Chapter 27: I Want to Go to Your World
Jiang Xue had restricted Xiao Luohan from accessing certain apps for a reason.
For example, WeChat, QQ, and Contacts. If Xiao Luohan accidentally touched something and sent a message to her two mothers or teachers, the fact that she had brought her phone to school would be exposed. Being lectured was a minor issue; having her phone confiscated would be a major one.
As for Notes, there was nothing sensitive there.
Since she dared to send her phone over again, she was prepared for the Third Princess to look through everything.
Besides, there was nothing in Notes except for the two hypotheses. In terms of privacy, it wasn’t as detailed as her diary!
She did have a rough idea for a “Hypothesis 3,” but she felt it needed more refinement, so she hadn’t written it down, only sharing her initial speculation with her older sister and friend. Now that Xiao Luohan had asked, she twirled her pen, hesitating.
She was actually very concerned about her older sister’s words.
—”If you can’t find the connection, or the pattern, then no one can predict when your intersection will end.”
—”Glimpsing the warmth of another world, but forever unable to reach that light, only to be trapped in a cage forever… for the Third Princess, this might not be a gift, but the cruelest punishment!”
After the “kneeling in the snow” incident, Jiang Xue had a deeper understanding of these words.
Because of this, she didn’t know if she should tell the Third Princess about the uncertain hope too early.
Just like when she had considered “whether standing on the diary could also transport someone,” but ultimately only left it at the “thinking” stage, she couldn’t give the Third Princess a glimmer of hope and then extinguish it, forcing her to face reality.
【Not yet! Besides, Hypotheses One and Two have no theoretical basis. I just wrote them down for myself because I didn’t know who else to talk to about these things.】
Having written this lie, Jiang Xue rested her head on the desk and sighed softly.
Waiting for the Third Princess’s reply became agonizing.
When the wake-up bell rang after lunch break, she opened the curtains beside her, letting the afternoon sunlight stream in and fall on the diary.
Then, she saw new writing:
【Then, would you have time to listen to my “Hypothesis 3”?】
Jiang Xue’s eyes widened. Taking advantage of the newspaper reading class, she quickly replied with an “Okay.”
It was rare for the Third Princess to be so proactive in wanting to tell her something!
She deliberately sat up straight, patiently waiting for the rest of the words to appear, stroke by stroke.
【Hypothesis 3: The deeper the interaction, the closer the dream interaction becomes to two-way.】
【Based on Hypotheses One and Two, and the most recent dream, I boldly speculate: When we are both willing to open our hearts to each other, we can interact consciously in the dream.】
The Third Princess even imitated her format and wording, and specifically underlined “both” and “consciously.”
Jiang Xue stared at the word “both,” feeling that the Third Princess probably had more to say.
Except for the uncertain hope, she had always been open with the Third Princess. But after several dreams, their interaction was still one-sided.
Perhaps her older sister’s speculation could complete “Hypothesis 3”: For a deeper connection between them, the key lay in the Third Princess’s willingness.
【These days, I will try my best to recall my past and record it in the notebook you gave me. I’ll give it to you during the weekend.】
Jiang Xue’s worries quickly became reality.
She could already sense the Third Princess’s hidden determination.
If revealing her scars could deepen their “connection,” if it could open the spacetime channel and allow Jiang Xue to take her away from that world, then no matter how bloody and unbearable those scars were, the Third Princess would do it.
But… how painful must that be? It even made the Third Princess feel that she shouldn’t talk about it during Jiang Xue’s school days, but wait until the weekend when she had more free time.
She tightly held onto the “uncertain hope,” not wanting it to hurt or discourage the Third Princess, but the Third Princess herself brought up this hope!
Newspaper reading class was short, and students were already moving around the classroom, getting water, going to the bathroom, preparing for the afternoon classes.
Jiang Xue tightened her grip on her pen. She edited the words she wanted to say to the Third Princess several times in the notes app on her phone, but couldn’t form a complete sentence.
“What’s troubling you again?”
Xie Xitong’s voice came from behind. “Let me hear it.”
As if grasping at a lifeline, Jiang Xue quickly got up and leaned closer, explaining the situation in a low voice and at a rapid pace.
Her friend listened attentively, blinked, and then suddenly raised the glass in her hand. “You think of her as too fragile. Actually, look, a glass can also withstand boiling hot water!”
“Since she brought it up with you, it means she’s already mentally prepared. Otherwise, with her personality, you wouldn’t have seen those words, right?”
“It’s a good thing she’s willing to try. Otherwise, your hypotheses would be like ‘Schrödinger’s cat.’ You can’t know the cat’s state until you open the box. And she actually cares a lot about that state.”
The bell rang for the end of newspaper reading class. Xie Xitong finished speaking and returned to her seat, leaving Jiang Xue to make her decision.
But Xie Xitong’s words had awakened her.
She realized that both she and her older sister had made a mistake: treating the Third Princess like a delicate flower that needed careful protection.
The Third Princess was indeed frail and sickly, but she wasn’t so fragile that they had to tiptoe around her during normal conversations.
It was their protectiveness that was excessive, out of politeness or simply “not wanting to make the Third Princess sad,” that they had presumptuously confined the Third Princess within a certain boundary.
But as Xie Xitong had said, the Third Princess cared more than anyone about the state of “Schrödinger’s cat.”
—Whether she could escape her current world and carve out a true path to survival was of utmost importance to the Third Princess.
Thinking of this, Jiang Xue had her answer.
【Okay, I await Your Highness’s story.】
She only told the Third Princess that it was a “story” of the past, and she was the listener.
No matter what the “story” was like, she would treat it seriously and strive to weave a future for its protagonist.
Wearing her earphones, accompanied by soothing instrumental music, Xiao Luohan opened the blank notebook.
When Jiang Xue had sent the books, she had also sent some commonly used pens and paper from her world.
Ballpoint pens didn’t require ink and were very convenient. But for some reason, Jiang Xue couldn’t see the words she wrote in the booklet with a ballpoint pen, so she had to switch back to a brush.
However, words written on drawing paper and in the notebook were exceptions.
Shizhu wouldn’t let her sit at the desk for too long, so Xiao Luohan sat in her warm bed, holding the notebook and ballpoint pen.
She would recall for a while, write for a while, and use simple stick figures to represent the parts she couldn’t write.
For some reason, she couldn’t remember many things from the past, only vaguely recalling that it was bitter and painful.
But with her mother and her elder sister’s occasional visits, those difficult days seemed to have only soft colors.
The withheld supplies, money, and charcoal would soon be returned, and the life-saving medicine wouldn’t be interrupted for too long.
While other noble ladies didn’t visit, her elder sister would.
Her elder sister would sit with her in the simply furnished courtyard, pointing out the ever-changing clouds in the sky, sometimes a flock of geese passing by.
They had protected her so well, making her believe that her short life would peacefully burn out in this flickering, gentle light.
However, after the battle between Beiliao and Daying, she had lost both her elder sister and mother, abruptly awakening from this dream.
Her elder sister had died in battle. Although her mother was still alive, from the moment she left the cold palace and stepped into the carriage for the marriage alliance, she knew that they would never see each other again.
Thinking of this, Xiao Luohan felt despicable.
This young woman, whom she had never met before, treated her with such pure kindness, wanting to give her everything she had.
She sent her various supplies to keep warm, books to entertain her, life-saving medicine, saved her in a dream, caused havoc in the emperor’s palace for her…
Everything she did was just to make her life a little better in this foreign land.
But she was going to use this pure and flawless kindness to escape this world—the world that had taken her elder sister and mother, the world without a future.
She didn’t want to be married off to Daying, the country that had killed her elder sister, didn’t want to marry the Crown Prince of Daying, who might have dealt the final blow to her elder sister, didn’t want her elder sister, even after death, to return as a red fox, worrying about her.
Besides Jiang Xue, how else could she escape?
Surrounded by enemies, there was nowhere to run.
She didn’t know if Jiang Xue had noticed her selfish intentions, or how much she had noticed. She tightened her grip on the pen, and finally, with a resolute heart, added her true feelings in the corner of the “story”:
【If possible, I want to go to your world.】
Jiang Xue had been busy with rehearsals during her lunch breaks these past few days.
Their rehearsal time was limited. Since it was their senior year, besides lunch break, there was no other time they could spare. But the preliminary audition was approaching, and the group dance was still messy. Dan Yuanyuan had to increase the rehearsal frequency from every other day to every day, hoping to develop “muscle memory.”
To prevent stage fright during the preliminary audition, they decided to treat every rehearsal like a real performance, so everyone had to go through the entire routine from beginning to end.
Jiang Xue, who usually napped during lunch break, now had that time occupied. Plus, the sword dance solo consumed a lot of energy, which affected her concentration in the afternoon classes.
Today, she had been listening to the lecture on politics, taking notes and highlighting key points, but her eyes had unconsciously closed.
She was once again standing in the courtyard of Wangmei Pavilion. Not far from her, a young woman in a gray cloak, holding a silver telescopic sword, was slowly dancing.
Jiang Xue was too sleepy. Having just watched the group dance practice, she only followed the young woman’s movements for a few moves before her eyes closed and her head started to nod.
Half-asleep and half-awake, she was still thinking that if the Third Princess could come here, they wouldn’t have to work so hard during rehearsals, and they could probably finish in one go.
The Third Princess had learned Tai Chi Sword by herself and had become so proficient so quickly!
So she forced her eyes open and called out to the young woman’s back: “Come with me?”
The young woman’s movements paused. She looked over, a little dazed, and asked tentatively, “…Where to?”
“Let’s go rehearse!”
As soon as Jiang Xue finished speaking, the surrounding scene changed.
She was back in the rehearsal room, where Dan Yuanyuan was correcting the mistakes of the student who kept messing up the group dance.
That student’s situation was a bit complicated. She desperately wanted to be on stage, so when Dan Yuanyuan was looking for participants, she had volunteered, saying she would join to make up the numbers, so they could start rehearsing sooner.
But she was truly just making up the numbers. Her mind would go blank during practice, and she couldn’t remember Dan Yuanyuan’s repeated, step-by-step instructions.
Dan Yuanyuan, unable to bear it any longer, had privately and tactfully tried to persuade her to withdraw, but was met with a “It’s the taking part that counts,” which left her with nothing to say but a polite smile.
Jiang Xue directly pulled Xiao Luohan to Dan Yuanyuan. “She can dance, she’ll learn it after watching it once! Let that other person go back to studying. She can take her place!”
Dan Yuanyuan was stunned. “Where did you find this poor soul?”
“What poor soul! This is a powerful reinforcement!” Jiang Xue looked at Xiao Luohan and gave her a thumbs-up. “I believe in you!”
“Okay.” As she wished, the young woman agreed without hesitation.
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