INE Chapter 105: A Thousand-Petaled Plum Blossom

Ji Rong not only opened her eyes but was also surprisingly clear-headed, as if she hadn't been asleep at all.

She looked at Gu Baiyi, suppressing the irritation of being woken in the middle of the night by the system. With forced patience, she asked, “Why aren’t you asleep at this hour?”

Yes, the reason she was awake wasn’t because of the heroine, but because the system’s mechanical voice had been going off non-stop.

[Ding! Gu Baiyi's Favorability +100]
[Ding! Gu Baiyi's Favorability +50]
[Ding! Gu Baiyi's Favorability +150]
…

Eventually, Ji Rong couldn't take it anymore and opened her eyes.

Her very first thought upon waking was: How can I shut this stupid system up for good?

Then she realized how close the heroine was to her, far too close.

So close that she could see the gentle tremble of Gu Baiyi’s lowered eyelashes and the slightly stiff expression on her face.

Gu Baiyi pressed her lips together and subtly leaned away, offering a flimsy explanation, “I couldn’t sleep… so I was meditating in my sea of consciousness.”

“Meditating?”

Ji Rong looked at her suspiciously.

In the moonlight, a soft blush had crept up to Gu Baiyi’s ears, like rouge gently dusted on porcelain.

Seeing her flustered like that, Ji Rong suddenly found it a bit amusing. She lazily asked, “And what exactly were you meditating on, Junior Sister? Do tell.”

“Stars. The moon.”

“Oh? There are stars and moons in your sea of consciousness too? Even in your dreams, you can’t forget romance and poetry, how refined.”

Gu Baiyi smiled faintly and added, “Not just stars and the moon. There were plum blossoms and snow as well.”

Ji Rong looked at her, amused by how serious she sounded. “And what else?”

“As for what else... Senior Sister should know best.” Gu Baiyi smiled and met Ji Rong’s gaze.

Their eyes locked, and Ji Rong found herself reflected in the depths of Gu Baiyi’s pupils.

Within them were the soft flickers of candlelight from the room, and the paper flowers blooming in the white porcelain vase.

But in the very center, most vivid of all, was herself.

Being looked at this way, so gently, for so long, was an unexpectedly blissful experience.

She wasn’t sure if it was the thin quilt wrapped tightly around her, or if it was Gu Baiyi’s nearness, but she felt inexplicably warm and content.

So Ji Rong reached out, cupped Gu Baiyi’s face, and planted a light kiss on her forehead. “Did you see this in your sea of consciousness too?”

Gu Baiyi froze for a moment, then shook her head.

Ji Rong’s lips moved to her eyes. As Gu Baiyi instinctively shut them, Ji Rong kissed her eyelids gently and asked, “Ever thought about this?”

Gu Baiyi shook her head again.

Ji Rong raised an eyebrow and was about to continue, 

But Gu Baiyi suddenly knelt on the bed and tilted her head up, kissing Ji Rong square on the lips.

Their lips met and lingered, entangling for quite a while.

Only when Ji Rong was breathless did Gu Baiyi finally pull away from that warm, fleeting realm.

Then, raising a hand, she gently wiped away the moisture at the corner of Ji Rong’s mouth and smiled. “That’s what I saw.”

Ji Rong slapped her hand away and said with a blank expression, “Everyone else meditates in their sea of consciousness to cultivate. You, on the other hand, fill yours with nothing but indecent thoughts.”

“No." Gu Baiyi said softly, “Senior Sister is very clean.”

“…"

Ji Rong almost snapped back with “I’m not a thing”, but the words caught in her throat, and she stubbornly swallowed them back.

Close call. She’d nearly followed Gu Baiyi’s lead again.

Unaware of Ji Rong’s internal struggle, Gu Baiyi gently stroked her inky-black hair and murmured, “It’s strange… When you’re not with me, I miss you terribly. But even when you’re right here, I still miss you.”

Ji Rong frowned. “I’m right beside you. What are you missing me for?”

Gu Baiyi smiled. “I’m wondering… if one day, you’ll leave me.”

“That depends on which of us lives longer.”

Gu Baiyi chuckled again. She ran her fingers through Ji Rong’s hair slowly, as if smoothing out a beloved pet. The motion was gentle, unhurried.

Only when Ji Rong’s expression grew increasingly frosty did Gu Baiyi speak again, still smiling. “That’s not what I meant. I just remembered… that day, Senior Sister told me you’re not from this world.”

“So I was wondering, do you want to return to your original world?”

“No.”

Ji Rong’s reply was blunt.

Gu Baiyi asked quietly, “Why not?”

The most romantic answer, of course, would’ve been “Because of you.”

But Ji Rong didn’t say that, because Gu Baiyi wasn’t her only reason.

There were two reasons she wouldn’t go back. One had long been decided. The other, she’d only recently realized.

First, she had already died suddenly in her original world. If she returned, she might still make it in time for her own funeral.

Second, her only living relative there was her sister, and her sister had been scheming against her. What was the point of returning to that?

So Ji Rong thought for a moment, then replied, “Maybe because I was lonely.”

Gu Baiyi furrowed her brow. “But that’s your homeland. Why would you feel lonely?”

“Well, it’s beautiful, just like this place. But also different. In my world, people only walk with two legs. We can’t fly, and we certainly can’t ride swords.”

Gu Baiyi gave a soft laugh. “Then what do you do when there’s an emergency?”

Ji Rong was tempted to describe airplanes and trains, but decided against it. She simply said, “We have a kind of carriage that goes really fast. If we sit inside, we can reach our destination in no time.”

Though Gu Baiyi clearly didn’t understand, she still listened intently. “Do people in your world also practice cultivation and swordsmanship every day?”

“Not really.”

Ji Rong thought of all the miserable, overworked students and smiled. “But the kids there still have to go to school, and do tons of test papers.”

Gu Baiyi laughed, suddenly enlightened. “So the sect entrance exams you designed… were inspired by your homeland’s customs? How thoughtful.”

Ji Rong shook her head. “I wouldn’t say thoughtful, malicious would be more accurate.”

“Senior Sister isn’t malicious at all.”

Gu Baiyi said earnestly, “I think… even in your original world, you must have been a kind person.”

Yes. A harmless, kind-hearted salted fish.

When Ji Rong didn’t respond, Gu Baiyi gently brought the conversation back on track. “If your homeland was so wonderful… why did you feel lonely?”

“Because I forgot.”

Ji Rong furrowed her brow. Lately, everything from her past felt like it was drifting further and further away.

What did she even still remember?

Other than the orphanage, the only thing she remembered was the woman who had stepped through the open gate, walking toward her across a path strewn with fallen leaves.

That was her sister.

But aside from her sister, what else was there in her hometown?

For some reason, she couldn’t remember.

Gu Baiyi said nothing. She simply looked at Ji Rong gently.

After a long pause, Ji Rong shook her head. “Maybe it’s not that I forgot, maybe I never experienced it in the first place.”

“When I was back home, I often forgot where I was. To me, the joys and sorrows of others always felt like just a game.”

“And it was their game, not mine. I couldn’t join in, nor did I ever want to. It all just felt irrelevant.”

“Then why did you come here, Senior Sister?” Gu Baiyi asked.

Ji Rong looked at her and replied half-jokingly, “Sometimes I wonder if everything that’s happened is something I chose. Would you believe that?”

“I would.”

Ji Rong couldn’t help laughing. “Do you really believe that?”

Gu Baiyi answered, “If Senior Sister says it, I believe it.”

Ji Rong gave a helpless smile. “Alright then, here’s the truth. One day, my sister recommended a game to me. That game’s world was exactly like this one: Bixue Peak, Wanjian Sect, Xuanji City, they were all in it.”

It was strange. She had spoiled so much of the story, and yet the system still hadn’t blocked her.

Gu Baiyi thought for a moment and asked, “Then… was I in the game too?”

Ji Rong nodded. “Since everything was there, of course you were as well. In fact, it was through your perspective that I saw this world. That’s how I came to know everything about you.”

“…That’s so unfair.”

“What’s unfair about it?”

Gu Baiyi smiled. “Because you know everything about me, but I know nothing about you.”

Ji Rong thought to herself, It’s not just you who doesn’t know the original me, I don’t know her either.

“And besides." Gu Baiyi continued, “I have a vague feeling that, though you’re different from the Senior Sister of this life, in many ways… you’re still the same.”

Expressionless, Ji Rong replied, “It’s just your imagination.”

Gu Baiyi smiled again. “Let’s hope so.”

After talking for so long, Ji Rong was starting to feel sleepy. She urged, “Go to bed. We’re visiting my mother tomorrow.”

Gu Baiyi thought of what Madam Mo had said to her, and asked one final question: “Senior Sister… in that game, did you ever hear about a puppet from the Tiangong Workshop that looked a lot like me?”

“Never heard of it.”

Ji Rong shook her head. “I played the game through your perspective. If you didn’t know something, then I wouldn’t know it either.”

Gu Baiyi nodded and said with a smile, “Then you should sleep, Senior Sister.”

Ji Rong lay down. She was so tired that her eyes closed almost immediately.

As she drifted off, she unknowingly wrapped an arm around Gu Baiyi’s waist. The slender, soft curve of it surprised her. It was cool to the touch, yet incredibly comfortable.

It was a feeling she had never experienced in her previous world.

Right before she fell completely asleep, she cracked open her eyes and a phrase floated to the surface of her mind:

Home is where the heart finds peace.

The blood jade bracelet on her wrist flickered with a faint glow, just like the one she had seen at the Tianyin Department. At its edge, silver waves and snowy patterns shimmered into view.

A light burning sensation spread across her wrist. Ji Rong frowned and took off the bracelet.

As she set it on the pillow beside her, she thought she saw an elusive, shifting floral pattern, glimpses of sacred petals.

Was it a lotus? Or a Bodhi seal?

She rubbed her eyes, but the pattern vanished in the blink of an eye.

Too tired to care, she decided it must have been a hallucination. With that thought, she sank into a deep sleep and drifted into dreams.

She dreamed.

In her dream, snow fell heavily. A girl gently pushed open a window and looked out at a bustling city street.

Closing the window, the girl turned around. In the room stood a beautiful young woman.

Her name was Guan Yue, and she wore a dainty indigo flower ornament on her brow. Her smile was warm and kind.

“Young Mistress, why are you filling that vase with paper flowers?”

Guan Yue held a large bundle of them in her arms, dozens, all lightly scented.

The girl picked one up and replied calmly, “Father said there’s a strange scent on me that isn’t very pleasant. So I need to keep lots of flowers around to mask it.”

Guan Yue frowned slightly. “If the City Lord wants flowers, why not use real ones? Why go to the trouble of making fake ones?”

“Because real flowers wilt. These won’t.”

The girl slid the paper flower into the vase and added, almost offhandedly, “Besides, I’m too lazy to take care of real ones.”

“…”

Guan Yue could only smile helplessly. Then she opened the wardrobe, took out several dresses from the shelves, and asked cheerfully, “Tomorrow is your coming-of-age ceremony. The seamstresses made you many outfits. Which one would you like to wear?”

The girl glanced at the clothes in Guan Yue’s hands, finding them boring.

Whether blue or red, they all looked the same to her.

She was about to say “whatever." but then her eyes paused on a particular dress.

She normally didn’t care about such things, but this dress, embroidered with delicate plum blossoms, made her frown slightly.

She herself was wearing a snow-colored gauze dress, but it bore none of those lovely, strangely familiar blossoms.

Somehow, those plum blossoms felt deeply familiar.

She asked, “Sister Guan, what are these flowers called?”

Guan Yue recalled what the seamstress had told her and replied with a smile, “Young Mistress, I believe they’re called Thousand-Petal Cinnabar Plums.”

The girl nodded, took the dress from Guan Yue, and smiled. “They’re beautiful. I really like them.”