179 Yang Ruoxi, Why Did You Come to This World?
“Xixi!” Lin Wan hugged Yang Ruoxi tightly. “Is that really you? How? Am I back to my own world?”
“Yanchen! Yanchen!” shouted Lin Wan anxiously. “I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye!” She felt heartbroken that she would never be able to see Yanchen, and the kids ever again.
She let go of Yang Ruoxi and called out to Li Yanchen desperately.
Li Yanchen, who had been walking down the mountain, had seen Uncle Yang and had walked to greet him. When he heard Lin Wan shout his name, he ran to her.
!!
“Wanwan!”
In front of her was Yang Ruoxi, and behind her was Li Yanchen. The most important people to her from both worlds were here with her.
Lin Wan bit the tip of her tongue. She could clearly feel the pain.
Uncle Yang picked up the paper money. He saw the three people, frozen in shock. He walked to them. “Mr. and Mrs. Li, this is my daughter Yang Ruoxi.”
“Yang Ruoxi!” Li Yanchen was even more shocked than Lin Wan.
Yang Ruoxi seemed to be in a daze. ‘Wanwan? Is this a dream?”
“Xixi, do you know Mrs. Li?” Yang Yiren was confused by his daughter’s reaction.
“Dad, she is the best friend I talked about. Wanwan. I finally get to see you!” Yang Ruoxi opened her arms wide.
Even in her original world, Yang Ruoxi always spread her arms wide and waited for Lin Wan to hug her.
“Xixi, you’re here too!” Lin Wan hugged Yang Ruoxi tightly.
“Mr. Li, shall we go there and sit?” Uncle Yang pointed to the resting area not far away from where they stood. “Xixi always tells me about her best friend whenever we video call. I didn’t know she was your wife.”
Yang Ruoxi was actually alive and well. Li Yanchen had always thought that Lin Wan’s best friend had already passed away.
“Yanchen, don’t go!” Li Yanchen was about to walk away when Lin Wan reached out and grabbed his hand.
She looked at him and mumbled, “No… Please!”
Li Yanchen stroked her hair. “It’s alright. I won’t go very far. I will just be there. I will watch you, alright?”
Lin Wan refused to let go, afraid that she would never see Li Yanchen again if she did.
Li Yanchen noticed that she was trembling. He put his arms around her. “I am not going anywhere, Wanwan.”
Lin Wan’s tears started to flow uncontrollably. “Xixi, I miss you very much. But I don’t want to go back. My husband and family are here!”
“Wanwan, we’re not going back anymore. My dad and grandma are here too. I have a family here.” Yang Ruoxi was also in tears.
“Xixi, so you’re also…” The fear in Lin Wan’s heart dissipated.
“Dad, this is my best friend, Lin Wan.” Yang Ruoxi looked at her dumbfounded father.
It took a long time for Yang Yiren to come back to his senses. He felt that his daughter was somehow different from before. She had been studying abroad for several years. It was normal for her to make new friends. But something felt off.
“Mr. Li, let’s go and have a seat.” Yang Yiren wanted to give his daughter space to talk to her friend.
“Uncle, just call me Yanchen.”
Lin Wan only let go of Li Yanchen after making sure that she was still in the world of the book.
“Wanwan, I’ll pay my respects to my mother first. Wait for me in the duty room.” Yang Ruoxi stood in front of her mother’s grave for a few minutes. Then she finally went down the mountain.
“Dad, Wanwan and I will take a walk nearby.” Yang Ruoxi held Lin Wan’s arm.
Meanwhile, Li Yanchen accompanied Uncle Yang to the lodge.
At the foot of Mount Qiping, there was a piece of farmland surrounded by wooden fences. There was a long bench placed on every section of the road. Yang Ruoxi and Lin Wan found an empty spot and sat down.
Both of them had a lot of questions for each other.
“Wanwan.”
“Xixi!”
They both called out to each other at the same time.
“You first,” they said simultaneously.
Yang Ruoxi chuckled. She held her best friend’s hand. “Alright. I will ask first. Wanwan, what are you doing here?”
“I wanted to ask you that too. Why are you here? I think I ran into a novel that I was reading.” Lin Wan told her everything that had happened from the time she woke up in this world.
“Novel? What novel?” Yang Ruoxi was confused.
“Isn’t this a novel? Li Yanchen was the father of the male lead in the novel. Lin Wan was a stepmother to the male lead too.” She then began to narrate the plot to Yang Ruoxi.
“Wanwan, is this really something from a novel? I haven’t read novels these past few years. How could I possibly travel into a book?”
It had been two months since Yang Ruoxi realized that something was wrong. She remembered returning from a business trip and staying up late to watch a TV series. When she woke up in the morning, she realized she was in a dormitory in country Y.
She was an ordinary graduate. After she obtained her bachelor’s degree, she went to work in a company. She was 28 years old and still had a monthly salary of a few thousand yuan. She had never done a postgraduate or studied abroad.
“I’m an international student studying for my Ph.D. Wanwan, do you believe me? Back then, I had to take a few mock exams before I could even pass, and now I’m actually an international student.”
Lin Wan wondered how she had gotten here.
“Xixi, when did you realize that you’re different?” Lin Wan asked.
“For about two months.”
“Me too!”
“Do you remember that we used to discuss parallel worlds?” Lin Wan seemed to have found a new clue. “Could this be a parallel world? What do you know about Yang Ruoxi from this world?”
“She is quite introverted and doesn’t like to talk or socialize much. In country Y, her roommates all say that she is very unapproachable, but she is hardworking and very smart,” said Yang Ruoxi. She had figured out the personality of the host of her body in these two months.
“The body I am occupying is also very introverted. She is completely different from me.” Lin Wan broke out in a cold sweat.
“We used to talk about parallel worlds. We used to dream about starting over and doing things we always dreamed about. You have everything you dreamt about, especially someone who loves you,” said Yang Ruoxi.
Lin Wan suddenly stood up from the bench. “I understand now. This is a parallel world, and it makes up for all our shortcomings. But what about the people we’re occupying? Did they go live in our world as us?”
“Li Yanchen talked about Lin Wan’s split personality. I was almost suspecting that to be true. I was almost convinced that I had made up another world in my head until I met you today.” Lin Wan was now certain that she didn’t have a split personality and that she was really from another world.
“Split personality? What a coincidence! It is no wonder Li Yanchen doesn’t suspect you.”
After Yang Ruoxi came to this world, her father had video called with her a few times a week. Her personality had been clearly different from before, but her father had never doubted her.
“The original owner has been studying abroad for several years. In order to save on the travel expenses, she rarely goes home. It’s understandable for my family to think that my personality had changed over the years since I was away from home, so they never suspected me.”
Yang Ruoxi was alone in country Y. Compared to Lin Wan’s situation, she felt that she was much more fortunate.
“Xixi, the life we’re living now seems to be the life we’ve always dreamed about. You said that you wanted a father, and I said that I wanted a loving family.”
As they chatted, Lin Wan and Yang Ruoxi laughed and cried together. Sometimes, they were quiet and other times, screamed with joy.