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When faced with Zhou Mingrui himself, who was making them breakfast in the coffee shop, even the Lord of Mysteries, a deity who had seen much, couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
This visit to this universe wasn't so much a deliberate visit as it was a wrong turn.
Originally, The Lord of Mysteries had intended to go to another world to try and gather information about the Outer Deities from a certain world's warning. But somehow, taking a wrong turn led Him to this current world. Guided by His spiritual intuition, He ultimately ended up sitting in this seemingly ordinary coffee shop, about to start breakfast.
The good news was that He had successfully found His counterpart in this world and was currently "recharging"; perhaps after a while, They would be able to return to Their own world.
The Angel of Darkness sitting beside Him seemed even more uncomfortable than He was. The main reason was simply that this world had too little spirituality—it could even be said to have none at all. They could only use the spirituality they inherently possessed, which was difficult to replenish. In the current, relatively safe situation, maintaining concealment could be considered a luxury. For a high-sequence Beyonder of the Darkness Pathway, being unable to maintain a concealed state outside was probably akin to walking naked in a public place.
But on the other hand, He was also like a curious puppy, poking His head around and looking everywhere. He even studied elements already familiar to Him in Their own world for a long time, looking utterly incredulous.
Indeed, The Lord of Mysteries took a sip of the hazelnut latte with double syrup added, it's also hard for me to imagine what kind of life "I" and Leonard, as ordinary people, would have in a world without Beyonder abilities.
When They first appeared in the corner of some alley, They were both stunned.
Cold. The cold of nature. This was a concept neither of Them had experienced in a long time since becoming Beyonders.
Neither of them was wearing very thick clothes. Especially The Lord of Mysteries; His clothes were also a part of Himself, originally meant to maintain the concept of a "suitable temperature" for His true body. But in this world, for some reason, Their own spirituality was severely restricted. With almost no ability to use their Beyonder powers, They finally, after a long time, experienced the real, natural temperature.
At least I wasn't forced to run around naked... The Lord of Mysteries thought, finding solace in misery. But in the current situation, the warmth provided by His clothes was only as effective as they "appeared" to be.
"There's almost no spirituality in this world, which makes it very hard for us to use our own. Simply put, we're now just two ordinary people without Beyonder abilities." After sneezing due to the cold air and sniffing, the Lord of Mysteries even felt a bit of novelty from this long-lost experience. "Let's find a warm place to stay for a while first, then figure out what to do next. For now, it's just the lack of spirituality making us feel 'cold.' Once we recover a bit, it should be fine."
After analyzing the situation, He only then noticed that the Angel of Darkness standing opposite Him had, at some point, adopted an apologetic expression. Without even needing to steal the other's thoughts, The Lord of Mysteries could expertly guess what He was thinking again—something about failing to take care of Him, causing Him to suffer now, and so on.
Helplessly shaking His head, The Lord of Mysteries decided to use His ultimate move.
He opened His arms and embraced the Angel of Darkness. Only after feeling the other relax in His embrace and reach out to hug Him back did He whisper, "Don't worry, we can solve this problem together."
"If you keep blaming yourself, I'll start feeling guilty too, because strictly speaking, this should be my fault."
"Mm," the Angel of Darkness replied, still sounding very dejected, "but you're so cold, and now I can't do anything for you."
The Lord of Mysteries felt His heart nearly melt. He allowed himself to linger a moment longer in the Demonic Wolf's warm embrace before reluctantly letting go.
"You being by my side is the most important thing. Besides, based on past experience, the 'you' or 'me' of this world should be nearby. My spiritual intuition tells me that once we meet them, both our problems should improve somewhat."
Only then did the Angel of Darkness nod gloomily. The Lord of Mysteries simply leaned in again and kissed the corner of His mouth. Only after seeing a hint of a smile on the Angel of Darkness's face did He contentedly tighten His grip on the other's hand again.
What's going on? Clearly, when we were apart, one of us could kill hundreds of himself without batting an eye, and the other could cut away most of himself upon being corrupted. Why is it that now one worries about the other being cold, and the other worries about the first being unhappy? Is this the so-called theorem that one plus one is less than one?
Even though He was still a bit perplexed, The Lord of Mysteries was generally very optimistic about the current situation, to the point where He still had the leisure to joke about himself.
Although most Beyonder abilities couldn't be actively used due to the lack of spirituality, basic abilities attributed to the Pathways' own authority could still be used passively without consuming spirituality.
For instance, the keener "intuition" of the Seer Pathway compared to others should be enough to help Them find a way to solve the problem.
Moreover, if even He couldn't use His Beyonder abilities, it only meant this was likely a world without Beyonder powers. In any case, it was peaceful, so at least for now, they didn't have to worry too much about "corruption" or "death."
The Lord of Mysteries, holding the Angel of Darkness's hand, followed the guidance of the citrine pendulum hanging from His wrist, left the alley, and walked onto the main street.
Passing by a place resembling a bus stop, They confirmed they were in Tingen, and the current time was just before seven in the morning.
The sun hadn't risen yet, hazy light and shadow hung on the horizon, and the streetlights weren't completely off. For a moment, The Lord of Mysteries felt a daze, as if He were back in His modern-day life, shivering in the biting wind, yawning, rushing to catch the school bus.
The surrounding scenery was also vastly different from the Tingen in Their world. The clothing of the occasional pedestrians on the street were quite different from Theirs. But thanks to the Angel of Darkness's inherent "Concealment" and The Lord of Mysteries's inherent "Deceit" and "Fooling," no one noticed these two incongruous presences.
Perhaps due to the Pathway, after walking a bit further, The Lord of Mysteries found the cold here too much for Him. The Angel of Darkness, however, adapted well. When He noticed the Lord of Mysteries was about to freeze into a popsicle, He directly ignored the protests, took off His coat, and carried the Lord of Mysteries covered with the coat on his back.
On one hand, The Lord of Mysteries felt a bit shy about being carried like this through the streets. On the other hand, He was hopelessly comforted by being surrounded by the Angel of Darkness's presence.
But unfortunately, it seemed too early in the city. Along the way, They didn't see any warm place where They could stay briefly. However, on the other hand, the pendulum in His hand, and His increasingly strong intuition, told Him They were close to finding the "themselves" of this world.
Finally, they decided not to rest and went directly to the destination guided by their intuition. After crossing several main streets and making a few turns, the Angel of Darkness, carrying The Lord of Mysteries, stopped in front of a coffee shop at the end of a small alley.
Stars' World. That was the name of the coffee shop.
Even just standing at the entrance, they could feel their previously dormant spirituality being activated at an extremely slow pace. The cold that had been enveloping them was gradually receding. Their limbs became coordinated again, and their hearing, vision, etc., all gradually improved.
They re-experienced the process of going from "ordinary people" to "Beyonders."
Even though they could only activate some simple low-sequence abilities for now, it was enough to handle the current situation, especially since their abilities were continuously awakening.
The Lord of Mysteries stared at His own hand, feeling the concept of "hand" being deconstructed and then reassembled. He transformed again from a complete individual into countless worms. At that moment, He suddenly realized that He had become completely accustomed to the existence of Beyonder abilities; they were almost integrated into His flesh and blood. Just moments ago, He had briefly returned to so-called humanity, becoming an ordinary person, yet now, upon transforming back into worms, He finally felt relaxed.
"This has to be it." Even though the coffee shop in front of them still had its doors tightly shut, now that they had recovered some abilities, both had become somewhat more composed. "So, shall we wait here a bit longer, or test if we can maintain our current state elsewhere? Leonard, what do you think?" The Lord of Mysteries whispered into the ear of the Angel of Darkness. Before He could respond, the door of the coffee shop was opened from the inside.
"Sorry, we're not open for business yet. Could you come back a little later, please?" Seemingly aware of the unexpected guests at the door, the shop owner came over. His tone was full of apology but firm.
But when he got a clear look at the Angel of Darkness standing at the door, the owner suddenly froze.
"Leonard?" The speaker had the appearance of a thirty-something Zhou Mingrui. "What relationship do you have with him?"
In the end, it was thanks to the Angel of Darkness's face that they got into the shop early.
The shop was very warm, and The Lord of Mysteries had finally recovered from his near-frozen state. He reluctantly returned the coat to the Angel of Darkness and accepted the hot water handed to Him by the owner, drinking it in small sips.
"I'm still doing my pre-opening preparations. You two can sit over there for now; we'll talk later." Although they were clearly causing trouble for someone else, considering this "someone else" was another version of Himself, the Lord of Mysteries didn't feel particularly apologetic.
Of course, to allow for more conversation time later, after recovering his energy, the Lord of Mysteries also joined in the pre-opening preparations.
Initially, the owner was a bit wary. But after seeing that the Lord of Mysteries was doing a truly excellent job, he grew confident enough to let him use part of the kitchen. As for the Angel of Darkness, who also wanted to come over and help, the two of them quickly put him to work mopping the floor and wiping down the tables.
Of course, My Poet could make some simple food, enough not to starve himself. The occasional lovingly prepared breakfast was sweet enough. But now, facing ordinary customers, these customers wouldn't have my filter for his food... Although, if he used that face of his to announce he was responsible for the meal, customers probably wouldn't have many objections. But then it might be my turn to have objections.
The process of kneading dough was a bit boring, especially without the aid of Beyonder abilities. The Lord of Mysteries began to let His mind wander aimlessly. The owner beside Him also seemed lost in thought, looking pensive.
Although He really wanted to steal the other's thoughts, after taking stock of the spirituality He might need to get back, The Lord of Mysteries decided not to do anything unnecessary until He was sure They could return.
In their first but remarkably tacit cooperation, they made several types of bread dough together, baked dinner rolls and cookies, prepared batter, whipped cream, mixed dressings for sandwiches and salads, arranged the finished cakes in the display window, and washed fresh vegetables and fruits...
The shop area had also been totally cleaned by the Angel of Darkness. Upon noticing that even the window glass had been carefully wiped clean, the owner's expression towards Them became increasingly friendly.
"You've been a huge help. Please, let me treat you both to breakfast."
The Lord of Mysteries never refused free food, even if it came from Himself.
And then it was back to the beginning of the story. The Lord of Mysteries received a latte with double syrup, the Angel of Darkness received a black coffee, and the owner, who looked like Zhou Mingrui, or rather was Zhou Mingrui, was in the kitchen making them breakfast.
The owner was very quick. Soon, he came up with two different breakfast plates. For the Lord of Mysteries, there was a freshly made pancake, with cream, sprinkled with meat floss and a bit of sesame sugar. For the Angel of Darkness, there was scrambled eggs with ham cubes, cheese, etc., accompanied by fried sausages.
Upon receiving his breakfast, the Angel of Darkness looked thrilled. He happily showed off the little cat drawn with tomato sauce next to the scrambled eggs to The Lord of Mysteries. "Klein, this is so cute! I didn't expect there could be such a decoration on breakfast. " Looking at the Angel of Darkness showing off to him, The Lord of Mysteries inexplicably felt a twinge of irritation. It was just scrambled eggs with a little cat drawn in tomato sauce! How could such a trivial trick win you over! When we get back, I can not only make you one with little cats and dogs drawn on it, but I can even make a moving version!
But the next moment, when the Angel of Darkness scooped up a spoonful of his own eggs and offered it to Him, The Lord of Mysteries felt better again. He graciously ate the eggs from the spoon and reluctantly conceded that the owner's cooking was pretty good, perhaps even slightly better than His own.
Then He started to eat His own portion. The first bite made His eyes light up instantly—"It tastes just like the Dan Hong Gao* from outside my high school! You actually managed to replicate it."
The owner, who had also sat down with his own latte and was about to eat his sandwich, froze. He turned to look at The Lord of Mysteries, his face full of shock. "How do you know that?!"
"Who are you?"
After a simple exchange, The Lord of Mysteries quickly pieced together the story of this world.
Zhou Mingrui made a wish, fell asleep, and woke up the next day lying on a street in a foreign world, surrounded by people speaking different languages.
Their whole group was taken to the police station, but no one could explain why so many strange humans had suddenly appeared on the streets overnight. Later, for some unknown reason, everyone seemed to find it perfectly reasonable that these people had suddenly appeared. Everyone received relevant identification and was released from the police station. Even the language of this world, they somehow learned by the time they were released.
"I spent some time with a guy named Huang Tao. He was also Chinese. But considering that people here seemed more accustomed to modern Euro-American ways and couldn't pronounce Chinese names well, we both adopted English names for convenience. I chose Klein, and he chose Roselle."
"But after we got used to the environment here, Roselle said he didn't want to stay in Loen anymore. He wanted to go see what beauties in other countries looked like and, if possible, develop some friendships. Then he left. I haven't seen him since."
"Sometimes I wonder if the time travel was all a dream. Except for Huang Tao, I never saw any of the others who were there with me again. But well, looking at everyone else's faces and then mine, I know I really did come to a new world."
Okay, so Zhou Mingrui is still Klein in this world.
After some simple conversation and combining it with His own guesses, The Lord of Mysteries roughly figured out the situation.
Maybe in previous epochs, the Celestial Worthy and the God Almighty didn't fight each other but united against external threats, dealing with the Outer Deities threatening Earth in this world and also eliminating all Beyonder powers in the process.
As the spirituality inherent to this world gradually faded, the humans previously stored on Sefirah Castle were all released. Perhaps the Celestial Worthy had originally set up some "Deceit" power as a precaution, and that part of the spirituality had already been paid. So even though there was little spirituality left in this world afterwards, this "Deceit" still easily took effect.
In short, the conclusion was simple: this was a world without Beyonder powers, without Outer Deities, a very peaceful world.
Just like the society he had traveled from.
After confirming that the Mysticism knowledge they possessed was no longer polluting, The Lord of Mysteries quickly and concisely explained the situation to this world's Klein.
"So, I've been on Earth all along," this world's Klein said upon learning the truth, not looking too dejected. "Ah well, I knew I probably couldn't go back anyway. But I never considered that this was Earth."
"Good morning, Zhou~"
Humming a little tune and bouncing in was Leonard, his hair in braids. Time seemed to have been especially kind to him; aside from a few fine lines at the corners of his eyes, he didn't look much different from the Angel of Darkness.
Upon entering, he looked surprised to see the Lord of Mysteries and the Angel of Darkness eating breakfast in the shop. His action of taking off his coat slowed considerably.
" Are there guests?" He dropped his previous carefree demeanor, his expression becoming somewhat serious. Upon seeing the Angel of Darkness's face, his green eyes widened even further.
This world's Klein briefly relayed the information he'd just received from the Lord of Mysteries. This Leonard obviously didn't seem to understand much, but that didn't stop him from drawing a conclusion: "So Zhou thinks they're guests, so we should treat them well, right~"
"Want to hear me play the piano?"
Without waiting for a reply, he naturally sat down at the piano in the shop, flexed his fingers, and began to play.
He was actually quite good, even very good.
The Angel of Darkness looked surprised, as if He hadn't expected that the skill of playing the piano could also exist in Himself.
"Are you interested? If so, why not go and chat with yourself?" Upon receiving permission, the Angel of Darkness excitedly nodded, quickly finished the rest of His breakfast, and went over. Soon, cheerful laughter came from where the two Leonards were.
It felt a bit like parents chatting while letting their dog run free in the yard... Although He thought this analogy might not be very kind to His Poet, The Lord of Mysteries couldn't think of a better one.
He looked at this world's Klein, then at Leonard playing the piano.
"That's my best friend, Leonard." Noticing The Lord of Mysteries’ gaze, this world's Klein turned and smiled.
His tone was very unruffled.
Really?
The Lord of Mysteries couldn't resist anymore and instinctively stole a thought from himself.
Well, it was true. He looked at the thought He had stolen: "Leonard and I, from now on, will always be best friends."—The whole thought was as if printed on glossy paper, set in the largest font, the most flamboyant style, the most vibrant colors, adorned with all sorts of strange decorations, shining brightly in a way that was hard to comment on.
But since this Klein was so direct and candid, it meant he truly believed that he and Leonard had a very pure friendship, best friend, nothing more beyond that.
The Lord of Mysteries knew Himself. If He had any uncertainty about this relationship, He wouldn't be this straightforward. He would hesitate, avoid, struggle, be confused, until there was no room left to retreat, then He would sigh and frankly admit that He had indeed fallen for that green-eyed guy.
It's also good. In one world, I and Leonard did become best friends.
Of course, perhaps the us in this world will each find a lifelong partner later on.
But at least they seem very close now.
The Lord of Mysteries blinked, refusing to admit He felt a slight twinge of disappointment.
"What about you two? I think you're also best friends—the kind you only get once in a lifetime, right?"
Because this world's Klein asked so innocently, The Lord of Mysteries completely missed the opportunity to clarify. By the time He reacted, all He could do was mumble a quiet “Mm."
"That's good." This world's Klein breathed a sigh of relief, looking completely at ease.
"By the way, how did you two meet?" The Lord of Mysteries started asking another question He was curious about.
"In our case... Well, after I parted ways with Roselle—you probably saw outside that while this society has developed, it's still a far cry from modernity. The skills I brought with me were useless here, so I ended up working as a waiter in restaurants, things like that."
"After changing a few places, I met Mr. Dunn—oh, he was the owner of the last coffee shop I worked at—and I stayed on. In fact, it's this very shop. A few years ago, Mr. Dunn decided to move to Backlund to live with his good friend, so he transferred the shop to me. Back then, it was still called 'Black Thorn.' After I took over, Leonard and I discussed it and changed it to the current name."
"It was also here that I met Leonard."
"He's an orphan, raised in a church orphanage. It seems because of his musical talent, from a young age he was often arranged to work with choirs—you know, the kind that sings at festivals or banquets. It was one way the orphanage earned income. During that time, he learned to play many instruments. Later, when he came of age, he left the church orphanage and supported himself by performing, teaching instruments, and doing odd jobs. That orphanage is also nearby. We go there every few months now to bring the kids some cookies and cakes."
"He, like me, worked at several places before coming to the Black Thorn Coffee Shop. Here, he mainly works as a waiter, but when the shop isn't too busy, he'll play the piano or sing a song to help attract customers. See that piano in the shop? It was left here by a regular. He said his best friend loved playing the piano before she passed away, and while he himself could play a bit, he wasn't very good. Since we have someone here who can play, he thought it might as well be here, so he could come by and listen sometimes."
"Aside from music-related things, which he takes seriously, he's always been pretty scatterbrained. On my very first day at the coffee shop, he slipped on the second-floor stairs and fell right onto me. Maybe because of that, he kept coming around to me from the start. Even though he wasn't well-off himself, he often brought me various snacks, saying I was too thin and should eat more."
"Annoyed, I asked him what he wanted. The guy scratched his head awkwardly and said he wanted to be friends with me. Friends? I didn't believe it. Handsome as he was, how could he lack friends? Why would he need someone like me? So for a while, I wasn't very nice to him."
"Then one time, a customer—probably drunk and in the wrong place—came in making a ruckus, grabbed hold of me, and started spewing all sorts of obscenities. Leonard came charging over with a tray and angrily whacked him on the head. Later, the customer threatened to send him to the police station. It took Mr. Dunn and me apologizing profusely, plus a few regular customers mediating, before the whole thing blew over."
"After that, he was listless for a long time, like a scolded puppy after wrecking the house. He'd still bring me food, but he wouldn't stick around to talk like before; he'd just drop it off and run. Occasionally, when I tried to chat with him, he'd be gloomy. Not like at the very beginning, when any small kindness from me would make him look like his tail was wagging."
"Finally, I had no choice but to ask him directly if he still wanted to be friends. He paused for a moment, then nodded yes. I said okay, we're friends. You stood up for your friend, that was right. So don't take it too hard. Mr. Dunn and I don't think you did anything wrong. It's just that we're in business—even if the customer is wrong, they're still 'right.' We can't argue with them. Personally, I even thought you hit him pretty well. After that, we started to get closer. I finally got the chance to tell him to stop wasting money buying me all kinds of random snacks—they weren't as good as what I could make anyway—and to save his money properly."
"Then, because of that, I started trying to make all sorts of pastries to sell alongside the coffee. The customers seemed to like them, so Mr. Dunn let me mainly handle the food supply in the shop, make whatever I wanted, and gave me a cut of the profits. That guy's quite the actor, though. He claimed to love sweets, praising everything I made and cleaning his plate. It was only a couple of years ago he admitted he actually doesn't like sweets at all, but seeing me made everything taste good. Can you believe it? Such a waste of food."
Although this world's Klein was complaining, from his smiling eyes, the memories with Leonard made him happy.
"Our relationship progressed step by step, from friends to good friends. Finally, one day he asked me if I'd be willing to try being best friends with him for life. I said yes, and the next day we went to the church and got the certificate."
Wait, in your world, 'best friends' need to get a certificate? The Lord of Mysteries was shocked.
"Of course." This world's Klein beside him looked perfectly justified. "Just being friends is one thing, but for serious good friends, you have to go to the church to get a certificate, vowing to maintain that good friendship. If the friendship later breaks, you have to go back and revoke the good friend certificate."
"For 'best friends,' this certificate can only be issued once in a lifetime with one person, and neither person can have a 'good friend certificate' with anyone else before and after."
"Have you forgotten? Back in our original world, you had to go to the civil affairs bureau for these things, and it cost nine yuan**. Here, it's free, and if you get the 'best friends' certificate, you even get a free photo."
"Look, this is the one Leonard and I took."
This world's Klein proudly pulled out the pendant hanging on his chest, opened it, and showed The Lord of Mysteries the photo inside.
"It was drizzling that day. We'd argued in the morning—I can't even remember what about. I was prepared for him to say he didn't want to go get the certificate with me. But just before the time we'd agreed upon, he burst into loud sobs. I had no choice but to comfort him. Then, crying, he said even if I didn't want to be best friends with him anymore, at least be good friends, or even if not good friends, at least still be friends. It was completely incoherent nonsense. I was almost mad at him, so I asked him, are we going or not? If we wait any longer, the church workers will have gone home. If you were there, you'd be amazed at how fast this guy can change his expression. In less than a second, he stopped crying and smiled at me. If I didn't know him better, I'd have suspected he did it on purpose. And it's true, he's just too good-looking. Even after crying so hard, I thought his eyes would be swollen, he still looked handsome in the photo, not like he'd just been crying at all..."
As he spoke, this world's Klein rested his chin on his hand and looked at this world's Leonard, still teaching the Angel of Darkness how to play "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," with a sweet expression The Lord of Mysteries had never imagined could appear on Zhou Mingrui's face.
"Speaking of which, weren't our parents like that? Best friends. I used to think such pure friendship could only happen between a man and a woman. But after meeting him, I realized that compared to naturally arising feelings, many things I used to think about were actually redundant and unnecessary. True friendship, you can't actually control who it develops with. You just have to follow your heart."
He quietly watched Leonard playing the piano for a while longer, then suddenly seemed to remember something and turned back to The Lord of Mysteries—
"Wait! You're asking all this, don't tell me you haven't gotten the certificate with your Leonard yet? You can't do that! If he’s the best friend you've recognized, you should get that relationship certified as soon as possible." Seeming to have finally noticed The Lord of Mysteries' lack of knowledge in this area, this world's Klein's expression now was even worse than when he'd first learned the truth about this world. "Or do you not want to take responsibility? You just want to enjoy Leonard's friendship without being bound by the 'best friends' relationship with him?"
He looked at The Lord of Mysteries as if he were condemning a prime-grade jerk.
The Lord of Mysteries took a deep breath, trying to calm Himself, before slowly speaking again, "Well, in your world, don't you have words like, say, lovers, couple, spouses, husband and wife, things like that?"
"What are those?"
After The Lord of Mysteries laboriously explained the meanings of the various terms, this world's Klein blinked, frowning with an expression that seemed to say, 'Why do you guys have to make things so complicated?'
"For relationships like that, we generally just say friends, good friends, or best friends. There aren't that many complicated terms."
"What about those with an ordinary relationship, who might help each other with small things? Like your colleagues or classmates with whom you have a decent relationship?"
"That's just colleagues, or classmates. Why would you need another word for that? Sometimes you might use 'acquaintance' or 'someone I know,' but you wouldn't call them a good friend, let alone best friend."
"Then in your world, don't you discuss things like love?"
"Love? What's that... Here, we only distinguish by the degree of friendship. Like, friendship you can give to everyone, and friendship you only want to give to one person."
"So, you and your Leonard, you have the friendship you only want to give to one person. Do you do special things?"
"Like what?"
"Like... do you ever want to kiss him, or... do you have physical reactions to him..."
"Of course! We have good morning kisses and goodnight kisses every day. As for the other thing..." This world's Klein finally blushed. He leaned close to The Lord of Mysteries and whispered a bunch of things, finally adding, face still crimson, "We're best friends, so naturally... we do that together too."
Now The Lord of Mysteries, without deliberately using his Clown abilities, also blushed.
Okay. Fine. Very possible.
The Lord of Mysteries thought, No, damn it, in our world, we definitely wouldn't call that 'best friends.'
How could there be a world without words like lovers, couple, spouses, husband and wife, or whatever, using 'good friends' or 'best friends' to cover all those meanings!!!
He vividly recalled the times when He was still a programmer, talking past each other with colleagues.
Understood, I completely understood. Next time there's a similar situation, I must first have the other party fully clarify, ensure I completely understand the meaning of the words they're using, before defining anything.
But now, He watched Klein, who had Zhou Mingrui's appearance, stand up, walk over, and naturally take the hand of Leonard, who had just finished playing the piano, starting to massage it gently, muttering something, probably discussing what to eat for breakfast. The green-eyed youth, so elegant while playing the piano, was now just grinning foolishly.
Well, back then as Zhou Mingrui, I did seem to have a bit of a fussy personality. But I couldn't help it; my parents were like that at home, always nagging whenever I was about to go out and do something.
He felt a momentary sadness, but looking at the Angel of Darkness, who excitedly came over and said, "Klein, I learned how to play 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star'! I'll play it for you when we get back!" He couldn't help but feel happy again.
This is good too.
Feeling that His spirituality was sufficiently activated, He snapped His fingers and vanished from the spot along with the Angel of Darkness, also erasing any other traces They had left.
After They left, this world's Klein and Leonard both spaced out for a moment before resuming their tasks.
A part of their memory had been skillfully excised by The Lord of Mysteries, but that didn't stop them from working as usual.
After this world's Leonard also received his scrambled eggs and fried sausages, this world's Klein discovered a shiny object in a corner of the coffee shop.
"Hey, this looks a lot like that crystal ball I loved as a child! Look, there's a big shiny star inside, and two little figures holding hands in front, just like us."
He held up the crystal ball and announced to Leonard beside him.
"Wow, that's really pretty." Leonard took the crystal ball from him, played with it for a moment, and handed it back. "Zhou, do you like it?"
"Yeah, but how did this suddenly appear in the shop? Did a customer leave it behind?"
Klein quickly found a handwritten note on the sofa next to the table where he'd discovered the crystal ball.
"'A gift that will bring you good luck'? ... Did a customer leave this for us?"
Klein blinked, feeling like he had forgotten something, but anyway, he quite liked this crystal ball. It was good that it could stay.
Just then, outside and within the crystal ball, it began to snow simultaneously.
"It's snowing! How about we close up early today and go for a walk to see the snow?" Klein pressed against the inexplicably clean windowpane, looking outside, his face full of excitement.
It wasn't his first time admiring the snow in Tingen with Leonard, but he still got very happy every time it snowed.
"Sure, Zhou." The green-eyed youth, having finished his breakfast, also came over. He naturally embraced Klein, who was still pressed against the glass, as if embracing an entire world.
* Dan Hong Gao (蛋烘糕) is a delicious Sichuan snack. It can be made in many flavors and is a bit like a pancake.
**In China, you have to register your marriage at the civil affairs bureau. It used to cost nine yuan for the certificate, but that fee has been waived. Still, the meme lives on.