Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 1231 Is this the solution?

"Family...?"

The first people that Lingge thought of were naturally Mr. Yanke and Metien. If it weren't for these two people, he might never understand the weight of these two words in his life. The warm scenes in his memory are always repeated. You can't see shooting stars in the gray sky of Linville City, but occasionally, you can see stars on clear summer nights. At that time, Mr. Yanke would take the brother and sister to the backyard to enjoy the cool, under the shade of the White City sycamore tree he planted with his own hands, and point out the names and origins of the stars to them one by one, and what legends and allusions the stars have. Metien always asked questions curiously, while the boy said nothing, just silently feeling a kind of tranquility that he had never had before. With the passing of Mr. Yanke and Metien's gradual growth, this feeling not only did not subside, but became stronger with a quietly emerging sense of loneliness.

But then, more faces appeared in front of his eyes, just like the stars that sank in the water and emerged one by one, touching his memory: the gentle and patient Saint Xia Liya, the occasionally confused but always hardworking Olvera, the confused angel Miss Iyeta, Alice who was funny but brought a lot of joy to everyone, the proprietress who liked to hold banquets, the pretentious bartender... Of course, there was also the quirky Princess Haiqi beside him. When he thought of them accompanying him, the strong sense of loneliness disappeared, and the young man felt very safe, just like when he was with his adoptive father and sister.

Unconsciously, a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Lorena looked at his reaction curiously, and as if to confirm something, she even moved her face closer, with the tip of her nose almost touching the young man's cheek. She looked at him again and again, and then marveled. The breath she exhaled was as warm as the sea water, and it hit the young man's face, making him suddenly feel numb and itchy. He adjusted his sitting position unnaturally, avoiding the girl's breathing, and asked, "What's wrong with you, Lorena?"

"Nothing, just a little disappointed."

Her Royal Highness blinked her eyes, and the fading flame of the meteor was reflected in her crystal blue eyes, sparkling: "I was expecting to see a more interesting reaction, such as shyness or something."

Linge wondered, “Why should I be shy?”

"Because, I just said that - Lingge is my family." Rorona smiled and said, "Don't you think this is very similar to the confession lines in novels or scripts?"

"I don't think so."

Lorena had used similar jokes more than once in the past, so the young man thought she was still teasing him and didn't take it seriously. Instead, he replied seriously, "Because in my heart, everyone on Yunjingkong Island is already my family, including you, Lorena."

Princess Haiqi was stunned by this sentence.

Young people rarely express their feelings in such straightforward and sincere words. Most of the time, they are implicit and obscure. One has to go through a huge maze to reach the deepest part of his heart and explore those true emotions. This has nothing to do with personality. It is an instinct caused by personal experience. Only a few people can make him let down his guard and open his heart. In the past, it was Mr. Yanke and Metien, and now, it is those who are regarded as "family" by him.

Rorona is one of them. This can be said to occupy a very important position in the young man's life, right? But the answer that Princess Haiqi wanted to hear was not this, just as she wanted to see Lingge's shy expression, not just to tease him.

Unfortunately, she joked too much and her true feelings were not understood in the end. It seems that if she wants young people to fully understand her feelings, she must first make them realize that she can be serious sometimes.

This seems... a bit difficult.

It’s all my past self’s fault!

Although she knew it was useless, Lorena couldn't help but condemn her past self, as if this could cut off her present self from the picture and make her not guilty at all.

"I'm glad to hear you say that." Her tone was a little tangled. "But if possible, I hope you can temporarily exclude 'everyone' and only keep your evaluation of me. That way it will be perfect."

"Perfect?" Ling Ge said he didn't understand. "I don't quite understand what you mean, Lorena. Does this make any sense?"

"Not everything has to have meaning, Lingge."

Although she said so, Princess Haiqi's eyes were erratic, and she didn't dare to meet the young man's eyes: "Also, I'm not asking you to have only me as a 'family', but now, at this moment, no one else is here, only I am here, do you understand what I mean? No matter what you say, they can't hear it, but I am here, I can hear your evaluation of me. In this case, why don't you try to... forget the existence of others for a while?"

Just seeing me is enough.

Her gaze was no longer erratic, but fixed firmly on the young man's face. The expectation and anxiety in her eyes were like the moonlight falling into the river, almost overflowing. Ling Ge was slightly startled. He rarely felt such passionate and undisguised emotions from Lorena. This princess who was born in the mirror sea seemed to have inherited the depth and impermanence of the sea. Of course, this does not mean that she is a deep-minded person, but that she is very good at and has become accustomed to hiding her thoughts. Few people can touch the deepest emotions in her heart, those memories that have been deposited in the cold sea water, the moonless night, and the bitter taste of medicine year after year.

Perhaps that is why young people feel from the bottom of their hearts that they cannot ignore such emotions.

Another brilliant meteor streaked across the sky, and the girl's memories continued to reappear in the young man's eyes. Although the light of all the meteors seemed familiar and had the same traces, the meteor that she and her sister saw that night and the meteor that she saw with the young man now must be different, right?

"I..." Ling Ge opened his mouth, but found that he had no confidence. He has never been good at responding to emotions, not to mention that this emotion is so passionate, so sincere, and burning like the tail flame of a meteor: "I actually don't know what to do..."

Hearing this, a gloomy look flashed across Princess Umisu's face. Just as she was trying to cheer herself up and say to the young man, "If you can't do it, don't force yourself," she heard Ling Ge say, "But maybe I can give it a try."

Then he took a deep breath and exhaled gently. At this moment, the scene that emerged in the young man's mind was the scene when he and Lorena first met in the city of Lotdana. The girl with long crystal blue hair stood on the long breakwater, looking at the black ocean. Her eyes were full of melancholy and sadness, and she was so lonely that people wanted to protect her: "I always feel that you are a very important family member to me, Lorena."

The night sky seemed to be quiet for a moment.

Meteors streaking across the sky are silent, moonlight flowing over the river is silent, but how could he not even hear the girl's heartbeat and breathing? Ling Ge turned his head curiously, only to find that Rolena was staring at him blankly. Her face, which looked a little pale due to staying in the alchemy workshop for a long time, was showing a hint of bright blood color, just like a ripe apple, emitting bursts of sweet breath.

"…Lorena?"

Seeing that she hadn't responded, Lingge couldn't help but stretched out his hand, waved it in front of her, and asked worriedly: "What's wrong with you?" "Ah? Ah!" Princess Kaisu was awakened from her daze. She quickly turned her head to avoid the young man's gaze, but accidentally exposed her red ears to Lingge: "No, nothing, it's just, it's just... Although I have prepared myself mentally, when I heard you say that... I was still very happy, just like a long time ago, when my elder sister was finally willing to call me sister, or when my mother finally agreed to let me live in the human city alone. I was so happy... that I wanted to cry..."

Ling Ge asked curiously: "Why are you crying? Shouldn't you smile when you are happy?"

Rorona was stunned for a moment, then she couldn't help but burst out laughing. At first it was a light laugh, then it became louder and louder, just like her mood getting happier and happier: "Pfft, it seems, it seems to be true, hahaha! You should laugh when you are happy. Why do I need you to remind me of such a simple truth? I really... seem to be a little too lax, hahaha... cough cough!"

She even choked because she laughed too hard and coughed violently. The blood color on her face was washed away by a new round of tides before it faded away. Under the moonlight, there was a kind of morbid yet exquisite beauty on her face.

"Lorana!?" Linger hurriedly patted her back to help the girl breathe, but as soon as his palm touched the thin back, he was burned by a burning iron-like heat. This unnatural temperature was definitely not a normal body temperature. The young man's hand stopped in mid-air for a second before he reacted. He opened his eyes wide and said, "Are you sick?"

"Hmm... cough cough..." Princess Haiqi coughed twice and patted her chest slowly to calm her disordered breathing. Then she raised her head and curved her crescent-shaped eyes towards Lingge: "It seems so."

"It seems so... This is not the answer I want to hear." The young man was a little angry, mainly because of Rorona's attitude of not caring about his body at all. Even if you are used to curses, you can't be so careless: "Since you are sick, come back with me to rest!"

Instead of watching some shooting stars here.

Rolena shook her head gently and rejected his request: "No need."

She smiled and said, "Because it's not a curse."

"Not a curse?"

"Well, apart from the young Wang Quan, I am also a normal person, so it's natural for me to get sick. Maybe I wasn't paying attention when I went out just now and was blown by the wind, so I caught a cold." In order to verify her statement, Lorena even lifted her bangs to reveal her smooth forehead, which was covered with fine beads of sweat.

But Lingge still felt something was wrong. The distance from the alchemy workshop to the river was only a dozen minutes. Even if it was a minor cold, it shouldn't break out so quickly, right?

"Even if it's just a cold," he frowned, "it will get worse if it's not treated early, so you still have to come back with me and get some rest."

"But I want to stay here and watch the meteors." Rolena blinked and said in a coquettish tone, just like she had acted coquettishly to her sister a long time ago. She was a girl who would only show her true self in front of her relatives: "I want Lingge to stay here and watch the meteors with me."

Lingge, however, was not like Jialene, who always spoiled her: "Is this possible anytime?"

“You can take a break anytime.”

“If you miss the opportunity, it will be troublesome.”

"In that case, I have a good idea. Maybe I can cure my cold sooner."

"Can you cure diseases?" Lingge was a little skeptical.

"People always say that a long illness makes a good doctor. I am that good doctor!"

"Isn't that a curse..."

"It's all the same, all the same!"

"Tell me first, what is the method?"

"Hehe, rather than talking, I prefer to demonstrate it with practice."

"practice?"

Before Ling Ge could react, Princess Haiqi suddenly stretched out a hand and grabbed his wrist. The strength from her hand was so firm that it could not be refused. The young man's face changed slightly, and he suddenly felt a familiar feeling. But the last time Rolena held his wrist like this, she pulled him into her arms; but this time, Princess Haiqi used all her strength to pull herself into the young man's arms.

Just as she imagined, under Lingge's astonished gaze, the girl fluttered like a weightless straw, stretched out her hands, and hugged his waist, then fell into a warm embrace. At that moment, all the shooting stars seemed to be extinguished, and the high body temperature was cooled by a sense of security. Lorena closed her eyes, and she saw a void of darkness, like a silent deep sea, dragging her body down continuously. This sinking process is the process of tracing back, memories keep surging up like waves, and the body is getting lighter and lighter like the tide, light enough to float to the depths of the sea. Then a light fell from the sea, and she felt warm, her body was no longer weak or cold, the paleness on her face faded, and a bright blush appeared.

In the chaos, the girl's breathing gradually calmed down. She tightly hugged the young man whom she had long regarded as a relative, and rubbed the heartbeat that was so close to her intimately, tenderly and lovingly, and murmured vaguely: "So..."

“That’s the way.”

Give me some meow