Chapter 44: Gathering at the Planetarium, Oh No! This Is Bad!

The Taoist scripture sent by the library girl had clearly been chosen with great care and could not be found in the library, so He Chen accepted it.

As for the subtle, pointed barbs hidden between the lines of her note, He Chen paid them no mind. He simply took an early shower, returned to his room, and entered into his timed embryonic breathing to sleep.

He possessed genuine martial arts mastery and harbored no fear of court ladies attempting to strangle him with ropes. If those sixteen court ladies had chosen a different method of attack, he might have felt a slight twinge of caution.

The next morning, rising with the dawn, he practiced the Crane Qigong beneath the pine tree.

Ruan Luzheng, who could have slept in since today was a rest day, woke up early once again. As soon as He Chen finished his practice and returned, she immediately brought up the lingering displeasure that had kept her pondering all night: "Who on earth is this girl? How does she even know where we live? And how does she know you practice Qigong?"

"I really don't know who she is!" Knowing that Ruan Luzheng was getting carried away, He Chen patiently repeated the explanation he had given to Ruan Lu earlier.

"As for how she knows where we live or that I practice Qigong, while I'm not in the entertainment industry, is having a sasaeng fan really that strange?"

"..." Ruan Luzheng was instantly rendered speechless.

She realized she had asked a very foolish question.

For someone who looked like He Chen, being secretly watched, photographed for clandestine worship, or even stalked was hardly an incomprehensible thing.

To say nothing else.

Ever since He Chen came to stay at her home and transferred to her school, not just one or two girls in his class would uncontrollably turn their heads to look at him whenever they had the chance during lectures.

There was one particularly obsessed girl with poor self-control who kept turning back to gaze at him until she literally wrenched her own neck and had to be sent to the hospital for treatment, causing quite a sensation at the time.

After she recovered, she never returned, and her parents directly transferred her to another school.

If you can't afford to provoke them, you can at least hide from them!

This was just one example among many.

It was precisely because of these exaggerated yet very real occurrences that He Chen had become the undisputed campus heartthrob of Chunfeng High School.

With He Chen being such a figure, it was no wonder that a girl from Shanghai visiting the capital during the summer vacation would run into him, latch onto him, and gather all sorts of information. Had Ruan Luzheng not been blinded by anger, she would never have asked such a self-evident, foolish question.

After they finished breakfast together, watching He Chen tidy up and prepare to go out, Ruan Luzheng finally asked another crucial question: "Does she really look that much like me?"

"Not entirely," He Chen answered honestly. "You only share a hint of the same ethereal charm in your beauty. As for the self-portrait, naturally, it wouldn't miss that hint of charm."

Although he spoke the truth, he lacked the iron nerve to spell out the rest.

Between you and her, she was the one who truly deserved the title of a young Liu Yifei.

What would have been even more piercing—though left unsaid—was that the reason she mistook the girl's self-portrait for her own was simply because she only saw the side of them that shared that peak ethereal charm, which was, in reality, just looking at someone else.

Ruan Luzheng had no spare mind to ponder the unstated meaning in He Chen's words. She was simultaneously pleased that He Chen had rarely praised her beauty and unsettled by the fact that the Shanghai girl who had sent him the book genuinely resembled her.

That unsettling sensation that her ecological niche might be usurped at any moment lingered in her mind.

People with similar personalities already tended to repel one another of the same sex.

Let alone appearance, which both men and women valued most of all.

If they truly looked identical and yet competed with each other, the brutality of it would be unimaginable.

More importantly, could this mysterious Shanghai girl have any connection to her?

She vaguely remembered her early childhood in her original family, where a single gourd vine had been covered in little girls, forcing her to harbor certain worries...

Her feelings toward He Chen were built upon an improper, unacknowledged familial relationship, taking advantage of her proximity to secure favors first.

If this Shanghai girl who looked like her truly shared some blood relation with her, wouldn't that indirectly create a connection with He Chen as well?

Brother and sister, the sister of a sister—weren't the sister of a brother and sister also considered siblings?

The Planetarium.

Qian Yingzi stood on the podium facing the audience, explaining China's Chang'e lunar exploration project in both Chinese and English. The giant screen behind her displayed various promotional videos of the lunar exploration program in sync with her speech. She appeared full of energy and radiant with confidence.

This was the field of her dreams, and also a rare respite amid the intense, high-pressure exam preparations forced upon her by her mother, stretching out her taut nerves.

When her gaze swept across He Chen sitting in the audience, an indescribable emotion welled up in her heart, reminding her of the scene earlier when she had run into He Chen at the planetarium.

Faced with her astonished inquiry, He Chen had smiled and explained: "Sitting in oblivion as the sun and moon entwine, laughing as I point to the cosmos like a bird in a cage. Is there any place more suited to understanding the universe than the planetarium?"

This was the absolute truth. The planetarium's dome theater featured a spherical screen fully twenty-three meters in diameter, offering an immersive view of the four seasons' starry skies that was countless times more effective than ancient stargazing, achieving an unprecedented level of direct presentation of the cosmic starry void.

As a practitioner who tried to imbue his training with a sufficient sense of ritual in order to better enter meditative absorption and grasp the Dao, how could he possibly give up such an exceptional auxiliary training opportunity?

If not for the admission tickets and the need to attend school, he probably would have come every single day.

Even so, throughout the summer vacation, he came whenever he had the chance, and after the semester started, he planned to visit weekly.

This time, having happened to run into Qian Yingzi's lecture, he had come to show his support.

"You're incredible!" she had exclaimed in amazement at the time, giving him a thumbs-up.

He Chen practicing Crane Qigong and Embryonic Breathing Qigong had long since spread throughout the school. Especially his unwavering, ritual-filled practice of the crane form beneath the pine tree every morning and evening had become a sight to behold.

Now, hearing him recite the introductory verse of the Embryonic Breathing Qigong, she instantly felt that He Chen's visit to the planetarium was entirely reasonable.

To sit in oblivion amidst the sun and moon and laugh while pointing at the cosmos, one must first let their spirit roam through the sun and moon and hold the cosmos in their breast.

Beyond her amazement, she was even more delighted to encounter a like-minded classmate at the planetarium.

It wasn't that she harbored any improper romantic notions.

Even though her heartstrings had been fiercely struck earlier when she caught He Chen's returning glance through a telescope, causing her heart to flutter wildly and extraneous thoughts to briefly arise, she possessed too much academic pressure and a sharp intellect to believe that her ordinary appearance could ever lead to anything with He Chen.

Therefore, after quickly brushing aside those distracting thoughts, she retained the pleasant surprise of "meeting an old friend in a distant land." As her gaze swept over He Chen, who was listening intently to her carefully prepared speech, her mood was exceptionally joyful.

Not having distracting thoughts didn't mean she couldn't enjoy looking at He Chen as an absolute feast for the eyes!

In her joyful state, her speech reached even greater heights, delivered with effortless fluency and poise. However, this high-spirited momentum was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a door opening. As a middle-aged woman with a dark expression walked in briskly, followed by an anxious middle-aged man, Qian Yingzi's smile stiffened, and her fluent speech directly stuttered to a halt.

The arrivals were none other than her mother and father.

Her mother completely disagreed with her coming here. Even though Qian Yingzi had repeatedly assured her it wouldn't affect her studies, her mother remained firmly opposed and had even threatened to call and cancel it on her behalf.

Now, ignoring the rear-guard interception of her father—who had been trying to provide cover for her—her mother had aggressively barged in. Judging by that expression, she was entirely likely to storm onto the stage and drag away her daughter, who hadn't even finished her speech yet. How could Qian Yingzi not worry?

"Mom, I beg you, please spare me a shred of dignity..."

Qian Yingzi wailed inwardly, forcing herself to continue. Catching sight of her mother being blocked from advancing further by a staff member and being guided to a seat instead, she let out a slight breath of relief and rallied her spirits to press on.

Qian Yingzi's premonition was entirely correct.

Qian Yingzi's mother, Song Qian, had indeed intended to march up and drag her daughter away, but she had been intercepted by a staff member who was also a classmate's parent—and more importantly, the wife of the district deputy head, Liu Jing. Liu Jing praised her daughter for doing a wonderful job, causing Song Qian's anger to transform into joy as she sat down and dazedly watched her daughter's presentation.

Qiao Weilong was watching with immense excitement. Glancing at his ex-wife, he discovered she was also moved to the verge of tears, the curve of her mouth harder to suppress than an AK-47. Looking around at the surroundings, the pride of being a biological father was indescribable—until he spotted He Chen sitting in the audience. His heart instantly skipped a beat, and his smile froze straight across his face.

Oh no!

We're in trouble!