Monster - Chapter 149
Chapter 149: Center City - New Year
Too much. Lin Sandie was truly too much.
Lou lay on the sofa, her eyes blankly staring at the ceiling. For days, Lou had been like a dead fish, her mind constantly replaying the conditions Lin Sandie had set. She had also moved from her own apartment to the one downstairs. Wang Lirou, who had been worried about Lou all day, sat on a small stool beside her, meticulously tending to Lou's nails, muttering to himself.
"Your nails have too many hangnails, you need to take good care of them."
"And the calluses on your palms are too thick, not at all like a girl's hands."
"......"
"Sigh......" Lou let out a deep sigh.
"Why the sigh?"
"Sister Lirou, what do you think of Lin Sandie?"
"She's very wary of others," Wang Lirou blurted out, "but I quite like her."
"Why?"
"Why? Because she's a good girl, of course," Wang Lirou began to file Lou's nails. "She's not like you. I could tell at a glance that your heart is cold, but hers is warm."
"Although she's very wary, that's a stress response from encountering bad things. Her true nature is very gentle towards people."
"I'm gentle with you too, you know."
"......." Wang Lirou shrugged.
"Alright, I'm just messing around. If something good requires too much effort or is too troublesome for me, I won't do it. Lin Sandie might indeed be different from me in that regard."
Lou recalled Lin Sandie voluntarily sharing Tree's madness through the Scorpion. Perhaps this was a requirement from Pie, but it certainly also contained Lin Sandie's own willingness to do it.
"Are you interested in her?" Wang Lirou asked with a smile.
"She attracts me."
"Heh, I could tell you felt something special for her a long time ago."
"How special?" Lou was stunned. Aside from Miu's sarcastic remarks, she had no idea what others thought about her and Lin Sandie.
"How should I put it... I just feel like after you met her, you became a bit softer, more approachable. When I first met you, even though you were quite unreliable, we were still a little afraid of you."
"Sigh......" Lou sighed again.
"What, did she reject your confession?"
"Something like that. She said she would only accept me if I completely forgot Little Rabbit."
"Little Rabbit? The one you've been searching for all these years?"
"Yes, I only consider Little Rabbit family! Why is she jealous of that? It's so inexplicable!"
"Uh, do you want my opinion?"
"Tell me."
"I'm just an ordinary person. My opinion is, if my lover searched for another person for hundreds of years, I would be very worried about her, whether that person was family or anything else."
"What's there to worry about?" Lou frowned deeply.
"Worried that she might lose herself in the process of searching, worried that she might suffer for it her entire life. All in all, searching for someone you haven't found for hundreds of years, and never being able to let go, is not a happy thing." Wang Lirou's words were simple and plain, yet they made Lou begin to view Lin Sandie's attitude from a different perspective.
Was Lin Sandie truly just jealous?
"As long as we're alive, various things will always push us forward. Is it really good to cling to someone you can't find, missing the person right in front of you, missing the scenery right in front of you, Lou Lou?"
Lou used to be unwilling to share her feelings, but today, she was rare in her willingness to talk about these things. Wang Lirou's tone was gentle as she asked.
"......I just want to say 'I'm sorry' to her." Lou blinked.
"Perhaps, no one ever asked you to apologize, only you refused to forgive yourself, Lou Lou."
Lou withdrew her hand, turned her back to Wang Lirou, and mumbled, "I want to be alone."
Wang Lirou also sighed, stood up, patted Lou's head, and walked out.
Xu Siqian, who had been sitting on the sofa reading the newspaper, but was actually eavesdropping on their conversation, also sighed, flipping the newspaper. "The longer you hesitate, the more you lose."
Lou got up and rushed towards the door.
Lou didn't know what she was angry about. She rushed out the door, thinly dressed, and aimlessly walked through the Black Goat Walled City in December. It was dark and sunless here, and even in winter, the smell wasn't very pleasant.
But there was a strong sense of human warmth here. It was already late December, almost New Year's Eve. Lou saw lanterns and decorations strung between the buildings, and the warm glow of the lanterns made the dim, gloomy Walled City feel cozy.
Only then did Lou remember it was her birthday. She quietly moved through the various levels until light snow began to fall, and she started walking outside.
In this life, she constantly passed by, constantly ran backward, wanting to catch up with a past as fleeting as a dream. She missed cars, missed good people, missed scenery. She lost her way, lost her life, lost herself. She was muddled, she drifted, she was neither strong nor decisive. She watched the people around her leave and wither one by one. She watched the path behind her become strange and eerie. She could even see her own worthless death through that path. Yet, Lou was so afraid of a life without Little Rabbit, so afraid that she was willing to spend her entire life chasing that illusory existence, so afraid that she fantasized about crossing from the starting point to the end of the journey, holding that person's hand.
In this long pursuit, Lou should have woken up long ago. She, after all, had to forgive herself.
"Come celebrate New Year's with us, Lou Lou, where's your Sandie?" Jian Yi, who was dancing and drinking with a group of men and women in a bar, was pulled aside by Lou. Drunkenly, she was about to call a waiter.
"Lin Sandie told me to find you. She said you could perform surgery on me."
"Surgery?" Jian Yi burped, looking bewildered. "Let's talk about it tomorrow, I'm off today."
"Do it now!" The noisy environment made Lou want to kill someone. She grabbed Jian Yi and walked out. Once she made a decision, she was extremely proactive and extremely willful.
"Let me think, let me think." Jian Yi was clearly drunk. Pulled by Lou, she was soft and weak, clutching Lou's arm, desperately trying to recall what Lin Sandie had told her.
"Lin Sandie said you could perform surgery to make me forget someone. I want it done now. You can tell me your conditions." The two of them stumbled outside. Lou no longer had her usual playful ease; she became serious and earnest, with unmelted snowflakes still clinging to her head and shoulders, making her look a bit like Lin Sandie.
"I remember now." Jian Yi thought hard for a long time before finally sorting out what Lin Sandie had previously instructed her. She grinned. "Here."
Jian Yi fumbled in her pocket, pulled out a phone, and handed it to Lou.
"What's this?" Lou frowned, taking the phone.
"Lin Sandie gave it to me. She said if you came to talk to me seriously, I should give you this phone. Take a look," it was too cold outside, and Jian Yi, unlike Lou with her good physique, hugged herself and stomped her feet. "I charge it every day, just in case it's dead when I give it to you."
"Is this Lin Sandie's phone?" Lou hadn't specifically memorized Lin Sandie's phone, but when she lit up the screen, facial recognition immediately unlocked it. She saw Lin Sandie's phone wallpaper.
It was a photo Lin Sandie had taken in Disorder Land, a picture of Lou sitting on the car roof, her back to the camera, looking at the distant scenery.
"Looks like it. Let's see what's on it. I'm so curious, she wouldn't tell me what it meant."
"I'll look myself." Lou immediately put the phone away.
"Don't be so stingy!" Jian Yi yelled.
Just then, countdowns echoed from all directions:
"10! 9! 8! 7!..."
Lou and Jian Yi simultaneously looked up, seeing the Salai Building in the distance, visible from all over Center City. The digital lights on the skyscraper flickered, and people were counting down by watching these numbers.
"6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!"
"Boom boom!!" Various brilliant fireworks exploded around the Salai Building. Along with the sound of fireworks came people's mutual congratulations, shouting "Happy New Year," "Good New Year," and other greetings.
"Happy New Year~" Jian Yi patted Lou's shoulder, then took out her own phone and muttered, "Speaking of which, after midnight, it's Lin Sandie's birthday. I should send her a blessing too."
"Lin Sandie's birthday is January 1st?"
In Lou's memory, she seemed to have never asked Lin Sandie's birthday.
"Yes, I saw her Citizen ID before. This birthday is easy to remember."
Lin Sandie and Little Rabbit share the same birthday.
Lou gripped Lin Sandie's phone in her pocket, sitting on a stool outside the bar, while Jian Yi's friends had already come out and pulled Jian Yi back into the warm bar.
"Aren't you coming in to play with us?" Jian Yi asked Lou with a smile after sending her message.
"I'll be alone. You go have fun. Happy New Year."
"I've sent you Lin Sandie's contact number. Make Lin Sandie smile more, Lou Lou." Jian Yi waved at her.
After Jian Yi left, Lou unlocked Lin Sandie's phone again. She took a deep breath, looking down at the phone, her eyes reflecting the simple screen.
In just a few seconds, Lou noticed the special icon among the phone's apps. Generally, the memo app wouldn't be placed in the quick access bar, but Lin Sandie's phone had the system's built-in memo app in the quick access bar at the bottom of the screen.
Memo, this was very fitting for Lin Sandie.
Lou tapped on the memo app.
"You have a child named Little Fool"
"Understand rice cultivation methods"
"Pay attention to children's mental health"
"Little Fool's name is Zhao Jinyu, birthday December 31st"
"Must go to bed on time"
"Handmade clothing methods."
"Appropriately extend sleep time"
"Look for gifts children would like"
"Lin Sandie, perhaps you have a reason you absolutely cannot die"
......
The memos were listed one by one, each with a date. These memos seemed devoid of emotion, simply stating reminders for Lin Sandie to do certain things. But in Lou's eyes, they were like a sudden clap of thunder. In this cold New Year, Lou felt hot all over, her breathing quickened, and her fingers trembled slightly.
Lou touched her face, then her neck. She stared intently at the phone, afraid it would suddenly disappear, yet also feeling it was fake.
"......" Lou gasped continuously, her mouth exhaling puffs of white mist.
She tremblingly took out her own phone, looked at Lin Sandie's contact number that Jian Yi had sent her, her finger hovering over the number for a long time before finally pressing it.
"Hello." The call connected.
Lou's gasping became more intense. She grabbed her trembling wrist, unable to speak for a long time.
The person on the other end of the phone waited quietly.
"Little Rabbit?"
"Happy New Year, Little Fool."
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