Wang Manman did not answer.
She fell silent for a while, then raised her head to look at Wen Ning and asked a completely unrelated question.
"Have you read Journey to the West?"
Wen Ning was speechless.
He had just made such a solemn promise, and her response was to ask whether he had read Journey to the West?
It felt like confessing your love to someone only for them to suddenly ask what the cafeteria was serving today.
"Of course I have."
He swallowed his exasperation and answered honestly anyway.
"It's part of my childhood."
Wang Manman asked another question.
"Do you think Journey to the West is real?"
Wen Ning paused, thought it over, and gave her an honest answer.
"I don't know."
Wen Ning did not want to keep going in circles.
He had not come here to discuss Journey to the West. He had come to investigate a case.
So he pulled the conversation straight back to the point.
"Just tell me first. Who exactly are you waiting for?"
Wang Manman looked at him.
"Haven't I already told you?"
Wang Manman smiled faintly.
"He said back then that if fate brought us together in the next life, he would be with me."
Wen Ning froze.
"I've waited for him through so many lifetimes."
Wang Manman's voice remained calm, but her eyes told Wen Ning how deeply her emotions were stirring.
"Why hasn't he come yet?"
Sitting on the stool, Wen Ning suddenly remembered something: Tang Sanzang had once spoken of fate bringing them together in the next life while he was in the Daughter Kingdom. Could Wang Manman have been its queen?
The queen of the Daughter Kingdom, Tang Sanzang, fate in the next life.
Those fragments spun and collided in his mind, finally forming a