The Romance Extras Turned Out to Be a Yuri Story - Chapter 77

Zhang Qiu had always been a person of few words, so saying this much was honestly difficult for her.

She took a sip of water and countered, “What do you want to hear?”

Is it that you’ll back off? Or that I’ve fallen for you?

Lin Luoluo was hesitant, not daring to extend a probing feeler. Just then, the waiter serving their dishes interrupted the eye contact between the two.

“Hello, your dishes are all here. Is there anything else you need?”

“Not at the moment. We’ll call you if we do,” Zhang Qiu said politely, then naturally handed the hot, sterilized bowl and chopsticks to Lin Luoluo.

She did these things so naturally that it caused Lin Luoluo to momentarily lose focus.

Zhang Qiu noticed her distraction and asked, “Who are you seeing through me?”

This question startled Lin Luoluo. Her hands, which had been on the table, slipped under it, and her eyes darted to the side.

“What are you talking about? There’s no one else.”

“Fine, I’ll pretend you’re not seeing me as a replacement to reminisce about someone else,” Zhang Qiu said in a slow, measured tone. “Let’s eat.”

Lin Luoluo ate very little; her appetite was poor.

After the rewind in time, everything had changed.

Yet, it also seemed like nothing had changed.

She picked at the food a few times.

Zhang Qiu saw her lack of appetite, put down her chopsticks, and said, “Are you that unhappy to be eating with me? Or do you want to go back and satisfy everyone’s voyeuristic desire?”

Lin Luoluo had never known Zhang Qiu to have such a sharp tongue.

She pressed her lips tightly together, shook her head, and said, “I’m tired. Thank you for the coffee.”

With that, she stood up and left first.

Zhang Qiu remained seated, looking at the table of barely touched food, and asked the waiter to pack it up.

As she was leaving, she saw Gu Beichen and Lin Xiangdong standing downstairs. Lin Xiangdong was looking troubled, saying something to Gu Beichen. When they saw Zhang Qiu, they stopped talking.

“Where’s Luoluo?” Lin Xiangdong asked.

“She left already,” Zhang Qiu replied.

Lin Xiangdong scratched his head. “You’re here at a good time; there’s something I need to tell you.”

“What is it?”

Lin Xiangdong glanced at Gu Beichen, finding it difficult to speak, but Gu Beichen, seeing his hesitation, spoke directly: “You’re a girl, so you should know what it looks like when a girl likes someone. What do you think is the best way to determine if a girl likes a person?”

Zhang Qiu raised an eyebrow.

“Are you two standing here discussing this very question?”

Lin Xiangdong nodded.

“I keep saying Luoluo… um, likes him, but he won’t admit it and wants me to go back and ask her clearly.”

Gu Beichen rubbed his forehead. “If she liked me, wouldn’t I know? If we could’ve been together, we would have been by now; why would we drag it out until now?”

“Then why did she transfer here from her perfectly fine school abroad if not for you?”

“Can’t there be other reasons?” Gu Beichen said. “Why don’t you just ask her? Didn’t I tell you, she even wrote the love letter wrong.”

“That’s because she doesn’t know you well. After all, she hasn’t been back to the country for so many years. How would she know your height and weight?” Lin Xiangdong insisted. “Luoluo has loved playing with you since she was a child, and as she grew up, she yearned to return every year to find you. Otherwise, why wouldn’t she object when the family dug up the childhood engagement pact?”

“She didn’t agree to it, either, did she?” Gu Beichen spread his hands. “We both said we needed to think about it, but you guys just settled it for us.”

Lin Xiangdong frowned deeply. “Then you let Zhang Qiu tell us. I won’t argue with you aimlessly. As a girl, you understand other girls best. What do you think? Does Luoluo like him? If she doesn’t, why would she target you?”

Zhang Qiu said flatly, “She didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Why are you defending her?” Lin Xiangdong was puzzled. “If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed you’d let her stain your clothes! You have a cleanliness fetish, don’t you? Why didn’t you dodge when she bumped into you? With your skills, that shouldn’t happen.”

Could Zhang Qiu possibly say that the moment she saw Lin Luoluo, it was as if a chosen daughter had descended? Her heart, which had never been stirred for anyone in her first twenty-three years, directly exploded, which is why she failed to react, allowing her to fall into her embrace, as if she was already prepared to accept Lin Luoluo.

Zhang Qiu didn’t answer Lin Xiangdong. Instead, she turned to Gu Beichen and said, “Let’s break up. Remember to post the official announcement on your Moments. Of course, I’ll post one too.”

Gu Beichen looked distressed. “Why so sudden? Can’t you wait a little longer?”

Zhang Qiu nodded. “That’s how it is.”

“Sigh.” Gu Beichen sighed. He could still use Zhang Qiu as a shield against his mother, but now that was completely out of the question. Although his mother wasn’t entirely satisfied with Zhang Qiu, at least Zhang Qiu held the position of his girlfriend, allowing him to fend off those supposedly suitable “lady” match candidates. He’d intended to use this same excuse for Lin Luoluo, but he didn’t expect Zhang Qiu to pull out.

“Wait!” Gu Beichen chased after her. “You haven’t said why we’re suddenly disbanding!”

“I don’t want to pretend anymore,” Zhang Qiu said. “I have someone I like and I want you to make room for her.”

“Who is it?” Gu Beichen asked. “Mu Yunchun has liked you for so many years, and you never got feelings for him, preferring to use me as a fake boyfriend. Now this person just shows up and you’re already giving in?”

“Gu Beichen, do you know how the cat died?” Zhang Qiu asked.

“How did it die?” Gu Beichen played along.

“Curiosity killed the cat,” Zhang Qiu said, giving a cool wave as she hailed a taxi and drove away.

Gu Beichen stood by the roadside, swallowing a mouthful of dust.

“Curiosity killed the cat…” His mouth twitched. He felt Zhang Qiu was getting increasingly venomous.

Lin Xiangdong slowly walked up behind him. “What, didn’t you catch up to her?”

Gu Beichen glared at him. “Spit it out!”

“Did you really not fall for Zhang Qiu after dating for so long?” Lin Xiangdong gossiped. “Everyone said you two were the perfect couple. Why didn’t the fake turn into the real thing?”

Gu Beichen looked at him for a moment before looking away. “The flower had feelings, but the water flowed on without them. Some things don’t happen just because you want them to. Besides, we’re perfectly fine as friends now. As for you, go back and talk some sense into Lin Luoluo. I genuinely see her as a little sister; I don’t have any romantic feelings for her.”

Lin Xiangdong nodded. “I understand.”

Lin Luoluo returned home to an empty house. She threw herself onto the bed and asked, “System, shouldn’t the time rewind have taken me back to the very beginning? Why are the changes so drastic?”

“The flutter of a butterfly’s wings can cause a hurricane somewhere else. You are that butterfly now. Even a small detail that is different from the original timeline can cause the future to change,” the System replied.

Lin Luoluo closed her eyes.

“What happened to everyone in that world?”

“There is no ‘that world.’ The destination you are heading toward is your future.”

“Will Sang Jing come back?”

“She was merely an effect caused by a wrong variable. Now that the cause is eliminated, she will continue living her normal life.”

“What about Lan Yingying?”

“That character does not exist.”

Everything from the past felt like a dream. Lin Luoluo suddenly remembered the mission reward. She asked the System to show it to her and suddenly burst into tears upon reading it.

It turned out that the other world wasn’t entirely erased. An author named Shu He had witnessed it and written a book about it, including the parallel world she had seen. And she was the female protagonist of that parallel world timeline.

Lin Luoluo suddenly smiled.

This was also good.

She curled her lips, finally catching the System’s weakness, and found the point that had been nagging her ever since the time rewind.

“I’m currently in the Parallel World Bonus Chapter. Since I’m the protagonist, why are you insisting on making me do things a side character would do? Huh? System, can you explain yourself?”

The System was silent for a long time, as if it had crashed. Lin Luoluo knew it was still there and waited quietly.

After a long while, she finally heard the System’s voice, tinged with emotion and jealousy.

“Lin Luoluo, I truly envy you.”

“I am also you, so why is my destiny this way?”

“Everyone likes you, but why don’t they like me?”

“Gu Beichen doesn’t like me, my brother doesn’t like me, and even my parents hate me. What is the difference between you and me?”

It turned out she was Lan Yingying.

And also Lin Luoluo from the other world.

She had made choices opposite to those of the current Lin Luoluo, causing the timeline to change. In an effort to repair the collapsing world, a higher-level celestial being who noticed everything had molded her into a System, sending her back to guide her past self to perform the rescue.

But she was unwilling and used various tricks, even merging multiple worlds and contacting the future villain, hoping to seize Lin Luoluo’s body.

Fortunately, Lin Luoluo consistently made the right choices.

Lin Luoluo told her, “Shut up! I won’t listen to you anymore. The world has already given me the answer—I am the heroine of this world! Get lost, System! This new world doesn’t need you!”

As soon as she finished speaking, a strange light unfolded before her eyes. A golden figure walked out of the light-rift. The figure flicked a finger, and a round ball rolled out of Lin Luoluo. The figure was smiling, radiating warmth.

“I’m taking her away.”

“Congratulations on finding yourself.”

“Luoluo, are you awake? Mom and Dad brought some late-night snack. Do you want some?”

Woken up from her sleep, Lin Luoluo felt as though she had a long, tedious, yet liberating dream, like a traveler on a long journey finally returning to their own home.

She smiled and said, “I want to eat!”

“Why are you so happy, Luoluo?” her mother asked.

“I think I had a very good dream.” Lin Luoluo couldn’t quite recall the content of the dream, but she felt that the ending must have been very good.

Her mother rubbed her head and patted Lin Luoluo’s back, saying, “Come down and eat.”

Lin Luoluo yawned and followed her mother. Downstairs, Lin Xiangdong was chatting with their father. Hearing the footsteps, both father and son turned their heads simultaneously, a similar smile on their similar faces.

“The little sleepyhead is awake now,” Lin Xiangdong teased.

Lin Luoluo pouted and glared at him.

Her father chuckled. “Teasing your sister again. If she gets mad, will you comfort her?”

Lin Xiangdong shrugged. Her mother walked over and playfully slapped his arm, then waved at Lin Luoluo. “Hurry up and eat. It won’t taste good when it gets cold.”

The family chatted while having the late-night snack. Suddenly, the conversation drifted to the place they lived before the Lin family became wealthy. Her mother smiled and said, “I remember Luoluo made a pen pal back then, someone named Qiu something. She was a good kid, but her family was poor. She was raised by her grandmother after her parents passed away and nearly dropped out because she couldn’t afford the tuition. Luoluo was so anxious to send her money. What ever happened to you two?”

Lin Luoluo paused, then slowly replied, “We lost touch after we moved.”

“Speaking of which, it’s a funny coincidence. I was planning to renovate our old house, and guess what I found?”

“What?” Lin Luoluo had a premonition.

“I found the letters she sent you under your bed. I thought I should give these to you to handle.”

“The letters are in the storage room at home. You can look at them after you finish…”

“Huh? Luoluo?”

“Why is this child in such a rush?” her mother muttered to herself.

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