Chapter 145 - 144: The Sky Is Falling! Pei Xuan’s Mockers Alliance
Chapter 145: Chapter 144: The Sky Is Falling! Pei Xuan’s Mockers Alliance
Four people?
Ning Liuyu was scratching her head. She tapped open the group’s member list and found that the other two were not on her friends list. In fact, she was absolutely certain she didn’t know them at all.
She rarely socialized and disliked interacting with strangers, preferring to spend most of her time holed up in her laboratory researching various drugs.
Ning Liuyu weighed her words for a moment before saying, "Your Majesty, is this a good idea? After all, our relationship is far from ordinary. With more people in the group, what if I accidentally spill the beans..."
She and Shi Changying were sovereign and subject. Who were these two strangers?
"Don’t worry. We all share the same relationship." Shi Changying typed out a few more words.
[Only I am the first]: Change your nicknames.
[Xie Qingshi]: ?
[Qingyuan]: ??
[Ning Liuyu]: !!!
At this very moment in a hotel room, Sister Xu watched Qingyuan, who had been sprawled on a chaise lounge playing on her phone, suddenly bolt upright. Startled, she asked, "What is it? What happened? Did you get trending for some scandal again? Or did someone accuse you of getting plastic surgery again?"
Qingyuan stared at the number "4" indicating the group chat’s member count, thinking she was hallucinating. She rubbed her eyes and looked again, but it was still a glaring "4."
Qingyuan was speechless.
The sky had fallen!
Her expression struck Sister Xu like a sudden bolt from the blue. In all the years she had worked with Qingyuan, Sister Xu had never seen her look as though she had been struck by lightning. Even when her first TV drama became a massive hit across the internet and sparked countless rumors about her, Qingyuan had remained perfectly composed.
Just what kind of terrifying event had transpired?
Sister Xu panicked. "Did that bastard surnamed Gu blacklist you in a fit of rage and halt all your work? No, that can’t be right—how come I haven’t heard any news about it?"
"None of that." Qingyuan’s eyes were vacant, as if she had lost the very light of her life. "There’s just another person vying for favor."
Sister Xu was utterly bewildered.
For the first time, Qingyuan felt like pulling her hair out. "How could this happen? It hasn’t even been that long! I never ran into a single one before, but the moment Sister Ying arrived, they all started popping up out of nowhere!"
As a fellow member of the Twelve Masters of Mingjing, she obviously knew Ning Liuyu. However, their areas of expertise were completely different, so they rarely crossed paths in their daily work. The person who interacted with Ning Liuyu the most was naturally the Medical Master, Nie Mingchu. The two were both friends and rivals, always looking to compete and prove who was superior.
In Qingyuan’s impression, Ning Liuyu was extremely quiet, which made her somewhat similar to Xie Qingshi. But that wasn’t the point. The point was, how did this Medicine Girl manage to run into Shi Changying and recognize her?
[Xie Qingshi]: So it is Lord Ning. With Lord Ning here, Your Majesty will no longer have to suffer in the future.
Qingyuan scoffed coldly. "I never realized how scheming he was before. That message looks so calm, but he can’t fool me—I bet he’s grinding his teeth to dust behind that screen."
Sister Xu was beyond confused. "Who? Does this have something to do with Miss Shi?"
Ever since her artist met Shi Changying, she had been acting rather strange.
Qingyuan wore a sorrowful expression. "Sister Xu, with so many people constantly surrounding Sister Ying, what do I have to do to make her spare me another glance?"
"Huh?" Sister Xu was dumbfounded. "Isn’t your face enough to make anyone look at you twice? On that Goddess Ranking for popularity and beauty at the end of this year, you’re definitely going to crush the competition and take first place again."
"No," Qingyuan said with absolute certainty. "I have never relied on my looks. If I did, wouldn’t I be called a bewitching seductress who beguiled the sovereign? I climbed the ranks purely through my abilities."
Sister Xu didn’t know what to say. Her brain simply lacked the capacity to continue this conversation with her artist. She silently backed out of the room and closed the door behind her.
Meanwhile, upon seeing the familiar names of Xie Qingshi and Qingyuan, Ning Liuyu felt that her own sky had fallen as well.
It was one thing to discover that she wasn’t the only colleague who had come to the future. But how could two of them have beaten her to the punch? She wasn’t first, nor was she second. She only got third place?
Tears welled up in Ning Liuyu’s eyes as she looked at Shi Changying. "Your Majesty..."
"A Yuan and Xie Xie are also doing great. One is an actress, and the other is a musician," Shi Changying said. "You all have your own careers now, and I am very happy for you."
Ning Liuyu’s body suddenly trembled. After a long while, she lowered her head and whispered, "But what gave me the strength to make it to where I am today was the hand Your Majesty extended to me back then."
That hand had pulled her out of a muddy swamp, and from then on, her path had finally been paved smooth. Even if the end of that smooth path was death, she would gladly endure it. At the very least, she had bloomed brilliantly, much like a night-blooming cereus.
Shi Changying looked at her. "But A Yu, you had the strength to stand up on your own. I didn’t actually do anything."
She knew what it felt like to suddenly arrive in a strange, unfamiliar world. Starting from scratch and clawing one’s way up again was incredibly difficult. Not to mention, they had all endured the pain of their nation’s destruction and their homes being ruined.
Shi Changying fell silent for a moment. "You have all suffered."
"Being able to see you again makes all that suffering worth it." Ning Liuyu quickly wiped away her tears and changed the subject. "By the way, Your Majesty, although that elderly gentleman earlier practices traditional medicine, it seems his skills are more than just a typical inheritance. I could spot some ancient methods in his diagnostic approach. When the Jiang Dynasty burned the books back then, those techniques should have been long destroyed."
Shi Changying pondered this for a moment. "Are you saying that the elderly gentleman might have crossed paths with one of our people?"
"Not exactly." Ning Liuyu shook her head. "If it were Lord Nie or another healer, they would have primarily used Xuan medical methods. However, his techniques didn’t originate from Xuan Doctors—they predate them."
Shi Changying looked thoughtful. "Even though the Jiang Dynasty incinerated countless millions of texts, it’s not impossible that someone hid a few books away and passed them down to future generations."
Ning Liuyu blinked, her eyes feeling heavy and sour. During those chaotic times, even the most defenseless people would risk decapitation to conceal precious books. And she, too, had been willing to lay down her life to cover the retreat of Pei Jiang and the others, all so that Pei Jiang could finish writing *The Great Wilderness Immortal Journey*, ensuring that future generations might one day learn the truth of the past.
"Your Majesty, please rest first." Ning Liuyu snapped out of her daze, standing up with a smile. "I won’t disturb you any longer. Tomorrow, I will return to Jianghuai with you."
Shi Changying let out a yawn and nodded. "Goodnight, A Yu."
As Ning Liuyu pushed the door open and stepped outside, her phone buzzed with a new system notification.
[System Notification]: Qingyuan has invited you and Xie Qingshi to join a group chat.
[Ning Liuyu]: Don’t we already have a group chat? Why make another one? What could you possibly need to say behind Your Majesty’s back?
[Xie Qingshi]: This matter must indeed be kept from Your Majesty.
[Qingyuan]: It’s different. This group is different.
Ning Liuyu was still wondering what exactly was so different about it when another line popped up on her screen.
[The group name has been changed to "Pei Xuan’s Mockers Alliance"]