With a heart full of complex thoughts, Yun Chuji watched as the AI helped a stumbling, drunk Feng Ling to the shop’s break room to sleep. She ignored Feng Ling’s offer to treat her, paid the bill on her comm, and felt as if the weight of the past few days had lightened somewhat along with the dwindling balance in her account.
She stepped out of the shop into the same forest of steel, its skyscrapers like fearsome, sky-piercing pillars. Hover cars whizzed past, like the tigers from her books transformed into shapes of metal. Objectively speaking, this world was vibrant and colorful, but its magnificent structures always made one feel insignificant. Yun Chuji walked aimlessly through the gaps between the buildings. From time to time, a city AI cleaning bot would greet her. At first, Yun Chuji would reply politely, but after the third time, she suddenly realized it wasn’t a person.
Then she began to ignore them.
By the fourth time, the bot, operating under the integrated intelligent system, thoughtfully stopped greeting her.
Yun Chuji stared blankly at the bot for a long time. It was white, about a meter tall, and oval-shaped with a small screen in the middle, looking quite cute. There was very little trash in the city during the ABO era, so these cleaning bots served more to purify the air. They would stand in areas with heavy hover car traffic, emitting a soft hum.
Listening to this hum, Yun Chuji made a decision: she would buy a guqin.
In this world, manufacturing things was extremely simple. Whether it was large-scale standardized production or personal customization, nothing was a problem under the halo of high technology.
Yun Chuji placed an order on her comm, and the next day, a zither almost identical to the one from her past life was delivered to her door.
She tested its sound; the timbre was excellent.
Perhaps Feng Ling’s words had affected her in some way. Since yesterday, the loneliness she had deliberately ignored all this time came flooding back. She began to ponder the question of companionship, but found no answer.
She had no companions.
She was a lonely soul.
Yun Chuji placed her hands on the zither and played “Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute,” but found she couldn’t pour her inner feelings into the melody. Even her solitude was different from others’.
So she began to play aimlessly. The notes formed no tune, the music no composition, yet she found a simple pleasure in it for its own sake.
Until Tang Jianxi arrived with the setting sun.
Tang Jianxi rang the doorbell, but there was no answer. Worried something had happened, she hurriedly opened the door, only to find that for the first time, the woman wasn’t reading, but playing the zither.
She had to admit, it was still the air of a sheltered young lady from a noble house.
Tang Jianxi lightened her steps, walked out of the entryway, and leaned against the wall to listen.
She was carrying a bag in her hand—the seeds she had promised Yun Chuji. In a fit of pique, she had planted half of them, saving the other half to give to Yun Chuji when she returned.
She had made a promise, after all. Previously, she had just wanted to find a moment when their feelings were less intense to deliver them, but now she had no such intention and wanted to give them to her as soon as possible.
But delivering it herself was still no match for the speed of a delivery bot.
Tang Jianxi admitted to herself that she was really just looking for a good excuse to see her. That way, Yun Chuji might grow closer to her. Constantly talking about topics like slavery, exploitation, suffering, and injustice, while a form of being on the same wavelength, was hardly the state of mind from which love could blossom—even Tang Jianxi, with no experience in romance, knew that.
After wrestling with her thoughts for a while, she had entered with the seeds, full of confidence.
Now, seeing her, she suddenly felt fortunate. It was a good thing she had come; today she had discovered another side of this little antique.
So this little antique had a romantic, poetic side. She had thought Yun Chuji was like one of those ancient housewives described in books, who spent their days doing nothing but embroidery and handling various interpersonal disputes, clumsily and rigidly clinging to rules, believing it was the only path to finding value in life.
Of course, Tang Jianxi didn’t recognize the instrument, but that didn’t stop her from appreciating Yun Chuji’s elegant and dignified posture as she played, nor did it prevent her from hearing the player’s troubled heart in the music. Tang Jianxi’s heart ached for her. Because this was the person she liked, that ache intensified several times over. She couldn’t help but wonder, Was she frightened by the matter with Glory?
Or was it something else?
When the piece ended, Yun Chuji opened her eyes and met Tang Jianxi’s compassionate gaze. It was strange, but that feeling of loneliness coiled around her now melted away like snow in hot water.
“Omegas are an alpha’s antidote!”
The words echoed in her mind again.
Was it because of the pheromones?
No, it wasn’t just because of the pheromones.
A wide smile spread across Yun Chuji’s face. “Miss Tang, you’re here.”
Tang Jianxi was taken aback by her smile, not understanding how her mood could change so quickly when just a moment ago she looked utterly grief-stricken. She walked over to Yun Chuji, knelt to meet her gaze, and asked softly, “Did something happen?”
Yun Chuji saw no reason to hide it, so she recounted what Feng Ling had said, adding at the end, “I suddenly realized this era isn’t so different from my own. People don’t get together just because of pheromones, but more because they want companionship.”
Thinking of those demons in Glory, Yun Chuji added solemnly, “At least, most people are like that.”
But Tang Jianxi’s focus was clearly elsewhere. She eyed the comm on Yun Chuji’s wrist warily. “You didn’t add those omegas, did you?”
Yun Chuji was puzzled. “I don’t know them. Why would I add them?”
A satisfied expression appeared on Tang Jianxi’s face. Her lips curved into a smile as she handed over the bag she was carrying. “The gift I promised you.”
Yun Chuji blinked. It took her a moment to remember what this was about. She had only mentioned it in passing, and with so much happening afterward, she had completely forgotten about the gift. She never thought Tang Jianxi would still remember it. She took the bag and glanced inside. A small handful of dusty gray seeds were sealed in a vacuum bag, their variety impossible to tell.
“What kind of flower is this?” she asked.
Tired of kneeling, Tang Jianxi copied Yun Chuji and sat cross-legged on the carpet. When Yun Chuji asked her question, she instinctively turned her head to the side, only to meet Yun Chuji’s face turning at the same time. Tang Jianxi took a soft breath and answered, “Begonia.”
Those two words stirred memories of a childhood spent among flowers and plants. Yun Chuji’s eyes lit up. “I used to have a begonia tree in my courtyard!”
“But that was a very large tree. These seeds are so small, will they take a long time to grow?”
Of course not. If you wanted it to bloom, you could just pour a bottle of growth accelerant on it, and it would be two meters tall by tomorrow. But faced with Yun Chuji’s dependent expression, the words on Miss Tang’s lips took a different turn. “Mhm, it will take a long time. But I’ll help you raise it.”
“Wow, Miss Tang, you’re so nice!”
Tang Jianxi listened to Yun Chuji’s praise, feeling both guilty and happy. Spurred on by her happiness, her greed began to swell. “You don’t have to call me Miss Tang anymore. Just call me by my name.”
“I’ll call you by your name, too. Chuji.”
Yun Chuji froze for a moment, then her face turned red. According to her mother’s teachings, only one’s husband and parents could call one by their given name so intimately. Yun Chuji desperately told herself that this wasn’t that era anymore; in this era, calling someone by their name was a polite thing to do.
So, with a blush, she said slowly, “Alright, Jianxi.”
Tang Jianxi drew another breath. This little antique, this little antique, she really knew how to create an intoxicating atmosphere.
In this era, humanity had been civilized for a long time. Aided by technology and culture, almost every new world worth opening had been opened. With everyone having a comm and the star-net having everything, the emotion of shyness was truly a rare sight.
But then came Yun Chuji, with her astonishingly high moral standards and incredibly low threshold for embarrassment.
This couldn’t help but pull Tang Jianxi—whose moral standards were similar but whose threshold for embarrassment was much higher—down to the same level. Though she didn’t know what there was to be shy about, she had only wanted to close the distance between them a little, yet her own face flushed as if they’d just tumbled in bed.
With this person so close, her gentle orchid scent filling the air, Tang Jianxi felt she probably couldn’t handle it.
So Tang Jianxi cleared her throat and said, “…Chuji… I came today to tell you about you and Glory.”
That sentence finally brought the atmosphere back within normal bounds. Yun Chuji immediately straightened her expression. “I’ve been trying hard to remember these past two days, and I recalled how the original Miss Yun contacted Glory. They communicate on a website. I’ve remembered the account and password. As soon as you, Jianxi, set a suitable time, I can start contacting them.”
Tang Jianxi fell silent for a moment upon hearing this, then made one last attempt to persuade her. “You don’t have to do this.”
“But I want to,” Yun Chuji said with conviction.
Tang Jianxi sighed and laid out the entire plan she and Tang Jianshen had discussed. “If Glory’s goal was for the original Yun Chuji to get close to me and then control me, then as long as you can do that, combined with your status as an S-rank alpha, your position within Glory should rise quickly, allowing you to easily access key secrets.”
“So, we just need to put on a show for Glory.”
Yun Chuji frowned, hesitating. “Glory won’t force me to do anything to hurt… Jianxi, will they?”
“I’ll be in the shadows, so they won’t be able to figure out my true situation. You’ll be in the open, so you’re the one who needs to be careful. If Glory finds you out, I have the protection of the Tang family. But you… I don’t know if I can protect you.”
After all, the Third Princess’s shadow loomed over this. Her involvement meant that many of the Empire’s great noble families were likely involved as well. Without sufficiently powerful evidence, these people could use their power to turn black into white.
Yun Chuji just smiled. “It’s alright. I’m someone who’s died once before. I’m not afraid.”
Tang Jianxi couldn’t bear to hear her say such things. She stared into her eyes and said, “It’s precisely because you’ve died once that your second life is all the more precious.”
“So, no matter what happens, you have to tell me. I will help you.”
Yun Chuji looked up at her. Tang Jianxi’s expression was very serious, even tinged with a bit of anger—an anger not directed at Yun Chuji, but at herself. She seems to really care about me. Spurred on by this realization, Yun Chuji couldn’t stop herself from reaching out and hugging Tang Jianxi, resting her head on her slender shoulder. “Jianxi,” she whispered, “thank you.”
At the same time, Yun Chuji thought to herself, Brother Feng was right. A hug really does make you feel much better.
Tang Jianxi was startled by the sudden embrace. Unused to such intimate contact, her first instinct was to pull away. However, drawn by the mutual attraction of their high compatibility, her body automatically leaned into it. Soon, her spirit followed suit.
Wrapping an arm around Yun Chuji’s waist, she said softly, “You’re the one at a disadvantage here. If you keep this up, you’ll be easily deceived in the future.”
Yun Chuji nuzzled against Tang Jianxi’s shoulder, showing the charming naivety of a sixteen-year-old girl. “It’s okay. Jianxi will help me, won’t you?”
“…Yes.”
Tang Jianxi closed her eyes, nestled against Yun Chuji’s neck, her face glowing with a serene radiance.
She thought, I really don’t understand why I ever tried to run away before.
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