Fate Trading System – Chapter 384

Plan B

Mandarin Ducks 14

Lin Suhuai got up before the sun rose, preparing to leave. Su Xin, sensing this in a daze, wrapped her arms around her waist, gave her a random kiss somewhere, and fell back asleep.

Lin Suhuai found it a little amusing and wanted to pinch her nose, but she stopped her hand just before it touched, afraid of truly waking Su Xin up.

When the first ray of sunlight fell upon the ground, Lin Suhuai had already packed up and was standing in the military barracks.

Su Xin didn’t wake until the sun was three poles high¹.

After washing up, she saw a small child in the courtyard looking at her with curious eyes.

She gave a friendly smile, but the child suddenly ran away.

Hmm… is she that scary?

Su Xin shook her head, preparing to go out and buy something to eat.

Su Xin sat down at a stall selling wontons², and the owner secretly sized up this unfamiliar young lady.

This place wasn’t small, but due to the special nature of the environment, it was populated by permanent residents, and it was rare to see an unfamiliar face.

Su Xin’s presence was undoubtedly dazzling. Although her face was covered by a veil when she arrived, she always had to lower it when she ate. That beautiful, delicately nurtured face immediately set her apart.

“Did you just arrive recently, Miss? You look unfamiliar.” The stall owner, while boiling things in his pot, struck up a conversation with Su Xin.

“Yes, I came with my husband.”

“Is that so.” The stall owner still found it a bit strange. It wasn’t wartime, so why would anyone come here? But he didn’t press further. He just scooped the wontons out, placed them in a bowl, and served it to Su Xin.

“Enjoy your meal, Miss.”

“Alright.”

The wontons tasted good. After finishing them, Su Xin returned to the small courtyard.

After shutting herself in her room, Su Xin sat on the bed again and began to examine the information in her mind, finally locking onto a target.

Su Xin was very surprised. It was the deputy general who had followed Lin Suhuai for three years, named Wei Feng³. He was built five big and three thick⁴, a straight intestine⁵, and tended to be impetuous in his actions. He was reckless, possessing courage but no strategy⁶, and his way of speaking was also heart straight, mouth fast⁷.

She never would have thought it would be him. Su Xin rubbed her chin. Now that she knew, how was she going to tell Lin Suhuai?

She hadn’t even met Wei Feng yet, so it was impossible for her to go and tell Lin Suhuai that there was something strange about this person.

Even if she had met him, she couldn’t. In everyone else’s eyes, it was impossible for her to know these things. Lin Suhuai hadn’t told her anything, so she had no valid reason.

But Su Xin wanted to help Lin Suhuai achieve victory quickly to reach her own ultimate goal.

Master Fourteen, can you invade Lin Suhuai’s spiritual domain and create a dream for her?

【Yes.】

Alright.

For someone like Lin Suhuai, as long as a small seed of doubt is planted in her heart, she will pursue the answer, even if it’s just for her own peace of mind. She would never be blindly confident.

Time passed bit by bit.

Lin Suhuai didn’t come every day. She became increasingly busy. Sometimes, Su Xin could only learn through Fourteen that Lin Suhuai had stood by her bedside for a while the previous night before leaving.

The other country on the border, which had been wriggling and about to move⁸, made no unusual movements. It seemed they had received some news or discovered some truth, and they suddenly settled down again.

Through Fourteen, Su Xin saw that Lin Suhuai was methodically laying out plans in secret. During this time, her suspicion of Wei Feng had grown deeper and deeper, and she was having someone investigate him thoroughly.

Su Xin’s daily life consisted of watching movies and occasionally chatting with Lin Suhuai when she came to visit. She lived a very comfortable and decadent life.

Every day, Su Xin would go to that little stall to eat a bowl of wontons or drink a bowl of congee. The stall owner was already very old, a grandfatherly man. His food was truly delicious, and the portions were generous.

One day, he didn’t show up, which made Su Xin a little puzzled.

When he still hadn’t come for three consecutive days, Su Xin felt that something must have happened to him. From her previous chats with the old man, she knew the general area where he lived and went to look for him.

The old man was lying on his bed, his breath like a floating thread⁹.

When he saw Su Xin, his eyes widened as he lay on the bed, as if they could emit light. But after seeing clearly who had come, his gaze dimmed again.

Su Xin looked at him, knowing he couldn’t be saved.

“Miss, it’s you…”

“I wanted to come for a bowl of wontons, but…”

“I’m so sorry. Perhaps in the future, there won’t be any more.” He spoke with great effort, slowly and deliberately, trying his best to enunciate clearly.

“Is there anything I can do for you?”

The old man shook his head and gasped for breath for a moment.

“If it’s convenient, just grab a straw mat, roll this old man up, and bury me in the earth.”

The old man told Su Xin that he could be considered a guest who died in a strange land¹⁰.

But he didn’t dare to go back, nor could he.

He said he had probably already been forgotten by his family.

Hearing this, Su Xin felt a pang of sorrow.

If she were to leave, besides Qiu Qingqing, there probably wouldn’t be anyone else who remembered her, right?

In 《Coco》¹¹, after people die, they live in another world. As long as someone venerates them, they can return to see their families on the Day of the Dead. If no one puts up their photos, they cannot cross the marigold bridge and cannot return to the human world. If no one remembers them anymore, they will fade away completely, heading towards the final death.

It sounded very sad and desolate.

Su Xin thought of her own parents. They had a tombstone, arranged by the organization. She would go back to see them once a year and talk to them. At other times, she rarely thought of them.

Whether you call it being born naturally cool and thin¹² or thinking too little, she often only concerned herself with her own affairs, striving to live as the person she wanted to be, only able to remember the living.

Master Fourteen, how much lifespan do I have left?

【Including this world, your remaining lifespan is 164 months, which is 13 years and 7 months.】

Hmm, that’s about enough.

【Hm? Host, what do you mean…?】

I can probably live to be 38 or 39.

Su Xin pinched her chin, thinking. That age was about right.

Although she couldn’t remember other times clearly, she remembered that her mom seemed to have left with her dad around this age.

What’s the point of living so long? There’s nothing that absolutely must be done, and watching yourself grow old bit by bit isn’t a very pleasant experience.

【Host, have you thought it through?】 Fourteen felt it was so sudden. If this was the case, it would have to go find a new host again.

I’ve thought it through. I don’t know why, but I feel a bit tired. I seem to remember some things, but I can’t quite recall them. I don’t need to live that long. Didn’t you say that if the host returns and encounters death again, you will reappear? At that time, perhaps I will agree to your offer just the same.

【Alright.】 Fourteen tapped the screen, enlarging the white circle in its hand.

Since Su Xin had chosen to end it, then a certain someone’s wish should be about to be fulfilled.

【Host, this one will always remember you.】

Me too.

As long as nothing unexpected happened, Fourteen’s data storage would remember forever.

And as for her, she would never forget Fourteen either. This magical system that gave her a second life, and that unknown, gravely ill designer.

Su Xin truly believed that miracles happened in the world.

Su Xin found someone to help bury the old man.

This was the last mission for now. Although it was interesting to take over other people’s lives, try different identities, and act in ways that would hopefully satisfy them, every time she received a new mission, wasn’t she also accepting a dose of negative, desperate emotions?

Although she would forget each time, with every new one, she had to experience it all over again.

Su Xin wouldn’t tell Fourteen about the negative impact of receiving memories, because the discomfort only lasted for a little while.

The negative emotions received when accepting these memories weren’t like the things she had experienced before. Su Xin wasn’t afraid of gore, but she disliked this kind of emotional darkness, something she had never felt before.

A heavy rain began to fall.

It was gloomy, with lightning flashing and thunder rumbling.

There was no training in the army today, so Lin Suhuai came to find her, holding an umbrella.

Su Xin was standing by the window, watching the raindrops smash onto the ground and splash up.

Su Xin wasn’t afraid of the sound of thunder and lightning, nor was she afraid of a basin-overturning great rain¹³. She even enjoyed it. She usually liked to open the window at times like this to listen to the sound of the rain.

Seeing Lin Suhuai approaching with an umbrella, Su Xin quickly opened the door.

“It’s raining so hard, why did you still come?”

“It’s raining today, so I have nothing to do. I came to see you.”

“Come in quickly.”

Lin Suhuai closed her umbrella. Her sleeves and trouser cuffs were a bit damp, but her smile was still very warm.

After they shared a tender moment, Lin Suhuai hugged Su Xin’s waist from behind and told her about the impending battle.

“What? So suddenly?” Su Xin knew a war was about to start, because after a brief period of peace when Lin Suhuai first returned, the enemy nation had started acting up again.

“Yes. After this battle is over, we will return to the capital.”

“Alright.”

Lin Suhuai still remembered Su Xin’s goal. No matter what, she had to help her wife vent her anger first.

“I will wait for you to come back here, wait for you to take me away with you.”

“Alright.”

Lin Suhuai didn’t come for many days in a row.

The doctors in the city rushed to the military barracks to help the soldiers, and the supplies sent from the capital were about to arrive.

Lin Suhuai’s side had the upper hand, forcing the enemy army to retreat section by section¹⁴.

As the fighting grew more intense, Su Xin also went to the barracks to help.

No one paid any attention to who she was, assuming she was just there to lend a hand.

In the final battle, all the helpers were at the front of the camp, watching and waiting for the army to return.

The sound of horse hooves thundered, and someone was heard raising a flag and shouting.

“We’ve won!”

Cheers echoed across the sky. Su Xin’s gaze fell on the person riding at the head of the column.

That person was clad in armor, their hair tied back messily, their face and body still stained with blood. The scar on the side of her face made her look even more formidable.

That person dismounted directly, walked in front of Su Xin, reached out, and lifted her horizontally into her arms, walking inside.

Su Xin quickly wrapped her arms around Lin Suhuai’s neck, a smile also on her face.

“Your husband is taking you home.”

---

---