A Few Things About WeChat Conversations 4K

March 7

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: You there?

Lin Chuan waited patiently for a few minutes, and the notification chimed right on cue.

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Nope

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Some bastard surnamed Lin tricked me into going to collect a prize

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Died of exhaustion halfway there

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: What's that supposed to mean? Shouldn't you be thanking me for giving you such a big surprise?

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Ha. Ha.

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Personally, I think assholes ought to have some self-awareness

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Definitely not talking about me, then. I think I'm pretty self-aware

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Get lost

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: You couldn't bear to let me go

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: I'm begging you, bro. Could you stop grossing me out?

There was a brief silence.

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Thanks

The other party recalled a message.

"Tsk." Lin Chuan felt a little disappointed. He hadn't managed to take a screenshot, letting such a perfect opportunity slip away.

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Anyway, how's your trip going?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Did you just recall something?

Without giving the other person a chance to lash out in embarrassment, Lin Chuan, well aware of the importance of distraction, quickly typed another line.

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Pretty well

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Faced some things I'd never dared to face before, figured out where I'm going in life, and resolved my hang-ups

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: I have shed my mortal form and ascended to godhood!

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Is there any risk of recovery with symptoms like these?

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: You've only been away for two days and you're already transforming into a whole new person. What next, seeking immortality and the Dao?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: How did you know?

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: ?

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Speak human

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: I'm going to seek out the supernatural. You know, the kind that lets you fly through the skies and burrow through the earth, pluck stars and grasp the moon, change the world with a thought, and travel through time and space or even to other universes

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: How is your condition still getting worse?

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Stop chatting and get yourself a specialist appointment at the hospital. Have them check what's wrong with you

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: I'm serious

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: So am I

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Haven't you been groggy all day lately? Maybe all that pressure from your family in the past caused something. If you're sick, you need treatment.

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Seriously, make a psychiatry appointment when you get back. I'll go to the hospital with you

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: ...

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Don't you like researching folklore and mythology? Haven't you ever wondered whether the things recorded in those books weren't ancient people exaggerating, but accounts of real events?

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Sure, but it's just a thought

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Only people with fantasy delusions think some divine beast will fall out of the sky. Mature adults know all that falls is torrential rain. Oh, and maybe hail

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Still, that's actually a pretty interesting question. After all, you can't necessarily say myths and legends are completely made up

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Let's hear your wisdom

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Natural disasters, wars, natural phenomena people couldn't understand, coincidences, and vague ideas about the unknown

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Myths and folklore were just ways ancient people understood the world, along with the life lessons they collected

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Hm?

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: For example, if you want me to believe there really was a giant called Kuafu who chased the sun and died of thirst, I definitely wouldn't.

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: But if someone told me

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Thousands of years ago, there really was a man who ran with everything he had for something, chasing that little bit of light, never stopping even as he ran himself to death

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: I'd honestly think that was pretty incredible. Respect

Reading this, Lin Chuan fell silent for a long while. It was as though he could see his only friend since arriving in this world behind the screen, perhaps simply humoring him with some banter while saying things that stirred such complicated feelings.

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Then what if I told you one day that some of what I write is actually true?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Like, I'm actually not from this world, but transmigrated here?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: That would explain why I can write so many great works so easily, like the protagonist of a plagiarism novel, right? Traveling to a world where those works don't exist and copying them over

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: ...

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Makes sense

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: ?

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: No wonder

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: I was wondering how a normal person could sleep until noon every day and still casually write so many books

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Turns out you're from another world

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Then your original world must have been one of those stories about a hero saving the world, and you were lurking at the end, planning to destroy it-the tentacle monster!

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Now it makes much more sense

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Get lost

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: I'm a normal person, and I was a normal person there too. I opened my eyes and found myself in another world, then went to check in at our dorm

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Don't believe you

Lin Chuan was about to send another "Get lost" when another message popped up from the other side.

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: All right, I'll stop messing with you

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Honestly, if it's really like you say, that would explain things. Some of that stuff really doesn't seem like something you could have come up with all by yourself

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: So what kind of world did you come from? Swords and

Sorcery? Or cultivation and seeking the Dao, or urban superpowers?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: It was an ordinary, everyday world. Its relationship to this one is like a parallel world, with only a few differences

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: What differences?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: The national football team didn't win seventeen consecutive World Cups

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: ?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Actually, it was worse. They never even qualified. Fans cursed them out for being utterly shameless

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: ?

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Isn't that a Lostbelt?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Also

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: There's more?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Da Vinci was actually a man. He still painted the Mona Lisa, but his nickname really wasn't Lisa

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: I think I get it. Your world might have been pruned by the Counter Force. No wonder you ended up here. So you're actually its last survivor, shouldering some heavy mission to reclaim your homeland?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Cut it out. There's more

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Cao Xueqin didn't finish Dream of the Red Chamber either. He died after writing eighty chapters, and someone named Gao E continued it. But it wasn't 108 chapters; it was 120

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: That actually makes some sense. Honestly, I don't know how he kept going either. But forty chapters? I'm guessing the continuation wasn't very good

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Right, not as good as the original

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Nice, you've read two versions all by yourself. Send me those forty chapters sometime

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: I didn't memorize them

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: I knew it, you lazy bastard

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: There just wasn't any need to memorize them.

No new messages popped up for the moment. Lin Chuan tugged his cap lower, actually looking a little like a Stand user. Then, visa in hand, he prepared to board his flight to Japan.

He was going to visit the man named Jotaro Kujo. Perhaps Star Platinum really did exist in this world?

He glanced at the screen again. There didn't seem to be any messages, so he typed a few words and sent them:

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: I'm boarding the plane. Talk tonight

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: OK

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: But

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: If it's really like you said, Chuan

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: You must really miss home, huh?

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Can't have been easy. But it's okay, you've got me. Just come to my place for New Year's

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Don't spend all day thinking about weird stuff. Let the past stay in the past

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Eat well, live well. You've got this!

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: ...

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Yeah.

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Also, stop getting so sentimental. I'm straight. You're a nice guy, thanks

March 26

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: I'm back from Japan. Didn't find what I wanted

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: It's okay

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: He's just some athlete, isn't he? It's his loss if he won't meet our great author Lin

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Do you realize you sound exactly like one of those scheming officials in TV dramas?

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Where's my salary, then?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: ?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: WeChat transfer "19999"

The other party refunded the transfer.

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: How's your mom doing?

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Not particularly well

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Good thing you told my mom to get treated at the hospital. They found a tumor during the tests

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: What's going on? What stage? Where is it? Is it serious? Should I come back and see her?

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: It's nothing major. They caught it early, and it's still small. Surgery will take care of it

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Do you need me to come back?

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: No, go enjoy yourself. There's really nothing to worry about. Besides, you're not a doctor. Go have your fun.

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Ask me if you need money

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: It's really not a big deal. The medical bills are only a little over ten thousand after reimbursement

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: All right, got it. Don't send back whatever's left. Be good to yourself

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Nice

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Anyway, you've still got a few days. Where are you planning to go next?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: The place in your username

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Mount Longhu? You're seriously going to seek immortality and the Dao?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Might as well give it a shot. If it doesn't work, I'll just enjoy the scenery

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: OK, I'll wait for your good news

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Remember to take me along when you become an immortal

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Never mind, I still have to take care of my parents

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: I'll bring them too. No extra trouble

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Nice, Brother Chuan. That's a true friend

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Gotta go, Dad's calling me. Bye

13 hcraM

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: So you didn't find a cultivation method at Mount Longhu either?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Actually, I sort of did. Supposedly it's the definitive method passed down from two thousand years ago, though the printout was new

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Does it work?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Nope

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: I knew it. Two thousand years old? No guarantee it's authentic. Last week would be more like it

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Photo

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Photo

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Took a few pictures for you. Here, I think this part sounds pretty convincing

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Hiss... Why does this look familiar? Did someone pirate some nonsense I made up online?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: You're unbelievable

, they just happened to print exactly what you posted?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Anyway, your mom's surgery is the day after tomorrow?

[Unofficial Celestial Master of Mount Longhu]: Yeah. Hope everything goes smoothly

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: It'll definitely go smoothly

April 2

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: You there?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: I found someone who sells old books. Once I buy one and bring it back, I'll show you a genuine antique

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Oh, when is your mom's surgery?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: ?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Has it already started? This early?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: I won't bother you, then. Take good care of your mom

April 3

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: How did it go?

He waited a while.

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Where are you?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Seriously, where'd you go?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Don't tell me you dropped your phone in a river

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: You're really something. I'm seriously going to put you in your place when I get back

April 3

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Hello?

[What Shall the Yearner Answer]: Zhou Mingrui?

A long silence followed.

The last reply had been on March 31. In other words, Zhou Mingrui had stopped responding after April 1.

April 1, 2018

Lin Chuan suddenly remembered what day that was:

April Fools' Day.

The day "Lord of the Mysteries" first began publishing.