Chapter 57: Five Lifetimes of Fate part 1
Lu Xunye’s head buzzed. He suddenly stopped walking. Shen Yunqian also stopped and looked back at him. “What’s wrong?”
Lu Xunye snapped out of his trance, shook his head, and said, “My foot cramped. Didn’t you have something to do? I’ll wait for you here.”
Shen Yunqian looked him up and down. The other person simply took a step back and squatted on the steps by the roadside, looking up and smiling at him.
The smile didn’t reach his eyes; it could be called posturing.
Shen Yunqian thought he was really in pain, nodded, and didn’t press further. “I’ll be right back.”
Watching his back disappear into the flow of people on the street, Lu Xunye let out a long breath. Not thinking about where his confusion stemmed from, his mind was full of how this mission progress had suddenly moved.
He rested his elbows on his knees, fingers propping up his chin in worry.
Did something happen with Jian Luoqing and Si Jinyan?
Death of the White Moonlight?
If this White Moonlight had nothing to do with the Protagonist Gong, then who else could the White Moonlight be?
It had to be Jian Luoqing.
【Xiao Ai, tell me… what will happen after I complete the mission?】
The System stuttered, flew out of its space, and sat cross-legged on top of his head like a lord.
Mimicking him, it propped up its round electronic screen head with short, chubby hands.
It said melancholically: 【You’ll probably… trigger the settings and go back.】
Lu Xunye glanced up and grabbed it down. 【Speak clearly.】
The System’s antenna was caught in his hand.
Its limbs flailed in mid-air, but unfortunately, it couldn’t escape.
Finally resigning itself to fate, it hugged its arms. 【Because a contract was set when the Host bound with this System to return to the original world upon mission completion, finishing the mission will naturally result in being transported back.】
It was the answer Lu Xunye had expected.
But imagining it himself and hearing it from the System’s mouth brought two completely different moods.
The former, he could accept calmly.
The latter… his chest felt like it was stuffed with wet cotton soaked in lemon juice—stifling and astringent. His hand slowly loosened, and the System took the chance to escape.
Lu Xunye choked up: 【Then… what about this world?】
The System fiddled with the antenna on its head that had been stretched out.
Hearing this, the wire snapped back into its head, leaving only a white ball at the tip. It looked guarded and confused: 【Huh?】
【Shen… this body of mine?】 Lu Xunye seemed to find the key point and asked hurriedly, 【What about the original owner? Will the original owner come back?】
【Here… all characters are formed by characters. Character subject consciousness and souls do not exist, so there is no original owner. Even if there were an original owner, it would follow the predetermined ending—jumping off a building to their death.】
The System thought for a moment. 【Normally speaking, when the Host completes the mission, this body will also die.】
Lu Xunye was silent for a long while before asking, 【And in abnormal situations?】
【In cases where the plot is incomplete leading to uncontrollable situations; or if characters related to the Host awaken subject consciousness and break away from control after the Host leaves the world, causing certain damage to the world, the System Bureau will take over the Host’s body and inject code to stabilize the broken characters and ensure the world runs normally.】
Lu Xunye rubbed his chin, nodding as he listened.
How can one awaken self-awareness without a soul or a heart?
Following this logic, the whole ‘capture/conquest’ thing was clearly a joke.
Facing the System’s expectant gaze, he looked deep in thought and said, 【I don’t really get it.】
System: 【…】
“Young man, observing your face, there is an ominous aura between your brows. I fear there may be a bloody disaster.”
An abrupt, aged male voice popped up from behind. Lu Xunye was startled, only keeping from falling off the steps by bracing his hands on the ground.
Clutching his wildly beating heart, he looked back to see a white-bearded old man sitting on the ground against the wall behind a low square table, stroking his beard and looking at him with a smile full of meaning.
On the table were talisman papers, beaded bracelets, and some other messy items.
In his shock, Lu Xunye tried to recall if there had been anyone there just now.
He couldn’t remember clearly.
He sighed, pushed himself up from the ground, and was a bit speechless. “Grandpa, you really have great skill to read my fortune just by looking at the back of my head.”
The implication was: Stop scamming, okay? I was facing away from you just now.
However, the other party seemed completely oblivious to the sarcasm and laughed heartily. “I like the way you young people talk.”
Seeing that his expression didn’t look like he was playing dumb, Lu Xunye was thrown off. The words on the tip of his tongue choked, and he took two steps back. “Then I won’t disturb your business.”
Just as he turned to leave, preparing to find another place to squat, a faint sigh came from behind him.
“What a pity. A fine young man, yet destined to end up with shattered bones. A pity, truly a pity.”
Lu Xunye was already annoyed. He turned a corner and walked back quickly, pulling up a stool to sit in front of the square table. “Grandpa, do you know today is New Year’s Eve? Talking like this instead of saying auspicious words might get you beaten up.”
The other party said this simply to sell some disaster-averting safety items. The benevolent-looking old man before him had graying temples and closed eyes, his Taoist robe looking extremely thin in the cold wind.
He casually picked up a peace talisman from the table. “I’ll buy it, okay?”
Unexpectedly, the old man slapped his hand away. “Not for sale.”
“?”
Is the talisman paper too cheap, and this little old man wants to scam me for something big?
Lu Xunye’s interest was piqued. He swept his gaze over the items on the table and folded his hands on top of it. “Then what do you want to sell me?”
“I sell nothing. These are all artifacts to ensure the wearer turns ill luck into good.” The old man kept his eyes closed. “The little friend has no use for them.”
Lu Xunye was relentless. “Then you said I have a bloody disaster. Were you bluffing me?”
The old man looked profound. “Having no use means that little friend, you cannot escape this calamity.”
“…” Lu Xunye looked for the System and saw it punching and kicking the air above his head, a fist already about to smash into his head.
He didn’t know how long it had been acting lawlessly behind him, relying on the fact that he couldn’t see it.
Caught in the act, the System sheepishly retracted its fist and stood properly.
Lu Xunye wanted to ask it something, but it vanished from sight.
“…”
Lu Xunye laughed out of anger.
He crossed his arms, leaning back against the chair, his tone disappointed. “Oh, I thought you called me over to help me resolve it, Grandpa. Was that not it?”
The old man’s silver hair and beard blew in the wind. His withered fingers stopped stroking his beard. “I can only tell the little friend one sentence: go with the flow. Some things need not be obsessed over. Within a three-month term, high places must not be visited.”
Lu Xunye’s face darkened. Is he talking about the original owner’s fate?
High places?
Jumping off a building?
Hilarious. I’m not sick, nor am I stupid. Would I be foolish enough to jump off a building?
Speaking of which, why isn’t Shen Yunqian back yet?
Lu Xunye’s fingers idly played with the peace cord. “Don’t worry, Grandpa. I cherish my life very much.”
The old man smiled but said nothing. Finally, he opened his eyes. Lu Xunye silently straightened the cord he had messed up; he had thought the old man wasn’t afraid of him stealing things.
Suddenly, his gaze was drawn to a flash of red in a box. He picked up that string of beads, secretly wondering if he should give Shen Yunqian a New Year’s gift.
“Red agate?”
“It is Blood Jade.”
Lu Xunye’s fingers rubbing the beads paused. He looked at the old man with a half-smile in surprise. Meeting that smile, he inexplicably felt a chill down his spine. “Blood… Jade?”
The old man said unhurriedly, “Soaked in blood for many years, dyed red.”
Lu Xunye tried hard to control his hand, asking stubbornly, “Whose blood?”
The smile on the old man’s face didn’t change as he calmly spat out three words: “Dead man’s blood.”
The curve of Lu Xunye’s lips froze. His hand trembled, and the bracelet fell. Shocked, he looked down sharply, only to see a slender, pale hand catch the blood jade bracelet.
The beads, blood-red as plum blossoms, made that hand look exceptionally white. Lu Xunye blinked and looked up to meet Shen Yunqian’s puzzled gaze.
Shen Yunqian looked suspicious. “Are you… having your fortune told?”
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