Just as Yun Che’s mind raced, wondering where he was…
A sweet girl’s voice rang out, thick with confusion and carrying a hint of just-woken daze:
“Eh? Eh? Eh???”
The voice was full of pure bewilderment, as if she were feeling around for something novel.
“I… I feel… weird…”
The girl’s voice continued, soft and a little cute, sounding quite young. “My body… doesn’t seem to be listening to me?
My eyes opened on their own, and I even sat up?
How, how did I lose control of my body?
Who are you? Was I body-snatched?”
Yun Che instantly realized that the original owner of this body had sensed the abnormal transfer of control!
He knew he had to answer at once, or things would get serious if the girl’s consciousness began resisting strongly or calling out to the outside world.
In his panic, he hurriedly answered:
“Don’t be afraid! I’m not a bad person! I’m not trying to body-snatch you!” He tried hard to make his tone sound gentle and harmless. “I… I’m a… hmm, traveler.
This is my ability. I can possess someone else’s body for a while.
I ended up here by chance… I don’t know how, but I’m temporarily borrowing your body.
“I’ll be gone very soon, very soon!”
“I definitely won’t hurt you!”
His explanation was full of holes, and even he thought it sounded absurd.
A traveler? Borrowing a body? Like hell! Yun Che started thinking of how to respond…
However, the girl’s consciousness fell silent for a moment, as if digesting what he had said.
Then she spoke again, with less confusion and more curiosity in her tone, and even… a trace of surprise?
“Traveler? How amazing!
Is it the kind of traveler written about in Star Sea Travelogue, the one who can shuttle between different places?”
Her voice was crisp and pleasant, like a spring tinkling in the woods. “You said you were borrowing my body… so right now, are you controlling ‘me’?
That feels so strange… but it doesn’t seem uncomfortable?”
Yun Che: “…”
This reaction was wrong!
Young lady, aren’t you focusing on the wrong thing?
You should be worrying about your own safety right now!
Normally, when a stranger’s consciousness invaded your body, the first reaction should have been panic, anger, and resistance.
Just like Li Zijun at first, shocked, wary, and even willing to damage her own soul to fight back.
It took him a long time to make Li Zijun let down her guard…
But this young lady’s reaction…
“You… you’re not afraid?” Yun Che could not help asking. “What if I’m a bad person?”
“If you were a bad person, why would you tell me?” the girl answered matter-of-factly, with a nearly innocent logic. “Don’t bad people just secretly do bad things and then run away?
You’re even discussing it with me, and you said you’d leave… and besides, the way you speak feels… not bad?”
She paused, then added, with a rare hint of loneliness that did not quite fit her lavish surroundings, “Anyway… no one keeps me company and talks to me normally.
My brothers are all busy, and the maids only act respectfully… can you play with me?
Traveler, mister? Or… young lady? Are you a boy or a girl?”
Play with you…?
Yun Che felt like his consciousness itself was about to turn to stone.
This bound target felt… as innocent as a blank sheet of paper.
No, not a blank sheet of paper, but the purest crystal, protected inside a vacuum glass case and never stained by dust.
Her understanding of “malice” seemed to come only from storybooks, and she lacked even the most basic caution and fear toward real danger.
Was it because her status was too noble and she had never experienced hardship? Or because… of something else?
“Are you… often alone?” Yun Che asked instinctively, with a trace of gentleness even he himself had not noticed.
“…Mm.” The girl’s voice lowered, and that loneliness became even more obvious. “Everyone is very busy. After my imperial consort mother was gone… it seemed like no one was willing to just… keep me company and play for a while anymore.”
It seemed she had not spoken about these things to anyone for a long time, and toward a “traveler” who had suddenly appeared in her body, she could not help revealing her true feelings.
Yun Che fell silent.
He could roughly imagine that kind of environment. Behind extreme wealth and splendor lay an emotional desert.
No wonder she was not afraid of a consciousness that had suddenly broken in; instead, she seemed somewhat… welcoming?
Yun Che understood, and he was about to say a few words of comfort when he suddenly caught a key piece of information in her words.
“My imperial consort mother?” His thought carried a trace of surprise. “That way of addressing her… wait, are you a princess?”
Although he had already guessed from the luxurious surroundings, hearing it confirmed with his own ears was still different.
“Mm, yes.” The girl answered. “This is the imperial capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty. I am the 9th princess of the Great Zhou Dynasty, Tantai Mingyue.”
The Great Zhou Dynasty?
Yun Che’s consciousness jolted violently.
Why don’t I remember there being a Great Zhou Dynasty in Xiaoyao Prefecture?
Could it be that this isn’t Xiaoyao Prefecture?
Had this random binding actually crossed prefectures?
From Xiaoyao Prefecture’s Shenxiao Palace, he had suddenly ended up in the imperial palace of the Great Zhou Dynasty on some continent far, far away!
This system’s “random” range was way too broad!
No wonder the passage felt different this time!
Yun Che asked, “Which continent does the Great Zhou Dynasty belong to?”
Tantai Mingyue asked curiously, “Yuanhai Continent, of course. Isn’t that common knowledge? Why are you asking that? Could it be that you…”
Yun Che answered, “Mm, I come from another continent.”
“Wow, no wonder!”
“Then you really are a traveler from a place so, so far away!” Tantai Mingyue’s exclamation was filled with pure longing. “How wonderful, to be able to go to such faraway places…
I’ve barely even left the imperial city.” Her voice carried that loneliness of being trapped behind the deep palace walls once more.
She paused, then suddenly remembered something, and her tone became even more urgent than before, with a hint of sudden realization that she had finally grasped the point:
“Right, right! You still haven’t told me your name!
Are you a boy or a girl? You…”
Should he tell her his real name? Yun Che hesitated for a moment.
Thinking that this was Yuanhai Continent’s Great Zhou Dynasty, separated from Xiaoyao Prefecture’s Shenxiao Palace by who knew how many tens of thousands of miles, with the Endless Sea in between…
As a princess in the deep palace, it was almost impossible for her to cross continents and find him, and she didn’t even know which continent he was on.
Telling her his real name didn’t seem to carry much risk.
As for Zijun’s side… sigh, he would find a chance to explain later.
If he let Zijun know now that he had used an alias to deceive her…
Yun Che shivered, and he seriously suspected that the Confucian school immortal maiden of the Gentleman Realm would get so angry that she would come straight to Shenxiao Palace with a sword, or maybe a brush, to “educate” her little brother.
“My name is Yun Che.” He finally decided to tell the truth, his thought calm.
“Yun Che… Yun Che…” Tantai Mingyue murmured it twice under her breath, as if savoring it. “That name sounds quite nice, clear as the clouds.
It just sounds like a boy’s name.”
Eh? Eh? Eh? Could it be…?
“Mm, I’m male.”
Yun Che’s thought came calmly, cutting off her question.