Witch Redemption

However, finding Lolina proved to be a bit of a challenge. Li Lan and Della spent nearly half a month rushing to internet cafes, using up a lot of spare time to slowly gather relevant information, which was only suspected to be true.

After all, Li Lan and the others couldn't find Lana and Lolina. They searched through the news and the internet for the past month or so but couldn't find any information about the other two suspected witch cosplay enthusiasts. As a result, Li Lan even began to suspect that Lana and Lolina might have traveled to other parts of the galaxy.

At this moment, it is the night of March 29, 2048 AD. Della, who has just returned to her hometown from an internet cafe, is making her final summary.

"Karen, these are probably the only people we can find. You'll probably have to confirm which one it is."

Della swiped her phone screen, which displayed a large list, all categorized and labeled with various age groups.

Li Lan was also browsing through these lists on her phone, frowning as she read.

“Lorina is also my good buddy. Della, haven’t you found any guys named Zeng Qingxia? They’re also the kind of dead fat otaku, just like me.”

"How could that be?" Della couldn't help but complain. "No normal parents would name their son like that, right? At least I wouldn't, definitely not."

"Um, what if... I mean, what if, what if it really exists?"

With a population of over two billion in China, there must be some oddballs among them, right? For example, someone might name their son "Zhu Tian Zhi Zun" (朱天至尊), but wouldn't it be perfectly reasonable to name their son "Zeng Qingxia" (曾青霞)?

No, no, no, actually, Li Lan thought about it again and realized that naming her son "Zhu Tian Zhi Zun" seemed more reasonable than "Zeng Qingxia".

Li Lan spent a full twenty minutes scrolling through her phone until she left Linxi Town and officially entered Lindong Town.

The place where Li Lan and his friends are currently living is Shiqiao Village in Lindong Town. This area is a remote mountain village on the border of Lindong Town. It is much closer to the town center of Linxi Town than to the town center of Lindong Town. That's why Li Lan and his friends prioritize finding work in the more developed Linxi Town.

"Della, let's wait here for a bit, and go back after we've finished watching."

It is expected that phones will be bought for Hei Fa Yu Hui and Leviathan at the end of the month, so the fact that Li Lan and Della have phones will have to be kept secret for another week.

Li Lan quickly checked the list and soon selected five women.

To be honest, there were an absurd number of women named Zeng Qingxia, of whom about fifty could be vaguely associated with Luo Lina. In the end, Li Lan identified five who were highly likely to be a perfect match.

These five women are different from ordinary women in modern society. They all like to play games, enjoy exploring so-called anime and manga culture, and to some extent, they are the kind of wealthy women who particularly enjoy cosplay.

Indeed, Li Lan was a little surprised that all five suspects who matched Luo Lina so closely were wealthy women.

"I remember that back in the British Empire, Lorina was a master tailor, and her skills were clearly honed through countless trials. Based on that, if Lorina also enjoys cosplay, she'll most likely be the kind who makes her own."

"Let me see......"

After eliminating the three customization fanatics, only two spots remain, but one of them seems to be a fujoshi (a female fan of BL).

"No, Lolina is special. He used to call me 'brother,' and besides that, he liked to put his arm around me. He did the same with Lana and the others..."

Indeed, in Li Lan's eyes, Luo Lina was his brother. There was nothing wrong with brothers putting their arms around each other; it was a symbol of friendship. How could a brother like that be a woman?

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, Lorina can't possibly be a fujoshi (a female fan of yaoi/BL), right?"

In Li Lan's opinion, what is the mindset of a "fujoshi" (female fan of male-male romance)?

Fujoshi (female fans of male-male romance) love all kinds of male-male works and get hopelessly lost in fantasies. In other words, the object of a fujoshi's fantasy may be two men having sex in front of her.

If that's the case, Luo Lina shouldn't be too close to Li Lan. What Luo Lina might really want to see is Li Lan, who is suspected to be male, and Lana being all lovey-dovey... Ugh, disgusting. Li Lan inexplicably felt disgusted with herself for actually using such thoughts to speculate about other people's identities and thoughts.

"If Lolina really lied to us, if he's just a brother on the surface but a woman at heart, then what about his behavior towards us? And those occasional glances and laughs that made Lana and me feel inexplicably afraid... How could this be? This is impossible!"

Recalling the occasional strange looks and odd laughter from Luo Lina, Li Lan began to doubt that she was overthinking things.

He's neither gay nor a fujoshi (female fan of BL), so is he a yuri (lesbian) fan? But Li Lan considers himself a man, and he didn't lie to Luo Lina.

After a closer look, the last woman on the list was neither a fujoshi (a female fan of male-male romance) nor a yuri (lesbian) fan; her resume was extremely respectable.

"Zeng Qingxia, born in Shanghai, is the youngest daughter of Zeng Shiqiang, a major entrepreneur. She is a graduate of Incubation University and has three half-brothers and three half-sisters. She is 37 years old, unmarried, and currently serves as the president of Huahua Technology Co., Ltd. She is a well-known businesswoman and one of the wealthiest women."

“Zeng Qingxia’s past is quite legendary. The biggest turning point in her life was at the beginning of 2037 AD. In that year, she abandoned all the ACG culture she used to love and devoted herself to the real manufacturing industry. She started her business with extremely good skills and ten years later became one of the top 500 companies in China.”

"In the year 2036, Zeng Qingxia was twenty-five years old and had just graduated from university. Before that year, she could be considered the campus belle of the Egg Hatching University, with countless suitors. Unfortunately, this young and beautiful woman had always been uninterested in love."

"Of course, she has a huge number of suitors, mainly because of her looks. She is an extremely famous cosplay enthusiast in the cosplay circle. She has done a lot of cosplay, from characters in various anime to NPCs in various games. Over time, her reputation in the anime culture circle has become well-known, almost to the point that everyone knows her."

As is well known, the so-called "C circle" is actually extremely chaotic in the eyes of outsiders. It is more accurate to call it the "CAOS circle" than the "COS circle".

Those who enter this industry are mostly teenagers, who generally lack financial independence and are therefore easily led astray. Of course, a significant number of women working in the sex industry deliberately exploit the situation to inflate prices for certain services.

Over time, the reputation of this circle never improved, and even became utterly ruined.

Although living conditions are getting better and better, and many people in society are not so poor as to be ridiculously short of money, the younger generation is increasingly "lazy and easygoing," following the old path of many developed countries. Coupled with the openness in the "sex" aspect, promiscuity in this circle is not uncommon.

"Tseng Ching-hsia is a breath of fresh air in this circle because she is very rich. Trying to pursue her with money would be absolutely irrational. Of course, some rich second-generation heirs did not believe in this and planned to use money to pursue this woman, but their endings were basically terrible. They could not even be ordinary friends. Tseng Ching-hsia has never lacked money. She only likes cosplay and is an incredibly traditional woman."

"It was probably because she was considered low-class that there were a lot of negative rumors about Tseng Ching-hsia, most of which were baseless slanders. However, these slanders gradually decreased and eventually disappeared after Tseng Ching-hsia officially retired from the cosplay circle in 2037 AD."

Looking at the information on her phone, Li Lan saw that the picture on it was indeed of a beautiful woman with an amazingly slender figure, a perfectly proportioned bust typical of East Asians, and an outfit that was clearly very expensive. She looked every bit the classical beauty.

"Is this what a high-society heiress looks like?"

Li Lan found it hard to connect this unbelievably serious woman with the occasionally silly-smiling Lolina; it felt like they were two completely different people.

Although from the beginning Li Lan felt that he, Lana, and Luo Lina were kindred spirits and should have been good buddies, the reality before him now forced him to accept it. Lana and Luo Lina, in their past, represented the true younger generation, far beyond the reach of someone like him from the older generation.

"If nothing unexpected happens, this is very likely to be Lolina's true identity."

Li Lan remembered the exact time before her transmigration. Furthermore, all transmigrators who possessed their bodies, even if they successfully gained their memories and integrated into their original personalities, would inevitably undergo some degree of change initially. Their future choices would naturally differ from their original ones.

Lana's body deteriorated prematurely due to possession, leading to her death.

Because of being possessed, Lolina abandoned countless hobbies and interests and turned to other industries. Since the possessor should be a real man, as long as she can't psychologically change, she naturally won't talk about marriage like a normal woman.

"It is said that after 2037 AD, not long after Zeng Qingxia retired from the C-circle, she had a huge conflict with her family. The argument was about marriage. Her father wanted her to marry an extremely outstanding returnee from overseas, but Zeng Qingxia refused and ran away from home. She then started her own company and worked hard for ten years, eventually surpassing her father's company and becoming incredibly powerful."

If she hadn't been possessed, Luo Lina's true fate would probably have been different. Based on Li Lan's understanding of Luo Lina, she most likely wouldn't have disobeyed her father.

...... ...... ......

Every witch who travels through time due to a "witch summoning" experiences both good and bad fortune, and every body-snatcher who travels through time due to a "witch summoning" will face a similar situation.

The lucky ones, like Luo Lina's original body Zeng Qingxia, have an exceptionally good starting point. The possessor only needs to integrate their memories and put in the effort to unleash all their talents and achieve the ultimate goal of becoming a superior person.

The unfortunate ones, such as Lana's original body Liang Yu, only received a dying body from the possessor, and before they could enjoy the happiness of this world, they passed away in pain.

Of course, there are also those who are just average, like that boy who claimed to be "from the Elf Kingdom" and struggled at the bottom from the very beginning. He needed to expend more energy and effort to reach a higher goal.

Although his luck was average, the boy's starting point was already second to none. A child with the mind of an adult will directly determine that he has decisiveness and self-control that his peers do not have, which is an intangible asset.

In other words, given time, that boy will also become extremely terrifying.

As Li Lan walked along the country path, he pondered deeply. Even knowing that the boy was the one who had possessed the body, and knowing Luo Lina's current true form, he could hardly make any further changes and could not interfere with these transmigrators.

It's worth mentioning that ever since that day when the boy unintentionally approached Li Lan and Della, the two sides have never met again. Li Lan was too lazy to investigate who this guy was, and from now on, they will pretend that the two sides never met.

"Della, let's start investigating the other three tomorrow."

The elderly trio consists of Peggy (real name Zhang Yonghao), Shirley Nancy (real name Deng Jingguo), and Matilda (real name Chen Weiping).

Sure enough, the real names of the three elderly men were all legitimate male names. They hadn't lied; they were men, and definitely not effeminate.

Before fleeing the British Empire, Li Lan had worked with the elderly trio twice. Although their understanding of each other wasn't very deep, she still remembered some basic things.

For example, Shirley Nancy is a real estate tycoon who doesn't actually play games. Her time-traveling experience through "Goddess Legend" was actually to help her son draw cards. Another example is Peggy, the Minotaur, who is definitely a big shot. Rumor has it she might be a logistics company CEO who, out of boredom, tried out a game her subordinates were playing and won.

As for Matilda, she has stated frankly that she is a retired teacher and has not only a son but also grandchildren.

The number of time travelers involved in investigating the elderly trio is probably more than Li Lan imagined.

After all, the trio had a lot of witch teammates back then, and those teammates were either subordinates or students who knew the trio.

Li Lan wanted to investigate them, but more so because of her concern for the deceased. Compared to the helpless singles, these successful people who had been possessed were, in a sense, almost like being cheated on. Li Lan really wanted to know what happened to their families.

If these possessors do something heinous to the trio's family, what should he do?

“No problem, we’ll take it one by one. I think Peggy and the others should be easy to find, unlike Lorina.”

Della readily agreed, but as she was about to step into the familiar house, she couldn't help but ask, "Karen, how about you...?"

"I'll be last. In order, the next people to be investigated are Violet, Rosa, Edith Ivanka, and Trish. In addition, we also need to investigate to some extent the witches who were once our enemies: Ann Gnath, Helen Kingsley, and Connie Jo."

Li Lan had a lot to learn, and there was still a long time ahead, so they weren't in a hurry.

At that moment, Della probably sensed Li Lan's escapist mentality, and she said, intentionally or unintentionally, "Karen, no matter what happens in the future, I will always be with you. I think we can face it together."

"Yes, thank you."

Undisguisedly moved, Li Lan slightly pushed open the door, only to find Yu Hui, with black hair, and Leviathan glued to the television. These two engrossed guys were probably beyond saving.

As for Li Xiaolu's elderly grandmother, she was standing aside, tending to the yams in the basin.

"came back?"

The elderly man raised his head slightly and adjusted his reading glasses. "I've prepared some Chinese yam; I'll make soup for you tomorrow."

"Thank you, Grandma."

Li Lan smiled. Even though the two sides had no blood relation and all of their current status was achieved through deception, in Li Lan's heart, wasn't he also taking the charade too seriously?

At this moment, his feelings were genuine; he respected the old woman and regarded her as his real grandmother.

"By the way, Alan and Ade, be careful when you go out these days. I heard the town's security hasn't been very good lately; there was a serious assault..."

The old man, having heard some gossip from somewhere, gave Li Lan and Della a heads-up.

At this moment, Li Lan and Della did not take it to heart, after all, their physical abilities were already better than those of normal people.

Chapter 7 So Green It's Gone Green

Peaceful days continue, and March has passed in the blink of an eye. The weather has gradually changed from cool to hot.

As their savings gradually increased, Li Lan and Della began to equip Hei Fa Yu Hui and Leviathan with an inexpensive smartphone.

To be honest, Li Lan was worried that these two might get into some pay-to-win games and then get hooked, so she only installed a few everyday apps on their phones, including a novel platform where she bought a collection of "ancient works" at a relatively low price.

From now on, besides watching TV, they'll probably be spending a lot of time happily glued to their phones.

Upon reflection, Li Lan had once used the many novels of this world to attract Hei Fa Yu Hui, and now it was time to let her see the complete version.

Besides these, the investigation into the elderly trio is also gradually coming to an end.

"Peggy, whose real name is Zhang Yonghao, is 49 years old in 2036 AD. She is the president of Jintong Logistics and has an average-looking wife and two sons. Zhang Yonghao, who should have had a successful career, undergoes a drastic personality change after 2037 AD. He not only has an affair with his secretary but is also rumored to be having affairs with multiple women. Soon after, his wife, unable to bear her husband's infidelity, files for divorce. In the end, she only receives 300,000 yuan in alimony and takes her two sons back to the north to settle in the countryside."

"At the beginning of 2040 AD, a small financial crisis broke out worldwide. Jintong Logistics, a listed company, suffered heavy losses due to the broken capital chain. At the end of 2040 AD, Jintong Logistics, unable to repay its debts, declared bankruptcy. On New Year's Day, the destitute Zhang Yonghao chose to jump off the Brilliant Building and died at the age of fifty-three."

Li Lan wasn't sure whether, for the witch Peggy, this meant she had been cuckolded.

However, he was certain of one thing: Peggy's original wife was indeed not very attractive. If Peggy's body-possessor had been a handsome man or a beautiful woman, he probably wouldn't have been able to accept his wife's appearance and might not have even touched her.

In modern society, while most men do consider looks when choosing a partner, their standards tend to lower as they get older. Eventually, it might become simply a matter of having a gentle personality and a decent figure. As for looks, they all seem pretty much the same to the touch in the dark, right? The feel is what matters most!

However, if they were time travelers from that world, they might not have such thoughts.