“Lu Huan, who at sixteen in the State of Yan could already marry and have children.”
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Almost instinctively, he took several quick steps forward, wanting—excitedly—to walk into that translucent curtain, to chase after her.
But with that step, he passed straight through the curtain and ended up on the other side of his own room, grabbing at nothing but air.
At the same time, new words appeared on the curtain—
【Hello, Zai Zai. Your points have not yet reached 200. The next great reward pack cannot be unlocked. Please be patient—complete more main and side quests to increase your points as soon as possible.】
Lu Huan’s face went instantly pale.
Was he unable to go to her world?
He didn’t fully understand what “points” were, but he roughly realized that, just like before, he would have to complete tasks to accumulate some kind of numerical value—only then could he go to her world and see her.
At that thought, Lu Huan felt there was still a thread of hope. He rubbed his face, forcing himself to calm down.
He continued studying this entirely new, future world.
However…
As Lu Huan looked at the people on the street, he couldn’t understand why they all looked like dwarfs—short-limbed, oddly proportioned, their faces puffed up like steamed buns.
Curtain: 【Zai Zai, would you like to spend money to switch to original-quality graphics? One wen can maintain original quality for one hour.】
Lu Huan did not understand what “spend money” or “original graphics” meant. So he simply touched the option labeled “Yes.”
With a crisp pa! sound, mist swept across the curtain—and suddenly, all the people on the long street returned to normal, no longer the short, stubby, bun-faced figures from before.
He roughly understood now what the curtain’s earlier message had meant.
But because there were so many people on that long street, his money began to drain quickly; before long, a silver note vanished from his chest pouch.
Following the principle of thrift, Lu Huan switched the curtain back—restoring everyone to their short-limbed, bun-faced forms once again.
What he had seen today was already strange enough, beyond reason, enough to overturn his understanding of the world. So when the silver note disappeared into thin air, Lu Huan was no longer even surprised.
Still, the world within the curtain was vast—where was he supposed to find her?
For the moment, he turned the view back to that first room. Everything he did was trial and error, but he was remarkably quick-witted. He soon discovered that the curtain could actually be touched—and with each touch, the image shifted slightly. Before long, he had figured out how to switch between different screens.
Just as he was thinking this, the door of that room suddenly opened.
Lu Huan immediately held his breath, his throat going dry, eyes fixed on the iron door.
Was it her?
He felt the same nervous excitement as a young man about to see the person he had long yearned for; his heart beat violently.
Then—the door opened.
A small, short-limbed girl with a round, bun-like face walked in. She seemed to have just returned from running outside. Beads of sweat sparkled on her forehead; her eyelashes were thick and curled; her pale cheeks were faintly flushed. She was tiny, her short legs moving quickly as she entered the bathing room to fetch a towel and wipe the sweat from her forehead.
She was so small, and her hair was tied up in a way Lu Huan had never seen before.
—Was it her?
For some reason, Lu Huan felt a faint premonition but he still couldn’t be sure.
The next moment, however, he saw the bun-faced girl plop down onto a long, soft couch in the main hall, cross one leg over the other (Lu Huan: …), and pull from her pocket a large, rectangular black slab—clearly intending to do something with it.
“Is that you?” Lu Huan couldn’t help but speak aloud, dazed.
But it seemed she couldn’t hear his voice at all. She merely reclined lazily on the couch, her face glowing with a bright smile, and switched on the black slab in her hand.
The slab suddenly lit up—causing Lu Huan’s eyelids to twitch.
And the next second, the image on her glowing slab—viewed perfectly from Lu Huan’s angle—was actually… the firewood courtyard of Prince Ning’s residence where he had once lived?!
Lu Huan’s breath quickened sharply.
In that instant, he understood.
—It was her.
The two worlds that the wandering Daoist had spoken of—
The slab she held must be no different from the translucent curtain before him. All this time, she had been seeing and contacting him through the small screen in her hand.
She was not some ghost or spirit, but a woman from another world—one thousands of years in the future.
And now, perhaps because his longing was too deep, a curtain had appeared on his side as well—allowing him to see her.
—It was her!
Lu Huan’s eyes suddenly reddened. He gazed at her and switched the curtain to original quality. Instantly, the cartoonish, bun-faced little girl on the curtain transformed into a beautiful young woman—skin fair as snow, hair dark and glossy, with beads of sweat still glimmering on her forehead. Her eyes were bright, her nose finely arched, and her lips pressed together in quiet concentration as she focused on the black slab in her hands.
It was an indescribably wondrous feeling.
Though this was the first time Lu Huan had ever truly seen her, she felt familiar.
As if every strand of her hair was exactly as he had imagined it.
Across a thousand years of time, he stood within that room, letting the sunlight outside the wooden window slowly fade into dusk, his eyes rimmed red as he watched her on the translucent curtain. His heart thrummed violently, as if struck by a surge of electricity.
He had never imagined that Heaven would truly show him such mercy—to let him see her.
For that moment, he held his breath, feeling as though even time itself had stilled.
Lu Huan still did not understand how she could, through that single curtain, traverse a millennium of years and accompany him for so long. His mind was blank—filled only with the joy of finally seeing the one he had yearned for day and night, mingled with the nervous, tender shame of a man meeting his beloved after a long parting.
Yet she seemed completely unaware that he could now see her. She continued to focus earnestly, tapping here and there upon the slab in her hands.
───♡───
It was Saturday.
Su Xi, after helping her mother buy groceries in the morning, had gone for a quick jog. The image of Zai Zai’s dejected expression from the night before lingered in her heart, so she didn’t run long. She hurried home instead, eager to log into the game.
Each login began from the start screen, so Su Xi had to switch through a few menus to find Zai Zai.
In the game world, it was currently sunset. She assumed Zai Zai would be at the government office—but when she overheard two clerks’ dialogue bubbles above their heads saying Zai Zai had taken sick leave today, Su Xi’s heart jumped.
No way—did he catch a cold last night?
She quickly switched the view to the official residence.
And there she saw Zai Zai standing motionless in the middle of the room, staring into empty space. His dark eyes glowed red, his expression caught between grievance and joy, disbelief and ecstasy—all tangled together on his face.
But he wasn’t moving at all, which made Su Xi think the game had frozen.
She switched the screen to the courtyard and saw that the servants were still walking about and sweeping. No lag at all.
At that same moment, Lu Huan stared at her from his side. The image on the black slab in her hands made his expression freeze for an instant—
On her screen, the people walking about the courtyard were all tiny figures, exactly like the short-limbed caricatures he’d seen in her world earlier. Above their heads floated names: Clerk A, Clerk B, Clerk C…
And himself—
When she switched the screen to the interior, standing in the middle was unmistakably him—only this version had stubby limbs, a huge bun-shaped face, and a blank, stunned expression.
Lu Huan: ……
Why did he look so stupid on her screen?!
And above his oversized head floated two enormous words—
Zai Zai.
Lu Huan: ………………………
Lu Huan finally understood why the curtain kept calling him Zai Zai.
If it was the same as on his side—that one had to spend silver to switch the characters into their normal human appearance then clearly, she simply had…
Not. Spent. Money.
Realizing this, Lu Huan: “……”
Meanwhile, after Su Xi confirmed that the game hadn’t frozen, she switched the view back into the room again—only to see Zai Zai still standing there motionless, his bun-shaped face displaying an indescribably complex mix of emotions.
W–what was going on?
Su Xi felt utterly baffled.
She was just about to tug Zai Zai to signal that she was online, when she suddenly noticed—her points in the upper-right corner had risen to 102.
???!!!
Su Xi was so startled she nearly jumped off the couch.
“What the—Zai Zai, what did you do last night?! How did you suddenly get a hundred and two points?!”
Had he gone crazy doing push-ups all night or something?!
Right after she yelled this, the Zai Zai on screen twitched at the brow.
Then, he made a motion—stepping forward and pressing down on something invisible in front of him.
And to Su Xi’s confusion, her screen suddenly went pa!—a puff of mist washed over the image, and when it cleared, the cartoon-faced Zai Zai had transformed into his original form: the handsome sixteen-year-old youth, eyes slightly red as he gazed into the air.
Su Xi: ……
What was wrong with this game today? Why did it suddenly switch to “original art”? She hadn’t even paid for it, and yet Zai Zai had turned into the full-quality model! And it was lasting—already half a minute had passed, and he still looked like that young man.
Su Xi had once casually renamed him when she started playing—spending a little on customization to change his name from “Lu Huan” to “Zai Zai.”
But now, just as she was still trying to make sense of everything, the screen went pa! again.
Above Zai Zai’s head, his name suddenly changed to a new line—
“Lu Huan, who at sixteen in the State of Yan could already marry and have children.”
