Dragon Raja 2; Chapter 156: It’s a Beautiful Day (6)

Dragon Raja 2

Outside, the leaves in the Western Hills had turned yellow, falling like snow.

Xia Mi, carrying several bags, ran amidst the falling leaves. The hallways were filled with the aroma of dinners being prepared, and her footsteps made a light, cheerful rhythm.

“I’m back!” she called as she opened the door.

The only response was the rustling of leaves in the wind, the sunlight pouring in, casting a long shadow behind her.

It was autumn. Some chosen people still didn’t know their fate, while others knew but were unwilling to comply. Back then, Beijing’s sky was still clear, and the sunlight warm, as though no shadow could erase that peace and happiness.

Everything should still have a chance; everything should still be in time. All terrible outcomes could still be changed before the wheel of fate finally came to a stop.

“I don’t know why you’re hesitating. If you and Caesar have a wedding, I can be your bridesmaid. Maybe I could even pair up with the best man; that sounds pretty reasonable!” Susie’s text from North America.

“Hey, have you already given up on Chu?” Nono replied.

“Have you heard of ‘Love Business’?”

“That… agricultural heavy metal song?” Nuonuo was stunned. That cheerful and popular song didn’t seem to be Susie’s cup of tea.

“Love isn’t something you can sell, You can’t buy it if you want to, Let me open, let me understand, Let go of your love.”

“It’s a bit sad, girl. I always thought you and Chu Zihang were meant to be…” Nono read the lyrics silently, feeling as though something sour was flowing through her heart. Such loneliness… Who would have thought such cheesy lyrics could be recited so sadly, as if she could hear Susie’s dry, weary voice reciting them.

“So treasure your time with Caesar, okay? He’s really good, just a bit childish. But hey, didn’t we all like those silly boys when we were young? The kind who would bang a pot and shout ‘I love you!’ under your window, getting his friends to bang pots too. Okay, Caesar wouldn’t bang a pot; he’d hire an orchestra to play under your window while he, dressed in a white suit, holding blood-red roses, would rise up to your window on a lift, and say, ‘Princess, even if you don’t have hair as long as Rapunzel’s for me to use as a rope, I can still save you from the witch’s castle. Come on, from today on, you’re mine.’ Isn’t this kind of guy endearingly silly?”

“But I’m not Rapunzel; I’m the witch.”

“Then he’ll be the demon king. The demon king and the witch—he’ll become anything for you. That’s the love of a silly guy, isn’t it? It’s time for my drafting class, so I’m heading off. Don’t worry about your friend—right now it’s nine in the morning here, with the warm sun on me, making me feel that everything will be okay.” This was Susie’s last message, followed by a playful smiley face.

At nine in the morning in central North America, it was nine at night in Beijing. The Summer Palace was completely dark, with all the tourists gone. Only the lights along the Long Corridor remained, like a sleeping dragon by Kunming Lake, its scales shimmering faintly. The Summer Palace was too big to be cleared like other parks; if tourists lingered until late at night, the gatekeeper might leave a small side door open. But at night, the silence here was eerie. Empress Dowager Cixi used to live here, without Emperor Xianfeng to warm her feet, so she must have been lonely—no wonder she was so peculiar. Nono once heard that the palace’s keepers had seen women dressed in Qing Dynasty clothing walking through the corridor late at night, holding incense burners and water basins… She was quite looking forward to seeing them.

She had drunk her sixth can of beer, but no woman in Qing clothing had come to speak to her. She hopped onto a rock in the water, took off her socks, and dipped her feet in the cold lake.

She thought back to her birthday when she and Lu Mingfei soaked their feet by the cold spring at the mountain top. He had tried folding a handkerchief boat with a wasabi-smeared handkerchief as her birthday present… Perhaps that night alone had also led Lu Mingfei to misunderstand? Actually, she was a bit sulky that night. When the college was invaded, Caesar got all excited and led the student union’s lace-skirt girl group out, completely ignoring the fact that it was her birthday that night. She left her phone on the rock just to see if Caesar would remember to call her before her birth hour arrived.

In the end, Caesar completely missed that moment… Of course, it wasn’t really his fault; he was busy playing “draw and shoot when the music stops” with Mai.

More than one person had said Nono was too tsundere, too concerned with whether others liked her or how much they liked her. She thought everything revolved around her. The truth was, she was just scared. She always hoped the one who would be with her for the rest of her life would show up when she needed him most, wouldn’t disappear, and certainly wouldn’t betray her—like a safe harbor where she could sometimes mess around and sometimes daydream. She wasn’t an optimistic person; deep down, she had a vague feeling that something terrible awaited her in the future, something unavoidable. She only hoped to be a little braver and hoped that someone would help her.

Speaking of which, someone had sent her fireworks that night as a gift. As she watched the sky light up suddenly, tears fell uncontrollably. Caesar said it wasn’t from him—his gift for her was actually a gemstone mosaic brooch from Van Cleef & Arpels. She cried not because the fireworks were beautiful, but because of that feeling of “always watching you from behind the curtains”—because with that person, she feared nothing. That silent strength made her feel at ease.

She always felt that there must be such a person hidden behind the scenes of her life, someone she often sensed around her but could never find.

Only once did she feel like that person was about to appear—underwater in the Three Gorges. She could feel that overwhelming strength surrounding her, completely enveloping her. She was good at profiling, yet she couldn’t sketch that person’s face, but it definitely wasn’t Lu Mingfei. That person had an entirely different aura—overbearing and fierce, surging with furious rage when she was hurt, like a father or an older brother.

But why did she end up dreaming of Lu Mingfei’s face? She began to have a headache again.

The Seventeen-Arch Bridge in front of her looked like a dragon’s spine lying across the water in the night. Nono suddenly stood up, removing her coat and pants. She stretched in the cold wind, her skin prickling as goosebumps rose.

She dived into the water, swimming towards the Seventeen-Arch Bridge.

Maybe it was the beer, but the further she swam, the colder she felt. The heat drained away silently, just like that night in the Three Gorges. Suddenly, she stopped, floating in the middle of the lake. This was the deepest part of Kunming Lake, far from any shore, suspended here like floating in the empty universe—so lonely. She shivered and wanted to swim back, but the feeling of suffocation had already begun. Her mind was filled with only the blue ripples of the water; her vision blurred, and she felt herself slowly sinking.

Damn! Playing around always led to trouble! she thought, but her limbs refused to move.

Could this be how she would die? As an “A”-rank from Cassell College, a swimming champ, drowning while swimming. Caesar was probably still searching for her around Beijing, that stubborn idiot. If only she’d turned her phone back on after shutting it off, Caesar would’ve called, and she could’ve told him she was at the Summer Palace, daydreaming.

Beijing was too big… How could Caesar find her?

Suddenly, she began to cough violently as cold air rushed into her lungs. She was pushed up out of the water by strong arms and then embraced in a warm hug. Her consciousness returned in an instant, and she stared blankly at the one holding her.

Caesar Gattuso.

“Seriously? You found me?” Nono said softly, feeling that seeing this silly guy’s face after a near-death experience made him… even sillier.

Caesar frowned at her. “Reckless as always!”

He didn’t say much more, placing his hands under her armpits as he backstroked them back. His swimming skills, honed against the waves of Genoa Bay, were a bit overkill for Kunming Lake. Held by him, Nono felt like she was riding a steady little boat.

“I can always find you when I want to,” Caesar said as he swam. “I had Mint Club launch a Weibo campaign: anyone who photographed a red Ferrari in Beijing would receive a nice prize. Soon enough, someone uploaded a picture of your car parked at the northern gate of the Summer Palace. I saw you diving into the lake from afar.”

“Mm.” Nono replied softly.

“Don’t mess around like that anymore. You got hurt in the Three Gorges.”

“Mm.”

“But if you do, make sure to bring me along.”

“Oh.”

“Will you marry me, Chen Motong?”

“Hey, what’s with this sudden twist? Besides, we were just talking about getting engaged, you got it wrong!” Nono struggled to turn around.

“Alright, then. Would you accept an engagement ring with both our names on it—Chen Motong and Caesar Gattuso?”

The two of them floated face to face in the lake, their dark and deep blue eyes meeting.

“Hey, we’re still in the water. Isn’t this a bit like coercion?” Nono grinned.

Caesar didn’t say anything. He gently brushed her wet bangs aside so he could see her face.

“A hero doesn’t take advantage of others, you know.”

Caesar kissed her cold, purplish lips.

“Alright… I give up…”

Caesar opened his arms and embraced her, like a king holding the entire world in his arms.

“Might as well marry him, this idiot seems okay. Might as well marry him, this idiot seems okay…” The mynah in the birdcage by the lakeside hopped up and down. This was why Caesar bought it—he heard this annoying bird repeating the phrase over and over again on Liulichang Street and couldn’t help but laugh.

The two floated in the icy water, Nono burying her head against Caesar’s chest. Even if a spotlight shone on them, it wouldn’t make them separate. On the lakeshore, the entire filming crew recorded the scene silently, while shadows dashed along the Long Corridor—not the ghosts in Qing robes, but workers from a flower shop. They were spreading baskets of rose petals along the corridor so that Caesar and Nono would step onto a red carpet made of petals when they came ashore.

The gatekeeper was very excited, “Are you filming a movie? ‘The Last Emperor’ was also shot here, but that actress wasn’t as pretty as yours!”

“No,” the cameraman clicked his tongue in admiration, “we were hired to film a proposal. Their life is like a movie!”