Chapter 65

Where were the other body parts?

While she was thinking, the red thread on her palm swayed, as if given a tug.

Was he hurrying her along?

Liu Zhiyi took out her phone.

In reality Zhou Fuqing didn't even have a head, let alone a face to read his thoughts from.

When Liu Zhiyi couldn't be sure, all she could do was glance at the phone and see what expression the Zhou Fuqing in Love Heartbeat wore.

The phone page rested on the game interface too; Zhou Fuqing reached a hand toward the screen, his eyes slightly wide, looking at it with a touch of unease.

Zhou Fuqing: "What is it?"

His pitch dropped another degree.

Even without looking at the phone, that unease came through in the voice.

Liu Zhiyi glanced at the trembling red thread, and suddenly felt like laughing.

"It's nothing. Let's go."

Other people date normal men.

With her, there wasn't even a whole body… but it felt all right, somehow.

Liu Zhiyi: "There's nothing in particular I want to eat. Do you have a recommendation?"

Zhou Fuqing: "I do. Are you afraid of heights?"

Was it the Ferris wheel?

Liu Zhiyi shook her head. "Not afraid."

"I know a place where you can see the whole hospital." Zhou Fuqing's voice rose a good deal in volume, the piano score rising with it, hard enough to quicken Liu Zhiyi's heart a few beats.

Zhou Fuqing: "I'll take you."

You could tell at a hearing he'd prepared it in advance.

Liu Zhiyi laughed, and didn't refuse.

Then she saw the Zhou Fuqing in the phone reach a hand out toward the screen, and the red thread on her palm wound a few loops around her hand.

—Whoosh.

A breeze brushed her face; the red thread swayed and lifted.

Zhou Fuqing: "About to take off."

Liu Zhiyi followed the red thread forward, and stepped a foot into the air.

Tiny yellow petals came flying on the wind, circling around her.

Liu Zhiyi drew a deep breath and smelled the scent of osmanthus.

Zhou Fuqing: "Do you like it?"

Of course she liked it — because her mother liked osmanthus things, so naturally she'd come to like them too.

Liu Zhiyi: "How did you know I like it?"

"The first time I saw you, I saw you take a breath under an osmanthus tree." Zhou Fuqing said. "I thought you must like it… ah, I wasn't following you, I just happened to share part of the way out of the subway station with you."

Hearing Zhou Fuqing's flustered explanation, Liu Zhiyi gave a laugh.

"I… I'm sorry." Zhou Fuqing's tone weakened, his words tripping a little. "I know this might be a bit offensive, but I just can't help putting my attention on you… are you angry?"

Liu Zhiyi had heard that liking someone makes you mind their every move without meaning to; though she still didn't understand the feeling, she was a little touched.

Liu Zhiyi: "Not angry."

Zhou Fuqing let out a long breath. "Look over there."

The voice came from the right earbud; Liu Zhiyi turned her head to the right.

She saw a patch light up in the area below and to the right, the yellow osmanthus trees clustered together into a yellow sea of flowers.

Osmanthus doesn't actually bloom that thickly.

But the dungeon was, after all, apart from reality; at one glance, petals rose now and then from the sea of flowers and surged toward her, circling around her.

The scene was quite dreamlike.

Circling in the air amid the flowers, her gaze fell on the Ferris wheel, and the pink hanging lights on it flickered a little brighter.

Wherever she looked, that place lit up.

Something stirred in Liu Zhiyi, and she suddenly had a guess.

"Actually… I quite like Chinese roses too."

The words were barely out when a rose-red Chinese rose suddenly bloomed in the yellow osmanthus sea, then a second, then more and more.

Zhou Fuqing: "I… I'm sorry, I can't quite control it…"

So her guess was right.

Liu Zhiyi gazed at that sea of flowers.

No wonder this station had both a hospital and a Ferris wheel, mismatched in such a strange way.

The dungeons of different stations were born from people's thoughts and obsessions.

Just like the station she was meant to get off at.

Zhou Fuqing: "As long as you want it, I can't help thinking it into being…"

And this station was born for her.

Liu Zhiyi drew a sharp breath.

The words were too cloying by far — they sounded as if the whole meaning of his existence was to love her.

Liu Zhiyi took a deep breath and repeated inside, over and over.

This is only a game, and the cat's mind is muddled because of the prop's game. Don't take it too seriously.

But the mood really was too good.

The petals drifting and circling around her, the huge bright moon overhead, and the game's score flowing like water in her ears.

The flower-scent, once drawn into her nose, turned into a current, running from her back to the crown of her head, tingling all over.

Rationally she knew this was only a game, and the cat should be in an unclear state right now.

But her body leapt with joy, and she couldn't help hopping a few steps forward along the red thread.

Just then, a laugh suddenly came through the earbud.

Very light, sounding like a breath of air, brushing gently against her ear.

In an instant, her ear was struck by a current too.

Even knowing the sound came from the earbud, that there was nothing beside her in reality, she still covered her ear on reflex.

Zhou Fuqing: "Do you like it?"

His pitch rose as he spoke, an irrepressible smile surging toward her ear with his breath.

Liu Zhiyi felt the sound's power; it seemed to become sea-waves — only these waves were very gentle, lapping at her ear one after another.

Liu Zhiyi couldn't help a small laugh.

Zhou Fuqing: "You like it."

He said it again, only this time turned from a question into a statement.