Chapter 40: Reunion with the Demon Girl

“Here’s the glass cutter you asked for.”

The shop owner lady said this as she handed the glass cutter over to Ye Jinyi.

Ye Jinyi looked at her stiff smile but said nothing.

“I’ll be using it right here, shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

“Of course not.”

With that one sentence, the shopkeeper immediately dispelled Ye Jinyi’s anxiety.

Ye Jinyi sat down on a chair in the store and began trying to cut the threads on her body with the glass cutter.

She spent what felt like forever slicing away, but in the end, the glass cutter just got worn down to a nub.

“Ah, damn…”

Ye Jinyi stared at the now-blunted cutter, suddenly gaining a bit of admiration for these threads.

That blade was made of diamond!

If even that couldn’t cut through them, then maybe there really was nothing in the world that could.

“I swear, I’m using you bastards as whips in the future!”

Ye Jinyi left with that bitter vow still in her mouth.

The shopkeeper retrieved the worn-out glass cutter, then made a phone call to have it collected and reforged.

At a hot pot restaurant, Ye Jinyi slumped into a booth, looking thoroughly drained.

“No being sad, okay?”

A waitress walked up beside her.

“Why?”

Ye Jinyi reflexively snapped back, but the moment she noticed the threads on the waitress, all her energy drained away again.

“Sadness is a scary thing, you know,” the waitress explained softly to her.

“Why is it scary?”

Ye Jinyi wasn’t buying it and shot another question at her.

“Because…” the waitress suddenly got stuck.

“Right, why is it again?”

“Why exactly is it?”

The waitress thought for a long time.

“Oh! Because sadness feels bad! Feeling bad is scary! So sadness is scary!”

What kind of messed-up logic is that?

Ye Jinyi seriously wanted to know if there was any real difference between “feeling bad” and “scary” in this context.

“Okay, fine, I get it.”

Ye Jinyi plastered on a fake smile, and only then did the waitress drop the topic.

As expected, these puppets didn’t think for themselves at all.

“May I take your order?”

“Menu.”

Ye Jinyi wasn’t in the mood to talk to puppets.

She took the menu and flipped through it several times, finally marking a few items with the pen in her hand.

“That’s it.”

She handed the menu back to the waitress with a voice full of fatigue.

After the waitress walked away, she leaned back against the sofa, exhaling a long breath.

“Why do I always feel so tired… so tired…?”

Ye Jinyi raised her left hand, staring at her trembling arm, then let it drop weakly.

She had never cared about these things before, had never even noticed this feeling, but why was it happening all the time now?

“Hey there, mind if I sit with you? There aren’t any open tables left, and this spot looks roomy. You don’t mind if I squeeze in a bit, do you?”

Just as Ye Jinyi was lost in thought, a familiar girl’s voice suddenly called out to her.

“Huh?”

Ye Jinyi looked up to see the purple, haired girl standing beside her booth, eyes still closed, and for a moment, she froze.

“You’re…”

Ye Jinyi rifled through her memories of this girl, and finally, it clicked.

“You’re the one I saw at the library that day!”

“Mm, that’s me.”

The girl didn’t deny it, she simply repeated what she’d said earlier.

“So, can you scoot over and give me a seat?”

“Uh… alright.”

Ye Jinyi thought about it for a moment and ultimately agreed to her request.

After all, compared to the room full of puppet-like people controlled by threads…

At least this purple-haired girl still seemed kind of normal, even if she never really was to begin with.

“You came here to eat too?”

Ye Jinyi tried asking this strange girl a question.

She was hoping to find even the tiniest shred of reality, something that felt like it belonged to the world she used to know.

After all, this girl was the only person Ye Jinyi had seen in this new world who wasn’t bound by threads.

“Mhm. Everyone gets hungry, right? So, how about you treat me to a meal?”

“Sure, I guess…”

Ye Jinyi really couldn’t keep up with the way this girl’s brain worked.

First she just wanted to share a table, now she was asking for free food too.

Luckily, money wasn’t needed in this world, so Ye Jinyi didn’t have to worry about the cost of the meal.

Before long, the waitress brought over a soup pot.

She placed it on the table and pressed the switch to start heating it up.

“Your food will be ready soon. Please wait a moment.”

With that, the waitress turned and left.

The two girls sat across from each other on the sofa, waiting for the soup to heat and the food to be prepared.

While waiting, Ye Jinyi glanced at the purple-haired girl.

“By the way… you don’t have any threads on you?”

“I do. You’re my thread. Mm-hmm~”

The girl said that, covering her mouth as she giggled softly.

And just that one line instantly turned Ye Jinyi beet red.

Flustered, she pounded both fists on the table and shouted, “Where the hell did you learn that kind of pickup line?!”

“Pfft!”

“Hahaha! You’re the one with the dirty mind, don’t blame me! Hahahaha!”

The girl couldn’t stop laughing.

She held her stomach with one hand and slammed the table with the other, bowing her head as she burst into uncontrollable laughter.

This dumb loli was just too hilarious.

“Your sense of humor is way too cheap…”

Ye Jinyi was speechless.

What was she even thinking, trying to have a normal conversation with someone like this?

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop laughing, hahahahahaha…”

You call that stopping?!

You’re clearly still laughing—and not even trying to stop!

Ye Jinyi suddenly felt a murderous urge.

After a while, the purple-haired girl finally stopped laughing and returned to her composed, elegant demeanor.

“Okay, okay, no more teasing. What I meant was, these threads, whether you can see them or not, they’ve always been there.”

“Don’t give me any philosophical nonsense, I don’t get it!”

Ye Jinyi immediately rejected her explanation.

She had a strong feeling this girl was about to launch into some weird and incomprehensible abstract monologue!

“Alright, alright, no philosophy. Let’s talk about something practical instead. Like… how to really make yourself happy?”

“Stop!”

Ye Jinyi cut her off instantly before she could start her hollow motivational speech.

“No high-concept talk, okay?”

She paused, reorganizing her thoughts.

“What I want to know is, what the hell is going on with this world right now? Do you know?”

Just then, a food delivery robot arrived and placed several dishes Ye Jinyi had ordered in front of her.

“Your food is ready. Please take your dishes.”