Chapter 696: … to share some feelings
‘Huh…on the one hand, I could leave Jin Fang alone and let her process everything that had happen today on her own terms.’
=Which would be a good idea.=
‘On the other, I could be a good boyfriend and at least offer to be there if she needs/wants it.’
‘Okay, then…now how do I get on the roof?’
=May I suggest getting some warm beverages, first? It is awfully cold out there.=
‘That’s a good call…let’s hope Gao Ren has decent cocoa powder…’
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‘Well…this has been a rather eventful day,’ Jin Fang mused as she stared over the cityscape of Willow Scale, the moon, the stars and the lanterns being the only sources of illumination. ‘Then again…eventful is putting it lightly.’
In the span of twelve short hours, things had went from exhilarating to terrifying to shocking to cathartic to shocking again but with a twist. Granted, out of everything that had happened today, Jin Fang was more focused on the thing that shocked her the most: the fact that she had more of a past than she could actually remember.
It was actually due to this shocking revelation that she deemed it necessary to get out of her room and just breathe in the night air in solitude. That and because she wanted to see what it felt like to sit on top of one of the fruit-shaped suites like a fairy in a story book; it was a novel experience.
But the novelty eventually fades away as she repositioned herself, in order to lie down and stare at th night sky. As she did, the memories of one particular event that happened today, played through her head like a record.
[Forgive us…]
‘Ikaito and Grand Blue… I shouldn’t know them, but…why does thinking about them make me sad?’
Out of everything that had happened today, being told by two powerful kaijin that they were sorry was possibly the most shocking thing to ever happen to her in this lifetime or the next.
Then again, maybe it was this lifetime or the previous.
For a long, long time, Jin Fang was certain that her past was rather simple: she was an orphan that was found in an alleyway by Zhen Liu and his mother, she was formally taken in as a personal attendant to Zhen Liu, then she eventually fell in love with Zhen Liu and the rest was history. But now, she wasn’t sure if even the orphan and meeting bit was accurate anymore.
‘Forgive us for failing you and your mother…my mother, who was apparently a kaijin lord too?’
Jin Fang did find it off how the first time she ever met the kaijin via Zhen Liu that she didn’t freak out; she figured that it was because she was overwhelmed with the fact that Zhen Liu somehow came back from being dead. She wasn’t so sure about that fact anymore.
Was it possible that she knew about the kaijin before that moment?
Was it possible that she actually had a mother who was forced to abandon her, who knows how many years ago?
And if her memories were tampered with in that regard, did that even mean her feelings for Zhen Liu were even-
“Heyo.”
“Huh?”
In a moment that could only be described as perfectly timed, the subject of her thoughts had appeared right before her eyes. Zhen Liu was leaning over and staring directly into her eyes, a pair of steaming mugs full of something that smelled like chocolate.
“You look like you could use something to drink. Mind if I join?”
“Uh…sure.”
Then again, Jin Fang thought to herself, even if the foundations were hinky, their current relationship had to be real…right?
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=That and because we accidentally mentioned the words, “hot chocolate”, Jasper and Janice requested that we make them some. Thankfully, I figured out how to make a vending machine.=
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“Uh…sure.”
“Sweet.”
Once he was given the go-ahead, Zhen Liu proceeded to plop his butt down right next to Jin Fang, making sure that the mugs of hot chocolate were carefully balanced in his hands. It would’ve been an absolutely shitty situation if after making the damn things, that he spilled them all over the roof or even Jin Fang just because he got clumsy.
At the same time as he sat himself down next Jin Fang, the woman herself made sure to sit herself up as well in order to meet him halfway as it were.
“Here you are.”
“Thank you.”
When they were both properly seated, Zhen Liu handed Jin Fang the mug of hot chocolate.
Jin Fang took a sip of the drink, expecting the bitterness of coffee or tea, only to be surprised by the sweetness of the drink.
“Huh…what is this stuff? It’s good.”
“It’s something I learned from the library. It’s called ‘hot chocolate’. It’s too late in the evening for coffee, so I figured this would be more appropriate.”
“It’s too late in the evening for coffee?”
“I say this from experience, drinking coffee this late night will turn it into early morning.”
“Oh…are the others going to be okay then?”
“They’ll be fine.”
The two young lovers sat there in silence for a moment, taking the time to drink the hot chocolate and take in the night air.
This moment was pretty damn romantic, even if it was preluded by a whole ton of insane events that would cause most other people to vomit out of stress.
Hell, if Zhen Liu was his old self, he would’ve definitely vomited at least twice over the sight of dead bodies. But that neither here nor there.
Right now, he needed to be there for Jin Fang.
‘Wonder how long I should sit here until-‘
“Xiao Liu…do you remember the first time we met?”
‘-never mind.’
“The first time we met?,” Zhen Liu repeated, in order to give Jin Fang the initiative. He could’ve repeated how they met, verbatim, but he picked up the feeling that wasn’t what she was looking for right now. Evidently, he was right.
“I’m not sure how much you remember, but…I remember that clear as day how met first met,” Jin Fang replied. “I remember the alleyway I was sleeping in, I remember how you and Lady Daria took me in and I remember how happy I was that I was found by you two that day. But that’s the problem: why do I remember that day so clearly?”
To better focus on her thoughts and feelings, Jin Fang placed the mug of hot chocolate down by her side. Zhen Liu for his part kept his.
“For a long, long time, I was certain of who I was, where I was and who I wanted to be with. But now, out of the blue and out of nowhere, a pair of kaijin that I never met tell me that I had some other past. Some other life that I can’t seem to remember in the slightest,” Jin Fang continued. “It’s like…finding out I’m from another world. You know what I mean?”
“I…think I do,” Zhen Liu replied in a very careful tone of voice, sipping on his mug of chocolate in order to hide his expression. Thankfully, Jin Fang didn’t notice this and continued to spill her heart out, so to speak.
“Those kaijin, they mentioned they were the Storm Queen’s creations. I looked up the Storm Queen when I had the chance in one of the history books the others bought, and when I did, I was shocked to find that she was a figure from some odd three to four hundred years ago. And those kaijin…mentioned that I was her daughter.”
At this point, Jin Fang’s expression looked…bleak.
“Does this mean I’m actually hundreds of years of old and forgot about everything? Did I somehow…fall through time?! If that was the case, who was it that sent me through it? Was it my mother or was it someone else? Is there some ancient kaijin who secretly took care of me for years before I met you?,” Jin Fang asked in rapid succession, her feelings starting to take the form of tears coming out of the corner of her eyes.
“And if all of that is the case, and if any of what I mentioned was true…then what does that mean about my other memories? How much of it is true? Did someone make these memories for me?”
Jin Fang began to hug her own legs before asking the question that tore at her heart the most.
“How much of me is…fake?”
“…”
Zhen Liu was quiet as Jin Fang began to cry over the possibility that most of her existence was the result of a false memory, trying to find the right words that would comfort her.
Eventually though, he figured it out. It just needed to start with a very simple question.
“Do you remember the first time we went out?”
