Chapter 88
All plans and schedules had been thrown into disarray. The treatment had only been conducted once, but at this point, that was no longer a standard for judgment.
“This secret has existed since the very beginning when I met you, and now… it’s been quite some time.”
The heart palpitations came quickly. Zhuang Chi took a shallow breath, knowing the Notebook was watching them. In the end, this day had come far sooner than she had imagined. She still hadn’t figured out how to say it, worried that being too direct would make it difficult for Gu Ximian to accept reality, yet also unable to stop worrying about the words she had once seen in the Notebook. The more she thought, the more chaotic it became, but in the entire world, the only person she could focus on right now was Gu Ximian. She looked at the somewhat stunned Gu Ximian, her voice trembling slightly.
“I’m always indecisive, hesitant, and full of apprehension. For hiding this from you for so long, I should first say I’m sorry.”
“Gu Ximian, if I tell you this secret, perhaps our relationship will change, or perhaps it will lead to even more severe consequences, affecting not just the two of us, but maybe even this entire world.”
“But if I hide it from you forever, I’ll never be able to take a step forward. This might be very selfish, but I can’t worry about all that. I still want to say it.”
—And then, I want to get even closer to you.
The feeling of palpitations was becoming almost unbearable, and Zhuang Chi’s voice trembled violently. She forced herself to keep her eyes fixed on Gu Ximian and said slowly, “I’m not your official match, Gu Ximian.”
“I am the author of this world—of this novel.” she said in a low voice. “You are the female protagonist I wrote.”
The secret had been a heavy weight piled in her heart, but it took only three short seconds to speak it aloud. Her heart felt as if it had been physically squeezed, and a sense of suffocation from the void rushed to her throat, creating the illusion that her throat would be the next thing to be constricted. Chased by this thought with nowhere to run, Zhuang Chi spoke in a rambling manner before this bad premonition could come true. “So when you asked me before if you were like my Galatea, I didn’t know how to answer. I know that to you and to others, it was just an ordinary sentence, and maybe you just asked casually, but it wasn’t like that for me, because I know very well…”
“It’s not ‘like,’ Gu Ximian,” Zhuang Chi took a deep breath, her voice trembling. “You just are. From the moment I put pen to paper and wrote your name, until now, I have always known very clearly that you are my Galatea.”
Having said this much, it was difficult to continue. A burning sensation traveled from her heart to her throat, then churned her mind into chaos. Deep breaths were no longer helping. Zhuang Chi felt a wave of dizziness, which quickly escalated from a brief blurriness of vision to the world spinning around her. She lost her strength and sank softly to the ground. In a daze, she saw Gu Ximian squat down to support her, panic and confusion intertwined in her eyes. As her lips opened and closed, a sound reached Zhuang Chi, distant and vague. She could only make out a few words.
“—author, then you are—”
Zhuang Chi couldn’t hear the context before or after. She could no longer support herself. Although she was on solid ground, her body felt as if it were falling from a great height. This disjointed, strange sensation disoriented her, which in turn made her feel nauseous. Worried she might actually vomit, Zhuang Chi instinctively turned away from Gu Ximian, only to suddenly see a blurry shadow under the surface of the river water—it was a notebook.
Zhuang Chi’s pupils contracted. She subconsciously moved closer, wanting to reach out and touch it. But the Notebook lay there quietly, and before she could touch the water, it flipped open to a page.
【Stay calm, and then】
The writing was clearly not finished. It had appeared quickly enough, but something small suddenly fell onto the water’s surface, sending ripples spreading out and blurring the subsequent words into a mess.
Zhuang Chi looked up in a daze. Something cool and soft landed on her face, quickly melting into a patch of water.
It was snowing. A white Christmas.
Zhuang Chi's consciousness cut off there. Her mind was like it was plunging into the deep sea as a vast darkness surged up and swallowed her.
When she opened her eyes again, the sky was bright.
Before she closed her eyes, she had the illusion that she would fall endlessly. Seeing the light, Zhuang Chi breathed a sigh of relief. At least it wasn’t the worst-case scenario; at least she could still wake up.
But after the first few seconds, Zhuang Chi slowly realized she was in a very unfamiliar environment. She looked around and found herself in what appeared to be an exceptionally well-appointed house. This made her heart leap into her throat—the last time she had such an experience was in Lily’s villa, a memory that still made her shudder.
Only this time, it wasn’t a small, enclosed room. She seemed to be in the living room of this house, which was large with an open view. She could also hear the sound of a person’s voice approaching the living room. Zhuang Chi subconsciously turned to look and saw a man whose clothes looked like something a butler in a TV drama would wear. He was on the phone, responding briefly and politely. As he looked up, his eyes met Zhuang Chi’s.
Zhuang Chi was startled, unsure if she should greet him at this moment, worried about interrupting his call. But while she hesitated, she saw the butler’s gaze move away without pausing, continuing his conversation with the person on the other end of the line.
“…?”
The butler’s behavior was so natural that it didn’t seem like he was deliberately ignoring her, but rather as if he genuinely hadn’t seen her. As Zhuang Chi thought this, the strange feeling in her heart grew stronger, and she finally couldn’t help but speak up, “H-Hello, may I ask where this is…?”
Her voice echoed emptily and fell to the floor without a response.
The butler quickly hung up the phone and turned to leave without a glance in her direction. Zhuang Chi stared blankly at his back, the unease in her heart swelling. She couldn’t help but want to chase after him and stop him. “Wait, hello? Can… can you hear me?”
No matter what she said, there was no response. Zhuang Chi felt a sense of panic and finally couldn’t resist reaching out to grab him.
She didn’t catch him. Or rather, she didn’t touch him. She had indeed extended her hand, but the moment it should have touched the butler’s arm, it passed right through without any resistance. The sensation was like putting her hand into water; when she tried to grasp, there was no tangible feeling of catching anything.
Zhuang Chi stopped in her tracks, stunned. She watched the butler open the door and leave, then slowly looked down at her own hand. She looked down again and suddenly realized—she seemed to have shrunk. She hadn’t noticed when she first opened her eyes because she was currently floating in mid-air.
Sensing the possibility, she frantically searched for a mirror, finding one in the washroom. Standing before it, the heavy thought of “just as I expected” settled in her heart.
There was nothing in the mirror. Zhuang Chi was clearly looking at the mirror, but its surface did not reflect her image.
In short, a little supernatural problem had occurred.
Although it wasn’t the first time she’d encountered something like this, having had the peculiar experience of chatting with the Notebook before, it was nothing compared to this—this time, the problem was with Zhuang Chi herself.
She couldn’t be perceived by people, nor could she touch them. However, she could touch objects. She didn’t know if things she held would also become invisible along with her. The rules were a bit vague, and since the butler had left, there was no one else in the house. All she could say was that she was still in the stage of figuring out the rules.
Then, the second thing that concerned her was that Zhuang Chi couldn’t leave this house.
Or rather, she couldn’t grasp the doorknobs. Although she could touch the walls and doors normally, she simply couldn’t touch the doorknobs on the main door or any of the room doors. Every time she reached out, her hand passed through as if they didn’t exist, leaving Zhuang Chi to stare helplessly.
…This is terrible, Zhuang Chi thought. She had been talking to Gu Ximian right before she passed out. Now she had no idea what had happened. She didn’t know where she was, she had turned into this state, and she couldn’t even talk to anyone, let alone contact Gu Ximian… She wondered how she was doing now, and if she was worried about her.
Thinking about this made her feel down. She guessed that her current situation was inextricably linked to her confession to Gu Ximian about being the novel’s author. But no matter what, with no way to contact the Notebook, the only solution she could think of was to first return to St. Blaisedon, see Gu Ximian, find out what happened after she fainted, and then make a plan.
Having made up her mind, Zhuang Chi stopped wandering around the room. She had already explored every place she could go but hadn’t found anything useful. She could only tell that the owner of the house was exceptionally wealthy, but the house was so clean that she couldn’t find any other useful information. She simply sat on the living room sofa, staring at the main door as if facing a great enemy, just waiting for some kind soul to open it so she could quickly squeeze through the crack.
Zhuang Chi waited for half a day, from broad daylight until dusk, until she was almost getting sleepy—although her body had become strange, it seemed she could still get tired. However, she didn’t feel any appetite, nor the urge to go to the washroom. She wondered if she had lost these needs along with her visibility.
Seeing the clock hands approaching six in the afternoon, Zhuang Chi sighed with frustration, feeling that even a dog waiting for its owner to come home couldn’t be more sincere in its hope for someone to return than she was right now.
And just then, Zhuang Chi heard a noise from outside the door, followed by the sound of the lock finally turning. Overjoyed, she stood up and rushed towards the door, but she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the person who entered.
A girl walked in from outside. She looked to be only fifteen or sixteen, still wearing a school uniform. Her skin was very fair, giving it the warm texture of jade. Her makeup-free face was delicate and pretty, yet already beautiful enough to be eye-catching.
Zhuang Chi stared blankly at the newcomer. The thought of leaving as soon as possible had vanished completely. The main door was closed, but she had no time to care. The tumultuous waves in her mind had already submerged her thoughts, making it impossible for her to think about anything else. She only looked at that person.
Gu Ximian—a fifteen-year-old Gu Ximian—lifted her eyes and looked over at her nonchalantly.
Zhuang Chi was speechless. She didn’t know if it was an illusion, but she felt as if her eyes had met Gu Ximian’s.
And Gu Ximian soon gave her an answer, though it was subtly different from what she had expected. Zhuang Chi saw Gu Ximian frown slightly and ask the butler who had followed her in, “What is this?”
She was indeed referring to Zhuang Chi's direction, but not with “Who is this?” but rather “What is this?” Zhuang Chi was taken aback. She saw the butler show obvious confusion, his gaze sweeping aimlessly through the air a few times before he responded, “What are you referring to, miss?”
“…” Gu Ximian seemed even more confused than he was, but she soon noticed the discrepancy and asked hesitantly, “…You can’t see it?”
The butler didn’t understand her words and asked a few more questions, but Gu Ximian didn’t say anything more. She glanced hesitantly in Zhuang Chi’s direction, shook her head with a self-deprecating look, and then walked up the stairs on her own, seemingly intending to go back to her room.
Zhuang Chi’s mind was a chaotic mess, but she still subconsciously followed her, slipping into her room behind Gu Ximian. Unlike the home Gu Ximian lived in alone during university, her current room seemed much cozier, with a warmer color palette. It didn’t seem like Gu Ximian’s own choice, Zhuang Chi thought. It was probably because she was living with her parents now, so the decoration style was decided by them. The place where Gu Ximian lived by herself was probably more to her liking.
…She still hadn’t figured out the situation, yet she was already considering the current circumstances as reality. Zhuang Chi sighed deeply, thinking that the scale of this supernatural event was much larger than she had imagined. It seemed she would have to think it through carefully—
“Was that you sighing?”
Just then, a cool voice came from beside her. Zhuang Chi stiffened and slowly raised her head to see Gu Ximian standing next to her, arms crossed, looking at her with an undisguised, scrutinizing gaze.
It had been a long time since she had seen such an expression in Gu Ximian’s eyes, completely different from the Gu Ximian at the ball not long ago. Zhuang Chi’s heart felt a little bitter, but she knew now was not the time to think about such things. She pointed at herself and said in a small voice, “…You can hear my voice?”
“…” Gu Ximian was silent for a long moment, a hint of disbelief in her eyes. She said softly, “Incredible, you can actually talk.”
…Something had felt off since just now. Even if she had shrunk, she was still in human form. If Gu Ximian had seen Zhuang Chi’s normal appearance, her first reaction shouldn’t have been “What is this?” nor should she have been surprised that she could talk. Zhuang Chi thought about it and blinked uneasily. “Can I ask a question? In your eyes, what… what do I look like?”
“Like a light ball,” Gu Ximian answered without hesitation. “Floating in mid-air, swaying back and forth.”
Okay. So she really wasn’t in human form.
Not knowing what to say, Zhuang Chi’s thoughts took a turn. She figured this was probably more reasonable. After all, if she had met Gu Ximian when she was fifteen, she should have been recognized when they met at St. Blaisedon… Wait, but even if this was the case, while there was a reason for Gu Ximian not recognizing her back then, Zhuang Chi herself had no memory of this at all. Was this a dream or something else? Could it be that she had really traveled back in time three years?
…Speaking of which, Gu Ximian was really calm. Zhuang Chi looked at Gu Ximian, who remained unfazed in the face of such an entirely unrealistic situation. The fifteen-year-old Gu Ximian wasn’t drastically different from her eighteen-year-old self, just slightly shorter, her features not yet fully developed, making her look softer than the version Zhuang Chi was familiar with. She wondered how this person could be so composed from such a young age and couldn’t help but ask her, “Aren’t you scared at all?”
“So, are you something dangerous?” Gu Ximian raised an eyebrow and suddenly reached out to her, startling Zhuang Chi. But to her surprise, Gu Ximian’s hand also met empty air, not touching her. Gu Ximian let out a soft laugh and withdrew her hand. “I can’t even touch you. How dangerous can you be?”
“So what are you? Other people don’t seem to see you. Are you my hallucination?” As she spoke, she lowered her eyes, her long lashes hiding the self-mockery in them. “A side effect of differentiating into an S-class Omega, or something.”
Zhuang Chi hurriedly shook her head, only to be met with Gu Ximian’s confused question, “What do you mean by shaking twice?” She realized that a light ball couldn’t be seen shaking its head, so she had to speak. “No, I’m not your hallucination. I—”
She got stuck there. Zhuang Chi belatedly realized she didn’t know how to explain it to Gu Ximian. If it were the eighteen-year-old Gu Ximian, she could, of course, tell her everything. But now, facing the young Gu Ximian who knew nothing about her or the future, even without fully understanding the situation of this world from three years ago, Zhuang Chi still felt that confessing rashly might not be a good idea.
“…What’s wrong? You can’t say?” She stopped halfway through her sentence. Gu Ximian was quite understanding and said magnanimously, “Then forget it. Tell me when you’re ready. You—hey, do you have a name? Since we can communicate, what should I call you? I can’t just keep calling you ‘you,’ right?”
When asked for her name, Zhuang Chi almost blurted out her real name honestly. The words were on the tip of her tongue when she realized it wasn’t right. In a flash of inspiration, she fabricated a simple, flawless codename.
“Z,” Zhuang Chi said. “You can call me Z.”
Post a Comment