Chapter 66

Then the laughter in the earbud grew louder.

Listening to him laugh, Liu Zhiyi couldn't help laughing along.

She stood there like that, foolishly laughing, for a long time.

Rather silly.

But strangely, Liu Zhiyi felt her mood lift a great deal.

It seemed she hadn't been this happy since her mother died.

Those positive feelings were slowly coming back; she could feel joy again, and wasn't so grieved anymore.

Though thinking so still brought a little guilt…

Liu Zhiyi lifted her head and gazed at the round moon.

Mama… Grandma…

It seemed she was about to come through it.

Zhou Fuqing: "Would you like some steak?"

As his words fell —

—Boom.

A firework burst, lighting the hospital's top floor.

Liu Zhiyi startled.

Zhou Fuqing paused, his voice blurring into the tail of the firework's boom; the red thread rose from her palm, pulling her flying toward the hospital.

Not yet used to flying through the air like this, Liu Zhiyi was tugged into a spin like a top.

Zhou Fuqing: "Sorry, sorry."

The red thread softened, turned a circle around her, looped loosely over her shoulder, then wound on.

With the support at her shoulder, Liu Zhiyi didn't spin anymore as she was drawn flying forward.

At the same time, petals mixed with the oncoming wind brushed gently at her face.

Last time she'd come, the scenery around the hospital had looked rather strange, different buildings jumbled together.

Now, though it was no more orderly, between building and building bloomed flowers of every kind.

The whole hospital was wrapped in a sea of flowers.

It looked a bit gaudy, and yet was very beautiful.

—Boom.

A firework burst.

Liu Zhiyi looked up.

Her body kept rising.

The fireworks burst one after another.

Seeing she was about to pass through them, Liu Zhiyi drew in her shoulders on reflex, stung by the light.

Zhou Fuqing: "Don't be afraid."

As his words fell, Liu Zhiyi, drawn by the red thread, slipped into the fireworks.

By rights the bursting fireworks would be very hot.

But she only felt the temperature around her rise a little — not even as hot as the water in her evening bath.

Come to think of it, a game dungeon couldn't be judged entirely by reality.

But none of that was the point.

As the booms went off, she seemed to be in an ocean of firelight, many-colored fire bursting all around, blindingly bright for an instant, crowding her eyes until nothing was left but fireworks of every kind.

Liu Zhiyi had sometimes wondered what love tasted like, what it would feel like.

But she hadn't imagined this feeling would be sight, hearing, touch.

All her senses were filled with these fireworks.

In her wholly blank mind, only one thought was left.

So beautiful.

"Giving flowers is a bit ordinary." Zhou Fuqing's tone in the earbud was floating, that wanting-to-be-praised note impossible to hide. "I wanted to give you some special flowers."

Liu Zhiyi, pressing a hand to her pounding heart, landed on the hospital rooftop.

The rooftop was set up too.

But compared to flying through the fireworks, the rooftop's arrangement was conventional.

Candles, roses, a wooden dinner table.

It looked like an ordinary candlelit dinner.

Zhou Fuqing said softly, as if a bit embarrassed.

"…I didn't have any good ideas for this part."

Liu Zhiyi touched her wrist.

Her too-fast heart rate had the watch shocking her wrist without stop.

So this affected her heart rate too.

Liu Zhiyi breathed deep and waited for it to settle.

Her silence may have made Zhou Fuqing uneasy.

Zhou Fuqing: "You don't like it?"

"I like it quite a lot." Liu Zhiyi let out a breath, and pressed the back of her hand to her face to cool her cheeks and settle her mood faster.

Zhou Fuqing: "That's wonderful!"

The red thread joined to the back of her hand swayed into a wave-line.

Zhou Fuqing: "I've prepared steak — is that all right?"

Liu Zhiyi didn't have many demands about food, but with the mood built up like this, a steak really was called for to suit it.

Liu Zhiyi: "That's fine."

She also wanted to see what tricks Zhou Fuqing could pull.

What she saw was a steak floating up in the air, then a burst of flame rising, the steak flying straight through the fire.

Then flame after flame rose, like a runway, the steak flying over through the platform of fire, then turning a circle on the plate before her, the meat's edges drooping slightly, spreading like the hem of a skirt as it spun.

A bit eerie, but rather pretty.

And it wasn't over — a red petal suddenly stuck to her face.

Liu Zhiyi turned toward where the petal had come from, and a violin floated in midair, slowly beginning to play, petals scattering from it now and then.

A bit corny to look at, but the music wasn't bad.

Liu Zhiyi was tickled into a laugh.

Then she saw a knife and fork float up and cut the steak for her.

Quite busy, Liu Zhiyi thought.

But how was it done?

Liu Zhiyi gazed at the floating knife, fork, and violin — were they props? Or were there limbs she couldn't see?

Where were the other parts of the cat's body?

While she was thinking, Liu Zhiyi saw something.

A bit like light?

But light doesn't join into a line.

Liu Zhiyi narrowed her eyes.

She saw that the knife, fork, and violin were all joined by threads.

Why were they points of light?

Because the threads were very fine, so all she could see was point after point of light.

And now those points of light, dense and countless, covered the entire rooftop.

What was that?

Liu Zhiyi gazed at the threads.

But in a blink, the threads all vanished again.

Zhou Fuqing: "What is it?"

A steaming plate of sweet-and-sour ribs was set before her.

Against the backdrop of candlelight and steak, the sweet-and-sour ribs turning up was especially out of place, yet Liu Zhiyi couldn't help a small laugh.

It was a feeling hard to describe.

After her grandmother and mother died, Liu Zhiyi always had the sense of being duckweed adrift with nowhere to root.

But now, there was someone who could remember your likes, who cared about you.

Even knowing this was an otome game's usual formula, Liu Zhiyi was still moved by it.

She'd thought Zhou Fuqing would pull more tricks, but the rest of the meal was calm — only, besides the sweet-and-sour ribs, many more dishes appeared on the table.

A candlelit dinner turned into plain home cooking.

But Liu Zhiyi was happy.

Still that hoary old saying — you only know to cherish it once it's lost.

Fresh out of school Liu Zhiyi had been full of ambition, thinking to earn more money; now she felt that if the ones she loved were healthy and could share a meal with her, that was one of life's great blessings.

"You should go home."

Zhou Fuqing broke into her thoughts.

Liu Zhiyi went still; Zhou Fuqing's tone was low, sounding very serious.

It was the first time she'd heard Zhou Fuqing speak to her in this tone.

Liu Zhiyi didn't want to leave, but Zhou Fuqing's manner was firm.

He didn't even hear her out; the red thread rose, turned a few loops around her hands, tied both her hands together, and didn't spare her legs either.

Liu Zhiyi startled.

She flew up.

This takeoff was a bit hasty; Liu Zhiyi flew up facing the sky.

She saw the night sky.

The enormous moon hung at its center, its overly bright light leaving double images in her eyes.

Amid the double images, she saw scattered starlight.

Because the moonlight was too strong, Liu Zhiyi couldn't be sure whether the starlight was really there, or whether her eyes were playing tricks.

The starlight spread into layer upon layer of haloes; at a glance, it even had color.

Many-colored — it looked… it looked like a city's neon lights.

Liu Zhiyi's heart jumped; she narrowed her eyes and looked closely.

The layered double images were squarish, like building after building.

Was this a city?

A city hung upside-down in the sky.

A long black shadow ran through the city.

Liu Zhiyi recognized at a glance that it was a river.

And the city she lived in now had a river.

What did this mean?

Liu Zhiyi began to struggle, but the red thread bound her tight.

This time Zhou Fuqing had made up his mind to send her to the train.

Zhou Fuqing: "Once you're on the train, don't look around, and don't talk to anyone. You know how well the things on the train can disguise themselves."

"And…" his voice paused. "After you get home, hide inside for a month. Don't go out."

The way he said it had all the air of a storm about to break.

Before she could open her mouth to ask —

—Rumble.

A sound like thunder suddenly burst.

Liu Zhiyi looked up at once.

The moon hung quietly in the sky — no dark clouds, no lightning.

She felt the red thread binding her loosen.

Zhou Fuqing's tone shifted.

"No rush to go — stay here a few days."

And so a thoroughly bewildered Liu Zhiyi was taken by Zhou Fuqing onto an elevator.

The elevator had been ghastly white with light, filled with the disinfectant smell peculiar to hospitals.

But after she stepped in, a red velvet carpet rolled out from behind her, and then, as if by magic —

the elevator car turned from cold hard silver to gold, the incandescent light overhead became a lavish crystal chandelier, the disinfectant smell receded, replaced by a rich floral scent.

In an instant it went from a hospital to a high-end hotel.

Zhou Fuqing: "Stay two nights here, and the day after tomorrow I'll send you back."

After he said this, the elevator doors opened.

Liu Zhiyi felt herself go light — the red thread was nowhere to be seen.

Had something happened?

Liu Zhiyi asked a few questions, but the earbud suddenly went quiet.

She took out her phone and glanced at the screen; the Love Heartbeat game interface was frozen.

Liu Zhiyi thought a moment, uneasy at heart.

But then she remembered Shen Songyue saying the rest of Zhou Fuqing's body was at this station.

She decided to go downstairs and look first, to see if she could find the other parts of Zhou Fuqing's body.

She was on the 18th floor now; unsure where the other body parts were, she could only search floor by floor.

She'd go to the 17th first, and pressed the 17 button.

The elevator didn't move for a while, and just as Liu Zhiyi was hesitating —

—Hum.

With a shudder of the elevator, the doors closed in fits and jerks.

Liu Zhiyi wanted to run but was afraid of being caught in the doors, so she could only turn a circle in the car and quickly take stock of her surroundings.

The color of the walls around her drained away fast, mottled rust slowly spreading over them.

Then came weightlessness.

Only, the weightlessness lasted a mere few seconds.

—Ding.

The 17th floor had arrived.

Liu Zhiyi didn't move; she stared quietly at the elevator doors.

Zhou Fuqing always showed a gentle, tolerant face, so much that she'd nearly forgotten the cat wasn't actually an ordinary person.

A dungeon shows a person's true psychological state.

Maybe what she saw now was the cat's real inner heart.

The elevator doors shuddered and slowly slid open.

Liu Zhiyi took a step back.

Even braced for it, when she saw the scene behind the elevator clearly she still went blank for a moment.

Through the experience of several dungeons, she always instinctively imagined a dungeon as dark and frightening.