Chapter 41: ……

If it had been before, she wouldn’t have thought much about these things.

Since she’d come this far, she might as well make the best of it. That was something she often told herself.

But after emerging from the rift, she realized another segment of her memory was missing.

A segment that was very important to her.

Yue Yiyue hated this feeling.

It was the sensation of being toyed with by fate, of being arbitrarily reshaped.

She particularly hated it.

After the College Entrance Exam, she’d inexplicably lost a segment of memory.

When she woke up, she was in the hospital. She didn’t know exactly what had happened—kind people had found her in a house and rescued her.

She was physically fine, but she lay in a coma for half a year before waking up.

Just like that, her life underwent earth-shattering changes.

Had she hated it?

She had.

Her beautiful life had just begun, only to end abruptly.

But life was so long; there would always be other ways.

Later, she received this information.

She hadn’t remembered much from elementary school anyway, so that was pretty normal.

In middle school, she got along very well with her Little Sister.

High school… In high school, her Little Sister went somewhere else. She secretly found a place to cry, and later her Little Sister…

Looking at the “It” character on her phone,

Yue Yiyue realized something was off.

There were clearly many Little Sisters in the Orphanage, but the one who always came to mind was the sister who always wore a white dress, with long hair draped over her shoulders and a tiny red mole on her collarbone.

There was clearly another Little Sister who had a scar on her face because of her, but Yue Yiyue only remembered her when she saw similar scenes…

Perhaps she should ask Gu Nanqiu to arrange a meeting with Ye Qiu.

With this thought, Yue Yiyue walked into the study, picked up the notebook, wrote down all her doubts, took a photo, and saved it to her phone.

As she did so, a neatly folded sheet of paper fell out of the notebook.

Yue Yiyue stared at the paper, stained with large patches of bright red ink, and fell deep into thought.

————

When Gu Nanqiu woke up, it was already the next day.

After washing up, she hung onto Yue Yiyue like a large pendant doll: “We’ve been apart for too long. I think we need to stick together every moment now to properly make up for that time.”

“Yiyue, let’s go out tonight. We can go soak in the Hot Spring Pool in the Neighboring City. It’s almost autumn, and the temperature is cooling down bit by bit.”

When Gu Nanqiu mentioned this, Yue Yiyue recalled that after entering the rift, her period that month had lasted only about two days.

Would it affect her next period?

Would it cause menstrual cramps?

Would it lead to strange emotional fluctuations due to hormones?

Thinking about these things, Yue Yiyue’s expression grew increasingly serious, as if facing a great enemy.

Not having periods was fine, but she really didn’t like the pain.

She had heavy cold energy in her body; when the pain hit, it was like the sky collapsing and the earth splitting.

Gu Nanqiu saw Yue Yiyue’s serious look and felt a bit guilty. She kind of wanted to read Yue Yiyue’s thoughts.

But in past memories, Yue Yiyue particularly disliked this action. After weighing it over and over, Gu Nanqiu restrained herself.

She should avoid doing things Yue Yiyue disliked as much as possible—best not to do them at all.

“What’s wrong, Yiyue?” If there were doubts, it was best to ask directly instead of guessing wildly in her heart. That was one of the secrets to keeping a relationship going, according to the book.

Gu Nanqiu prepared herself to listen attentively.

“Nanqiu, I want to ask, do you know what happened to me after I disappeared?” Yue Yiyue thought this was a good opportunity. Gu Nanqiu definitely knew something, but she absolutely wouldn’t tell the truth. So she could just call out Ye Qiu—one step at a time.

“I have some questions about my period that I want to ask Ye Qiu. Can you contact your cousin? Let’s skip the neighboring city tomorrow and go to that Cake Shop you’ve always wanted to visit, eat cake, take photos.”

“Also, best to ask if your cousin has time. I want to thank her; she’s worked hard on this matter too.”

————

At the entrance of the Cake Shop.

Yue Yiyue saw that it was packed inside and worried there might be no seats, but seeing Gu Nanqiu head straight inside, she followed.

After the ding-a-ling of the door opening, she first smelled the sweet, appetite-stirring scent of bread, followed by the melodious violin music that added a touch of romance to the place.

Cream-white walls paired with dark sofas, and in the huge display cases, all sorts of pretty and delicious little cakes were arranged.

Some customers took photos, some sipped drinks while chatting softly.

At one table, two children acting like little adults competed to see who could eat cake faster and neater, amusing the adults beside them into muffled laughter.

Yue Yiyue withdrew her gaze and looked up at the second floor of the Cake Shop, thinking there should still be seats upstairs. She wondered if Ye Qiu had arrived yet.

The shop assistant spotted the people at the door and trotted over, bowing with a beaming smile toward Gu Nanqiu: “Are you Miss Gu? Please come in; we’ve reserved a private room for you—”

The shop assistant placed the prepared desserts and drinks on the table, added some gifts, and emphasized that these were Gu Nanqiu’s exclusives.

She finished with a peculiar smile and closed the door.

Four different flavored cakes, plus some cookies.

Only two drinks: one topped with a cute smiling puppy face, the other with a smiling kitten.

“Yiyue, look at me.”

Click. The shutter captured the moment on Gu Nanqiu’s phone.

Looking at the photo of Yue Yiyue, Gu Nanqiu handed over the phone: “This photo is nice. The puppy looks a bit like you—both have that honest, cute vibe.”

In the photo, Yue Yiyue was looking down at the puppy chocolate on top, her gaze focused with curiosity and exploration, as if talking to the little dog.

“Alright, now it’s time for our couple photo!”

With that, Gu Nanqiu quickly sat in Yue Yiyue’s lap, holding a small cake in one hand and the phone in the other.

Ten minutes later, Gu Nanqiu updated her Moments with a nine-grid photo set.

She even changed her profile picture.

So did Yue Yiyue.

Exaggerated red notification dots popped up, and comments flooded in rapidly.

Yue Yiyue saw many classmates asking for Gu Nanqiu’s contact info and if they could save the photos.

Mixed in were Gu Ye’s frantic question marks.

Yue Yiyue turned off her phone screen. Out of sight, out of mind.

From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed Gu Nanqiu’s phone with something like “Sister-in-law doesn’t seem like proper Chaos material? Have you met Mother?”

Gu Nanqiu turned off her screen and smiled apologetically at Yiyue: “Sorry, the kid at home is ignorant and doesn’t understand this~ I’ll go explain later.”

“No, no, no need.” Yue Yiyue hugged Gu Nanqiu, feeling embarrassed.

She lowered her head onto Gu Nanqiu’s shoulder, her tone a bit muffled: “It’s fine. Kids don’t understand; explaining is troublesome. Sorry, I didn’t mean to peek at your phone.”

“Hey, Yiyue, I already gave you my password. What’s there to it?” Gu Nanqiu forked a small cake from in front and brought it to Yue Yiyue’s mouth: “Come on, no more talk—eat—”

The sweet-tart strawberry filled her mouth, nothing like the overripe ones she had to save up for, which only tasted sour.

Footsteps sounded behind her. Gu Nanqiu glanced at the person fake-smiling her way up the stairs. For the sake of their previous peace, she cursed inwardly: She knows what we’re doing and still comes up. Really, she doesn’t know when to wait.

Her lap suddenly emptied. Yue Yiyue wasn’t quite used to it, but Ye Qiu’s arrival distracted her.

A big bag of fruit was placed on the table—kiwis, raspberries, blueberries at a glance.

A miscellaneous bag.

Ye Qiu wore a thin coat and sunglasses, looking every bit the elite.

“Cousin, hello. Just sit next to Nanqiu? Is that okay?”

Ye Qiu took off her sunglasses and sat beside Gu Nanqiu: “Didn’t you order the cake I wanted?”

“I did; it’ll come soon. Just wait a bit. Now that you’re here, you can take some photos for me and Yiyue later.” Gu Nanqiu moved the bag on the table aside: “Yiyue, do you want to order anything else? Your cousin will take us to dinner later, so I didn’t order too much. We can pack whatever else you want.”

Yue Yiyue, who had been subtly comparing their faces, nodded absentmindedly. “We can take a strawberry-related cake later, or strawberry jam. These flavors are all pretty good.”

The moment she saw Ye Qiu, Yue Yiyue became even more certain that something was wrong with her too.

Though her mind always kept Ye Qiu’s face in a fuzzy state.

But seeing this face today, she felt it was wrong.

Ye Qiu shouldn’t look like this.

She buried her doubts deep and chatted idly with them.

As they talked, Gu Nanqiu changed the subject: “Yiyue, didn’t you say you had something to ask my cousin?”

Gu Nanqiu picked up her teacup and smiled at Yue Yiyue: “Do you need me to step out?”

“Oh, no need.” Yue Yiyue ate the last strawberry on the plate: “Speaking of which, in the rift, my period stopped. Will it affect my body?”

After a brief silence came Ye Qiu’s exaggerated laughter.

“Oh my god, I thought the rift had some weird effect on you, making you see illusions or something.” Ye Qiu raised an eyebrow: “Darling, of course it won’t affect you~ That cup of Ginger Milk was a supplement after all.”

With her doubts resolved, Yue Yiyue thanked her sincerely: “That’s good. But speaking of illusions, I have some questions. Lately, I’ve been seeing fleeting phantoms in the corners of the house.”

Yue Yiyue feigned distress: “I suspect there’s an octopus or squid hiding in the house?”

“I don’t know what it is, but it’s some kind of soft-bodied creature.”

“Including before, I felt something soft pressing on me. These should be effects of the rift, right?”

Silence fell over the private room.

The entire private room fell into a strange silence.

After a long moment, Gu Nanqiu took a sip of the drink in front of her. “It’s the rift’s effect.”

“Yiyue, you’ve been doing all the cleaning at home lately. You know the house is spotless, not even a mosquito.”

“I didn’t know Nanqiu had a hobby of keeping these things either, but the rift does have this kind of effect! Oh, Yiyue, speaking of which, we don’t seem to have each other’s contact yet.”

Ye Qiu awkwardly shifted the topic: “We’re family, right? If there’s anything later, just contact me directly. I know an old traditional Chinese doctor; I can give you a prescription then.”

Yue Yiyue handed over her QR code: “Sure.”

“But there’s one more thing I can’t figure out.”

“Clearly, when Nanqiu first entered the School, she was still unfamiliar with these matters.”

“Yet in just two short months, she knows so much—even what a rift is doesn’t need explaining. Impressive.”