“Although I don’t know what happened to you, you’ve seen my place. There is only one bedroom. Even though the living room has a sofa, I don’t have any extra blankets. I really can’t host you tonight.”
“Do you still have your ID? I’ll get you a room at a hostel.”
The girl fell silent for a moment, then smiled at Xiao Nanchu.
“Never mind. Since it won’t work, I won’t trouble you. I’ll find a way!”
“I’m off! No need to see me out. Bye-bye~”
The girl stood up and walked toward the exit without a hint of hesitation.
Xiao Nanchu froze for a second. It felt as if he had seen this scene somewhere before.
***
[‘Do you have a place to stay? If not, just come to my place. We can squeeze in together!’]
[‘Forget it. Unless your daddy is truly out of options, there is absolutely no way I’m coming to seek refuge with you! You should be the one waiting to seek refuge with me!’]
However, the next day, he found him on a park bench. Upon being discovered, the guy merely grinned.
[‘It’s nothing. My wages were delayed by a day. It doesn’t matter where I sleep; it’s just for one day. There was no need to go looking for you. I’ll find a way!’]
That person’s name was Luo Taozhi (Original).
And just now, the girl had said almost the exact same words. The image of his best friend and the sight of the girl’s departing back gradually overlapped.
It lasted until the girl’s figure disappeared outside the door.
“Wait!”
Almost subconsciously, Xiao Nanchu snapped back to his senses and shouted toward the empty doorway.
He rushed out in a panic, feeling a sense of loss as he looked at the empty hallway. Without hesitation, he didn’t even have time to close his door before running down the stairs.
“Luo Taozhi, wait a second!”
The location of the apartment Xiao Nanchu rented was average, situated within a simple Urban Village. The building wasn’t tall, having only three floors, and his rented room was on the third floor.
Therefore, it didn’t take long to get downstairs. But by the time he reached the bottom, the girl’s figure was nowhere to be found in the narrow, straight alleyway.
“Luo Taozhi…” Xiao Nanchu murmured her name. The lonely sight of the girl’s back as she left was so vivid in his mind at that moment.
*Click-clack*
A strange Clock Ticking Sound rang out.
***
“Never mind. Since it won’t work, I won’t trouble you. I’ll find a way!”
“I’m off! No need to see me out. Bye-bye~”
The girl stood up and walked toward the exit without a hint of hesitation.
She didn’t want Xiao Nanchu to see her current weak state. She was afraid that in this world, even the last trace that could prove she once existed would vanish from Xiao Nanchu’s memories along with her tears.
‘Xiao Nanchu… he still can’t recognize me after all…’
‘Even though… even though I’ve suffered so much in Another World and experienced so many life-and-death struggles without shedding a single tear.’
‘But why… why can’t I control myself at a time like this? With my level of cultivation, I shouldn’t be unable to control my own body…’
Yet, why did she feel wet, flowing traces appearing on her cheeks?
Just as she was about to step out the door, Xiao Nanchu’s urgent voice came from behind her:
“Luo Taozhi! Don’t go!”
Hearing the voice, she stopped in her tracks, but she didn’t dare turn around. She was afraid that the Xiao Nanchu behind her would see her current weakness.
Fortunately, with her cultivation, disguising her voice to sound normal was not difficult.
“What’s wrong? You can’t bear to let a beautiful girl like your daddy leave?”
What answered her were hurried footsteps from behind and a pair of large hands firmly grasping her shoulders.
“We can squeeze in together. It’ll be fine.”
“Hmph, I don’t want to!”
Luo Taozhi forced her voice to remain steady, maintaining her previous tsundere act.
But her feet did not budge an inch, nor did she remove Xiao Nanchu’s hands from her shoulders.
“However, seeing as you’re so pitiful, your daddy might consider giving you a little bonus. Squeezing in is out of the question, though—your daddy will just sleep on the sofa!”
The latter part of the sentence was spoken extremely quickly, following immediately after her “I don’t want to.”
It was as if she were terrified that Xiao Nanchu would take her previous words seriously.
“Don’t be like that. It wouldn’t be right to make you sleep on the sofa. We’ll squeeze in; I don’t mind.”
Xiao Nanchu acted as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He gave Luo Taozhi’s shoulders a firm pat and then turned around.
“Come on, get inside. Let’s get this straight, though—I don’t have any change of clothes for you.”
“Get lost! Today, your daddy is definitely sleeping in your bed! You can just crawl onto the sofa like a good boy!”
Only after sensing Xiao Nanchu turn around did Luo Taozhi turn back. Her face was full of smiles, with only the faint, crystalline tear stains on her cheeks serving as evidence of her emotional outburst.
She quickly took two steps forward to keep pace with Xiao Nanchu and entered the small rented apartment, speaking with a laugh:
“Don’t worry about the change of clothes. Why? Were you planning to take them and… ew~”
“Knock it off. I just meant I don’t have any extra clothes for you to wear. Don’t end up sleeping on my sofa in smelly clothes!”
Xiao Nanchu didn’t even look back as he returned to his room.
“Hmph~ beautiful girls are always fragrant, okay!”
As Luo Taozhi watched Xiao Nanchu disappear from her sight, she quickly raised her hand and carefully sniffed herself with her small nose.
“I clearly smell good. This guy just knows how to slander me…”
With that, she happily walked into the shower in the bathroom.
Even though she wasn’t smelly, if she could take a bath, she definitely would. This was much more comfortable than using Mana to heat water in Another World.
‘Ah, the familiar comfort of modern industrial society…’
On the other side…
As soon as he closed his bedroom door, Xiao Nanchu clutched his head and collapsed to his knees.
Large beads of fine sweat rolled down the tip of his nose.
Headache. A violent pain continuously surged through his mind. At that moment, Xiao Nanchu felt as if his brain were being relentlessly ground by a giant millstone.
*Click-clack… Click-clack…*
The Clock Ticking Sound gradually faded, and the millstone in his mind finally slowed to a stop.
Gasping for breath, Xiao Nanchu climbed up from the floor and slumped powerlessly onto his bed.
‘What… what were those images I just saw?’
Xiao Nanchu had clearly seen a version of himself that seemed to exist in Another Timeline. In that timeline, he had hesitated for a moment and failed to stop Luo Taozhi in time.
Only then had he hurriedly shouted to make her stay.
He could clearly feel the regret that the version of him from that other timeline felt after realizing that Luo Taozhi was indeed Luo Taozhi (Original) but failing to keep her there.
His friend had clearly said before that unless there was no other choice, they would definitely not ask him for help.
Yet he had actually forgotten? He hadn’t remembered until the moment Luo Taozhi disappeared?
Even though the current Luo Tao… no, Luo Taozhi.
Even though the current Luo Taozhi didn’t quite feel like a human, her appearance was undeniably that of an absolute beauty!
If she really went to sleep on a park bench like before…
No. Regardless of what the truth was, he at least couldn’t stand by and watch his best friend sleep on the streets—especially since that friend was now a woman!
But… what was the deal with those images in his mind? What was that talk about Another Timeline?