Chapter 13

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Chapter 13: Resurrection Overture (XIII)

On the tenth night after Qi Leren returned to the Village of Dusk, an uninvited parrot pecked open the window of Dr. Lu’s clinic.

At this time, the sleepy Qi Leren had washed up and jumped into bed. He was writing a diary these days. When he saw the shadow of the parrot outside the window, his heart suddenly burst. At such a time, Chen Baiqi’s parrot suddenly came to see him… He jumped out of bed and rushed to open the window.

“Come to me, the letter has arrived.” The parrot finished talking outside the window, jumped off the windowsill, and flew away.

Qi Leren was like a student who had suddenly been told that his college entrance examination results came out ahead of time, and his tiredness disappeared in an instant. He hurriedly put on his shirt and trousers, but couldn’t help telling Dr. Lu the news. He pushed the door open and ran to Chen Baiqi’s home.

In the endlessly setting sun, Qi Leren’s heart beat fast as he ran, not only from the exercise but also from nervous anticipation.

When he breathlessly knocked on Chen Baiqi’s door, Chen Baiqi glanced at her watch and said with a smile: “Yes, you ran very fast. If you keep this speed, you can buy breakfast every day in 19 minutes.”

Normally, Qi Leren should have lamented this, but at this moment he has no such feelings at all and eagerly asked, “What did Ning Zhou say in his letter? How is he doing? When can he come back?”

Chen Baiqi was much calmer than he was, and slowly took out some tea: “Hmm? Where did I put that box of tea?”

“Just boiled water is fine!” What did Qi Leren care about tea when his heart felt as if it was been scratched? He couldn’t wait to steal the letter from Chen Baiqi.

“Do you think I’m making it for you? You expect too much,” Chen Baiqi said coldly.

Qi Leren was speechless and so anxious his legs were shaking.

Chen Baiqi found the tea and began to boil water. All this time, Qi Leren’s anxiety had been written on his face. If Chen Baiqi hadn’t established absolute authority in these ten short days, Qi Leren would have roared at her by now.

Tea kettles had a common style in the Village of Dusk, which was a bit like iron kettles in the 1960s and 1970s that were mounted on coal stoves. The coal stoves in the Village of Dusk naturally didn’t burn coal. The main energy source here was demon crystals containing great energy, which were obtained from the demons’ bodies after they were killed.

The water was heating up, but Qi Leren’s own fire was cooling. Just now, the impulse of blood rushing straight to his head had gone down, and the feeling of scratching in his heart and lungs had faded away. He finally calmed down.

When the water boiled, Chen Baiqi slowly made herself a pot of tea with quality tea leaves, but made a pot of chrysanthemum tea for Qi Leren.

Qi Leren hung on the back of the chair like a dead fish, with a particularly dignified look and a particularly uneasy heart. He’d already felt that Chen Baiqi was playing a big trick and teaching him to be a man. If he didn’t recognize this lesson, she would wait for him to go out and run around Sunset Island first.

“Young people don’t always need to be in a hurry. Drink, calm down your fire,” Chen Baiqi said lightly.

Qi Leren held the teacup and bowed his head honestly to admit his mistake: “Sorry, I was wrong.”

“How were you wrong?”

“I shouldn’t be so hasty. Even if my heart is really in a hurry, I must at least keep calm and I can’t be carried away by personal emotions,” Qi Leren obediently said.

“At least you’re calm enough that you haven’t yelled at me, otherwise do you think you could still sit here and drink tea?” Chen Baiqi laughed with a smile.

Qi Leren repeatedly told himself, Anyway, right now, everything Chen Baiqi said is right and good, so don’t go against her, it’s a fucking lesson.

“When people are impatient, they’ll panic, and when they panic, they won’t be far from death. Be calm, be patient, observe, and seize the opportunity. Right now you’ve barely managed one. Hehe, it’s timely to admit mistakes,” Chen Baiqi laughed.

Qi Leren wasn’t convinced. He felt that his observation level wasn’t bad. At least he’d seen that Chen Baiqi was taking the opportunity to hone his temper.

Chen Baiqi seemed to see what he was thinking and smiled coldly: “Didn’t you notice? The parrot that told you to come over isn’t mine at all.”

Cold sweat suddenly beaded on his skin, and Qi Leren tried to remember the parrot that had knocked on his window. The light hadn’t been bright at that time and the parrot was in the shadows. He hadn’t seen the color of the parrot, but he subconsciously linked that parrot with the parrot Chen Baiqi had summoned when she had him do the blindfolded intuition test. In addition, the parrot had said, “Come to me, the letter has arrived”, and Qi Leren’s attention had completely shifted, not at all paying attention.

If this wasn’t a small test of Chen Baiqi’s, but was a person who knew the inside story and was hostile towards him, meaning to fish him out and ambush him while he was worried, the consequences would be unimaginable.

“That’s my teacher’s parrot. I borrowed it specially.” Chen Baiqi blew a whistle and the parrot flew out from the shadows. Until it appeared, Qi Leren hadn’t even noticed its existence!

When he saw the parrot again, Qi Leren realized what a ridiculous mistake he had made—he didn’t realize it was a red parrot! It wasn’t Chen Baiqi’s green-headed parrot at all!

Such an obvious mistake, yet he didn’t even notice a little bit of difference at that time!

Qi Leren couldn’t say anything to defend himself, holding his chrysanthemum tea and drinking it silently, being as honest as an honour student.

Seeing that the beating was almost over, Chen Baiqi finally spoke: “To get down to business, a letter from Ning Zhou has been sent to me from the Underground Ant City near Purgatory. The letter said that he’s going to Purgatory to carry out the second part from the Dream of the Holy Nun task. If it goes well, he’ll return to the supply point within half a month and then send me a letter to report his peace, as well as tell me about the task’s situation.”

Qi Leren pursed his lips and wanted to ask if he was mentioned in the letter. But he also knew that with Ning Zhou’s implicit character, if it wasn’t necessary, it was almost impossible for him to take the initiative to tell others about his own worries. Even if telling no one of the yearning and love gnawed at his heart day and night, he would still be silent and stoic.

“…That is to say, if I write to him now, he’ll receive it within half a month?” Qi Leren asked.

Chen Baiqi nodded: “If things go well. If he’s caught in the task, it’s hard to say. After all, the letter needs to be retrieved by himself at the supply point, so he may not get the letter for a while.”

“Is Purgatory dangerous?” Qi Leren knew perfectly well without asking. When he’d played “Red”, he’d already known about the Underground Ant City and Purgatory. At this time, he didn’t ask because he wanted an answer, but because he wanted peace of mind.

“In this world, what place isn’t dangerous? As long as he doesn’t enter the space between the two worlds in the depths of Purgatory, Ning Zhou should be able to handle it. If he encounters any unexpected circumstances, I’ll also know that. Before he left, he gave me a life crystal with a drop of his blood. As long as the crystal isn’t broken, it means that his situation is alright,” Chen Baiqi said, and put a crystal the size of a coin on the table. The crystal was suspended one inch high on the table, as if there was some invisible force that made it float there. There was a small drop of scarlet blood in the center of the crystal. The blood was surrounded by gold and silver spots, rotating slowly.

Qi Leren reached out to touch it, but when his fingers were about to touch it, he secretly glanced at Chen Baiqi’s face and shrank his hand back.

“You can take it as a souvenir, it’s the same if it’s with you,” Chen Baiqi said.

Qi Leren finally touched the life crystal. The crystal and his hand were like two identical magnetic poles put close to each other. There was a strong repellant force that automatically kept a distance of about one inch surrounding the object. If you didn’t deliberately use force to catch it, it would quietly float about one inch in the center of your hand.

“What substance is this life crystal?” Qi Leren asked.

“A special kind of demon crystal, produced in the Underground Ant City. It’s not expensive. If blood is dripped into the crystal, if the owner of the blood is seriously injured, the crystal will crack, and if the person dies, the crystal will be completely broken. There’s no special use other than this,” Chen Baiqi said.

Qi Leren held the life crystal as carefully as holding his precious heart: “The letter from Ning Zhou…”

“You can also have a look. After all, he mentioned you,” Chen Baiqi said.

Qi Leren took the letter in astonishment.

Ning Zhou’s handwriting had characteristics similar to himself, and his tone was particularly honest and serious. At the beginning of the letter, he greeted Chen Baiqi and Sissi, then briefly said that he had left Neverland’s Holy See, and then talked of how he’d come to the Underground Ant City through the Sea of Tranquility Desert, and the recent situation in the Underground Ant City. He also explained his current plan—to go to Purgatory to trigger the second part of the task.

This letter that was without personal feelings, as if it were a routine report, suddenly had a trace of human emotion at the end.

“When I crossed the desert, I encountered a huge storm and lost my camel, but I was lucky enough to survive and came to the Valentine tribe in the desert…

"My arrival at the Underground Ant City coincided with the end of this month’s evil tide, The celebration ceremony was being held. The crowd swarmed around the palace and the aged Dragon Ant Queen appeared before them. Humans and demons briefly forgot the blood feud between them and celebrated their survival…

”…I went through this lively celebration and came to a hotel to settle down. It’s getting late and the crowd is still jubilant. In this place, maybe only this day is peaceful and lively every month…“

There was only the last line left in the letter, but Qi Leren couldn’t bear to finish it.

But he still saw this last sentence, so subtle, so euphemistic, so full of yearning that he couldn’t help pouring out his heart. Qi Leren read this sentence over and over again. There were too many emotions deposited in it, the simple words so deep and heavy that he burst into tears.

"I dreamed of him again. It was a beautiful dream.”

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Editor’s Notes: There’s phrase used in the second to last paragraph that I’ve seen translators discuss before because it doesn’t really have an English equivalent. While I’ve translated it in the chapter itself as “yearning”, my understanding is that it means something more along the lines of “to miss someone too much to go on living.”

Make of that what you will.

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