Translator: Eve
Editor: kara
After heading back to China, Song Xuanhe had participated in a few banquets. He had gotten together with Zhou Nan and Xiao Shenglin and also had had a meal with Wei Chen. In less than a week's time, he had already bought a plane ticket to leave China.
Song Xuanhe always travelled rather aimlessly. A lot of the time, he would suddenly think of a city. When that would happen, he wouldn't even plan his itinerary. He would simply buy a plane ticket for the next day and leave. Once, because of his willfulness, he had even wasted five days' time to change flights while on-route, because he had seen a photo of another city's scenery.
He had travelled from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere, from Asia to Europe to North America. He had gone bungee jumping and parachuting in seek of thrills. Prompted by impulse, he had also run off to a small theatre to play with professionals even though he had only learned acting for five or six years as a child. He had even escaped to the Amazons to take pictures of panthers and look young Marsh Deers in the eye while in slovenly clothes. He had also visited highly rated Michelin-star restaurants in exquisite clothes.
For the next three months, Song Xuanhe travelled seemingly non-stop.
By the time he had realized that he hadn't contacted anyone in a really long time, he was already in X Country. Even if he wanted to contact his friends and family, he couldn't.
[What are you doing here?] The System was confused: [There's still two more months left until you're supposed to go home. Brother, you're not planning to live out these last two months under gunfire, are you?]
Song Xuanhe, who had not heard the System call him "Brother" in a long time, suddenly felt kinship between them. For once, his tone was amicable: I was telling the truth when I had said that I wanted to find unique materials and dyeing methods. I wasn't lying to Zhang Chao.]
[But, it's really dangerous here. This is one of the most dangerous countries in this world.] The System said in a grave tone: 【Do you know how many people die here daily? The average number of deaths is 67 people a day! Everyone else wants to escape this place. You're the only person in the world trying to get in.]
Song Xuanhe knocked on the inn's door and raised a brow. "This is a safety zone. There's nothing to fear."
[There's no such thing as a safety zone in a war-torn country.] The System said: [According to what I know, there was a gunfight here two days ago because of a turf war. Three people died, and fifteen were injured. You're not safe at all.]
The inn's door opened a crack. Song Xuanhe smiled at the person and spoke in English. He introduced himself and told the person inside that a X Country citizen he had met on his journey had recommended this place to him.
The person on the other side of the door was a middle-aged man wearing a kind of headscarf. When he heard what Song Xuanhe had said, he was shocked. At first, he surveyed the outside surroundings vigilantly. When he discovered that Song Xuanhe was alone, he looked at the smiling young man. He then cracked the door open a bit more, said something in his local language, and let Song Xuanhe in.
Song Xuanhe thanked the man in the local language. The System was saying in his head: I would recommend that you go home.]
The man brought Song Xuanhe to one of the rooms. He spoke in his local language. Song Xuanhe was able to understand a little bit, but he was mostly baffled.
When the man noticed that Song Xuanhe didn't understand him, he sighed in relief imperceptibly and switched to English. "Why have you come here? You should know how dangerous the situation here is. If there is nothing urgent, I would suggest that you leave right away. The authorities here are extremely xenophobic. You're extremely eye-catching as an Asian. You'll be discovered and captured by tomorrow morning."
[Brother, you should really get out of here!] The System said in Song Xuanhe's mind: [You can buy dyes anywhere! I told you before, this body is now your body. If you were to lose an arm or a leg, it won't regenerate when you return to your own world!]
Song Xuanhe simply smiled at the man, "I came to see Mr. Hashemi."
The man was taken aback. A while later, he furrowed his brows and spoke in a queer tone. "Mr. Hashemi left here with his family two days ago."
"He left?"
Song Xuanhe was stunned. He really had risked the danger of entering a warzone to come here to learn the local dyeing and weaving techniques. In the past, he had seen pictures of beautiful, splendid carpets from the Middle East. From then on, Song Xuanhe had started to look into the materials used to make those carpets.
The dyes and beautiful dyeing techniques originated from X Country. X Country didn't exist in Song Xuanhe's original world, and it was completely different from any country from his original world, regardless of whether it was in terms of culture or history. Even the local language wasn't standard Arabic. It was a local dialect which was very difficult to understand. Song Xuanhe had studied Arabic for a few months on his own while researching but still only understood a little bit.
When he had been visiting R Country, he had been fortunate enough to bump into a merchant from X Country. That person had seen that Song Xuanhe had been looking for information regarding X Country. The two of them had hit it off, and Song Xuanhe had learned a lot about X Country that he couldn't have learned from books or the internet.
X Country was currently very unstable. It was currently in the midst of a civil war. The situation was similar to a certain war-torn country in Song Xuanhe's original world. However, it wasn't really dangerous to other countries since it was a civil war with no outside involvement.
Back then, Song Xuanhe had researched for nearly half a year for the sake of obtaining these dyes. Naturally, he was not the type to give up easily. Actually, he had mulled over whether or not he should take the risk to come throughout his entire journey, from the dangerous plains and forests to the peaceful, luxurious cities.
Just as the System had said, it wasn't really worth it to come to a dangerous place for the sake of a dyeing technique that could be found elsewhere.
He had pondered over this issue for a very long time. But a few days ago, as he had stared at a tall clock tower that had struck noon in a plaza filled with fluttering doves, he had suddenly really wanted to go.
As such, he had contacted the X Country merchant he had met in R Country and found out how to go to X Country. He had also found out who was the maker of the particular carpet he had seen and where he should go to find him.
Afterwards, Song Xuanhe had headed out.
The entire journey, the System had tried to persuade Song Xuanhe patiently of the dangers. It had tried to persuade him emotionally and rationally. It had even dug up shocking footage of gunfights between the two factions in X Country for the sake of persuading him. The guns and bullets were all real in the video. The humans who died had also once been real, living human beings. It had hoped that Song Xuanhe would shrink back.
What it hadn't expected was that it would have no way of stopping Song Xuanhe.
The System suddenly realized that, even though it had interacted with Song Xuanhe for almost two years now and had collected a lot of data on him, it still didn't really understand him. Song Xuanhe was usually cool-headed and rational. He even seemed to care about his safety and well-being more than most people did most of the time. But sometimes, he would do something crazy.
The System didn't even have to run any analyses to know that this trifling matter wasn't worth risking one's life for. The System occasionally wondered if Song Xuanhe simply didn't care whether he lived or died. Perhaps the other was even suicidal.
Suddenly, the System suddenly recalled what Song Xuanhe had said once. He had said that there was a reason he had to go back to his original world while he had no reason to stay in this world.
Back then, the System had thought that Song Xuanhe and Xiao Yuanmu understood each other well and had even fallen for each other. Was that not enough to make Song Xuanhe stay?
But, it now seemed like neither Xiao Yuanmu nor itself really understood Song Xuanhe. The reason why Song Xuanhe wanted to go back to his original world so much might be because the people who understood him were there. Even if those people were no longer alive, he still wanted to go back to his own world.
The first night in X Country, the System had asked the burning question on its mind: [Does the reason you have to go back to your original world have something to do with your parents?]
Song Xuanhe had been wondering if he should stay here and look for other people who were experts in these arts, considering the fact that the carpet maker he had been looking for had already left. His other option was to leave tomorrow morning.
The System's voice had startled him out of his thoughts, which caused him to blank out for a few seconds. Even after having processed the question, he didn't respond for quite some time.
Time slowly passed. Song Xuanhe closed his eyes, which held no emotion. The System knew that he wasn't sleeping, based off of his brain waves. It thought that he didn't want to respond.
The System had been about to say that Song Xuanhe didn't have to answer the question if he didn't want to when he saw the man open his eyes. There was a puzzled light in those limpid eyes, glistening under the moonlight. "I don't know."
The System knew that Song Xuanhe was telling the truth. But, it didn't understand what this meant.
Therefore, it honestly asked: [How could you not know? Didn't you say that you had a reason to go back?]
Song Xuanhe blinked and asked, "Did I say that?"
The System was certain:
[Yes.]
"I might have had a reason back then."
Song Xuanhe flipped over, his gaze traversing the moonlight flooding in from the window as he stared at the foreign-looking dome buildings outside. Who would have expected nighttime to seem so peaceful and safe here? In contrast, the days were filled with despair and fear.
He had not expected it either. He had not expected that after having cut off contact with all the people in his life for three months to travel alone, he would find himself sitting in a bar at night and realizing that the rest of his life might play out the same way. Suddenly, he had felt overwhelming sadness at the thought that Li Nianan, Zhou Nan, Xiao Shenglin, and Xiao Yuanmu would disappear from his life.
This abrupt sense of emptiness had made him want to do something. Subconsciously, he had wanted to dial Xiao Yuanmu's number. The second before he had pressed down on the call button, however, Song Xuanhe had heard the clock tower chime.
At that moment, Song Xuanhe had made a bet with himself. If he was able to find Hashemi and return from X Country safe and sound, then he would stay in this world. If Hashemi wasn't there, or he ended up injured, then he would return to his original world.
The System asked:
【Do you have a reason now?】
Song Xuanhe said:【 Yes. Hashemi isn't here, so I'll choose to go back to my original world.]
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A/N: ‼️ INCOMING ANGST ALERT ‼️Not major angst but definitely emotionally charged. ‼️