248 Li Ran’s Pas

"Hmm," Yang Yun nodded and did not look up as Li Ran spoke to him. His fingers caressed the small flower. By now, Yang Yun was very familiar with the herbs in his hands. He could identify the Shadow Grass within seconds.

As Yang Yun looked at the grass, he wondered if he should harvest them all and send them back to his world. After all, in this world, the Shadow Grass was treated as a weed. Meanwhile, in his world, the grass was a priceless medicine. He could almost imagine Mingyue's excitement once she saw the herbs.

"Yang Yun!"

"What?" He turned around when he sensed Li Ran's urgency in his tone. His brow furrowed when he noticed the strange look on Li Ran's face as he stared at the grass in his hand. "What is it?"

Li Ran tore his gaze away from the herbs and looked at Yang Yun."The place where you came from," he panted as he had to run to catch up with Yang Yun and Xiao Mi. "That place… what is the name of that place?" Li Ran asked anxiously.

"Da Cheng," Yang Yun's frown deepened. He was puzzled at Li Ran's inquiry. "I wrote about it in the manuscript that I sent to you. Didn't you read them as well? Li Ran, what is wrong with you?"

Li Ran closed his eyes tightly. He raised his knuckle and started pounding his forehead while mumbling something incoherent.

"Hey! What's wrong with you?"

"Is that it? I cannot remember," Li Ran continued to mumble.

Yang Yun grabbed Li Ran's wrist to stop him from hurting himself. Yang Yun's gaze went back to the Shadow Grass, and a light flickered in his eyes as something crossed his mind. "You know something about these Shadow Grass?"

"Shadow Grass? That's right. You wrote about this grass on the manuscript." Li Ran shifted his gaze on the grass. "Shadow Grass… Is that what you call them?"

"Yes. Li Ran, what's going on with you?" Yang Yun looked at him with worry.

Right now, Li Ran looked as if he had lost his mind.

Yang Yun put both hands on Li Ran's shoulders. "Li Ran, look at me." When Li Ran did not respond, Yang Yun patted him softly on his cheek. Seeing that Li Ran had snapped out of his thought, Yang Yun spoke again, "Tell me what's going on."

Li Ran blinked a few times. He took a step back when his gaze met with Yang Yun. He glanced at the grass again and said, "Yang Yun, that place where you came from… can you tell me more about it?"

…

Xue Yi Ming almost lost his mind when he heard the story that came out of his friend's mouth.

Both Yang Yun and Li Ran had come down from the mountain after Xiao Mi confirmed that he had located the spot where Yang Yun could create a portal to go back home. The two arrived at Xue Yi Ming's place when the sky turned dark, and after resting for a while, Li Ran started telling him stories that sound like it came out of a movie.

"Li Ran, are you sure you're not sick?" Xue Yi Ming commented.

Li Ran narrowed his eyes. "Back then, when you told me that you saw Lin Mingyue fall from the sky, I never asked you whether you were crazy."

Xue Yi Ming pursed his lips as he thought about what happened six years ago. Everyone else thought he was drunk, that he started to hallucinate things. Li Ran was the only one who believed in his words. Xue Yi Ming had thought that Li Ran had chosen to believe him because he was a fan of sci-fi stuff. After reading too many articles and saw too many documentaries, Li Ran might believe in those things.

He would never think that Li Ran would believe in those things because Li Ran himself was not someone from this world. Xue Yi Ming never thought that Li Ran had a past like this.

"When I saw Yang Yun holding that grass… I remembered something," Li Ran said. "I could forget everything else, but not that grass. That grass was what separated me from my parents and dragged me into this world."

Xue Yi Ming frowned. He knew that Li Ran was an orphan, so Xue Yi Ming never thought that it was strange when Li Ran had never talked much about his childhood or his biological parents.

"In fact, Li Ran was not my name," Li Ran said. "It was my father's. But when the authorities found me wandering alone in the city, they found this name embroidered on my bag. So, they assumed that Li Ran was my name."

"Then, what is your real name?" Xue Yi Ming asked.

"Li Hua," Li Ran said. "I remember walking in the woods with my parents. We weren't rich, but we were happy. Every day, my parents and I would enter the woods, and we would gather herbs and vegetables. The day I went missing, I was helping my father digging out the herbs. He told me that this grass was a valuable herb. I don't know what happened, but when I woke up, I found myself in this strange city."

Li Ran frowned as he recalled how he wandered around this strange world, feeling frightened when he could not find his parents. Li Ran turned to look at Yang Yun and said, "I guess I came here the same way as Yang Yun's wife did. Although I'm not sure whether we come from the same world."

"Did you lost your memories too?" Xue Yi Ming asked.

"It was not like that," Li Ran said. "When I came to this world, I was only eight. It has been twenty years now. So I don't remember much about the world where I came from."

Xue Yi Ming stared at his friend's and recalled a few times when Li Ran would talk about those articles he read. "All these while you've been trying to find the portal?"

Li Ran nodded. "When I joined the army, I tried to find others who shared the same experience with me. But, most of those people I met were swindlers. In the end, I met a few people who did come from the other world, but hearing them describing their world, I know that they did not come from the same place as mine."

"Then, what are you planning to do?" Yang Yun asked. "Even if I can help you to form a portal, I cannot guarantee that you will be able to return to your world. I don't know where you're from."

"I know." Li Ran smiled bitterly. "I am not planning to go back. After years of living in this world, I have given up on returning."