The carnival was over, and although many people were still not ready to let go, not even the festive fireworks show could keep the holiday from leaving. At last, with the most spectacular fireworks lighting up the sky over Shadow City like daylight, a column of light representing the end of the celebration rose from the main avenue of the assembly area, directing the visitors to leave.
Sandora gave a brief speech filled with the Empire’s characteristics at the closing ceremony, lasting no more than fifteen seconds. In the end, Big Sister had to step in and add a couple more sentences herself so that the Heroic Spirit Honor Guard, who were about to leave the stage before even getting into position, could exit the podium with dignity. I sat below the stage, enjoying the special service from the rcury Lamp—don’t get the wrong idea, she was just sitting on my shoulder and wiping my face.
My head suffered two Double Kicks, my hand launched a Sky Bomb, and my face caught the full blast of fireworks from Sandora’s mouth. On this nationally celebrated day, I didn’t know what bad karma I’d accumulated to be sharing a Luck Value nearly with the Gunn. But then again, if I could enjoy the rare gentle care from my Little Light, it seed like a pretty good deal.
"Click!"
Just as I was feeling sentintal, I got a solid chomp on the head that left stunned: "Girl, what on earth are you doing!"
"Habit."
rcury Lamp said indifferently, then picked up the cloth and rubbed hard across my head, bringing nearly to tears: I know you like cleanliness, but do you really have to spit and rub like shining shoes? Besides, is it not very annoying that a doll like you developed salivation as a feature?
Gently, with more affection than bla, I tapped on the rcury Lamp’s head and suddenly realized there was a gaze fixed on . I turned and spoke out, "Qianqian, what are you looking at? It’s just a cannon blast. I’m not hurt."
"I know, but I am thinking about sothing very important," Qianqian said, propping her head up with her hands while sitting across from , her eyes having been fixedly staring at since just now, "Hmm, indeed, a very important matter."
How terrifying Qianqian could be when she was thinking about serious matters was known to all. For the sake of my worldview, I imdiately decided against further discussion on this subject. Lin Xue gave a sidelong glance and then boredly lay on the table: "Ah ah, you silly Wood, the carnival ended just like that, I haven’t had nearly enough fun... The next celebration isn’t for another five years, by then Little Baobao will have learned to fetch soy sauce!"
"You’re underestimating Little Baobao," I said, unsatisfied with Lin Xue’s low estimation of Little Baobao’s intelligence. I imdiately pushed Little Princess in front of and casually took out a bottle of soy sauce from my Personal Space, "Here, fetch the soy sauce."
Little Baobao was really smart. She imdiately took the soy sauce bottle from my hand and threw it to the ground with a smack, instantly releasing the fragrance of soy.
I proudly proclaid, "You see, she can fetch it already!"
Lin Xue: "...Could you be any more boring?"
Alright, I admit I really overdid it with the boredom. Such a carefully prepared grand event had just ended, and yet I had spent half the ti dealing with Atlantis matters in another world, leaving feeling a bit hollow now. The excited crowds of visitors would be leaving soon, and the citizens from various worlds would be returning to their own hos. Shadow City would quickly return to its usual solemnity and quiet; feeling what might be called "post-holiday blues" was very normal. Anyway, knowing that from tomorrow Shadow City would begin sending ho the guests batch by batch made feel incredibly bored.
If I felt empty, then Qianqian even more so; though she seed extraordinarily thick-skinned, my Qianqian was actually a very lonely and separation-fearing sensitive girl. She could easily grow fond of the lively atmosphere and was even more reluctant to part with friends. When she was still a Little Loli, she had cried at the alley entrance over separating from the neighbor’s Dahuang, remaining depressed all day until she reunited with Dahuang after school and her smiles returned—though I think she might have been making a fuss about having to go to school.
Oh heavens, I’m rambling again.
Watching Qianqian thoughtfully staring ahead, I guessed she might be struggling with just this issue. However, this girl’s mood swings ca quickly and faded even faster. Just when I was about to comfort my sister, she had already forgotten about it, which was rather awkward.
************************
The night was deep—and I really loved that phrase because it was closely related to "sleeping," the most heartless affair. Having been away from ho for several days, I was really missing my own room and bed, hence why I was currently rolling around on the bed.
"I can’t sleep, not for any other reason, but because I just finished reading today’s fairy tale to Cui Xingshi. Even though that little doll seed fine, chattering non-stop as usual, collaborating with rcury Lamp to grab my hair, I still can’t help but think about sothing: After playing outside for so many days, it’s ti for rcury Lamp’s little sisters to go ho.
This issue is quite lancholy, but I have no reason to prevent Cui Xingshi and the others from going ho just because I’m not in the mood, so within the very first second after midnight, I began thinking about a plan to send soone to assassinate Sakurada Jun.
"If you were really capable of doing that, you wouldn’t be a stupid human," a cold voice tinged with a hint of tsundere suddenly ca from beside . Following that, a small figure wriggled into the blankets, poked around for a bit, and then erged by my head. I could feel a pair of tiny arms embracing my own large hand, tugging and pulling vigorously at all five fingers.
"I have no problem with sleeping while hugging arms, but please spare my hand: I had enough bad luck with fireworks today."
I freed my other hand and rubbed rcury Lamp’s little head, thinking to myself that I had just lost focus again. Was my recent tendency to daydream getting a bit better?
The tiny Gothic girl didn’t speak, but continued to burrow around in the warm cocoon of blankets, much like a mischievous little girl. She rolled sideway, poked upright, stretched her arms, kicked her legs, did the Divine Dragon Tail, Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms, Mount Tai Eighteen Disks, heaving and hoeing until she gathered all the blankets around herself, then with a thump fell onto the floor, leaving out in the chilly air.
I vaguely recalled the last ti I encountered this situation was over ten years ago, a ti of innocuous childhood days. Whenever Qianqian ca over to my place, she’d sleep in the sa room as . In the first half of the night we’d both be in bed, but by the second half, I’d be shivering above while Qianqian, wrapped in the blanket, was under the bed—back then, the floor of my room was always particularly clean, although washing the quilt cover was a bit of trouble. I wonder if Qianqian’s sleeping habits have improved now.
After reminiscing about the bits and pieces of Qianqian’s and my childhood, I quietly waited for a few more minutes. Still not seeing rcury Lamp climb back up, I had to poke my head out over the bedside, only to see the little doll rolling around on the floor wrapped in the thick blanket, much like a big bug. So I asked in confusion, "What exactly is the symbolic aning behind your actions?"
With only her head peeking out, rcury Lamp’s gem-like big eyes looked at filled with resentnt, "I suddenly rembered I hadn’t taken off my shoes—how did it even co to this?"
I burst out, indignant, "You climbed up with shoes on again!"
"Well, I don’t usually walk on the ground anyway."
...I almost forgot that on regular days, this girl has a mount.
Here I was, a grown man, face to face with a 92.3 cm doll girl at the dead of night, neither of us sleeping, one in a tank top and shorts, the other wrapped up like a stead bun. Ten seconds later, I felt an ache that I can’t really explain. So I reached out and hauled up this unfortunate egg who had tried to take off her shoes under the blanket but ended up trapping herself, and then the two of us fumbled around to change the quilt cover—although Anwina always cleaned the floor cleaner than my face, regretfully, Big Sister had forcibly given her a vacation these past two days. anwhile, my room housed a group of dolls perfectly capable of turning the place into a pigsty within three hours (primarily referring to the often hysterically happy Cui Xingshi and Chu i, who liked to sit on the floor to snack), and as a result, rcury Lamp’s mischievous behavior led to a very troubleso aftermath.
"I think turning the quilt cover inside out and then putting it back on is unsanitary," ca rcury Lamp’s muffled voice from under the covers, "Even though the floor really isn’t that dirty."
"That’s what I always did in high school." I lay on top of the covers, continuing my effort.
"Idiot! If you keep doing this, I won’t let you hug to sleep anymore!"
"Tsk, you really want to find Anwina to wash the quilt cover in the middle of the night? Just make do, a doll shouldn’t be so fastidious."
rcury Lamp continued to wriggle under the covers; clearly, she had no idea how adorable her actions were. However, after burrowing around for quite a while without coming out, I grew puzzled, "Little Light, what are you doing? Co help!"
"I... I got stuck while trying to get out of the quilt cover!"
: "..."
As previously ntioned, the two of us are really dunces when it cos to the highly technical task of changing a duvet cover.
I began to frantically search for the opening on the duvet cover, while rcury Lamp grumbled discontentedly inside the enormous fabric bag.
"They’re going back tomorrow."
"I know, Zhenhong told about it this morning. She’s a bit hosick."
"This place is so nice, why do they have to leave?"
I was surprised to see a giant lump forming on the duvet where rcury Lamp was, "That doesn’t sound like you at all!"
The normal version of rcury Lamp should always be sarcastic, ready to pick a fight at any ti, and wouldn’t say anything nice about even if she was dying. Why is she so straightforward now?
"Idiot!" was all rcury Lamp replied to my query, succinctly and significantly.
"Well, you’re used to living here," I knocked on rcury Lamp’s head through the duvet, "but they have spent more ti living in another world. The ten or so days they’ve spent here were indeed joyful, but they couldn’t develop a sense of belonging that feels like ho. It’s not comparable."
I didn’t articulate everything very clearly, but rcury Lamp could probably understand. She and Zhenhong were different. rcury Lamp, who had been alone for hundreds of years, spent them in solitude, with little sense of belonging to her own world. Suddenly, she arrived in a bustling, warm family, surrounded by people who cared and loved her, where even a doll couldn’t be differentiated from a regular human being, and the yogurt was given the sa importance as to the youngest daughter at ho... cough, in short, such a transformation of the environnt is easily entrapping, and rcury Lamp was indeed enveloped in it for a month or two. However, for Zhenhong and the others, those lucky ones already had a place like a "ho" of their own, they enjoyed this world, but ntally it was more like visiting their big sister’s ho, without the transformative impact of a drastic change. Plus, given the short duration, it would be overly fanciful to think that those little girls would give up their hotown just because of a few days of fun.
rcury Lamp, trapped in the duvet, was silent for a while, then asked full of hope, "They can still co and visit often, right?"
"Of course, this is your ho," I patted the duvet, my expression becoming subtle, "uhh, I have a feeling that your whole gang of little sisters is likely to visit often..."
With the convenient world travel system, and with Cui Xingshi being the Little Princess in the Imperial High Level, it was really quite simple for them to co to Shadow City to play. Speaking of this kind of separation, it’s like they’re living next door. Why am I even fussing over this with the little doll in the duvet?
Speaking of which, does the Ti-Space Administration have a monthly pass?" rcury Lamp rolled around inside the duvet and then suddenly asked as if struck by a thought, "Get Zhenhong and the others a monthly pass so they can co to play every morning and go back ho in the afternoon!"
I was stunned: "You can have a subscription for traveling between worlds?"
"Of course, aren’t you the one who sets the rules?"
Unknown to many, the influential and effective policies that standardized transmigrators’ daily work and life across countless worlds in the future, which made nurous ticket scalpers gnash their teeth in frustration—monthly travel subscriptions, swipe card traveling, circuit (world) line traveling, booking travel online 15 days in advance—such ingenious travel systems all originated from this very conversation.
After trendous effort, I finally freed rcury Lamp from the duvet. This was a story even more nonsensically true than the legend of sewing oneself into a quilt. Considering the complexion of the little doll, I didn’t go into detail. I agreed to her request to get her sisters the free travel monthly pass, and declared that Zhenhong and the others could visit whenever they wanted, even if it ant coming in the morning and returning in the afternoon daily, which left the little doll utterly content and relieved of my frustration over the Rose Maidens’ departure (truth be told, I was indeed overthinking it just now).
After wishing goodnight, rcury Lamp hopped off the bed. She carefully stacked the boxes belonging to her five sisters together, then weighed them down with a large pile of books before diving back into her own box to sleep.
Who on earth did she learn this from!
A while later, just as I was getting drowsy and about to fall asleep, the door to the room suddenly made a soft sound. Stealthy footsteps moved from the doorway to the side of the bed. I cracked open my eyes slightly and saw Qianqian bend over like a wandering spirit, looking in this direction with a grin on her face.
"Ah Jun, you’re not asleep," Qianqian scratched the tip of my nose laughing rrily, "You’ve always been like this, you know, your lower eyelid twitches when you pretend to sleep!"
"You’ve got beat," I said, opening my eyes reluctantly and pulling the girl, who was wandering around in her pajamas, close to , "Why aren’t you asleep?"
As I said this, I was already muttering to myself: What on earth was Qianqian up to today? A night raid?!
The word ’night raid’ popped into my head and I couldn’t suppress it, because it made think of Qianqian’s behavior pattern—completely unpredictable. What did that an? It ant anything was possible!
Could it be... could it be that spring has co?
"In fact, I’ve been thinking for two months," Qianqian wriggled in my arms, just as restless as when she was little, "and sothing just doesn’t feel right."
"Doesn’t feel right?" I asked cautiously. The soft and delicate body of the girl was no longer like the Little Loli whose flat terrain I rembered from years past. I could barely hold out any longer—it had been so long since I had the chance to be alone with Sandora.
"Yeah, sothing’s off, Ah Jun, you and Sandora have already... well, why did I get left out?"
I suddenly felt completely detached from Qianqian’s line of thought. The moonlight revealed a slight blush on the girl’s face, and while I had nearly grasped what Qianqian ant, what was up with her way of speaking that didn’t follow any logic? Now is when you start to ponder this... no, was it two months ago that you first realized, and only now you found out that you realized it?
I an, who could see the logic at a glance with that last sentence without drawing a flowchart? Qianqian’s thought process was impregnable. And she had brought up Sandora right off the bat; I was under imnse pressure.
"So... heh heh..." Qianqian suddenly licked my face without warning. I saw her face holding an embarrassed smile, but in her eyes was a very serious look, "Ah Jun, tonight is all about ."
"Uh, girl, you’re not just getting carried away, are you?" I stifled the joy in my heart and seriously held Qianqian’s face, asking her. It was impossible to grasp this girl’s thoughts, so I felt cautiousness was best: I simply couldn’t bear to see Qianqian hurt.
"Of course not, I’ve been thinking for two whole months," Qianqian forcefully pushed away my hand, "Two months ago I thought about whether it was ti to take things further with Ah Jun, then I forgot. Watching the fireworks tonight, I saw soone setting off Starry Sky and rembered it again. Worried I’d forget by tomorrow, I ca right over after using the bathroom..."
At that mont, my worldview completely collapsed; I could hardly believe what situation had led to the writing of this Chapter.
I shouldn’t even try to understand Qianqian’s mode of thinking, but I knew that she is not just any girl. The reason for her wonderfully odd logic is nothing more than one thing: our relationship had long approached sothing like kinship.
The transition from romantic love to sothing like kinship is an amazing process, and even more elusive is the middle state. In Qianqian’s heart, she had already cast into the role of family. Perhaps she simply overlooked the hesitation a normal girl would have in this situation: I an, isn’t it quite normal for a husband?
Of course, only a rare flower like Qianqian could consider it this way, please let no other human attempt to imitate.
I laughed and kissed the girl beside , not expecting that I, of all people, would end up being secretly visited by Qianqian at night... However, the first thing that needed to be done was to ensure safety: for instance, getting up to carefully lock the bedside lamp in the cabinet, moving a stack of boxes under the window, blocking off the sensing of the Angel’s Ring in the hand of Little Qijing, making sure the daft cat in the Spirit Sea was sleeping soundly... I then realized how extraordinary my life had beco. Have you ever seen a man who needed to go through an anti-espionage routine before sleeping with his wife?
(Who would’ve thought Qianqian would be ’eaten up’ under such circumstances? I sure didn’t expect it!) (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please head to Qidian to cast your recomndation votes and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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