Chapter 65: Come and Snatch the Bride (8)
Hearing Jiang Ciqiu’s words, the other person froze, looking at her with incomprehension. After staring for a while, her expression gradually became confused.
“Who’s this Dr. Xie you’re talking about? I’m not Dr. Xie,” Jiang Ciqiu said. She remembered that the woman’s surname was Xie.
“Looking closely, you and Dr. Xie do have some differences. You look younger, more… naive… but you two really look alike, practically identical.”
“Identical? What’s the name of this Dr. Xie you’re talking about?” Jiang Ciqiu continued to ask, her heart pounding. She already had a guess in mind, but she didn’t dare to confirm it. How could such an absurd thing happen in the world?
“Xie Liaoyi. It’s really strange, isn’t it?” Her gaze was fixed on Jiang Ciqiu’s face, as if trying to figure something out. “Don’t you have an older sister?”
“No, strictly speaking, I’m an only child.” Jiang Ciqiu’s mind was in a mess. “I know the Dr. Xie you’re talking about, I just didn’t know she looked exactly like me.”
“Your voices are also very similar,” the other person continued, clapping her hands. “The world is truly full of wonders.”
Jiang Ciqiu gave a couple of dry laughs and went to the noodle shop she had chosen. She felt like she should think about some things, but her mind was like mush, refusing to function.
As soon as she entered the shop, the owner greeted her with a smile: “Dr. Xie, the usual?”
“I’m not Dr. Xie, but I’ll have her usual.” Jiang Ciqiu explained. “How much is it?”
“Twenty-one… You’re not Dr. Xie? Are you her younger sister then?”
“No.” Jiang Ciqiu didn’t say much, finding a random seat.
The owner’s expression became even more confused, but since she was familiar with Xie Liaoyi, she quickly realized that the person in front of her wasn’t Xie Liaoyi, even though some of her habitual movements were exactly the same.
Xie Liaoyi’s usual order was kidney noodles with a marinated egg and vegetarian chicken. Jiang Ciqiu took a bite of the marinated egg; it was indeed delicious, and so were the noodles.
“Does she often come here for noodles?” Jiang Ciqiu asked.
“Yes, she’s a regular customer, we all know her… let me see, mm, it’s been about eight years. She was more mature than other people her age when she first came here.” The owner said with some emotion. “I’ve watched her grow, but she was already very capable when she first started working at the hospital.”
Jiang Ciqiu smiled and took a bite of the noodles.
“Are you here looking for Dr. Xie?” the owner asked.
“I’m looking for my younger sister, she’s with Dr. Xie, I’m here to take her home,” Jiang Ciqiu said.
The owner blinked and tentatively asked: “Do you and your younger sister also look alike?”
“Completely different,” Jiang Ciqiu said.
“That’s really strange.”
Jiang Ciqiu gave a couple of dry laughs and focused on eating her noodles.
Jiang Zhiyan must have known long ago that Xie Liaoyi looked exactly like her, but she hadn’t said anything, not a single word. Wouldn’t it be strange to be with someone who looked exactly like a family member?
Just thinking about it now felt strange.
How did Jiang Zhiyan and Xie Liaoyi interact?
And the name “Xie Liaoyi,” she had felt it was strange since the first time she saw “Liaoyi.” Now that she knew the other person looked and sounded exactly like her, it was even stranger.
Was Xie Liaoyi related to her?
Jiang Ciqiu almost choked on the egg yolk of the marinated egg.
After finishing her meal, she returned to her car. She had originally wanted to walk around the area, but on the short walk back from the noodle shop, several more people called her “Dr. Xie.”
She had to explain to each of them, each of them looking at her with shocked and bewildered eyes. She was getting annoyed. One person, probably a patient’s family member, even tried to discuss their medical condition with her.
Jiang Ciqiu leaned back in her seat, her eyes somewhat numb.
Finally, she picked up her phone.
[Jiang Ciqiu: Something came up, come back by yourself, I won’t pick you up.]
[Jiang Zhiyan: Oh.]
Jiang Ciqiu didn’t reply, started the car, and left. She felt like she wouldn’t be coming back here for a long time.
“She probably knows now,” Jiang Zhiyan said.
“Mm.” Xie Liaoyi responded, watching Jiang Zhiyan, who was curled up on the sofa eating ice cream, sitting a meter away from her.
Jiang Zhiyan looked at her: “Why are you sitting so far away from me?”
“Always be vigilant.”
“Ha.” Jiang Zhiyan twitched the corner of her mouth. “She must be very confused now, she’s barely speaking.”
“I guessed as much, she’ll probably continue to play dumb until I meet her face to face,” Xie Liaoyi looked at Jiang Zhiyan.
Jiang Zhiyan stayed at Xie Liaoyi’s place until nine o’clock before going back. Jiang Ciqiu didn’t urge her even once during that time. When she got home, Jiang Ciqiu wasn’t there.
“I really suspect she has another apartment somewhere,” Jiang Zhiyan put the fruit on the table.
“It’s normal for rich people to have multiple apartments,” the System said.
“That’s true.” Jiang Zhiyan took a shower and then logged into the game. She and Xie Liaoyi had agreed to do game quests tonight.
Jiang Zhiyan checked the System’s game progress; it was almost at Spirit Severing. It had also started playing in the arena recently, its ranking rising rapidly, attracting the attention of many people, many guessing if it was a smurf account of some expert.
“I’m quite famous in the game recently, many people want to be friends with me, but some people also reported me, heh, are you kidding me, this level of skill is worth reporting?” The System said discontentedly. “I’m not cheating, everyone relies on their brains to play, my brain just works faster than theirs, what’s the problem?”
“All reports failed, serves them right.”
Jiang Zhiyan looked at the System’s background information; it seemed like it had spent quite a bit of money recently.
When she logged in, Xie Liaoyi was already there. They accepted a two-person quest.
“I wonder how many of these quests there are, some people on the forum haven’t finished them yet,” Jiang Zhiyan said.
“Because there’s a time limit, you can only proceed to the next quest after a certain amount of time has passed,” Xie Liaoyi explained. “Did you not read the quest description carefully?”
“I didn’t really read it, I just saw that two people can team up for quests to increase intimacy.” Jiang Zhiyan said honestly. “The other stuff isn’t important.”
Xie Liaoyi looked at her with some exasperation. Because they hadn’t logged in for several days, eight quests had already opened. Jiang Zhiyan sat on Xie Liaoyi’s sword, preparing to complete all eight quests tonight.
The first quest was “Blessing of the Divine Tree,” the easiest one. As long as you could correctly recite a mantra, you would receive a “blessing.” There were many types of blessings: game items, event-exclusive outfits, rare skill books with extremely low drop rates, and blessing buffs, which provided beneficial effects in battle for half a month.
The “Blessing Buff” had the highest drop rate. Jiang Zhiyan received an event-exclusive outfit, and Xie Liaoyi received a Blessing Buff.
“Did she get a skill book?” Xie Liaoyi looked at the buff and asked. For a lifestyle player, this buff was useless.
“Mm.” Jiang Zhiyan glanced at the event-exclusive outfit and put it in her backpack.
“Why aren’t you wearing the new outfit?” Xie Liaoyi asked.
“Everyone’s wearing the same thing, it’s boring, and it’s not the same as yours, even more boring.” Jiang Zhiyan still preferred her red outfit.
“So unlucky.” Xie Liaoyi sighed. “The difference between an ordinary person and the female lead.”
“Stop being sentimental, you have the buff, I have nothing.” Jiang Zhiyan sat on Xie Liaoyi’s sword. “Let’s go to the next round, intimacy just increased by one hundred. Normally, spending a whole day together only increases it by ten, and we’re not doing anything else.”
“Mm.”
Jiang Zhiyan and Xie Liaoyi were already bound as partners. To register as Dao Companions, they needed 30,000 intimacy points. And in this game, intimacy could only be increased by playing games together, there was no way to directly buy it. There was also a daily limit for intimacy gained through daily activities, a maximum of one hundred per day. So to reach 30,000 intimacy points, it would take 300 days, jokingly referred to as the “marriage cooling-off period.” Only during these special events would the rate of intimacy increase be slightly faster.
Their current intimacy was a little over two hundred, 30,000 seemed a long way off.
The second quest was to prepare ingredients for the celebration, with a time limit of twelve hours. They were given a list of three hundred ingredients. The more items they found, the greater the reward and the greater the increase in intimacy.
They decided to search separately.
“You know how to fly a sword, right?” Xie Liaoyi asked.
Jiang Zhiyan: ?
She summoned her sword, stood on it, quickly spun twice in the air, swiftly flew through a dense forest, then circled back and stopped in front of Xie Liaoyi, looking at her somewhat proudly.
“Don’t ride my sword next time.” Xie Liaoyi nodded in praise, smiling.
“Okay, then you can ride mine,” Jiang Zhiyan nodded.
Xie Liaoyi chuckled, watching Jiang Zhiyan’s departing figure.
Finding items was easy with the System. Jiang Zhiyan told the System what she needed, and it sent her the coordinates. It had found all three hundred ingredients for this quest.
Because it had found everything, it was reported again. However, the System insisted that it hadn’t cheated this time. Because it was too bored, and Jiang Zhiyan didn’t need its help, it had traveled to every accessible location in the game, switching to its alternate account when its main account’s time was up. It had provided the game developers with a map it had drawn, marking the locations of all the materials, very comprehensive.
It eagerly showed off its achievements to Jiang Zhiyan, quite proud of itself.
“Just a friendly reminder, you’re now more famous in the game than Jiang Ciqiu. You’re at least half responsible for the plot deviation.” Jiang Zhiyan scrolled through the forum. “Jiang Xi Tong’s” popularity had surpassed “Maple Leaf’s.”
System: !!!
It suddenly realized it had gotten carried away playing the game.
But it was clearly too late now. It had just very ostentatiously shared its “Cultivation Travelogue” yesterday, the number of people who had saved the post had exceeded 10,000, and it had promised to post the second part the day after tomorrow.
“Host, what do we do now?” the System asked nervously.
“It’s fine, I won’t blame you, after all, you’re my system.” Jiang Zhiyan said gently. “We’ll just delay our retirement together.”
System: …
“Since it’s come to this, let’s just have fun.” Jiang Zhiyan’s voice became even gentler.
The System felt weary.
Jiang Zhiyan found most of the ingredients based on the coordinates provided by the System. Xie Liaoyi wasn’t slow either. As a player who liked to wander around in the game, twelve hours was more than enough for her excellent memory to find all those items.
The two met up, having found all three hundred ingredients, plus some extra materials they could keep for themselves.
The System was the first to find everything, so it was very conspicuous. It was normal for the two of them to complete the quest so much later, so they didn’t attract any attention.
The second quest took four hours. Finding the items wasn’t difficult, but flying around wasted a lot of time. You could only teleport after reaching Spirit Severing.
“Let’s continue tomorrow, this quest is inhuman.” Jiang Zhiyan lay on Xie Liaoyi’s lap.
“It feels like work.” Xie Liaoyi yawned. “At least we gained three hundred intimacy points.”
“Only three hundred.” Jiang Zhiyan nuzzled Xie Liaoyi’s abdomen, resting her head on her stomach.
It felt so real; she could feel the slight rise and fall of Xie Liaoyi’s abdomen with each breath.
“It’s getting late, let’s log off and sleep.” Xie Liaoyi braided Jiang Zhiyan’s loose hair.
“Jiang Ciqiu doesn’t seem to be back yet,” Jiang Zhiyan said. She hadn’t gone out to check, but Jiang Ciqiu hadn’t logged into the game.
“Are you very concerned about her?” Xie Liaoyi asked.
“I’m very concerned about you.” Jiang Zhiyan looked up at Xie Liaoyi. “She’s jealous of you, and you’re jealous of her. Will you have a split personality when you two merge?”
“That shouldn’t happen.”
“I hope there are no side effects.” Jiang Zhiyan sighed softly. “Let’s trust the Main God.”
“It’ll be fine.” Xie Liaoyi lowered her head and kissed Jiang Zhiyan’s forehead.
Jiang Zhiyan logged out of the game, opened the door, and sniffed, smelling alcohol.
She frowned and went to the living room.
Jiang Ciqiu was leaning against the sofa, eyes open, her reactions seemingly slow. Jiang Zhiyan had been out for a while before she looked over, her gaze landing on Jiang Zhiyan. She blinked slowly, each blink as if she was about to fall asleep.
“Did you drink?” Jiang Zhiyan asked.
“Mm, can’t you tell? Why ask?” Jiang Ciqiu yawned, glanced at Jiang Zhiyan, then looked away, using the sofa to help herself stand, and swayed past her.
“How much did you drink? When did you get back?” Jiang Zhiyan grabbed her arm.
“Not much.” Jiang Ciqiu struggled a couple of times, then gave up when she couldn’t break free.
“Why did you suddenly go drinking? Who did you drink with?” Jiang Zhiyan asked.
“What’s it to you?” Jiang Ciqiu glared at her with dissatisfaction.
Jiang Zhiyan carried Jiang Ciqiu to her room, asked the System to watch her, and went to boil some water and buy hangover medicine.
“She seems to be getting more and more childish,” the System said.
“Mm, her female lead personality is disappearing, so she’s becoming more childish.” Jiang Zhiyan stood by the kettle.
A proper female lead would be much more mature than Jiang Ciqiu, her emotions wouldn’t be so outwardly displayed, but now Jiang Ciqiu’s emotions were becoming more and more obvious.
“Can it be that fragmented?” The System exclaimed.
“Who knows, the concept of soul fragments is already absurd, as long as we can find them all, the rest doesn’t matter.” Jiang Zhiyan washed the cup.
“She got out of bed,” the System reminded her.
Jiang Zhiyan frowned.
“Thud,” the System said. “She fell, luckily it was onto the carpet.”
Jiang Zhiyan hurried to the room and saw Jiang Ciqiu lying on the floor in an extremely contorted position. If this world didn’t have zombies, she would have suspected a mutation.
The System had checked; Jiang Ciqiu was fine, her bones were just very flexible, which was why she could contort herself into such a position.
“What are you doing?” Jiang Zhiyan squatted down and asked.
“What are you doing?” Jiang Ciqiu retorted, staring at Jiang Zhiyan’s neck, frowning, and suddenly grabbed her collar, ripping open the top two buttons.
Jiang Zhiyan, always unguarded around Jiang Ciqiu, was pulled down, landing on her knees on the carpet. If she hadn’t braced herself with her hand on the edge of the bed, her head would have hit it.
Jiang Ciqiu was still clutching her collar, forcing her to look down. The System had already run away.
“What’s that on your neck?” Jiang Ciqiu stared at the mark on Jiang Zhiyan’s neck. “Lipstick?”
She rubbed at it forcefully.
“It’s not… it is, you showered.”
“What is it?” Jiang Ciqiu asked again.
Jiang Zhiyan looked at Jiang Ciqiu: “What do you think it is?”
Jiang Ciqiu let go, pushed Jiang Zhiyan away, and closed her eyes: “I’m going to sleep.”
“Go sleep on the bed,” Jiang Zhiyan said.
“I haven’t showered, I don’t want to.” Jiang Ciqiu refused. “Get out.”
“I bought you hangover medicine.”
“I’m not drinking it.” To show her refusal, Jiang Ciqiu crawled away from Jiang Zhiyan.
Jiang Zhiyan rubbed her temples, wanting to laugh. She took out her phone, took a picture of Jiang Ciqiu, and sent it to Xie Liaoyi.
[Xie Liaoyi: Is she drunk?]
[Jiang Zhiyan: Mm.]
[Xie Liaoyi: Leave her alone, let her sleep.]
[Jiang Zhiyan: I’m going to tell her there’s a cockroach on the floor.]
[Xie Liaoyi: ?]
“Jiang Ciqiu, there’s a cockroach on the floor,” Jiang Zhiyan said. “Were you eating in your room?”
Jiang Ciqiu’s eyes snapped open. She struggled to get up, using the bed for support, wanting to get onto the bed, but feeling something was amiss. Just as she was about to lie down, she sat up again, went straight out the door, closed it, and shut Jiang Zhiyan inside.
“You sleep, here, mm, I’ll go to your room,” Jiang Ciqiu stammered.
Jiang Zhiyan: ???
[Jiang Zhiyan: I suddenly feel like I don’t really understand the past you.]
[Xie Liaoyi: …]
Xie Liaoyi covered her face.
Jiang Ciqiu rarely entered Jiang Zhiyan’s room. She usually talked to her at the door, at most reaching the table. As for the bedside, she had basically never been there.
After entering, she locked the door and lay down.
Jiang Ciqiu stared at the ceiling. She wasn’t completely drunk, she was still capable of simple thought, she just didn’t want to see Jiang Zhiyan for now.
The strange sensations this morning, what they did last night, Xie Liaoyi’s identical face and voice… all hinted at something absurd.
Jiang Ciqiu covered her face.
What was her relationship with Xie Liaoyi, and what was Jiang Zhiyan’s relationship with Xie Liaoyi? Why had Jiang Zhiyan become so close to Xie Liaoyi after only knowing her for a short time, and why hadn’t she done anything with her, even though they lived together every day?
She felt like there were many things she didn’t know, and those two knew everything.
Jiang Ciqiu fell into a deep sleep.
Jiang Zhiyan still couldn’t get her to drink the hangover medicine. The next day, Jiang Ciqiu woke up with a heavy head. Looking at the unfamiliar decorations, she was stunned for a moment, then realized this was Jiang Zhiyan’s room. She had forcefully occupied Jiang Zhiyan’s room last night.
She patted her head as the memories of last night came flooding back.
She hadn’t gone drinking specifically because of Jiang Zhiyan, but because her friend had broken up with her boyfriend. She had gone to comfort her friend, felt depressed, and had a few drinks herself, ending up a bit drunk.
Thinking about how she had pulled Jiang Zhiyan’s collar last night gave her a headache.
Thinking about the mark on Jiang Zhiyan’s neck gave her an even bigger headache.
Jiang Zhiyan had slept with someone who looked exactly like her, what did it mean?
Jiang Ciqiu sat on the edge of the bed, half-closing her eyes, searching for her slippers with her feet for a long time, then suddenly realized she had come in barefoot yesterday. She looked at the bedsheet she had smudged, and her mind instantly cleared.
This was a disaster, was there anyone more embarrassed than her in the world right now?
Jiang Ciqiu carefully opened the door, wanting to sneak away, but the sound of the lock was a bit loud. Just as she pushed the door open, she heard Jiang Zhiyan’s voice.
“You’re up?”
“Mm… sorry, but who told you to scare me with cockroaches? I’ve already taken the bedsheet off for you,” Jiang Ciqiu said, trying to sound calm.
“Oh,” Jiang Zhiyan replied. “Do you have a headache?”
“Thanks for your concern, I’m actually okay.” Jiang Ciqiu quickly ran past Jiang Zhiyan back to her own room and closed the door.
She had originally planned to play dumb and make Jiang Zhiyan think she had forgotten everything that happened last night, but her one sentence just now had exposed her. If she had forgotten everything, how could she remember the cockroach?
She must still be drunk, otherwise she wouldn’t make such a low-level mistake.
Jiang Zhiyan had originally planned to play games with Xie Liaoyi today, but Xie Liaoyi had gone back to the hospital for surgery. While completing missions, Xie Liaoyi had been a doctor many times, working in most departments for extended periods, and performing many surgeries. If not for certain limitations, Jiang Zhiyan felt that with Xie Liaoyi’s current skills, she could have been promoted even faster.
“I’m going out,” Jiang Zhiyan knocked on the door.
“I know, I’ll sleep a little longer,” Jiang Ciqiu said listlessly.
“Make my bed for me,” Jiang Zhiyan continued.
“I know…” Jiang Ciqiu knew Jiang Zhiyan was probably going to see Xie Liaoyi. Normally, she would try to stop her, but since she hadn’t recovered from her embarrassment, it was better to pretend she didn’t know.
“I’m taking your car.”
“Whatever, it has gas.”
Hearing Jiang Zhiyan’s footsteps leaving, Jiang Ciqiu breathed a sigh of relief.
She was finally gone, otherwise, she would definitely be too embarrassed to leave her room today.
When she came out earlier, she had deliberately glanced over and confirmed it; there was indeed a red mark on Jiang Zhiyan’s neck.
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