Chapter 58 This Time You Came to Me

Stepping out of the memories, she looked at the blurred face before her.

Huaisu chuckled softly. "Why? Take a guess~"

She was truly...
Really, really, really already very satisfied.
As for the rest, as long as he could remember her, that was enough.
As long as he could remember her...

"This time, my love, it is your turn to come find me."

Watching the woman with tear-stained cheeks gradually turn transparent, Lu Li suddenly felt a heartbreaking pain.
He didn't even know why.
Yet that did not stop him from demanding, "Big sister! Can you please stop talking in riddles? What on earth are you doing this for?! And where the hell am I supposed to find you?!"

"."

The heartbreakingly poignant and beautiful smile on Miss Huaisu's face stiffened, then vanished instantly.
Lu Li even thought he saw her roll her eyes.
Or perhaps it was just... imagination?

"We haven't even registered our marriage yet."

Muttering under his breath, Lu Li suddenly felt two objects appear in his hand.
One was a marriage certificate, and the other was a single teardrop that had not yet evaporated.
That marriage certificate truly belonged to him and Huaisu.
Yet he had no recollection of when they had registered it.
Could Huaisu have taken care of it while he was unconscious?

Lu Li solemnly put away the marriage certificate, then looked down at the tear-drop in his palm.
"Can ghosts even shed tears?"

As the words left his mouth, that teardrop suddenly darted straight into his left eye.

"Ugh—"

Lu Li covered his left eye with one hand, letting out a low groan.
A flood of memories suddenly poured into his mind, causing a pain so intense it felt as if his head were about to shatter.

Not far away, the trio who had watched Lu Li's entire performance of "behavioral art" were completely numb.

Li Guoping closed his swollen left eye, then used his bruised, purplish-black right eye to stare at Lu Li. "Little Pan, you're close with Little Lu. What do you think he's doing? Has he actually lost his mind, or is this some kind of performance art? Or maybe it's just one of those weird quirks masters have? Like pretending he has an invisible girlfriend, hugging and kissing thin air, and even bawling his eyes out."

"Hard to say..." Pan Shuai looked equally uncertain and alarmed.
He had genuinely never seen Old Lu act like this before...

"Still, it probably isn't a quirk. Even if it's the eccentric habit of a master, at most it's like a severe case of germophobia or some mandatory ritual before throwing a punch—that kind of fussy, pretentious sense of ceremony. But no matter how strange someone gets, they wouldn't hallucinate an invisible girlfriend... That's about as bizarre as walking around your house completely naked in front of the mirror when nobody's home."

"What's so weird about that?!" Li Guoping exploded, jumping up in fury. "I take off my shirt and look in the mirror every single day when I'm home alone!"

He even sounded immensely proud. "After all, there isn't another pure-blooded man like me in the entire world—though right now, Little Lu counts as half.
"So tell me, with muscles as handsome as mine, what else am I supposed to do besides admire them in the mirror at home? Out in public, I always disguise myself as a pot-bellied, greasy middle-aged man."

Pan Shuai's mind went blank. "Huh?"

Nearby, Xing Tian pondered for a moment and offered a different perspective.
"Do you guys think it's possible that Brother Li actually has an invisible girlfriend? Of course, I'm just guessing."

That was not what he was actually thinking at all.

Right now, Xing Tian's thoughts had finally caught up to him.
Perhaps the so-called final boss of this instance didn't even exist!
Everything was just a one-man show orchestrated by Lu Li!

Thinking back on it now, it all felt suspicious.
Why were the bizarre events of this world so intimately tied to Lu Li, a monster from a "different world"?
It couldn't possibly be that Lu Li was truly the protagonist!

Yet if he hadn't come to this world, would this world have had any missions at all?
If that was the case, then there was only one possible truth!
Lu Li was the mastermind behind the urban legends plaguing this world!

Xing Tian didn't know what his ultimate goal was, but he knew for a fact that Lu Li was trying to infiltrate the upper echelons of the Paranormal Administration!
Just like right now—hadn't Lu Li already successfully won Li Guoping's trust?

[Mission completed. Do you wish to return?]

Xing Tian froze. Then came a surge of wild elation, followed by deep, bone-chilling terror, which ultimately faded into sheer indifference.

The elation came from realizing he had guessed right!
Lu Li really was the mastermind! Everything was staged by him!
There was never any final mission boss to begin with!
Or rather, he was the boss himself!
His objective was to infiltrate the core of this world's supernatural practitioners!

The terror stemmed from Lu Li's meticulous planning and flawless acting skills, having played them all in the palm of his hand!

And the indifference was even simpler.
Since he, Xing Tian, had completed the mission and could leave immediately, he would never have to lay eyes on this terrifying monster ever again.
So whether Lu Li planned to destroy the world or do whatever else, it had nothing to do with him anymore.

"Return!"

Xing Tian eagerly chose to flee.
He didn't want to look at Lu Li for even another second!
In their two encounters, two-thirds of his net worth had been scammed away!
To make matters worse, his teammates in both instances had died completely!
He himself had spent two consecutive worlds living in sheer anxiety!
A mission world without Lu Li was a good mission world!
At least he, Xing Tian, was finally liberated~

Whoosh—!

Xing Tian vanished into thin air.

Seeing him suddenly disappear, both Li Guoping and Pan Shuai blinked in surprise.
But it no longer mattered, because the world was beginning to shatter.

The next moment, everything returned to normal.

"You really don't know how to read the mood... my love."

Huaisu muttered, leaning against the ancient, barren ghost-world locust tree that would never bloom.
"Hehe..."

Yet for some reason, as she pondered further, she couldn't help but let out a soft laugh.

Everything had gone perfectly.
She had successfully reunited with the beloved she yearned for day and night, and her pitiful act had been a resounding success!
Besides, she had intentionally spoken in riddles at the very end.
Not only did it preserve the atmosphere, but it would also deepen her beloved's impression of her.
Surely, it would be difficult for him to forget her now~

Although her beloved had completely ruined the mood at the very end by being utterly oblivious, overall, she had achieved her goal.
And there was even an unexpected bonus~

Pulling out the marriage certificate she had secretly managed to obtain while Lu Li was unconscious, she gazed happily at the photograph of the two handsome figures dressed in ancient attire.
These things were more than enough~

This time, she would quietly wait.
Waiting for the moment her beloved returned and said those words to her...
"I've found you."

***

"You're saying you work for a state-owned enterprise?"
"Duh! I told you that years ago!"
"Doing what?"
"Military industry, classified. What the hell, didn't you already know?"

Looking at Pan Shuai before him, dressed in earthy-blue work clothes and holding a beer mug, Lu Li felt a bit dazed for a moment.
His head had been throbbing with pain earlier, and then he had passed out.
When he woke up, he found himself lying safely in his own bed.
Then Pan Shuai had called him out for drinks.
Which led to the scene before him now.

So it wasn't the Paranormal Administration?
Does that mean everything had returned to normal?
And all those memories associated with a worldview where urban legends, ghosts, and supernatural practitioners existed—had Pan Shuai lost those too?

"Pan Shao, do you know what the Paranormal Administration is?"
"What the heck? The Over-Age Bureau?" Pan Shuai paused, holding his beer mug. "Is that an agency responsible for statistics on elderly unmarried youth? Are they starting to levy a bachelor tax on single folks now?"

Lu Li: "..."

Fine, it seemed that set of memories was indeed gone.

Lu Li continued to probe, "Then do you know Li Guoping?"
Li Guoping was the director of the Paranormal Administration, as well as Pan Shuai's direct superior, and he had been a mentor figure to him.
He ought to respect the man quite a bit.

"You know my boss?" Pan Shuai slapped his forehead. "Ah, I think I might have mentioned him to you before."
Then he began to vent, "Don't even get me started. That lazy fatty is late and leaves early every single day, and he's even secretly keeping a mistress! But because I happened to bump into him shopping with his mistress at the mall last time, he practically leaves me alone now, so I show up late and leave early every single day too, hehe~ Come on! Drink up, drink up!"

Lu Li: "..."

This normal world was even more absurd than that supernatural worldview...

*Failing Author's Single Diary: Because being single is too miserable, I fantasized about having wives like Bai Mulin, Luo Qianning, and Huaisu, which is why I wrote this novel. But writing it only made me feel even more miserable. Because I can only hallucinate them, while Lu Li actually has wives like that. Lu Li, prepare to die!*

*(End of Chapter)*