Ji Wushuang hung up the call with Lu Qianqian.
The room fell silent again.
Only the ticking of the wall clock remained.
Tick, tock.
It was like a countdown to the end of her vacation.
Ji Wushuang held the cold satellite phone.
Lu Qianqian's voice still echoed in her ears.
"I need you."
Like a comrade's call from a distant battlefield.
She knew her vacation was over.
The peace of Tangzhou was like a brief, warm dream.
Now, it was time to wake up.
She had to go back.
Back to the real battlefield that belonged to her.
Back to the real battlefield that belonged to them.
Ji Wushuang walked out of her room.
Her parents were watching TV in the living room.
It was a new TV she had bought for them.
A family soap opera was playing on the screen.
Her mother was watching with keen interest.
Her father was dozing off beside her.
An ordinary, mortal night.
"Dad, Mom."
Ji Wushuang spoke slowly.
Her voice was soft, but enough to make both parents turn their heads.
"I'm going back to Jingzhou tomorrow."
She said.
The smile froze on her mother's face.
Her father instantly became alert.
"So soon?"
Her mother's voice was full of disappointment.
"I thought you could stay a few more days?"
"There's an urgent matter at the company."
Ji Wushuang could only offer this feeble reason.
"The project is launching. I have to go back."
Her mother fell silent.
She lowered her head, looked at her own hands, and said nothing more.
Her father sighed.
He patted his wife's shoulder, then stood up and said to Ji Wushuang,
"Work comes first."
"Go ahead."
"We'll manage things here at home."
His words were exactly the same as when he sent her off to join the army years ago.
Ji Wushuang's heart felt as if pricked, a sharp pain.
Still, she nodded.
That night, Ji Wushuang couldn't fall asleep for a long time.
She sat in the darkness for a long while.
Then, she picked up her phone and sent a message to Chen Lei.
"Are you free? Let's go for a walk."
Soon, Chen Lei replied.
Just one word.
"Okay."
They met by the abandoned railway tracks in the factory district.
The night was deep, the surroundings quiet.
Only the low hum of distant factory machinery and the chirping of insects in the grass.
Chen Lei arrived.
He was wearing a simple T-shirt and trousers.
"What's wrong?"
He asked, a trace of concern in his voice.
"Did something happen?"
"No."
Ji Wushuang shook her head.
"I'm leaving tomorrow."
Chen Lei's body stiffened slightly.
The night hid his expression.
He didn't speak, just took a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.
The flame illuminated his sharply defined face.
It also illuminated a fleeting glimpse of loss in his eyes.
"T Country."
Ji Wushuang looked at the distant night sky and said softly.
"Our first project is in T Country."
"Seawater desalination, and mobile clinics."
For the first time, she proactively told him about her work, about Lu Qianqian, about that foundation called "Faraway."
About those people struggling to survive in poverty and war.
She spoke calmly.
As if presenting a report unrelated to herself.
But Chen Lei understood.
He understood the danger hidden beneath that calm, the weight of that ideal, and that compassion.
He listened quietly.
One cigarette burned out, and he lit another.
Only after Ji Wushuang finished speaking did he finally speak, his voice somewhat hoarse.
"Be careful."
He said, still these same four words.
Then, he paused and added another sentence.
"I'll be here for the family."
Simple words.
No plea for her to stay.
No complaint.
Only the deepest understanding and acceptance.
Yet, it was these few words that instantly struck the softest part of Ji Wushuang's heart.
In the army, she protected the nation.
She thought that was the greatest protection she could offer this home.
Out there, she guarded an ideal that could change the world.
She thought that was a grander responsibility.
But when she left,
This home was left empty.
It was this man before her.
Who, in his clumsy and silent way, filled the void she left.
Guarding the roots she most wanted to protect, yet had no time to tend to.
An unprecedented impulse surged in Ji Wushuang's heart.
She turned to face Chen Lei.
Looked at his outline, blurred yet incredibly clear in the night.
"Chen Lei."
Her voice was soft, yet unusually firm.
"Let's get married."
The air seemed to freeze.
Even the insect chirps seemed to vanish.
Chen Lei's hand holding the cigarette stopped mid-air.
He turned his head sharply to look at Ji Wushuang.
His eyes held disbelief and shock.
"You said... what?"
"I said, let's get married."
Ji Wushuang repeated.
Her mind was actually in turmoil; she didn't know why she said it.
Was it because of love?
She didn't understand what love was.
She only knew that being with this man felt safe.
Was it because she was moved?
Was it because she wanted to repay his years of devotion with a formal commitment?
Or was it simply because she was heading to a more dangerous battlefield.
She wanted to secure the most stable anchor behind her.
A home she could always return to, no matter what.
She didn't know.
She only knew that as she spoke the words, she felt no regret.
Chen Lei stared at her blankly.
His chest heaved violently.
A long, long time passed.
He finally found his voice again.
He threw the cigarette butt on the ground and crushed it under his foot.
Then, he stepped forward, one step, then another, until he stood right in front of Ji Wushuang.
He was a little taller than her.
He looked down at her.
His eyes were bright, even in the darkness.
"Ji Wushuang."
He said, word by word.
"Look at me."
Ji Wushuang raised her head to meet his gaze.
"Tell me."
"Why do you want to marry me?"
"Is it because you pity me?"
"Or because you're grateful?"
"Or do you feel you owe me an answer?"
Each of his questions was like a sharp knife.
Cutting open the chaotic feelings in her own heart that she hadn't even sorted out yet.
Ji Wushuang couldn't speak.
She found she couldn't answer.
Chen Lei looked at her and suddenly smiled.
The smile was full of bitterness and self-mockery.
"I knew it."
He took a step back, creating distance between them.
"Ji Wushuang."
His voice regained its calm.
But beneath that calm was suppressed pain.
"I don't want your gratitude or pity."
"And I certainly don't want your sense of obligation."
He looked at her, his eyes holding an unprecedented seriousness and tenderness.
"You are Ji Wushuang."
"The girl who could leave everyone behind on the training ground."
"The soldier queen who would go to the ends of the earth for an ideal."
"Your world is vast."
"So vast that even this Tangzhou can't contain it."
"You don't belong here."
"You shouldn't be tied down by anything."
"Including me."
"Including marriage."
He took a deep breath, as if using all his strength.
"I refuse."
and couldn't return to the real world. Finally, I gave up and decided to go with the flow, only to discover that writing a diary could make me stronger. Since no one could read it, Su Luo wrote freely, daring to pen anything and everything. Female Lead #1: "Not bad. This diary helped me steal all the protagonist's opportunities. I just want to get stronger." Female Lead #2: "I don’t care about reaching the peak of the cultivation world. Right now, I just want to enjoy the chaos." Female Lead #3: "What? Everyone around me is a spy? I’m the Joker Demon Lord?" ... It’s so strange. Why is the plot completely off track, yet the ending remains the same? Are you all just messing with me?!
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
