After the Black Moonlight’s "Death Escape" Failed [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 49

Chapter 49: Reunion in a New World

◎ Jiao Jiao, I will find you ◎

With a “peng” sound, Jiao Qingyin felt the little wolf in her arms suddenly grow heavy. Within a few breaths, the originally tiny wolf pup transformed into a massive white wolf.

The white wolf completely enveloped Jiao Qingyin beneath her body and then licked her cheek. The slightly itchy sensation made Jiao Qingyin instinctively close her eyes. When she opened them again, she saw her lover with silver hair and blue eyes, dressed in a black robe.

In Al’s eyes—which were incredibly beautiful no matter how many times she saw them—there was now a shimmering, watery light. She looked at Jiao Qingyin and asked in a very small voice, “When did you find out?”

At that exact moment, Jiao Qingyin happened to ask her own question: “How come you have clothes on when you transform back?”

Al: “…”

She struggled with a brief internal conflict before finally deciding to answer Jiao Qingyin’s question first. “I used magic feelers to manifest them… I’ll have to go put on real clothes later.”

So under Al’s black robe, she must be completely naked… Jiao Qingyin’s thoughts strayed for a few seconds before she remembered, under Al’s red-eyed glare, that she hadn’t answered the initial question.

She raised her hand to hook around Al’s neck, pulling her closer, and then leaned against her ear, breathing softly into it. Al’s ears turned red instantly. Immediately after, a large white tail emerged quietly from beneath her black robe.

Jiao Qingyin’s eyes lit up, and she grabbed it with quick hands before Al could retract it.

“Woo…!”

Hearing the sound Al made, Jiao Qingyin couldn’t help but laugh. Their faces were very close now, so she tilted her head and kissed the tip of Al’s ear.

“Al… you actually hid it from me for so long.” Jiao Qingyin’s voice, deliberately lowered, rang right against Al’s ear. With every word she spoke, the temperature of Al’s face rose a degree. By the time she finished the sentence, Al was entirely soft.

“…I didn’t mean to, I just… I could never find the right moment to say it…”

Jiao Qingyin listened to Al’s defense while her hands stayed busy stroking the fur on Al’s tail. “Then when do you think I found out?”

Al was becoming a bit dazed from the petting, but she still tried to recall the previous scene, guessing, “…When we were fighting?”

Jiao Qingyin nibbled on Al’s ear. “Wrong.”

The slight stinging sensation made Al’s eyes widen.

“It was when you were making up stories,” Jiao Qingyin said, her fingers sliding toward the base of Al’s tail. “Waking up to find yourself in a forest, hmm?”

She trailed off with a rising intonation, the tenderness in her eyes nearly stealing Al’s soul away.

“I…” Al couldn’t speak; she only wanted Jiao Qingyin to kiss her again.

Their tails soon became entangled, rubbing against each other, sticky and unwilling to separate. After confirming Jiao Qingyin’s feelings with countless kisses, Al finally gathered the courage to bring up the earlier conversation. “Jiao Jiao, what you said earlier… was it true?”

As she spoke, she still tightly gripped Jiao Qingyin’s wrist, looking as if she were terrified the other would regret it and run away.

“Yes,” Jiao Qingyin nodded, her expression becoming more serious. “Every word was true.”

Al froze. Then, one second, two seconds—tears began to fall from the corners of her eyes. Her expression looked blank, but the tears wouldn’t stop, pitter-pattering onto Jiao Qingyin’s face, causing the latter’s heart to clench.

“I’m sor—mmph!”

Jiao Qingyin’s apology was cut off halfway. Al kissed her while crying, the salty taste of tears spreading between their lips and teeth.

“Don’t apologize… woo… I want to hear something else…”

Al was sobbing, her words muffled and unclear, but Jiao Qingyin understood exactly what she meant. Jiao Qingyin wasn’t a particularly frank person; she rarely revealed her true inner feelings, and even now, she felt embarrassed about the heartfelt truths she had spoken while she was a little snow leopard.

However… she simply couldn’t refuse Al’s request right now. She didn’t ask what Al wanted to hear; she spoke her heart directly: “Al, I like you… I like you so, so much.”

Liked her enough to change her own principles, liked her enough that despite all the obstacles, she wanted to be with Al forever and ever. Only after the words were out did Jiao Qingyin realize—could this “liking” already be called love?

She was still thinking about rephrasing when she was pulled into a full embrace by an Al who had become suddenly agitated after hearing the answer. The enthusiastic “puppy” was almost too much for Jiao Qingyin to handle.

With their hearts finally in sync, they spent an entire day on the soft, large bed. During this day, the place Al kissed most was Jiao Qingyin’s left eye. She left countless kisses on her eyelid, her tears a mix of intense guilt and the joy of regaining what was lost. Even though Jiao Qingyin promised repeatedly that her eyes were fine and the blindness had been temporary, and that her hair wouldn’t wither again, Al couldn’t stop herself from confirming it personally over and over.

Besides her eyes, the collar around Jiao Qingyin’s neck made Al exceptionally excited. This excitement led her to love leaving bite marks near the collar, whether she was teasing Jiao Qingyin or being teased herself.

Night fell once more. Al was draped over Jiao Qingyin like a piece of sticky rice cake, intermittently talking about how much she missed her during those five years. As she spoke, she occasionally let out a little sob-hiccup, looking quite pitiful.

Jiao Qingyin patted her head; she no longer had the strength to say words of comfort. Her hands were sore, and her waist was aching. Al was much the same; if not for her intense obsession keeping her up, she wouldn’t be able to stay awake.

The System, which had been blocked by Privacy Mode for over twenty hours, finally dared to show its face. it called out to Jiao Qingyin: “Host—”

Al snapped awake instantly. With a “shua,” she snatched a mechanical sphere out of the void. Immediately after, she severed the System’s communication channel with headquarters and gripped it with her magic feelers. Having accumulated plenty of experience in snatching systems away from hosts, Al’s movements were very careful this time, not causing Jiao Qingyin the slightest headache.

“Al, wait.”

Hearing Jiao Qingyin’s voice, Al obediently stopped and handed the System over to her. Jiao Qingyin never lied to her on important matters; since the other said she wouldn’t leave suddenly, she would definitely keep her word. Al trusted her deeply.

Holding the System, Jiao Qingyin sat up straighter and gave it a kind smile: “System, let’s discuss something.”

The System began to tremble. According to the records in its database, whenever the Host showed this kind of smile, someone was about to be unlucky—and right now, that person was clearly itself.

“First…” Jiao Qingyin poked Al. “We agreed on this before.”

A reluctant expression appeared on Al’s face, but under Jiao Qingyin’s gaze, she spoke gloomily: “I will stay here and wait for you to return. I won’t enter other small worlds.”

The System lagged for a moment, then discovered that the temporary mission on the task interface had automatically flipped to “Completed” after Al spoke. This meant Jiao Qingyin’s mission to return to this world was finished, and she could leave at any time.

The System was excited for a second and was about to speak when the magic feelers around it suddenly tightened, making its components creak as if it were about to fall apart. Al narrowed her eyes, staring intensely at the System, looking ready to strike if it made any suspicious move. The System trembled even harder.

Jiao Qingyin then said: “Next, these are the three systems that went missing. Al took them apart and put them back together. I want you to take them back to headquarters.” With that, Jiao Qingyin laid three small spheres in front of the System.

The System looked at these silent spheres, its database starting to glitch. Yet her Host was still smiling faintly. “Al won’t attack the headquarters’ firewall anymore, but in exchange, we want the headquarters to give up on ‘correcting’ the direction of this world.”

“Host, that is not feasible—”

Jiao Qingyin pulled out a fourth small sphere. Detecting an unfamiliar peer, sparks flew from the System, and its mechanical voice shook: “Th-this is…”

“I made it myself,” Al’s cold voice entered the System’s sensory center. “Only the shell and signal fluctuations are similar, but it doesn’t have the functions of ‘systems’ like you.”

“Usually, a world only has one Host performing a mission,” Jiao Qingyin paused, her gaze toward the System very friendly. “So, I’d like to ask for your help to register this fake system’s signal at headquarters, so that Al is judged as the Host bound to it.”

Then, what would show up in the headquarters’ database would be that world S3202 already had a Host performing missions to maintain the world line.

The System worked at high speed, analyzing the feasibility of Jiao Qingyin’s plan. It found that the success probability was as high as 86%. This was because the system Al had built was too perfect; aside from being unable to issue tasks or transport people, everything about it looked like an original system from the Space-Time Management Bureau.

Jiao Qingyin released the System from the magic feelers and transferred a sum of points over. “As a reward, I’ll pay for all your future electronic milk teas. How about it?” She acted very sincerely, giving the System plenty of space to consider.

The System was dazed. Its analysis of human nature wasn’t deep enough to understand the “carrot and stick” approach; it immediately agreed under the temptation of milk tea. After agreeing, it sensed something was slightly wrong, but turning its head, it saw the “corpses” of three of its peers and immediately shut up, executing Jiao Qingyin’s plan under Al’s cold gaze.

The System didn’t notice a thin black thread following it the whole time. It wasn’t until it had successfully entered the fake system’s data that it slowly realized—it had become a spy for the Host at headquarters! From the moment it entered the data, it was in the same boat as the Host and the protagonist of world S3202. If the truth came out, it would be destroyed by headquarters!

Seeing the System return looking lost, Jiao Qingyin comforted it: “It’s just moving from working for headquarters to working for me. There isn’t actually a big change—headquarters doesn’t even pay you a salary.”

The System was actually somewhat convinced.

“Besides, headquarters requires all systems to maintain a uniform personality and regularly clear out redundant data. In the future, I’ll help you apply to keep all that data,” Jiao Qingyin smiled, adding to her leverage.

System: “!”

Having received Jiao Qingyin’s promise, its mindset transformed instantly. It was no longer timid and even felt like flying over to the fake system to observe it. The fake system let out a “zhi” sound, appearing to greet the System.

Al looked away from the two spheres with a dark expression.

“Are you unhappy?” Jiao Qingyin whispered to her.

“It feels like having two pets. Annoying.” Al answered gloomily, hugging Jiao Qingyin’s waist and burying her face in the crook of her neck. She was annoyed by anything that interrupted her time with Jiao Qingyin.

Jiao Qingyin found the jealous “puppy” cute. To make Al happy, she rubbed her hair and gave her a “ba-ji” kiss. Al looked up, a certain light flickering in her blue-green eyes.

“Just a kiss… isn’t enough.”

The two systems were kicked out, leaving only the overlapping silhouettes of Al and Jiao Qingyin in the room.

Two months later, after receiving several consecutive messages from headquarters urging her to return, Jiao Qingyin had to bid Al farewell.

“I’ll be back as soon as possible,” Jiao Qingyin promised Al. “Take good care of yourself while I’m away. If I find out you’ve harmed yourself again, I’ll… mmph…”

Al wanted to kiss her every single moment. Her clinginess was both sweet and distressing for Jiao Qingyin. Recently, perhaps sensing that she was about to leave, Al developed separation anxiety, often being caught by Jiao Qingyin staring at her instead of sleeping.

To reassure Al, Jiao Qingyin had to reiterate several times that she would definitely come back. But just as she wanted to say more, the light of forced recall from the Bureau enveloped her. They couldn’t exchange many more sweet words; after a hurried kiss, Jiao Qingyin turned into points of light and vanished, just as she had during her death escape.

Her arms now empty, Al was stunned for a moment. But compared to the heart-wrenching pain of the last time, although she was still incredibly reluctant, she felt certain she would see Jiao Qingyin again.

Except… she couldn’t wait that long.

Unknown to Jiao Qingyin, Al had communicated with the other’s system and learned that Jiao Qingyin had been given a demerit by headquarters due to Al’s influence. The System told her that the demerit would cause Jiao Qingyin to be assigned relatively more dangerous missions. This made it impossible for Al to peacefully do nothing but wait.

She closed her eyes, and countless black threads emerged from her body. A space-time rift was quietly opened.

Jiao Qingyin had barely returned to her Host personal space before she accepted a new mission. To save her own world and to reunite with Al sooner, earning points through missions was urgent.

The main background of the new mission was in the entertainment industry of a highly technologically advanced world. The identity she was given was a rising star who had just become famous. After the System’s last upgrade, various permissions and abilities had been improved. To give Jiao Qingyin a stronger sense of immersion, the System replaced the name of this identity with “Jiao Qingyin” when importing her data.

Jiao Qingyin didn’t care what others called her. While listening to the System introduce the plot of the new world, she found she had already begun to miss Al. She wondered if Al would secretly cry again after she left…

“Jiao Jiao!”

A familiar call rang in her ears. Jiao Qingyin looked up in disbelief. Seeing Al, who had crawled out of the space-time rift and was running toward her, she thought for a second she was dreaming.

During those few seconds of her being dazed, Al flew forward and hugged her. “Jiao Jiao!”

Jiao Qingyin first hugged her back in surprise, but then she realized something was wrong. she immediately checked the System’s back-end, but the records still showed the mission to stop Al from entering other small worlds was “Completed.”

She had no time to ask Al how she did it because the rift was growing larger and larger; she was about to enter the new world. Jiao Qingyin could only use the last few moments to shout instructions to Al: “Protect yourself…!”

She was extremely anxious. Without the protection of a system, the risk of traveling alone was immense; Al’s soul could easily be injured. The irresistible suction was pulling them apart. Realizing she couldn’t hold onto Jiao Qingyin, Al’s expression turned very dark.

This feeling of being forced apart from her lover… Al suddenly looked down and bit Jiao Qingyin’s left hand, leaving a deep tooth mark on the web of her thumb. Jiao Qingyin was startled, but before she could say anything, Al’s figure vanished in a flash of white light.

“Jiao Jiao—I will find you—”

Her voice broke into the phantom nebula. Jiao Qingyin frantically tried to chase after her, but in the next second, she also fell into the rift.

Jiao Qingyin opened her eyes amidst a severe headache. The chaotic sounds of laughter, conversation, and camera shutters made her instinctively hook a smile and look toward the place where the flashlights were brightest before she even finished adjusting.

The soft gasps and the suddenly accelerating frequency of flashes from over there made Jiao Qingyin realize she was doing well enough. The amount of memory this time was clearly more and messier than what Ottilia Hughes had left her. Especially the complex interpersonal relationships of the entertainment industry made Jiao Qingyin’s temples throb continuously.

She looked around and found herself on the red carpet of an event similar to an awards gala. Both in front of and behind her were celebrities dressed in formal wear like herself. Jiao Qingyin told the System to pause the memory transmission and continue when there was no one around. Otherwise, if she lost her composure due to pain in public, the mission would face many obstacles before it even started.

Forcing herself to finish the red carpet and sign her name at the end, Jiao Qingyin was about to follow the actress in front of her to her seat when she was intercepted by a reporter. Seeing a large platform’s logo on the reporter’s microphone, Jiao Qingyin had no choice but to stop.

“May I ask, Teacher Xiao Jiao, are you here alone to promote your new drama today? Is Film Queen Wen late or does she not plan to attend? Rumors say your relationship is very bad, is that true?” He asked a string of questions like a machine gun, the microphone nearly shoved into Jiao Qingyin’s face.

Jiao Qingyin hadn’t finished receiving all the memories, so she had no impression of the “Film Queen” the reporter mentioned, nor did she know if the other had come or what their relationship was like. She could only put her index finger to her lips and wink at the reporter’s camera:

“It’s a secret.”

The woman in the red dress with black hair had a very beautiful face. Facing the reporter’s tricky interrogation, she lowered her head slightly, a stray curl of hair falling by her lips. Her slightly flirtatious tone broke much of her originally cold aura, making it impossible for anyone to look away.

The reporter didn’t expect that Jiao Qingyin—whose face was often criticized by the media for being stiff—could show such a smile. He unconsciously lowered the microphone and slowed his speech, “Three questions, and you can’t answer even one?”

Jiao Qingyin nodded as if troubled. Just then, the next celebrity walked over. Seeing Jiao Qingyin blocked there, she showed no intention of helping her out and let out a heavy snort, her disdain clear. The reporter immediately directed the photographer to snap away, recording every expression of the two, even forgetting to continue questioning Jiao Qingyin for a moment.

Jiao Qingyin: “…” Seems like the original owner isn’t very popular with her peers.

However, this gave her a chance to escape. Jiao Qingyin bypassed the reporter before he could react and nimbly walked toward the seat she had spotted earlier. The actress who had been waiting for Jiao Qingyin to follow so she could mock her turned around, but the figure in the red dress was gone. She was stunned, her eyes searching, but she couldn’t find her.

Jiao Qingyin went backstage. The first thing she did was take off her silk glove and look at her left hand. Since entering the new world, she felt her hand was a bit painful. Looking now, there was indeed Al’s bite mark on the web of her thumb. It was a light red tooth mark, not very obvious, and touching it now, the pain was gone.

Al had bitten her soul body, so… no matter how she changed worlds in the future, this tooth mark would likely stay with her. Jiao Qingyin couldn’t help but smile, but then she grew worried about the Al who might have come to this world.

There weren’t many people backstage right now, and Jiao Qingyin stood in a corner. The staff passing by didn’t look her way, but after thinking about it, she decided to find a safer place to receive the memories. She avoided the crowds as she walked, but the further she went, the more she realized the environment was very different from her impression of a red carpet event. It wasn’t a common broadcast hall or stadium; the ground here… seemed to be moving.

Jiao Qingyin saw a quiet little door not far away that seemed to lead to an outdoor balcony and walked over. She pushed the door open and found it wasn’t a balcony, but a deck. And it wasn’t the deck of a cruise ship where one could watch the sea; it was… the deck of a starship used for stargazing and navigation.

—She was currently on a massive, moving starship, and looking up or down, there was nothing but a starry river.

Gazing at the slowly turning celestial sphere, Jiao Qingyin was a bit lost in thought until a faint smell of smoke pulled her back to reality. Jiao Qingyin turned her head and met the gaze of a woman leaning against the deck railing, smoking.

The person wore a jet-black, form-fitting evening gown. Her unique, long silver-white hair made her face stand out exceptionally. When her blue-green eyes looked over, they held no emotion, as if she hadn’t noticed Jiao Qingyin was there at all. She exuded a world-weary and unsociable aura from the inside out, her face practically saying “Don’t bother me.”

Jiao Qingyin couldn’t help but take a step toward her.

[Iris recognition successful… Protagonist of the mission world detected (Wen Fengyue). Now issuing main mission to the Host…]

The call Jiao Qingyin had on the tip of her tongue was swallowed back down. She gazed at Wen Fengyue, who was only a few steps away, not even listening to the mission issued by the System.

Wen Fengyue had already looked away, but she still felt the uninvited guest staring at her, and a surge of irritability rose in her heart. She stood up straight and walked toward Jiao Qingyin step by step in her high heels, but she didn’t stop in front of her. Instead, she brushed past—

“Is someone bullying you?”

Wen Fengyue’s footsteps paused. She tilted her head to look at the starlet who had called out to her. The other was gazing at her with warm, ink-colored eyes, filled with many emotions she couldn’t recognize.

Jiao Qingyin’s expression was a bit serious. “Your hair is wet; it’s better to dry it.”

She heard the System warning her that her acting value had decreased by 1. The long-lost prompt actually made her feel a bit nostalgic. However, the person in front of her clearly didn’t want to accept Jiao Qingyin’s kindness. She slowly raised an eyebrow, her red lips moving: “Get lost.”