Chapter 50: The Timeline
While Jiang Xue slept soundly in the first-class cabin, her dream self, in cat form, leaned against Xiao Luohan, letting her brush her fur.
Perhaps because Xiao Luohan’s interactions with her cat form were limited to brushing and cuddling, Jiang Xue rarely experienced that peculiar tingling sensation during this time.
She closed her eyes, enjoying the petting, and couldn’t help but ask, “If the mindscape disappears after you come over, do you… want to adopt a cat?”
Xiao Luo should like cats very much, right? The first time she transformed into a cat to accompany her, Xiao Luohan had sleepily hugged her and tucked her into the quilt. Later, when she came to this world, she also liked petting Xie Xitong’s cat.
As she asked, Jiang Xue was already recalling the costs and supplies for raising a cat that those cat-related vloggers had posted in their “adopt-don’t-shop” videos. If Xiao Luo wanted to adopt a cat, she would do her research.
“No,” Xiao Luohan’s answer came without hesitation. “If I want to pet a cat, I can ask A-Xi, or go to a cat café.”
She had recently read a web novel about a cat café, where the owner, who had the ability to communicate with cats, raised more than ten cats of different breeds. In the words of the novel, it was a paradise for cat lovers.
Jiang Xue paused, then chuckled. “Are you also a ‘pet, don’t adopt’ type?”
“I can’t even take care of myself, how can I take care of a cat?” Xiao Luohan explained softly. “Besides… I’m a little reluctant to see a beloved little creature suddenly disappear.”
“When I was young, a little sparrow was abandoned in a tree in the courtyard. My elder sister and I rescued it and raised it in a small nest Mother made from scraps of cloth and cotton, feeding it millet and corn every day…”
Recalling this, she still felt a little sad. “I thought that with such care, it would grow up quickly and be able to fly freely in the sky. But after a cold night, it just lay quietly in its nest, motionless.”
They had no experience raising sparrows. Even though they had provided what they thought was the best food and shelter, they could only watch as it silently passed away.
Jiang Xue closed her mouth after hearing the beginning and only spoke after Xiao Luohan finished, rubbing against her hand. “Then don’t adopt. It’s good that you have this concern. I also often think that if I can’t be responsible for any unforeseen circumstances, I shouldn’t raise a life. Otherwise, it would be…”
She didn’t finish her sentence, feeling it was a bit harsh.
But Xiao Luohan understood what she meant and nodded in agreement.
Two or three minutes passed quickly. Xiao Luohan, afraid of splashing the sauce from the instant rice packet on Jiang Xue, put the cat aside before tearing open the packet.
Jiang Xue jumped off the table and transformed back into a human, smiling. “I’ll treat you to Sister Cheng’s specialty Korean bibimbap sometime.”
Even though this was the flavor she had chosen for Xiao Luo, and she often stocked up on it herself, how could instant food compare to fresh food?
Actually, she had originally wanted to send Xiao Luohan an airplane meal for lunch. The first-class meals were quite good, but Jiang Mei had said it was best not to let others witness a “supernatural event”—there were cameras on the plane, so Jiang Xue had to give up on the idea.
Today’s lunch couldn’t be helped, but she still wanted to plan the other meals.
“By the way, Uncle Seuss usually has dinner around 7:30 PM, which is a bit late, but he likes afternoon tea and has it every day, without fail. I’ll send you some!” she said. “I used to love the grape scones and soufflés Uncle Seuss made…”
She started listing dishes, describing the ingredients and how to eat each dessert.
Xiao Luohan ate her mixed rice as she listened, feeling that it tasted even more delicious.
At 2:10 PM, the plane landed on time at the foreign airport.
Jiang Xue, dragging her suitcase in one hand and holding the diary in the other, followed Jiang Mei to the parking lot with Xie Xitong.
Uncle Seuss was already waiting at the agreed-upon spot. Compared to people in their home country, he was more reserved, only greeting the three girls with a warm smile.
“Get in the car. The roads are clear now. It’ll be worse when school lets out.”
He casually tied up his shoulder-length brown hair and gentlemanly opened the back door for them before going to the driver’s seat.
Seeing him take out a pair of glasses from the glove compartment and put them on, Jiang Xue said in surprise, “You’re nearsighted now?”
“I’m getting old, after all.” Uncle Seuss turned around and smiled at her. Through the lenses, his green eyes did seem dimmer than Jiang Xue remembered from a few years ago.
On the way to the manor, Jiang Xue updated her uncle on the latest developments.
Uncle Seuss had already heard about Xiao Luohan’s general situation from Jiang Mei. Back then, he had already decided that the Crown Prince of Daying wasn’t a good person, and even if Xiao Luohan had to stay in the ancient world, she had to find another way out and couldn’t be trapped in the palace.
Now, after hearing Jiang Xue’s story, he sighed deeply, pushed up his glasses at a red light, and said with a gloomy expression, “If your diary could send your uncle over there, I would sneak into the Eastern Palace tonight and send him straight to hell!”
Uncle Seuss looked gentle and had a mild temperament, but he was actually skilled in martial arts. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have agreed to let Ms. Jiang marry his younger sister—as a fellow practitioner, he could tell a person’s character just by testing their skills.
If anyone else said this, Jiang Xue would think they were bragging, but coming from Uncle Seuss, she actually felt it was feasible.
That’s why, when her older sister suggested borrowing a gun from her uncle, she had wanted to come here as soon as possible and learn more from him, so she could teach Xiao Luo.
“But three days is still too rushed.”
When the light turned green, Uncle Seuss calmly turned the car amidst the honking, continuing, “Although I’ve been working on a plan these past few days, ‘armchair strategizing’ is different from actual combat… Learn as much as you can.”
Despite saying this, as soon as the three girls arrived at his house and entered the study, they saw the blackboard covered with plans and various newly printed papers scattered on the floor.
And the wastebasket by the desk was already half-full of shredded paper.
“…Uncle Seuss is like this,” Jiang Xue explained to Xie Xitong. “He lists out all the possible plans and potential problems, and improves them bit by bit.”
She pointed to the paper shredder on the desk. “He discards the completely unfeasible plans.”
“Indeed, you must be amused,” Uncle Seuss said, taking a sheet of paper from the top of the blackboard and handing it to Jiang Xue. “This is the current plan. There’s only a textual description here. I’ll explain the details in person during the practical training.”
“If it were A-Xue, the difficulty of assassinating the Crown Prince would be slightly lower, but that little princess is weak and doesn’t seem to have much strength? We need to consider some things more carefully.”
After saying this, Uncle Seuss left the study. “I’ll be in the courtyard. Come out for afternoon tea after you’re done reading.”
His tone was calm, as if killing a Crown Prince was as casual as playing a game of soccer.
Xie Xitong, who had barely met him before, was intrigued, but Jiang Xue and Jiang Mei were used to it.
“Just think of him as having a severe case of chuunibyou,” Jiang Mei commented.
Jiang Xue carefully read the plan from beginning to end—she didn’t quite understand it. Her “chuunibyou” uncle’s thought process was erratic, and he used “code words” that probably only he understood.
Jiang Mei and Xie Xitong also leaned in for a closer look. In the end, the three decided it was better to ask her uncle for practical training directly.
When they returned to the courtyard, they saw Uncle Seuss grooming his beloved horse.
But a delicate afternoon tea was already set up on the small round table nearby: two three-tiered cake stands, a glass thermos of hot black tea, and cutlery and napkins placed in front of three seats.
Uncle Seuss’s afternoon tea depended on his mood. Sometimes it was traditional European style, sometimes a mix of various regional snacks.
The black tea was “Dianhong” that Ms. Wei had sent from China. It was Uncle Seuss’s favorite.
Jiang Xue took two grape scones to satisfy her hunger, then filled an empty plate with all the other snacks, greeted Xiao Luohan, and placed the plate on the diary.
“Is this the medium for transtemporal communication?”
Uncle Seuss had come over at some point, pushing up his glasses and watching with interest as the plate full of snacks disappeared into the diary. “Xiao Mei told me that this should be the intersection of two parallel worlds, but you haven’t figured out the principle yet?”
“We can’t. There are too few clues!” Jiang Xue shook her head.
Uncle Seuss smiled, sat down in his seat, poured her a cup of black tea, and said slowly, “Then let me share some of my current thoughts.”
“According to some ancient hypotheses, after death, the soul exists independently of our world, and the two worlds don’t interfere with each other, so ordinary people can’t see the souls of the deceased.”
He looked at Xie Xitong. “But also since ancient times, there have been a small number of people who have so-called ‘yin-yang eyes,’ who can not only see souls, but also things like resentment and vengeful spirits.”
“That belongs to a realm that ordinary people like us can’t access, but being unable to access it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. After all, there are still many unsolved mysteries in this world that we can’t observe with the naked eye or instruments.”
He picked up a sandwich. “Combining Xiao Mei’s speculation, I personally think that Xiao Linghan, in her soul state, probably came into contact with a realm inaccessible to the living and saw the possibility of two worlds intersecting.”
“Driven by strong obsession and resentment, she ‘captured’ the intersection of the two parallel worlds and bound it to her target—Xiao Luohan.”
“Of course, I’m not proposing a conspiracy theory, just stating a hypothesis. Based on the current information and the red fox’s behavior, I think Xiao Linghan’s motives are pure. We can even roughly construct a timeline based on her experiences.”
As he ate his sandwich, he picked up a packet of ketchup from the table, tore it open, and squeezed it onto an empty plate, using it to draw a timeline.
“The war between Daying and Beiliao, Xiao Linghan died in battle—in an area closer to Daying. But if she had been a little luckier, it would have been the Crown Prince who died in that battle. Let’s assume this is part of the ‘earthbound spirit’s’ obsession.”
“During her seven-day memorial period, she returned to Beiliao to bid farewell to her younger sister and mother. But her mother was poisoned by the Emperor of Beiliao, and her younger sister was about to be sent to Daying for a marriage alliance.”
“It would take some time for Xiao Luohan to travel to Daying, and the transtemporal diary appeared beside her pillow the day after she arrived—can I assume that when the diary appeared, Xiao Linghan had already successfully established the ‘intersection’ of the two parallel worlds?”
“Since the intersection has been established, she then needed to strengthen the connection between the two worlds through repeated interactions—that is, the connection between A-Xue and Xiao Luohan—to create a channel for crossing over, to send Xiao Luohan away from the land she hated.”
“As for the forms and contents of these interactions, I’m sure the two young ladies are very clear about them, so I won’t elaborate. Let me just state the conclusion.”
At the end of the timeline, Uncle Seuss drew a thick circle with ketchup.
“If my speculation is correct, then you don’t need to worry about the channel for crossing over.”
“Xiao Luohan will definitely come over safely. Her elder sister is someone with a deep obsession, willing to pay any price to make this happen.”
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