A trip to the library ended in the painful loss of two hairbands, the kind that adds bonuses. The moment he realized the problem, the small branch he was holding fell from his hand. Lin Zhusheng slowly lowered his head to look at his shoulder, still stubbornly tugging at his hair, trying to pull out two non-existent hairbands from the mess of hair.

They were gone. He didn’t manage to grab anything, nor did he see anything.

Noticing he was searching for something, the little cat that had been napping in his clothes lifted its head. With just one glance, it could tell he had lost some gear and said, “As expected.”

In a very subtle tone, Lin Zhusheng felt like he was being looked down upon by a little cat, but he had no evidence, and the focus wasn’t on that right now.

He reached out and ruffled the fur on the little cat’s forehead in the opposite direction. He calmly thought about it, trying to rewind time in his mind.

— It was at the library.

His backpack was stuffed with too many strange things, completely full. Plus, he thought the hairbands felt a bit damp at the time, so he left them on the table to dry naturally.

Alright, it’s over.

He glanced at the time, and his eyes instantly turned as lifeless as dead fish. The library wasn’t open 24 hours. If he swapped the time, it was already closing time. The library, which stored important sect secrets, wouldn’t reopen after closing, so he’d have to wait until tomorrow morning.

If it didn’t rain tomorrow morning, he still had to get up early to practice swordsmanship. Eight o’clock was his limit; there was no way he could wake up any earlier. If he remembered correctly, he had simply placed the items on the table without any weight to hold them down. The wind was strong over there, and after blowing all night, it was highly likely they would say goodbye to him.

His face was filled with sadness as he sorrowfully ruffled the fur on the little cat’s head again, lamenting, “I don’t have my hairbands anymore.”

One of them was earned through his hard work chopping wood.

“……”

He was very sad, unable to reach the fur on the back of his head, and could only rub a bit to smooth it out, then return to square one. The little cat, expressionless, clenched its paws, trying hard not to make a sound.

He endured two hours of lectures in deep sadness. When it was completely dark outside and he could no longer see, a player who had lost his items, Lin, returned home with his neighbor.

He was unusually low-spirited, and his neighbor, who had quickly evolved to the point of speaking without blushing, asked with genuine concern what had happened.

Skipping the middle part, he roughly explained that he had forgotten his hairbands at the library. Zhang Jing was first surprised that he was the kind of person who would go to the library, then recalled the hairbands he had seen before, which had been tied in a rough and chaotic manner, losing their original shape. After a moment of silence, he objectively stated, “Maybe it’s better for them this way.”

At least they wouldn’t turn into twisted shapes that were hard to recognize.

The words were said without any concealment, and the image of him blushing at a simple greeting had begun to fracture. Lin Zhusheng instinctively reached out to ruffle the person’s hair in the opposite direction, but then realized this wasn’t a cat but a person, so he could only deliver a sad elbow jab.

This time, he didn’t hold back, and Zhang Jing let out a hiss as he was elbowed.

After parting ways with a friend who offered no comfort, a dejected player Lin returned home with his hair down.

When the door closed, the lamp on the desk lit up again, casting a warm yellow light that illuminated most of the space. After the little cat entered the room, it landed and jumped onto the desk, circling around twice, watching Lin open a cabinet that hadn’t been opened since he moved in, rummaging through it until he found a gray cloth strip.

A gray cloth strip, a broken person, a speechless cat.

The little cat stared with wide eyes as Lin sadly wrapped the cloth strip around his hair, looking as if he had lost some epic gear. Eventually, it couldn’t help but speak up, “It’s just two strips of cloth. If it’s really a problem, you can just buy two more.”

A cat lacking in empathy, Lin Zhusheng hastily wrapped the gray cloth strip around his hair a couple of times, then hugged the little cat and shook it a bit, the two tears at the corners of his eyes swaying along, saying, “You don’t understand!”

It wasn’t just a strip of cloth; it was a component of a set. Without one, the bonuses wouldn’t be complete. The other was irreplaceable; he might never encounter it again. For a collector, this was undoubtedly a heavy blow. Thankfully, he was naturally strong and hadn’t been completely crushed by the loss.

“……”

The little cat didn’t understand. It was shaken to the point of losing focus, starting to ponder the ends of the universe.

“Knock knock—”

The sound of knocking saved the little cat, two knocks that were neither too light nor too heavy, just enough to catch Lin’s attention. The player who had been feeling wronged finally set the little cat down and turned to open the door.

It was a bit cold outside at night. When the door opened, the first thing that rushed in was the cold air, accompanied by a peach blossom-scented breeze. Thinking it was his neighbor Zhang Jing coming over, he waved his hand, intending to chat casually. But when he looked up, the face he saw wasn’t the expected one; it was a neat collar and black hair.

As he raised his head and his gaze smoothly moved up, he met a pair of slightly drooping eyes.

An unexpected person who shouldn’t have appeared here. The words that almost slipped out of his mouth took a turn, and Lin Zhusheng asked in confusion, “Senior Brother?”

“You dropped something.”

Wen Bozhou stood at the door, his clothes slightly damp, looking down to pull out two hairbands, saying, “You should need these right now.”

One blue and one white, quietly lying in his hand. Perhaps it was an illusion, but they seemed to look smoother than before.

The hairbands he thought he would never see again had safely returned home. The two drops of tears at the corners of his eyes instantly fell with a “whoosh.”

“……?”

He cried as he cried, just like before, without any preamble. Even though he had already experienced this twice, Wen Bozhou still wasn’t prepared at all, and his hand holding the hairbands froze.

The little cat, nearly half-dazed from being shaken, stumbled over, instinctively trying to wipe its face with its paw.

Indeed, no matter how strong or calm a person was, they couldn’t withstand this sudden, unannounced, rogue-style crying from Lin. Even the usually quiet Senior Brother couldn’t handle it.

After thinking for a while, assuming he was late, Wen Bozhou finally spoke again, explaining, “I didn’t mean to delay giving them to you; it was just inconvenient to go to the academy, so I could only…”

He didn’t even know why he felt the need to explain. Originally, he just needed to hand over the items, but in this kind of situation, he felt like he should say something.

“Senior Brother, you’re such a good person!”

As he was halfway through his explanation, the air carrying a faint post-rain scent brushed past him, and a warm breath drew near, making him feel a weight on him.

While howling, Lin Zhusheng directly reached out and pounced on him, expressing his gratitude in the most primal way.

“……” This sudden move was precise and quick, causing the previously calm eyes to widen slightly.

Before he could react, the person who had made the precise move had already retracted his hand and reverently took the two hairbands, stroking them as he said, “I thought I would never see them again.”

The tears flowed like a deeply touching reunion scene.

If one ignored the fact that what they were reuniting over were just two hairbands.

The little cat couldn’t bear to watch, silently turning back, pretending it hadn’t seen anything.

The things he had been longing for had returned. The cloth strips he had casually wrapped around his hair seemed to realize their mission was over, sliding off and falling to the ground, completely turning into ragged strips.

Lin Zhusheng placed the hairbands back in their rightful place, while brewing up to reclaim his rogue-style tears, he also didn’t forget to thank the kind-hearted Senior Brother.

In the game, the Senior Brother didn’t meddle in others’ affairs, so coming all the way here to deliver something was already quite kind.

With that, the matter was considered settled.

Wen Bozhou nodded slightly, saying “You’re welcome,” then added, “If there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave…”

The person in front of him was still tangled up in his hair with an unknown technique, raising a pair of eyes to look at him.

“……”

It was clear that it wasn’t nothing.

After a roundabout way of speaking, he finally raised his eyebrows and asked, “Do you need help?”

The person in front of him instantly reached out and tugged at his sleeve, their eyes shining brightly, saying, “Is that okay?”

The door closed again, and the Senior Brother, who had originally been standing at the door, finally followed him into the room.

The quiet room was dark, or rather, it could no longer be called a quiet room; it had turned into something resembling a kitchen. He could roughly see the daily habits of life. He glanced around, his eyes moving slightly, then quickly shifted his gaze away, not looking too closely.

The light came from the desk in the inner room, where a black cat was crouched, so dark that only its eyes were visible. Those eyes looked at him with a sense of pity, as if to say, “You really couldn’t escape this,” before turning around and choosing a good spot to sit down and observe.

Lin Zhusheng also sat down. As he did, he patched up his statement, explaining in advance that his manual skills had been sentenced to death by his neighbor next door. He glanced at the two wooden boxes in the corner that looked like they could collapse at any moment and tactfully said, “My craftsmanship… um, might not be that good.”

This point didn’t need him to mention; everyone could see it, especially after witnessing his wild hair-tying technique earlier.

Wen Bozhou lowered his head, his fingers weaving through the strands of hair, the fine, soft hair flowing like water through his fingers. His expression remained unchanged as he continued his actions.

It was a very ironic scene: a proud child of heaven who had never served anyone was standing there helping a newly initiated disciple tie their hair, and he didn’t seem to have any dissatisfaction.

Lin Zhusheng sat quietly, unusually well-behaved, not moving at all. His gaze quietly shifted to the mirror illuminated by the light, and he was startled by the unfamiliar face inside, instinctively looking at the little cat, exclaiming, “Who is this?”

Then, without waiting for the little cat to respond, he realized and patted his chest, saying, “Oh, that’s me.”

He hadn’t looked in the mirror much and almost forgot that he still had this face.

The little cat: “……”

Seeing his not-so-bright expression, the little cat chose to turn away and not look at him, preferring to keep its eyes clean.

The little cat wasn’t looking, but the Senior Brother was. Noticing the calm gaze from the person behind him through the mirror, Lin Zhusheng asked, “What’s wrong?”

The Senior Brother said it was nothing, then added, “I just feel like your eyes look somewhat familiar.”

Lin Zhusheng smiled, “Shouldn’t you say my face looks familiar?”

Generally, no one recognized someone by their eyes; it was more common to remember a face.

Wen Bozhou didn’t correct him to say his face looked familiar, just smiled slightly.