The weather grew colder as the year neared its end.
Xie Tao, with the gold powder from Wei Yun’s possession, had visited him many times already.
However, both she and Wei Yun were well aware that each use of the gold powder meant one fewer opportunity for them to meet, so eventually, Xie Tao reduced her visits.
As time went on, she cherished even more the chances she had to see him.
Wanting him to see the world she lived in, Xie Tao tried taking some gold powder from Wei Yun to light it herself, but she could never ignite the gold powder incense, no matter what she did.
Sheng Yueqi explained that, as she was not a time-traveler, the gold powder used a bronze medallion and the phoenix tail scales in her phone as mediums. This temporarily hid her magnetic field, allowing her to briefly transcend the barriers of space and time to stay in an alternate space-time.
Wei Yun, however, was different.
He had two types of magnetic fields. Even though the magnetic field of her time had not been completely unlocked, he was always different from others. Even with the bronze medallion and the phoenix tail scales as mediums, he could not break through the space-time barrier to reach her time as Xie Tao could.
Simply put, the power of the two magnetic fields Wei Yun possessed was beyond what the gold powder, the bronze medallion, and the phoenix tail scales could bear.
Now, the gold powder in Wei Yun’s hands was nearly gone.
Perhaps one day, she would no longer be able to visit him or see him again.
Walking on the sidewalk, half of Xie Tao’s face was covered by a scarf.
She wore thick clothes and carried a large bag of ingredients, which she planned to use to cook dinner for Old Xi and Xie Lan at the tavern that evening.
Xie Tao had now learned some minor magic spells and even made “deliveries” with Xie Lan.
For instance, a man who appeared harmless, quiet, and reticent in reality was actually a keyboard warrior who insulted and cursed online, and even sent terrifying items to some female internet celebrities.
Xie Lan exposed all his social media accounts. Relatives, neighbors, and colleagues, anyone who knew him, saw how he used his social accounts to unreasonably insult and curse at others, and the vulgar and lewd comments he made on the posts or in private messages of some female celebrities or internet celebrities.
Once the veil of the internet was lifted, his actions were exposed to the public, and he even made it to the top of the trending list on the most popular social media app of the time, Green River.
Countless netizens began to condemn him, curse him, and even dug up all his personal information in real life.
A person who was adept at cyberbullying others began to taste what it was like to be cyberbullied.
In the end, Xie Lan dislocated his jaw, then cast a spell that made him carry a huge keyboard in his mouth for a whole day and night.
For example, there was once a lonely old man who had visited the small tavern. He had lived a life of poverty and solitude for most of his life, yet he remained kind-hearted and warm, a genuine good person through and through.
He spent most of his life helping others, but those who remembered his help and felt grateful were always few and far between.
But as he said, helping others was about fulfilling one’s own peace of mind; constantly expecting something in return would be too exhausting.
For such kind-hearted people who were destined to come by, the small tavern always provided a kind reward.
So, the old man who had lived off collecting junk for most of his life, walked out of the tavern that night and the very next day, he won millions in the lottery and also found an old lady to share the rest of his life with.
Old Xi said, sometimes a person’s kindness is their luck.
Xie Tao thought, she was increasingly understanding the purpose of the small tavern’s existence.
Perhaps it couldn’t help all the good people in the world, nor could it punish all the evildoers, but at the very least, it could save those in front of it.
Xie Tao gradually began to like this unusual job.
Although… most of the time, she was actually just making dinner for Old Xi and Xie Lan.
When Xie Tao reached the entrance of the residential area, she saw a tall figure standing there.
He was wearing a beige sweater with a dark coat over it, which seemed a bit thin for the cold weather.
His slightly curly hair was loosely tied with a hairband, and his facial features were deep-set.
It was Sheng Yueqi.
Having seen him wearing long robes, tying his hair in a small braid, and wearing a forehead band embedded with sparkling gems, Xie Tao felt quite unaccustomed to seeing him like this.
“Madam, I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”
Sheng Yueqi smiled as soon as he saw her.
The gold powder was his gift to Wei Yun, and although Xie Tao had heard him mention his occasional visits here, this was her first time seeing him in this time and space, so she couldn’t help but be a bit surprised.
Back in the rented house, Xie Tao poured him a glass of water and placed it in front of him.
Sheng Yueqi looked around her small room for a while before saying, “Madam, you live so modestly? That shouldn’t be, the lord is so wealthy, he should be able to afford a bigger house for you.”
“I don’t need a big house,” Xie Tao said, holding the water glass.
Then she asked him, “What are you here for?”
“To compete.”
Sheng Yueqi said with a smile.
“To compete?”
Xie Tao asked curiously, “What kind of competition?”
Sheng Yueqi took out his phone and opened a link for her to see.
It was the most popular game at the time, which held competitions every year, including professional esports players’ competitions as well as ones for ordinary players.
Xie Tao thought Sheng Yueqi meant playing games casually in internet cafes, but it turned out he had won the annual championship of the ordinary players’ league twice.
Since he always wore a mask during the competitions, no one knew what this two-time league champion looked like.
Some even speculated that he was a retired professional player.
“You’re that good?” Xie Tao shifted her gaze from the phone screen back to him.
Sheng Yueqi shook his head, “After this time, I won’t play anymore.”
“Why?” Xie Tao asked.
Sheng Yueqi propped his chin with one hand, sighed leisurely but still smiling, “What else could it be, of course, it’s because I’m running out of gold powder.”
Xie Tao lowered her eyelids when she heard him say that.
“I’m sorry, if it weren’t for you giving Wei Yun…” She hadn’t finished her sentence when she was interrupted by Sheng Yueqi, “Madam, please don’t say that. The gold powder was a gift from me to the lord. I kept so much of it, but it was actually of no use to me.”
“Playing this game too much, I also feel tired.”
The smile on Sheng Yueqi’s lips became fainter, and when he lowered his eyelids, it hid more of his emotions.
“I, have long been accustomed to being a person from ancient times. Here, there is nothing that I find worth lingering over.”
To Sheng Yueqi, this place was like the hometown of a previous life, where he once lingered and was once persistent, but ultimately, he has nothing left here now.
No family, no friends, everything is no longer as he once fondly remembered.
In another time and space, he has already obtained a new life.
After hearing his words, Xie Tao was silent for a moment. She looked up at him and said seriously, “Thank you…”
If it were not for Sheng Yueqi, perhaps there would still be an insurmountable distance between her and Wei Yun, never being able to meet.
Perhaps she would not have had such an opportunity to experience such a new world.
She was very grateful.
“No need to thank me, Madam.”
Sheng Yueqi took a sip of water, “Consider this as my way of repaying the lord.”
“I came today, actually to tell you something.”
He finally revealed the purpose of his visit today.
“What is it?”
Xie Tao asked.
“Madam hasn’t been visiting the lord as frequently lately, is it because the gold powder is almost gone?” Sheng Yueqi didn’t rush to answer but instead asked her first.
Xie Tao pursed her lips and nodded silently.
Seeing her nod, Sheng Yueqi smiled slightly, “Madam, you don’t have to worry too much. Even without the gold powder, at worst, you just can’t go to the lord’s place anymore, but the lord… can come here to you.”
Xie Tao looked at him in amazement.
“Do you remember I mentioned before that the lord has the magnetic fields of two different time spaces on him?” Sheng Yueqi, holding the glass, continued, “Once the restrictions on the lord are completely lifted, he can freely travel between the two time spaces, without any limitations.”
It took a while for Xie Tao to respond, her eyes lighting up, she quickly asked:
“Do you mean… Wei Yun can come here whenever he wants in the future?”
Sheng Yueqi nodded, “Even if he wants to stay as long as he likes.”
Perhaps as Meng Lichun said, because Wei Yun was precisely the person standing on the dividing line of time and space in his previous life, he possessed the magnetic fields of two time spaces, which made him unique.
He is the only time traveler.
He is the person that not even the third time space can restrict.
“So, Madam, if that woman comes to you again in the future, don’t be afraid. She won’t hurt you anymore, even these matters, it was she who told us.”
Sheng Yueqi suddenly said.
That woman?
Xie Tao remembered the mysterious woman who almost pushed her into the traffic across the street from the school gate last time.
Her hand holding the glass involuntarily tightened.
“Her name is Meng Lichun, I’ve seen her before.”
Sheng Yueqi began to explain to her about the third dimension, and went over all the things Wei Yun had asked about last time with Xie Tao.
“You mean… the current two dimensions were originally one complete world?”
Xie Tao was stunned.
According to Sheng Yueqi, the woman named Meng Lichun was from a future technology era of a once unified and singular world, who traveled back to the Yi Dynasty thousands of years before her time.
Back then, there was only one world, and similarly, only one future.
As a person from a future technology era, the Yi Dynasty thousands of years prior was like a missing piece in the long river of history for her era.
In her time, historical data about the Yi Dynasty was scarce and mostly incomplete, making it impossible for countless historians to uncover the Yi Dynasty from thousands of years ago, let alone the dynasties before it.
And Meng Lichun, being a smart technology developer, how could she possibly know much about the history thousands of years ago?
So, when she traveled back to the Yi Dynasty, it was to her a completely foreign dynasty, and she didn’t even know the historical course of this dynasty.
Thus, she inadvertently made a major mistake, causing a significant historical change, and after the Yi Dynasty, a complete world began to split into two dimensions.
The future era, which was based on the foundation of a unified and singular world, also disappeared due to this change.
The gap between the two dimensions came to be known as the third dimension.
Since then, Meng Lichun became the person in the third dimension, maintaining the order of dimensions.
That was the punishment from the gods.
