Skadi, My Wife

Skadi hesitantly asked, "Land-dwellers say that people who like each other end up together. I like you, and you like me too. When will we get together?"

Chen An: "..."

Without another word, Chen An grabbed Skadi by the shoulders, turned her around, and ruthlessly drove the delusional Skadi out of the kitchen.

Did she think being a pretty silver-haired, red-eyed girl meant she could do whatever she wanted!?

Not a chance!

This old man sold his body, not his talents. How dare she covet his beauty? Go cool off somewhere!

At the same time Skadi was being rejected.

Without warning, the other Skadi by the sea suddenly felt depressed.

Unable to help herself, she stopped walking and raised a hand to her chest.

She looked into the distance, but this time, what appeared in her eyes was no longer herself, but Chen An earnestly preparing dinner in the kitchen.

After standing there blankly for a moment, Skadi's eyes curved slightly as she smiled gently.

"I'm coming to find you, Chen An."

An Unexpected Encounter

In the blink of an eye, several days passed.

As dawn broke, a thin mist shrouded the long streets.

In a rural town that felt strangely familiar, Skadi, dressed in a vivid red gown, walked down the street.

Everything on the mist-covered street felt inexplicably familiar, as though she had wandered these same streets just like this on some day in the past.

She looked around, memories flooding her mind. In a daze, her thoughts seemed to return to a certain day long ago.

"Are you really going to travel with me?"

"Didn't we already agree on it? Going back on my word isn't my style."

"But... well, I'm an ill-fated person. If you get too close to me, you might run into danger someday, you know? You seem pretty capable, but if danger really comes, I might not be able to protect you."

"You're so worried about me? You really are a gentle girl... Come to think of it, our introductions earlier were rushed. Since we'll be traveling together from now on, and we have time now, let me introduce myself properly. My name is Chen An. Chen as in Chen An, An as in Chen An."

"I'm Skadi—eh! You can't get that close! Stay at least two meters away!"

She had never experienced it herself, yet it felt as though she had. The memories surfaced before her eyes, and the sorrow filling her heart was warmed away in that instant.

At that moment, the thin mist covering the road ahead gradually began to dissipate.

Three people walked toward her from the other end of the street and happened to meet Skadi, who was walking alone. The moment they saw her, all three froze.

The next second,

"Skadi!?" one of them called out her name in surprise.

Skadi froze. She stared blankly at the three of them for a while before asking hesitantly,

"Nightingale, Nearl... Shining?"

A café.

After their encounter, Shining, Nearl, and Nightingale brought the red-dressed Skadi here.

After thanking the waiter who brought over the coffee, Shining asked with concern, "Skadi, why are you here alone? Where's Chen An?"

"Chen An..." Red Skadi hesitated and said nothing.

She was Skadi, but not Skadi herself. Though she possessed Skadi's memories, they were incomplete. Apart from the memories of traveling with Chen An and some adventures, most of them were fragmented.

Among those fragmented memories were scenes involving Shining, Nearl, and Nightingale. That was why, when Nightingale called her name earlier, she had recognized the three despite her hesitation.

But recognizing them was all she could do. As for what relationship the three had with Skadi... or rather, herself, Red Skadi wasn't sure.

Earlier, they had been too caught up in the joy of meeting again to notice anything unusual about Red Skadi, and even when they asked their question, it had been the same.

But Shining was not a careless person. Keenly noticing that Red Skadi's attitude seemed somewhat different from before, she frowned.

"Did something happen to you during this time, Skadi? Why are you wearing red?"

Skadi had been a warrior before coming to land, and after arriving on land, she became a bounty hunter to make a living. She was still a warrior. Thus, the clothes she wore were always practical and easy to move in. It wasn't as if she never wore dresses, but she almost never did.

Besides that, she had never chosen clothing in colors that were too vivid or eye-catching.

Shining had never seen Skadi wear red when they had been together before.

Nightingale and Nearl also sensed that something was off.

The clothes were a minor matter. Red Skadi's melancholy expression and aura were far too different from the Skadi they remembered.

Nightingale asked anxiously, "Chen An... did something happen to him?"

Red Skadi shook her head. Rather than saying much, she asked, "Why are you here?"

"We came to find Chen An."

Seeing Red Skadi shake her head, Nightingale sighed in relief and explained, "Not long after Chen An left Chernobog with you, my Oripathy suddenly healed. Although Chen An left behind a great deal of medical information, and Dawn's medical technology for treating Oripathy is now even more advanced than Rhodes Island's, we still can't completely cure Oripathy."

"Shining said it would take at least a few more years of research before Dawn might be able to fully cure Oripathy. And besides Nightingale, my Oripathy has also been cured."

Nearl added. Nightingale took the chance to catch her breath, intending to continue, but Shining unexpectedly spoke first.

"Skadi, what are you doing here? Why isn't he with you? Didn't you leave Chernobog together?"

Something about Red Skadi always felt subtly wrong to her. It was as if she were not the Skadi Shining knew.

"I'm looking for him."

Red Skadi's tone was melancholy, yet filled with resolve. "Once I find him, I won't leave him again."

Shining narrowed her eyes slightly and silently scrutinized Red Skadi for a moment before suddenly sighing and lowering her guard.

How could there possibly be two people who looked exactly alike in this world? To think that she might not be Skadi—what an absurd thought.

"It seems you've encountered quite a lot after leaving Chernobog."

Shining sighed, then continued what Nightingale had been saying. "Dawn's medical technology cannot completely cure Oripathy, and Oripathy could not possibly vanish on its own for no reason. On top of that, Chen An had previously helped cure Nightingale's amnesia and frail health. So we concluded that Chen An must have done something before he left to cure Nightingale's and Nearl's Oripathy. That was why we left Chernobog afterward to search for Chen An. We wanted to know what exactly he did to cure their Oripathy."

After hesitating for a moment, she added in an odd tone, "Actually, it wouldn't matter if he didn't know. With the medical information he left behind, perhaps Dawn will be able to cure Oripathy in a few years anyway. But we still felt that finding Chen An would be better."

Nearl nodded. "That is indeed how I feel. Chen An played a major role in Chernobog's stability and in the Reunion Movement's transformation into Dawn."

"Talulah is a trustworthy and capable leader, but she's too straightforward. Mr. Patriot has great prestige, but he's too rigid and stubborn. If Chen An hadn't constantly mediated the relationship between the Infected and Chernobog's ordinary residents, Chernobog would have descended into internal conflict long ago, let alone gained independence afterward... Hmm, I don't know whether it's just an illusion, but I always feel Chen An had something to do with Chernobog's peaceful independence too. Otherwise, Ursus would never have stood by and done nothing while a mobile city declared independence."

Nearl was practically talking to herself by the end.

"After all that, we still don't know where he is."

Nightingale looked troubled. "We previously received news that Chen An seemed to have appeared in Yan Nation. We searched Yan Nation for several months, but never found him. Then we remembered you once said you wanted to take Chen An to see the sea, so we followed the coast all the way here. When we ran into you earlier, we thought Chen An would be here too. It seems we got our hopes up for nothing."

On Terra, few people knew what the sea truly was. Most people merely regarded it as a large lake.

But Nightingale, Shining, and Nearl knew.

"Thank you for telling me so much."

Red Skadi stood. "But I need to go find him now."

She nodded and left.

Shining and the other two exchanged looks and whispered among themselves for a while. After paying the bill, they followed Red Skadi.

Lungmen Inspector—Ch'en

Chen An still had no idea that people had set their sights on him—and there was more than one of them, and it hadn't been just a day or two.

At that moment, he was happily playing video games with Exusiai next door.

"Why did I lose again!?"

While they were playing, Exusiai suddenly threw down the controller in her hand and cried out loudly, "Twenty-one times in an hour, and I haven't won a single round! This isn't scientific!"

"When the halo over your head is gone and those useless wings on your back are gone too, then come talk to me about science."

Chen An rolled his eyes at the furious Exusiai and put down his own controller as he lectured her. "You're bad at the game and loud about it. You know you can't beat me, but you keep asking me to play. Then you refuse to accept it when you lose. Can't you improve a little and stop asking for trouble?"

"You talk too much! Shut up!" Exusiai glared at him.

"Fine, fine. I'll shut up."

Chen An stood. "I happen to have something to do outside. Have Texas play with you instead."

"Get back here! You're trying to run after winning? Isn't that too shameless!?"

Pretending not to hear Exusiai, Chen An slipped away.

As everyone knew, Chen An was a transmigrator.

According to the standard routines in novels, transmigrators should get some kind of cheat, crush everything in their path, become invincible, flirt with a few pretty girls whenever they felt like it, and reach the pinnacle of life.

Chen An had no cheat, nor did he have much interest in being invincible.

Things like fame and money meant little to him.

It wasn't because he was free of worldly desires or somehow transcendent. He had simply lived too long.

Compared with Nian, whom he met in Yan Nation and who was barely a thousand years old yet already acted ancient and called everyone a kid, the number of years Chen An had lived could have several more zeroes added after the thousand.

When one had lived long enough and seen enough, naturally, some things no longer mattered as much.

So in the few years since coming to Terra, he had basically wandered all over the world. Occasionally, he would settle temporarily somewhere and do a few things, then quietly leave when he realized he was no longer needed.

Even now in Lungmen, he did not have any lofty profession. First, he sold figurines, using his exquisite craftsmanship to make wooden carved dolls for money.

Second, he occasionally performed on the streets, doing magic tricks and playing instruments to entertain the children and earn some pocket money along the way.

Third, he was a doctor—the last one made no money. Whenever Chen An acted as a doctor, he generally went to the slums to provide free treatment for the poor, treating it as a daily good deed.

It looked like he did quite a lot, but only the first actually made money, because the person who often bought figurines from him was a rich woman.

As the saying went, strangers got twenty percent off, while acquaintances paid one hundred and eighty percent.

He used to have to set up a stall to sell figurines, but after meeting the rich woman Swire, Chen An no longer had to worry about living expenses as long as he made figurines and dolls that interested her every so often.

Not only did he have enough, he even had money left over to regularly buy supplies for the orphanage.

So he could only say that rich women were truly wonderful~

Other than that, Chen An had no interest in flirting with girls or becoming a winner in life.

Even when girls flirted with him, he had no interest and could remain completely oblivious.

It wasn't that he was dense or lacked emotional intelligence. The reason was still the same—he had lived too long.

Friends were friends, juniors were juniors. He never overthought things, nor did he have the mind to push relationships further.

Thinking someone liked him just because they were closer or acted more intimate, or being smitten by a pretty girl and wanting to chase her—such things simply did not exist for Chen An.

Of course, it wasn't as though he was incapable of understanding everything at all times, destined to remain alone forever.

Otherwise, Skadi would not have given him such a headache.

He knew Skadi liked him. He even knew why she often secretly kissed him.

What apology? That was all nonsense! She was clearly just lusting after him!

In truth, Chen An liked Skadi quite a lot too.

Even he could not remain unmoved by feelings so pure and fervent.

The problem was that he was a transmigrator, and an immortal one at that.

Everything he experienced in this world was merely one part of his journey, but it could very well be Skadi's entire life.

A few decades of youth would pass in the blink of an eye.