a single word.

These... these were clearly things that had truly happened between him and Su Mei before they transmigrated!

How could this NPC know so clearly?

Could it be...

That terrifying thought began to grow wildly again.

"What? Can't say anything?"

Su Jie gave a tragic laugh, her eyes full of disappointment and sorrow.

"Are those dreams of yours so real? So real that you don't even recognize your own wife?"

"I'm telling you, Li Taiping!"

Her voice suddenly rose, carrying a hysterical madness.

"My name is Su Jie! Not Su Mei! Your wife, from beginning to end, has only ever been me!"

"That Su Mei, that Many Children, Many Blessings, those messy women—they are all your fantasies! They are all fake!"

Boom—!

Li Taiping felt as if a bomb had exploded in his brain.

Fake?

All of it was fake?

"No... impossible!"

He retorted subconsciously, his voice incredibly dry.

"Impossible?" Su Jie acted as if she'd heard the funniest joke. "Then tell me, if that world of yours is real, where is your power? Where are those world-destroying Talents?"

"What can you do now, besides dreaming?"

"You're just a loser who can't even protect his own wife!"

Every word pierced his heart.

Li Taiping's face instantly turned deathly pale.

That's right.

Where was his power?

If the Seafaring World was real, why had he now become an ordinary person without even the strength to truss a chicken?

Why couldn't he even contact the system?

"I..."

He wanted to explain, but found any explanation seemed so pale and weak.

Seeing his soul-crushed appearance, the madness in Su Jie's eyes gradually faded, replaced by a deep exhaustion and heartache.

She walked forward and embraced him again.

This time, Li Taiping didn't push her away.

"Hubby, I know you're under a lot of pressure." Su Jie's voice softened, carrying a hint of pleading. "I know this world is shitty and makes people lose hope."

"But look at me, I'm still by your side."

"Let's face it together, okay? Just like before."

"Forget those unrealistic dreams. I am your reality."

Li Taiping's body was trembling slightly.

His rationality was being destroyed bit by bit.

He began to lose the ability to distinguish.

Which one was the dream.

Which one was reality.

Maybe... Su Jie was right.

Maybe he really had just had an overly realistic dream.

In the dream, he was omnipotent and possessed a harem.

Now that the dream was over, he was still that ordinary person who needed to struggle for survival.

This thought was like a poison, rapidly eroding his will.

His gaze began to become confused and scattered.

Just as his defenses were about to completely collapse.

He suddenly remembered something.

No!

There was a fatal loophole!

Li Jun!

In the Seafaring World, Li Jun was a living person! He was an ally who captained the warship and called him brother!

But at this moment.

In the memory settings of this world,

Li Jun... had died long ago!

He had sacrificed himself during a deep-sea mission before that disaster broke out!

These two memories were in complete conflict!

In this world, he knew Li Jun and was even a comrade-in-arms; whereas in the Seafaring World, he had met Li Jun later!

One of these memories must be fake!

Li Taiping's gaze instantly regained a trace of clarity.

He jerked his head up, staring intently at Su Jie.

"I'm asking you, Li Jun... how did he die?"

...