Mr. Zhongli, we can't slack off anymore!

The air seemed to freeze; the faint, tentative ambiguity of the moment was shattered by this sudden confrontation. The delicious food on the table seemed to instantly lose all its warmth and aroma.

Did he force you?

A deep voice sounded, not like a question, but carrying a chill that travelers rarely felt from him.

Zhongli stood beside the table, his figure not deliberately approaching, but the natural, condescending sense of scrutiny he exuded pressed down like an invisible mountain.

He looked down at the traveler, his usually warm and deep amber eyes now appearing frosty and reflecting a chilling light that sent shivers down one's spine.

And this chill, so clearly directed at him, was something the traveler had never seen before.

The traveler froze on the spot, unable to react. His mind went blank; all his previous thoughts about how to deal with the revelation of his identity, how to question, or even how to "retaliate" were shattered by that cold gaze.

Like a child caught doing something wrong, her eyes darted around, unable to meet his gaze, yet unsure where to look. She could only frantically scan the patterns on the tablecloth, the edges of the dishes, and her own clenched fists... Her heart pounded in the dead silence, so clear it was almost deafening.

"I was wrong."

The calm and clear voice of Alheisen, coming from behind Zhong Li, broke the suffocating silence. There was no panic or apology in his tone; it was more like he was stating an experimental result that did not meet expectations.

Yup!

The traveler suddenly remembered something.

Why am I panicking? I didn't do anything wrong!

From beginning to end, isn't it all the guy's fault for inexplicably disappearing, writing a letter and then running away, and even seemingly impersonating someone else to follow me?

My confidence surged back, filling my chest.

The traveler jumped up from her chair with a swift movement, knocking over the chair behind her with a soft clatter. She finally found her voice: "You're not wrong." She addressed Elhesen, but her eyes were fixed on Zhongli: "The one who's wrong is someone who deserted their post, leaving behind a cryptic letter and pretending to leave, even pretending to be..." She almost blurted out, "Even pretending to be Jin Moli to trick me," her pent-up anger and resentment making her eager to tear off this hateful pretense.

"Mr. Zhongli, what brings you back? Have you taken care of everything in the hall?"

A gentle, soft voice, with just the right amount of surprise and concern, drifted softly from behind the traveler.

It was Jin Moli's voice.

The traveler's heart tightened, and the words he was about to say got stuck in his throat.

She stopped abruptly, her eyes widening slightly in shock.

How could this be...?

Zhong Mingming was standing right in front of him, and behind her was Jin Moli...

She didn't even have the courage to turn around immediately, afraid that she would see some supernatural sight, or worse—see another "Zhongli".

Utter confusion and a tinge of absurd fear gripped her. She could only forcefully suppress the accusation that was about to spill from her lips, awkwardly replying, "Pretending...you just got back? You've never left!"

The voice sounded somewhat sharp due to the sudden turn in the sentence. The accusatory tone was still there, but the target had become vague, changing from the specific "pretending" to the ambiguous "pretending to leave".

Depend on!

She cursed inwardly before belatedly realizing what had happened.

Al-Hysen just said he was wrong, but he wasn't apologizing for what happened under the table earlier!

He was saying that he had discovered his deduction was wrong—Jin Moli and Zhong Li were two completely different people!

I thought he was apologizing for that damn "help"!

You were moved for nothing! No, you were angry for nothing!

“I left a letter informing you of my whereabouts.” Zhongli seemed unconcerned about the traveler’s accusation that he had “pretended to leave,” and the coldness on his face eased slightly at the mention of the topic.

At this moment, Jin Moli had already walked around the table and approached. She was holding a small bowl in her hands, filled with translucent ice cubes that were emitting a chill.

With her usual impeccable gentle smile, she first handed a small silver spoon and a bowl to the still-standing traveler before turning to Zhongli and asking in a natural tone, "How have you been lately, Master? I'm sure the troublesome 'business' has troubled you."

Zhongli shifted his gaze from the traveler to Jin Moli's face and nodded slightly: "The troublesome matter has been handled properly. The Hall Master is currently doing well."

The two of them stood a few steps apart and began to talk calmly. One was as steady as a mountain, the other as gentle as flowing water. Standing together, their auras did not clash, but rather created a strange, unpleasant sense of harmony.

It was as if they were the companions who had known each other for a long time, while the traveler himself, along with Elhesen beside him, had become abrupt intruders.

This invisible feeling of being excluded is particularly jarring to travelers, making them feel extremely uncomfortable.

Almost subconsciously, she moved her feet in tiny, extremely slow steps, inching her way from where she was originally facing Zhongli to next to Elhesen, as if that was the only "safe zone" where she could feel slightly at ease at this moment.

She took the spoon and ice bowl from Jin Moli, bent down, scooped up a spoonful of ice, and put it in her mouth.

The coldness of the ice cube instantly stimulated the tip of my tongue, which had just been scalded by the hot soup.

A sharp, stinging pain was followed by numbness, which strangely cooled her chaotic heat and unvented frustration.

She sipped the ice cube slowly, refusing to participate in the "harmonious" conversation between the two.

"Are they blood relatives?" Elhesen's voice sounded beside her, very low.

Even in such a bizarre situation, his analytical tone remained intact. He was clearly still reviewing his earlier grave mistake of "mistaking the two for the same person," trying to find a reasonable explanation from the available information.

Upon hearing this question, the traveler nearly choked on the ice in her mouth. She replied irritably, in a low voice barely audible to the two of them, through gritted teeth, "Maybe in the future."

She paused, swallowing back the even harsher curse that followed, only roaring in her heart: Because I might very well beat them both up! Beat them until they're bleeding profusely, so their blood can 'mix' on the floor, making them 'blood relatives'!

The shock, embarrassment, anger, confusion... all sorts of emotions that she experienced in those few short minutes crashed around her like a rollercoaster, leaving her heart still pounding and her temples throbbing with pain; she simply couldn't recover.

Why aren't they one person?

In his own inner world, the traveler furiously grabs at an imaginary head of tangled hair, shouting silently into the void.

That familiar feeling! That annoying possessiveness! That roundabout way of speaking! And Jin Moli's unusual behavior and words... It's so similar! Why isn't it?!

“I rarely make this kind of mistake.” Elhesen’s voice came again, calm but with a rare hint of academic confusion. He frowned slightly, his gaze sweeping back and forth between Zhongli and Jin Moli, seemingly still unable to fully accept that his proud observation and reasoning abilities had made such a significant error on this issue.

“Of course.” The traveler squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth, his tone full of disgruntled sarcasm: “After all, you’re the smartest. If your ‘magical’ verification method could be used at a slightly different time, say, after our awful dinner is over, it would be even more ‘perfect’.”

She couldn't even stand being at this table or in this restaurant anymore; she just wanted to disappear immediately. A lump formed in her throat, suffocating her.

"..." Elhesen glanced at her sideways, his brows furrowing even more, as if he had observed some kind of emotional state in her that was different from usual.

He was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked a question that sounded a bit abrupt: "Do you also have any... 'blood relatives'? Where did the other... more gentle 'you' go?" Yes, he was being sarcastic.

The traveler now has only one thought in mind.

“She’s withdrawn.” She answered dryly, then looked up at Elhesen with a last glimmer of hope in her eyes: “Would you like to… go to another restaurant? Now.”

She just wanted to grab onto this seemingly "normal" lifeline and escape this eerie place that made her so embarrassed she wanted to dig her toes into the ground.

Elhesen seemed to seriously consider her suggestion, and then, in his completely flat tone, asked a question that made the traveler instantly want to pack him and Zhongli up and throw them into the sea: "Would this count as a date?"

Before the traveler could react, Zhongli's voice came over.

He had finished his brief conversation with Jin Moli and stepped closer. As if he had just overheard the traveler's last whisper, his gaze swept over the traveler's hand, which was tightly gripping the ice bowl and whose knuckles were slightly white. His tone was calm: "The food has just been served and is still warm. It would be wasteful and impolite to leave now."