Chapter 109: Picking Up a “Cat”
At 5:15 PM, Jiang Mei’s red sports car entered Gaoyuan Town.
The Lantern Festival officially started at 6:00 PM, but the town was already crowded, and the traffic was heavy.
“…The parking lots near the lantern festival are probably full. We’ll have to park further away and walk,” Jiang Mei said, checking the traffic on her phone while waiting in the long line of cars. When they reached the intersection, she decisively made a U-turn and drove away.
Fortunately, none of them minded walking, even though it was the first day of Jiang Xue and Xiao Luohan’s periods, their flow was still light, so they could manage.
“Such a small town, yet so many people come to see the lantern festival,” Xiao Luohan said, looking at the parked cars lining the streets.
“Yes, it’s an ancient town, after all, and they decorate it carefully for these festivals. Once its reputation spreads, many people come for the ‘nostalgia’,” Jiang Xue nodded. “It’s said that the government has also increased funding recently, and many old and dilapidated houses are being renovated. It will be even more beautiful in three to five years.”
“The roads will probably be widened too,” Jiang Mei added.
They chatted casually, and after spending some time finding a parking spot, they finally arrived at the ancient town at 5:50 PM.
The winter sky darkened early. As soon as they entered the town gate, they saw the colorful lanterns lining the riverbank, passenger boats carrying tourists slowly passing under the bridge, even the bow of each boat adorned with an ancient-style lantern.
“The pier is a little further ahead. The boats can take you around the town,” Jiang Xue pointed the way for Xiao Luohan. “But the river is narrow here, so there’s a queue.”
And the boat tickets were expensive, especially during this major festival, but even so, there were still many people taking the boat tour.
Seeing the long queue, Xiao Luohan frowned slightly. “Let’s walk for now. We can take the boat later when the crowd thins out.”
Today was the last day of the holiday for many people. According to Jiang Mei’s “experience,” to conserve energy for work the next day, most of the tourists would leave around 7:00 PM.
So the three strolled leisurely, stopping to take pictures of interesting lanterns and sending them to Xie Xitong, who couldn’t come.
Jiang Xue and Xiao Luohan were wearing matching hanfu-style dresses.
Xiao Luohan, as always, had her hair styled in her favorite half-updo. Jiang Xue had asked Teacher Sui to restyle her bangs, and the rest of her hair was braided and pinned up, adorned with a simple hair ornament with white petals and a red center.
There were many girls dressed up in the ancient town during this festival, and their outfits were relatively low-key and elegant.
But beauty always attracted beauty, and they were invited by many girls to take pictures together along the way.
Even Xiao Luohan, usually reserved in social situations, couldn’t help but tug on Jiang Xue’s sleeve, wanting to take pictures with the beautiful girls admiring the lanterns.
“Your younger sister isn’t jealous at all,” Xiao Linghan said to Jiang Mei, amused, as she watched her younger sister happily taking pictures with strangers. “There’s no possessiveness at all.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Jiang Mei didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. “If she’s wary of her girlfriend taking pictures with other girls, I think she needs to adjust her mentality.”
It was natural to be possessive of your girlfriend, but too much possessiveness could become extreme and unhealthy.
Passing by a stall selling lanterns, Jiang Xue stopped and bought two pairs of “light-up horns.”
She placed the pair with orange lights on Xiao Luohan’s head and wore the pink ones herself. They looked at each other for a few seconds, then both chuckled.
“This is so weird!”
“Very… unique…”
“Like demons from paintings.”
Xiao Luohan had also wanted to comment, but hearing a third voice, she looked over in surprise, next to Jiang Xue and herself.
It was a young woman in silver, traditional-style clothing, shorter than the two of them, looking up at the glowing horns on their heads with interest.
Her long, black hair cascaded down to her calves like a waterfall, and the hem of her silver dress, embroidered with celestial patterns, trailed on the ground.
—Such a conspicuously dressed young woman was currently being completely ignored by Jiang Xue and Xiao Luohan.
“…Can’t they see or hear her?”
Jiang Mei suddenly heard Xiao Linghan murmur.
But she didn’t see anyone beside her younger sisters and couldn’t help but ask, “Who are you talking about?”
Xiao Linghan didn’t answer, instead saying in a lower voice, “C-Call out to her for me.”
Jiang Mei was puzzled, but after their experiences these past few months, instead of suspecting that Xiao Linghan was hallucinating, she was more inclined to believe that there really was someone there.
So she softly called out the name Xiao Linghan had given her: “Cang Ling?”
From Jiang Mei’s perspective, nothing happened, but Xiao Linghan saw the young woman look up at them in surprise.
“Eh? Your Highness Zhemei…?”
The performance on the big stage nearby had already started, the music and the singing of the opera performers amplified through the speakers, drowning out their soft exchange.
“Then I’ll take Xiao Luo to watch the play?” Jiang Xue’s voice brought Jiang Mei back to her senses.
Jiang Mei hesitated for two seconds, then agreed, not wanting to interrupt the young couple’s date for now.
After watching her two younger sisters walk away hand in hand, she turned back to Xiao Linghan and asked, “Who did you see?”
“An… old friend who passed away many years ago,” Xiao Linghan’s gaze was still fixed on the young woman, who was slowly approaching, her eyes filled with curiosity as she looked at them.
Everyone was captivated by the performance on the big stage, so no one was here. Jiang Mei found a place to sit down, wanting to understand what was going on.
“Can you tell me more?” she asked seriously. “According to you, the passage between the two worlds should have been sealed, right?”
“Yes, I sealed it myself, using the last of my strength,” Xiao Linghan said, also unsure of the situation. “And… Cang Ling has been dead for a hundred years. If her prediction was correct, the moment the ‘intersection’ of the two worlds appeared was the time of her death.”
Cang Ling, the young woman confined to the Office of Astronomy her entire life, her old friend whom she still felt regret for, presumably Xie Xitong’s counterpart in the ancient world.
It was she who had guided Xiao Linghan, and together, they had created this transtemporal bond at the moment the two worlds intersected. The price was her life.
“I didn’t come through the passage,” the young woman suddenly said. “If I have to explain, because I interfered the most, involved in the causality of both worlds, I became a bug.”
Xiao Linghan, having learned many new terms in this world from Jiang Mei, naturally understood what “bug” meant. She looked at the young woman, even more shocked.
Sharing the same body, although Jiang Mei could sense Xiao Linghan’s thoughts, she couldn’t see or hear Cang Ling and frowned. “What did Cang Ling say?”
Xiao Linghan came back to her senses and relayed her old friend’s words, equally puzzled.
“But I didn’t expect to see Your Highness again,” Cang Ling continued, moving closer to Jiang Mei. “Your Highness, take me with you. Wandering alone in this world is quite boring.”
She hadn’t known the meaning of life when she was alive, but the intersection of the two worlds had shown her her true path, so she had willingly sacrificed her life.
“…She wants to come home with us,” Xiao Linghan relayed. “Let’s take her with us when we go back.”
“I don’t mind, but not being able to see her… or is it her soul? It’s a bit troublesome.” Jiang Mei frowned, took out her phone, and sent a message to Xie Xitong, asking her to inform Grandma Xie.
It was just a coincidence that Xie Xitong, with her “yin-yang eyes,” had a fever and wasn’t here today, and they had “picked up” an ancient soul while strolling through the lantern festival.
Jiang Xue and Xiao Luohan, hand in hand, watching the play, were unaware of this. It wasn’t until their phones buzzed repeatedly with WeChat notifications that Jiang Xue hurriedly took out her phone to mute it and saw Xie Xitong’s question.
【XiXi Can’t Move (Holiday Study Edition): When are you coming back? I want to see the new kitty we picked up! [starry-eyed.gif]】
Jiang Xue: ???
What kitty? Why didn’t she know about this?
“Did my sister pick up a cat?” she asked, puzzled, looking towards where Jiang Mei was, but didn’t see any cat.
Hearing this, Xiao Luohan, who had been engrossed in the play, was also curious. “Should we go back and take a look?”
The plays in the ancient town were livestreamed and recorded, so they could watch them later. The cat was more important.
So they made their way through the crowd, returning to Jiang Mei’s side, only to find that she was still alone.
“A-Xi is urging us to go back and show her the new kitty we picked up,” Jiang Xue said directly. “So… where’s the cat?”
Jiang Mei paused, about to explain, when the young woman sitting beside her turned around and meowed.
“…It’s not a cat, it’s a soul,” Jiang Mei said, feeling a headache coming on. “Not only could you not see her, I couldn’t either at first. Later, she used some kind of magic, and then I could see and hear her.”
Cang Ling: “Meow.”
Jiang Mei couldn’t understand this thought process of treating herself and others as cats. To help her two younger sisters understand her current feelings, she asked Cang Ling to cast the spell on them as well.
Seeing Cang Ling’s appearance, Jiang Xue was also shocked.
Besides her height and temperament, she looked exactly like Xie Xitong!
After hearing Jiang Mei’s explanation, Jiang Xue asked uncertainly, “Should we go back immediately and take her to the Xie family?”
“No!” Cang Ling shook her head. “I still want to walk around with you. I want to know why so many people come here today.”
She walked towards the river, leaned on the railing, and pointed at the passing boats below. “I want to ride on that! The lanterns must look beautiful from the boat!”
“There’s a long queue now. We have to wait until the crowd thins out,” Xiao Luohan said. “I also want to ‘explore’ some shops with A-Xue. Do you want to join us?”
Besides the various lanterns, what attracted her most in this town were the antique shops along the street and the staff in traditional clothing.
She had never strolled through the streets in ancient times, and after coming here, although she had been to many markets with Jiang Xue, she was still particularly interested in this “ancient town” that resembled the era she was more familiar with.
“Sure!” Cang Ling immediately agreed, her eyes curving into a smile. “But I won’t go with you two, I’ll go with Your Highness.”
This was a couple tied by the red string of fate, and she wanted to enjoy the show.
