2: Underneath A Thousand Skies

250 Reality (6)

After their first date ended, Xu Jinhai asked for Song Jia's contact information.

Song Jia was sure that he already knew it, but she gave it anyway. Since it was already late at night and she couldn't fly to her home in Planet Anjing, Song Jia planned to temporarily stay at the dormitory in the transmigration department.

"Well, see you."

After getting along during dinner, Song Jia felt awkward again. She didn't know why she felt so self-conscious around Xu Jinhai. She had never felt like this with any of her past ex-boyfriends.

Just as she was about walk forward, Xu Jinhai tugged at her hand and pulled her close to him. His hands slid around her waist as he pressed her body against his. Suddenly, his face was much too close to hers, making Song Jia's heart skip a beat.

Xu Jinhai bent down and gently pressed their foreheads together.

He smiled, and a soft, low chuckle vibrated through her from where they touched.

"Jia, you're not going to say goodnight to me?"

Song Jia tried to escape his gaze, looking at his throat instead. His Adam's apple slid up and down as he swallowed, and a light shiver started at the base of her spine and down to her toes. Very quickly, she shifted her gaze somewhere else.

Song Jia quickly said, "Goodnight."

Song Jia wanted to escape his hold, but Xu Jinhai laughed and cupped her face with his free hand. He kissed her forehead. His lips stayed there for a moment, branding his warmth on her skin.

"Goodnight, Jia."

As he said that, he stroked her hair, which had been messed up by his sudden hug.

Song Jia finally managed to escape, and just before she closed the entrance door, she glanced back at him. Xu Jinhai was still standing there, and his smile became bigger when he saw that she turned back. He gave her a small wave and a fly away kiss.

"Jia, dream of me!"

Song Jia made a face at him and quickly closed the door. Humph, that BT disease patient actually dared to tease this grandma?

But when Song Jia went inside her dorm room and saw her reflection on the mirror, she saw that she was also smiling.

...

The next day, Song Jia took an interplanetary spaceflight to Planet Anjing. After the spacecraft landed, she received a picture from Xu Jinhai.

From the moment they separated, he kept sending various messages and photos to her, from the food that he ate to the funny-shaped cloud he saw on the sky. Even a random bug was not spared.

His messages were also constant, from the normal greetings of "Good morning" to texts one could use as evidence to the police.

Just this morning, he texted her, "Jia, I found that there are a lot of your hair strands on my trench coat. I stitched a small plush toy resembling you and stuck your hair on it. Since it was believed that your hair can contain your soul, I'll always be able to carry you around with me." [1]

Song Jia, who was long used to his antics, replied with a thumbs up.

After she arrived home, Song Jia quickly opened the packages that had been left by the delivery man on her doorstep.

She bought skincare and make up products, along with a few clothes. Since she didn't plan on accepting a transmigration mission again, she didn't buy any more gadgets.

As she opened more of her parcels, a small cube suddenly rolled off and fell on the floor. The hologram of a stunningly beautiful woman appeared before Song Jia.

"Jia'er, you can't avoid me forever."

Song Jia quickly picked up the cube and walked to the trashcan. The hologram continued talking, her elegant voice piercing her ears.

"I know you're still angry about what happened, but I already told you that it wasn't my fault—"

As the trash can slowly tore the cube into pieces, her mother's voice finally got cut off.

Looking at the remnants of the mail, Song Jia's expression was cold.

...

The next day, Xu Jinhai suddenly stopped sending her messages.

At first, Song Jia was nervous. She wondered if something wrong had happened to him. Then she realized the absurdity of her thoughts.

"He hadn't texted me for only a day and I'm already worried. Isn't this kind of thing normal?"

Song Jia didn't know if Xu Jinhai had a job, but she was also an adult and knew that unlike young people, adults would always be busy dealing with important things. Sometimes, even a date would have to be canceled because of an overtime or a sudden emergency at work. Naturally, two people can't cling to each other all the time, not to mention disturbing the other person's personal time.

Song Jia thought that if she continued to be spoiled by Xu Jinhai's attention like this, what if one day he didn't secretly take away her disposable chopsticks and she would suddenly become paranoid and think he was going to break up with her?

"I should be glad that he's getting normal instead."

Hypnotizing herself like this, Song Jia became a bit more comfortable after doing some psychological construction.

She wasn't aware that in a planet filled with mutated monsters, Xu Jinhai was fighting for his life.

"Ye Minzhe, you brat!"

Xu Jinhai had woken up a few minutes ago and found himself in Danshen. His black out meant that another personality had taken over his body. Judging by the fact that even though he was surrounded by zombies, he didn't have a single scratch, it meant that it was Ye Minzhe who had taken over.

Each of them were very possessive about Song Jia. Naturally, they couldn't tolerate another man living in the same body being together with her. Every time each of the alters took control of their main body, they would use various threats to make the other alters leave.

Ye Minzhe dumping him in this planet filled with mutated monsters meant only one thing: he was threatening Xu Jinhai to permanently disappear and let him come out if he wanted to survive.

Xu Jinhai was the main personality, which meant that among the different 'personalities' or alters, he was the one who took control the longest. Even if the other alters wanted to meet with Song Jia, they would only be able to take control of their body about ten minutes at the longest.

If they were in the middle of kissing her and Xu Jinhai returned in control, wouldn't they be giving him a good thing for free? That's why rather than killing 1000 enemy soldiers and losing 800 [2], they would rather damage themselves by losing 1000 soldiers in return of making sure that the red apricot tree doesn't lean over the garden wall.

[1] It's true, google "Chinese Soul-Stealing Sorcery Scare of 1768" and lots of articles will come out.

[2] It is a modern twist of the 3000-year old Chinese idiom from Sun Tzu's Art of War, "Kill 1,000 enemy soldiers but lose 800 of your own (杀敌一千，自损八百 shā dí yī qiān, zì sǔn bā bǎi). It means a success that comes with great loss or high cost, or a battle that deals great damage to both sides.