Chapter 9: Half Truth and Half Lie

“Coconut Island Coffee.” Yi Ya told the taxi driver, then turned her eyes to look out the window.

Lü Yang looked at Yi Ya in the front seat with some dissatisfaction. He thought if they were a couple, they should sit together in the back seat of the taxi, not like this with one person sitting in the passenger seat, which seemed quite distant.

After grumbling to himself for a bit, Lü Yang laughed at his own pettiness. Since he hadn’t thought about a future with her, why bother with these small details now?

Just like before, he should treat her as a younger sister. Let her do as she pleased. In the future, maybe he would save Yi Yi, or perhaps… he himself would be completely trapped in the Mysterious Domain, utterly erased, leaving not a single trace in this world.

…

After entering the coffee shop, Yi Ya went straight upstairs to a seat by the window. Lü Yang followed and hesitated for a moment before finally sitting down opposite her.

Yi Ya had already eaten. She ordered a pot of tea, while Lü Yang asked for a set meal. Before the food arrived, Yi Ya didn’t speak, and neither did Lü Yang. After the set meal was served, Lü Yang still didn’t speak. He finished the meal in one go, poured himself a cup of tea, and then looked at Yi Ya across from him.

“What you said this morning… about my sister Yi Yi, what was that about?” Yi Ya finally spoke.

While eating earlier, Lü Yang had been thinking about how to tell Yi Ya these things. So when she asked, he didn’t mention the Eerie Computer because he hadn’t figured out whether those who came into contact with or knew about the Eerie Computer would also suffer misfortune. If there really was misfortune, he didn’t want to involve Yi Ya.

“What I’m about to say, you might not believe, but it’s all true.” After hesitating for a long time, Lü Yang decided to tell Yi Ya about it, mixing truth with lies.

“What’s going on? Don’t be so mysterious.” Yi Ya frowned.

“If I told you that the current me is actually from a Parallel Space, would you believe me?” After taking a sip of tea, Lü Yang slowly began to explain to Yi Ya.

“Go on.” Yi Ya didn’t seem very surprised by what Lü Yang had just said.

Yi Ya’s reaction was somewhat unexpected to Lü Yang, making him hesitate.

After thinking it over for a while, Lü Yang continued, “In the Parallel World I come from, you have a sister named Yi Yi. I met you a year ago when you had just started as an intern designer at Jiahui Company. Later…”

Lü Yang recounted how Yi Ya introduced him to Yi Yi and many of the things that happened afterward between him and Yi Yi. To his surprise, while telling some of these past stories with Yi Yi, he got teary-eyed several times, almost crying in front of Yi Ya.

Lü Yang never expected that those seemingly insignificant past events with Yi Yi, the little things he thought were trivial, would become such beautiful and painful memories now.

You only realize the value of something after you’ve lost it. Lü Yang truly understood the meaning of that saying now.

While Lü Yang and Yi Ya were talking, Sister Mei called, asking when Lü Yang would come over. Lü Yang said he had urgent matters and couldn’t return for now. Sister Mei was unhappy, saying the truckload of sand might arrive soon and she couldn’t handle it alone upstairs and downstairs. But Lü Yang couldn’t bother with Sister Mei’s issues right now.

“The photo in the wallet was originally a selfie of me and your sister, but now it’s become one of me and you. I find it strange—how did someone as proud as you become the girlfriend of a migrant worker like me?” Lü Yang took out his wallet and handed the selfie of the two of them to Yi Ya.

“You really don’t remember anything from this life?” Yi Ya looked at the selfie and asked calmly, her eyes slightly moist now.

Lü Yang was very surprised that Yi Ya, after hearing such an absurd story about a ‘Parallel World’ and all the things he said about Yi Yi, wasn’t shocked at all, as if she accepted it completely.

From her question just now, it seemed she fully accepted Lü Yang’s explanation about the ‘Parallel World’.

“Do you believe everything I just said? Aren’t you at all suspicious that I’m making up a story?” Yi Ya was calm, but Lü Yang couldn’t stay calm.

“I called home this morning. Mom told me that I did have a sister who died before she was born, but Mom and Dad had already chosen a name for her. Her name was Yi Yi. However, only my parents know about this.” Yi Ya stared straight at Lü Yang as she spoke.

“Oh my god! This is… too unbelievable… too unbelievable…” Lü Yang shook his head, now even doubting whether he had truly come to a Parallel World. Everything had changed, becoming quite incredible.

Just as Lü Yang was about to say more, Yi Ya’s mobile phone rang. After answering, she told Lü Yang she had to leave urgently. Lü Yang didn’t say much more and left Coconut Island with her.

When Yi Ya was about to hail a taxi to leave, Lü Yang stopped her.

“You haven’t answered my question. In this life, are you my girlfriend?” Besides Yi Yi’s disappearance, this was the only thing bothering Lü Yang now, so he decided to ask Yi Ya directly.

“What do you think?” Yi Ya countered, then opened the car door, got in, and quickly disappeared from Lü Yang’s sight.

“What do I think? What should I think? I think… if you were my girlfriend, I’d… ah… that stubborn girl! Would it kill you to say a few more words?” Lü Yang glared resentfully in the direction Yi Ya had vanished, his feelings all mixed up.

Looking up, Lü Yang noticed an old lady coming out of a nearby supermarket, carrying two large bags of groceries and standing hesitantly by the roadside, watching the busy traffic. There was no crosswalk on that section of the road, and pedestrians and cars mixed chaotically, with cars moving quite fast. It wasn’t safe for an elderly person to cross.

Lü Yang approached and tried to take the two large bags from the old lady to help her cross the street, but she looked at him suspiciously and refused to hand them over.

Helpless, Lü Yang said to the old lady, “Keep holding the bags yourself. I need to cross the street anyway, so let me help you across.”

The old lady still looked at Lü Yang doubtfully but eventually let him assist her across the street. After crossing, when she saw Lü Yang let go and showed no intention of robbing her, she finally relaxed and thanked him.

“Blue Text Mission: Help an old lady cross the street completed. Received one Eerie Point. Phantom Points in account now: negative one. Please continue with tasks. If Phantom Points remain negative by Zero Hour tonight, you will be Erased from the world.” A voice suddenly appeared in Lü Yang’s mind, startling him.

How creepy! The Eerie Computer wasn’t with him, yet it could still speak?

When Lü Yang thought about the Eerie Computer not being with him, he instinctively looked down at his hands and realized, to his surprise, that the Eerie Computer was in his hand!