Volume 12
Chapter 29: Sister and Sister
Under Lu Li’s deliberate guidance of the conversation, the atmosphere between the two of them became more and more harmonious. Little Qiao also gradually shed her shyness and enthusiastically described how much she liked the Evening Collection that Lu Li had made. When she got excited, Little Qiao’s body would subconsciously lean closer to Lu Li, the smile on her face never ceasing. Among the girls Lu Li knew—to put it this way was not very polite—only Little Qiao and Jingyi were the easiest to get along with. They were both equally pure, sensible, and well-behaved. Often, one didn’t need to spend too much effort in maintaining an intimate relationship.
Zhu Xi had been sitting to the side, silently drinking her bubble tea, watching Lu Li and her sister chat happily. There was an indescribable emotion in her heart. To be honest, seeing Lu Li carrying Little Qiao on his back through the barrage of gunfire, she had indeed developed a certain trust in this scumbag man. Maybe Little Qiao would be happy with him in the future? Although the scumbag man was philandering, he was also extremely passionate and sincere, a perfect match for the transparent-minded Little Qiao. This was also the reason why she hadn’t chosen to backtrack to an earlier time to prevent Little Qiao from coming into contact with Lu Li.
But… Zhu Xi gently bit her straw. Her heart felt blocked, not very comfortable. There was a sense of emptiness, of her own thing gradually being lost. She knew very well that Lu Li was not her thing, and also knew that the physical relationship between them was not healthy, but…
Her head ached more and more. Zhu Xi hadn’t told Lu Li that ever since the backtracking began, her head had been faintly aching. Now it ached so much she almost had to make a sound.
Perhaps it was because they had altered history too much, or perhaps because she was too immersed in the past. She didn’t know.
Zhu Xi suddenly thought, if she gritted her teeth and persisted in backtracking further, would she have a chance to see the mother who was gradually fading in her memory?
She pulled the red thread, signaling to Lu Li that it was about time. When she pulled the red thread, a sense of relief from an unknown source arose in Zhu Xi’s heart, as if another version of herself were saying: It’s finally over…
“Then, Little Qiao, it’s settled. Come find me in Chuanhai to play in the future. If you can’t send me a message, you can write me a letter. My address is this…” Lu Li left the address of the Chuanhai Low-Rent District. After thinking about it, he also wrote down his future residence in Mulan.
Zhu Qiao was still a little reluctant to part. She looked at the wall clock. “It’s only nine o’clock… Mr. Producer, can you stay a little longer?” Her little mouth pouted, looking quite pitiful. It was an honor to be so attached to such a cute girl, but he had a more important task now.
“Little Qiao, being a game producer is very busy. You want to play the next game as soon as possible, right?”
In truth, Zhu Qiao would have preferred to sit and chat with Sister Xi and Mr. Producer, but she still nodded obediently. “Alright then.”
Zhu Xi also stood up straight. “Then, Little Qiao, I’ll walk him a bit. You go back to the car and wait for me for a little while, okay?”
After Lu Li and Zhu Xi left the bubble tea shop, Zhu Xi’s body suddenly went limp. Fortunately, Lu Li was quick-witted and caught the Fourteenth Princess in one fell swoop. His hand felt a wave of warmth. “Zhu Xi? Are you okay?” Lu Li had always felt this question was nonsense. Usually, when this question was asked, it meant the other person was not okay.
Zhu Xi shook her head. “I’m fine. This way, Little Qiao won’t become jealous, and the first taboo won’t be violated.” Lu Li didn’t answer. In truth, he was uneasy about the impact the backtracking could have. If they altered the past too much, would it cause the future to become completely unrecognizable? For example, if Little Qiao didn’t violate any taboos, she naturally wouldn’t go looking for Lu Li, let alone be sent to the ancestral hall on the verge of death. Then could he and Zhu Xi still go back?
No one could answer.
If it really came to that, they might truly have only one path left: Rebirth.
At least for now, it seemed their mission was basically complete, although not perfectly.
“We can go back now.” Lu Li supported Zhu Xi to a deserted corner. This mission to save Little Qiao was a little simpler than he had imagined.
“…”
“Zhu Xi, we can go back now.”
“…”
“Zhu Xi? Are you listening?”
“You with the surname Lu, we can’t go back.” Zhu Xi suddenly looked up at him, a trace of panic in her eyes. “The Colored Stone isn’t responding.”
“?” The huge stone in Lu Li’s heart collapsed with a crash, crushing his heart in the ruins. “Why isn’t it responding?”
“I feel like it’s out of my control now. I can’t use it anymore.” Before her words had even fallen, Zhu Xi suddenly clutched her head and let out a miserable scream. Lu Li immediately understood her current situation—it was the same when he had backtracked in Shanzhu Village. As the backtracking went deeper, the headache would become more and more intense.
“Zhu Xi, hold on. We can also go back when Hupo wakes up.” Grandma Zhu had already told them of the alternative way out before they came.
However, in the next second, the Colored Stone flashed with a white light, and the two of them suddenly began to backtrack, not the flash-like backtracking that Zhu Xi had controlled before, but a continuous backtracking as if they had entered a time tunnel. The scenery around them gradually became abstract colors and geometric shapes. Everything seemed to be rewinding like a videotape, reversing in a strange way.
This sudden change left Lu Li at a loss. He could only hold the pained Zhu Xi, waiting for the change to end. Maybe it was a minute, maybe it was an hour. The concept of time was blurred here. It took Lu Li a long time to get used to this reversed way of observing. When he looked down at Zhu Xi again, he was startled by her change.
Zhu Xi was now clutching her head, her face contorted, her eyes red. The lines and colors of her body seemed to have been erased by an eraser, leaving a trail in the backtracking, as if in the next second, her entire person would be wiped away by some unknowable force. The only thing maintaining her existence was the red thread between him and her.
“…You with the surname Lu, I… feel… so much pain… it’s like… someone is taking my body apart…” Zhu Xi’s teeth were almost about to shatter.
Lu Li held her tight. His brain was spinning at high speed, guessing why it was Zhu Xi who had this abnormality. Was it because she was holding the Colored Stone? Or was it because her image in Hupo’s memory was relatively thin? While comforting Zhu Xi, he took off the Colored Stone hanging around her neck, but even so, Zhu Xi’s pain did not diminish in the slightest.
The red thread also suddenly began to tremble violently, as if it were about to be snapped by a strong impact in the next second. Of course, Lu Li wouldn’t abandon her. He wrapped the red thread a few more times around his little finger, making his existence and Zhu Xi’s existence more closely linked. The good news was that the abnormality on Zhu Xi’s body also gradually weakened because of this. The bad news was that a similar phenomenon also appeared on Lu Li.
Zhu Xi got a chance to catch her breath, breathing rapidly. At this time, she heard Lu Li’s comforting voice. “It’s okay, just hold on a little longer… just hold on a little longer and we can go back.” Who does he think he is? Does he think he’s Little Qiao? Zhu Xi couldn’t help but laugh. She glanced at the scumbag man, only to find that the scumbag man was now gritting his teeth, the lines and colors of his body also stretching bit by bit.
Perhaps even fifty years later, Zhu Xi would not have the kind of soul-shaking tremor she felt at this moment. Back when she was trapped in the snow and was saved by Lu Li, who had risked his life, she could still think of it as just the struggle of two pitiful, trapped beasts. But now, in this disordered backtracking, being saved once again by Lu Li, who could have stayed out of it, she could no longer find any more excuses or reasons.
Zhu Xi went to untie the red thread from Lu Li’s hand. She was a strong-willed person; she didn’t want an outsider to bear the consequences that should have been hers. But Lu Li grabbed her hand and said seriously, “We’ll go back to see Little Qiao together.”
Zhu Xi looked at Lu Li’s large hand and suddenly thought, in this life, the number of times my grandmother has held my hand is probably not as many as Lu Li has.
