This world was clearly longer than the first, yet it felt as if it could never be long enough. For the first time, Wen Qianshu knew that life in the mortal world could be so joyful. Just the two of them lying together, not even speaking, was happiness.
A gentle breeze, a fine rain, swallows flying in pairs through the woods.
Everything in the mortal world seemed hazy and unreal, distant and meaningless.
They lingered among the mountains and rivers, healing the sick and saving people, living a carefree life.
So much so that later, when Wen Qianshu was lying in the Main God’s space, she was still reminiscing, thinking back to their small cabin on the mountain, where the mountain stream gurgled and the birds chirped outside.
This life ended very peacefully. Neither of them had the heart for cultivation, but as they were members of the immortal sects, Yun Cai was still as beautiful as a flower when she passed away, vaguely resembling how she looked when they first met.
Before she passed away, she held Wen Qianshu’s hand and said softly, “Sister, in the next life, it’ll be my turn to protect you.”
Wen Qianshu hugged her, holding her even tighter. “No need.”
She leaned down slightly, and their long hair intertwined, as if they would never be separated again.
Wen Qianshu said, word by word, “We will meet again.”
Yun Cai thought Wen Qianshu was just comforting her, so she smiled and looked up at the world outside.
The long wind was gentle, the willow branches bowed their heads, and the sunset clouds on the horizon were like fire. So beautiful.
“Wen Qianshu!”
Wen Qianshu was startled and realized it was 2333 calling her. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” Wen Qianshu said. “I was just spacing out for a bit. What were you saying just now?”
2333, long used to being angered by her, gritted its teeth and repeated itself. The gist was that Wen Qianshu had done a good job with the repairs in this world, and it asked if she wanted to take any magical arts with her that she could use in the future.
2333: “But it can’t be a magical art that’s too advanced. Otherwise, when the Main God simulates it, it will take up too much of the original world’s memory and might conflict with the original world—”
Wen Qianshu: “Conflict? What kind of consequences would there be?”
2333 nonchalantly steered the conversation away. “That’s not important. Even if you go over, I’ll remind you. Just pick a simpler spell. Do you have any spells you like, are good at, and that have decent effects?”
Wen Qianshu: “I do.”
2333: “What is it?”
Wen Qianshu: “The Guishui Art.”
2333: “…”
If 2333 could smile, the smile would definitely be frozen on its face right now.
2333: “Huh?”
“No.” 2333 was exasperated. “Water manipulation, fire control, talismans, herbal remedies, alchemy recipes, poison techniques—you could have picked any of those, but you go and pick—”
Wen Qianshu: “Sigh, you know, everything else is fine, but periods are just too annoying. I really don’t want them.”
2333: “No, I don’t know!”
It had guided so many people and had never seen anyone come out of a Xianxia world wanting to keep this!
Wen Qianshu smiled and leaned back in the swivel chair.
She tilted her head back, revealing the beautiful curve of her neck, her long hair fanning out over the back of the chair.
Wen Qianshu sat up straight and tapped her fingers on the table—a table she had only configured after returning this time. The room finally had more than just a bed, giving it a faint hint of being lived in.
She smiled and said, “Send me the data for the next world.”
2333 hesitated. “Don’t you want to rest for a while?”
After all, the last world had taken a long time, and 2333 was a little afraid she wouldn’t be able to move on.
Wen Qianshu: “No need.”
2333 thought for a moment and sent her the data.
Wen Qianshu flipped through it and raised an eyebrow. “Apocalypse?”
2333: “Yes.”
“But the identity arranged for you is a young girl who just graduated from school. Everyone she knew has passed away, so you won’t need to do much pretending—wait, what are you doing?”
Wen Qianshu quickly flipped through several pages, skipping past the background introduction, the main plot, and the descriptions of the male and female protagonists, until she reached the page for the second female lead.
She lowered her eyes and softly read the name, “Lou Jiu.”
Wen Qianshu asked, “Is there a photo?”
2333 almost immediately sensed something was wrong. It said cautiously, “There’s no photo, only a written description. You’ll see her when you get in anyway. Let’s study the main plot first…”
Clearly, Wen Qianshu wasn’t listening at all. Her fingertips caressed the tabletop—the Main God’s space used an electronic screen projected onto the tabletop, merely simulating the turning of paper pages.
The Main God’s space had stripped away all modifications, and Wen Qianshu had reverted to her original body.
Her eyes were a deep color, as was her hair. Yet her years of being bedridden had given her a pale complexion. Even her lips were completely colorless, pale and cold.
These two colors were sharply distinct, contrasting on her body and forcibly creating a cold, almost sickly beauty.
When 2333 first saw her, it was curious. “Aren’t you in poor health? How is your hair still so black?”
Wen Qianshu: “It’s dyed.”
2333: “…”
Seeing that she was still ignoring it, 2333 finally couldn’t help but shout, “Wen Qianshu!”
Wen Qianshu: “Hm?”
2333: “Let’s study the main plot first—”
Wen Qianshu interrupted it with a smile. “Why do you care what I look at first?”
2333 was at a loss for words. “I, I, well, you shouldn’t be looking at the second female lead first.”
Wen Qianshu was still smiling. “Why not?”
“Are you afraid I’ll discover something?”
2333: “Discover what? What could you possibly discover?”
It said calmly, “These worlds are completely unrelated. You shouldn’t use things from the last world to speculate about the next one.”
Wen Qianshu didn’t answer. She just looked at the electronic screen, but her gaze was strange, as if she wasn’t looking at the content on it, but rather looking through the screen at something else.
Something that couldn’t be spoken of, something hidden in the shadows.
“‘These worlds are completely unrelated,’” Wen Qianshu repeated, then said, “That’s not right, 2333. There’s still the repairer.”
That wasn’t wrong. The worlds were indeed completely unrelated, but the same repairer traveling between them could barely be considered a connection.
2333 grunted, “Uh,” actually sighing in relief. However, before it could fully exhale that sigh, it heard Wen Qianshu say, “So what’s this repairer’s name? Moonlight?”
The sigh couldn’t be let out at all.
For a moment, 2333 was so scared its entire system blanked out. “What nonsense are you talking about? Aren’t you the repairer?”
“Am I?” Wen Qianshu asked unhurriedly. “Is it me?”
2333 froze on the spot, as if struck by lightning. Its CPU spun wildly, spinning until its fan smoked without producing a result. So it answered stiffly, “It’s you.”
Wen Qianshu laughed out loud, as if she had heard an interesting joke.
Her smile was beautiful, but it held a hint of amusement.
Her long lashes lowered, the corners of her lips curling into a mocking arc. Wen Qianshu studied her own hands and asked, “What happened to her? Why use me to replace her?”
Such a nice way of putting it—the female protagonist couldn’t defeat the second female lead, leading to the world’s destruction, so she had to go and repair the world line.
But these two worlds weren’t like that at all. In the first world, Jiang Mingyue didn’t love Fang Wenyuan, nor did she ever try to force Shen Ting. In the second world, Yun Cai was slightly involved, but she wasn’t the main culprit behind Yan Han’s death.
Their roles were more like helpers.
Those excellent family backgrounds, superb medical skills, suitable statuses and positions.
It was more like they were prepared to become the female protagonist’s “helpers.”
Just like the question Wen Qianshu had asked before—“Since you want to save the female protagonist, why not just cast me as the second female lead?”
The real repairer was in the body of the second female lead.
2333 was panting, its whole body cold. It heard its own voice say, “You’re overthinking it. These are two different people, not one at all. How could she be the repairer?”
“Three people,” Wen Qianshu smiled. “Jiang Mingyue, Yun Cai, Lou Jiu. Your reaction has already told me, the third one is her too.”
2333 shuddered and said sharply, “The three of them are not the same person at all! What are you wildly guessing about? Why would I lie to you?”
“How would I know?” Wen Qianshu didn’t move a muscle, her voice not changing in the slightest. “After all, you even lied to me about your number. Lying about other things would be perfectly normal.”
2333: “What?”
It laughed in anger. “Why would I lie to you about my number? My name is ‘2333’.”
“Oh?” Wen Qianshu said. “Then what about the ‘2333’ from the first world? Did it change its number?”
At this point, 2333’s blood ran cold.
It stared at Wen Qianshu as if looking at some kind of monster.
It couldn’t figure out where it had slipped up—they were both systems defined by programs, how different could they be?
Wen Qianshu knew what it was thinking, but she wasn’t about to explain.
How could there be no difference?
The difference was huge.
This “2333” never urged Wen Qianshu to follow the main plot, nor did it care how she turned everything upside down, making a complete mess of the original plot. It just let Wen Qianshu do as she pleased. Sometimes, it even paid more attention to Yun Cai than to the plot.
The first 2333 wasn’t like this. The first 2333 worried all day that Wen Qianshu might fall for the male protagonist, worried she would disrupt the plot and lose the upper hand, and tried every day to steer her onto the “right path.” It was always enthusiastically giving suggestions—though most of them were bad ideas.
The more Wen Qianshu randomly changed the plot and tested it, the more she felt they weren’t the same system.
And the more they weren’t the same system, the more they tried to cover up the situation with Jiang Mingyue and Yun Cai, which only further suggested they were the same person.
There had to be a reason for all this.
Wen Qianshu just hadn’t figured it out yet.
Wen Qianshu: “So let’s stop pretending. What exactly are you planning?”
“Forget it, never mind the details,” Wen Qianshu said again. “I don’t care what you’re planning. I just want to ask, what happened to her?”
The system didn’t speak. After a long time, Wen Qianshu heard a female voice repeat, “What happened?”
Unlike 2333’s electronic tone, this female voice was a complete, human-like sound.
Its voice was pleasant, but its tone was unkind. “You don’t need to know.”
“2333”: “Just focus on completing your mission. Repairing the world line is all that matters.”
Wen Qianshu rested her chin on her hand and said abruptly, “Before I died, I once met a doctor—”
That day was very, very far away now; even that lifetime was far away.
So far that the memories were blurry, so far that she had almost forgotten her parents’ arguments and the nightmares she thought had seeped into her very soul.
But Wen Qianshu distinctly remembered that doctor’s face, remembered the warm sunlight streaming in through the window, illuminating the pale hospital room.
That doctor wore a mask, revealing only a pair of light-colored eyes that watched her calmly.
Wen Qianshu: “That was ‘her,’ wasn’t it.”
“She pulled some strings and swapped my identity with hers?”
“2333” sneered, “No.”
“Wen Qianshu, why are you so obsessed with the truth? What difference does it make if you know or not?”
“You’re not sick now, and you’re free. Isn’t that enough for you?”
“If there’s no difference between knowing and not knowing,” Wen Qianshu cut straight to the point, “then what are you hiding from me?”
“2333”: “You!”
It could only say “you” for a long time but couldn’t come up with anything else.
Wen Qianshu smiled, but there wasn’t the slightest hint of a smile in her eyes.
Ink-black hair, dark eyes, a colorless, deathly pale face and thin lips.
She was stunningly and morbidly beautiful, her gaze cold and sharp. Only her line of sight was like an ethereal, invisible wind, drifting past everything around her, silently reflecting it all in her mind.
“Think carefully about what story to make up.”
Wen Qianshu withdrew her gaze, shifted into a more comfortable position, and continued reading the data. Her tone was gentle and polite, so polite it was eerie, almost courteous. “Go ahead and lie—”
“I’ll find the truth one way or another.”
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Wen Qianshu professional “mambabara” lol