Understanding the World (Working Overtime, Updating First, Please Recommend!)

"Careful..." Fang Bie held a thread no thicker than a strand of hair in both trembling hands while Yinsen cautiously cut it with a long sword.

"Phew, finally done. I've got to ask, Yinsen, when you picked up those tools, why didn't you think to bring a couple of knives?"

Fang Bie's fingers were still trembling—not because he was nervous, of course, but because he'd just been cut twice.

Yinsen rolled his eyes at him. The blue light overhead gleamed off his shiny bald head. "Who was it that told me knives were the one thing we had plenty of here, and that I didn't need to bring any?"

Fang Bie lowered his head in resignation. "All right, that was my fault. Tomorrow I'll make some small knives using Food Craft for you. Having to cut sutures with an Iron Sword... Honestly!"

"Anyway, I've cleaned all the wounds on her body. I stitched her up with catgut, so there's no need to remove the stitches. They should grow right into her skin, and she shouldn't have any scars. She'll probably be very happy when she wakes up."

Yinsen spoke as he packed away his medical tools. A hint of excitement still lingered on his face. Performing Surgery in a world like this had been a truly strange experience.

"Which brings us to the question," Fang Bie said, turning to look at Xiao Yan and the old man. "Do either of you know who this woman is?"

The old man and the young man both shook their heads hurriedly, as if someone had wound them up.

"No idea. This brat insisted on saving her."

"I just felt sorry for her, so I rescued her. She was only in my hands for a few seconds. I don't know either."

Fang Bie waved a hand. "All right, then. She's had an IV and a little anesthetic, so she shouldn't wake up anytime soon. Let her lie in bed for a while."

"Yinsen, can we let her stay in the lab for now?" Fang Bie turned to ask.

"Sure, sure. It's just the operating room. I hardly ever come in here anyway." Yinsen had no intention of leaving the lab. He gently shut the door, then turned and went back to his work.

Tony had set up the same kind of thing last time. He'd insisted on testing the physics and mathematical rules of their world here, and the two of them had been thoroughly absorbed in it. Even if Yinsen had come here alone this time, he'd still make time for those experiments.

Fang Bie had no choice but to lead the two of them back to the courtyard. After all that, the tension and hostility between them had gradually shifted into the awkwardness of strangers who knew little about one another.

"Have a seat. I'm sure you have plenty of questions, just like I do." Fang Bie rummaged in a nearby chest for a moment, then pulled out two steps and set them on the ground. For now, they would have to serve as a sofa for the three of them.

Before Xiao Yan had even settled down, he blurted out his question. "Brother, are you from Earth too?"

"Not only am I from Earth, I'm from the same hometown as you!" Fang Bie replied with a smile. "We're all Chinese, descendants of Yan and Huang!"

"Right, haha, that's right!" Xiao Yan rubbed his head and grinned, delighted.

"What's this, disciple? Is that some kind of secret code?" Yao Lao wasn't pleased. He watched the two exchange smiles in confusion, feeling that they had somehow made a deal behind his back.

"No, Master. It has to do with where I really came from. I'll tell you all about it when you have time," Xiao Yan hurriedly explained. "I'm just so happy to meet someone here who comes from the same world as me!"

"Not necessarily." Fang Bie poured cold water on his excitement. "Yinsen is from Earth too, but he and I aren't from the same Earth."

"Multiple Earths... You mean parallel universes?" It was as if Fang Bie had unlocked a long-sealed door in Xiao Yan's memory. Those distant memories came flooding back, layer after layer.

He might have been a native of the Dou Qi Continent, but as long as his identity as a transmigrator remained, he could never forget the memories of his former life.

"Maybe. I'm no god, after all. I can't know everything." Fang Bie left him with that thought. "You're from Earth too? Then how did you end up in the portal?"

"You managed to end up in this world, so of course I could end up in a portal. We just happened to be caught up in the same twist of fate!" Xiao Yan said. Though he was only a youth, his true mental age was over thirty, and his gaze was weathered.

"Hah, fair enough!" Fang Bie nodded. Their circumstances were different, but that wistful feeling of fellow sufferers adrift in the world was much the same.

"I don't understand what you two are talking about, but I've grasped the gist of it." Yao Lao quickly stepped in to remind them he was there, then glared at Xiao Yan. What, had he found a fellow countryman and already forgotten his master?

"You two come from the same place, and you just happened to meet here? Then would one of you be so kind as to tell this old man what's going on?" For all his experience, he still found it hard to make sense of transmigration.

"Actually, you were just caught up in something unexpected. I was about to open a portal to another world, and you happened to run into it," Fang Bie explained simply. "As for traveling between worlds, ask your disciple. He probably knows as much as I do."

"We both made strange journeys. Who's to say which of us knows more?" Xiao Yan replied noncommittally. "Master, think of it this way: the moment we passed through that door, we were no longer on the Dou Qi Continent. We had arrived here, in a place completely different from the Dou Qi Continent."

"Mm, that's a fair explanation. At least there's no such thing as Dou Qi where I come from." Fang Bie nodded. "Simply put, you've left the Dou Qi Continent and arrived in an entirely new world."

"An old world, a new world? Are you saying that in the blink of an eye, we've already left the Dou Qi Continent?" Yao Lao looked unconvinced.

"It's been thousands of years since anyone was said to have successfully left the Dou Qi Continent. Are you telling me that while this old man blinked, we accomplished what countless Dou Shengs couldn't?"

"The world is full of wonders. Before you come to a place, you can never know what might happen there," Fang Bie said. "Just like the Dou Qi born of your continent, or the portals I open in this world. Everyone has their own fate. That we could meet here must be fate too."

"Then what's this world called?" Xiao Yan asked.

"The name?" Fang Bie smiled, his expression just a little unfathomable. "It's called: My World!"

His voice fell, and thunder roared. At that very moment, a few raindrops also slid down from the eaves.