Chapter Twenty: The Compassionate and Lenient Reincarnator

Listening to Minaki’s words, Liu Mengchao suddenly laughed. It was as if he saw a faint glimmer in Minaki’s single eye—a glimmer that the nearby doll simply did not possess.

“Starting today, you’ll be living at my place?” Minaki lifted her head, a slight smile playing on her lips. “Have you already heard what they said?”

“What do you mean?” Liu Mengchao furrowed his brow and asked, “About the nonexistent people?”

“Yeah.”

“I…” Before Liu Mengchao could finish, Minaki’s brows knitted tightly. “I know.”

“You know…” Minaki glanced at Liu Mengchao, then lowered her head and spoke slowly, “Do you want to see?”

“See what?”

“My eyes.” Minaki’s voice was soft and ethereal, almost like the sound coming from the doll in the coffin.

“Alright.”

Liu Mengchao’s words seemed to scatter a veil of frost from Minaki’s face. She raised her pale, slender hand behind her head. The white eye patch gently slipped down under the delicate touch of her verdant fingers.

Beneath the moonlight gleamed her azure eye.

The green eye reflected Liu Mengchao’s silhouette like a shadow suddenly appearing on a tranquil green lake.

“Nothing.”

Before Liu Mengchao could speak, Minaki’s voice interrupted.

At that moment, the otaku Zhao Weijie’s words echoed in Liu Mengchao’s mind: Because Minaki was in a childhood accident, her left eye can see those nearing death.

“Strange, isn’t it?” Minaki said to Liu Mengchao. “My eyes are two different colors—my right eye is red, but my left eye is green.”

“Yeah, that is a bit unusual,” Liu Mengchao nodded, then added, “But my mother has different colored eyes too; one is black and the other is blue.”

The moment Liu Mengchao spoke, Minaki’s eyes brightened with curiosity, eagerly awaiting his further explanation.

“I asked her about it once. She said it was called heterochromia. It doesn’t seem to be a big issue. Actually, I think having two different-colored eyes gives you a unique charm.”

“Hmm…” Minaki slowly nodded, a trace of joy creeping into her gaze. “But mine is different. It’s just a prosthetic eye.”

With that, she lightly tapped the area around her left eye.

“When I was four, a malignant tumor took my left eye,” Minaki slowly turned, looking at the doll lying in the coffin. “Mom thought a normal prosthetic eye wasn’t cute enough, so she specially made me a green one.”

She sighed softly.

“You think your mother treated you like a doll.”

Without Liu Mengchao realizing it, he had already stepped behind Minaki.

“But dolls don’t have friends, yet you do,” Liu Mengchao’s voice was like sunlight piercing through a continuous drizzle—slow but resolute.

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Liu Mengchao nodded. Minaki, standing barely chest-high to him, turned her head in disbelief and looked at him.

“Then, what expression should I wear to greet you?”

“Expression?”

At that moment, Liu Mengchao turned and pulled back the curtain behind the coffin. It led directly into Minaki’s home.

“Just a smile.”

Only then did Liu Mengchao’s voice come softly.

A smile?

Minaki turned back to look at Liu Mengchao’s silhouette. Outside, the rain had stopped, and the slanting sunlight shone into the basement, bathing Liu Mengchao’s shoulders in warmth.

“It suddenly feels a little warm.”

The corner of Minaki’s mouth lifted as she stepped in front of Liu Mengchao and pressed the elevator button.

“When you first visit someone’s home, the host usually opens the door to welcome the guest, right?”

Liu Mengchao watched the descending elevator, nodded, and followed closely behind Minaki.

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If you had the chance to sleep next to a girl without any identity or background, what would you most want to do?

Right now, Liu Mengchao only hoped he wouldn’t snore while sleeping.

He turned his head and saw Minaki lying beside him. He unconsciously propped his arm underneath and stared at the ceiling. He never imagined he would end up sleeping beside Minaki.

He looked at the girl’s face beside him—her complexion as flawless as white jade—gently rising and falling in the dark.

“Asleep?”

Liu Mengchao whispered.

No response.

He awkwardly scratched his nose. Even now, he couldn’t understand how this situation came to be.

Minaki’s mother had actually allowed him to sleep in Minaki’s room, while Minaki herself hadn’t slept anywhere else. Even with the lights off, Liu Mengchao felt uneasy.

Staring into the pitch-black room, he sighed. He still believed his conclusion was correct.

Yes, about the identity of the deceased.

Suddenly, a light flashed in Minaki’s room.

It was a phone.

Liu Mengchao sat up in the dark, watching the phone on the bedside table buzzing with a faint glow.

“Someone’s calling.”

He turned his head and spoke to Minaki, who was sitting beside him.

The phone’s light reflected in the mirror, illuminating the entire room like a lamp.

“Aren’t you going to answer it?”

Liu Mengchao frowned and asked Minaki.

The girl nodded and sat up. Her pure white camisole clung to her slender frame, revealing an unusual beauty.

Quietly, she climbed out of bed and felt her way downstairs.

“Hello, this is Minaki.”

Her voice indifferently floated into Liu Mengchao’s ears.

“Hmm…” Liu Mengchao only heard Minaki’s brief response before she spoke to him.

“Liu Mengchao, they’re looking for you.”

“Who?”

“Liu Ling,” the Chinese name sounded awkward coming from Minaki’s mouth, “and Ji Ruixue.”

Liu Ling? Ji Ruixue?

Liu Mengchao’s brow twitched. He turned over and quickly got up, standing beside Minaki.

“Give it here.” Liu Mengchao reached out and took the phone from Minaki. On the other end, the voice of the Reincarnator who had been clutching the doll the entire time came through.

“May I ask, is this Liu Mengchao?”

“Yes.”

“Could I ask you for a favor?”

The voice on the other end was cold and emotionless, lacking the gentle tone one would expect when asking for help—instead, it sounded like a detached factual report.

Yet Liu Mengchao smiled.

Before him, the prize pool was rising.

Prize pool amount: 720,000.

Though the voice was well-masked, it betrayed a deep yearning.

Then, speak your purpose, Reincarnator.

Liu Mengchao smiled and nodded.

“What is it?”

“The next to die is Izumi Akazawa…”

“And?”

“I hope you can protect her, at least once, from death.”

The voice on the other end remained calm and indifferent, but the prize pool before Liu Mengchao seemed to boil and rise swiftly.

Prize pool amount: 721,000.

Before Liu Mengchao could answer, Minaki turned back and returned to bed, seemingly indifferent to everything.

But if that were true, why was she so anxious to get up and answer the phone?

Looking at Minaki’s silhouette in the darkness, Liu Mengchao couldn’t help but laugh.

“Protect Izumi Akazawa, huh?”

“Yeah!”

“Any reason?”

The voice hesitated, as if making a firm decision. After a second or two, it came through.

“Though she’s just a script character, she’s my friend now.”

Friend?

“Are you really a Reincarnator?” Liu Mengchao laughed softly.

“Yes,” Liu Ling on the other end answered without guilt, his voice brimming with conviction, “But first and foremost, I’m a person—and so are they.”

“In that case…” Liu Mengchao’s lips curled into a smile. “See you tomorrow morning at the door of Izumi Akazawa’s house, merciful Reincarnator.”

“You too.”

Click.

The call ended, but Liu Mengchao smiled quietly in the darkness. He liked this kind of Reincarnator—at least, not like those lofty ones looking down on others.

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Though it’s hard to admit... my body isn’t feeling well. (I beg you all, please allow me a few days to recover... just three days... only one update per day for these three days... sorry T^T)

Then, on April 1st, the real outbreak will begin...

Thank you so much...

Special thanks to Xuanyuan Killer for the generous reward for Loli!