Chapter 24: The Tangled Web of Transmigration Relationships
Xinran reached out and touched her hair, then held it up to her eyes. After a few seconds of silence, she asked in a tone so cold it made me shiver, “Are you catching a cold?”
“Very good.”
Very good? Xinran took out a pack of tissues from her bag and only wiped the liquid from my face. After cleaning it, she gave me an order. “Follow me.”
Her tone allowed no refusal. I could guess what she was thinking. Although she wanted to scold me, she held back because we were in a public place. I thought she would drag me to a secluded corner to “loosen my muscles,” but things didn’t develop that way.
She led me into the pharmacy I had intended to visit and bought a lot of cold medicine all at once, then threw it all at me. “Cure your cold immediately.” Colds aren’t cured just by saying so. But I didn’t dare to grumble. Xinran was in “cold mode” right now. She was even colder than she was before I discovered she was a brother complex. At least back then, she only exuded an aura of denial towards her brother, as if wondering why such a person was her brother. But now, she emitted an aura of denying my existence, as if asking, “Why are you still alive in this world?”
“You’re staying at Principal Nana Yang’s place now, right?”
“Uh? Yes, that…” I had many things I wanted to ask Xinran, but she didn’t give me a chance, unilaterally changing the topic. “Then lead the way. I think I need to wash my hair.”
As soon as she said the word “hair,” her entire face darkened. It was impossible for her to have let go of me spraying her face with liquid so easily. She was just forcefully suppressing her anger.
“But…”
“What is it?”
“I still need to buy ingredients for dinner.”
Tsh
book.SFA.AC
Xinran, just like before, led the way. I felt like a hunted animal captured by a hunter, helplessly trailing behind, with no thought of escape. Under her terrifying gaze, I nervously bought the necessary dinner ingredients. She stayed by my side the entire time. Although she didn’t speak to me, her eyes never left me. It was like being watched by Lan. No, if Lan’s gaze came from the shadows, Xinran didn’t even bother to conceal it; she was openly staring at me.
Speaking of which, how did she know about me? Did Keling tell her? The sisters must talk on the phone regularly. But the hostility she and Keling showed when they first met me was different. I don’t know how to describe this feeling. It was as if she was fulfilling her earlier statement, “You’re under my care now,” monitoring my every move. I felt like a prisoner under her escort.
Feeling uneasy, I quickened my pace and returned to Nana’s place. It had been less than half an hour since we left, and I had already bought everything I needed. Standing at the door, I handed the shopping bag to Xinran and, while fumbling for my keys, cautiously tried to talk to her. “That, who are you exactly—”
“I don’t think I need to explain who I am. You should know very well about my affairs.” Hearing this answer, I instinctively used the same excuse I gave Keling. “Did Zi’ai tell you—”
“Don’t use that lame excuse anymore. You know I’m not here for that reason.”
I looked up abruptly, meeting her cold, emotionless eyes, unable to hide my surprise. “Xinran…”
Xinran didn’t answer but nudged the door with her knee. I realized I hadn’t opened the door yet and started searching my pockets for my keys, but couldn’t find them. I might have forgotten to bring them. However, the door opened anyway. Xuan’er probably heard the knocking and came to open it.
“Juncheng older brother, welcome back!”
“This is An Keling’s older sister, An Xinran. Xuan’er, you can call her Xinran older sister.”
“Ah, hello Xinran older sister. I’m Kaoru Tsukiyose’s… Let’s go inside first.” Xuan’er politely invited Xinran in. I took the shopping bag from Xinran and headed straight for the kitchen to start cooking. As I was putting away the ingredients, Xinran, who was drying her hair, walked over and said, “I’ll help you.”
BF Light Novel
“Then, help me wash the vegetables first.” We both knew that Xinran wasn’t just here to help me cook; she wanted to find an opportunity to talk to me. Xuan’er wisely didn’t come over, likely because the atmosphere between Xinran and me was too disharmonious.
“Don’t you have anything you want to ask?”
“There are too many things I want to ask that I don’t even know where to start.”
“Then let’s do it in a question-and-answer format. One question each, and no evading the answer. I’ll ask first: are you from another world?”
What! She threw out such a heavy question right away! Although I prefer directness, asking the core question without any preparation is indeed like my sister. After hesitating for half a second, I nodded and admitted, “Yes, I suddenly came to this world last September. It’s been four months now.”
“Okay, it’s your turn to ask.”
“How did you know about me?”
“Zi’ai told me. Don’t worry, she only told me. Did Zi’ai disappear because she went to your world?” I thought for a moment and replied, “I don’t know. I was in that world. Later, after summer vacation ended, just a few days after school started, something major happened, and I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I found myself here, but a year had passed.”
Xinran immediately grasped the information contained in my words and retorted, touching her chin, “You transmigrated a year ahead?”
“It’s my turn to ask next. Yes, I transmigrated a year ahead.”
“So it was a recent exchange.”
“Exchange? What do you mean?”
“Didn’t your sister tell you? When she goes to your world, someone from your world also comes to this world.”
“Are you saying—but isn’t that just a guess?”
“It’s not a guess; it’s true, because I saw it.”
‘SF Light Novel
“The first time Zi’ai went to your world was right before the final exams, right?”
“Yes, but it was a short time, less than two days.”
“It was then, on the first day of the final exams. My sister took the exam. Although there was no difference in appearance, something was slightly different. It definitely wasn’t my sister.”
Even Xinran was so sure, it meant it was true. Zi’ai’s guess was correct: transmigration required an “exchange.” But, an exchange?
I stopped what I was doing and began listening carefully to Xinran’s words. “When Keling told me you came to this world, I thought you and my sister had exchanged places, but it seems that’s not the case.”
“Of course not. How could I have the ability to transmigrate worlds? If I really had such an ability, I would have gone back long ago. I’ve been trying to find a way back for months, but I have no clue.”
“Hmph, your business is none of mine. What I want to know now is, in which world is Zi’ai right now?”
“Now, assuming transmigration is someone’s exchange ability, when Zi’ai went to your world, someone from your world also came here. And that person exchanged with you, so you are here now.”
A exchanged with Zi’ai for a short two days during the exams, took the exams for Zi’ai, and then switched back. Then, during the summer vacation, A and Zi’ai exchanged and came to this world. After that, until I died in September, A exchanged with me, and that’s how I came to this world. But then, how do we explain what Keling saw?
“Keling said she saw Zi’ai a few months after Zi’ai disappeared.”
“She probably returned to this world. After all, a year had passed.” But Xinran flatly denied it.
“That was a hallucination.”
“That definitely wasn’t a hallucination. Because Keling received something from Zi’ai, and that item is something only found in our world.”
A magatama, a gift I gave to Lianbing. It’s definitely not something from this world. This means someone brought the magatama from my world to this one—Keling said it was Zi’ai. But wait, something is wrong.
‘SF Light Novel
“Wait, what Keling saw wasn’t necessarily Xinran?”
“Then what Keling saw wasn’t necessarily Zi’ai either, right? Like I said before, this person can transform into Zi’ai’s appearance.”
Xinran and I were thinking along the same lines. This “A” can transform into Zi’ai’s appearance, so it’s highly likely that what Keling saw was not Zi’ai, but “A,” and the magatama was also stolen by “A” from Lianbing in my world. This is the most logical explanation. But with whom did “A” exchange to return to my world?
Right! Xiao An! Xiao An is clearly not from this world. “A” exchanged with Xiao An and returned to that world! After stealing the magatama, “A” exchanged with someone in this world (referred to as “B”) and returned to this world, and then exchanged with me. This explains it. Although it’s confusing, the general process is understandable.
“A” exchanged with Zi’ai, “A” exchanged with Xiao An, “A” exchanged with “B,” and “A” exchanged with me.
The situation after the exchanges is as follows:
My World | Zi’ai’s World
——- | ——–
A | Zi’ai
Zi’ai | A
A | An
An | Me
Me | A
Now, A, B, and Zi’ai are all in my world. The only things that can’t be explained are the one-year gap in my memory and how I’m back in human form when my body was gone.
No, my brain feels like it’s about to run out of neurons. Is the truth really this complicated? God knows.
