"Miss, please eat. You have not touched your food in the past 30 minutes. The soup has gone cold. Please eat," begged the woman.
Tasty foods were placed in front of me. I did love eating, but how could I eat at that moment? I had really become Yanyu. No matter how many times and how hard I pinched myself, I did not wake up. I was not dreaming.
"Miss, please eat now," she begged again.
She was really desperate to make me eat so I grabbed the spoon. The moment I took a sip from the soup, she smiled.
"What's your name?" I asked her.
"Jie," she answered.
I tried to strike up a conversation, but she always gave me short answers. I guessed she was not interested in talking with me.
I had to do something about my situation. The longer I stayed, the lesser chances I had to get Aarin's new book. They were only releasing 30, 000 copies. I needed to find that old man as soon as possible.
The woman would not let me go unless I finished my meal so I ate it fast. While she was cleaning up the dishes, I ran out of the room. But I did not know the place. In the novel, the house was roughly explained. And whenever I approached other people, they would just look down. Like Jie, it seemed that they were all avoiding to talk to me. So I looked for the way out myself. I had two eyes and a brain anyways.
While I was walking in an empty hallway, I came across a painting. It was the old man.
"Yue Lao, the God of Love. He makes your wish your truth," I read. I scoffed and said, "So you're a God. Gods really like meddling with human affairs. You could have just sat comfortably in the clouds and I could have just bought Aarin's book. You do your God thing and I do my human thing. Why did you have to put me in this situation?"
"Well, this is a surprise. I did not take you to be the religious type, Yanyu," a man said.
I turned to my left.
"Liqin?"
He smiled and said, "Are you surprised that I am alive? Would it have been better if I had drowned?" He walked towards me. "If I were you, I would be surprised too. I mean you risked your life just to put me in danger. Too bad I did not die."
So I was put in the time after Yanyu tried to kill Liqin. It would be nice if I was not Yanyu. I would have killed her.
"Liqin, are you fully recovered?"
"You do not have to worry. Your effort was not at all wasted. I lost my pendant. You succeeded, Yanyu. Congratulations."
"Liqin, I-"
"Yanyu!" a man shouted.
He was wearing an official's uniform. It was Guowei. I could not believe it. I saw my OTP in the flesh.
Guowei stood in front of Liqin and said, "What are you doing here?"
I could not help but giggle at how protective Guowei was with his wifey. This was my favorite scene in the novel because Guowei finally saw Yanyu's true colors.
"I said what are you doing here?!"
I was taken aback by Guowei's loud voice. I put my hand on my chest and said, "You don't need to shout. It's not like we're miles away from each other. My ears are working fine."
"What are you doing here?" His voice was stern.
"Umm... Standing? Breathing? Talking? Answering?"
"Yanyu, I am serious."
"I'm serious too. I wasn't joking when I answered you."
"There is no use talking with you. Go back to your room and stay there. You are not welcome here."
Guowei took Liqin by the hand and left.