Boundless – Chapter 72

Mu Danqing turned around, furious. “Wen Qianhua! Can you control your—”

He choked abruptly, so the last word paused before he spat it out: “Cat—”

How comical.

Before him wasn’t Wen Qianhua, but another Guide—a very beautiful Guide.

Her gaze was fixed in Mu Danqing’s direction. After a moment, she slowly curved her lips and smiled.

Dark hair, deep eyes, a bloodless complexion, brilliant yet frail. Like a life-stealing spirit from a storybook, her beauty was almost bewitching.

Morning flowers glistening with dew, midnight winds lingering low.

They say a beauty unaware of her own charm is the most alluring. But this one before him clearly knew she was very good-looking.

She lifted her long lashes and walked over step by step, unhurriedly, finally stopping in the middle of the group of Sentinels.

The little leopard cat looked up at her, then walked over to rub against her leg.

Mu Danqing: “…”

Had Wen Qianhua finally gone mad? Was she planning to date a Guide?

Mu Danqing forcibly stopped his train of thought, telling himself not to get the wrong idea. “You are?”

The Guide opposite him said, “Wen Qianshu.”

Her voice was also pleasant, a little husky, yet it held a hook, as if to catch people. “Wen Qianhua’s older sister.”

Mu Danqing: “Mu Danqing. I’m—”

He got stuck.

How was he supposed to introduce himself?

“I’m the Sentinel who was fighting with your sister?”

Wen Qianshu smiled, but her gaze went past him to Mu Lian behind him. The group of Sentinels was gathered there, some sitting, some standing, with various birds and beasts pouncing and playing.

Yet the world seemed to fall silent. All she could see were Mu Lian’s light-colored eyes looking over, the light tracing the contour of her profile.

Wen Qianshu took a step closer, looked at Mu Lian, and smiled. “Thank you for your jacket and umbrella.”

Unlike Mu Danqing, Mu Lian clearly recognized her. “It’s nothing.”

On her shoulder was a gyrfalcon, tilting its head to size up Wen Qianshu.

Wen Qianshu tilted her face up slightly. “But I didn’t bring them with me. Could I ask for your contact information, so I can return them to you?”

The implication was too obvious. Wen Qianhua and Mu Danqing were classmates; if she really wanted to return the items, she could have had Wen Qianhua bring them over long ago.

The Sentinels all realized it and stared at them in unison. Wen Qianshu acted as if she didn’t notice. Mu Lian was silent for a moment, then lowered her eyes and took a pen from her pocket.

Just as she was about to get some paper, she saw Wen Qianshu extend her hand, palm open before her.

Their eyes met.

Mu Lian let go of the paper in her pocket, held Wen Qianshu’s wrist, and wrote a string of numbers on her palm with the pen.

Wen Qianshu looked at the crescent moon birthmark on her ring finger.

Mu Lian’s hand was very cool, but the small patch of skin it encircled gradually grew hot. The tickling and tingling sensation from the pen tip on her palm seemed to spread through her entire body along her veins.

After she finished writing, Wen Qianshu smiled. “Thank you.”

The gyrfalcon on Mu Lian’s shoulder hopped once. Mu Lian still said, “It’s nothing.”

Their gazes met for an instant, then slid past each other. Wen Qianshu gave a polite smile to the other Sentinels and turned to leave. Not far away, Wen Qianhua was holding two drinks, staring at them.

When Wen Qianshu walked over, she said irritably, “I just went to get a drink, how did you end up in a pile of Sentinels?”

Wen Qianhua’s expression was unfriendly, but she didn’t forget to hand over the drink.

Wen Qianshu took a cup with the hand that had no writing on it and looked down at the words on her palm. “Researching something.”

Wen Qianhua frowned, not hiding her dislike for Sentinels at all. “What thing? You even had to run to such a dangerous place.”

Wen Qianshu closed her hand and saw the little leopard cat still circling her feet. She patted the white cat on her shoulder. The white cat leaped down and reached out a paw to touch the little leopard cat. “Do mental bodies reflect their owner’s emotions?”

Wen Qianhua: “Just researching that? You could have just asked me, couldn’t you?”

“Mental bodies reflect their owner’s emotions. After all, they’re a materialization of mental power.” Wen Qianhua stretched out her leg and nudged the little leopard cat with the tip of her foot to keep it from tripping the white cat. “That’s why the school has a class specifically to teach how to control one’s mental body.”

“Of course, this is something Guides are good at. Sentinels generally can’t learn it—” Wen Qianhua said. “Their mental power is diffuse and fundamentally unstable.”

Wen Qianhua: “What’s wrong, did some Sentinel’s mental body act up? I’ll go pluck its fur—”

Wen Qianshu couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s nothing, I was just curious.”

She looked over and saw Mu Danqing and his group of Sentinels gathered around a sofa, talking about something. Later, the classmate whose birthday it was came over, squeezed in, and seemed to be asking Mu Lian some questions.

Mu Lian listened very attentively, occasionally replying with a few words, and the classmate nodded vigorously.

Doctor Mu looked completely focused, but the gyrfalcon on her shoulder was facing Wen Qianshu’s direction, staring intently.

Wen Qianshu smiled. A playful mood struck her, and she winked at it.

The gyrfalcon flapped its wings and looked away. After a while, it seemed to notice Wen Qianshu was talking to another Guide and no longer looking, so it turned back.

Wen Qianshu couldn’t hold it in and laughed out loud.

They were chatting with a few Guides, and one of them was taken aback. “What’s wrong?”

Wen Qianshu: “Nothing—how cute.”

She was looking at her.

She was always looking at her.

From that distant hospital to their school days, the gaze when collecting homework, and then later, the letters received at Canglan Courtyard, the rescue in the apocalypse—

The gaze crossed countless spaces and times, yet it always landed on Wen Qianshu.

Wen Qianshu was smiling, but then she stopped.

She suddenly said, “2333.”

2333: “What?”

Wen Qianshu: “What else are you hiding from me?”

2333: “…”

“How could that be? I’ve already shown you what happened back then. What else could I be hiding from you?”

Wen Qianshu: “I haven’t even said what it is. Why are you assuming it’s about you?”

2333: “That’s the only thing you care about.”

“That’s true—” Wen Qianshu lowered her eyes and suddenly smiled. “I’ll count this as a successful bluff on your part.”

2333: “…”

2333 felt it was going to go crazy sooner or later.

After returning, Wen Qianshu contacted Mu Lian to arrange a time to return her things. The Wen family had mixed feelings: happy that she was willing to go out again, but worried that it wasn’t safe for her to be alone.

In the end, her mother made the final decision. “Qianshu isn’t a child anymore. She has to go out eventually. She also needs to find time to register at school and make up for the lessons she missed.”

“Besides,” she discussed with Father Wen, “Qianshu’s mental body never used to take form, so she was inevitably a bit withdrawn and didn’t talk to the family. Now that she’s more cheerful and willing to make friends, it’s a good thing. There’s no need to stop her. I’ll also let the Mu family know in advance and ask their daughter to look after her.”

“If Qianshu really wants to go, then let her go.”

So, First Brother Wen patiently accompanied Wen Qianshu on a few trips outside to confirm the route and agree on a time frame for her to report back home safely. Second Brother Wen even prepared a gift for her, telling her not to go empty-handed, so she would at least show some sincerity.

The only one in the family who was unhappy was Wen Qianhua, who stood with her arms crossed and a sour look on her face. But her little leopard cat, completely disregarding its owner’s dignity, was shamelessly rubbing against Wen Qianshu’s leg, reaching out its paws to play with the little white cat.

Wen Qianshu had never received such treatment before and couldn’t take it. She couldn’t help but say to 2333, “This world is too comfortable. I don’t even feel like working hard anymore.”

2333: “…”

But Wen Qianshu was, after all, not the Wen Qianshu from the first world. After joking, she began to ponder, “So it’s really strange—with a family like this, why did Wen Qianhua end up having a breakdown?”

In the original world line, the Wen family members didn’t have any more accidents, right up to the very end. Wen Qianhua’s relationship with her family wasn’t bad either—she was just like her cat, baring her teeth and looking fierce on the surface, but secretly happy and rubbing up against people.

Then the problem could only lie in her aversion to Sentinels?

Why such an aversion? Was it because of Wen Qianshu’s accident back then?

But now that Wen Qianshu was awake, her aversion hadn’t diminished at all?

The technology in this world was advanced, and the modes of transportation were far more sophisticated than in Wen Qianshu’s previous worlds, so much so that when she first saw them, she was completely clueless and had no idea what to do.

Fortunately, the Wen family was constantly worried about her and explained the transportation system several times, allowing her to successfully buy a ticket and board the shuttle—a vehicle similar to a subway, but shorter and much faster. If one had to make an analogy, it was like a marble bouncing around inside a transparent tube.

2333 sneered, not missing any opportunity for revenge. “I told you to read the materials before coming in, but you didn’t believe me, did you?”

Wen Qianshu smiled and said lazily, “Oh, don’t worry about the details.”

2333: “…”

In the first and second worlds, this was Wen Qianshu’s favorite phrase. And whenever she said it, something bad was sure to follow. For a moment, 2333 was transported back to the past, back to the fear of being ruled by that phrase.

2333: “You’re not allowed to say that anymore!”

Wen Qianshu entered the shuttle reserved for Sentinels and Guides, placed the little white cat in a special mental body storage box and closed it, then sat down and fastened her seatbelt. She found it novel and couldn’t help but look out the window, but as soon as the shuttle started, the scenery outside immediately blurred into blocks of color.

Wen Qianshu: “…”

Truly the power of technology, turning a landscape painting into an abstract piece in seconds.

She had no choice but to obediently take out her optical computer, connect to the shuttle’s network, and look up the accident that had happened to her—that accident had caused quite a stir at the time, and news about it could still be found.

In this world, a Sentinel’s mental power was diffuse, and their five senses were overly strong, making them prone to information overload and mental breakdowns. Therefore, they needed to regularly undergo mental soothing from a Guide—a Guide would use their mental power to soothe and guide the Sentinel, eliminating some chaotic and useless information. Under normal circumstances, those with partners would have it done by their partners. Those without would seek help from family members or a Guide doctor with a soothing certificate.

If, unfortunately, the Guide in their family passed away and they had no money to see a doctor, there were also welfare institutions outside where they could make regular appointments for help and receive free soothing. Although this type of soothing was relatively superficial, far inferior to the deep soothing from a partner, it was better than nothing and could make a Sentinel feel much more comfortable.

Every Sentinel, from birth, would be injected with a subcutaneous recorder used to monitor their reception of a Guide’s mental power. If they went more than a month without receiving soothing, the recorder would sound an alarm, and external intervention would be initiated to forcibly perform mental soothing.

But the Sentinel who attacked Wen Qianshu a few years ago—

He had suffered from information overload, had a mental breakdown, and suddenly started attacking indiscriminately on the street. But his recorder showed—

He had just received soothing from his partner the day before.