Entering Mount Lushan as if in Reality and Dream

"Blue Fatso..." Hearing her sister's words, Li Guanqi froze for a moment before frowning in thought.

She then looked around, scanning the other claw machines, but none of them had the so-called "Blue Fatso" plushie either.

This caught her attention—because the function of her ring bore a striking resemblance to Blue Fatso's fourth-dimensional pocket.

"Jie, is this Blue Fatso supposed to be in every machine?" Li Guanqi mused aloud, a faint suspicion forming in her mind that her ring might somehow be connected to the plushie.

"Yep, every machine has the same set of plushies," Li Zhaohao confirmed. "I bet someone cheated, called the staff, and bought up all the Blue Fatso ones."

"Is that so?"

Li Guanqi turned toward the staff area for the claw machines, which was divided into two sections: one for exchanging coins and the other for the supervisors overseeing operations.

"I’ll go get some coins," she said simply.

"Just get twenty," Li Zhaohao suggested.

"Got it." Li Guanqi nodded and headed over.

At the counter.

"Um—"

"Huh?"

"Hello, would you like to exchange for coins?"

The staff member, startled at first, quickly regained her professionalism.

"I’d like twenty, please," Li Guanqi replied.

After getting the coins, she hesitated before leaving. "Excuse me, can the plushies in the claw machines be bought directly?"

"Sorry, no," the staff member answered patiently. "Company policy."

"Then why are all the Blue Fatso plushies missing?" she pressed.

The staff member shook her head. "I’m not sure about the specifics. Maybe someone got caught breaking the rules. We review the footage regularly to check. If you’re interested, you can come back on Monday—we restock all plushies except the limited editions then."

Li Guanqi didn’t push further. After thanking the staff, she returned to Li Zhaohao and handed her the coins.

"Is the Blue Fatso plushie a limited edition?" she asked curiously.

"Nope," Li Zhaohao replied.

Hearing that, Li Guanqi decided to return on Monday. For now, she turned her attention back to the claw machine. The limited-edition plushie Li Zhaohao wanted was still inside.

Soon, the coins were nearly gone. The panda plushie, originally tucked in the corner, was finally maneuvered close to the chute.

"Just one more try!"

Li Zhaohao clenched her fists excitedly, ready to insert another coin—only to realize they were out.

"Keep an eye on it for me. I’ll go get more coins," she instructed before hurrying back to the counter.

Li Guanqi nodded in understanding. But the moment Li Zhaohao left, a girl approached, carrying several shopping bags. She set them down, studied the claw machine, and prepared to insert a coin.

"Excuse me—" Li Guanqi started to say, but the words died in her throat when she recognized the girl’s face.

"Senior Gu?" she blurted out in surprise—because standing before her was the breathtakingly beautiful Gu Ruoxue.

"Hm?"

Gu Ruoxue paused and turned to her.

"Oh, Junior Li. Are you playing too?"

Her voice was cool, carrying an aloofness that kept others at arm’s length.

Li Guanqi’s first instinct was to check Gu Ruoxue’s hands—no ring. That must mean she, like Ji Qingyi, had already rid herself of negative emotions. Then her gaze drifted to Gu Ruoxue’s purchases: cat food, dog food, nuts, pet supplies…

This discovery stunned her. As far as she knew, Gu Ruoxue disliked dogs—even loathed them. Had she overcome that weakness?

While lost in thought, Gu Ruoxue’s cool, slightly raspy voice snapped her back to reality: "I’ll take my leave now."

By the time Li Guanqi processed the words, Gu Ruoxue was already walking away—with a pink panda plushie in her arms. The toy looked oddly familiar.

Right. Her sister loved that exact plushie.

"Where’s my panda?"

"Where’s my panda?!"

"Where’s my limited-edition Xiangxiang?!" Li Zhaohao circled the claw machine frantically, coins in hand, but the plushie was nowhere to be found. Finally, she turned to Li Guanqi. "Did you secretly grab it to surprise me?"

Li Guanqi’s expression stiffened. Slowly, she looked back at the machine—the panda was indeed gone. Her mind went blank with a dull buzz.

"Guanqi? Guanqi?"

Li Zhaohao nudged her shoulder, snapping her out of her daze.

"Sorry, I didn’t notice someone else took it," Li Guanqi apologized, bowing her head. Even though she knew her sister wouldn’t blame her, guilt gnawed at her.

Li Zhaohao looked crestfallen but quickly forced a smile. "It’s fine. If someone else got it, then it wasn’t meant to be ours."

Still, her eyes shimmered with unshed tears.

"Jie, let’s come back next week," Li Guanqi said softly, squeezing her hand.

"Okay. For now, let’s get ice cream."

At the ice cream shop, the vendor was so charmed by Li Zhaohao’s beauty that he gave them extra scoops.

As they ate, Li Zhaohao’s earlier disappointment seemed to melt away, replaced by a contented smile. Li Guanqi nibbled at hers quietly.

"Let’s stop by the flower shop later for some gardening supplies," Li Zhaohao suggested as they rested on a bench.

"Sure," Li Guanqi agreed obediently.

"That classmate of yours is pretty interesting," Li Zhaohao mused between licks of her ice cream.

"My classmate?" Li Guanqi blinked. "Who?"

"Su Cheng. The one you went to visit."

Li Guanqi paused. She hadn’t told her sister whom she’d visited, but as student council president, Li Zhaohao could easily check attendance records. No surprise there.

She saw no reason to hide it. "Why do you think he’s interesting?"

"Didn’t he make waves right before school started? The whole school knows about it."

The whole school?

Li Guanqi’s brows knit as she searched her memory.

If it was school-wide, then it must’ve been during the opening ceremony.

Cornelia.

Back then, Cornelia’s behavior had baffled her.

Su Cheng didn’t even know Cornelia, yet Cornelia acted as if she knew him intimately—even saying things that shocked and confused her.

It almost sounded like she was scolding him for not confessing to her.

Although the incident had been dismissed as an impromptu performance at the time, Li Guanqi couldn’t shake off a strange sense of unease whenever she recalled it. She felt there was some hidden secret behind it.

Now that her sister had brought it up again, a vague suspicion surfaced in her mind, though she suppressed it for the moment.

She decided to ask her sister first.

"Wasn’t it just Cornelia’s impromptu act to get the drama club’s attention?" Li Guanqi asked doubtfully. "If anything, Cornelia should be the interesting one here, right?"

"After that incident, Ailiya came to me."

Li Zhaohao paused briefly before continuing, "When I handled it, Su Cheng insisted it was all a misunderstanding, and Cornelia said the same thing."

At this point, she scooped up a bite of ice cream and added, "Based on background records, Su Cheng shouldn’t have known Cornelia, and he showed no obvious signs of lying. On the other hand, everything Cornelia said was a lie."

"She lied?!" Li Guanqi was stunned, finding it hard to believe.

If it wasn’t an impromptu performance, then didn’t that mean Cornelia’s outburst toward Su Cheng was genuine?

Had she been so heartbroken over not being confessed to that she unconsciously caused such a scene?

But if the two had never met before—

Then the question was: How did Cornelia know Su Cheng would confess to her?

Could she see the future?

Otherwise, how could this be explained?

"Was Cornelia just playing a prank?"

"I don’t think so."

"Then…"

"Right? I found it strange too when I handled it."

Li Zhaohao furrowed her delicate brows and explained, "Cornelia seemed to harbor extremely intense feelings for Su Cheng—deep and unforgettable. That’s why she lost control during the ceremony."

Li Guanqi’s expression grew more serious as she noticed two common points: Both Cornelia and Ji Qingyi had shown hostility toward her, and both had interacted with Su Cheng around the same time.

Could Cornelia also have a ring? But she hadn’t noticed any signs of Cornelia wearing one.

If it was because of the ring, then why didn’t Gu Ruoxue behave differently like these two?

Li Guanqi’s mind was a mess—she had some clues but nothing concrete. So she decided to set these questions aside for now and focus on Cornelia and Su Cheng tomorrow. They were easier to approach, and she might uncover more leads.

"Let’s go. The planting materials are for your classmate anyway." Li Zhaohao stood up, smoothed her skirt, and headed toward a nearby plant nursery.

Li Guanqi followed closely behind.

Soon, they had selected and purchased various planting materials. After packing and paying, the two headed home together.

On the way back, Li Guanqi gazed out the window, lost in thought, when she noticed a small figure reflected on the glass. Upon closer inspection, she saw a crow flying above them, moving in the same direction as the car. She paid it no mind, quietly absorbed in her own thoughts.

Only when the car entered the exclusive compound and she was about to get out did she catch a glimpse of the crow suddenly veering off and landing on the balcony of a standalone house within the compound. Realization struck her, and she quickly turned to look.

If she wasn’t mistaken, the crow had landed right on the balcony of Gu Ruoxue’s loft.

"Huh? Senior Gu keeps a crow?"

Li Guanqi couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise.

"You just noticed?"

Li Zhaohao wasn’t the least bit surprised and remarked, "That crow she keeps comes and goes like clockwork, almost like it’s commuting. If you’re curious, you can visit her later."

"No need." Li Guanqi shook her head. "I’m just a little surprised she’d keep such a pet."

After returning home and bidding her sister goodbye, Li Guanqi locked all the doors and windows and arranged the oranges she had bought that afternoon on the table.

Sitting on the sofa, she carefully examined the fresh, plump oranges, focusing her attention. Suddenly, the orange in her hand vanished—only to reappear a moment later.

It was the same orange she had just put away, unchanged, just like every other item she had stored and retrieved before. But this expected outcome only deepened her confusion.

"Maybe it has nothing to do with the oranges? Let me try again."

She placed the orange back on the table, stared at the pile, and willed ten oranges to disappear. Instantly, ten oranges vanished at random from the table.

With another thought, an orange materialized in her hand, then disappeared, repeating the cycle several times. Though the oranges that reappeared seemed different each time, nothing unusual occurred.

"...No changes at all. Maybe it really isn’t related. Should I just try all of them... Ah!"

Frustrated by the lack of progress, Li Guanqi muttered to herself, her voice tinged with confusion and impatience. Perhaps too absorbed in her thoughts, she accidentally stored all the oranges at once, startling herself. She quickly reversed the action, returning them all to the table.

'What now? No new leads. It feels like I’m back to square one. With Ji Qingyi keeping an eye on Su Cheng, it’s hard to investigate him. And according to my sister, Cornelia went back home with her parents recently. Should I take leave to visit her? Or should I ask Senior Gu if she knows anything?'

A full day of activity and intense thinking had left Li Guanqi exhausted. Since the oranges yielded no results, she decided to eat a couple to quench her thirst.

She casually picked one up, peeling it as she continued pondering. When she finished eating and tossed the peel into the trash, she noticed black ink stains on her fingers.

"Huh? This is... marker ink? Did I touch something earlier?"

She wracked her brain but couldn’t recall any markers nearby. After some thought, she turned her attention to the discarded orange peel in the trash.

She retrieved it and flipped it over.

『I will forget----』

The rest of the words had been smudged beyond recognition by her fingers.

Staring at this, Li Guanqi froze in place. After a long moment, she rubbed her eyes and looked again, confirming she hadn’t misread. Her heart pounded wildly.

This orange...

There had been no writing on it when she picked it!

Which meant—

This was an orange that had already been inside the ring!?

And she had accidentally retrieved it!?

Moreover, the handwriting was unmistakably her own. Based on her writing habits, she could tell that about five characters had been smudged off the end.

As for the first part, she immediately thought of the most likely completion.

"I will lose my memory...? To do what?"

Li Guanqi repeated the words in a daze, the confusion and agitation in her mind instantly dissipating, replaced by a flicker of realization and shock.

She had finally found a possible explanation for why Cornelia and Ji Qingyi showed such unusual interest in Su Cheng. Could it be that they had regained their memories for some reason?

If that were the case, everything made sense.

But had she herself also experienced memory loss? Was this amnesia a thing of the past—or something yet to come? What did the erased fragments hint at?

Lowering her head, she sank into deep thought, the orange in her hand seemingly holding the key to unraveling all these mysteries.

If she, too, had lost her memories...

Then how could she reclaim what was forgotten?

This question,

like an unsolvable riddle, now lay before Li Guanqi.