Chapter 318: The Only Possible Extra Present Turn Spoof Final

After trying to change the many branches of their destiny, Xue Meng and little dragon finally realised one thing.

Mo Ran may not be gay, but in his long life, he's bound to meet someone called Chu Wanning and fall in love with him.

"So, instead of going to the trouble of introducing Mo Ran to a girl, we should just kill Chu Wanning." Little dragon summed up the task perfectly.

"Or just give Chu Wanning a sex change." Xue Meng added.

"Or give Mo Ran a sex change."

"Anyway, as fate would have it, no matter how this game played out and how many female characters there were to choose from, Mo Ran would have ended up with Chu Wanning."

Jiang Xi's face is somewhat sombre in the face of these two Xianxia staff members. With one hand on the side of his face, he flipped through the thick pile of mission reports in front of him. There was a detailed list of Mo Ran's various female leads, all of which invariably ended in a marriage with Chu Wanning.

"I used to think it was a multi-ending romance game." Xue Meng's face was no better than Jiang Xi's, "I didn't expect it to be an ancient and boring rg single ending game. Director Jiang, have you ever played Immortal Sword and Chivalry I even 98 or 01, I can't remember, anyway even that one computer game from the last century would have a hidden ending for Lin Yueru."

He said, biting his lower lip in frustration, "I don't think Mo Ran's life is as good as Immortal Sword I's in '98. He doesn't even have a hidden ending."

The young man chattered incessantly at Director Kang's desk, arms clasped around him, while he didn't say a word, his eyes sweeping over the failed strategy reports, his brow furrowing.

"It doesn't really have to be limited to this life of Mo Ran." Finally, Jiang Xi lifted his thin eyelids, "Ever tried any of his other reincarnation lines"

"How come you haven't tried it." Xue Meng said, "The Republican line. All the future lines can be tried. You can turn back a few pages and see."

As it happens, the second half of the report also contains a list of possible heroine strategies for other reincarnation lines.

"The Republican line is the most desperate." little dragon interjected. Little dragon interjected, "We simulated travelling back to the Republican era, where Mo Ran was the young master of a large family, and as a child his father had arranged a baby marriage for him with a certain young lady from the same village, just waiting for her to marry him when she reached maturity."

Jiang Xi: "Oh that's not very good"

little dragon cried out, "Well what before the girl was an adult, Mo Ran left home to join the BNP and declared that he wanted freedom and not an arranged marriage."

"And then what?"

"Then there was a war, and after the Japanese fought the civil war. While fighting the civil war he was sent as a spy against the family." Xue Meng sighed and ended the conversation, then helped Jiang Xi turn the thick mission book to the page on the Republican line, "Look here, at this picture. This kid looks like a sheep in sheep's clothing, he doesn't even show his warlord tail. Right so everything would have been fine."

Jiang Xi pretty much knew what was going to happen. Not half surprised, he asks, "So how did Chu Wanning turn up this time?"

"Don't mention it." Xue Meng waved his hand in disgust, "He was the company commander of the company Mo Ran was working undercover for. One time in an ambush, Mo Ran was shot and bled to unconsciousness. It was Chu's company commander who carried the Nationalist undercover agent back to safety from a sea of corpses and blood."

""

Chu Wanning almost got himself killed trying to save this guy," little dragon chimes in.

Jiang Xi sighed, "So when Mo Ran woke up, he defected to the Nationalist Party and became a complete undercover agent, becoming a member of Chu Wanning's side."

He doesn't even use any question words, as if he sees the transformation of Mo Ran clearly through the years and the smoke, the skin and the brain furrows.

"Right." Xue Meng rolled her eyes, "They fell in love again later. They turned down the good lesbians the organisation was keen to introduce, they fought side by side, they lay in a trench and watched the stars with their guns. They made lanyards out of bullets and wore them close to their clothes, and after liberation they lived in the same courtyard and became two bachelors who charmed thousands of girls, who would make dumplings together, go on excursions together on their Phoenix bicycles, go to the studio together to have their pictures taken in colour, and go to the department stores' together to weigh a bag of malt candy and eat it in a brown envelope."

The old honey-coloured, trivial stories are told by Xue Meng in a barrage of words, and although he speaks so quickly that the past flashes by like a shooting star, Jiang Xi can easily imagine the images.

Pale green smoke, soiled and torn uniforms.

In a trench made of blood and mud, two young men leaned backwards for the night. Their dark eyes are covered with winged lashes, lashes spattered with the starlight of the wilderness, and far away a soldier plays a harmonica, the sound of which drifts in all directions, silenced by the smoke of the dusk.

There is no war tonight, only a little burnt smoke in the fog to tell of the turbulent years.

There are also dark greenish scruffs on the chins of the two youths that have not been shaved off in time.

"Then they were seventy and eighty years old." Xue Meng said dryly, his tone moderating as the sour stench of love turned the page, "And then the disaster that started in sixty-six didn't separate the two stubborn old guys."

He finished speaking.

The sour stench of love permeates to death, and in fact death does not turn the page on it.

Jiang Xi didn't say anything for a long time and finally he stopped reading the report, he closed it and looked a little headachey as he raised his hand to press his lateral temple.

It is said that couples are like birds of a feather, but they fly apart in the face of disaster.

But if a decade of havoc doesn't break two old bones, Jiang Xi doesn't know how likely it is that he'll be able to shove a girl down Mo Ran's throat to stop being gay.

Or maybe Mo Ran isn't gay.

Perhaps it was just that in his life, in his destiny, he could never be without someone called Chu Wanning, that's all.

It's the end of the day and the people of the Xianxia Bureau are leaving the building one by one to the soundtrack of the former Director Nangong's favourites going home.

Some of them have lived in the Xianxia world for a long time, so they can go home with their swords at ease, while others are used to blending into the mortal world, living with people who no longer believe so much in gods, ghosts and immortals in modern society, and these people have to hide their extraordinary abilities, or take the bus and underground, or drive their cars and pile into the night when the lights are on.

"I don't think anything will come out of this." Jiang Xi, with his back to Xue Meng and little dragon, stands in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the cars and horses under the building.

Finally he said, "Forget it."

Xue Meng didn't catch on for a moment, and he let out a "hmm".

Jiang Xi clasped his hands in his arms and looked back at him with half a face sideways, "I mean, your mission is over."

Anyway, no matter how you measure it, there is only one ending to the game.

Until the Xianxia community has worked out a new method, there is little need for iterative testing.

"Go home."

This was Xue Meng's first failed mission.

When he heard Jiang Xi say this, he knew it wasn't his problem, but he was still a little uneasy.

He rubbed the toe of his shoe against the carpet subconsciously and hesitated for a moment before speaking, "I still have a question."

Jiang Xi had turned completely around by this time, leaning against the immaculate windowpane and lifting his lashes slightly, "Go ahead."

Xue Meng took a deep breath: "I've seen him as a child in the simulator, and I think he's about my age."

"So."

"So why don't we just find him and ask him if he's willing to cooperate with the trial"

Jiang Xi was quiet for a moment and then snorted, "Genetic testing is dangerous. Do you think the world is still the same as you learned in history class, the Xianxia world of chaos and ignorance? We don't do that to any free man."

""

"Even if that person is a butterfly-bone beauty seat." Jiang Xi said, "Son, come to your senses. The time of man-eating man is long gone."

In the cold white light of the Director's office, Xue Meng's face seems to flush a little.

He muttered, "I didn't mean it like that I just I just don't know"

Jiang Xi started to pack up his papers, and in the process the new director looked up at him again, "I know you didn't mean it that way. But I must remind you that it doesn't matter who your father is as a brat, it doesn't matter how good you were at school, how many scholarships you won, it doesn't matter that you have good little baby trophies that your mother polishes up and puts on display in the bookcase."

Xue Meng's face was getting redder and redder, previously out of embarrassment, but now more out of anger.

"I don't care how well you've done with Director Nangong, how many stamps you've stamped and how many projects you've approved."

Jiang Xi was oblivious to his exasperation as he locked the papers in a drawer, his long, thin fingers lifting to straighten his dark green silk tie as he concluded, "You have much to learn from me."

After finishing his speech, the bossy director strides on his long legs and gently crosses Xue Meng's path.

Xue Meng was shaking with anger and finally couldn't help but explode: " Jiang Xi "

Jiang Xi paused just in front of the office door before he turned back towards the young man and pursed his lips, "Remember to turn off the lights."

""

It is now after 7pm.

The last light in the Xianxia Bureau building is out.

With no recent war and no huge projects to catch up on, no one will be working overtime. People have their own places to go back to.

Meeting up with friends, going out with lovers. Wives and husbands lounge on the sofa, eating popcorn and watching the blue light of the television screen. The tall young man puts on his apron and helps his parents prepare dinner together.

They all have places to go.

Jiang Xi was a bastard, but he was right, and although no world will ever be perfect, no age white and unblemished, the day they live in is nevertheless so much better than before, too long, too long after the years of turmoil when order was constantly being overthrown and rebuilt.

So long that many deeds and names of people have faded and disappeared in the long river. So long that countless souls have been washed through time and space, experiencing the cycle of life and death again and again.

So long that you are not the same person you once were, and I am not the same person I once was.

But we are still together.

Fame grows old, bones decay, and life is lost to time. But those who entwine their souls with each other will always be gifted with new flesh and blood by time. Those who are not diluted by reincarnation will always be embraced again and again by their lovers in their long floating lives.

A lifetime and a lifetime of entanglement.

Xue Meng bids farewell to little dragon and walks out of the building.

The sky was grey and dull, covered with thick leaden grey clouds. He saw tiny snowflakes drifting down in the night sky, showering the golden earth in a flurry.

He had no umbrella with him, so he raised his collar and hurried towards the nearest station, the white mist drifting around his mouth and nose as he breathed.

Around him, in this city shrouded by the canopy, in this world, sporadically, countless fates were intertwined

The old man at Master Li's sashimi shop is counting his money, he is a generous businessman and is getting more and more patronage, he is smiling and counting his money, he plans to go to the bookstore on his day off and buy the ancient digest of swordplay that he has been wanting for a long time, he likes to read such mysterious and mysterious books, although they are divine, they are surprisingly good.

Luo family's daughter, who turns 26 in a few hours and has just graduated from graduate school at the University of Agriculture and Forestry, gets into a taxi and plans to spend her 26th birthday in a downtown nightclub. She doesn't know that she will meet her childhood friend and long-lost neighbour at the party her best friend is throwing for her, and she doesn't know that she will get the love she is destined for.

The casino is a brightly lit place, and Ms Sun, with her brightly painted nails, smiles as she watches the customers throw money around her establishment.

The girl and her fiancé are sitting in the bridal shop and have been seriously arguing for half an hour about the placement of a particular pearl on their dress, as if it is the most important thing in the world and all their headaches will be solved once this little bead is fixed. What a bloody pair of dogs, the pearl on their wedding dress was the only thing that bothered them.

Shouldn't they look at Mo Ran and Chu Wanning, two other people three blocks away who are alive and well in this day and age?

They are not fictions in a simulator, they are not games, they are not Xue Meng's missions.

But it is clear, and unsuspected, that they remain together in this life.

But right now, they are having a fight over a trivial matter. It started when Mo Ran wanted to go to the cinema to see a romance starring Xun Fengruo, but Chu Wanning preferred an action film starring kung fu superstar Zhen Congming.

"Can't you watch some hot, manly movies," said Chu Wanning, squinting dangerously at her handsome boyfriend, who was half a head taller than she was, without losing any of her swagger.

He would look even more menacing if it weren't for the long lashes that flap like stamens in the streetlight.

"Every time I go into a movie it's either a funny movie or a romance, listen to the name." Chu Wanning almost gritted his teeth as he crushed the words, "Erha and his white cat master are you brain dead? This is a cartoon, isn't it? The poster doesn't even have this film suitable for preschoolers printed on it"

Mo Ran looked pityingly at his angry lover and tried several times to speak in defence of the equally pitiful Erha and his white cat master, but swallowed back helplessly.

"I can't stand your drama aesthetic anymore."

""

"I told you last time that Teletubbies vs. Voldemort and Captain America vs. Bala Bala the Magician had crossed my lower limit. I will never, ever, ever go to the cinema with you to see such and such a bad movie again." Chu Wanning seems to have reached the breaking point, his thin lips opening and closing in a torrent of angry denunciations that seem illogical even in the heat of the moment, "I'm a cop, Mo Ran. I'm still a cop even when I'm out of uniform and off duty, I can't lose my IQ with you."

""

"Do you think I'll accompany you to see Erha and his white cat master when you look at me like that? Come on, you're in your twenties, don't you feel ashamed to walk up to the counter and tell the waitress lady to please give me two tickets for Erha and his white cat master"

Mo Ran's dark eyes looked at him, and as they did so, they suddenly became a little aggravated.

In a rare moment of defiance, he said, "My colleague told me it's not an animated film, and while I'm not sure it's any good, I promise, it's really a proper romance"

Chu Wanning finally explodes: "No decent movie would have that stupid name"

""

With these words, Chu Wanning strode forward in a fury and anger, and after two steps, when he saw that Mo Ran was not following him, but standing still and glaring at him, he choked on his anger and repeated, "No."

Mo Ran bit her lip, still glaring at him without saying a word.

This is how the conflict between the two men came to a head. If Jiang Xi, the director of Xianxia, had seen this scene, he would have exclaimed, "Look how idle and uninteresting people are in modern society. How stupid and incorrigible these fools are who are trapped in love. Why do you have to be two people to watch a movie? You buy your own tickets and go to different screening rooms, and then reunite when the movie is over, isn't that right? Are you girls who have to hold hands and go to the toilet together during recess?

Jiang Xi would have thought so, after all, he is the great and cold, witty and clever Lord Commissioner.

At the moment, Chu Wanning is walking along soberly, hands tucked into the pockets of his black tweed trench coat, ignoring his boyfriend's repeated attempts to take his hand.

" Wangning "

""

"Well, don't go so fast, let's talk it over."

""

"I promise you it won't be any worse than Teletubbies vs. Voldemort." Mo Ran finished with a small, vague mumble, "And I don't think Teletubbies vs. Voldemort is as bad as you make it out to be. I want to see the same series of Hagrid the Beauty next year."

Unfortunately the last sentence was overheard by Chu Wanning, who stared back at him in shock and even a little panic, "Say what you said and forget it." He shook his head in an attempt to wipe away the nightmarish title he had just heard, the knot in his throat twitching, "Don't repeat it, I'll pretend I didn't hear it."

"Oh." Mo Ran continued to commiserate.

Chu Wanning continues to stride forward, the hem of his trench coat swinging. He was a little speechless, really. Every time he thinks he's gotten his head around Mo Ran's dreadful drama aesthetic, Mo Ran always manages to refresh him with an even worse book.

Mo Ran kept following behind him, a step away.

They walked back and forth for a while before Mo Ran got up the nerve to try and persuade Chu Wanning again: "Shall we go and see what we can do with rock-paper-scissors or shake the colours?"

The sound grew softer and he paused, his afterglow seeming to notice something.

He was inspired.

""

"Hello, Chu Wanning."

Finally, Chu Wanning's handsome, tall boyfriend stopped by the side of the road and, in the dim light, he raised his hand and pointed to the right-hand side where a sweet potato stall was selling sweet potatoes and the stall owner was shouting, "Roasted sweet potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes!"

"Hey, Chu Wanning ." He repeated.

"" Chu Wanning ignored him.

"Officer Chu." He bit his lip, a smile flooding his eyes.

He knows Chu Wanning, what he likes to eat and what he would like to be called.

They have known each other for too long.

Chu Wanning did turn around, but he didn't turn around, just held his face halfway sideways, and his hands remained tucked in his trench coat pockets. He lifted his chin slightly, squinted his long, thick lashes and just looked at the man in the streetlight.

The man met his gaze, expecting it, but still smiling darkly down, then a little fumbling as he weighed his words and finally managed only four extremely plain words.

He took off his hat and scratched his head, "Eat or not."

""

"Baked sweet potatoes in winter." He smiled, "The love of your life."

""

"And I see it's got a white core, you like white cores and that's not easy to find. So eat one, don't be mad."

Chu Wanning's face is at last less hard and less like a block of ice that has frozen overnight in the northern winter. He stands for a moment, then turns around with slightly puffed cheeks. He walked towards Mo Ran and said calmly, in a tone as if he didn't care, as if he wasn't tempted at all, "No, I'll have four."

"Fine, fine." His handsome boyfriend looked at him with a little helplessness and a little amusement. He had been like a tough, wild leopard, but he had softened him up over the years, and he even showed his teeth like a white cat once in a while. He really did have this illusion.

Mo Ran laughed and said, "OK, four is four, but can you still eat dinner like that?"

"Don't underestimate my stomach, it's just an appetizer."

"Okay then, you eat your snack first, then we'll go eat and then we'll go watch that film by Zhen Congming."

Chu Wanning took the steaming white cored sweet potato and took a bite, holding back the little smile that was about to betray him from slipping out of his lips and shaking his head indifferently, "It's okay to watch Erha and his white cat master."

Mo Ran's eyes lit up instantly, "Really?"

"Hmm. Be silly with you one more time."

Mo Ran's voice is instantly bright, joyful and sweet like a bubbly tablet falling into water, the honeyed taste fizzing and bubbling out to sweeten the water.

He was going to die of sweetness.

"That's very kind of you."

""

"That next time the beautiful girl Hagrid"

"Don't even think about it."

Two pairs of footprints slowly move forward in the street where the snow is gradually covering up, leaning close together, very close together.

At a crossroads, Xue Meng, already on the bus and wearing headphones, looks unconsciously out of the window at the crowds of people coming and going, the flamboyant lights.

He was relaxed, his forehead pressed against the slightly cool glass of the car window, the multicoloured neon shattering in his black eyes, and he yawned, not noticing a pair of youths carrying roasted sweet potatoes walking past on the sidewalk next to him and that the pair were bickering over the beauty queen Hagrid.

The green light came on and the car started.

As they pass each other, Xue Meng hums a song from his headphones, he's not very good at it, but who can stop him from humming happily because he's not good at it?

He had just received a message from his mum telling him that his dad had returned from a business trip and that his favourite meal of boiled fish and spicy chicken was on offer tonight.

No one can stop him from humming, not even the destruction of the earth or the flood, he has to be allowed to finish the boiled fish.

There are countless possibilities in their lives, different professions, different origins, different upbringings, different likes and dislikes, and perhaps even small differences in appearance for one reason or another. But reincarnation will not change Xue Meng's fondness for boiled fish, just as it will not change Chu Wanning's sweet tooth, or Mo Ran's love for the bowl of red oil dumplings.

Their story will only come to an end in the end.

It was the compromise of a vast providence with a small life, the compromise of a mayfly shaking a tree, the compromise of a quaffle chasing the sun.

After all those hardships.

They will eventually be with the one they love.

They will eventually be reunited with the one they love.

The Only Possible End to the Extra