The girl in the projection trembled in surprise, her ears instantly turning red. The corners of her brows lifted slightly, but she forcibly pressed them back down.
"My apologies for the embarrassment before our honored guest."
She shot Zane a fierce glare, then turned to face the Rover. Her right hand formed a sword-finger gesture in front of her chest as she gave an elegant and dignified military salute.
"We have been waiting for a long time. After your awakening, you must be quite confused. You have likely already noticed certain unusual phenomena related to yourself."
"If you are currently within Jinzhou and willing to spare some time, may I invite you to meet at the border court within Jinzhou City."
As she spoke, she shot another glare at Zane, who was idly wandering around nearby. The itching warmth around her wrist kept stirring her emotions, yet in such a formal setting she still maintained a calm, composed expression.
"If my younger brother has offended you in any way earlier, please do not take it to heart."
"It's fine, it's fine," the Rover waved her hand, showing a bright smile.
"I think your younger brother still has some charm left… uh, I mean, I've wandered half my life without meeting someone worthy. If you don't mind, I'd be willing to swear brotherhood… sis."
Hearing the Rover's form of address, Jihnsi's eyelids twitched, and even the dragon scales that had appeared on her wrist instantly receded. She thought to herself that, 'This honored guest couldn't possibly…'
Looking again at a certain white-haired guy, he had already run far away chasing a butterfly, "Blue Feather Butterfly, wait!"
Having obtained the final Star Sound, Zane turned back excitedly, only to be met with an extremely cold gaze.
'Did I do something wrong again?'
Zane was startled and quickly lowered his head to check his clothes…
'Still clean… then why is Sister Jihnsi angry?'
Scratching the back of his head in confusion, Zane carefully recalled everything he had done over the past three days. 'Everything that could be said had already been confessed, right?'
As for things like secretly eating the soup dumplings Jihnsi prepared for Master, sneaking off with Master Changli's Heartfire Feather grilled fish, or taking Sanhua's stockings to brew tea… saying those out loud would be enough to get him executed on the spot.
If any of those things had actually come to light, then standing before him right now wouldn't be a projection message, but Magistrate Jihnsi in person with a blade in hand.
After thinking for a while with no answer, he simply gave up. At worst, he'd just get hung from the city gate again. What else could happen?
But compared to all that, what Zane cared about more right now was what his final guaranteed pull would give him.
Otherworld Summon, since the system said it guaranteed a 5-star character, then it must be someone from another world.
A rabbit that can only count to twenty thousand?
A monkey holding a stick?
Of course, a crab with a pointy head wouldn't be bad either.
Filled with anticipation for the future, Zane was just about to press the summon button when he suddenly thought of something. His hand, which had almost touched the system, stopped.
'What if I pull something ridiculous?'
But after hesitating for a moment, he couldn't even imagine how ridiculous it could be.
After all, the system had already said it would be a "5-star" character. If it's 5-star, how ridiculous could it be?
Thinking this, Zane steeled himself and pressed the summon button…
"What are you doing?"
At that moment, a light voice suddenly rang out by his ear, startling Zane into hastily closing the system interface.
It felt exactly like browsing a perfectly "healthy" website at home and getting caught red-handed by your parents.
"Nothing… nothing at all…" Facing the Rover's suspicious gaze, Zane laughed awkwardly, grabbed her hand, and started walking toward Jinzhou City.
"Um… didn't Sister Jihnsi say she wanted to see you? Let's go, let's go, don't keep her waiting."
And the Rover, who had been quite dominant in front of Zane before, now behaved like a gentle girl next door, obediently letting him hold her hand.
Soon, a magnificent city appeared before them.
With one hand holding the Rover, Zane pointed forward with the other. "That's Jinzhou City ahead. Once you're inside, if you run into trouble, just say my name. It'll definitely work."
"Senior, you've been holding the Rover's hand for too long!"
Before Zane could finish speaking, Yangyang rushed between them, forcefully separating their hands. She then stood in front of the Rover, puffing her cheeks as she glared fiercely at Zane.
"Have I? Ahaha…"
Caught red-handed, Zane scratched the back of his head and laughed awkwardly, trying to brush it off.
The group continued bickering as they entered Jinzhou City.
But not far from the city gate, a pink figure sat on a tree branch outside, her pair of pale feet swinging lightly in the air. Sunlight filtered through the branches, shining on her and illuminating the small red flowers drifting around her.
"Finally found you..."
The girl placed a finger against her lips, a bright smile blooming on her flower-like face.
"As expected, as long as I find the gardener, I can find you."
"My dear… seed of fate."
———
After entering Jinzhou, they parted ways with Yangyang and the others. Only then did the Rover realize that with Zane around, all her meeting procedures could be completely skipped.
"I told you, in Jinzhou City, just say my name if you run into trouble. It always works."
"Oh?" The Rover raised her brows slightly, looking at him with interest. "Hearing you say that, you must be pretty brave?"
"Of course, I'm super brave. I'm really amazing."
And this wasn't just Zane bragging. Just his white hair, which had special appeal to Huanglong people, paired with his dazzling emerald eyes was enough to make him a highly sought-after marriage candidate in Jinzhou.
On top of that, his sunny face, attractive to women, led to a constant stream of marriage proposals. Many were beautiful girls wanting to marry him. Of course, some of the proposals were from men…
Besides that, he was also Magistrate Jihnsi's only younger brother, the Magistrate's guard officer, and the little tyrant of the border court…
Yet the Magistrate treated him with great indulgence, letting him run around freely.
So much so that a saying spread throughout Jinzhou, Seeing Zane is harder than seeing Jihnsi.
"Oh my, little Zane… what do you think of my daughter? You met three years ago…"
"Zane, Zane, I'm Jia! Don't you remember? We met in a dream just yesterday."
———
"So this is what you meant by saying your name when there's trouble?" The Rover followed behind him, her phoenix-like eyes slightly narrowed as she looked at him with a half-smile.
"You're so popular… you must already have a partner, right?"
Maybe it was just his imagination, but Zane felt like there was something behind her words. A strong survival instinct made him shake his head frantically.
But the Rover didn't seem willing to let him off that easily and continued, "Then what about someone you like? None either?"
"No, no, absolutely not! I keep myself clean. I've never been that kind of casual person."
"So… if you were casual, you wouldn't even be human?", The Rover's tone turned soft and eerie. Zane immediately broke out in sweat.
He ran, she chased, there was no escape.
At that moment, Zane wished he could slap himself from a few seconds ago. What kind of broken brain made him say that?
Looking at the Rover again, she had her hands behind her back, smiling sweetly. But Zane still noticed a section of a sword sheath faintly visible at her side.
"Um… well…"
Zane felt like this Rover was a bit off. Like a sweet-looking black-hearted sesame dumpling.
"Look, we've reached the border court. Just walk straight in and you'll see Sanhua. I have something to do, so I'll go first. See you next time…"
The Rover calmly watched as Zane's figure gradually disappeared into the distance, finally vanishing around a corner. A faint smile curled on her crimson lips…