Chapter 45

Almost at the same time as Yuan Qian opened the compressed image package, Amy also opened the plastic cover of the comic book she had just received.

She hurriedly untied the book jacket and cover, took out the gift and put it aside, scanned the special content that had not been released in the front, and went straight to the extra chapter after the main content.

The cover of the first volume shows a woman with her head bowed and a girl sleeping on her lap. The woman looks just as readers saw at the beginning of the comic, with long gray hair that is almost untrimmed and falls down softly. A few strands just fall on the child's still tender cheeks, and most of them are tucked behind her ears, revealing a young and beautiful face.

Those light gray hairs, which were almost as long as her height, spread across the bed, forming small waterfalls on the fabric. It made one feel as if one had touched its softness with one's own hands. The light rendered it a color almost like honey, incredibly warm.

Her thin hand gently rested on her child's back, which was both the most fragile care and the incomparable comfort in the child's heart.

Therefore, the extra chapter of the first volume also follows the content on the cover, which is an ordinary day of childhood when Xiaoman and his mother are together.

Mom can’t sing, nor does she have the energy to sing, but when Xiaoman was little, she was in better condition. When the weather was fine, she would take Xiaoman for a slow walk in the woods, showing her the clouds, the light shining through the leaves, and the ants busying about in the gaps between the grass roots.

Xiaoman is a very good child. She quietly follows her mother to watch these things. Her blue eyes reflect the lives outside the crowd that are living silently but equally actively.

They don't complain about what the other person doesn't have, but only cherish what the other person gives them.

It rained in the afternoon, and they returned home. The old house was leaking a little, but they were not depressed. They just wrapped themselves in a blanket together and watched the raindrops falling one by one. Each drop of water splashed in a different shape.

Xiaoman sat next to her mother, and it was hard to tell who was relying on whom. She listened to her mother talking about the birds' feathers that were not afraid of water, about the rainbows that would appear after the rain, and about how the turbid river surface would always gradually become clear when it rained.

It can be seen that all the good qualities that the protagonist possessed at the beginning came from this frail and sickly woman whose life was so short that it could be called premature death.

Unlike Xiaoman's deep blue eyes, Mom's eyes were pale like dark smoke and old glass. Sometimes they looked like quiet dead leaves, and sometimes they looked like melting snow that had lost its white appearance. They were so pale that even if they lost their luster in the end, they looked no different.

Amy sniffed at the sight, and first forwarded a few anti-fraud promotions to her healthy and energetic mother as a token of filial piety. She also secretly placed an order for a large portable speaker as a surprise that would make her mother very popular among her sisters. She decided to add her favorite colorful and blooming special effects to some of her mother's recent videos, and she would not refuse no matter how eye-catching they were.

Then she opened the second volume.

Each chapter of the comic "The Incomplete" is very long. After the re-formatting, each volume contains three chapters, so Su Mei appears from the second volume onwards.

Therefore, the cover of the second volume is a picture of the white-haired boy and Xiaoman, which makes people dream back to their first meeting.

Xiaoman was one of the people wearing white clothes this time. Of course, the style was different from Sumei's. It was a loose, pure white smock like a child's. She lowered her head and held tightly the black cloak that didn't fit in with the smock.

The wind slightly blew up his long white hair. He resolutely turned his back to the screen and did not look at Xiaoman or the readers outside the screen. He only showed a slender and mysterious back.

Only the blood-stained fingers passed through the hood, reached out from the wide cuffs, and held the girl's hand.

Amy looked at the cover of the comic book that she hadn't opened yet again and again, and finally fell on the bed without saying a word.

The tired office worker slowly and quietly turned over to his side, hugged his legs and curled up into a standard model of an autistic reader.

Two weak fingers fumbled towards the phone, hooked the pair of cute small pendants, pulled them towards the huge but fragile human being who could turn to ashes at any time, then held them in the palm of their hands, opened their eyes and looked for a moment, and finally began to make disordered breathing sounds.

Fortunately, her desire to survive soon reminded her that everyone on the forum said that the extra chapter was particularly cute and healing, so she got up and opened the book again.

—— Yuan Qian, who had already watched the whole process of the knife being stabbed and then healing, said: You are all liars. Saying this is like helping the evil to fall into the water. Run away.

—No, the feedback mechanism is that I can only make money if the reader has emotional fluctuations. That’s fine. The comic extra chapter is super sweet and cute, so come and read it. You won’t lose out!

Amy opened the second extra volume without noticing.

A cold light came towards him, splitting the picture fiercely - the wood was split into two halves and rolled down among the dark green grass.

The person who appeared before him was Xiaoman, who looked similar to the network update progress. He was dressed in a shirt and trousers similar to the one he wore when he lived with Lazarus, and was holding an axe. His appearance was in stark contrast to the soft child he had just seen several times.

Even though her expression was calm, Amy was still struck by how handsome he was, and realized once again how much she had changed.

The more familiar Xiaoman, whose hair at the back of his head was already big enough to tie into a tuft, quickly counted the prepared firewood, stacked them up, left the tools on the woodpile, and turned to walk towards the house.

Amy discovered that it was not the garden house built by Lazarus, but an old-fashioned house that had been renovated and looked vaguely familiar.

On the next page, a woman's figure came into view——

The one who appeared in this newly tidy home was Xiaoman's mother. Beside her stood a vase with a bunch of fresh wild flowers. It seemed that she had enough time to trim her long hair. Her light gray hair was only left to knee-length and was braided into a beautiful long braid. She wore crystal blue pendants on her ears, which was very cute and added a lot of vitality to her.

The mother took out a handkerchief and wiped Xiaoman's forehead after she finished her work. She said to her daughter mysteriously with a sly smile, "A guest is here to see you. He's waiting for you at the front door."

Xiaoman's eyes lit up and he walked quickly over.

Ah——It’s the if line! A happy if line! I have a feeling! Amy thought and smiled in advance.

But the reality is better than she imagined. In front of the house with a small round table, there are not only waiting "guests", but also another figure.

Unlike the two who tied their hair up for convenience, the lich who relied on magic for everything and was used to using magic still leisurely wore his long dark red hair and a set of light clothes in aristocratic style that was difficult to work with. He exuded a temperament of doing nothing and being idle. In the remote village scenery, he was like a court rose that had strayed into the palace, but surprisingly quite harmonious.

Hearing footsteps, he turned around with his back to the door. The pale face reflected in the eyes of Xiaoman and the readers was intact, and the right eye was still clear with a light pink and light green background. The different-colored eyes were surprisingly clear and tranquil under the sunlight.

It was as if nothing had happened. The lich was still far from collapse due to the wear and tear of his soul. He lived long enough to see his disciples off and his family off to old age.

...That's great. She's very good at avoiding spoilers. If you don't read the online serialization and only buy the physical book, you will just think it's a beautiful new character who hasn't appeared in the main story yet, and you will never guess what will happen next!

Amy complained in tears in her heart, but her body honestly wanted to press the screenshot button to keep this new and very good-looking teacher. After realizing that it was a physical book, she had to continue reading.

——How happy everyone is to be alive! The teacher is not dead either! We even live together! My family is great! My family is very good. Thank you, fans. I will always love the if line!

Opposite Lazarus, the guest who was seated in a position where he could see her first rose slowly.

"Good morning, Xiaoman."

The young man, dressed like a regular traveler, showed his familiar face and smiled at Xiaoman.

When Xiaoman walked over, he raised his hand to compare the heights of the two people.

"You're growing so fast..." He sighed, lowering his hand that was suspended in front of his forehead. "You're almost as tall as me."

"Yeah." Xiaoman was still the quiet Xiaoman, but after a pause, she said:

"Welcome back."

After the rare faint smile, the next frame was still Xiaoman, but her expression had changed. Her blue eyes seemed to have a little more fatigue, but her resolute nature had not changed.

She wiped a drop of dew from her face, sat up, looked where it came from, and then looked at the exceptionally bright moon in the night sky outside.

In contrast to the ending of the sixth chapter in this volume, she also wakes up in the middle of the night, but here her expression is much calmer. The moon in the sky is not a full moon, but a few wisps of mist are lingering around it, and the pale and vast light makes it look fresh and cool, just like the long white hair that fell and touched her cheeks when they first met.

The extra chapter ends.

Amy flipped the page back and forth in disbelief, feeling terrible.

Ah? Is this what you call healing? It was indeed very beautiful, but it suddenly shattered and turned out to be fake! This is the long years of separation between life and death! This is how many times I have been with you in my dreams! This is the fear that the soul's journey is long and unpredictable! This is the flowing water, falling flowers, and the passing of spring——

A migrant worker whose edges were worn down by life, in anger, awakened the soul of the former Chinese class representative.

Amy took a deep breath and silently flipped through the contents of chapters 4-6 in the second volume. She felt the author's intention in arranging the contents... It was obvious that he wanted to hurt the old readers first, and then use the seemingly indifferent atmosphere to deceive the new readers who had not followed the series to be hurt again by the boomerang. How vicious!

——So do I also have to abide by the invisible confidentiality agreement and wait for future generations to hear the sound of my broken heart?

It seems so. Amy calmly began to sort out the gift books, and felt that she had become stronger after this experience. This can be regarded as growing up with Xiaoman through thick and thin, hmm.

[Yes, it's really cruel.] Even the adjutant echoed Yuan Qian, saying, [What a bloody and gentle blow. Fortunately, I didn't really reincarnate under her pen.]

"Then come on, I beg you." Yuan Qian, as an actor playing a supporting role, was thinking about the previous plots when he watched this extra episode. He was really worried that he would go crazy if he continued like this.

He simply opened the character creation interface, and after deciding on Winchester's appearance, he opened another one. He closed his eyes and said, "You can do whatever you want! I'll pay for the emotional value, and I have no opinion on what it looks like."

[Okay.]

After a moment, Yuan Qian looked over quietly.

[Yes.] The long-awaited adjutant introduced, [This is what I look like. I guess your curiosity is satisfied now.]

Yuan Qian looked at the interface that had not been saved yet. He was very surprised in his heart, but he pretended to be calm on the outside.

Wow, he is really a classic handsome guy. As expected, he has long straight black hair and red eyes. As he said, he has rounded corners that don't look too oppressive when he puts them up. This appearance is very harmonious. He looks like the devil duke in the girls' comics. He is much more powerful than Yuan Qian, who looks too gentle and weak. He is very handsome and eye-catching.

But perhaps because the soulless model with slightly drooped eyes looked too peaceful, Yuan Qian really couldn't combine this face with the original impression of a person who muttered in daily life, was listless and lazy, and sometimes had a bad taste.

But the adjutant, who he had known for a long time, was better. He asked calmly, "Is that what you are going to do?"

[…I don’t know why I feel a chill towards that fact, so please allow me to reject it. I’ll change it now.]

Next, Yuan Qian watched his teammates swing their swords and axes with ease based on their original strength, without any resentment towards their faces.

The height and figure were adjusted first, still slender and refreshing, but when the face was covered, she suddenly changed from the type of the protagonist of the Tianding girls' manga to a cool character in general works. Then the long and straight black hair became curled at the ends, somewhat similar to Winchester's modeling, and the consistent amount of broken hair increased dramatically. Even the top of the head, which originally had no extra design, added two tufts of curly hair that swayed in the wind to match the new hair quality.

After the adjutant casually applied a faint dark purple gradient to the ends of his hair, Yuan Qian couldn't help it.

"Do you have an idea?" he asked.

[A little bit, but it has nothing to do with that. I'll just think about it as I go along. You agree to pay for it, right?]

"That's true... then you just keep going." Yuan Qian counted the emotional points he had gained in recent days, which were obviously due to the extra chapters, and responded.

Then he regretted it very quickly. It wasn't because of the cost, because the design of the appearance alone, no matter how complicated it was, wouldn't use up much emotional value, so the reason was that the appearance of this unnamed new character became more and more... terrifying when you think about it.

First, the hair was further modified to be more like Winchester's or vaguely approaching the mane of the star god, and then the corners between the long hair changed position, gradually stretching and lengthening, from harmless short spirals curling towards the front and sides of the face to hard corners that looked like steel bars, and the direction was also changed to spiral upwards from the back, the unprotected sharp tips and the overall shape were vaguely evil and ominous, and now it was a look that should have come out of the tome of dark priests.

That's not all that bad, the most important thing is that not only did his eye color change to a familiar warm gray, but his face also became completely different from before. Instead, his eyebrows and eye contours seemed a bit like... Su Mei.

This kind of similarity, where there is no evidence but one has a sense of déjà vu at first sight, is the most terrifying. Yuan Qian suspected that this guy was lying when he said the author was scary, as he was clearly just as bad as the other.

"Is this really okay?" he asked, covering his trembling heart.

[Isn’t it fun?]

"But it would be a problem if Xiaoman saw this face! We agreed to only attract readers and not pit the protagonist!" Yuan Qian reminded.

[What's wrong with looking the way she likes? I'm planning to ask her if she likes it later. If you don't like it, just delete it.] The adjutant was very happy and not affected at all. He even made a very villain-like speech, and his tone was even full of admiration.

"..." Yuan Qian thought about it, and considering that the adjutant now sounded very much looking forward to the moment "he" made his debut, and looked very energetic, he finally decided to give up the struggle and let him go, but secretly vowed not to touch this character setting for even a second.

Just think of it as renting out the character to make him work for free and earn emotional points for me! So can people abandon their conscience a little bit? I hope so.