One day, an unexpected guest came to the door of Xing Yan and Luo Jian’s house.
It was a strange man donned in a duck cap, grey jacket, and jeans.
He was standing at the door of Luo Jian’s house. When he opened the door, the man gave Luo Jian a polite smile and stuffed his business card at him.
Luo Jian lowered his head to look at the business card. On the card, beautiful white spider lilies were scattered all over. The words ‘Zhang Ying’ were written on it, and his post was written as ‘Transmigration Night’ studio.
“You are?” Luo Jian’s face showed his baffled expression. The sudden appearance of the man caught him by surprise. At the same time, he was slightly puzzled because it seemed that he had heard this name before—on the beautiful and enchanting white spider lilies on the business card, the name of the studio ‘Transmigration Night.’
“I’m Zhang Ying. Sorry, you must be disturbed by my sudden visit. In fact, I want to invite you and Mr. Xing Yan from your family to a party. Do you have time next Saturday?” Zhang Ying went straight to the point as soon as he arrived. His smile was always on his face. In a trance, Luo Jian felt he was familiar with this person. When the other party lowered his cap and only showed the smile on the corners of his mouth, the strange sense of familiarity seemed to intensify.
Luo Jian felt that somewhere in his heart seemed to be throbbing, as if calling him to do something. However, after careful consideration, he did not quite understand what he needed to do. Luo Jian could only hesitate slightly. Xing Yan was not at home, and no one gave him advice, but he still agreed to the invitation of the strange man: “I have time. I don’t know what kind of party and where the party would be held, though?”
Zhang Ying’s smile became even more brilliant. He replied softly, “HuaTian Hotel on XiangYang Street, Lounge 205. It will take place at around afternoon, 11 o’ clock. It’s not a formal banquet. I only invited a few people, so you don’t need to be too formal.”
Zhang Ying said and raised his head, with his eyes under his cap exposed, staring at Luo Jian, “I’ll be there waiting for your presence.”
After he was done speaking, the man turned around and left, leaving only Luo Jian staring at the other’s back with his business card in Luo Jian’s hand. In fact, when Zhang Ying turned to leave, he inexplicably wanted to open his mouth to hold back the other party, but he could not open his mouth. Thinking that he could see this strange stranger again next week, Luo Jian was magically at ease.
What Luo Jian did not know was that after the man left, he also went to several different places, such as Duan Li and Ah Lan’s new abode. They also welcomed the unexpected guest as he knocked on the door and made the same invitation. However, while Duan Li was still slightly confused, Ah Lan had already agreed to the other party’s invitation.
“Why accept an invitation from a stranger?” Duan Li didn’t understand so he asked. In the passing, he took his lover into his arms.
Ah Lan quickly rubbed in his arms, “I don’t know, but I just want to agree to it. Hm…… intuition, maybe?”
Ah Lan always had this terrifying and extremely accurate intuition, especially when it came to dealing with danger. Duan Li almost had an accident before. At that time, he and Ah Lan drove a car themselves as they went for a vacation. Maybe Duan Li was too tired and was not paying enough attention. At that time, Ah Lan who was sleeping beside him suddenly woke up. Then he quickly grabbed the steering wheel and swung it aside to avoid the danger of them colliding with a large truck across the road.
There were many occurrences of similar events in their lives. This terrifying and magical intuition was especially reflected in dealing with people. Ah Lan could always see at a glance what kind of person someone was—good or bad? Was this person an enemy or a friend? It was amazing that Ah Lan had such a pair of perceptive eyes.
However, although Duan Li’s talent was not comparable, Duan Li also had terrifying talents in some aspects. He had learned to hold a blade since he was in middle school. The master who had taught him how to use the blade always praised him as a genius. If they were in ancient times, he might have been a hero on the battlefield.
Oh, of course, in modern society, no matter how talented he was, he could not beat a gun.
After Zhang Ying left Ah Lan and Duan Li’s home, he went to other places immediately. The other two were not easy to contact, especially the one in the army. It took a lot of effort to dig him out. The other one was relatively easier to find.
But in fact, the other one was also not so easy to handle. He had been transferred to the emergency department. He was so busy that he was on-call for 24 hours. He seemed to be operating on patients all the time. And even in his sleep, he was still operating on others. While he was desperately busy, a nurse told him, “There is a man named Zhang Ying coming to see you.”
“Not meeting, not meeting! Let him wait a little longer. There are other patients waiting for me!”
“You’ve been letting him wait for two hours already,” The nurse stated yet again.
Dr. Hong scratched his head and did not want the man who had been waiting for him for two hours to continue waiting. He said to the nurse, “Let the doctor next door replace me. I’ll be back soon.”
The nurse nodded cleverly, and Dr. Hong rushed out like a rocket. If this inexplicable fellow said a lot of nonsense to waste his time, he would definitely peel a big sum of money off him.
Of course, the result was the same. When Zhang Ying proposed the invitation, Hong looked at the other party’s face and agreed. Even he himself felt that he was baffled by his promise.
After that, Zhang Ying ran to the army and found Luo Feng. The situation was the same. Luo Feng looked at Zhang Ying’s smile and agreed with him inexplicably.
So a week later, a group of people gathered in the hotel’s lounge magically.
It was a strange and novel reassembly for them. They were quite different in their ages, occupations, hobbies, etc., but when they sat together again, they did not feel anxious or uncomfortable.
Luo Jian saw Luo Feng and exclaimed, “Paternal cousin!?”
Luo Feng also saw Luo Jian and reached out to touch his cousin’s head. He also said with a smile, “I haven’t seen you for many years.”
But this move was noticed by the ferocious Xing Yan. He pulled Luo Jian into his arms. Luo Feng’s paw awkwardly stopped in mid-air. He could only chortle a laugh, but he also did not mind. In fact, he knew the sexual orientation of this little cousin of his from the very beginning.
Luo Jian was not very well-behaved. He climbed out of Xing Yan’s arms and began to pay attention to the faces of several people on the table. He felt that these people appeared so familiar to him, but he couldn’t remember where he had seen them. Then his attention was attracted by Ah Lan. He somewhat uncertainly called out to him, “Ah Lan?”
When Feng YuLan heard someone calling himself, he turned back to look at Luo Jian and followed with an uncertain answer, “Yes, Ah Jian?”
When they were in primary school, they had known each other briefly. However, Luo Jian had become seriously ill and could not continue to go to school. From then on, he withdrew from Feng YuLan’s life. However, it was amazing that even though they had not met for such a long time, they could still call out each other’s names. Luo Jian felt as if they had never separated and as if he had just met the other yesterday.
Ah Lan seemed to feel the same way. Suddenly, they happily flocked together, chatting joyously, leaving behind the two beside them. Then, Xing Yan, who was left in the cold, stared at Duan Li fiercely. Duan Li, who was also left out in the cold, also stared back at Xing Yan.
Compared to the situation of Luo Jian and others, the situation of Hong and Luo Feng was not much better. In fact, Luo Feng was not very interested in Hong. His edges and corners were sharpened in the army. His sitting posture was always upright and firm, and his character was also very tough. But recently, he did not know where this Hong popped out from. He had been persistently pestering him.
It was really annoying that he would meet him at a party.
Luo Feng glanced at Hong unpleasantly, and Hong was staring at Luo Feng with hot eyes. He flattered, “We are really predestined.”
Luo Feng ignored him, but Hong grasped onto Luo Feng’s paw as if he was familiar with him. Luo Feng did not resist and allowed him to touch but Luo Feng did not think of why exactly he did not resist.
Hong liked small hands. In fact, his dream before this was to marry a girl with a small body and beautiful hands.
Luo Feng’s claws were quite different from what he imagined. They were very powerful and full of calluses. These hands had held guns and knives for a long time. They were not beautiful at all.
So exactly which part of him attracted Hong?
Hong felt that he did not like only this pair of hands.
Seeing this group of people naturally entered into their respective states, Zhang Ying, sitting on the master’s position, exchanged glances with the good friend sitting beside him. He stood up and began to speak in a loud voice, “I’m glad to see all of you again. Do you have any impression of me?”
Although it was a week later, everyone still remembered this young man named Zhang Ying.
Zhang Ying began to smile. He pointed to the thin man beside him. “This is my business partner. His name is Nie Cong. We have set up a studio called ‘Transmigration Night.’”
Nie Cong seemed very shy. He just lowered his head slightly, but he did not speak.
Zhang Ying then continued, “I have other studio partners, but for some reasons, they are not here, so I have to introduce them to you next time. However, the reason why I invited you here today is very simple. The project of ‘Transmigration Night’ our studio is involved with is mainly to develop a very special online game.”
Several people listened to what Zhang Ying said and unconsciously looked at each other but heard Zhang Ying continue to say, “But this online game has some special, um…… it should be said that it is very special. In today’s market, all the online games you can see can be controlled only with a mouse and a keyboard, and I made this…… which needs someone’s brain to control it.”
“Holographic online games?” It was not known who said that.
“Yes,” Zhang Ying agreed and continued to smile, “It’s a holographic online game. Don’t worry. We’ve done a full test of its security, but we still feel that there are some deficiencies in this game. These deficiencies can’t be made up by our studio alone, so I need some help, such as…… your help.”
When Zhang Ying said this, he was very confident, as if he had never thought that this group of people would refuse.
As a matter of fact, none of the people in Luo Jian’s group refused. In fact, they were very happy. Somehow, this kind of joy surged out from some places in their hearts. As long as this group of people sat on a table, their joy would overflow and it would be hard for them to extricate themselves.
So, just like this, hearing that they still had a chance to play a game together, this group of people found it harder to reject the offer.
And when they sat here, they did not expect that in the future, they would create a new era of holographic online games.
In this reality that seemed to be unreal, they seemed to have found all their lost passion in their past.
-end-
T/N: And this is the end!!!! Omg. I have to say, it’s been great translating for you guys and reading your comments. It’s also been really great working with Kitty & Humu, who are very good at editing. It’s been a great journey though, with LJ and gang. I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I do. And I want to thank you guys who followed the novel while I was translating, and all the encouraging comments you guys gave me. They really keep me going while I was being bored and lonely when translating this novel during the lockdown period in my country. Love you guys. I would also like to thank any future readers, who have reached the last chapter of EIC! Regardless, thank you guys for reading. I hope to see you guys in my next novel! –Falling into the Abyss.
Humu’s turn!!
IT’S THE END QAQ thank you all for reading with us till the end!! Hope yall liked it as much as i did. Did yall cry? I sure did~ do continue to support FleurDeLys’s newest project! They are such great translators and editors, it was a joy working together. Not sure if I’ll pick up any new projects (besides STAS) but I sure do hope to see yall again! Endless love for LJ and gang (≧◡≦) ♡
Kitty: I’m not great at goodbyes but I’ll try… Anyway, big thanks to FleurDeLys and Humu for putting up with me forgetting deadlines and stuff hehe ???? I had so much fun editing and reading this novel, and I’m so glad that you guys enjoyed this too!