Girl, There's Something Wrong With You - Chapter 19

Murong Shu returned to the rear hall, where Ye Ru immediately approached her.
“So, how did it go?”

“They’re not from the forces of the Emperor of Ziwei,” Murong Shu said, taking a sip of water. “At least on the surface, they appear to be from the human side. They claimed to have found my mother in Pengcheng County and want to take her south to care for her.”

“A hostage,” Ye Ru nodded. “Still, it’s a good thing. Auntie is powerless to defend herself, and staying near the border is inherently dangerous.”

“Yes, I agreed to their request,” Murong Shu said, turning to Su Lili. “By the way, one of them claimed to know you.”

“Knows me?” Su Lili frowned slightly, and a name suddenly popped into her head.

Could it be Jinyang?

“Hey, snap out of it!” Ye Ru waved her hand in front of Su Lili, breaking her reverie.

“What is it?” Su Lili came back to her senses and asked with a smile.

“You just looked like you were glowing,” Murong Shu said.

“Yes, absolutely radiant,” Ye Ru added.

“Ah Si, I was just wondering,” Su Lili said with a sweet smile. “Do you think it could be him?”

“No way,” Ye Ru said incredulously. “How could he know we’re fleeing?”

“Ah Shu, what’s his name?” Su Lili asked Murong Shu.

“Cheng Jinyang,” Murong Shu replied. “He’s stationed at Jingkou Garrison.”

“It really is him!” Su Lili murmured.

She had been smiling moments earlier, but upon hearing the truth, her expression suddenly darkened, and tears began to stream down her face.

“Hey, Xiao Qi, why are you crying? Silly girl!” Ye Ru pulled her into a hug, trying to comfort her. “If he’s really come to rescue you, it just shows he still has a conscience. Isn’t that the best news?”

“Ah Si, Ah Shu, we need to keep this from him,” Su Lili said after crying for a while and wiping her tears away. “The Emperor of Ziwei is still hunting us. How can we drag him into this? Tonight, Ah Si and I will leave under the cover of darkness. You stall Jinyang for a few days, then tell him we’ve already fled overseas. Once the heat dies down, we’ll figure things out.”

“That’s not going to work!” Murong Shu said angrily. “I won’t play the role of breaking up lovers. It’s bad for luck. Let Ye Ru handle it.”

“Fine, I’ll do it!” Ye Ru sneered. “It’s not like being the go-between for you two is anything new.”

As the three argued noisily, there was a sudden knock at the door. Xin Yuehu’s anxious voice came from outside.
“My lord! The Emperor of Ziwei is arriving—her envoy has already reached our estate!”

“The Emperor herself?!” Ye Ru was shocked. “Ah Shu, we can’t stay here any longer. If our whereabouts are exposed, it’ll drag you down too!”

“And Jinyang!” Su Lili said in panic. “We have to get him out of here immediately!”

“Calm down. I’ll take care of it,” Murong Shu said, her face a mask of grim determination.

She had thought they could conceal their presence for a while longer, but the Emperor of Ziwei had skipped the investigations altogether and come directly to her door. There was no hiding anymore.

The three hurriedly left the rear hall, only to find a stately woman standing in the courtyard. She was dressed in a magnificent yellow robe, her hair adorned with a dazzling array of jewels and pins. With her hands clasped behind her back, she gazed at them impassively.

“So, Meng Zhang, they really are here,” the Emperor of Ziwei said coldly. “When I searched Zhiming’s place and found no one, I realized they hadn’t fled north to seek refuge with Dongyin. That could only mean they planned to go overseas. And since you’re an old friend of Tianquan, I decided to check here. As expected, you’ve been secretly sheltering them.”

“What do you mean by ‘secretly sheltering’?” Murong Shu narrowed her eyes. “Has Your Majesty issued an edict declaring them fugitives? If not, they aren’t criminals. So how does sheltering them count as a crime?”

“Don’t talk to me about human notions of justice,” the Emperor said, pressing her fingers to her temples, clearly annoyed. “What is justice? Justice is the hierarchy of ruler and subject, each fulfilling their roles. To seize the Beidou Starfire, you were willing to commit regicide—using the laws of demons to dictate your actions. So why bother discussing justice with me?”

She opened her pale, jade-like palm and said indifferently:
“Then let us resolve this according to the laws of demons.”

With that, she suddenly flipped her palm over and pressed down forcefully.

The heavens crumbled, and the earth shattered!

…

In the bedroom, after finally mediating the dispute between Princess Sister and Jiang Jiu, Cheng Jinyang let out a sigh of relief and urged everyone to change into their sleepwear and get ready for bed.

Suddenly, his vision shifted, and he found himself high in the air, plummeting rapidly!

The gravitational algorithms in his body immediately activated, stabilizing his descent. Squinting against the biting cold wind, he scanned his surroundings and spotted Princess Sister already switching to a flight mode. Jets emerged from her shoulder blades as she traced a swift arc through the sky to catch the flailing Jiang Jiu.

Cheng Jinyang quickly manipulated gravity to seize Wang Wanrou, who was about thirty meters away. The young lady, clad in her sleepwear, was pale from the frigid night air but kept her eyes wide open, staring intently downward.

Below them, the vast Qinghe County Princess’s residence had been transformed into a massive, crushed indentation, as if it had been stomped flat by an enormous can.

“Pressure?” she muttered, frowning.

“No, dimensions,” Ye Ru’s voice suddenly rang out beside them.

The surroundings shifted again, and the four found themselves standing on solid ground. Princess Sister was holding Jiang Jiu, Cheng Jinyang was still carrying Wang Wanrou, and opposite them stood Ye Ru, Murong Shu, and Su Lili.

Ye Ru looked tense, Murong Shu wore a grim expression, and Su Lili stared at Cheng Jinyang, her eyes reddening unconsciously.

“Xiao Li…” Cheng Jinyang murmured, momentarily forgetting to set down Miss Wang in his arms.

“Jinyang.” Su Lili called his name softly. A flood of emotions surged within her, leaving her at a loss for words.

“Save the reunion for later—the next attack is coming!” Ye Ru suddenly shouted, whisking everyone away again.

The ground where they had just stood instantly sank—a cylindrical space centered on their position abruptly compressed into a flat, colorful, paper-thin cross-section.

After ten or so more spatial shifts, they found themselves plunged into icy seawater.

“No more spatial teleportation!” Ye Ru said quickly. “She’s tracking the spatial traces. From now on, we’ll have to swim!”

“Swim?” Cheng Jinyang, caught off guard, swallowed a mouthful of water and coughed. “To where? And how far?”

“To Yingzhou,” Su Lili replied. “About 700,000 kilometers offshore.”

Cheng Jinyang: ?

Before he could process the information, Murong Shu had already activated her magic, enveloping the group and propelling them deep into the sea, speeding toward the east like a bolt of lightning.

Moments later, the Emperor of Ziwei appeared in the void, coldly watching the direction they had fled.

That direction—Yingzhou—was where Sima Yi had once discovered… the corpse of the Star Beast.

—

Deep beneath Jingkou Town, three girls stood on a platform at the underground rail station, their eyes fixed on the dark, deep tunnel leading north.

“Why isn’t it here yet?” Qingqing grumbled.

“Probably another three minutes,” Xing Yuanzhi glanced at her phone. “It’s not our passenger train, but a freight train coming from Changzhou and heading toward Pengcheng County to transport supplies. It wouldn’t have been waiting here for us.”

“No worries, as long as it can give us a lift,” Cui Xiaoniang said cheerfully. She cupped her hands around her mouth and called toward the tunnel, “Jinyang! We’re coming to find you!”

Her voice echoed down the tunnel, lingering for a long time before fading into silence.