“A phone! A phone!! So this is what technology feels like! This is the crystallization of human wisdom!”
Under the bright sunlight, Luo Taozhi held her phone high toward the sky. Her expression was vivid, and her voice overflowed with excitement she couldn’t suppress.
“Hey, hey, it’s just a phone. Don’t get so worked up.”
The girl’s joyful, jumping figure was so dazzling that Xiao Nanchu, standing beside her, felt a wave of heat. He had a sudden, strong urge to bury himself in the ground.
How could he not feel the heat?
Luo Taozhi didn’t have any other clothes, so she was still wearing that set of ancient-style robes. She was already an eye-catcher in a crowd, but when you added her stunningly beautiful face and her dramatic, actress-like movements, the level of attention she drew in this mall was simply too high!
Xiao Nanchu felt like he could actually hear the whispers of the passersby.
‘Tsk tsk, such a pretty girl, and she gets this excited just because her boyfriend bought her a Dami phone!’
‘Is that girl an actress? She’s so beautiful! It’s a pity the guy next to her is a bit of an eyesore.’
‘Are they filming? It’s like she hasn’t seen a phone in hundreds of years. Is her boyfriend treating her poorly?’
Waves of gazes like these kept hitting Xiao Nanchu, making him want to leave immediately.
“Miss, are you a cosplayer?! What character is that? You’re so pretty! It’s like you really walked right out of the 2D world!”
Hmm? Why were the hallucinations in his head so realistic? It felt like he was hearing them with his own ears.
Xiao Nanchu snapped back to reality. As his unfocused pupils regained their clarity, he immediately saw several young girls who had gathered around Luo Taozhi at some point. They were chirping away, asking for a photo together.
“Ah, kau-soo?”
Luo Taozhi didn’t understand. As someone who had never been exposed to this world’s subcultures, how could she know what they were talking about?
“Yes, yes! Can we take a photo together, Miss?!”
Oh, she understood that part.
“Of course!”
The feeling of being surrounded by soft, fragrant girls was actually quite pleasant, even if they were just praising her beauty and her figure.
Luo Taozhi had long since grown accustomed to such things. She could now accept these compliments as a matter of course!
As for photos, that was naturally no problem at all!
“Great! Miss, look over here!”
The girls crowded around Luo Taozhi and began snapping pictures.
However, other passersby saw Luo Taozhi’s appearance and outfit, and seeing a group of people taking photos, they assumed she was some kind of minor celebrity. They quickly joined the queue for a photo.
The crowd grew larger and larger, even forming a fairly long line.
Xiao Nanchu watched, feeling a bit numb, but Luo Taozhi, standing in the center of the crowd, didn’t seem out of place at all.
So what if there were a few more people? All she had to do was stand there.
She was used to this. Back at the sect, as the Saintess of her generation, she always had to go out and maintain appearances whenever there was a major event.
She had been a bit uncomfortable at first, but it became much better later on.
Regardless, she just had to stand there. With her cultivation level, she could stand anywhere for dozens or even hundreds of years without a problem!
Though, she wouldn’t actually want to stand there that long.
Because she was in “business mode,” Luo Taozhi subconsciously adopted the expression of a Sect Saintess.
Cold, elegant, and refined—like the stubborn, unmelting ice atop a high mountain.
Her beautiful eyes were as calm as an ancient well, as if no one in the surrounding crowd was worth a second look.
The aura unique to a high-ranking member of the Cultivation World emerged, making her seem ethereal and fleeting, as if she were not a person of the mortal realm.
In the Cultivation World, almost no one would dare to step forward if they saw Luo Taozhi like this.
The cultivators, who lived in a world of clear hierarchies and strict protocols, would be terrified that approaching her would offend the Saintess and result in their heads rolling.
But this world was different. Everyone was equal, and society was harmonious and loving. Therefore, seeing Luo Taozhi like this only made more people join the line!
The queue stretched into a long dragon. The girls who had first asked for a photo even began to voluntarily maintain order.
But in reality, no one was disrupting the peace.
First, everyone was young and had gone through compulsory education, so they had basic manners.
Second, the aura of a superior being radiating from Luo Taozhi was right there. Any small-timers who harbored indecent thoughts were suppressed by an invisible pressure that made it difficult for them to breathe.
Xiao Nanchu stood not far away, watching the sunlight stream through the mall windows and fall onto Luo Taozhi.
He stared blankly, feeling a strange sense of unfamiliarity toward his friend.
He looked at the cold temperament surrounding Luo Taozhi and suddenly thought of the original Luo Taozhi from university — the one who always wore a washed-out T-shirt and held back tears when facing the work he gave him. The two figures intertwined and overlapped in his mind, then gradually separated into clear distinctions.
Three months.
For him, only three months had passed.
But it seemed this friend had already walked a path he could never have imagined.
Cultivation — that path did not seem as free and easy as he had pictured. He found it difficult to imagine the things his friend had experienced and the effort he had put in to survive in that body.
He watched blankly for an unknown amount of time.
“Oi! What are you staring at, you blockhead?”
The girl’s voice was no different than before. Everything was exactly the same as when they had left that morning.
Xiao Nanchu snapped out of it and looked at the person grinning in front of him. It felt as if the icy fairy he had seen just moments ago was merely a hallucination.
As Luo Taozhi spoke, she reached out and patted Xiao Nanchu on the shoulder, a mischievous glint in her eyes.
“Why the daze? Could it be that you’re jealous because your old man is so popular?”
As she spoke, she waved the phone with the still-glowing screen in her hand.
“I just saw it! I’ve only been gone for three months, right?! How is a virtual reality game already out!?”
Luo Taozhi’s fingertips slid quickly across the screen, her eyes shining brightly.
While speaking, she shoved a large promotional poster for the game Xushi right into Xiao Nanchu’s face, looking as if she wanted to stuff his entire head into the screen.
“What’s going on, what’s going on?! Why didn’t you tell your old man about such a huge thing!”
“A virtual reality game! Just like Sword Art Online! We can actually play a virtual reality game!”
“And it’s so cheap!?”
“I don’t want the phone anymore. Can you buy me this instead?!”
Luo Taozhi’s voice chirped incessantly in Xiao Nanchu’s ear.
Quickly pushing her away, Xiao Nanchu took a deep breath.
The image of the cold fairy in his mind was completely shattered.
Sure enough, Luo Taozhi was still the same Luo Taozhi!
“Alright, stop shouting. This has been advertised for a month. I pre-ordered it ages ago!”
“What!? You brat, you pre-ordered it already?!”
Luo Taozhi wore a look of utter disbelief, and then she felt as if the sky was falling.
“You… this is betrayal!”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier! Where is my share!”
“If you don’t buy one for me, I’m going to tell your mother! Don’t forget that you’re using me as your fake girlfriend to trick her!”
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