Chapter 1272: A Brief Shared Time
As the night began to fall, Yuan Xiangxi had not returned yet. With each passing second, Lin Sanjiu felt like a swarm of mice was gnawing at her chest, making her restless. She kept looking down the hillside, but the dark grass and trees remained calm and serene, oblivious to her anxiety.
She believed her speculations were correct: the grand prize created a duplicate of J7, allowing it to enter the playhouse pocket dimension, and then told Yuan Xiangxi about Magus, misleading him into thinking he had to stay. But was this just a tactic to get rid of Yuan Xiangxi? He hadn't come out for so long. Could he really be trapped in the playhouse pocket dimension?
When she withdrew her gaze from the trees again, Ji Shanqing asked softly, "Sis, do you want to find someone?"
Lin Sanjiu was taken aback.
After hesitating, she finally said, "No, I don't want to find someone... I just want to check on the safety of a friend. Let's go together? After I confirm that he's fine, the two of us can come back. I can have him go... go find J7."
With a soft nasal sound, Ji Shanqing placed his cold hand in Lin Sanjiu's palm.
They climbed over the fence and walked into the dark woods, one step after another, carefully feeling their way forward. Lin Sanjiu was left without any light source, and she could only move forward blindly. She let go of the grand prize's hand because she feared he might trip and fall, allowing him to lead while she followed from the front.
It was hard to imagine that they used to chat endlessly.
She remembered many nights when they were lucky enough to find a safe resting place. After eating and drinking, they would lie down on their beds and chat softly. Even though they spent every day together, they were reluctant to sleep. Several times, it was almost dawn when she finally pushed the grand prize's head into the pillow, telling him to sleep.
Now, they had been walking in the dark for almost ten minutes and only exchanged a few phrases like "be careful" or "there's a rock."
While feeling her way through the darkness, Lin Sanjiu occasionally thought of Ji Shanqing's metaphor. Sometimes, she felt as if there really was an enormous shadow of a behemoth silently following her. Starting from behind, every strand of her hair, every inch of her skin, and every bit of her mind seemed drawn into the abyss behind her until she disappeared completely.
Why did this change happen?
In the distance, she saw a vague field of wheat and a pitch-black pond. After passing the pond, they would reach the house in the playhouse pocket dimension. Lin Sanjiu turned back and said to the grand prize, "We're almost there." She quickened her pace.
She thought that after their conversation in the Astral Plane last time, Ji Shanqing would be reassured... Was her message not clear enough? He didn't need to worry about her leaving or forgetting about him. What was his would always be his, unconditionally.
"Do you remember what I told you last time?" Lin Sanjiu hesitated for a moment, then suddenly spoke.
Again, Ji Shanqing replied with a soft "Yes," sounding a little aggrieved.
"How could I forget?" After a while, he whispered, "And I know everything you said back then was true. I'm really happy..."
The tightly wound tension in Lin Sanjiu's chest softened as she listened to his voice. Until Ji Shanqing suddenly murmured, "Sis, you've removed the thing that has been pressing on me all this time."
As if a bucket of cold water was poured over her, her heart still hadn't fully comprehended the situation, but her body instinctively trembled. For a moment, she didn't know what she was trembling for and could only continue moving forward step by step, pretending as if those words meant nothing.
What had been pressing on him all this time?
On a moonlit night shrouded in mist, the wooden cabin stood faintly in the distance. There seemed to be no trace of Yuan Xiangxi in front of the house, and nearby, only occasional long cicada cries echoed, gradually dissipating. The house's appearance at night made Lin Sanjiu begin to understand why Bohemia had once feared this pocket dimension—wait a moment.
She suddenly paused, wanting to turn around and look at Ji Shanqing, but immediately held back.
Indeed, the difference between his attitude this time and before was that he wasn't afraid at all when he appeared this time.
Before, the grand prize had always been cautious and fearful because, whether he turned into one of the Veda or not, there were things that scared him. He was afraid of making Lin Sanjiu angry and was concerned about her reaction, so he suppressed his thoughts and emotions...
The closer Lin Sanjiu walked towards the house, the more she felt like every step she took was in a void, swaying and unable to find solid ground. The grand prize was unafraid this time because she had assured him that he would never lose her. Rather than saying she had removed something pressing on him, it was more accurate to say that she had removed something restraining him. He was now willing to do things he hadn't dared to do before.
"Yuan Xiangxi!"
As if waves of cold seawater were constantly crashing against her, Lin Sanjiu couldn't help but run towards the house, shouting, "Are you here or not?"
Her speed was fast, and she almost reached the entrance of the pretend pocket dimension in the blink of an eye. She knew she couldn't rush in immediately, so she quickly stopped. Fearing that the pocket dimension might be activated, she could only call out "Yuan Xiangxi" repeatedly, but all that responded to her were distant calls of night birds.
"He's not really being kept in the pocket dimension, is he?" Lin Sanjiu turned back and looked at Ji Shanqing, who was not far behind. She asked, "You know who I'm talking about, right?"
The night was hazy over the wheat fields and distant mountains. The moonlight brushed gently over Ji Shanqing's forehead, cheekbones, and cheeks, making it hard to distinguish between his fair skin and the faint moonlight. His expression was lost in the darkness, making it difficult to see.
"Sis," he called softly, pleading, "I only have this little time left..."
"How long?"
"Two months," Ji Shanqing said, lowering his head like a scolded child. "Sis, I only have two months..."
"What about Yuan Xiangxi..." Lin Sanjiu didn't know where to look. Her gaze swept around repeatedly, asking, "Is he okay?"
"He said he wanted to go to the Karma Museum," Ji Shanqing said, gently stepping forward and holding her hand. "You'll find him there."
Lin Sanjiu stood still, her mind filled with thoughts. Yuan Xiangxi was dead and could not be teleported with a visa, but this shouldn't be too much of a problem for the grand prize. You just need someone who can teleport to catch him. However, when did he disappear? Did he know what happened?
She stood in place, her mind churning, and a sudden thought emerged: She refused Ji Shanqing's visa because she subconsciously felt that the consular officer brought by Puppeteer was better. Now that she thought about it, where did Puppeteer find the consular officer?
Lin Sanjiu sighed deeply and sat down on the porch steps. The house door behind her was still half-open, revealing the dark interior without any lights, just like this afternoon.
"Sis?" the grand prize approached her a little.
She looked up and gazed at the person in front of her, so familiar yet too familiar, and asked softly, "What about me? Where will I be teleported to?"
"You can go wherever you want," Ji Shanqing said, sitting down next to her and looking up at her like a puppy. "Where do you want to go, Sis?"
Lin Sanjiu pursed her lips and remained silent.
Neither sat on the steps, and neither spoke on the cool night. After a while, the grand prize whispered, "Sis, I've passed your message to Yu Yuan."
"How did he... What did he say?" She was surprised that the grand prize brought it up first.
"He said he'll come find you."
Yu Yuan? The one who had become one of the Veda?
True, wasn't the grand prize sitting right in front of me? When I meet Yu Yuan later, what kind of situation will it be?
Lin Sanjiu's mind was jumbled, and many things were drawing her attention. It was as if she was thinking about countless things, yet also as if she wasn't thinking about anything at all, letting her mind wander in emptiness.
Just when she was absent-minded, someone lightly tapped her right shoulder.
Lin Sanjiu's hair stood on end, and she quickly turned her body, scaring the grand prize in the process. An overly long arm had appeared from the gap in the door, and its fingers hovered just above her right shoulder. Following the length of that arm and looking inside, she saw the long shoulder and clavicle... all the way into the darkness, but the neck and head were nowhere to be seen.
"What is it?" She jumped up straight and subconsciously placed the grand prize behind her, with [Tornado Whip] already in her hand.
Ji Shanqing poked his head out from behind her shoulder, and his gaze fell on the muscular, twisted arm. The arm shook slightly, gesturing in the air, and raised its hand a few times to indicate they should leave quickly. Then, it silently retreated into the house.
"He's probably reminding us not to chat here if we don't plan on entering the pocket dimension," the grand prize guessed with a smile. He tilted his head and whispered in Lin Sanjiu's ear, "Where do you want to go in the next two months?"
As long as they went far away, there probably wouldn't be any danger for Bohemia and Puppeteer. Whether they could come back in the short term was another matter. Lin Sanjiu closed her eyes and sighed slowly.
"Wherever you want to go, whatever you want to do, let's go together and do it. But before we leave, I have a question."
"What is it?"
"What if it's Qing Jiuliu?" Lin Sanjiu's question seemed abrupt with no beginning or end, but she knew the grand prize would understand.
Ji Shanqing reached out and held her hand, and his smile was like a warm and cool breeze. "Sis," he said, shaking his head as if she had asked a silly question.
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