Chapter Eighty-Seven: Li Fuzhen

The stars shimmered in the night sky, and the bright full moon poured down its silvery light without restraint, bathing the earth below.

The grassland at night was especially mysterious. Certain grasses that gave off a faint glow bloomed only after dark, and fireflies danced above the thickets near the river.

Pulling the view farther back, one could see two rather conspicuous patches of land standing out in the distance. Compared with the surrounding prairie, these places had not only no glowing grass, but even the ordinary turf was much shorter, giving the impression of a head with a shaved crown and a ring of hair around it.

Countless tents rose across those two stretches of grassland. In the camp, people had built bonfires and were singing and dancing together. Li Hongshen and Li Fuzhen sat side by side, watching the settlers before them compete in song and dance.

“I thought you’d just drop me here and go on ahead by yourself. Don’t you think I’m dragging you down?”

“How could I? Do I seem like that kind of man? You know me. Since I was little, I’ve aimed to be a good man. How could I ever do something like abandoning my own wife?”

“Hmph, who’s your wife? I haven’t said I’m marrying you yet.”

“You’re here already, and we’ve even done that much. You still say you’re not marrying me? Believe me, once you get out of here, your uncle will be waiting for me to come pay my respects and formally claim kinship.”

“Hmph, he doesn’t even know I came here; I came on my own. Let’s see how you explain it to him after you get out.”

“Look at you, saying such foolish things. You came all the way here to register for the lord’s trial; how could he not know? Even if he didn’t, once you entered Pengcheng High School he’d definitely find out. The admission notice gets sent home too.

Ow!

Ahh!

Why are you pinching me? Stop it.

Hey, if you can’t win the argument, don’t resort to force.

Stop, stop. You talk; what exactly did I say wrong? I’ll change it. Don’t pinch me.”

With one hand, Li Hongshen caught Li Fuzhen’s palm, while the other rubbed the soft flesh at his waist. He still could not understand why his eight hardened, iron-like abs, when they fell into Li Fuzhen’s hands, became like chocolate, softening at once and being squeezed and shaped by her fingers.

“Hmph. I’m telling you, don’t call me stupid. And you still owe me an explanation. Start with what that Li Bingbing was about, and then the young lady who asked you out for a night run, and the girl who invited you over to watch videos.”

“Come on, haven’t I already explained it several times? Didn’t I show you everything through video when it came to the night run and the video-watching? You already know the exact situation.

And I already told you about Li Bingbing too—just a normal friend, really. She even has a boyfriend. Darling, you have to believe me!”

“Hmph, fine. I’ll let you pass this time. But remember, when the time comes, it’ll be I who marries you, not the other way around. You hear me?”

“Fine, fine, fine. It’ll be me marrying you. Anyway, we both have the same surname, so whose surname we take doesn’t matter. It’s only a name.

And when we have children someday, if your family comes to inspect the lineage, who’ll know which Li they follow? The child’s resources will still be allocated as usual. What’s there to fear?

Darling, let me tell you: if lords in the Endless Wasteland weren’t unable to have children, do you believe I could build a whole clan with you? By then I’d simply empty the Star Radiance Li family’s education fund. Hahaha.”

“Smack!”

“You wretch, keep talking nonsense and see if I don’t ignore you. Hmph.”

After speaking, Li Fuzhen turned and walked into the tent behind her, leaving Li Hongshen seated alone outside.

“Hiss. This silly girl really doesn’t know how hard to hit. If it were anyone else, they’d already have been knocked out of the Endless Wasteland and waiting for a teacher’s treatment.”

As he spoke, Li Hongshen rubbed his thigh with his hand. His face was a little twisted, and his eyes were slightly red. Li Fuzhen’s slap had landed right at the root of his thigh; if it had gone an inch or two higher, he too would have had to leave the Endless Wasteland and seek treatment from a teacher.

As he rubbed, Li Hongshen himself began to laugh. The laughter grew louder and louder, carrying within it a complex tangle of emotions: relief, release, and happiness.

When he had first crossed over here, he had felt an overwhelming sense of strangeness. Everything was so different. He was like a lowly creature from a lower dimension, suddenly forced into a higher one.

A mere sheet of ordinary glass could float in midair by itself and even serve as a communicator.

Robots were no different from human beings. Many jobs could be handled by machines alone, while ordinary people could only serve as breeding tools, contributing the little usefulness they possessed to society.

And although he recognized every character in the textbooks, once they were put together, he could not understand them at all.

Why did elementary students need to learn spatial node algorithms? Why did they need to study universal language research? Why did they need a comprehensive grasp of basic science and technology?

At the time, Li Hongshen felt like nothing but trash. He had never had much ambition to begin with, and crossing over had not given him any grand dreams. He had no desire to do what the senior transmigrators did; he only wanted to return to the home he had known in his former life.

But at that moment, the Li family had forcibly pulled him back, letting him feel the warmth and care of civilization, stabilizing him. Otherwise, even he did not know what he might have become.

Perhaps, following that path, there would come a day when he would say, “The fault lies with this world,” and, while saying it, go on to destroy it.

For Li Hongshen had always carried a sense of detachment, feeling like a duckweed drifting through civilization. Even after meeting Li Jiaming and receiving much care from his parents’ connections, it had only lessened that feeling, not erased it.

But now, Li Hongshen felt that he had found something he wanted to protect. Whether one called it responsibility or bond, he felt he now had an anchor.

Inside the tent, Li Fuzhen heard Li Hongshen’s laughter, and a faint smile appeared at the corners of her mouth as well. From a young age, she had known she was different. The Li surname had granted her outstanding talent and a unique bloodline.

Though Li Hongshen and she both bore the surname Li, her Li and his Li were fundamentally different. Li Hongshen’s parents had given him a good starting point, but that still could not compare with families whose legacy stretched back for many generations.

The Age of Lords had only begun a little over a thousand years ago. A thousand years before that was the even more distant Age of Transmigration. Those families had continued from the Age of Transmigration to the present, their bloodlines flowing through generation after generation, an ancestral blessing upon their descendants.

Her Li was the Star Radiance Li, one of the great families within civilization, best known for the Star Radiance Titan bloodline. Its final form could command the stars in the physical sense.

As for her, Li Fuzhen’s talent had been exceptional from childhood. Everyone around her spoiled her and indulged her, and in the end she herself became terribly lonely. Even her two older brothers, because her power was too great, did not want to play with her.

Until the day her father took their family to the Origin Orphanage to meet a child of her own age—a rather dim boy. Though she admitted that at first sight she had fallen for his looks, that did not stop her from thinking he was stupid.

A basic algorithm problem that even kindergarten children understood, he did not know how to solve. The simplest, most ordinary universal language studies, he did not know how to read.

That gave Li Fuzhen a tremendous sense of superiority. She took the initiative to find this foolish boy and help him learn those very basic things, though in her heart she admitted she was really there to admire that handsome face up close.

But very soon, Li Fuzhen became unhappy. At first she had felt a strong sense of accomplishment, watching the boy slowly learn those things and then step by step improve his grades.

Then she watched as his scores caught up to hers. Then, before long, his marks began to crush hers outright, until he eventually became the kind of child other parents praised as someone else’s child, and in the end her father even invited him over to teach her studies.

That stirred a small feeling of retaliation in Li Fuzhen. She began to tease the little boy, using her superior physical strength to pin him down and make him play house with her.

And yet, even so, he was like a punching bag—an incredibly good-tempered one. No matter how much Li Fuzhen tormented or teased him, he would still cooperate with her performance as though caring for a younger sister. Even when she went too far, he would ultimately forgive her and indulge her.

Little by little, Li Fuzhen realized that she might already be unable to live without him. Just as her cousin’s book on the theory of love had said: captivated by looks, ensnared by talent, loyal to character, addicted to the body, and bewitched by the voice.

Though Li Hongshen still had all sorts of flaws—no sense of romance, utterly straight, perhaps even terminally so—he was handsome, gifted, trustworthy in character, only slightly worse than her in physique, and his voice was astonishingly captivating.

In the three years since they had been apart, Li Fuzhen had come to understand her own heart more and more clearly, and she had also gained a definite sense of what she wanted. Li Hongshen was hers. No one could take him away.

Besides, her father had no objection to it, or else she would never have been able to study at Pengcheng First High School. It had to be that way.

…

“Boohoo, boohoo.”

“Why are you crying? A grown man crying like this—what are you even thinking? How old are you already?”

“What do you know? The moment I think of my family’s precious cabbage being bitten into by that brat Li Hongshen, something just feels wrong inside. Ahh, it’s killing me.”

“What’s wrong? Regretting it now? Where were you earlier? It’s all over now. And let me tell you this: I’ve watched Li Hongshen grow up. He’s outstanding in looks, dependable in character, and exceptional in talent. This son-in-law is the one I chose. When they come out of the Endless Wasteland and return to the family home, don’t you dare stir up trouble. You hear me?”

“Boohoo, boohoo.”

“Smack!”

“Awoo!”

“I’m asking you a question!”

“I heard you, I heard you. Madam, your hand is getting more and more impressive, but may I submit a small request? Next time you hit me, could you use only a tenth of your strength? Ten out of ten every time is a bit much for me to take.”

“Good that you know.”

…

This first release is three thousand words, mainly to explain the childhood sweethearts angle and make up for the earlier straight-man behavior. What do you think?