After school, Xie Tao went straight to the dessert shop where she worked part-time.
Originally, she was only going to pick up the cake she had ordered with the shop owner beforehand, but because Wei Yun had messaged her in the morning saying he would be late, she decided to help out at the shop for a while.
Since she had informed Old Xi and the others in advance, she didn’t have to go to the tavern today.
By eight o’clock in the evening, she was finally carrying the cake back to her rented place.
But she didn’t know when it started, she always felt a bit restless.
After studying for a while, Xie Tao sat at her desk, waiting until late at night.
She hadn’t eaten dinner yet, and her stomach was protesting. With one hand supporting her chin, the other hand lit up the phone on the desk and quietly watched the screensaver until it went dark again.
This cycle repeated many times.
Outside the partially drawn curtains, neon lights flickered, casting scattered and speckled traces on the glass windows through the shadows of the trees in the compound.
It was almost eleven o’clock.
But there was still no sign of Wei Yun.
The messages Xie Tao sent to Wei Yun were like small pebbles falling into water, never receiving any reply from him.
This gradually made her more and more uneasy.
Xie Tao had been waiting for Wei Yun’s reply all this time, holding the phone in her hand, the screen lighting up and then dimming. After some time passed, she unconsciously closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
In her dream, there was a misty shoreline, with layers of water waves shrouded in fog and smoke. The vast and deep night seemed like a giant beast swallowing everything, pressing down heavily as if to devour the last orange-yellow light.
In her blurred vision, it seemed as if she was standing on a pier covered with neatly arranged planks, and the moist ground reflected the flickering light and shadow of the lanterns swaying back and forth on the long wooden lampstand beside her.
When she looked up, she happened to see a reddish figure on the deck of the large ship near the shore.
The surrounding wind, the flickering of the lanterns beside her, or even the sound of the waves rolling under the ship, all became obstacles that prevented her from clearly seeing that figure.
Suddenly,
A gunshot rang out, almost shattering her eardrums.
She barely had time to see the crimson figure flip and fall into the rolling waves of the river from the boat.
Xie Tao suddenly woke up.
When she abruptly opened her eyes, the orange-yellow light from the desk lamp in front of her made her squint, and she reached out to rub her eyelids, finding her eyes inexplicably moist.
The room was quiet.
Xie Tao sat dazedly for a moment, then pressed her phone screen to light it up, displaying the time: 23:12.
Wei Yun still hadn’t replied to her message.
Having had a bizarre, hazy dream, Xie Tao felt even more restless.
She attempted to make a video call to Wei Yun, but it wouldn’t go through.
It was as if it couldn’t be received at all.
What on earth was going on?
Xie Tao’s unease gradually grew.
Just as she was about to stand up and turn around to go out to find Old Xi, she saw a sudden flash of ghostly blue light appear outside the window, instantly penetrating the glass and streaming in.
As the ghostly blue light swirled, it gradually faded, and a stunning woman in a black long dress appeared in her room.
The dark purple crystal earrings sparkled under the light, and the vintage red lipstick made her outstanding features even more strikingly pale and cold.
The visitor was Meng Lichun, who hadn’t appeared for a long time.
Upon seeing her, Xie Tao’s almond eyes widened, and she couldn’t help but recall that morning when this woman nearly pushed her into the traffic.
She instinctively closed her fingers, but ultimately, only a few wisps of fine smoke drifted tracelessly from her fingertips.
Before she had time to cast her magic again, she saw Meng Lichun wave her hand, followed by a flash of pale golden light.
A crimson figure then landed on her small bed.
His hair was disheveled, and his clothes were soaked.
His face was as pale as paper, even his usually crimson lips had lost their color.
“Wei Yun!”
At the sight of the figure suddenly appearing on the bed, Xie Tao’s eyes widened slightly, and her mind seemed to be struck by thunder, a roar echoing.
Xie Tao rushed to the bed, her fingers trembling slightly as if she couldn’t believe it, until she touched the dampness on his shoulder.
She suddenly withdrew her hand.
Under the light, her palm was already stained with a patch of crimson blood.
The smell of blood spread, and Xie Tao’s legs gave way, and she sat down on the floor.
She turned her head sharply to look at Meng Lichun standing there.
Seeing the expression in Xie Tao’s almond eyes as she looked at her, Meng Lichun quickly waved her hands, “I didn’t do this.”
After saying that, she walked up to Xie Tao, “We need to remove the bullet from him now, or he will be in life-threatening danger.”
As if afraid Xie Tao wouldn’t trust her, Meng Lichun paused for a moment and then said, “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you anymore, nor will I endanger his life.”
Meng Lichun has completely abandoned the plan to kill Wei Yun.
Even if her bald boss insists on her executing such a “preventative” command.
But Wei Yun already knows everything and has naturally seized her weakness.
If she forcefully executes the order to kill Wei Yun, it might backfire.
When his sword edge nicked her neck, Meng Lichun realized that Wei Yun was inherently rebellious; he was not the kind to resign himself to fate.
If she executed that foolish order again, it might even bring greater disaster to both timelines.
After all, he is the only time traveler in this world.
The stability of time is far more important than the orders of a bald bureau chief who only knows how to give orders from his office.
That bald guy, he just knows how to command blindly from his office.
Meng Lichun can’t help but roll her eyes whenever she thinks of him.
Moreover, if Wei Yun were to die from a gunshot this time, it would also have some impact on that timeline.
After all, guns do not belong to that time period, and Wei Yun’s status in the Great Zhou has a certain influence on the history of the Great Zhou.
So this time, she absolutely cannot let Wei Yun die.
As for the credibility of everything Meng Lichun said, Xie Tao hesitates for a moment, unable to determine.
But she believes in old Xi.
And believes in Wei Yun.
When Meng Lichun cast a spell and a faint blue light lingered around the wound on Wei Yun’s shoulder blade, it took less than half a minute for Xie Tao to see a small object fall to the floor, making a clear sound.
It was a golden bullet casing.
It still had specks of blood on it.
At this moment, Xie Tao’s eyes were gradually reddening, looking at Wei Yun, who was still unconscious on her small bed, her mind was blank, and she was a bit slow to react.
Meng Lichun withdrew her hand, and from nowhere, she took out a bottle cut like a large diamond and poured the medicinal powder inside onto Wei Yun’s wound.
“The effect of this medicine is a bit slow; it will take six hours for his wound to completely heal as before.”
She was in a hurry when she came out, because she usually heals instantly from any injury without the need for medication, so the bottle of medicine she had was hurriedly taken from her subordinate.
So, naturally, the effect of this medicine was not particularly immediate.
She is also a half-baked immortal and doesn’t have the magic to heal wounds, so she could only do so much.
Meng Lichun said, turning her head to look at Xie Tao, only then did she notice her eyes were thoroughly red.
She paused for a moment, then quickly said, “Don’t worry, he will soon…”
Before she could finish speaking, Meng Lichun saw Wei Yun’s eyelids move, so she changed her words, “See, he’s waking up now.”
Xie Tao looked up to meet Wei Yun’s opened eyes.
“Wei Yun, you’re awake?”
Xie Tao held his hand, took a sniff, and her voice was somewhat choked.
Wei Yun seemed to take a while to respond.
He frowned and only shifted his gaze from the snowy white ceiling to Xie Tao after a moment.
His pale lips moved slightly, and when he spoke, his voice was hoarse:
“Tao Tao?”
He seemed somewhat unclear about the current situation until he saw some familiar furnishings.
Such as the sofa she often sat on, the TV she occasionally held her phone to watch with him, or the desk she always sat at to do her homework, even some of the small items on it were consistent with what he occasionally glimpsed in the screen.
His deep eyes finally cleared, and he finally realized where he was.
“How do you feel, Wei Yun? Does your wound hurt?” Xie Tao had been suppressing her emotions, but at the moment she heard Wei Yun call her, she couldn’t hold back, and tears fell.
She hastily wiped them away.
“I’m fine, Tao Tao.”
Wei Yun sighed, wanting to touch her cheek but causing pain in his shoulder blade wound. He took a deep breath and turned his head, only to see Meng Lichun standing there.
“Is it you?” Wei Yun’s expression turned colder.
“…”
Feeling Wei Yun’s gaze on her, Meng Lichun inexplicably felt a chill on her back.
Truth be told, the scene of Wei Yun slashing her neck last time was still vivid in her mind, and she often had nightmares during this period, dreaming that Wei Yun cut her neck with a knife, and as soon as the wound healed, he would cut it again, repeating the cycle, much like a ghost edit from a certain site.
She was often scared into a cold sweat and even suspected by her subordinates of suffering from middle-aged insomnia, nightmares, and excessive sweating.
“So, didn’t you fall into the river? It was I who fished you out…”
Meng Lichun gave a wry smile, her voice getting softer, “Who knew the restriction of the magnetic field related to this timeline in your body suddenly lifted, I had just fished you out when you disappeared, appearing in this timeline…”
Speaking of which, it was quite thrilling.
After Wei Yun disappeared in that timeline, Meng Lichun hurried to this one, and even had AM670 mobilize a lot of equipment, only to find him on a highway in the far suburbs.
“That person, who is he?”
Wei Yun didn’t want to hear her explain, just coldly asked.
He was referring to the person who had attacked him from behind when he was on the boat at Yunfeng Dock.
“…, This,”
Meng Lichun wiped away a cold sweat, then glanced at Xie Tao, who was also looking at her, and honestly replied, “It’s like this… the copper pendant in your hand, it was originally mine, but I lost it many years ago due to my own reasons. I searched for it for a long time,”
“But by the time I found the person named Shao Anhe, the copper pendant had already reached your hands.”
“At that time, I still didn’t know, so I could only look for clues at the Shao family. Little did I know, upon investigating, I was in for quite a shock. Shao Anhe’s son, he’s a time traveler.”
Meng Lichun spoke with a bit of dryness in her mouth, stretching her hand out, a cup of… bubble tea appeared in her hand.
She took a big sip, chewing on the tapioca pearls, about to continue speaking when she saw Wei Yun frown slightly, then she heard his cold voice ask, “Shao Junkang?”
At first, Meng Lichun was a bit stunned by the name, but then she nodded in recognition, “Yes, that’s him.”
“Because of the corruption case you were investigating, his father died by your hand, and he has always wanted to avenge his father. I was afraid he would disrupt the spacetime order, so I brought him back to the third spacetime.”
Hearing Meng Lichun’s explanation, Wei Yun also came to understand why, when he had sent people to look for Shao Junkang’s whereabouts, they found nothing.
The man had vanished without a trace, as if he had evaporated from the world.
“But my superior…”
Meng Lichun’s expression became indescribable when she mentioned her superior.
Even the grip on her bubble tea cup tightened, “That baldy sent by the boss didn’t keep an eye on him. Some time ago, he let him escape.”
