“Thank you,” Tang Xin said, her voice muffled by her hair, so light that it was hard to discern without careful listening. “I’ll remember this.”
Old Quel raised an eyebrow, lit a finger-thick cigar with a click, and puffed away. “Miss, there’s no need to be polite with me. I’m merely your subordinate; just tell me what you need.”
“Then please smoke by the window. I don’t like the smell,” Tang Xin said.
Old Quel hadn’t expected Tang Xin to apply his own words so quickly. He chuckled twice, then didn’t pay it much mind. He stepped over Victor, who lay like a dead dog on the floor, pushed aside the blackout curtain, and exhaled pungent, black pepper-scented smoke, his weathered gaze fixed on the distant view.
Jim swallowed nervously, still shaken. He had worked with Old Quel for a while and had never seen him so uncharacteristically impulsive.
In his memory, Old Quel had always been a man of action, adhering to his principles, meticulous and efficient in his work, clear-headed and rational.
He had never heard of Old Quel leaving any loose ends. To act so brazenly against a family member in a hospital, Jim almost thought the old butcher was possessed by something foul.
Was it because of this inexperienced young lady?
Jim focused his attention on Tang Xin. After a moment of contemplation, she looked at him. Jim felt a shiver of unease for some reason; the previously innocent and frail girl now seemed strong, like a different person.
In the quiet atmosphere, a storm waltz was constantly unfolding. The room was eerily silent, the wind gently tapping the blinds. Victor crawled like a beaten dog on the floor; all the youth’s arrogance was torn to shreds, leaving no trace, dragging a long trail of blood.
Tang Xin said nothing, but Jim understood her meaning. He eagerly scurried over to push Tang Xin’s wheelchair, a fawning smile plastered on his face, and brought the young woman beside Victor.
The sound of the wheelchair turning was like the whisper of death. Victor’s heart was clutched by an invisible hand. Just as he looked up, he saw the tranquility in Tang Xin’s eyes fade, replaced by a cold glint.
“I chose the family; the family did not choose me.”
Tang Xin spoke, her voice not loud, not much different from her usual soft tone, only slightly hoarse, yet it rang like thunder in Victor’s ears, making him shiver with fear, his body trembling uncontrollably.
Tang Xin’s long hair fell forward as she stared at Victor, enunciating each word: “No matter who it is, if they provoke me, I will make them pay the price. I will no longer compromise with anyone.”
“Yes, I’m sorry, I understand, I understand…” Victor was too terrified to speak, agreeing repeatedly.
“Old Quel, arrange a bed for him in the hospital,” Tang Xin said, puffing out her chest, trying to steady the tremor in her voice.
“No one is allowed near his room without my permission, neither servants nor his relatives, unless my uncle is willing to come personally.”
“As you wish, young miss,” Old Quel said respectfully.
Before leaving, Tang Xin cast one last warning glance at Victor on the floor, her tone calm:
“Before he thinks about what he should and shouldn’t say.”
“This… this would truly offend those of the Kieferis lineage, Sevia…,” Jim whispered a reminder, but Tang Xin glared back. “Young miss….”
“If I make a mistake, then I will bear the consequences and grow from them.”
“Even if I get hurt, even if my wings break and I fall to the bottom, I will use my own way to spread my injured fledgling wings and fly into the sky.”
“Not letting others tell me how to spread my wings to face a dangerous world, losing the courage and ability to determine my own direction, and after being struck down by the storm, unable even to get back up.”
Tang Xin murmured in a voice only she could hear,
“This is the opera I am composing for myself.”
Red Heaven, Mint Green Leaf Shop.
It was almost ten at night when Xu Xiaoyou returned to the Mint Green Leaf Shop. She quickly checked the logs on the old computer, confirmed that everything was peaceful in the shop today, and then noticed a drunken figure at the counter.
The girl was sprawled across the counter, her entire face buried in her arms. The young bartender behind the counter wore a strained expression; at the insistent, drunken request of the black-haired girl, he had mixed another Golden Tulip for Bai Youyou, while on the round bar table next to her, empty champagne glasses formed a triangular tower, some rolling on the table, the remaining liquid reflecting a peach-pink glow.
Noticing someone sit beside her, Bai Youyou lifted her head, her eyes hazy, a hint of surprise flashing across her flushed face: “I thought you had… already gone to rest.”
Xu Xiaoyou smiled gently, helplessly. She draped a cashmere blanket over Bai Youyou’s shoulders, pressing it down slightly to ensure it wouldn’t slip off easily, then prepared to get up and leave. The girl lightly hooked her pinky finger from behind.
“Don’t go. Stay, accompany me…”
“Miss Bai, you seem too…,” Xu Xiaoyou paused, “too drunk to communicate.”
“Are you really going to abandon me here, leave me alone for the night? I’m so cold right now.” Bai Youyou stood up, patted her face, and shook her head, trying to clear it.
“I can help you upstairs. My room might be a bit cramped, if you don’t mind,” Xu Xiaoyou suggested.
“Forget it. I didn’t just come here for you. I just felt like this would make me more comfortable.” Bai Youyou used both hands to brace herself on the chair, propping up her swaying body, her gaze unfocused, staring at the photo in front of her.
“Why did you hide it from me? You’re so annoying.”
Xu Xiaoyou froze, her heart instantly on alert. Could it be that she’d learned some truth?
“Leaving me floundering around in a fog, bumping into things, watching my confused and helpless foolishness—are you quite pleased with yourself?”
Xu Xiaoyou took a slight step back, silently watching the girl with slurred words.
“I won’t forgive you… I won’t forgive you!”
Bai Youyou held up the photo, pointing to the houses on the street with scaffolding erected, covered in blue dust sheets, her flushed cheeks utterly serious. “You clearly guessed the chemical teacher’s location for manufacturing new moon sugar long ago, and you deduced his method for choosing locations, but you didn’t tell me!”
Bai Youyou’s tone was too agitated; she missed a breath and let out an alcoholic burp, covering her mouth and recovering for a moment before continuing,
“It’s too much, truly too much.”
A huge weight lifted from Xu Xiaoyou’s heart. So that’s what she was talking about. She had been worried it was something else. She hadn’t even thought of countermeasures for when Bai Youyou’s memories returned.
“I’m sorry, Youyou. I did guess the clues then, but I couldn’t be sure. The fault is mine,” Xu Xiaoyou said, sitting beside the girl.
“It’s good that you know. I’m your client now; how could you keep things from me?”
As soon as Xu Xiaoyou saw that photo, she guessed Heisenberg’s location for manufacturing new moon sugar and deduced his method for choosing sites. Dragonfly Town was plagued by flies and insects before winter each year. At such times, house owners would call in pest control to thoroughly clean their homes. During this cleaning, houses would be covered with these blue dust sheets. This phenomenon was common in Red Heaven, so people wouldn’t usually pay attention to it.
Heisenberg leveraged this method, manufacturing new moon sugar in these dust sheet-covered houses. After each production run, he only needed to move the equipment and discharge the collected waste gas in different districts of Dragonfly Town, which would largely conceal his actions.
How did he ensure that the house owners wouldn't return during the manufacturing process?
Xu Xiaoyou’s gaze passed through Bai Youyou’s hair and landed on the doorknobs of the houses in the photo. Various rolled-up GG paper pieces were inserted into the gaps between the doorknobs and the doors. If someone lived in the house long-term, turning the doorknob would cause the GG paper to fall. Conversely, if it remained, it meant the house owner had abandoned it. Heisenberg only needed to bring his accomplices, disguised as a pest control team, and boldly enter.
Dragonfly Town’s once sluggish economy had caused many investors to abandon it and turn their attention to other cities. This also led many young adults to leave their homes for development elsewhere, and over time, many abandoned houses became scattered throughout the city.
Bai Youyou rested her face on her arms, blocking Xu Xiaoyou’s view, and suddenly asked very seriously, “Am I important to you?”
Xu Xiaoyou froze. Even for her, some questions were hard to answer, and the girl’s query was one of them. Bai Youyou was the first girl to open her heart to her when she first came to this world. She had also, on a certain night, opened her long-closed heart to Bai Youyou, sharing some of her deepest thoughts. They hadn’t shared many romantic or moving experiences, but they were each other’s first glimpse of this world.
Even their first time holding hands and walking on a lamp-lit beach silently expressed their cautious probing of this world, speaking of the girls’ innocence and restraint. Perhaps they were meant to be like travelers on a starry plain, their life trajectories like two intersecting lines, meeting and embracing before having no further intersection.
Fate played a huge joke, bringing them together again in this way.
“Perhaps,” Xu Xiaoyou said, giving an ambiguous answer. She drank the remaining half-glass of Golden Tulip on the table, calm starlight flickering within the gentle glow of her eyes.
“But you are very important to me,” Bai Youyou said.
Xu Xiaoyou’s hand, holding the glass, paused in mid-air.
“Even though my memory is like an unpieced dream, fragmented and incomplete, countless cocoons of subconscious light, those repeated and fragmented images, all tell me that you are very important to me.”
Bai Youyou’s voice grew softer, her eyelids heavy as she lay on her arms.
“I don’t remember anything, yet these words just came out.”
“Look at that troubled expression,” Bai Youyou said, closing her eyes. “As if I’m some troublesome demon. After today, I won’t come to the Mint Green Leaf Shop to find you again. I have many things to do myself; I won’t be held back by these messy, bothersome emotions.”
“See you next time.” Bai Youyou fell asleep.
“See you next time.”
Xu Xiaoyou also got up, paid for the girl’s drinks, and returned to her room. Upon entering, she saw that many things in her room had shifted from their original positions, and a figure wrapped up like a koala, seemingly sleeping soundly, lay on the sofa. “Shrek the Monster” was playing on the TV, and not far away was her bed.
The room was messy, but only the bed was tidy, untouched by the devil’s claws of this little family head.
Xu Xiaoyou thought to herself that she had really stirred up a hornet’s nest of beautiful girls today. The corner of her mouth twitched slightly, and she nudged the unidentified creature on the sofa.
Natsu Kuri, for once, was quiet. She sat up, yawned, brushed aside the dark red hair that had left an impression on her face, rubbed her sleepy eyes, and poured herself a glass of water.
“Why are you here?” Xu Xiaoyou sipped her hot tea to warm herself.
Natsu Kuri frowned: “Didn’t I say I’d wait for you at the Mint Green Leaf Bar? You’re back so late, I thought you’d been kidnapped by the gangs.”
“I was actually planning to look for you,” Natsu Kuri said seriously, “but my sleepiness overruled that unrealistic idea.”
“Seeing you’re fine, I’m much more relieved.”
“Alright, the Mint Green Leaf Bar doesn’t serve guests after ten. You can leave now,” Xu Xiaoyou said with a smile, waving her hand and turning off the TV. She drank the hot tea while consuming a small piece of cinnabar drool.
“Oh, really? I went through all sorts of troubles waiting for you for so long, and as soon as you get back, you want to kick me out? Yuzu, have our feelings faded this much?!”
“I don’t think there were any troubles. I forgot to remind you, you drool when you sleep.”
Natsu Kuri angrily waved her fists, casually wiping her mouth. Xu Xiaoyou pushed her shoulder, and Natsu Kuri reluctantly walked towards the door. Seeing that the other party was truly determined to make her leave, Natsu Kuri quickly held up the letter in her hand:
“This, this!”
Xu Xiaoyou took the letter from Natsu Kuri, and seeing the blue feather on the envelope, her eyes changed. “This is…”
“I saw it on your windowsill. It was raining outside then, so I brought it in, afraid it would get wet. Why are you looking at me like that? I didn’t peek! I still have my principles.”
After handing the letter to Xu Xiaoyou, Natsu Kuri made a face, stuck out her tongue, and ran off in her pajamas and slippers.
Sitting by the window, Xu Xiaoyou opened the letter. The elegant handwriting confirmed that it was from Tang Xin. The date was January 20th, which was today.
Yuzu, I did something incredible today. It was the first time I experienced myself like that, and even now, I’m still too excited to calm down.
I feel like I’ve taken a huge step forward. Across the distant river of stars, please forgive me for not being able to convey this joy to you through words. I’m moving towards my goal.
Like in “The Red and the Black,” I might be standing at a crossroads of choices right now. On one side are vague emotions, on the other are my ideals. If I had to make a choice without going back, I would solemnly choose the latter.
But, please forgive my selfishness.
I hope that when I stand in that magnificent hall, Yuzu will be in the stands below, sending me encouragement with her gaze, just like before, possessed by me alone.
Forgive my selfishness in hoping that when I achieve my ideals, you will be by my side.
Do you remember I said I wanted to try to light myself up like a wild grass, melting the cold winter snow?
Whether you come back or not, whether you see this letter, see the words I’ve written, I hope that in the last moments of my life, I can touch the trace of your existence—this fervent, passionate, yet hazy emotion, I hope you can perceive it.
Rate on N.U.
