So I Had No Choice But to Stop Being the White Moonlight – Chapter 91
by Little PandaI’m Not Going to Be the White Moonlight
Darling
The afternoon sun was intense. The tinted glass of the shop window softened the sunlight, casting a dim glow over the sparsely populated bar.
A wind chime tinkled. Chi Qian had just stepped inside when someone pressed against her, nearly making her lose her footing.
The shock of red hair that flashed past Chi Qian’s vision was more glaring than the sun. She never would have expected to run into Song Tang here. Her voice was almost a cry of surprise. “Song Tang!”
“Are you really Song Tang?!”
“It’s me, it’s me.” Song Tang grinned, looking at the person she had her arms wrapped around, and lifted her chin slightly. “Didn’t expect this, did you?”
“Of course not.” Chi Qian found it a bit incredible. There weren’t that many boundaries between Mission-Takers. Chi Qian lowered her voice and smoothly uttered the word “System.” “How did you get here? Does the System have another mission?”
As she said this, worry appeared in Chi Qian’s astonished eyes.
Seeing this, Song Tang quickly patted Chi Qian’s shoulder, guided her to sit on a high stool at the bar, and told her not to worry. “The System’s interior is a total mess right now. How would it have time to bother with your darling girlfriend?”
Hearing Song Tang refer to Shi Jinlan as her “darling girlfriend,” Chi Qian’s face flushed, and she subconsciously wanted to object.
But what was there to object to? It was the truth.
Chi Qian lightly scratched her nose, then deftly changed the subject. “My System told me that the System’s interior is full of bugs now?”
“Yeah.” Song Tang nodded, taking a sip of the drink in her hand before launching into an exaggerated description for Chi Qian. “Have you ever seen those huge, flying ants? And those tiny little green ones that like to stick to people.”
“Ew—stop, stop, I can’t take it anymore. If you keep talking, I’m going to get goosebumps all over.” Chi Qian was already feeling uncomfortable just listening. She couldn’t help but rub her arms, quickly stopping Song Tang from continuing her description. Her voice was filled with confusion. “How did so many bugs suddenly appear in the System?”
“Because of bugs, of course.”1 Song Tang said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She gave Chi Qian a strange look. “Didn’t you say you were a programmer before you came to the System? How do you not even know this joke?”
“Is that a joke?” Chi Qian tried hard to remember, and it seemed to ring a bell that ‘bug’ originally meant insect. She scratched her cheek, embarrassed. “I feel like a lot of my memories are messed up.”
Hearing Chi Qian say this, Song Tang keenly noticed her expression. “Why do I feel like you’ve come back with a lot more worries this time?”
With that, she put down her drink and told her earnestly, “Tell me about it. Maybe I can help you solve it.”
Chi Qian felt that interpersonal relationships were the most magical things in the world.
Some people you could know for seven or eight years and still not be close, while with others, like Shi Jinlan, Yuan Ming, and Song Tang, she just felt a strong connection, as if they had known each other for a long time. It was natural and familiar.
“It’s just… some things in my memory don’t feel like my memories, and some memories that should be mine, I can’t remember at all.” Chi Qian said, looking up at Song Tang, looking as though she’d done her best to explain.
She knew she was being vague, but that was all she understood about the situation so far.
She just didn’t know if Song Tang would understand…
“Hey, do you think the System might have swapped your memories?!”
Song Tang quickly caught on to Chi Qian’s train of thought. She held out both hands towards Chi Qian, her thoughts branching out in the dim light. “It gave you someone else’s memories, and as for your own memories… maybe the System doesn’t want you to remember them, so it pushed them to the bottom of the stack.”2
“Stack?” Chi Qian didn’t understand.
Looking at the young woman sitting in front of her, Song Tang became even more certain that Chi Qian’s memories of being a programmer were definitely not her own. She began to explain in all seriousness, “It’s a storage rule in computers. The first thing that enters the storage space is the last to come out. As more and more things come in, the first thing that was saved might just stay pressed down at the bottom.”
“Oh, I think I get it.” Chi Qian nodded thoughtfully.
“Aww, my poor Qianqian.” Seeing Chi Qian’s reaction, Song Tang expertly reached out and rubbed her face.
It had to be said, Chi Qian’s face was indeed nice to the touch.
Delicate and soft, with a look that made you think anyone could bully her.
Thinking this, Song Tang let out a sigh. “What would you do without me?”
“What did you do?” Chi Qian’s eyes were suspicious as she heard Song Tang’s words.
“With so many bugs, have you ever thought about what would happen to your home?” Song Tang asked.
“Oh, crap.” Chi Qian sat up straight.
“Relax, relax.” Song Tang patted Chi Qian’s shoulder and proudly informed her, “I wrote a piece of code to protect my place, your place, and my bar. As long as we don’t open the doors, the bugs can’t get in.”
Hearing this, Chi Qian finally understood why Song Tang was here. “So you have nowhere to go now, and you came to find me?”
“Hehe.” Song Tang grinned. “Fifty-fifty. I was thinking, since I can’t go home, I might as well take a mission to earn some points to support the family.”
Chi Qian felt that the reason she had become friends with Song Tang so quickly was probably because they were both slackers by nature, avoiding missions whenever possible.
Although Chi Qian didn’t know how many points Song Tang had accumulated in the past to be able to survive just by running a bar with meager income, in the six months she had known her, she had never seen her take a mission.
So, hearing Song Tang say she had accepted a mission made Chi Qian a little curious.
She propped up her chin and listened intently as Song Tang told her, “You know, the System’s Mission Center has always had a Regular Mission, which is to be an NPC that helps advance the protagonists’ relationship. The rewards are lower, but the risk is low too.”
At this point, Song Tang deliberately kept her in suspense. “Guess whose mission I saw in the Mission Center?”
Hearing Song Tang say this, an answer popped into Chi Qian’s mind.
She didn’t quite dare to believe it, but seeing Song Tang appear before her now, she had to believe it. “Me and Shi Jinlan?”
“Correct!” Song Tang slapped her thigh, her face beaming. “Congratulations, you and Shi Jinlan are now the protagonists of this world!”
Chi Qian found it hard to believe. After all, according to what Thirteen had told her back then, Shi Jinlan needed to meet the secular definition of a perfect ending before she could possibly replace the original male and female leads and become the protagonist of this world.
But they hadn’t even had a wedding yet, and they were already the protagonists?
“My current identity is a wedding planner who came to the island to gather inspiration.”3
Before Chi Qian could figure it out, Song Tang’s self-introduction interrupted her thoughts.
Song Tang was smiling at Chi Qian, her slightly narrowed eyes unable to hide her shipper’s grin. “The mission is to help you two complete your wedding.”
Chi Qian was a little skeptical of her friend, who had always been free-spirited and unconventional. “You have a talent for that?”
“I am comprehensively developed in morals, intelligence, physique, and aesthetics,4 okay? I’ll definitely give you a wedding that will be unforgettable for a lifetime.” Song Tang patted her chest, signaling for Chi Qian to leave it all to her.
“Then I shall wait in anticipation.”5 Chi Qian smiled.
“Don’t worry.”
Having talked so much, Song Tang took a sip of her drink.
Then she frowned. “Tsk, what’s wrong with this drink.”
As a bar owner who loved alcohol as if it were her life and had extremely high standards for mixology, she looked disapprovingly at the bartender behind the counter. “Brother, did you use a little too little bitters in this?”
“Jiejie, we have our own recipes for our cocktails. Too much bitters makes it taste bad. You don’t understand.” The man wiped a glass with a disdainful look on his face. When he looked up, however, he found that the person speaking to him was an excessively stunning woman.
He immediately changed his tune. Seeing that there wasn’t much business in the bar, he took the initiative to invite her, “I have a few drinks here that would suit you. Want to come over and let me teach you? It’s free.”
At first, Song Tang had been calm, thinking that every bartender has their own pursuits.
But just as she suppressed her dissatisfaction, his next sentence, “You don’t understand, so don’t talk nonsense,” brought it right back up.
The alcohol poured on top of it, a spark ignited, and it burst into flames.
A gaze of scrutiny is always different from one of admiration. Seeing the man invite her over, Song Tang just felt that he was courting death. She smiled. “Sure.”
The man took the initiative to open the side panel of the bar for Song Tang, putting on a perfect gentlemanly facade.
Chi Qian watched with great interest, thinking that this man had absolutely no idea what kind of trouble he had just invited for himself.
Song Tang’s eyes swept over the workstation behind the bar, never once landing on the man. Her eyes fixed on his most expensive bottle of liquor. “Using this as the base, do you know how to mix it?”
“This one isn’t suitable for you.” The man stopped Song Tang, picking up another bottle that was much stronger but less than half the price. “If you want something strong, this one is just the same.”
“No wonder you said too much bitters tastes bad.” Song Tang couldn’t help but sneer. She reached out and twisted open the cap of the bottle she had been aiming for.
“Hey, you!” The man felt a pang for his liquor, and for his earlier offer of a free drink just to hit on her.
Of course Song Tang knew what he was pained about. She threw his earlier disdain right back at him. “I won’t take advantage of you. I’ll pay.”
Song Tang had always been one to do as she pleased. She reached out and hooked a finger under Chi Qian’s chin. “It’s been a while since you’ve had my drinks. Let me mix one for you?”
How could Chi Qian not know Song Tang’s vengeful personality? This was a deliberate attempt to squeeze the man.
So, right in front of him, she played along, her words exceptionally sweet. “Darling, you’re the best!”
Song Tang smiled. In the dim light, the toss of her red hair was especially flamboyant.
Her movements were far more practiced than the man’s. Pouring the liquor, adding ice—though the actions were exaggerated, on her they didn’t seem the least bit artificial. They were natural and swift, and soon attracted a crowd of onlookers.
Chi Qian sat in the best seat at the bar, watching Song Tang shine under the lights, and felt a thrill of shared glory.6
The sealed cocktail shaker7 traced a silvery arc through the air. Just as it was about to hit the man, it was intercepted by a well-defined hand, flamboyant and composed. It made the man’s heart race and left him staring, dumbfounded.
He shouldn’t have so recklessly provoked her.
Click.
With a single, sharp tap, the sealed shaker was easily pried open in Song Tang’s hand.
The crisp, clear liquor, glittering with points of light, flowed from blue to green as it poured into the glass, as beautiful as a work of art.
“Awesome.”
“So cool. How did she flip her hand like that?”
“Ah Liang’s amateurish skills8 really got shown up by that girl, huh.”
“What a cool jiejie. Is that her girlfriend?”
…
A buzz of discussion rose from the crowd. Song Tang’s pride was written all over her face. She triumphantly pushed the glass over. “Have a taste.”
But the prepared drink wasn’t pushed towards Chi Qian.
It was pushed to her side, towards someone else who had arrived at some point.
Chi Qian didn’t know what Song Tang was up to. She turned her head in confusion.
Only to find that the person sitting next to her was none other than Yuan Ming.
“Ah Yuan?” The question escaped Chi Qian’s lips in a daze.
Shouldn’t she be with Shi Jinlan right now, being called in by Grandfather for a talk?
Why was she here?
And where was Shi Jinlan?
Chi Qian’s heart leaped into her throat. Just as she was about to speak to Yuan Ming again, a soft cough came from behind her.
“Ahem.”
Song Tang’s spectacular performance had drawn a large crowd. Amidst the hustle and bustle, Chi Qian found the cough strangely familiar.
She turned her head sluggishly and saw Shi Jinlan standing right behind her.
The dim light seemed to press the bar’s cold air down a degree on her senses, just like the color of Shi Jinlan’s eyes, and just like the words she repeated to Chi Qian in a faint voice: “Darling?”
The author has something to say:
Lanlan (found her wife): Hee hee
Lanlan (heard her wife call an unknown woman ‘darling’): Not hee hee.
Lanlan (realized her wife saw Yuan Ming first and didn’t notice her): Even less hee hee.
Footnotes
- A pun. The Chinese word used for the insects is 虫子 (chóngzi), which is also the literal word used to refer to computer bugs.
- A stack is a data structure in computer science that operates on a “last in, first out” principle. The first items added are the last to be removed.
- The term used is 采风 (cǎifēng), which literally means ‘to collect wind.’ It refers to going out into the world to gather local materials, customs, or inspiration for creative work. This practice has historical roots in Chinese artistic and literary traditions.
- A reference to 德智体美全面发展 (dé zhì tǐ měi quánmiàn fāzhǎn), a common slogan in the Chinese education system promoting well-rounded development.
- A Chinese idiom (chengyu), 拭目以待 (shìmùyǐdài), which literally means ‘to wipe one’s eyes and wait.’
- The original text uses 与有荣焉 (yǔ yǒu róng yān), a classical expression meaning ‘to feel honored along with them’ or ‘to share in their glory.’
- The original text uses 合实的杯子 (héshí de bēizi), referring to a sealed or closed cocktail shaker with a tight-fitting lid.
- Literally ‘three-legged cat kung fu’ (三脚猫功夫, sānjiǎomāo gōngfu), a slang term for clumsy, amateurish skills.
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