"Back at last! Finally back!"
Before even opening her eyes, Yang Qinglan heard Little Radish cheering.
It turned out there was also...
"It turned out there was her too." Li Changzhou whispered.
Yang Qinglan gave him a smile.
"Hm?" Although he didn't know why she smiled at him, Li Changzhou still smiled back.
The two of them smiled and their smiles became unrelated to Little Radish, turning into that kind of inexplicable laughter between lovers — the kind where you just can't help but laugh when you see the other person.
"I forgot about Little Radish too!" Li Qianxia smacked her forehead, a look of regret on her face.
Little Radish and a butterfly, "hand in hand," were circling on the bed like a campfire evening.
The train slowly traveled over the sea, unknown seabirds flew outside the window, and a thousand-meter-tall beast suddenly leapt, its head piercing through the clouds.
It was dark and gloomy, the beast took a bite of the Heavenly Light then with a loud bang, it smashed back into the sea, the towering waves pushed over like a sky-wall.
The train continued to move slowly over the waves, like a skilled surfer.
Outside the window, it was unclear what era it was.
The carriage quieted down for a while, everyone absent-mindedly staring as the dim sky brightened again.
"I've always wondered," Li Qianxia began, "despite the instances not being the real history, why does the game specifically want us to go back to the past?"
"What is real history?" The door to the carriage was pushed open, and Xiao Yue, holding a tray, came in.
"Congratulations on officially graduating!" she said with a smile, placing the drinks and menu from the tray on the table in the carriage, "The drinks are just symbolic. You can order whatever you want from the menu, it's all free, just no takeaways."
"Sister Xiaoyue," Li Qianxia greeted politely.
Xiaoyue kissed her on the face, and Li Qianxia rubbed her own cheek, her face a bit red.
It's nothing among girls to have face-to-face contact, but a kiss...
"What did you mean by what you just said?" Li Changzhou asked.
"Hm?" Xiaoyue clasped her hands together, looking at him puzzled, not understanding what he didn't understand, "free eating—"
"What about real history? And what does graduation mean?"
"Oh, you're asking about that." Xiaoyue turned to check the door to make sure it was locked.
She smoothed her pencil skirt and sat down with elegance and allure, saying:
"This is... well, how to put it, a breakthrough in the Fifth Level of Visualization? Immortal? Yes, in the terms of Xia Country, it's called Immortal. After reaching Immortal, you can learn some additional information — actually, you can know everything, even who the 'boss' is, but I can't say. Only when you become an Immortal can I tell you the information you're allowed to know."
"So who is the 'boss'?" Yang Qinglan asked.
"I'd love to know too, if I beat Him to sleep, then I'll be the boss' wife." Xiaoyue picked up a cherry from the fruit dish on the table and bit into it.
"Is the Value game natural, without subjective consciousness, and the 'boss' you mentioned, the winner of the Value game?" Li Changzhou guessed.
"Yes, in your words, 'the winner'." Xiaoyue pinched a napkin, wiping her fingertips, "The so-called 'real history,' actually the instances you experienced are real, they just happen on different timelines, they're considered fictional for you. "
"Is it real?" Li Qianxia widened her eyes, calculating how many people she had killed in her mind.
Well, not many, she even saved quite a few, the killings were done by her brother.
"When you've settled your scores and become Immortals, you can faintly sense something, and through that thing, you come to know that the people in the instances are all real."
"Faith?" Yang Qinglan suddenly said.
"I can only describe you as brilliant, would you like to sleep together? I'm free on the twenty-third of this month—"
"Keep talking." Li Changzhou interrupted her.
"You can join in, too." Xiaoyue added before continuing, "If the players accumulate virtue, they can receive faith from those timelines. Smart kids like you can guess that the instances are real, which is why only Immortals are qualified to know this."
Yang Qinglan pondered, "Our instances in the future, no, they can't be called instances anymore, should be called battlefields. Will our future battlefields not only be in the past, the present, but also other timelines?"
"Other timelines?" Li Qianxia's voice rose slightly, "Are we going to kill our own selves?"
"No." Yang Qinglan frowned slightly, "We are now going back to the past, but also to other timelines..."
She fell into contemplation.
Li Changzhou said, "We previously guessed, the subway is going back to the past, the ship is heading to the present of other planets, and the airplane might be the future... Now it's hard to say, whether the airplanes are indeed heading to the future, or to other timelines?"
He looked at Xiaoyue.
"This is a prohibited topic." Xiaoyue winked with her right eye and switched to a more positive tone, "Alright, alright, you just graduated, have some fun, don't think about these things."
"That's right, that's right, my head is getting big, almost catching up with Li Ergou." Li Qianxia nodded repeatedly.
Her head was still not as big as Li Changzhou's palm—during summer and winter breaks at home, Li Changzhou often pressed her face with a slap, then pinned her down on the bed and spanked her.
The reason he hit her could be deduced from what she just said.
"Now isn't the time to relax. What does graduation mean?" Yang Qinglan asked again.
"After passing the First Stage, you gain a 'background'; once you become an Immortal, that's 'graduation', and afterwards, you can do whatever you like, even skipping the monthly games. Compulsory education is over; the Value game won't force you anymore."
The carriage fell silent for a while, and everyone was momentarily stunned.