When they left, Lin Mo took one of his jackets from the cabinet by the door and handed it to Ning Rongrong.
"Put it on."
Ning Rongrong took the jacket and looked it over. It was a navy track jacket, with a faded logo printed on the chest. The sleeves were long enough to cover her hands completely. She frowned. "Are these the kind of clothes people wear here?"
"It's cold outside."
"I'm not cold. A Soul Master's physique..."
Before she could finish, Lin Mo had already opened the door. The March morning breeze swept in, carrying the damp chill of the riverside. Ning Rongrong stood in the doorway in her thin pink clothes, frozen for half a second. Then, without a word, she put on the jacket.
The sleeves really were too long. She flicked them around until only the tips of a few fingers showed.
Lin Mo glanced at her without saying anything, then turned and headed downstairs.
Ning Rongrong followed, looking around as they went. The Old Western-style House had wooden stairs that creaked beneath their feet. Twining floral patterns were carved into the banister, now covered in dust. She reached out to touch them, then looked at the worn, gleaming wooden steps beneath her feet and muttered, "This house... it's in worse shape than the woodshed at the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect."
Lin Mo heard her but didn't look back. "It's over a hundred years old. You make do."
"Over a hundred years?" Ning Rongrong stared at him. "So it's just some battered antique?"
Lin Mo smiled but didn't explain.
As they reached the first floor, they happened to run into the elderly woman from the second floor, who was stepping out to take out the trash. She spotted Ning Rongrong behind Lin Mo, and her eyes lit up. "Oh, Xiao Su, who's this pretty young lady?"
Ning Rongrong couldn't understand Shanghainese, so she looked at Lin Mo, bewildered.
Lin Mo replied in Mandarin, "A neighbor."
The old woman leaned in to get a closer look at Ning Rongrong, smiling warmly. "How old are you, young lady? Your hair dye looks lovely, that pink and blue. Young people these days are all into that..."
Ning Rongrong felt uncomfortable under her gaze and ducked behind Lin Mo.
Lin Mo gave the old woman a few perfunctory replies, then hurried out with Ning Rongrong.
The world outside left Ning Rongrong stunned.
It had been the middle of the night when she arrived, so she hadn't gotten a good look. Now it was morning, the sun was shining, and the whole street lay open before her: concrete roads, iron boxes coming and going, passersby in strange clothes, and towering high-rises she could see just by looking up.
Those buildings were impossibly tall. She craned her neck to stare at them, her lips parting slightly.
"Th-these were all built by people from your world?"
"Yeah."
"How did they build them? Without Soul Power, how did they carry stones up so high?"
Lin Mo thought about it, but had no idea how to explain. He pointed to a crane parked by the road. "With that."
Ning Rongrong went over to take a closer look. She circled the crane, reached out to touch one of its tires, then crouched down to inspect the chassis. Finally, she stood up, baffled. "There's no Soul Power fluctuation... How does this thing move?"
"It burns fuel."
"What's fuel?"
Lin Mo fell silent for two seconds, then gave up explaining. "I'll tell you about it later."
Ning Rongrong pursed her lips but didn't ask any more questions.
They walked along the street. The morning sunlight stretched their shadows long, and Ning Rongrong looked all around as she went, finding everything new and fascinating.
She stopped when they passed a breakfast shop.
A steamer stood outside the shop, billowing clouds of vapor. The air was rich with the fragrance of white flour. Ning Rongrong sniffed, her eyes brightening. "What's that?"
"Baozi."
"Baozi?" She repeated the word, watching the hand that lifted the steamer lid. It used tongs to pick out several plump, white buns and place them in a plastic bag, then handed the bag to a little girl in a school uniform.
The girl took a bun and bit into it. Meat juice ran down the corner of her mouth.
Ning Rongrong swallowed.
Lin Mo noticed, but said nothing. He walked over and bought four baozi and two cups of soy milk.
Ning Rongrong took the paper bag of baozi, shifting it from hand to hand because it was so hot, but reluctant to let go. She copied the little girl and took a bite.
The hot meat juice scalded her tongue. She hissed and sucked in cool air, but her eyes curved into crescents.
"Delicious!"
She didn't care that it was hot. She finished one in a few bites, then reached for a second. It wasn't until she was halfway through the third that she remembered Lin Mo. She turned to him. "You... you're not eating?"
Lin Mo was drinking his soy milk. At that, he raised his chin. "Go ahead and eat first."
Ning Rongrong lowered her head and murmured something. Lin Mo didn't catch it, but he saw the tips of her ears turn red.
After breakfast, they continued on their way.
When they reached an intersection, the light turned red. Lin Mo stopped, and Ning Rongrong stopped with him, though she didn't know why. Watching the iron boxes roar past, she couldn't help asking, "Can those things kill people if they hit them?"
"They can."
"What about that fire engine you mentioned yesterday?"
Lin Mo paused, then realized she was asking about the siren she'd heard the night before. He nodded. "That can too."
Ning Rongrong was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly said, "In our world, Soul Beasts can also kill people by charging into them. But not like this." She gestured. "Some Soul Beasts are huge, like little mountains. The ground trembles when they run."
"You've seen one?"
"I have." Her voice suddenly dropped. "There are lots of them in the Star Dou Forest. When I was little, I went there once with Grandpa Sword. I almost got trampled to death by a thousand-year Soul Beast. Grandpa Sword cut it down with one slash, and its blood splashed all over me."
Lin Mo turned to look at her. In the sunlight, her profile looked calm, but there was something in her eyes he couldn't understand.
The light turned green, and the crowd surged forward.
Lin Mo gently tugged at her sleeve. "Let's go."
Ning Rongrong came back to herself and followed him.
Beyond the intersection lay an even busier street. The shops on either side had opened for the day: clothing stores, phone shops, snack stalls. Their signs were bright and colorful, and some even flashed.
Ning Rongrong was drawn to a glowing sign. A huge screen was set into it, playing an advertisement. A fashionable young woman stepped out of a car, tossed her hair, and smiled.
Ning Rongrong went completely rigid.
"T-there's a person in there!" she cried, pointing at the screen.
Lin Mo glanced at it. "It's an advertisement. It was recorded."
"Recorded?" Ning Rongrong didn't understand, but she stared fixedly at the screen. The person inside was talking, walking, smiling—there was no way it looked fake. "How did they get in there? Were they sealed away? Can people in your world be sealed inside these glowing boards?"
Her barrage of questions left Lin Mo at a loss as to where to begin. He thought for a moment, took out his phone, opened a video app, and randomly picked a TV show for her.
Ning Rongrong took the phone, her eyes wide. She stared at the tiny screen, where people were moving and talking, utterly stunned. She turned the phone this way and that, trying to find out if anyone was hidden inside. Then she held it to her ear and even smelled it.
"Is... is this a Soul Tool?" she asked quietly.
"No."
"Then what is it?"
"A phone," Lin Mo said. "You can use it to communicate, watch videos, and play games."
"Communicate?" Ning Rongrong seized on the word. "You can send messages with it?"
"Yeah. No matter how far apart people are, you can send them."
Ning Rongrong fell silent, her gaze on the phone turning complicated. After a long while, she said softly, "It's even more impressive than the message-transmitting Soul Tool at the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect."
She handed the phone back to Lin Mo and continued walking, but every few steps she looked back at the phone in his hand, her eyes full of curiosity and reluctance.
Lin Mo noticed and suddenly asked, "Want to try it?"
Ning Rongrong stopped and turned to look at him. Her eyes brightened for a moment, but she quickly put on a stern expression. "I... I don't know how to use it."
"I'll teach you."
Five minutes later, the two of them were sitting on a bench by the road. Ning Rongrong held the phone as if it were a fragile treasure, carefully prodding the screen with her finger.
Lin Mo sat beside her and showed her what to do. "Gently. You don't need to press so hard."
"Oh." She tapped once, opened an app, then quickly pulled her hand back, afraid she'd broken it.
A cartoon was playing on the phone. Several cartoon bears hopped around on the screen. Ning Rongrong frowned as she watched them. "Are those drawn? They're not real people?"
"Yeah, it's animation."
"Animation..." She repeated the word, watching the bears' clumsy movements, then suddenly smiled.
The smile was brief, but genuine.
Lin Mo watched her and suddenly thought that if there were no Shi Nian, no Dual World Collision, then just sitting here in the sun by the roadside wouldn't be so bad.
But the system didn't think so.
His right eye suddenly seared with pain, and a purple light screen sprang into view:
[Warning] [The Plane Rift has expanded for the third time.] [The arrival of target "Shi Nian" has been brought forward again.] [Time remaining: 28 hours.] [Hint: The target has sensed the aura of the person being summoned and is accelerating his search.]
Lin Mo's expression changed.
Ning Rongrong noticed his face and set down the phone. "What's wrong?"
Lin Mo didn't hide it from her. "Shi Nian's arrival has been brought forward again. We have twenty-eight hours."
The smile vanished from Ning Rongrong's face.
She was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly stood and handed the phone back to Lin Mo. "Then what are we waiting for? Take me to that training place you mentioned."
Lin Mo looked at her, a little surprised.
Ning Rongrong felt awkward under his gaze and turned her head away. "What are you looking at? We agreed, didn't we? I'd help you, and you'd protect me."
Her voice still had that haughty edge to it, but Lin Mo could tell she was afraid.
Afraid, but not backing down.
He stood up and put the phone in his pocket. "Let's go. There's an abandoned construction site in the suburbs. It'll be a good place to practice."
They turned and headed back. After a few steps, Ning Rongrong tugged at his sleeve.
Lin Mo looked down at her.
She pressed her lips together and asked softly, "That Shi Nian... is he really coming to kill me?"
Lin Mo was silent for a second, then said, "Yes."
"Can you beat him?"
"I don't know."
Ning Rongrong stared at him, then suddenly said, "You're a pretty honest person."
Lin Mo couldn't tell whether that was a compliment or something else.
Ning Rongrong let go of his sleeve and continued walking. After a few steps, she said without looking back,
"Honest people usually die pretty quickly."
Lin Mo froze.
But then she added,
"Still, they're better than liars."
The morning light fell on her pink-and-blue hair, gilding it with a soft glow. She didn't walk quickly, but every step was steady.
Watching her from behind, Lin Mo suddenly remembered the way she'd curled up and fallen asleep on the sofa the night before, the way she'd clutched her token, the way she'd turned her head aside when she said, "I don't even know you."
And the way she'd tried to look calm when she said, "I'll help you."
He hurried to catch up, walking beside her.
They walked side by side through the busy street, across the intersection, and through the growing morning crowd.
Neither of them said another word.
When they reached the bottom of the building where the studio was, Ning Rongrong suddenly stopped and looked up at the Old Western-style House.
"What's wrong?" Lin Mo asked.
She pointed at a window on the second floor. "There. I saw a shadow just now."
Lin Mo looked up. The window was shut, the curtains drawn, and there was nothing to see.
But his right eye suddenly throbbed with fierce pain.
The purple light screen flashed wildly:
[Warning! Warning!] [An abnormal aura is approaching!] [Source unknown!] [Danger level: Unknown!]
Seeing his expression, Ning Rongrong instinctively edged closer to him.
Lin Mo shielded her behind him, staring at the window, cold sweat gathering in his palm.
The curtains in that window had definitely been drawn a moment ago.
Now there was a gap.
As if someone had peered out from inside.
Before you continue