When Wen Qianshu woke up, she found the space beside her was already empty.
She sat up abruptly and subconsciously reached out to touch it.
“Awake?” Lou Jiu pushed the door open without looking at her. “Come out for dinner.”
Wen Qianshu fumbled for her clothes and put them on, got up, got out of bed, and sniffed herself, feeling a bit smelly.
Lou Jiu seemed to know what she was thinking: “Take a shower after you eat. Don’t go hungry.”
Wen Qianshu: “Mm.”
She stretched out her leg to put on her slippers and noticed Lou Jiu was wearing a plain white T-shirt and mid-length gray sweatpants.
Wen Qianshu praised, “Really good-looking.”
2333: “…”
2333’s feelings were complicated.
It had discovered that Wen Qianshu had changed. She had gone from thinking everyone was good-looking in the first world to now, where as long as it was Lou Jiu, it was good-looking.
Lou Jiu found a new toothbrush and cup for Wen Qianshu, and also dug out a new towel for her to use. After brushing her teeth and washing her face, Wen Qianshu followed her to the living room.
The living room had been cleaned up. All the trash was cleared away, leaving only a faint smell of alcohol. The dishes on the dining table were quite sumptuous, with several being hearty main courses.
Wen Qianshu glanced at the basin of tomato fish in the center and swallowed.
She picked up her chopsticks and sat down at the side of the table, only to see a man walk over, pull out a chair, and plop down.
Lou Jiu was so good-looking, so her father, Zhou Qiming, was naturally not bad either. But Zhou Qiming was simply too sloppy. He didn’t shave his beard, which was a messy tangle; he didn’t do his hair, letting it hang loosely at the back of his head. No matter how handsome he might have been, he didn’t look good anymore.
Zhou Qiming opened his eyes and stared blankly at Wen Qianshu across from him. After looking for a long time, he asked in confusion, “Jiu’er, how did you get shorter?”
Wen Qianshu: “…”
2333: “…”
Lou Jiu placed a bowl of rice in front of him. “I’m over here.”
“Oh, oh.” Zhou Qiming took the bowl, a little embarrassed. “I was drunk out of my mind.”
He exclaimed in admiration, “You cooked so many delicious things?”
Lou Jiu: “Takeout.”
Zhou Qiming: “Then the house is so clean. I thought you wouldn’t be back for a while, so I didn’t tidy up. You’re not tired, are you?”
Lou Jiu: “A cleaning service.”
Wen Qianshu kept her eyes lowered, minding her own business, and earnestly applied her chopsticks to the tomato fish.
Lou Jiu was mindful of her stomach and didn’t let her eat anything too fishy or spicy. Seeing that she liked sweet flavors, she moved the few sweet dishes on the table over to her.
Zhou Qiming stretched out his arm, preparing to open a bottle of wine, but stopped after Lou Jiu shot him a glance. He obediently went back to eating his meal.
Lou Jiu showed no intention of introducing them to each other, seemingly not even planning to say their names. Zhou Qiming couldn’t help but look at Wen Qianshu. The young girl looked very well-behaved, fair and clean. She ate slowly and deliberately, and didn’t talk much.
But for some reason, he felt that the way she ate was very similar to Lou Jiu.
No, it wasn’t just eating, it was her entire mannerisms.
It was as if two people who had spent a long time together had picked up each other’s habits.
Zhou Qiming thought to himself, “Could it be that I have another daughter, and I just drank too much and forgot?”
After Wen Qianshu finished eating, Lou Jiu told her to rest for half an hour before taking a shower. She reminded her to be careful with the wound on her hand, just to wipe that area and not get it wet.
She found a set of clothes from her wardrobe for Wen Qianshu. “I’ll take you to buy some later. Wear mine for now.”
Wen Qianshu agreed.
While Wen Qianshu was showering, Lou Jiu went to explain things to Zhou Qiming. After explaining, she added, “After we get her registered, let’s have her live here.”
Zhou Qiming naturally had no objections. In fact, after Lou Jiu left, he secretly pocketed a bottle of wine and returned to his room.
The original plan was to have Jiang Yao take Qin Shu back, but Lou Jiu wasn’t at ease with Jiang Yao’s current state.
When the cleaning service came, Wen Qianshu was sound asleep, so Lou Jiu didn’t have them clean the bedroom, only the living room that her dad had messed up.
Lou Jiu had previously considered hiring a nanny to take care of Zhou Qiming, lest he drink himself to death one day. However, Zhou Qiming refused to agree under any circumstances, and when drunk, he would throw terrible tantrums, scaring away several nannies.
Over time, Lou Jiu gave up and let him be, only reminding her father’s drinking buddies to at least send him home and look after him a bit when he drank too much.
Lou Jiu got up and changed the bedsheets and duvet cover, replacing them with a set she had aired out in the sun that day.
Then she sat on the bed, took out her phone, and started thinking about ordering some things for Qin Shu.
Clothes would have to be bought at a store, and she didn’t know what style she liked. The training camp would issue combat uniforms, so she could embroider a name on them for differentiation—“Shu” would be good. How to arrange the bed? It wouldn’t do for her to always sleep with her. Maybe she herself could sleep on the sofa; she was always out on missions anyway.
Lou Jiu thought about it and decided it would be better to apply to the base for a bigger house. She could say she had reached marriageable age and was preparing the house in advance.
Just as she was thinking this, Wen Qianshu pushed open the bathroom door and said, “I’m done showering.”
Her wet hair hung down to her shoulders, and her cheeks were flushed from the steam. Lou Jiu was taller than her, so the clothes were a bit big, making her look even more petite. Yet her legs were slender and straight, looking good even in loose sweatpants.
Wen Qianshu bent over, rolled up her pant legs, and asked, “Where’s the hairdryer?”
“I looked in the bathroom but couldn’t find it.”
Because Lou Jiu lived with Zhou Qiming and they rarely had visitors, she had knocked down the wall between the guest bedroom and the bathroom, installed a door, and turned it into two bedrooms each with an en-suite bathroom. This way, it was convenient for both of them to shower and wash up, and they could stay in their own rooms without coming out.
When Lou Jiu had woken up earlier, she took a shower first. Seeing that Wen Qianshu was still asleep, she took the hairdryer to the living room to dry her hair.
Lou Jiu remembered and went to the living room to get the hairdryer for her.
So Wen Qianshu went into the bathroom to dry her hair, while Lou Jiu looked down at her phone.
She scrolled through the news from the base, listening to the whirring of the hairdryer, and felt inexplicably irritable.
She remembered how, after her shower, water droplets had fallen from her hair, wetting the clothes on her shoulders. She also remembered how she had taken two steps and bent over to roll up her pant legs.
Her fingers were very pretty. As she rolled up her pant legs, a small section of her ankle was revealed. Then, in that posture, she looked up at Lou Jiu.
Maybe it was because Lou Jiu had saved her on the high-altitude frame, or perhaps because Lou Jiu had helped her outside the car. Her gaze always followed Lou Jiu, never hiding. The moment their eyes met, she would smile, a smile that was both obedient and well-behaved.
Yes, obedient and well-behaved.
Lou Jiu wasn’t blind; of course she could see the difference in treatment.
In front of others, she was tough and defiant, cold and sharp, with mockery in her eyes and barbs in her words. But with Lou Jiu alone, she was very obedient.
Like a hedgehog rolling over, inviting you to rub its soft belly.
Her eyes were still moist, like the sea at midnight, threatening to drown someone in them.
Lou Jiu was no longer irritable. She started to feel thirsty.
She went to pour a glass of water and drank it slowly. Looking down at her phone, she realized she had unconsciously searched for “hedgehog” on a shopping app.
Lou Jiu: “…”
Of course, Lou Jiu wasn’t planning to buy a hedgehog. So she closed the search bar, switched out of the app, and saw a message from Shang Ci.
After drying her hair, Wen Qianshu put away the hairdryer and walked out of the bathroom. She saw Lou Jiu sitting on the bay window, her legs bent, looking at her phone.
Noticing that Wen Qianshu had finished drying her hair, she looked up. “I have something to tell you.”
Lou Jiu told her about the Qin family’s matter.
Wen Qianshu had seen this part in the original world line. But at that time, Jiang Yao hated her own incompetence, hated that she couldn’t find Qin Shu. The faces of the Qin family had blurred in her memory, leaving only a heavy burden on her shoulders, keeping her alive by a thread while making it difficult for her to breathe.
But in this current world line, in order to clear Qin Shu of any connection, Jiang Yao had recounted in detail, bit by bit, how the Qin family had risked their lives to save her, and how kind and gentle Mrs. Qin was.
Jiang Yao also said that in the end, even as she was turning into a zombie, Mrs. Qin still tried to save her, stuffing a photo into her hand and begging her to save her daughter. She also said that although Mr. Qin had already run away, he still turned back and was infected…
It was said that by the end of her story, Jiang Yao was clutching her head, trembling uncontrollably.
Wen Qianshu knew the Qin family had saved Jiang Yao, but she didn’t know the process was so tragic.
No wonder Shang Ci’s entire attitude changed after hearing it.
Suffering is the best soft light and filter. As if draped in a layer of tragedy, anything one does can evoke pity.
Wen Qianshu didn’t really feel much—2333’s question in the car, “Do you even have a heart?” was awkward, but its content was not wrong. To put it nicely, she was restrained and detached; to put it bluntly, she was heartless and cold.
In some respects, she was indeed very suitable to be a World Line Repairer.
Wen Qianshu certainly knew what kind of person she was, so when she felt a sudden pang in her chest after hearing this, she immediately realized it wasn’t her own emotion.
That feeling was like someone had grabbed her heart and yanked it, or like being pricked with a needle.
Even Wen Qianshu couldn’t bear this kind of pain for a moment.
She squatted down, unable to stop herself from pressing on her heart, the pain causing cold sweat to break out.
Lou Jiu also bent down, raising a hand to pat her back and help her catch her breath.
2333: “What’s wrong?”
Wen Qianshu was silent for a moment, then said in her mind, “Don’t be sad.”
She said in a low voice, “Don’t be sad—I’ll avenge you, avenge your family, okay?”
A clap of thunder sounded outside the window, and it began to rain.
Pitter-patter, as if someone were shedding tears.
After she said this, the pain eased slightly, but Wen Qianshu still felt an ache in her heart, a stuffiness that made it hard to breathe or speak. She frowned slightly, but felt a dampness on her face. She touched her cheek with her free hand and realized it was covered in tears.
2333: “What are you talking about? What’s wrong with you?”
Amidst the sudden sound of thunder and rain, a bolt of lightning struck, followed by an even louder clap of thunder.
Wen Qianshu suddenly remembered the last time, when Yan Chengshuang had been in similar pain.
The original body’s consciousness remained.
They still had lingering attachments to this world, remnants existing in the body Wen Qianshu possessed.
Then, what about the “Wen Qianshu” of the first world—
Did she have no lingering attachments—
What exactly happened in the first world?
2333 was getting anxious: “What on earth is wrong with you?”
“Say something!”
There must be a problem here. 2333, no, the Main God… they must be hiding something from her.
While enduring the pain, Wen Qianshu quickly sorted through the logic in her mind.
2333 didn’t know the original body’s consciousness would remain.
2333 had guided other repairers.
This meant that others didn’t experience this situation, only she did?
Why was it like this?
Was it because of the moon?
I can’t let 2333 know.
Wen Qianshu thought to herself, I need to find an excuse to deal with 2333.
Before negotiating, she had to obtain more information, get more bargaining chips.
Her hand was pressing down a bit too tightly, her nails almost digging into her flesh.
But Wen Qianshu’s mind was full of other things, and she didn’t notice at all.
Just then, she felt her hand being pulled away, and she was pulled into a warm embrace.
Lou Jiu hugged her.
The world fell silent; even the sound of the rain seemed to disappear.
Wen Qianshu buried her face in her embrace, listening to her heartbeat and smelling the familiar scent of body wash.
Orange-scented.
She had once joked that this person was an orange-flavored ice cream.
So cold, yet so sweet.
Lou Jiu didn’t speak.
Wen Qianshu closed her eyes, raised her arms, and hugged her back.
She hugged tightly, even a bit fiercely, as if she were not just hugging Lou Jiu, but grabbing her, not letting her go.
Wen Qianshu’s face was covered in Qin Shu’s tears. She didn’t look up, just rested in Lou Jiu’s arms, thinking about how to trick 2333 into talking, and said in a hoarse, low, and slow voice, “I feel so awful.”
Lou Jiu: “Mm, Xiao Shu.”
“I know.”
As soon as these words were spoken, Wen Qianshu froze. She felt another pang in her heart, but this time, she suddenly couldn’t tell if it was Qin Shu’s pain or her own.
Xiao Shu—
So strange, so strange.
It was clearly Qin Shu who was crying, who was in pain, but it was as if another person’s pain had mixed in halfway—a soft, dull ache.
Very slight, but also very painful.
No.
Wen Qianshu thought, you don’t know.
You don’t know at all.
You’ve already forgotten everything.
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