With the bright sunshine of spring and the melting of winter snow, the world, which had been silent all winter, has been revitalized.
The weeping willows swayed in the spring breeze, rippling the sunlight and casting shimmering light on the classroom walls.
As soon as get out of class ended, some people couldn't wait to stop and take pictures. Lu Shi'en, who was sitting by the window, squinted and seemed a little displeased with the light.
"Did you see? The official announcement for the Sixteenth Wife's book signing event has been made."
"Where? Where? Is there a place like this?"
"It seems not... They just officially announced B City. Didn't they not come here last time because B City is quite close to us? But it's okay, I saw the book signing is this Friday. We can skip one of Lao Liu's classes, take the bullet train there, have lunch there, and then head to the venue full of energy to grab seats!"
"As expected of you, really good. But Mr. Liu is teaching on Friday, isn't that a bit inappropriate..."
...
The classmate next to her was chatting with great interest about the latest hot topic, and then turned her gaze to Lu Shien with some hesitation: "Shien."
Lu Shi'en immediately understood what they meant. While typing his code, he said, "Hey, senior sisters, can we prioritize our studies?"
"Oh, I brought you some delicious food, senior." The girl rubbed her hands together, tempting you nonchalantly, "And how about I also bring you a comic book signed by Mrs. Sixteen? I bought an extra one anyway."
"Delicious food is fine, but no need for a personal signature, I'm not interested," Lu Shi'en said without looking up.
She had no interest in anything other than programming. In her second year of high school, she took the college entrance examination early and was admitted to the Computer Science Department of S University with excellent results. She didn't follow the course schedule and often skipped to attend classes for older students. She had a good relationship with many senior students.
The senior student tilted her head slightly, looking at the program Lu Shi'en was typing that she couldn't understand at all, and advised, "Shi'en, don't always bury yourself in your studies, okay? You're so pretty, you should take advantage of your looks. This comic is really good, the art style is super cute. Here, I'll give it to you, the first volume. Go back and take a look. I'm not lying."
As she spoke, the senior took out a comic book from her bag and placed it in front of Lu Shien.
A bright and vibrant flower bloomed out of the monotonous desk piled with various professional books. Lu Shi'en glanced at the comics on the desk, then at her senior's eager expectation, and did not refuse. She simply said, "Then I want to eat the plum blossom cake with molten filling in B City, the braised duck feet, and the taro milk tea from that shop on Gangxi Road."
"Okay!" the senior student readily agreed. "Then it's settled. I'll leave Lao Liu in your care. But if you change your mind after reading the comic, I'll take you to the autograph session too."
"Hmm." Lu Shi'en nodded, but he was still not interested in the second half of the sentence.
The senior students' departing figures disappeared into the classroom. Lu Shi'en packed up his books and finally picked up the comic book on the table.
Looking at the unusually crowded cover, she didn't really want to put it with her own book, so she simply picked it up and held it in her hand.
The sun is shining brightly today, and the sky is clear and the air is crisp.
The drooping willow branches swayed across the lake, and the wind carried the sounds of laughter from community gatherings.
The lively and joyful atmosphere of the gathering surrounded Lu Shi'en, who was all alone, as if trying to make her feel lonely, but she didn't care.
This morning during a casual class, she unexpectedly cracked the most difficult encryption program. The immediate priority is to go back and do the integration test.
Over the years, with Xu Shiyue's financial support, she has been working day and night to decipher these things, waiting for this moment.
Lu Shi'en carried the comic books to the south gate of the school and saw Xu Shiyue's car driving up in the distance.
Sunlight fell on the pure black Maybach, making it particularly eye-catching. Lu Shien was already used to it. He opened the door and got into the car, but paused for a moment.
There was one more person in the back seat of the car today than usual.
Shen Yanxing sat in the car wearing a casual skirt suit, her long legs bent in front of the seat, looking like they couldn't quite fit.
Shen Yanxing keenly noticed Lu Shien's pause and, seeing her somewhat sour expression, said, "What's wrong? You're so sour just because you see my face?"
"Half and half," Lu Shi'en said, tossing the comic book in his hand into Shen Yanxing's arms.
"A comic book?" Shen Yanxing was somewhat surprised by what Lu Shien had given him.
"They insisted on recommending this to me, saying I would definitely like it too." Lu Shi'en said dismissively, "What a joke, really. You'd be better off doing more tests with this effort, so that when it's time to hand in the final assignment, there won't be any bugs in the debugging and you'll have to come to me again."
Upon hearing this, Shen Yanxing feigned surprise: "You still have homework to do?"
Lu Shi'en understood the implication in her words perfectly and replied in a drawn-out tone, "Yes, you didn't expect that, did you? I'm still a student."
The two resumed their banter, and the comic book that had been casually placed on the center console in the front of the car was taken away by someone else.
The clean windshield filtered the sunlight, giving it a glass-like brightness and coating the quiet front row with a luster.
Her long, jet-black hair was neatly tucked behind her ears, exuding a sense of power despite its smoothness, revealing a clean face without any concealment.
Her slender, dark eyebrows blended into her hair, and her slightly drooping eyelashes were as thick and black as raven feathers. Her thin lips were tightly closed and lightly painted red.
Although her appearance doesn't seem aggressive at all, at most aloof and cold, light can't penetrate her eyes. Even without saying a word, she already exudes the aura of "keep away."
The car slowly drove along the narrow single-lane roads around the school in the old town, sunlight filtering through the greenery and shimmering in front of the window.
Xu Shiyue didn't seem to care about the noisy banter between the two people in the back row, and casually flipped through the comics she had picked up to pass the time.
The story begins with the girl just waking up, surrounded by blooming flowers in a small frame. The next shot zooms in on the girl's face.
It was indeed a beautifully sculpted face, and readers could easily read the panic and surprise in her eyes.
Xu Shiyue was watching, but her gaze gradually stopped.
She closed the comic book again, her finger landing on the nine characters of the embossed title, "The Girl Who Stumbled into a Fantasy World," interrupting the bickering in the back row: "Who is this comic book author?"
“I don’t know…” Lu Shi’en looked blank, trying hard to recall what she had heard these past few days. “It seems like she just became popular in the last two years, right? She also did some commercial illustrations before, and this comic was initially her work as a CV before it became a comic. The art style looks quite light and pretty, and the anatomy is accurate, which is probably why it went viral.”
As Lu Shi'en spoke, he looked up at Xu Shiyue, who was sitting in the front row, and said, "What, are you interested in this?"
"Just asking," Xu Shiyue said calmly, putting the comic book in her hand aside.
"Oh." Lu Shi'en pouted and didn't say anything more.
Anyway, she couldn't guess what Xu Shiyue was thinking, and there was no way she could guess it.
She thought that if she could guess Xu Shiyue's thoughts, she would be close to becoming a lunatic.
Over the years, opinions on this person in the industry have been mixed, but no one denies that she is indeed quite capable, and Lu Shien is no exception.
Ever since Xu Shiyue gave her that phone with an unknown program inserted five years ago, she has been studying it and has indeed discovered a program algorithm that is far more advanced than their world.
She didn't know where Xu Shiyue got this thing from, and Xu Shiyue kept quiet about it.
She didn't understand why Xu Shiyue wanted to crack this herself, and even felt that this person wanted to use this technology to create a clone of her sister.
But is that even possible?
Sunlight danced through the dense foliage of the roadside trees, casting flickering light and shadow on Lu Shi'en's face.
With that thought in mind, she lowered her gaze and looked out the window.
She really misses her.
She has gradually forgotten many things from their past.
Everyone's memory is fluid; the past is flowing away so that new memories can flood in.
But because no new memories are entering, the loss and disappearance of old memories becomes particularly noticeable.
Lu Shien once thought that the idea of dying and being resurrected was absurd.
But if Xu Shiyue were the one who said those words, then it would definitely work, right?
The car drove out of the somewhat congested two-way single lane and its speed increased.
The unusually bustling bookstore flashed past the window without attracting Lu Shi'en's attention.
She wouldn't know that these people were snapping up the book she'd been recommended to that day, and she wouldn't investigate to find out that the author's real name was Lu Shizhen.
Five years ago, Lu Shizhen was successfully admitted to the top art academy in the capital, fulfilling her dream that she had not been able to achieve in her original world.
Later, Lu Shizhen was noticed by many clients because of her unique and exquisite art style, and she also accumulated considerable popularity on a certain online platform while in college.
The protagonist of "The Girl Who Accidentally Entered a Fantasy World" was also Lu Shizhen, who was just drawing C for fun with Big Eyes.
Lu Shizhen knew that if she brought the completed work from the original world, she would definitely be a great success.
But drawing the exact same story again would be meaningless except for the possibility of success, which is not what she wants.
So she incorporated the inspiration she gained from her travels and adventures during her holidays over the years, and created a new character. She often updated simple, unfinished short stories on Big Eyes. Unexpectedly, after only a few chapters, she gained a lot of fans and even received a serialization invitation from a top domestic comic platform.
By sheer accident, C became the protagonist everyone was looking forward to, and Lu Shizhen didn't want to let down the character she had created.
She started with a simple adventure and monster-fighting idea, and gradually learned to conceive, outline, and design, wanting to use her own pen to present a large, independent, and self-consistent story like many comic masters.
Hard work pays off. Lu Shien became a well-known comic artist with "The Girl Who Accidentally Entered a Fantasy World". "The Girl Who Accidentally Entered a Fantasy World" won the Best Newcomer Award last year, and the protagonist of the story, Lili Lian, also became the most popular comic protagonist of the year.
Everything seemed like a dream, yet Lu Shizhen had walked out of it step by step, one by one.
Heaven knows how many war scenes she traveled to different worlds to see in order to create a sufficiently grand battle scene. A stray bullet grazed her earlobe, scaring Qiuqiu so much that she almost fainted. From then on, she never allowed Lu Shizhen to do such a risky thing again and directly applied to the main system to ban this function of hers.
Lu Shizhen's comic series is progressing well, and its popularity is evident.
The comic book publisher also decided to capitalize on the success and prepare to hold another autograph session to build up popularity for Lu Shizhen and the comic book during the renovation period after the completion of the second part of Lu Shizhen's story.
Lu Shizhen did not object to this arrangement, as it finally gave this workaholic a chance to force herself to relax and travel.
“Perfect.” Lu Shizhen leaned back in her chair, daydreaming about where to go for her book signing event, her legs dangling in the air.
She was wearing a very simple home outfit, and her not-too-long hair was tied into a small ponytail at the back of her head.
The bunny ear-shaped headband bounced as she swayed, whether to prevent her hair from falling down and getting paint on it, or because she forgot to take it off after washing up, it became her recent semi-permanent hairstyle.
Just then, the sound of a smart lock opening came from the quiet apartment.
A petite girl came in carrying a large bag of food. As she changed her shoes, she called out, "Teacher Sixteen, I bought you boiled pork ribs and added extra bean sprouts. Where are you?"
"Thanks, Xiaoning!" Lu Shizhen responded loudly as well. "I'm in the art studio, and the floor is a bit messy."
The room was very soundproof, and even people's voices sounded muffled.
Xiaoning came over when she heard the sound, pushed open the door and looked at the room with all sorts of things scattered everywhere, not knowing where to start.
She looked at the unkempt man in front of her and sighed, "Teacher Sixteen, although I don't really want to say it, shouldn't we give ourselves a better creative environment?"
Lu Shizhen, however, disagreed and looked at her room with great pride: "I think this environment is quite nice, Syrian style, it suits our Lilylian very well."
Xiaoning disagreed, but didn't nag any further or take any concrete action.
She knew that this chaotic yet orderly environment was indeed what Lu Shizhen was used to. Last time, she kindly tidied up a clean environment for Lu Shizhen, but Lu Shizhen's manuscript was stuck for three days and she almost had to stop updating. Since then, she has never dared to touch anything in this room.
Apart from……
Thinking about it, Xiaoning looked up at the Siamese cat with a smudged face that was resting on the cabinet, and without saying a word, she reached out and picked it up: "Qiuqiu, how did you get up here? Is this a cat's superpower?"
With its eyes slightly squinted, Qiuqiu showed no resistance to being held by a human. It lazily curled up in Xiaoning's arms, even stretching like a natural cat: "Meow~"
Over the years, it has been living off the comic book publisher with its cute appearance, and apart from Lu Shizhen who knows it is a system, no one else has ever doubted its identity. It has been living a very comfortable life.
She prefers homemade cat food to plain-tasting cat food, especially with lots of chicken breast, and dried fish is also a good option.
Qiuqiu sniffed, keenly catching the aroma of food in the air.
Besides her cat food, it seems she also has starch sausages!
However, its owner didn't seem to notice the smell and continued drawing on the paper with the pen.
The cat was very unhappy, so it meowed at Lu Shizhen: "Meow~ Meow~"
To onlookers, it sounded like a cat's whining, but to Lu Shizhen, it was like a nagging monk: "Host, you don't want to lose your cute little kitten, do you?"
"Host, data shows that irregular eating habits can lead to serious illnesses. Many painters died young before the age of fifty due to overwork and health problems. Although your body belongs to the system, repairing any resulting illnesses requires a huge amount of points. While we have many points, it's best not to squander them. Host, you're hungry..."
Lu Shizhen couldn't stand the threatening nagging any longer. She bit her lip angrily at Qiuqiu, but finally put down her pen helplessly: "Okay, okay, we're going to eat now."
As Lu Shizhen walked out of the room, Xiaoning followed beside her and said expectantly, "Teacher Sixteen, could we add one more location for this autograph session than last time? There wasn't a location last time, and the fans are really clamoring for it. Would you consider taking a longer route?"
Xiaoning's eyes were exceptionally sincere, and Lu Shizhen felt a little embarrassed to refuse, so she asked, "Which city?"
"S City".
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