Date

Tang Shuyu parted the weeds with such ease that he made it look effortless.

He Zhuoming followed behind him, quietly reaching out to touch the grass blades beside her. Before she could even gather the strength, the sharp edge of a leaf sliced her finger.

She sucked in a sharp breath, withdrew her hand, and stuck her finger in her mouth to suck on it. The tip of her tongue tasted a hint of her own blood.

Tang Shuyu walked ahead of her. Though he hadn't turned around, it was as if he had eyes on the back of his head, asking He Zhuoming what was wrong.

He Zhuoming wiped her hand on her clothes and pretended to be fine. "Nothing."

Tang Shuyu looked back at her. He Zhuoming caught his gaze, so she widened her eyes and put on an innocent expression. After they stared at each other for a moment, Tang Shuyu turned his head back—He Zhuoming patted her chest in relief and, on top of that, felt a little smug. She smiled at the back of his head.

The two of them descended a gently sloping hill, its slope likewise covered in waist-high weeds. The riverbed lay at the very bottom.

The river's surface was far wider than He Zhuoming had imagined. The water raced so fast that an ordinary person wouldn't dare set foot in it; she felt that if she slipped in, she'd be swept away in an instant.

On the bank were scattered narrow but flat stones, evenly spaced apart.

He Zhuoming was about to tell Tang Shuyu that the stones looked like single-person stools, but as she approached, she realized they were tombstones!

Startled, she jumped back, immediately shrinking away from the few steps she'd taken, and, out of habit, hid behind Tang Shuyu, grabbing the fabric of his clothes at his back. "Tombstones!"

Tang Shuyu explained, "They're clean. You can sit on them."

He Zhuoming: "I'm not sitting on those! What if the tombstone's owner comes to cause trouble for me?"

Tang Shuyu: "They can't. They can't get out."

He himself sat down on one of the tombstones—being tall had its advantages at a time like this. Tang Shuyu sat on the waist-high tombstone without even needing to tiptoe; he leaned back and settled onto it.

He Zhuoming looked at him suspiciously. He gave her a harmless, obedient smile, his eyelashes curving, casting two shadows under his eyes in the moonlight.

He Zhuoming was fooled by his smile. Her gaze swept over the obscure epitaphs on the tombstone—all in classical Chinese and full of rare characters. With He Zhuoming's level of education, she couldn't understand a word.

She could only make out that the tomb's owner was surnamed Tang.

She sat down cautiously on the tombstone, looking left and right, afraid that a white figure or something else might suddenly drift out of the dense grass around them.

But only the night wind blew gently, bending the wild grass slightly. Even though it was a stuffy summer night, the air by the river was humid. Perhaps because they were in a cemetery, the climate was also cool, not hot at all.

Setting aside some superstitious factors, He Zhuoming thought for a moment and decided that this place was actually quite suitable for a date.

Because, as Tang Shuyu had said—the moonlight was reflected in fragments on the river's surface, and the night breeze was cool.

He Zhuoming's tense heart gradually relaxed. It dawned on her that she'd worked up a sweat all over.

She wiped her forehead with her hand, brushing the short, damp hair away from her face. Her gaze shifted slightly, glancing at Tang Shuyu beside her.

She just wanted to see what he was doing—maybe he was looking at the moon too?

But Tang Shuyu was looking at her.

He had also run for a long time and had been the one to clear the path, but his face still looked fresh. His hair remained dry and fluffy, loose around the tips of his ears and the nape of his neck.

He Zhuoming suddenly felt a bit embarrassed. Her face flushed with heat, and her hand unconsciously continued to tidy her bangs.

She brushed the few strands of hair up, then let them fall back down. Their thin, blurry shadows swayed over her eye sockets and nose. She half-lowered her eyelids as if looking at the ground, but within the shadow, her pupils kept drifting toward Tang Shuyu.

Tang Shuyu spoke: "Xiao He—"

He Zhuoming immediately lowered her arms, propping herself on the tombstone. "Hm?"

Tang Shuyu's expression was serious. "I will always remember you."

He Zhuoming hadn't expected him to say that. She was taken aback, her fingers picking at the edge of the tombstone.

Tang Shuyu leaned over sideways, supporting himself on the tombstone where He Zhuoming sat, and leaned in close to ask her: "Xiao He will always remember me too, right?"

The way he asked was strange—He Zhuoming's girlish, date-related thoughts drifted for a moment. She didn't understand what he meant. She just widened her eyes and asked, confused, "Why did you suddenly start talking about such a philosophical topic? That's weird."

Tang Shuyu could tell she didn't get it.

It was only natural that Xiao He didn't understand; Xiao He was too young, still a youth. Asking her to comprehend 'forever' at that age was indeed too much to expect.

So Tang Shuyu sat back down, gazing at He Zhuoming with a plaintive look, and said in a low, somber tone, "Nothing. I was just talking."

Even as he said that, his expression and eyes were accusing He Zhuoming of being heartless, as if she couldn't understand such simple words.

But He Zhuoming scratched her head, believing his nonsense—then she suddenly remembered something and slapped Tang Shuyu's thigh. But because his leg was too hard, he didn't react, while He Zhuoming's hand hurt so much she pulled it back.

He Zhuoming complained, "Why is your body so hard!"

Tang Shuyu let out a long sigh and said, "Where is it as hard as Xiao He's heart?"

He Zhuoming: "..."

She ignored that strange remark of his—after all, Tang Shuyu often said weird things she didn't understand.

He Zhuoming rummaged through the money pouch where she kept her coins, and from among the copper coins she pulled out the red-cloth-wrapped protective talisman. Holding it with both hands, she presented it to Tang Shuyu as if offering a treasure.

Her expression was excited, so Tang Shuyu's attitude also became serious. With an exaggeratedly respectful gesture, he took it with both hands, held it up to his eyes, and examined it closely.

It turned out to be one of Liang Yi's mass-produced protective talismans.

The vein at Tang Shuyu's temple twitched. He nearly threw the thing away by reflex—but his wrist turned at a subtle angle, and in the end, he didn't let go of the talisman.

He Zhuoming was still chattering on: "This protective talisman is given in exchange for copying scriptures. Feixian told me it's really effective!"

Tang Shuyu struggled to restrain himself from crushing it. His gaze shifted from the talisman to He Zhuoming's face. "Did you copy Liang Yi's scriptures back then just to get this?"

He Zhuoming: "Yeah, yeah."

Tang Shuyu's feelings toward this talisman immediately became complicated.

To be honest, influenced by the emotions of his main body, he didn't like Liang Yi much, and this talisman was full of Liang Yi's aura. Just holding it made Tang Shuyu feel a little nauseated.

But when he thought that this was something Xiao He had worked hard to copy scriptures for, to give to him, along with the nausea came a feeling of being moved.

His emotions swung back and forth—nauseous one moment, moved the next; wanting to vomit one moment, wanting to laugh the next. He held the talisman, not knowing where to put it.

Since it was a gift from He Zhuoming, throwing it away was out of the question. But hanging a talisman of Liang Yi on his person was no different from carrying a toad on him at all times.

He Zhuoming: "Originally, you had to burn all the scriptures you copied before you could exchange them for a talisman. But I didn't finish copying them... though I was only a little bit away from finishing. I figured that the True Deity is so busy with all kinds of affairs, he probably wouldn't quibble with me over such a tiny discrepancy."

She raised her hand, indicating a tiny distance between her thumb and index finger in front of Tang Shuyu, to emphasize her effort.

Tang Shuyu retorted, "Who told you that Liang Yi is effective? Xu Feixian? Whatever she says, you believe it? Oh, and you rushed into the ranks of the living dead for her before. You two are really close."

He Zhuoming shook her head. "I wasn't just believing blindly. I also made a wish to the Dao Lord of the Two Principles before, and it came true. And he didn't make me have bad luck... Compared to other Corrupted Deities, he has a really good price-performance ratio."

Tang Shuyu: "What wish did you make to him?"

He Zhuoming: "To be able to play the flute very well."

Tang Shuyu laughed in anger. "That was obviously—"

He stopped mid-sentence. He Zhuoming looked at him in confusion.

Tang Shuyu choked for a moment, his mind working fast, and quickly changed his words: "Who said you haven't had bad luck? Not long after making that wish, you ran into that Corrupted Deity causing trouble."

He Zhuoming was bewildered. She thought for a moment, still not quite believing it. "Does that count?"

Tang Shuyu sneered. "Why wouldn't it? Do you have to be dead for it to count?"

He Zhuoming thought about it again. If she set aside logical connections and simply considered whether she'd had bad luck—it seemed that since she'd made the wish to the Dao Lord of the Two Principles, she really had encountered many unlucky things.

So those unlucky things were also part of the price?

He Zhuoming stared blankly, lost in thought.

Tang Shuyu held the talisman, eyeing it critically from left to right, almost as if he could see through the red cloth to the talisman symbol folded inside.

He asked, "But, how come you suddenly thought to give me this?"

He Zhuoming was still thinking about the unlucky things, but even while distracted, she still answered Tang Shuyu: "Because back then, your eyes couldn't see. They said that protective talismans could make sick people get better, so I wanted to get one for you too... But now your eyes are already better..."

She paused. Her thoughts turned back to Tang Shuyu—Tang Shuyu was looking at her sideways. His powers of observation were far sharper than He Zhuoming's, and he immediately caught the moment of her pause.

Tang Shuyu pressed, "My eyes are better now, so what?"

So was she going to take the talisman back?

He Zhuoming continued slowly, "But people always get sick from time to time. And they all say this talisman is very effective, so you should still keep it."

"It can bless you with good health in the future."

Tang Shuyu was silent for a moment, his eyelashes lowering.

Because of the tugging of the red threads, he couldn't tell whether his heart was hurting now. The sawing pain in his joints covered most of his senses.

But strangely, Tang Shuyu really did feel something stirring in his chest.

He no longer wanted to throw away the talisman like he had a moment ago. Even the scent of Liang Yi's incense on it had become more agreeable than usual.

Tang Shuyu smiled very softly. "Really? Thank you... I'll treasure it."

Even though his limbs still ached terribly, and he still hated Liang Yi, he felt better than ever at that moment.

He touched his eyes. Dense red blood vessels crept around his cloudy eyeballs. He secretly wiped the blood that seeped from the corners of his eyes with his sleeve, then pointed to the edge of the sky and said, "The fireworks are almost over."

He Zhuoming looked up at the fireworks—and indeed, they were nearly done. A few scattered bursts of color flickered in the night sky. The night breeze faintly carried some music, mixed in with the rushing sound of the water.

The sky wasn't so dark now, just before dawn, and a layer of cold, clear gray-blue hung over the gap between heaven and earth.

At the thought of not having to stay in the Divine Palace anymore, He Zhuoming's spirits soared—her mind was excited, but her body was tired from staying up all night, and she let out a long yawn.

He Zhuoming: "After we leave Pear Garden... after I go home... what are you going to do?"

Tang Shuyu clutched the protective talisman and answered, "I don't know."

After a pause, he added in a voice tinged with confusion, "I've never left Liyuan. I don't know what else I can do besides being... being a musician."

Even the main body—the puppet—didn't think the main body could answer that question either.

At least he could handle some miscellaneous tasks in the Divine Palace, which could barely be counted as doing something proper. Meanwhile, the main body simply ran around everywhere, chasing the endless amusement that could never be satisfied.

Although the main body had a beating heart in its chest, everyone knew that heart wasn't a real heart.

It just looked like a heart. In reality, it was completely useless, nothing but a decoration. Like the main body, which looked very much like a human but wasn't one at all. Its true heart was hollow, filling its own emptiness with the pursuit of meaningless joy.

He Zhuoming was still watching the last of the fireworks in the sky. Her gaze flickered briefly toward Tang Shuyu, then darted away as if afraid of being caught.

She cleared her throat and said, "It's normal to feel that way!"

Tang Shuyu: "...Normal?"

He Zhuoming nodded, and a deliberately mature expression appeared on her round, youthful face. "Of course it's normal. Because your world is just so boring—there aren't even game consoles. There are very few jobs, and in a society with low productivity, people's happiness decreases. I don't like your side either."

Changing the topic, she revealed her true intention: "But my hometown is different! My hometown is already a fully modernized, global society. Smart technology benefits everyone. Even ordinary people can live well in an environment overflowing with resources."

"So, would you like to come to my hometown..."

He Zhuoming was straining every bit of her knowledge to sing the praises of her homeland, hoping to persuade Tang Shuyu to come with her—and as she spoke, she soon became genuinely emotional.

Although there were many worries in modern life, compared to the life-and-death crises she'd faced after transmigrating, they were like a few tiny sesame seeds.

He Zhuoming now missed her fridge stocked with snacks and drinks, the air conditioning in her classroom, and the milk tea, fried chicken, seafood buffets...

The more she recalled, the sadder she felt. After a while of reminiscing, her eyes had reddened. Just when she was getting emotional, suddenly Tang Shuyu's hand covered hers.

The invitation she hadn't finished came to a halt. Her gaze darted cautiously to the side: Good, it really was Tang Shuyu's hand covering hers, not a ghost's hand.

He Zhuoming breathed a sigh of relief, not thinking there was anything wrong with being so cautious.

This was a cemetery, after all! And Tang Shuyu's hands were so cold. Sometimes when she touched his fingers, she suspected that his body temperature wasn't much warmer than the wandering spirits'.

When he voluntarily covered her hand, it made He Zhuoming feel like they were back in a dating atmosphere again—she took hold of his hand, clumsily trying to interlace their fingers, but because she was too inexperienced at it, her nails scraped across the back of Tang Shuyu's hand several times.

Tang Shuyu: "Xiao He..."

He Zhuoming nervously straightened her back. "Yes!"

Her nervousness was too obvious. Immediately after, she heard Tang Shuyu laugh—He Zhuoming turned her head to look at him and found that he was no longer sitting on the tombstone.

At some point, he had stood up and was now right next to He Zhuoming, one hand held by hers, the other braced on the tombstone where she sat.

He was close now, a damp, cold floral scent wafting over her, completely enveloping He Zhuoming.

He Zhuoming felt a little dizzy. Her gaze rested level with Tang Shuyu's chest, then moved up a bit to his neck. His collar was still pulled high, reaching his chin. The pearl earring dangled, its luster swaying gently against the red silk.

She suddenly closed her eyes and tilted her face up—she thought it must be time for a kiss... right?

That was how dating should go.

But instead of his lips touching her cheek, what pressed against He Zhuoming's face was Tang Shuyu's cheek. It was cool and soft, a thin layer of skin rubbing against He Zhuoming, and beneath the skin, his bones were cold and hard, digging into her face slightly.

He Zhuoming opened her eyes in confusion. Before she could voice her questions, she was pulled into a hug by Tang Shuyu.

It was just a hug.

He bent over, lowering himself to accommodate He Zhuoming's seated height, and as his arms wrapped around her back, the strength of his embrace lifted her almost off the ground.

For a puppet, a hug was far more intimate than a kiss.

Trees had no concept of 'lips,' nor did they have any kissing behavior. When intimacy reached its peak, branches stretched and entwined, pressing against each other in the intertwining until they merged into one.

His arms wrapped around He Zhuoming's back like branches, and when his palms pressed against the butterfly-like shoulder blades of the girl, a natural desire arose to cling to her bones and grow together with them.

His two overworked eyeballs finally gave out. With two soft thuds, they fell from the puppet's eye sockets.