Chapter 287
Facing little Shen Moqing’s earnest gaze that carried a hidden trace of expectation, Xie Mi solemnly placed her hand on his shoulder.
“No.”
Xiqing Mountain wasn’t in the city; it was a remote and desolate place.
In the original story, the twelve-year-old Liu Woxing had jumped out of the car, only to get lost on the deserted mountain road, waiting in despair for three hours before the Liu family came to pick her up.
She couldn’t let little Shen Moqing come with her.
Because she didn’t know when she herself might disappear, leaving a twelve-year-old alone on a mountain cloaked in night.
A child going alone to a mountain more than ten kilometers away from the city just to watch a meteor shower—no matter what, it wasn’t safe.
A flicker of disappointment passed through Shen Moqing’s eyes, but he still nodded obediently.
“Alright.”
She hadn’t expected him to agree so quickly. The whole speech she had prepared about mountain bandits never even had a chance to be used.
So instead, she ruffled his hair.
“Do you have any wishes you want to make? If I see the meteor shower later, I’ll help you make one.”
Shen Moqing looked up in surprise.
“Sixth Sister won’t make a wish?”
“I will. I’ll make yours.”
“And your own wish?”
“Uh…”
One lie often requires many more to cover it.
At this point, she couldn’t very well say she didn’t believe in that whole ‘wishing on a meteor’ story.
“My wish is given to you, in exchange for that money you lent me.”
Xie Mi thumped her chest with her fist, speaking righteously: “This is called loyalty.”
Shen Moqing opened his mouth, then closed it again. In the end, he just nodded.
“Mm, loyalty.”
The taxi stopped at the foot of Xiqing Mountain. Dusk had already fallen.
The driver glanced at the rearview mirror, where the “coat spirit” in the back seat was slumped asleep in a lopsided posture, and said:
“We’re at Xiqing Mountain. Time to get out.”
“Ah! Okay!”
Awakened from her dream, the coat spirit—Xie Mi—snapped into action. After paying the fare, she hurried out of the car.
But the taxi didn’t drive away. The driver was still looking in the rearview mirror.
“You can get out too.”
“…”
The trunk slowly opened, and a small figure crawled out.
“Thank you, driver uncle.”
Xie Mi found a sturdy old tree and climbed up, crouching on the branch, cracking melon seeds as she waited.
Before long, two familiar voices drifted into her ears.
[System: Are you sure about this? Isn’t it a bit too cruel?]
[Xu Shuangrong: Just ruining her face, that’s all.]
[Xu Shuangrong: As long as her face is scarred, the Liu family will never allow her in the public eye again. Naturally, she won’t be able to appear on the show twelve years later.]
[Xu Shuangrong: That way, Liu Woxing will simply vanish from the main storyline.]
[System: This decision is too bold.]
[System: After all, Liu Woxing is the second female lead in the original novel. If you just cut her out like this, who knows how the plot will progress—it’ll be completely out of control.]
[Xu Shuangrong: Out of control is exactly what I want.]
[Xu Shuangrong: The current development of the plot already disadvantages me. So no matter how it changes in the future, it’ll only be to my benefit.]
[System: I get it—barefoot people aren’t afraid of stepping on thorns.]
[System: Your situation is already shattered beyond repair. It can’t really get any worse.]
Xie Mi frowned.
What had Xu Shuangrong and Liu Woxing talked about in that tent, that left Xu Shuangrong with such a desperate, “if I can’t have it, I’ll destroy it” determination?
[System: Just wait here on this slope. When Liu Woxing gets lost, she’ll pass by. That’ll be your chance.]
[System: But I advise you—better not let her see your face.]
[Xu Shuangrong: That’s what I was thinking too.]
Xie Mi crouched on the tree until her legs went numb. By now it had been dark for a long time.
Electronic devices from that other world stopped working here, so she couldn’t even check the time on her phone.
She’d have to rely on instinct.
If Xu Shuangrong was lying in wait on the slope Liu Woxing would pass through, then she’d lie in wait directly at the entrance to Xiqing Mountain.
Cut her off in advance.
Sliding down from the tree, Xie Mi shook the feeling back into her numb legs, ready to act.
That was when she noticed a faint glow in the grass nearby.
“?”
She pushed aside the leaves. The figure hiding there jolted, lifting his head.
Six big black eyes locked with hers.
Xie Mi: “…”
Little Shen Moqing, with his Apricot Blossom Elementary School jacket pulled over his head: “…”
He silently turned off the screen of his smartwatch, stepped out of the grass with his head lowered, ready to accept a scolding.
The two “coat spirits,” one tall and one short, stood face to face in silence—a ridiculous scene.
“You—ugh, I… ugh, not—”
Xie Mi raised her hand, put it down, raised it again, put it down again, and finally rested it on his head.
“Stay close to me.”
Shen Moqing’s head shot up. In those black eyes, a faint light of joy flickered.
“Mm!”
A luxury car had broken down on the roadside. The Liu family’s driver got out to check.
“If you hit the wrong key, it just means you haven’t practiced enough. When we get home, you’ll play today’s piece fifty more times. Otherwise, no sleeping.”
Lu Ping leaned indifferently against the back seat, her tone cold and oppressive.
“I understand, Mother.”
Little Liu Woxing lowered her head as she replied. Silence filled the car, broken only by the sound of pages turning.
She lifted her eyes to the rearview mirror.
Lu Ping’s eyes were closed, resting. Her eldest brother Liu Fuan was expressionlessly reading a book.
Her second brother and younger brother had already gone ahead in their father’s car. They hadn’t even stopped to see why this car had fallen behind.
So cold. So boring.
They were supposed to be a family, but it didn’t feel like one at all.
She turned her head back toward the night sky outside the window.
Tonight the sky was filled with stars, twinkling like blinking eyes, deeply reflected in her pupils.
So beautiful.
Her deskmate Xiao Ling always said the stars in the mountains were the prettiest.
Xiao Ling’s grandparents lived in the mountains. Every summer vacation, she went to their house, sat in a rattan chair in the courtyard, and watched the stars with them all night.
If she accidentally fell asleep in the chair, the next morning she would magically wake up in bed.
“Grandpa and Grandma always say it’s magic.”
“But I’m grown up now, I don’t believe in tricks meant for kids anymore. I know they’re the ones who carry me to bed.”
Whenever she said that, Xiao Ling would hold her face in her hands, her eyes sparkling.
“The stars.”
“You must come to my grandparents’ house to see the stars.”
“Because you’re a star too.”
Little Liu Woxing reached out longingly toward that night sky, but the cold car window blocked her hand.
She wanted so badly to go to Xiao Ling’s grandparents’ house to watch the stars.
But her mother wouldn’t let her.
A star cannot look at the stars.
Because a star is not free.
