The chat box went quiet.
However, Gu Yebai’s heart did not settle along with the end of the conversation.
At this moment, his heart felt like a gathering storm.
‘She’s coming to Linchuan…’
Whenever he tried to settle down and write his novel, he could not help but mutter those words to himself.
The winter night wind repeatedly hammered against the window frames.
In this house where he lived alone, the loudest sound was his own heartbeat.
Gu Yebai was sincerely happy that she had finally made a decision and discarded all her confusion.
After coming to terms with everything, she had chosen to stand with her parents and accept their “biological son.”
She even said she would treat that lucky boy well to compensate him for the happiness he had lost.
It was truly a story where everyone won.
The problem was, she was coming to Linchuan.
She was coming to this small, coal-cinder-covered county in the Northeast.
‘Will we meet?’
The thought surfaced from the depths of his mind like an ill-timed spark.
Quickly, Gu Yebai gave himself a standard answer: Impossible.
Little Yi did not know the true identity of Baiye Duxing.
Like his other readers, she thought Baiye Duxing was a 24-year-old corporate slave living in Xinghai City, working at a private company, being exploited by his boss during the day, and surviving on his writing at night.
But that was a complete lie.
In Gu Yebai’s imagination, perhaps on some early morning when the sky was just barely light, he would be carrying his backpack and walking along the path to the Fifth Middle School.
Amidst the rushing crowds, she might be standing on another street, wearing a mask, walking with her father in a tailored suit and her mother with exquisite makeup.
They would brush past each other.
She would not look back.
Even if Gu Yebai saw her familiar red hair, he would not call out to her as Little Yi.
They shared everything online, yet they were strangers in reality.
There was no way she would ever associate a thin boy with dark circles under his eyes, wearing an old school uniform and looking malnourished, with the author she had always supported so fervently.
Absolutely not.
Even so, they would still, for a certain period, stand under the same gray sky, breathe the same air mixed with the scent of coal cinders, and step on the same slushy snow.
They just wouldn’t speak to each other, like parallel lines that would never intersect.
Once she and her parents found the boy, they would leave Linchuan.
This would likely be the closest Gu Yebai and Little Yi would ever be.
Gu Yebai closed his eyes, and against his will, a photo that Little Yi had once posted in the reader group surfaced in his mind.
Beneath her flowing red hair was a delicate side profile.
She had never shown her full face.
Gu Yebai’s phone screen was cracked like a spiderweb, fracturing the light into fragments, but even then, he could capture her charm from those glimpses.
“Good grief.”
Instead of writing, Gu Yebai first searched online to see if QQ friends could tell which friends were in the same city.
For safety’s sake, he even disabled his phone’s location services.
Beyond that, he turned off a series of features, including “People Nearby,” “City Recommendations,” and “People You May Know.”
He was somewhat afraid to meet her.
If the mask of Baiye Duxing were peeled away, would she be angry because of the lies?
Would she grow distant because he failed to meet her expectations?
Gu Yebai had nothing.
He was unremarkable, just a single speck of dust.
Yet she always sought him out to talk about her troubles, treating him like a close friend.
The more she did this, the more he feared losing her.
There had been other readers who appreciated his work.
They were passionate at first, but later, because a certain plot point didn’t meet their expectations, they gradually grew silent.
Finally, as if they had never existed, they vanished from his world.
If Little Yi also became one of the readers who left him one day, it would be truly heartbreaking.
His phone vibrated.
It was another reader who frequently chatted with him.
Yukino, an international student in Tokyo.
His avatar was Yukino Yukinoshita from Oregairu.
Out of interest, Gu Yebai had learned some basic Japanese, and he knew the ID translated to Yukino.
The guy was a winner in life—the type that made people jealous.
Yukino: Still haven’t updated?
Yukino: It’s almost 12:00 AM. If you don’t update, you’ll be eating dirt again next month.
Baiye Duxing: I’ve got some writer’s block.
Yukino: Were you just chatting with Yi?
Yukino: It’s all her fault that Little Bai can’t update on time.
Yukino: Stop having fantasies about that girl.
It’s useless.
Look at how she’s always traveling the world; she’s definitely met plenty of impressive men.
You don’t stand a chance~.
Baiye Duxing: I don’t have those kinds of thoughts.
Yukino: I hate nice girls.
Just exchanging greetings with them makes me overthink.
If we start texting, my heart skips a beat.
If they call me, I spend the whole day looking at my call history with a stupid grin.
I know that’s just them being nice.
If they’re nice to me, they’re nice to everyone else.
I almost forgot that.
Yukino: If the truth is cruel, then lies must be kind.
Therefore, kindness is a lie.
Yukino: Time and time again I’ve been disappointed.
I don’t know when it started, but I stopped hoping.
As someone trained in loneliness, I won’t fall for the same trick twice.
Yukino: I am a veteran warrior.
Yukino: If there was a competition for losing, I’d definitely be the strongest!
Yukino: That’s why I’ll always hate nice girls.
The great Master Yukino would frequently drop lines from Oregairu without changing a single word.
He was a complete fan of the series.
Every time Gu Yebai saw his little essays, he felt strangely annoyed.
But there was nothing he could do. Who told Yukino to be one of his top patrons?
He could only endure it.
Yukino: Forget that girl.
Yukino: Use your pen as a blade and become a strong, solitary warrior.
Yukino: Let me show you my girlfriend in a kimono.
Go ahead and be jealous.
Baiye Duxing: Didn’t you say you wanted to be a strong, solitary warrior?
Yukino: Sorry, I’m a normie.
Yukino: Go write your chapters, then look at my girlfriend and be envious!
Gu Yebai couldn’t be bothered to look at someone else’s girlfriend.
However, his gaze accidentally fell on the screen, and he was instantly stunned.
Under the streetlights of Shibuya in Tokyo, the girl’s skin was so fair it had an ethereal beauty.
Her straight black hair fell to her shoulder blades, and a blue kimono covered her delicate frame like a layer of still water.
The obi at her waist was neat and restrained. Beneath her sandals was pure, unsullied snow.
She looked like a girl from a traditional family, or perhaps a snow maiden.
Although she was smiling, she gave off the vibe of an emotionless girl, as if smiling was something she had to force…
Baiye Duxing: Is that really your girlfriend?
Yukino: Really. One hundred percent, an authentic traditional Japanese girl! I even have photos of her in a shrine maiden outfit!
Baiye Duxing: Is that really your girlfriend?
Yukino: Why are you asking again?
Baiye Duxing: A flashy guy like you could find a girl like this?
Baiye Duxing: Don’t try to fool your brother with a picture from the internet!
The same girl with long black hair in the blue kimono was holding a piece of paper to her chest.
On it, written in shaky Chinese, were the words: I am Yukino’s boyfriend.
I’m going to annoy Little Bai to death.
Heheh.
Her face seemed a bit more flushed than in the previous photo.
Being forced by her boyfriend to do something like this must have made her shy.
That damn Yukino!
To bully such a pure, innocent, and delicate Japanese girl—he deserved to die ten thousand deaths!
But there was no helping it.
He was a top patron.
That bastard Tokyo student.
Baiye Duxing: You jerk, I’m going to go write!
Yukino: I can smell the sourness of your jealousy.
Yukino: But do you still have time to update before 12:00 AM?