Chapter 150: I Love You

"I have already made the plan; I'm just short of the startup capital. So I saved and saved, taking online orders in my spare time to do accounting for small businesses, working as online customer service, doing fake online shopping orders... I saved for a long time and finally gathered 100,000 yuan... Don't laugh, at that time, 100,000 yuan was already a lot for me, okay..." Seeing the smile on Chris's face, Yang Yi couldn't help but say, embarrassed and flustered.

"I'm not laughing at that..." Chris couldn't help but kiss her forehead, "I just think you are too cute."

"Do you want to continue listening or not?" She was even more embarrassed, biting her lower lip and saying nothing.

She was almost like a little girl throwing a tantrum, without the flatness she deliberately maintained in her daily life, having put down that fake mask for the outside world; at this moment, she looked exceptionally real, and exceptionally vivid.

Chris truly wanted to hold her in his mouth, cradle her in his heart, and merge her into his bones and blood; he wanted to stay in this moment forever, or perhaps, the universe would simply explode immediately, so that the concept of time would vanish, and happiness would congeal in this moment.

After a while, she continued to mutter to herself: "... At that time, there will only be me, and animals accompanying me, and trees, flowers, grass, various insects... How wonderful..."

Chris immediately realized the deep meaning in her words: "Alone," the future she once idealized always had only her, a lonely, solitary person.

For some reason, a surge of bitterness suddenly welled up in his heart.

"It's not good at all. Why is there no presence of me?" Chris said with feigned dissatisfaction.

"Darling," Yang Yi couldn't help but laugh, "You know, for an existence as perfect as you, I previously only dared to place you in fantasy; where did I have the qualification to place you in an ideal? An ideal can be realized step by step through down-to-earth efforts, but fantasy... fantasy can only be thought about..."

"Then now you can arrange it!" Chris said with a bit of dissatisfaction, "No matter in what way, I must be arranged into it."

"Okay, okay..." Yang Yi laughed until her shoulders shook, "Actually, I have another ideal... that is to be a salted fish, doing nothing, reading novels and playing games every day, and when bored, going for a walk in an uninhabited forest to observe nature... But doing nothing productive means living off savings until they run out, so I had to arrange it as my secondary ideal..."

"This is the best!" Chris's eyes lit up, "We can buy an island and live in seclusion together—don't you love the sea the most? At that time, we will build our own house with our own hands, tend our own garden with our own hands, grow our own food with our own hands, raise livestock, and live a peaceful, self-sufficient life... Darling, you can absolutely be a salted fish and do nothing; my current assets are enough to support us being happy salted fish together..."

Yang Yi couldn't help but laugh, "... At that time, I will eat myself into a fat middle-aged woman, because I am really lazy most of the time... I will also become a yellow-faced woman, blaming you for trivial matters, like throwing dirty clothes around carelessly, or not washing the dishes consciously after meals..."

"No, I won't throw dirty clothes around! I will absolutely wash the dishes actively after meals!" Chris protested.

The two of them dreamed together; Yang Yi forgot everything she would face in the future, forgot her current identity, forgot the responsibilities forcibly imposed on her shoulders, and even forgot the fact that she possessed great power itself.

She seemed to return to the time before her awakening, as if she had met Chris at this very moment, the two of them discussing where to go into seclusion together, discussing who would cook and who would wash the dishes in the future, and various trivial matters in life.

"Actually, when I was a child, I was interested in painting; I would paint on the back of used exercise books, but they were all... torn up..." She paused, then became excited again: "Perhaps I will pick up my own interests from the beginning; I will paint our house, vegetable garden, flowers, grass, sun, moon, and stars, everything on the island!"

"Of course, if you need a model, I am very happy to undertake this duty!" Chris raised his left arm, made a muscular pose, and winked playfully at her: "I am very willing to sacrifice myself for your art—"

"Thank you for your passion for art," Yang Yi held back her laughter and said, "Actually, I am not interested in people..."

In this joke, Chris detected some truth lurking deep within.

Looking at the swaying oak tree outside the window, a faint smile on her lips, her voice gradually lowered: "Perhaps there really will be such a day? When everything has stabilized, when the world returns to its former peace... I might hang up my armor and return to the fields, retire with you to some uninhabited island; if you like, I can also take your surname, call myself whatever Norton is fine... Yang... Hmph!"

She suddenly let out a cold laugh, "It would be better not to have this surname... best to change the whole name and surname! The surname is inherited from them, the given name was chosen by that person, what does it have to do with me personally? No one cares what I am actually called..."

Speaking, she suddenly sat up, as if thinking of a good idea, her eyes shining terrifyingly, her cheeks flushing with a sickly red: "What kind of woman do you like? Plump? Slender? Like a Victoria's Secret model? Or athletic? I can satisfy you... Not only must I change my name and surname, but I must also change this current appearance; this—this is also inherited from them, this disgusting bloodline... Moreover, now the whole world knows this face, it cannot be used, this face cannot be used, I must change to a new one... Change to one that no one recognizes..."

Her eyes shot out an strange light, as if looking at Chris, yet also as if looking at some unknown place, muttering to herself: "Change everything, change name and surname, change appearance, go live a new life... go live the life of dreams..."

Chris's heart felt as if someone had squeezed it hard; a strong pain and pity enveloped him from head to toe; he could only hold her tightly in his arms, as if trying to rub her into his own body.

"No... Yang Yi, this name is very good; I mean, this name has nothing to do with anyone else, it only has to do with you, understand? When I say this name day and night, what appears is you, your appearance, it has nothing to do with anyone else..." He was anxious to explain the feelings in his heart clearly, but his words always failed to express his meaning, "... Your appearance is also very good; you don't need to change for my preferences... Of course, if you don't like it, you can change it however you like... But it must be yourself... I don't know what I am saying..."

Suddenly, he grabbed her shoulders, looking into her eyes; he felt his eyes grow hot, and tears could not stop welling up: "I just want to say, I love you! Yang Yi, I love you! What I love is you yourself, not any other added things; I love your appearance, I love your heart, I love your complexity, I love your pain, I love your fake mask; I even love your alternating coldness and warmth, I love your being close yet distant to me... I love all of this condensed into you... Just you, do you understand? Just you!"