Facing Aya's inquiry, Ye Tiancheng remained relatively calm.
Ye Tiancheng replied to Aya, "I had nothing to do this afternoon, so I took my younger brother, Little Fox, out for a stroll. However, since I'm not familiar with the people here, I wanted to find a secluded and quiet place, somewhere without anyone around."
"That's why, of course, no one saw us two brothers."
"But we went too far off the beaten path. On the way back, we got lost and it took us quite some time to find our way back, which is why we returned so late."
"I'm sorry, Aya. Are you hungry? I'll go cook for you now."
Aya looked at Ye Tiancheng with lingering doubt. After a long while, Aya suddenly exclaimed, "No! That's not right! You're lying! You're deceiving me?"
Ye Tiancheng's heart skipped a beat.
He didn't know if Aya genuinely knew he had lied to her or if she was just trying to trick him. However, Ye Tiancheng absolutely could not show any weakness on his face.
Thus, Ye Tiancheng gently soothed Aya, saying, "How could I deceive you? What reason would I have to deceive you? This was truly an accident. I promise it won't happen again. From now on, I'll inform you before I go out, is that okay?"
"When we went out this afternoon, Little Fox and I actually came to find you, but you weren't home at the time, so we couldn't tell you."
Faced with Ye Tiancheng's gentle persuasion, Aya's expression gradually softened.
However, Aya did not indicate whether she believed Ye Tiancheng's words or still didn't. She offered no explicit statement.
She simply said, "Alright then, don't let it happen again. But you don't need to cook dinner today. If we waited for you to cook, we wouldn't know when we'd get to eat. I've already prepared the meal. Now that you're back, let's go eat dinner together."
Upon hearing Aya's words, Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, felt their hearts leap into their throats again at the latter half of her statement.
Given the outcome of their outing, Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox dared not eat the meal Aya had prepared.
At this moment, they wished they could throw up the breakfast they had eaten.
Ye Tiancheng then politely declined, "We walked back and finally found our way, but we're really tired and don't have much appetite. I'm sorry, but we brothers won't be eating dinner today."
"Aya, shall I accompany you to eat a little?"
Aya glared at Ye Tiancheng unhappily upon hearing this.
However, Aya eventually said, "If you don't want to eat, then what's the point? Go back and rest if you're tired!"
Ye Tiancheng didn't bother to consider whether Aya was speaking out of anger or for some other reason, or what reaction she expected from him. He simply went along with her words and immediately, along with Little Fox, headed towards their respective rooms.
Because Bai Long was present, Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox learned that they had storage spaces.
Through some experimentation, they figured out how to open the storage spaces.
The storage spaces contained food.
Even if Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox were starving, they absolutely would not eat the food Aya had prepared. If they were to eat, they would naturally eat the food they had prepared themselves.
As they returned to their rooms, before parting ways, Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox exchanged glances. Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox had not brought Ye Wuji with them on their outing that afternoon. It would be easier for them to eat separately in their rooms, and for Little Fox to take care of Ye Wuji's meal.
Little Fox, thinking about the day's events, realized that quite a lot had happened.
He found it difficult to fall asleep.
The main reason was his worry about what Aya might do, and what he might have forgotten. Most concerningly, Little Fox recalled the conversation between Aya and Ye Tiancheng when they returned.
Little Fox didn't believe Aya had believed Ye Tiancheng's words.
Little Fox was a little worried that Aya might play some tricks on them because of this. Would they wake up the next morning to find that they had forgotten everything again?
He also remembered Ye Tiancheng saying that he had already prepared a method to quickly recover his memory after being brainwashed. He wondered if Ye Tiancheng's method was reliable.
With these worries, Little Fox couldn't close his eyes all night.
Perhaps it was because he was too vigilant and couldn't sleep, and the night was exceptionally quiet, that Little Fox suddenly heard some unusual noises outside.
Little Fox immediately became alert. Following the direction of the sound, he discovered a slender bamboo tube extending into his room through the window.
For a moment, Little Fox thought.
Could the person outside be Aya?
Was Aya brainwashing them like this, making them forget things?
Little Fox didn't know what he was thinking, but he cautiously and quietly tiptoed to the window, holding his breath, and then used his finger to block the opening of the bamboo tube. He felt a current of air being blocked by his finger.
Immediately, the person outside coughed, and by the sound, it was clearly Aya.
Little Fox quickly let go and tiptoed back to bed, constantly monitoring his breathing. He was afraid that some gas had already entered his room and might affect him. However, he didn't feel any discomfort, and his memory seemed to be fine.
Therefore, it was possible that Aya hadn't had time to blow the gas before he blocked it, which was why he was unaffected.
He wondered what would happen to Aya after his sudden action.
As soon as Little Fox lay down on the bed, he heard a thud outside the window, the sound of someone falling. Little Fox thought, could Aya have drugged herself?
He waited quietly, not rushing to check the situation, mainly because he was worried it might be a trap.
However, a long time passed, and Little Fox heard no other sounds from outside the window. Little Fox thought that Aya might indeed have been affected by her own counter-drug.
Little Fox immediately got out of bed, tiptoed to the window, and carefully, inch by inch, opened it. He discovered that Aya was indeed lying outside his window, unconscious.
Upon confirming this, Little Fox's first reaction was to find Ye Tiancheng.
However, as he approached Ye Tiancheng's room, Little Fox couldn't help but worry a little. He didn't know if Aya had gone to his room first or had already been to Ye Tiancheng's room. He was worried that Ye Tiancheng might have already been incapacitated by Aya.
If he knocked on the door now, would Ye Tiancheng still remember him?
With such apprehension, Little Fox gently knocked on Ye Tiancheng's door. After a moment, Little Fox saw the door open, and Ye Tiancheng stood before him.
Little Fox, in his state of extreme worry, didn't wait for Ye Tiancheng to ask anything and anxiously inquired, "Brother, do you still remember who I am?"
Ye Tiancheng was somewhat bewildered, not understanding why Little Fox would suddenly come to his door in the middle of the night to ask such a question.
He replied, "Of course I remember... What's wrong? Did Aya go to your place?"
As Ye Tiancheng replied, he suddenly realized that perhaps Little Fox had encountered some trouble.
Little Fox ignored the question and continued to press, "Then Brother, do you still remember Bai Long? Is there any problem with your memory?"
Ye Tiancheng quickly shook his head and told Little Fox, "No problem, I remember everything."
Only then did Little Fox heave a long sigh of relief.
After confirming that Ye Tiancheng was fine, Little Fox felt he had the composure to discuss the main issue. He followed Ye Tiancheng into his room.
Ye Tiancheng asked Little Fox to sit down, saying that if the situation wasn't urgent, he could explain slowly.
Little Fox didn't know when Aya would wake up or what she would be like when she did. However, Little Fox felt that Aya might not wake up so quickly, and they could hear any commotion, so they weren't particularly anxious.
His earlier anxiety was due to his worry that Ye Tiancheng might be in trouble.
If Ye Tiancheng was fine, Little Fox had nothing else to worry about.
After sitting down, Little Fox began to tell Ye Tiancheng about what had happened in his room.
Little Fox said to Ye Tiancheng, "Because of what happened during the day, I was a bit nervous tonight and couldn't sleep well. Suddenly, I heard some movement outside my room and saw a slender bamboo tube extending into my window from outside."
"I thought it might be Aya, and I don't know what possessed me, but I quietly went over and blocked the end of that thin bamboo tube with my hand. Aya seemed to be blowing at that exact moment, and she choked herself."
"It took me a long time before I dared to check, and I found it was indeed her, and she had fainted."
"I wanted to come find you, but then I worried that she might have already been to your place. Fortunately, she probably hasn't been, and you still remember what happened before."
"This really scared me to death."
Ye Tiancheng was suddenly surprised.
He had indeed heard some noises earlier, but he believed in the principle of responding to any situation as it arises. Therefore, as long as the noises didn't approach his room, Ye Tiancheng generally didn't react. However, the noises persisted for a short while and then suddenly disappeared.
After that, the only sound Ye Tiancheng heard was Little Fox running over.
This was why Ye Tiancheng was able to come to the door so quickly.
Ye Tiancheng hadn't expected that Aya would go after Little Fox first. He had thought that Aya would target him first.
After reacting, Ye Tiancheng immediately looked at Little Fox with great concern.
"She went to your place? How are you now? Are you alright? Have you been affected in any way?"
Little Fox repeatedly shook his head and said, "She probably hadn't had time to blow before I blocked it, so I don't think I've been affected or anything is wrong."
"Oh, and that Aya, she's still lying outside my window."
"What should we do now?"
This was indeed a problem.
After thinking for a moment, Ye Tiancheng couldn't help but have a mischievous thought. After a moment of consideration, Ye Tiancheng patted Little Fox's hair and said, "We don't know yet what Aya will be like when she wakes up. Perhaps she used this method to make us lose our memories when we weren't paying attention."
"Let's just ignore her for now, pretend we don't know anything. As for anything else, we'll decide what to do after we wake up tomorrow morning and assess the situation."
Little Fox didn't have any ideas himself for the moment, so he followed Ye Tiancheng's advice.
However, at this moment, he didn't particularly want to go back to his room to sleep. So, he made a makeshift bed in Ye Tiancheng's room and spent the night there, sharing the room with Ye Tiancheng. As for other matters, he would leave them for himself to deal with after waking up.