Chapter 67 Make a Wish
“…Yi Yue.” Gu Nanqiu gave a bitter smile. Yue Yi Yue always seemed to find that smile even more bitter than the aroma of coffee wafting from the coffee shop they passed by.
"This sounds absurd, but it's not impossible. However, for safety's sake..." Yue Yiyue quickly scanned the area with her mouse, her gaze lingering on a particular spot before slowing down her mouse movements.
He tapped the information on the screen: "Look, these."
In a corner of the screen, there is an inconspicuous little photo that occupies only a small portion of the screen.
The inscription reads, "An artwork created during his lifetime."
Yue Yiyue gripped the mouse and zoomed in on the image. The photo showed a series of different marble pillars, each topped with an intricately carved plaster head.
Their expressions were all different, but what they had in common was that none of them had eyes.
With just a glance, Yue Yiyue recognized Gu Nanqiu's face.
She had pictured this face in her mind many times.
After they met, she watched it intently on some nights.
After a brief silence, Yue Yiyue cautiously looked at Gu Nanqiu beside him: "Nanqiu, do you think... if we want, we can go back now?"
Although she knew she couldn't escape, she still had to pretend, so that she could appear to be acting like a normal college student in this situation.
After all, who knows if there are other people watching in this room...
“Yi Yue, let me ask you, if you were somewhere, and you had a certain amount of power, and everyone there feared you?” Gu Nanqiu looked at the photograph, lost in thought.
"In this situation, if you encounter something that looks exactly like something in your collection room, would you just watch it walk away?"
Although he didn't particularly like the word "things," Yue Yiyue tried his best to ignore the minor unpleasantness in his heart and instead looked at the plaster casts on the screen that were carefully preserved in glass cabinets.
"If it were me, I would, but if it were someone in this place, I definitely wouldn't."
"And judging from what happened this morning, it's clear she doesn't want to let us off the hook."
Especially herself, it seems that she is being resented because she is Gu Nanqiu's good friend.
Of course, Yue Yiyue didn't tell Gu Nanqiu about the monster's warning to her; it was a minor matter.
But now that he knows the person being targeted is Gu Nanqiu, and the reason for being targeted, Yue Yiyue finds the plot really interesting. No matter what, it will come as promised.
Thinking back to the first instance, the monster was only vaguely aware of love.
Her current affection for Gu Nanqiu can be described as audacious beyond measure.
Moreover, Yue Yiyue's biggest worry was that if the monster's real target was Gu Nanqiu, would she manipulate humans to hunt down Gu Nanqiu?
“We are in a very passive position now, apart from being in this hotel.”
"I need to find a way to gather more information." Yue Yiyue sighed, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come to City A. It was really a mistake."
Yue Yiyue rubbed her hands on the table, feeling an itch to crush something.
But nothing around her could relieve her itch: "Let's not go out to play. Let's go to the nearby ecological square. Maybe we can get some information we want."
Knowing that he had fully entered the plot, Yue Yiyue gave up the wishful thinking he had been holding onto.
Both of them were action-oriented. After Yue Yiyue made the suggestion, Gu Nanqiu got up to change his clothes and took out a large hat.
Some thick windbreakers looked dashing on the tall and slender Gu Nanqiu.
She zipped the jacket up to the top, the collar covering most of her face, and with the mask on, only her bright eyes were visible.
Yue Yiyue looked again and again, then reached out and pressed down the stray hairs on Gu Nanqiu's forehead: "If you let your bangs down a little, you might not recognize her, but if the other party has some special methods, then we're just unlucky."
"I'll go inside and change my clothes too." After saying that, Yue Yiyue walked towards the dressing room.
"I've prepared something for you." Gu Nanqiu followed and took out a dark-colored windbreaker from the dressing room: "Yiyue, this is something I prepared especially for you. Go and try it on."
He pushed the person into the changing room and then took out a mask of the same style but different colors and stuffed it in as well: "I'm going to pack my bag."
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Eco-market, as the name suggests, is characterized by 70% green plant coverage and free-range animals.
As soon as Yue Yiyue entered, he saw a flowing waterfall.
Water splashes as it hits the stone surface, releasing a wave of dampness.
A loud female voice broadcasted the precautions over the loudspeaker nearby.
Some guests sat in the spacious rest area, while others found secluded spots to sit on the ground.
There were bottles and lunchboxes beside them, indicating they had been there for some time.
A few passersby stopped nearby, muttering complaints: "Why do you have to enter by lottery to get in here, and why does it close at six o'clock? Seriously, we can't book a hotel anywhere, sob sob, even with money we can't find a place to stay... I heard there are several empty rooms inside..."
"Yeah, yeah, I saw those lights on at the very top yesterday, I'm so envious."
"Stop talking. We just want a place to take temporary shelter. Besides, if we didn't have to draw lots, do you think we could even squeeze in?"
Yue Yiyue quickly figured out the relationship between the hotel and the building across the street. It seemed that this place was a special refuge for some people.
It sounds like some people are no longer satisfied with just a day of shelter.
I quickly glanced around and saw that there were still people carrying large and small bags of things, looking like they were shopping, and everyone seemed indifferent.
Yue Yiyue then gave up on going to the rest area and instead walked with Gu Nanqiu toward the navigation sign.
This shopping mall has twelve floors, including entertainment, leisure, and some art galleries.
A large LED screen hangs in the center of the mall, displaying the exhibits currently on display.
This was the first time Yue Yiyue had ever seen a large-scale shopping mall that was so comprehensive.
In particular, the LED navigation sign displays a full 30 pages, with a note next to it stating that these are only some of the more well-known ones.
This place... has something...
If the world really ends and zombies come, Yue Yiyue truly believes that as long as he can hold onto this place and cultivate a vegetable garden on the roof, he can live a lifetime.
After standing in front of the navigation sign for a long time, Yue Yiyue finally managed to memorize the locations of a few shops she wanted to visit. Then, she looked at Gu Nanqiu, who was lost in thought, and asked, "Nanqiu, is there anywhere you'd like to go?"
"This place," Gu Nanqiu said, pointing to a corner called the Sculpture Gallery. "We might be able to find some relevant information here."
————
The sculpture gallery is on the top floor, but it's not quite the top floor.
Following the signs, the two walked out from the top floor and arrived at an open-air garden, which had several floors above it.
Yue Yiyue looked up and roughly counted; it was about 10 floors.
She stood there somewhat bewildered, unsure of where she was or if she had gone to the wrong place.
"This place is more complicated than I imagined. What are all these places for?" Yue Yiyue looked around curiously, staring at the blue glass, extremely curious about what kind of scene was behind the glass.
"It looks like a nice little garden." Gu Nanqiu looked at the tree next to her that was covered with many long red ribbons. She walked over and carefully hooked one up: "Yiyue, look."
The red ribbon had black lettering that read: "I hope to survive this catastrophe."
"I hope everything goes smoothly and peacefully."
"I hope my whole family can leave City A alive!"
"Thank you for your protection, boss. You bought us time. I wish you all the best!"
"Thank you, boss. I hope that in the new year, you will continue to work hard, and we will continue to work hard too."
When the wind blows, the strips of cloth sway in the breeze, and the tree, which carries the wishes of many ordinary people, makes a rustling sound.
"Would you like to write one?" The old man who managed the trees looked at the young man in front of him with a smile: "The trees here are very important wishes. It is thanks to everyone's wishes that there is a small sanctuary in a city where you could be dragged into strange rules and killed at any time."
"You two don't look like locals." The old man kindly handed them a pen and a red ribbon: "Go over there and write. After you're done, go through that area, and you'll reach the sculpture museum. You'll find what you're looking for there."
The old man's bright eyes gleamed with an all-knowing light.
She smelled it... she smelled the scent of the person she had met before... If she were here... City A would be saved.
Yue Yiyue accepted the bright red cloth strip from the old man's withered hand without hesitation: "Thank you."
It seems the owner of this place has acquired special abilities, and the old man in front of us also seems to have them.
A boss's ability should be to transform the desires of ordinary people into resistance against the rules.
It's probably not particularly strong.
Aside from time constraints, they may also need wishes to sustain them, which is why these trees exist.
That old man's abilities...
Yue Yiyue turned his head and glanced at the old man standing not far away, listening to the radio broadcast of what had happened that morning.
Perhaps it was a prophecy, or perhaps it was a sense of Nan Qiu's protagonist aura.
Yue Yiyue wrote devoutly on the red ribbon: "I hope the rules of City A will disappear soon and everyone can return to normal life."
After finishing writing, she peeked at Gu Nanqiu and saw the flowing handwriting on the red ribbon: "I hope the things I hate will disappear quickly and that my journey with Yiyue will go smoothly."
On the pen cap, Gu Nanqiu took the red cloth strip from Yue Yiyue's hand, found a branch where no other red cloth strips were hung, and tiptoed to hang the cloth strip there.
After she finished, she stood there watching the two red ribbons being blown by the wind and entangled in the air.
After a moment, Gu Nanqiu's voice rang out softly, tinged with a hint of sorrow: "Yi Yue, I am not in your wishes."
“Because I knew you would write about me.” Yue Yiyue had already guessed that Gu Nanqiu would ask this question: If the rules disappeared, we wouldn't have to worry about these things anymore.
Yue Yiyue stopped Gu Nanqiu, who was about to say something more, and pointed to the top floor: "Do you think the view from there is as good as the view from our hotel?"
"Probably not." Distracted by this, Gu Nanqiu looked at the floor Yi Yue was pointing to: "Although this building is a twin building with the hotel we are staying in, this one is shorter."
Hearing Gu Nanqiu's explanation, Yue Yiyue looked at Gu Nanqiu with some surprise: "Then do you know what else is in this building?"
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