Kept by a Rich Woman

The hospital room had been quiet for less than three minutes when someone pushed the door open again.

Bai Luoming was looking down at the interface on his new terminal, adding contact information for March 7th and the others while he was at it. Hearing the sound, he looked up and saw Asta walk in alone.

He instinctively assumed she had left something behind. With so many people there just now, it would hardly have been surprising.

"Stationmaster Asta, did you forget something?" Bai Luoming asked, looking at her with some confusion.

The word "stationmaster" made Asta pause. Her eyes dimmed for an instant, but she quickly suppressed it.

After all, he didn't have those memories. As he was now, he had only met her a few times, so it was natural for him to call her stationmaster.

Asta's expression returned to normal, and she even smiled a little. Then she walked straight to his bedside, pulled over a chair, and sat down as close to Bai Luoming as she could.

Bai Luoming sat calmly on the hospital bed and shifted farther inward.

He had a feeling Asta looked at him differently than she looked at other people, but he had no proof.

Once Asta had settled in, she asked, "What do you think of the space station, Luo Ming?"

"The facilities are good, and the medical care is excellent," Bai Luoming answered honestly. "But I have to take off a point for nearly getting killed by the Doomsday Beast."

His unusual rating system made Asta laugh, genuine amusement reaching her eyes. "What if you left the Doomsday Beast out of it?"

Bai Luoming thought for a moment. "Then I'd probably give it an eight."

"And the two points you took off?"

"One point because the corridors are too long and it's easy to get lost. I'm withholding the other one so you don't get cocky."

Playing along, Asta brought up the invitation she had made in the Master Control Zone again. "So, would you consider staying at the space station? It's a big place, with room for someone who has left his homeworld. And..."

She paused and looked at Bai Luoming. "If you stay at the space station, I can offer you very generous compensation."

"Even though I haven't so much as set foot on the train yet," he explained, "rather than staying in one place, I'd rather follow the Trailblaze and see more worlds."

He raised his eyes to the vast, dark starry sky outside the window and continued, "I love the stars, and I really want to see the wonders of different worlds. I never had the chance before. But now, I don't want to leave myself with regrets."

Asta's eyelashes trembled slightly.

Those words were exactly the same as what he had said when he turned down her invitation in her previous life.

Sure enough, no matter how many times things started over, his deep-rooted longing for the Trailblaze was engraved on his soul.

She clenched her hands together on her knees, her nails digging into her palms until they stung a little, then slowly relaxed them.

Once again, he had chosen to leave a place where she could reach him. Even though this was also what she hoped for, no matter how many times she heard those words, they still hurt.

A hint of loneliness appeared in Asta's eyes, then vanished in an instant. It was so fleeting that Bai Luoming almost thought he had imagined it.

He was about to say something to ease the mood when Asta smiled again and said brightly, "Then I wish you a safe journey. But the space station's doors will always be open to you. Whenever you want to come back, you can contact me."

By now, the questions in Bai Luoming's mind had reached a critical point.

From the looks Asta occasionally gave him, to the exceptionally generous pay she had offered despite not knowing him, to her current attitude of "I support whatever you choose."

That was hardly how a space station's stationmaster should treat a stranger who had suddenly appeared on the station. It was more like how she would treat an old friend, and there was far too much in Asta's gaze.

Every one of those things puzzled Bai Luoming.

He thought for two seconds and decided to ask directly.

Sometimes a straightforward question got results, and beating around the bush wasn't his style anyway.

"Stationmaster Asta, can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead." A trace of curiosity entered Asta's voice.

Bai Luoming looked her straight in the eyes. "Why are you so good to me? We haven't met before, have we?"

Asta blinked, as though she had long expected him to ask.

She tilted her head and gave him a somewhat playful smile, speaking in a deliberately mysterious tone. "That's hard to say. Maybe we were a couple in a past life."

Her eyes curved as she spoke, as though she were joking, yet also as though she were serious.

The answer caught Bai Luoming off guard.

He had imagined several possible answers, but never one as dramatic as Asta's. And yet, somehow, it also made sense.

It's not like Asta is actually a regressor, or I'm some kind of human-shaped succubus whose favorability shoots up just from standing there, right?

That would be a little too fantastical.

Asta, meanwhile, was thinking something else entirely.

She hadn't actually been with him in her previous life either. To be precise, as far as she knew, no one had truly stayed with him until the end.

He was too dazzling and too dangerous. People came and went around him, and each of them thought they were the special one, but in the end, fate pushed them all away.

So in this life, she had no intention of getting a head start.

She would be the one "he could see whenever he looked back, no matter where he went."

Seeing that Bai Luoming's brain had seemingly stalled, Asta smiled and changed the subject.

"In any case, if you need anything while you're on the space station, you can contact me directly. Also—"

She took out her terminal and tapped the screen a few times.

Bai Luoming's terminal chimed. He looked down and saw that a string of numbers had appeared on his account balance screen, making his eyelids twitch.

One hundred million Credits.

He stared blankly at the zeros, his expression going from disbelief to repeated confirmation, then to complete bewilderment.

He looked up at Asta, his voice a little unsteady. "...Isn't this a bit too much?"

"Ask me for more when you've spent it," Asta said casually. "This is just a basic living allowance."

To be honest, before Bai Luoming transmigrated, even his in-game Credits had never exceeded that amount, let alone in real life, where he had never seen anything close to it.

Bai Luoming was silent for three seconds before speaking with great seriousness. "Rich lady, if you ever need anything, please don't hesitate to ask."

He paused, then added, "No matter how outrageous it is, I can do it."

After all, no matter what, a person shouldn't turn down money.

At those words, Asta's cheeks rapidly turned red from her ears outward, and she looked as though steam was rising from her head.

Then Asta covered her face with both hands and quickly steadied her breathing. She rose from her chair and spoke noticeably faster:

"Um... don't forget Ms. Herta's test. She's probably been waiting for you for a while, and she doesn't like people being late. I'm leaving now, contact me if you need anything, goodbye."

With that, Asta rushed out of the hospital room without waiting for Bai Luoming's answer.

After the door closed, Bai Luoming looked around the empty hospital room, then down at the balance on his terminal. The corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

"So this is what it feels like to have a rich woman supporting me? This is... amazing."

Bai Luoming then sat up in bed, stretched his limbs, and changed into his own clothes.

Though he didn't know why Asta was so good to him, Bai Luoming had always had one virtue: he never agonized over things.

If he couldn't figure it out, he wouldn't think about it. He would accept it without hesitation. At worst, he could sell his ass to pay her back later.