Gu Chen's answer left Feng Bujue speechless…

It was rare for Brother Jue to react like that, but at that moment, his mind did short-circuit for a brief moment.

About ten seconds later, Feng Bujue regained his senses, leaned back in his chair, turned his head, and squinted at the other man, saying, "Well… she's not your biological daughter, after all…"

Gu Chen remained calm as ever upon hearing this. "It seems…you've misunderstood my meaning."

"Did I misunderstand?" Feng Bujue raised an eyebrow.

"Of course you misunderstood," Gu Chen replied.

"So, that sentence of yours doesn't mean what I thought it meant?" Brother Jue's tone was a little strange.

"You seem to be quite eager for that sentence to mean what you misunderstood it to mean," Gu Chen undoubtedly picked up on the meaning in Brother Jue's tone as well.

"No way~" Feng Bujue shifted his gaze guiltily as he responded, and only after he finished speaking did he look back at Gu Chen, continuing, "I just want to know… what exactly do you mean by 'forcing the issue'?"

The two of them were going around in circles, using vague pronouns like "meaning" without any specifics, but they managed to communicate perfectly fine…

"What I mean is…" Gu Chen continued, "Whether you use force or trickery… regardless of whether she agrees or not, undo her seal first."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa…" Feng Bujue repeatedly interjected. "Who was it who just said I was wrong?" He tapped the table with his finger. "Aren't you just encouraging me to make more mistakes?"

"No, I'm teaching you to take the wrong turn and turn it into a winning play, to turn the tables in adversity," Gu Chen replied.

"How do I turn the tables?" Brother Jue asked.

"It's simple," Gu Chen said again, "Once you undo the seal, there are only two possible outcomes…" He raised one hand and extended a finger. "Outcome one: Xiao Yu realizes she's already fallen in love with you. If that's the case, she'll forgive you no matter what. Then you just apologize appropriately, say some nice things, maybe offer a knee, and it'll all be fine."

"Oh…" Feng Bujue nodded. "And what's outcome two?"

Gu Chen then extended a second finger, saying, "Outcome two is… Xiao Yu realizes that she doesn't have any romantic feelings for you." He paused for half a second, then continued, "In that case… you can just start over and pursue her again."

"What if she ignores me?" Despite being incredibly shrewd in other areas, when it came to matters of the heart, Feng Bujue's thinking was basically on par with a kindergartener's.

"Heh…" Gu Chen laughed. "Aren't you two already not talking to each other? That's already the worst-case scenario. What reason do you have to hesitate?"

"Hmm… now that you put it that way…" Feng Bujue put down his chopsticks and stroked his chin as he murmured, "This 'turning mistakes into victories' plan of mine is inevitable."

"There's a saying… you'd better keep it in mind…" Gu Chen continued, "All's fair in love and war." He looked solemn as he said this, very convincing. "When you're sure you've met the one, you have to raise the 'priority' of this matter to the level of 'war'; whether you want to fight a quick battle or wage a war of attrition… you can't let your guard down for a moment." As he spoke, he raised his left hand, turned his palm over, and showed Brother Jue the wedding ring on his ring finger. "This thing is equivalent to a truce agreement. For you… a tie is a victory. However, it doesn't mean that you can ignore everything after the truce. You have to cherish this hard-won victory for the rest of your life."

"Grandpa…" Feng Bujue's address to Gu Chen had changed. He chuckled sheepishly, "Hehe… a truce agreement is… a bit early for me, isn't it?"

"If you're not in a hurry, then it's up to you…" In that instant, Gu Chen returned to his casual and calm demeanor, and handed his bowl to Feng Bujue. "Fill half a bowl of rice for me first."

"Uh…" Brother Jue's newly raised morale vanished. "Oh… coming right up."

…

At eight o'clock in the evening, Section Chief Gu, having had his fill of food and drink, went home.

Before leaving, he also explained to Feng Bujue what exactly that 'sense of incongruity' after disconnecting the neural connection was.

That phenomenon… was because during the game, a part of the player's 'soul' was 'projected' into another universe, so… when they disconnected, the returning soul projection needed a few minutes to re-establish coordination with the body.

To use an analogy… it was like when we wear clothes in winter, those clothes always have a bit of an annoying feeling for the first few dozen seconds after putting them on, and you need to move around for a while to feel comfortable.

As for why this phenomenon only occurred after Brother Jue used the non-sleep mode, the reason was also simple… In fact, this phenomenon also occurred after the sleep mode ended; however, players would not wake up immediately after disconnecting from the sleep mode, they usually had to wait a short period of time before waking up, and during that period of half-awake time, the "sense of incongruity" had already disappeared.

"Ah… this guy really just left like that…" After Gu Chen left, Feng Bujue went to clean up the bowls and leftover food on the table, and carried a pile of things to wash into the kitchen. "Basically, this guy just went to buy the ingredients for a few dishes he wanted to eat… and I'm the one who cooked them, and I'm the one who's cleaning up! He's not even helping to wash a single dish!"

Brother Jue was complaining, but he still had to wash the dishes…

Although he was still complaining and still had an unhappy look on his face, his mood was much better than it had been this morning.

In fact, Feng Bujue had always been a relatively blank person in terms of emotions, and the so-called "ex-girlfriend" was just a pretense he used back then, similar to how he pretended to be a loli online to scam people…

Therefore, when Ruo Yu left, Brother Jue was indeed very upset, and he couldn't understand all the aspects of the whole incident.

But now, after being enlightened by Gu Chen, an "experienced person," Brother Jue could be said to have been enlightened, and he suddenly had motivation again.

"Hmm… I suddenly feel very inspired." When he was halfway through washing the dishes, Feng Bujue suddenly smiled and murmured, "Life experience is indeed very important… having a bit of emotional ups and downs is very helpful for creation." He washed the dishes while talking to himself, "In a while, I'll rewrite the draft that I spent three hours writing in the script this afternoon, and then write some new first drafts… then I'll think of a plan for 'how to force the issue'… hmm, then I can go play."