Qu Xiqian brought over two steaming cups of coffee. Feng Xiaohe sat on the sofa, a tuxedo cat lounging on her slender, long legs and stretching.
Just moments ago, Feng Xiaohe had divulged all her secrets to Qu Xiqian. As a listener, Qu Xiqian showed little emotional fluctuation; she simply tidied up the floating dust in the White Night Bookstore quietly.
“So, our master has now become like the male lead in a story, reduced to being a beautiful girl’s forbidden plaything?”
“Yes.”
“You feel ashamed because you chose the one million yuan back then and left the master, right?”
“Mhm, am I a realistic and selfish woman? On one hand, I enjoy the privileged life that one million brought me; on the other hand, I miss Little Ai…”
“I don’t think you did anything wrong. One million yuan is a considerable sum for most people. I think being realistic isn’t a bad thing. Only poets and saints believe that love can bloom and bear fruit on asphalt roads.”
In truth, this wasn’t the answer Feng Xiaohe wanted to hear. No matter what, she felt she had betrayed Gao Sijin.
Those memories that never happened kept cutting into Feng Xiaohe’s heart like tiny knives. Whenever those peculiar memories flooded her mind, her first feeling was happiness, followed immediately by a hollow sense of loss.
“Xiaohe, do you think the master is happy?”
“I don’t know if Little Ai is happy either, but I feel very unhappy right now. Especially when I saw him in another woman’s arms—there was a split second when I truly wished I were dead…”
Feng Xiaohe tightly gripped her phone with both hands, pressing her lips together.
In this White Night Bookstore, filled with the scent of books, she had laid everything bare, including those memories that often surfaced, memories that should not have belonged to her, confessing them all to Qu Xiqian.
“Sigh—”
Qu Xiqian expressed regret for Feng Xiaohe’s situation.
“After hearing the story about Little Ai, what are your plans now?”
“As for me…” Qu Xiqian removed her round glasses.
Just as Feng Xiaohe had imagined, Qu Xiqian without her glasses was a beauty. However, her originally gentle and indifferent gaze now turned somewhat aggressive, like a sharp blade.
“If he stopped updating because he was too happy and lazy, then I wish him well. But if he can’t update because he’s been kidnapped, then I will go rescue him.”
“You want to rescue him?” Feng Xiaohe was utterly astonished, her voice trembling. “Do you have any idea how powerful the forces that took him are? Just the Yu Family’s financial resources alone are far beyond what ordinary families like us can imagine.”
“Mm, I know. From what you just described, I already understand it’s no ordinary family. But I am, after all, a maid.”
Qu Xiqian placed a pitch-black pistol on the counter as she spoke. Feng Xiaohe was instantly dumbfounded; she never expected this girl, who looked like a literary young lady, to suddenly pull out a pistol.
“That’s a real gun, isn’t it?”
Feng Xiaohe gulped, at a loss for words.
It’s illegal to possess a firearm in the country…
“After all, I’m a maid. It’s only natural for me to have a gun.”
In 2D works, maids seem to be absurdly overpowered—either they have superhuman strength, or they can easily assassinate national leaders, and occasionally having time-stopping abilities is completely plausible.
In short, in 2D fiction, the maid character is practically a god-tier existence. But this is the 3D world.
In the real world, a literary girl in a classic maid dress suddenly pulling out a pistol—no matter how you think about it, it’s a bit absurd.
Just then, another person entered the White Night Bookstore. The newcomer looked somewhat familiar to Feng Xiaohe: a blonde girl wearing a hoodie and hot pants. However, judging by her facial features, she didn’t seem like the rebellious type; instead, she had a gentle and graceful demeanor, looking like a nearby university student.
“Excuse me, is Borrowed Knife here?”
The blonde girl walked into the bookstore and asked.
Faced with the question, Qu Xiqian had no intention of hiding anything. She didn’t even bother to conceal the finely crafted black pistol, but openly placed it on the counter and said to the girl who entered:
“I’m Borrowed Knife.”
“I’m Chestnut Rice and Kamehameha, also Little Ai’s book friend.” The blonde girl brushed back her smooth, silky long hair. “My name is Feng Na.”
Feng Xiaohe froze for a moment.
Feng Na?
“Feng as in wind, or Feng as in the surname? I didn’t quite catch it just now.”
“Wind.” Feng Na walked over beside Feng Xiaohe. “The ‘wind’ in ‘A great wind rises, oh, clouds are driven away.'”
Feng Na’s name was really similar to her younger sister’s, and even her appearance was strikingly alike, making Feng Xiaohe feel as if Feng Na were a future version of Feng Xiaona.
“You’re also one of Little Ai’s readers?”
“Yes, I’ve been reading his books since high school. Now I’m a sophomore in university.”
Feng Na crouched in front of the cats, stroked a cat’s chin, and even imitated a cat’s meow. But she wasn’t the type of bewitching beauty who would make a king forsake his court. After petting the cat for a bit, she stood up again and said:
“Little Ai has stopped updating. I’m very worried about him, especially after seeing the video this morning, which only confirmed my suspicions.”
“He’s been kidnapped…” Feng Xiaohe clenched her fist slightly.
“I think we’d better call the police right away.”
“But Little Ai might no longer be in the country.”
Feng Xiaohe bit her lip.
From her time with Yu Qingxue, Feng Xiaohe already knew that Yu Qingxue was an international student in Tokyo. Now that Gao Sijin had been kidnapped, it was highly likely he’d been taken to Tokyo.
In that case, it would be a cross-border case, making rescuing Little Ai extremely complicated.
Currently, the only people who know Little Ai was kidnapped are the dozen or so in the reader group. Attempting to rescue a kidnapped person abroad with just the strength of these dozen ordinary people would be as difficult as fishing for the moon in the sea.
“If Little Ai really has been kidnapped, I’ll also try my best to find a way to rescue him,” Feng Na said.
“Then what about your studies?” Feng Xiaohe asked.
Whether it was school or work, there were many things that wouldn’t allow them to leave the country so easily.
“If I can continue reading Little Ai’s work from now on, I don’t care about failing classes or even being held back.”
“My bookstore can temporarily close as well,” Qu Xiqian smiled bitterly. “After all, my bookstore doesn’t get many visitors anyway.”
From learning of Gao Sijin’s kidnapping to deciding to travel abroad to rescue him, Qu Xiqian and Feng Na took only a very short time.
Their decisive personalities made Feng Xiaohe feel a bit of admiration.
Qu Xiqian took out her phone and asked in the group chat if anyone was willing to accompany them to rescue Gao Sijin. Nearly all group members agreed.
But the essence of humanity is a repeater; Feng Xiaohe suspected that most of those group members had accidentally hit “+1”.
