Behind them, aside from a few tourists strolling in pairs or small groups, there was no one else. It had been a false alarm, but Liang Sheng’s heart still raced. She kept rubbing her small hands together nervously.
“Your real name is Lan Yueying, isn’t it?” Akino Kazuko finally remembered the question she wanted to ask and blurted it out.
Liang Sheng watched Ling Dang just as tensely.
Ling Dang’s body jolted sharply. She began to tremble, lifting a hand to clutch her head. “Lan, Lan? Lan? No, no, Ling Dang. Hai, Hai, call me Lan, Lan.”
Liang Sheng sensed something was wrong with Ling Dang. When she saw the other’s face twisted into a frightening grimace, she panicked and quickly pulled Ling Dang’s head into her embrace. “Sister Ling Dang! Don’t think about it anymore!”
The trembling figure in her arms gradually calmed. Once more, she stared blankly out at the sea.
They needed to speed things up with the questions. Otherwise, that Old Lady trailing behind Ling Dang would appear again before they knew it.
Suddenly, a strange question popped into Liang Sheng’s mind.
Her mouth began opening and closing on its own, as if beyond her control.
“Ling Dang, how long have you been alive?”
Liang Sheng was stunned by her own words. Surprised, she clapped a hand over her mouth.
Ling Dang lowered her head and stared at her palms. She began counting on her fingers. “A year? Oh, no—a hundred years, maybe. Or close to three hundred. So painful, so painful… Hai, Hai, when will it end?”
Liang Sheng’s jaw nearly hit the ground. Transmigration and reset loops were bizarre enough, but living for centuries? That was on another level of absurdity.
“Sister Ling Dang, could you…” Liang Sheng asked hesitantly, “tell me the story of you and Hai?”
Ling Dang said nothing.
Liang Sheng fell silent too. She watched Ling Dang quietly, hoping she would speak.
Ten minutes dragged by. Just as Liang Sheng was starting to lose hope, Ling Dang smiled. Her red lips parted slightly.
“The first time I met Hai, he was just a little boy.”
Liang Sheng noticed right away that Ling Dang’s words now flowed smoothly, her thoughts clear and structured.
“He only came up to my waist. In Willow Smoke Alley, he bounced around, helping his parents sell tanghulu.”
Wait—Willow Smoke Alley? Selling tanghulu? Something felt off to Liang Sheng.
“He was so young and clueless, right in the middle of the road. A nobleman came riding by on horseback, barreling straight toward him.”
Liang Sheng was utterly dumbfounded. A nobleman on horseback? That screamed ancient times.
Damn, this was getting weirder by the second. Liang Sheng cursed under her breath, and her Favorability System Akino Kazuko muttered curses right along with her.
“And then…” Ling Dang started to say.
“Ai yo~ My precious miss~~” That strange yet oddly familiar voice wailed from afar.
“Holy shit!” Liang Sheng shot to her feet. Her legs churned like they had engines strapped to them, and she vanished in a sprint.
After dashing over a kilometer, Liang Sheng finally stopped, gasping for air. She snarled curses. “That old hag shows up right on cue every time! Hmph, I still remember when Scarface chucked me into the sea—she jumped in to back him up, claiming I pushed their young miss in!”
Akino Kazuko burst out laughing. “You really hold a grudge. Still, we’ve picked up a ton of info this time.”
“So? Any clues pieced together yet?” Liang Sheng ignored the teasing and flopped onto the ground to catch her breath. She hadn’t run that far in ages; oxygen deprivation left her brain too foggy to think straight.
Akino Kazuko smacked her host on the forehead. “Let’s get back to your inn first. Too many people around here—you really think talking to yourself looks normal? Not scared they’ll call you crazy?”
Liang Sheng glanced at the strange looks from the people nearby. She’d gotten used to them.
From today on, she wouldn’t fear others’ stares! I am who I am! A one-of-a-kind firework!
Smack!
The slap shattered her delusions of grandeur.
“Move it back to the inn. You’re embarrassing me.”
Liang Sheng slunk toward the inn.
Along the way, she replayed her conversation with Ling Dang in her head.
“Oh, right—I recorded it.” Liang Sheng pulled out her phone and waved it smugly in front of her system. “Bet you didn’t see that coming. Pretty clever, huh?”
“Yeah,” Akino Kazuko said with a sigh of admiration. “Liang Sheng’s been sharp since she was a kid.”
“…”
Thwack!
“Ow!” Akino Kazuko clutched her head in pain.
“Fewer short videos—they’re brain rot!” Liang Sheng shook out her stinging palm, grumbling that her system’s skull was rock-hard.
She unlocked her phone, plugged in her earbuds, and hit play on the recording.
“Lan, Lan? Lan? No, no, Ling Dang. Hai, Hai, call me, Lan, Lan.”
Eerie. Liang Sheng frowned, rewound the clip, and listened twice more.
“Lan—that’s gotta be Lan Yueying, right?” As she walked, Liang Sheng analyzed the audio with her system.
She kicked a stray pebble aside. “Ling Dang goes without saying.”
“Hai’s probably the guy she likes.”
“Then the end… ‘call me, Lan.'”
Liang Sheng rubbed her chin. Enlightenment struck.
“‘Call me Lan!’ Meaning a guy whose name has ‘Hai’ in it calls Ling Dang ‘Lan Yueying’! And there’s an eighty or ninety percent chance that guy’s Scarface!”
The explosive deduction left Akino Kazuko and Liang Sheng both dumbfounded.
“And you speculated before…” Akino Kazuko eyed her host. “That Scarface might be Su Ze.”
Silence crashed down in an instant.
Liang Sheng drew a deep breath. “It’s looking likely. Remember his chats with the Heartthrob Value System? Su Ze doesn’t even know what loop he’s on—he’s won so many times. So Ling Dang’s centuries of life? Probably true.”
Goosebumps prickled Liang Sheng’s skin as she spoke. Terrifying when you really thought about it. If Su Ze had lived for centuries, he was some kind of ancient freak!
“Hey, Kazuko—what do you systems get for winning?”
Akino Kazuko froze, then forced an awkward laugh. “I, uh, lost some memories…”
“But you remember bits, right?” Liang Sheng scrutinized the Akino Kazuko hovering in midair. She’d already guessed most of it.
“I really forgot! No way I’d remember something like that, haha!” The laugh rang even more hollow.
“Spill it or not?”
Sweat beaded on Akino Kazuko’s brow. “Fine, fine! Just don’t come closer!”
