Chapter 125
Lin Qingyu slowly took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
This all started when Xu Junyuan claimed to have obtained a mystical stone from the peak of Kunlun Mountain. This stone was filled with the aura of heaven and earth. It was entirely green like an emerald. He divided the strange stone into two, making a pair of pendants, and presented it to the emperor and empress on the emperor’s Longevity Day.
Xu Junyuan was a strange person and Lin Qingyu and Jiang Xing knew to treat with caution any gifts he presents to them. Following his instructions, the two placed the pendants under their pillow and went to sleep. Who would have ever thought that he would find the world turned upside down upon waking up?
Lin Qingyu found himself standing in a surging crowd. It was as crowded as the Dayu’s Lantern Festival. But these people were obviously not from the Dayu. Their mouths and noses were covered with cloth. Some of them were wearing thin and strange clothes, somewhat similar to what Jiang Xing had been wearing the two times he’d entered his dreams. While some were dressed in something similar to what they wore in the Dayu, long corseted robes. It was why Lin Qingyu, in his Dayu attire, didn’t appear so conspicuous.
——Oh, how could he not be conspicuous?
He had just stood there for a short while and already onlookers had surrounded him. These people were looking unabashedly at him. Some held up rectangular objects, while others pointed something cylindrical at him. He knew that the rectangular object must be a mobile phone and this cylinder must be the camera that Jiang Xing had told him about. They were taking pictures of him.
… When he returns to the Dayu, he was going to have their little poisonous snake deliver his thanks to Xu Junyuan for his generous gift.
Lin Qingyu appeared calm on the surface but a trace of confusion and fear rose in his heart. His fear wasn’t because he suddenly found himself in a strange place but because Jiang Xing was not by his side.
If the strange stone Xu Junyuan had given them was what had caused him to come to this foreign land, then Jiang Xing should have come with him. But where was Jiang Xing?
Lin Qingyu raised his head and saw a huge banners hanging on the ceiling. The characters on the banners were simplified characters that Jiang Xing had taught him. It read “Guangzhou Hanfu Carnival“.
Guangzhou was equivalent to the Dayu’s Jiaozhou and was Jiang Xing’s hometown. Jiang Xing must also be in this city.
He must be here — he better not dare not be here!
Lin Qingyu lowered his eyes and pondered. The passers-by who took pictures of him were all calling out, “Hey, kiddo, look this way please. — Look at the camera. Thank you!”
“Hey Handsome, where did you get your hanfu? Can you send me the link to their store?”
“Xiao gege, can I add you on WeChat? I’ll send you the picture after I finish editing it~”
…
Lin Qingyu kept on a cold expression and said nothing. He didn’t mean to turn a deaf ear but he really didn’t know how to respond. He decided to first leave this crowded place and find somewhere quiet to think about what to do next.
While repeatedly saying ‘excuse me’ to the onlookers, he made his way to the side. The place he was in was huge, not any smaller than Xingqing Palace. Even after walking for so long, he still hadn’t reached the end. He found that as soon as he stopped, people would immediately turn to watch him. As he walked, many people took out their mobile phones to take pictures of him and call out to him but at least, he wasn’t as flustered as before.
Jiang Xing once said that if he ever found himself in his hometown, he could be found using a mobile phone. The most urgent task was to find someone to borrow a mobile phone from to call Jiang Xing. According to his observation, everyone in Jiang Xing’s hometown has a mobile phone so it shouldn’t be difficult to borrow one.
“Excuse me–”
An excited voice came from behind him. Lin Qingyu turned around and met a pair of big doe-like eyes. It was a girl about his age, with something called a [work permit] hanging around her neck, on which her name was written. The girl’s surname is Ke, and her name was Ke Tang.
Ke Tang said, “Xiao gege, it’s best to wear a mask when you’re not taking pictures.”
Ke Tang lived up to her name; her voice was very sweet. Lin Qingyu said, “A mask?”
“Yeah, although there’s no epidemic in Guangzhou at this time, we can’t take it lightly.”
“I don’t have a mask.”
“Then I’ll give you one.” Ke Tang took out a mask and handed it to Lin Qingyu. Before Lin Qingyu put it on, she said quietly, “Wait a minute, xiao gege, can I take a photo with you?”
As a staff member of the Hanfu Carvinal, it wasn’t quite appropriate for her to be doing this. But this xiao gege was just so good-looking that she couldn’t help it.
Lin Qingyu didn’t respond.
Ke Tang was a little embarrassed but she didn’t blame Lin Qingyu at all. Was it impolite for a beauty to ignore others? She simply wasn’t worthy in the first place!
“It’s okay if it’s not!” Ke Tang hurriedly said, “Excuse me!”
Lin Qingyu smiled, “I didn’t say no. Please.”
Ke Tang was dazed by this unexpected turn and hurriedly took out her mobile phone. She didn’t dare to stand too close to the beauty, for fear of messing up the expensive clothes he had on him.
The xiao gege was a head taller than her, about 1.8 meters tall, which was passable in the south. Ke Tang raised her phone up, made a ‘v’ sign at the camera and took the picture. Because she was a little flustered, she forgot to turn on the beauty filter. Facts have proved that a true beauty could stand the test of the front camera. A casual photo was better than the any that she’d refined for five hundred years.
Lin Qingyu asked. “Are you done taking the picture?”
“I-I’m done.” Ke Tang smiled brightly, “Thank you, xiao gege!”
“You’re welcome.” Lin Qingyu put on the mask and revealed his real purpose, “I also have a request. Can I borrow your mobile phone?”
“Huh? My phone?”
Lin Qingyu explained, “I’d like to use it to find someone, but I don’t have a mobile phone myself.”
Ke Tang thought that Lin Qingyu simply hadn’t brought his mobile phone with him. After all, his fancy clothes didn’t seem to have any pockets to store a phone. Ke Tang generously handed her phone. “Here you go.”
Lin Qingyu stared at the phone, but didn’t take it. Jiang Xing had told him a lot about mobile phones when he was bored and had nothing to do. He knew many of its uses, but without the real thing in the Dayu, no matter how much he knew about it, he couldn’t use it.
“Can you make this call for me?” Lin Qingyu asked.
“Of course.” Ke Tang was very enthusiastic, “What’s the phone number?”
Neither he nor Jiang Xing thought that they would one day actually return to Jiang Xing’s hometown. That matter about making a phone call was simply said casually. Fortunately, he had an excellent memory and he memorized the string of numbers after only listening to it once.
Ke Tang dialed out the number Lin Qingyu recited and before it rang, she asked, “Xiao gege, who are you trying to call?”
Lin Qingyu thought for a while and said, “My husband.”
Ke Tang stared at him wide-eyed, almost dropping her phone: “…Ah?!”
When Jiang Xing woke up, he found himself lying on the sofa. The air conditioner was whistling, a thin blanket was covering his body and his mobile phone lay quietly beside him.
Jiang Xing slowly sat up and looked at the time. It was already late in the afternoon. He started sleeping after lunch and he’d only slept for five hours in total but felt like he’d slept for a long, long time and had a long, long dream.
The side effect of his nap was that everything looked wrong. There was this feeling of vicissitudes, as if everything seemed a lifetime away.
Jiang Xing sat on the sofa in a daze. There was the sound of footsteps coming down on the stairs. A girl wearing a pure white dress and light makeup appeared. It was his cousin, Pei Zhiqi, who was one year older than him.
Seeing Jiang Xing’s distraught look, Pei Zhiqi asked, “What’s the matter with you?”
Jiang Xing said slowly, “I feel like I’ve just had a very long dream. I dreamt that I died and lived again and that I lived and died again. It was so painful. I also…dreamt of a classical beauty in a wedding dress.”
“A beauty? How beautiful?”
Jiang Xing tried his best to recall but got nothing. “Fuck, I can’t remember.”
Pei Zhiqi didn’t take it seriously. “That’s just how dreams are. You forget about them when you wake up.”
Jiang Xing hesitated for a while and then said, “You’re right.” He gave up trying to remember and lay back down on the sofa.
“Stop sleeping, you’ve been sleeping all afternoon.” Pei Zhiqi said, dumbfounded, “Are you really going to sleep away the first day of the National Day holiday?”
“Actually, not just the first day. I plan to spend the next six days like this.” Jiang Xing turned on his phone, clicked on the reading app and continued to read the novel he hadn’t finished.
Pei Zhiqi caught a glimpse of his screen and said in surprise, “You’re really reading “Huai’s Refusal of the Monarch!”
“Weren’t you the one who recommended it to me?
Pei Zhiqi smiled slyly. “Yes, yes. So, what do you think of the plot?”
“It’s hard to say. What’s keeping me going is my desire to see how Xiao Cheng dies. I wanna see Doctor Lin kill everyone.”
“Doctor Lin? You mean Lin Qingyu. Do you like him?”
Jiang Xing said without hesitation, “I like him.”
“But he’s not a good person. He killed a lot of people for revenge.”
Jiang Xing raised his eyebrows. “And it just so happens that I like watching him take revenge and kill people. I declare that from today onwards, I will be Doctor Lin’s loyal supporter.”
Pei Zhiqi had on a complicated expression. “Then I advise you that you push a bit more, in case the house collapses…”
Jiang Xing sensed something was wrong. “What do you mean? What happens to my great beauty?”
“Pretend like I said nothing.” Pei Zhiqi said guiltily, “Read for yourself and find out.” After saying so, she took an orange from the coffee table and headed upstairs.
Half an hour later, Pei Zhiqi went downstairs again, holding a mobile phone in her hand. “The Hanfu Carnival is on the hot search, it seems that there’s a store with a super handsome model…” She zoomed in on the photo, squinting her eyes to spot any flaws. “Is it really possible for someone to be this handsome?”
Jiang Xing whispered, “He died.”
Pei Zhiqi was taken aback. She didn’t immediately realize what he was talking about. “Who? Who died?”
Jiang Xing chuckled. He rubbed his eyes that had been staring at the phone for a long time and said, “So boring.”
Pei Zhiqi saw that his screen was at that scene of Lin Qingyu committing suicide in the Eastern Palace. She suddenly realized and empathized with him. She expressed her deep sympathy. She sat down next to her younger cousin and comforted him, “Don’t think about it too much. He’s just a fictional character. Once you go offline, you should tell your grievances to fuck off. Come on, lao di. Get on your account. I’ve recently been practicing my jungler. Take me flying. ”
Jiang Xing: “…”
“Ah, I forgot! You haven’t turned eighteen yet. You can only play for an hour at night during the holidays! How miserable.”
Jiang Xing silently opened the game and successfully logged in. Pei Zhiqi was dumbfounded. “How’d you do that?”
Jiang Xing said, “I used Auntie’s ID card. And by auntie, I mean your mom.”
The two entered the game and were engaged in a team battle when a phone call came. The caller ID was an unfamiliar number and the area was in Guangzhou. There was a high probability that it was a sales call so Jiang Xing swiped his finger over the screen, refusing the call.
‘Toot–‘
Ke Tang blinked and told Lin Qingyu, “Your husband hung up the phone.”
Lin Qingyu frowned. “What do you mean by hung up?”
Ke Tang said, “It means that he didn’t want to answer the call.”
Lin Qingyu’s eyes turned cold and he said coldly, “Why?”
“Must be because he saw an unfamiliar number and didn’t want to answer it. I would do the same.” Ke Tang said, “How about I send him a message?”
Lin Qingyu nodded. “Alright, thank you.”
Ke Tang typed out the message, checked it with Lin Qingyu and sent it after confirming that there was no problem: [Hello, I am an enthusiastic passer-by. Your wife is lost, without a mobile phone and he’s asking you to pick him up~]
Lin Qingyu and Ke Tang waited fifteen minutes for Jiang Xing’s reply:
[? ]
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