Suddenly she reached out and gave her own thigh a fierce smack.
"Slap!"
This thunderous sound finally woke Cheng Yun up, and he raised his head, asking blankly, "What are you doing? Practicing... practicing some kind of kung fu?"
"I wanted to see if I was dreaming. I heard that when you're dreaming, hitting yourself doesn't hurt." Heroine Yin lowered her head. "It hurts, so it looks like I'm not dreaming..."
"What are you doing?"
"Doesn't your world have nights?" Heroine Yin asked in return.
"Of course there are nights. Look, that pretty, tall girl has already gone upstairs to sleep, hasn't she? After I get off work at two in the morning, I'm going to sleep too."
"Then they..."
"It's only just past eight." Cheng Yun checked the time on his phone. "The real nightlife hasn't even started yet! Generally, going back to sleep at nine or ten is pretty normal; past twelve is when the real nightlife begins."
Heroine Yin nodded, half-understanding.
There was no curfew in this world, and naturally no martial artists wandering the streets at night carrying sabers. People could walk around freely at night just like during the day, going wherever they wanted.
At this moment, Cheng Yun smiled and said, "If you want to look at the night view, you can go up to the roof. Follow the stairs all the way up to the rooftop terrace, and you can see quite far."
"Really?" Heroine Yin was eager to try.
"Yeah, go ahead," Cheng Yun said with his head down.
Heroine Yin truly went up to the roof to view the night scene, leaving Cheng Yun alone to sit bored at the front desk, listening to music to pass the time.
The front desk job was very easy and also very boring; ninety percent of the time you only needed to sit here, but you had to sit for a long time. Fortunately, Cheng Yun had spent a few hundred yuan on Taobao to buy two ergonomic chairs, which were quite comfortable to sit in and kept his waist and neck from aching.
At around ten at night, Cheng Yan finally returned.
Her face was still calm and expressionless. Of course, she hadn't been drinking either. She walked straight over to sit behind the counter without speaking, seemingly waiting for Cheng Yun to start his patriarchal questioning.
Cheng Yun was very cooperative as well: "You're back?"
"..."
"The graduation banquet went pretty smoothly, right?"
"It was okay," Cheng Yan said. "It's just that the teachers talked too much and the classmates were too childish. Everything else was fine."
"Calling others childish when you're just a little brat yourself?" Cheng Yun twitched the corner of his mouth and said.
"..."
"They must have been very surprised and confused when you put Yida down on your application!" Cheng Yun changed his tone.
"No." Cheng Yan gave him a light glance, a hint of a smile curving the corner of her lips as she said, "They all knew my parents had just died, and I told them I still had a mentally disabled brother at home who couldn't care for himself, so I couldn't go too far away to study. They understood right away, and kept going on about how hard it was for me and praising me for being sensible."
"Damn!"
"What did you say?" Cheng Yan's eyes turned cold.
"Nothing, nothing," Cheng Yun waved his hands repeatedly. "What else happened? There must have been quite a few male classmates who confessed to you, right?"
"No such thing." Cheng Yan gave him a calm look.
"How could there not be!"
"There was only one." Cheng Yan hesitated for a moment, then said very calmly, "Quite a few people had confessed to me long ago, and I turned them all down very directly. There was only one who was thick-skinned and drunk, and he pestered me to be his girlfriend."
"Then what did you do? Didn't the teachers intervene?" Cheng Yun immediately frowned. "You didn't agree, did you?"
"Cheng Yun, was your brain eaten by a zombie?" Cheng Yan gave him a disdainful glare.
"Don't change the subject!"
"Teachers? How would teachers manage a drunk, confessing little boy at the end-of-graduation banquet? Naturally, I took care of it myself!"
"How did you handle it?"
"Simple! A slap across the face, bam, his drunkenness sobered right up and he stopped pestering me!"
"Mighty and imposing!" Cheng Yun clapped as he spoke.
"Done asking?" Cheng Yan still cast an indifferent glance at him. "Since you're done asking, I'm going upstairs to sleep. Are rooms tight today?"
"Not bad, a bit tighter than the past two days."
Cheng Yan pulled out her room key while walking upstairs and said, "Then we should still put the deluxe suite up for booking tomorrow. If someone reserves it, I'll just grab a blanket at night and sleep on the couch in the living room of your room."
"...Alright," Cheng Yun said, raising his volume slightly. "If you have time tomorrow, remember to come find me. I've decided to start renovating those dormitory-style rooms, and we should discuss the decoration style and things like that."
Just as he finished speaking, Cheng Yan's figure turned the corner and disappeared. She didn't send back any response.
As far as Cheng Yan was concerned, when Cheng Yun discussed things with her and she didn't make a sound, that meant she had agreed to it.
Cheng Yun stayed on duty until two in the morning. NetEase Cloud Music's daily recommended songs played on a loop several times, and in the end he even meditated intermittently for two hours. Meanwhile, Heroine Yin was still up on the roof and hadn't come down.
Cheng Yun locked the doors and equipment, turned off the front desk lights, and only then headed upstairs.
He first went to check the node space, and then walked up to the rooftop. He saw Heroine Yin sitting sideways on the railing, with one foot stepping on the railing and the other hanging down, sitting with her arms wrapped around her knees and staring blankly down below.
Her profile on the rooftop seemed to reveal boundless desolation, contrasting even more sharply against the brilliantly lit background of the city.
"What are you doing?" Cheng Yun walked over and asked.
"I... I kind of lost track of time. Have you closed up already? I think I heard the sound of the iron gate downstairs closing." Heroine Yin's tone was somewhat hesitant, and she looked at him, asking, "Did you come to call me?"
"I came to check on you." Cheng Yun smiled and sat down on the cement railing as well, looking downward. "What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing."
"Huh?"
"It's just that the Old Mage came up here once earlier. He asked me a lot of things and also told me a lot of things." Heroine Yin turned her head back to stare fixedly at the city's night view. "He said your world also experienced our era, so I was wondering—if our world goes on for many, many years, will it also become like this?"
"Like what?"
"Ordinary people can live and work in peace and contentment, and they can also seek freedom. The weapons of the world can be put away in the armories, and the horses can be turned loose in the mountains."
Cheng Yun suddenly smiled. "It will, it definitely will. But in fact, you will gradually come to know that our world is not peaceful either, and wars still happen in places we cannot see. We enjoy the light because someone is always standing at the edge of the abyss, using their bodies to block the darkness for us."
Heroine Yin abruptly fell silent.
Darkness was everywhere in her world; were there also resolute people standing at the edge of the abyss? It was just a pity that she and numerous martial artists wandered in that patch of darkness, using any means necessary for fame, profit, and survival, with no one choosing to step forward.
Even in the end, all she had thought about was running away.
Heroine Yin let out a long breath and then asked, "Is there a definite result now, Station Master? How long do I probably have to stay in your world?"
"I just went to take a look." Cheng Yun frowned. "You seemed to arrive at eight in the morning, and it's now two in the morning. Calculated by 18 hours, which is three-quarters of a day, you might have to..."
"At least half a year, I suppose!" He gave a very vague answer, having truly no way to be too precise.
"That's fine too, I can enjoy your world a bit more." Heroine Yin smiled, then cupped her fists toward Cheng Yun. "Then I'll have to trouble Station Master to take good care of me during this time."
"Um." Cheng Yun felt somewhat embarrassed. "Actually, I came up to find you because there's also something I'd like to ask for your help with. I've been a bit shy about bringing it up until now."
"Station Master, speak your mind!" Heroine Yin raised her chin slightly as she looked at him. "I, Yin Dan, have already said it—I'll make friends with you! What we martial people say carries a lot of weight!"
"Then I'll say it?"
"Fussing about like an old woman! ...Don't you treat me as a friend?"
"No, no." Cheng Yun looked her over and hesitated. "I just wanted to ask how you trained this set of skills of yours. If it's convenient, could you appropriately... appropriately teach them to me?"
"Huh?" Heroine Yin was taken aback. "Station Master, your methods are so miraculous—with a wave of your hand I couldn't even run away—yet you still want to learn my skills?"
"Well, those methods of mine can't be used casually either. Besides, one can never have too many skills, right?" Cheng Yun rubbed his hands together.
"What a fine 'one can never have too many skills'; so that's how it is." Heroine Yin fell into hesitation, as if she had already forgotten the bold declaration she had just made, until she revealed a somewhat troubled expression. "Well, Station Master, you also know that a part of this skill of mine comes from what my parents taught me when I was little, another part comes from my uncle, and another part comes from learning through all sorts of miscellaneous means after walking the jianghu. Many of those cannot be passed on to outsiders."
"So that means there's no hope, then!" Cheng Yun's face filled with disappointment.
"No, no, no!" Heroine Yin waved her hands repeatedly. "Actually, if you... if you add six hundred qian to my monthly pay... ah, if you think that's too much, five hundred qian will do! I'd still be very willing to try and see if I can teach you some miscellaneous kung fu."
"Miscellaneous kung fu?" Cheng Yun frowned. "Can't the kung fu taught to you by your parents and your uncle be passed on?"
"Of course not!" Heroine Yin was startled. "The kung fu my parents and uncle taught me is miscellaneous kung fu!"
"Fine." Cheng Yun bit his bullet and said with some heartache, "Then it's settled. I'll add five hundred qian a month for you!"
Nowadays, gym trainers cost several hundred yuan per class, and hiring a personal trainer would cost at least a few thousand big ones every month. For such a petite yet busty heroine to cost only five hundred yuan a month, Cheng Yun felt...
Well, that was market price!
"Wait, I haven't agreed yet!" Heroine Yin quickly said. "First of all, I'm not sure if you can learn it, because I've found that people in your world seem to all be so weak. It's possible it won't work."
"If it doesn't work... then... more money, I suppose!"
Heroine Yin blinked at him, looking for a long time before she finally made up her mind, her expression grave as she nodded and said, "Deal!"
In the end, she failed to resist the temptation of money!
"Anyway, I'll do my best!" she said, pausing before adding, "Don't worry, if it doesn't work out, I'll refund your money!"
"Many thanks, Heroine!" Cheng Yun quickly cupped his fists in salute.
The heroine truly was a good person who followed the rules! Trustworthy, loyal, and the crucial part—simple and easily fooled.
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