Chapter 33

In the blink of an eye, she had gone from the boundless desert to a gentle water town.

The bluestone slabs underfoot were laid smoothly, and her soft-soled cloth shoes made no sound when they stepped on them. Xu Yizhuo unconsciously slowed her pace and walked slowly toward the direction guided by the lamplight.

Xu Yizhuo had originally thought this was only an insignificant chance encounter to her. But she had not expected that the moment she saw the lamplight, she would realize where and when this was, and who the person holding the lantern before her was.

The warm yellow candle flame was wrapped in white paper painted with orchid grass. The paper lantern was as plain and elegant as its owner. The night wind gently brushed past snow-white clothes and also tousled the hair by the lantern-holder’s temples. Jun Yu looked at Xu Yizhuo attentively, and reflected in her pupils was Xu Yizhuo’s face lit by the lantern.

“We meet again.”

To Xu Yizhuo, however, it had been a long time.

Xu Yizhuo had already forgotten what she had answered back then. She pressed her lips together and did not say anything in response. She stood somewhat awkwardly in place, her fingers unconsciously picking at the wooden handle of the round fan in her hand.

When facing Jun Yu, nervousness would always unconsciously surge up in her heart. Perhaps it was because Jun Yu was too different from anyone Xu Yizhuo had ever met. It was like read the original at bailiantales.com looking at the bright moon in the sky. Though one yearned for it, one knew it could only be gazed at from afar and never reached.

Jun Yu’s voice was like the stream that gurgled through Qingping Town, carrying the tenderness and tranquility of a water town.

“The night is deep. Is Miss not going to rest?”

Xu Yizhuo raised her head and looked at her with a pair of clear eyes. “I’m looking for a place.”

“What place is it?” Jun Yu’s voice remained gentle. Her questions never made people feel offended. They even gave people the desire to confide their troubles to her.

Xu Yizhuo shook her head. “I can’t explain it clearly either.”

The moment she saw Jun Yu, that invisible guidance suddenly became chaotic. Xu Yizhuo sensed two completely different directions. One road was behind her, and one road was in front of her. At this moment, she was lost and did not know where she should go.

“But I roughly know where it is.” Xu Yizhuo’s gaze passed over Jun Yu and looked toward the deep alley behind her.

“Then I will not disturb you.” Hearing this, Jun Yu stepped aside to make way. “May Miss [Read on BaiLianTales]find the place you seek soon.”

Xu Yizhuo thanked her and was about to walk deeper into the alley, but Jun Yu called out to her.

She turned back in some confusion, only for a bright lantern to be handed before her. Jun Yu said gently, “The moon is about to set. Miss, take a lantern with you.”

Xu Yizhuo accepted it blankly. She lowered her eyes to look at the ink-colored orchid grass on the lantern and softly thanked her again.

She held the lantern and continued walking forward. The lamplight illuminated the road ahead, while behind her gradually sank into darkness. Xu Yizhuo could feel a gentle gaze falling on her back. She kept feeling as though she had missed something, yet could not find the answer.

The illusion would not give her scenes for no reason. In the previous illusions, whether it was Old Li or Di Xiang, both had tried to make her stay. Then what about Jun Yu? Why had she seen Jun Yu here?

She had only spent a scant few days with Jun Yu. If one looked into it carefully, who knew whether the time they had spent together could even add up to two or three shichen. Their friendship was as plain as water, and Xu Yizhuo could not think of the reason the illusion would show Jun Yu for the time being.

Even in that brief conversation just now, Jun Yu had not said a single word implying that she should stay on the Eastern Continent.

Xu Yizhuo carried a bellyful of doubts and lowered her head as she walked forward. The roads in this area were winding and complex. Xu Yizhuo did not know how many familiar yet unfamiliar places she passed before finally arriving before a courtyard gate.

It was her courtyard in Qingping Town.

Xu Yizhuo did not think too much. But the instant she pushed open the courtyard gate, her eyes widened and she froze on the spot, unable to believe everything before her.

For a moment, she failed to grip the lantern properly. With a clap, it fell to the ground. Sparks touched the lampshade, and the paper lantern instantly caught fire.

Xu Yizhuo snapped out of it as if waking from a dream and hurriedly stamped out the flames.

In just that short while, most of the paper lantern had burned away. Fortunately, the fire had not spread elsewhere. Xu Yizhuo had no time to care about the mess outside the courtyard gate. With a complicated expression, she stepped over the threshold and onto a spotless wooden floor.

Behind the courtyard gate was not her courtyard in Qingping Town, but her bedroom in the modern world.

The room was spacious and bright. Everything inside had been furnished bit by bit according to Xu Yizhuo’s own preferences. Yet after being away for so long, when she saw it again, the only thing Xu Yizhuo felt was unfamiliarity.

She walked around the bedroom several times, picking up the feeling of familiarity little by little. The house had been bought after graduation. After graduating, she had moved out of home. On workdays, she stayed in an apartment only one street away from the company. ​bailiantales.com​On rest days, she returned to her villa in the suburbs. Right now, she was in the bedroom of that villa.

The bedroom was on the first floor. One wall was color-adjustable glass. During the day, when the wall was adjusted to transparency, one could clearly see the lake filled with blooming lotus flowers. Xu Yizhuo blinked and remembered that when she transmigrated into the game, it seemed to have been summer in the modern world, and the lotus flowers in the garden had been blooming beautifully.

Xu Yizhuo searched around the bedroom for a while. Before long, she found her phone under the pillow. When she turned it on, there was not much battery left. She probably had stayed up too late playing the previous night and had been too lazy to charge it, casually stuffing it under the pillow before falling asleep.

Xu Yizhuo took the phone and walked out onto the balcony.

The open-air balcony was cleaned every day. After all, outside of work, Xu Yizhuo did not like going out to play very much. If conditions allowed, she could stay at home for several days. When she stayed home, she always sat at the edge of the balcony, feeling the cool wind slowly blow over from the water. Whether she was reading or playing on her phone, she could quietly remain there for an entire afternoon.

Xu Yizhuo was still wearing the clothes she had worn that night in Qingping Town. Even her age had not changed. She took off her embroidered shoes and sat down at the edge of the balcony, pulling at her light skirt so that its hem would not fall into the water. The lake water was slightly cool, and half of her calves were soaked in it as she looked at her phone under the shadow cast by the eaves.

After unlocking the screen, she saw that the interface was stopped on her Moments.

Xu Yizhuo looked at the screenshot of a face that was a little different from her memory yet still familiar, and froze for a long time.

It was a screenshot of Jun Yu from the game.

The person who posted the screenshot was Xu Yizhuo’s younger male cousin. On the outside, he looked like a refined and elegant young man, but in reality, he was an overly lively otaku online. Because he was still in school and had more free time, he played several games at the same time. His Moments were filled with either screenshots of this NPC or battle records from that game.

However, in the past few days, his Moments had only screenshots from one game. In the caption for this picture, he was even shouting “wife” without the slightest restraint.

Xu Yizhuo scrolled down and discovered that she had actually commented on this post.

Dead Fish Anle: Pretty good-looking. Which game is this now?

She had posted this comment at three in the morning. Her cousin seemed to have been asleep and did not reply until nine in the morning, his tone exaggerated.

Stupid Little Brother: No way, Sis. You don’t even recognize the cash cow from a game produced by your own company?

Xu Yizhuo thought for a long while, but she could not remember what she had replied back then.

She looked at the current time. It was 9:10. Her cousin had replied to her not long ago and was definitely still online, so she sent him a private message: Still playing the game?

Stupid Little Brother: Clearing dungeons on the weekend!

Xu Yizhuo was confused for a while. What was “clearing dungeons”?

Xu Yizhuo, who almost never played games, did not understand what her cousin meant. Her finger hovered over the keyboard for a long time without replying.

Instead, her cousin excitedly asked her: Sis, why are you suddenly interested in games too? It must be because my wife is too beautiful! Do you want to get into it too? Come to my server, I’ll carry you!

Xu Yizhuo stared at her cousin’s reply and frowned. What kind of behavior was it for a grown young man to randomly call someone wife? Not reserved at all.

She was very reserved. In the past, when she saw all kinds of stunning screenshots of Jun Yu online, she would only call her wife in her heart.

Xu Yizhuo did not think too much and replied decisively: Not playing.

Stupid Little Brother: Sigh, I was just asking casually. I already knew you weren’t interested in games. Oh stolen content right, Sis, my family wants to go to Biqing Villa next Saturday. Are you and Auntie and Uncle coming?

Stupid Little Brother: Come on, come on. We haven’t gotten together in ages.

Dead Fish Anle: Why don’t you just ask my parents directly? You know I don’t care either way.

After sending this sentence, Xu Yizhuo suddenly felt that her life was truly very boring. She did not have especially good friends, nor did she have any personal hobbies. Her parents’ relationship was very good, but precisely because it was too good, it seemed there was no place for her in their world…

At home, there was only her. In the president’s office, there was usually only her too. Xu Yizhuo had gotten used to being alone very early. The liveliness of crowds seemed to have nothing to do with her, and her attitude had also unknowingly become, “It doesn’t matter. Anything is fine with me.”

Xu Yizhuo curled her lips. If that sticky couple, despite being so old, wanted to go, then she would just go with them. If she went, she would pretend to be a quiet background board.

Her phone vibrated. Her cousin replied.

Stupid Little Brother: I can’t reach them qwq. Sis, it’s not like you don’t know. When Auntie and Uncle are having their couple time, you’re the only one who can contact them.

Xu Yizhuo was utterly confused. Since when had she known this?

No, wait. Is what you said real?

Stupid Little Brother: Sis, if you agree to come, Auntie and Uncle will definitely come too!

Xu Yizhuo stared blankly at that sentence for a long time. After one minute of no operation, the phone screen automatically went black, but she still stared at the darkened screen in a daze for quite a while.

Xu Yizhuo suddenly let out an “ah” and allowed herself to fall backward, lying on the wooden floor of the balcony. One arm blocked her forehead, and her eyes remained open, looking at the eaves that blocked the glaring sunlight.

She suddenly remembered many things.

Those past events she had never cared about surfaced one by one in her mind.

One memory after another seemed to flash before her eyes, finally stopping on something she had thought she had completely forgotten.

It had happened during her first year of high school. Xu Yizhuo, who had developed late, finally welcomed her delayed rebellious phase and chuunibyou phase. Who knew whether the two people at home had forgotten everything while enjoying their couple time during her transition from middle school to ​stolen content​high school or what, but they had made no arrangements for her high school at all. Xu Yizhuo had muddled along based on her entrance exam results and entered a local ordinary high school.

The rich second generations she was familiar with had either gone abroad, gone to private elite schools, or, even with terrible grades, been stuffed into the top key high school in the neighboring city. Only Xu Yizhuo seemed to have completely broken away from her past circle for a time, sitting beneath an air conditioner on the verge of retirement in the middle of summer and contemplating life.

After the broken air conditioner blew out hot air for who knew how many times, Xu Yizhuo suddenly came to a realization.

Her parents really did not care about her at all!

Xu Yizhuo felt as if she had awakened in an instant. She went from a happy salted fish to a cold and ruthless salted fish.

Author’s Note:

Cough cough, Jun Yu will still appear. She just showed her face first. She might appear again next chapter.