Chapter 1384: Lou Yu and Lu Xun

Chapter 1385: Lou Yu and Lu Xun

Under the tent's light, a dripping wet figure stood there, holding a blue folder in his hand. His glasses were covered in raindrops, and he looked utterly disheveled.

"Lou Yu, did you also receive Yang Xiao's invitation?" Lu Xun asked, getting straight to the point.

"I... I didn't," Lou Yu replied, his voice lacking conviction. "I received a message from Dr. Qi, asking if I wanted to take the same bus here, and that's how I found out about this. I know it's not good to come uninvited, but I heard you all had some... 'adventures' here? So, I wanted to see for myself."

"What do you mean 'heard'?" Wu Tongyuan retorted. "Weren't you there that day?"

"No, the one who came here that day wasn't me; it was someone who looked exactly like me!"

"What?"

Wu Tongyuan frowned deeply. "Are you a twin?"

"No... I don't know how to explain it to you," Lou Yu said. "But I saw him, and he told me to come here, to retrieve something from the meteorite crater... something that inherently belongs to me."

Behind Lou Yu's rain-streaked glasses, his eyes were intensely serious.

Wu Tongyuan was bewildered; he couldn't understand what Lou Yu was saying and could only turn his gaze to Lu Xun beside him.

Lu Xun hesitated for a moment, then turned to look at a military officer nearby.

"Contact Yang Xiao and see what he says."

Regardless, Yang Xiao hadn't initially invited Lou Yu. Lu Xun trusted Yang Xiao, and even more, he trusted Director Chen, believing they must have their reasons for doing things this way. But now, Lou Yu's inexplicable appearance here was undoubtedly an unexpected complication.

The figure beside him nodded and immediately used a communicator to contact the camp at the meteorite crater.

"What did you say?"

At the entrance of the camp, Yang Xiao's brows immediately furrowed tightly.

"What's wrong?" Su Zhiwei, who happened to be passing by, walked up to his side.

"...Something unexpected happened."

Yang Xiao glanced back into the camp tent, where three figures were playing 'Fight the Landlord' with a deck of poker cards, seemingly oblivious to what was happening here.

Yang Xiao's gaze swept over the surveillance cameras positioned throughout the camp. With a slight movement of his fingertip, he took control of the camera feeds, and all twelve hidden listening devices inside the tent were also deactivated.

"Come with me for a moment," Yang Xiao whispered.

Su Zhiwei nodded slightly, and the two quietly walked out of the camp, heading towards the dark jungle nearby.

When they reached a clear area in front of the jungle, Yang Xiao spoke softly:

"Director Chen."

A moment later, a dark figure cloaked in a grand red opera robe materialized like a phantom amidst the dark jungle.

"What's happened?" Chen Ling asked.

"Lu Xun's side contacted me, saying... Lou Yu has also arrived."

Chen Ling's eyes immediately narrowed.

"Lou Yu?"

"Yes, he said he met someone who looks exactly like him, and that person told him to come here and retrieve something that inherently belongs to him." Yang Xiao himself was undecided, and after a moment of hesitation, he asked, "What should we do? Should we let him in?"

Someone who looks exactly the same... to retrieve something that belongs to him?

If this is true, the Lou Yu at the checkpoint now should be the original Lou Yu of this era, meaning the Lou Yu who hasn't obtained the power of the Scarlet Star. Has the future Lord Wuji already met him? What happened between them?

And what is this 'something that belongs to him'?

Chen Ling pondered for a long time before finally speaking:

"...Let him in."

If the one at the checkpoint is truly the ordinary Lou Yu of this era, then letting him in won't matter.

If that's Lord Wuji disguised as an ordinary person, it's pointless not to let him in, since he already knows that the Nine Lords are all in Shennongjia. If he wanted to, he could break through the checkpoint instantly, arrive at this camp in a flash, and slaughter all the Nine Lords here; he wouldn't even give Lu Xun a chance to send a message.

After receiving Chen Ling's answer, Yang Xiao immediately relayed the message to the checkpoint, telling them to all come in.

"You all stay here; I'll go take a look over there."

Chen Ling took a step back, and his dark figure once again vanished into the shadows of the jungle.

As it concerned Lou Yu, Chen Ling was still not at ease. His figure swiftly moved through the jungle and soon arrived near the checkpoint.

At this moment, Lou Yu had just received permission to enter with Lu Xun and Wu Tongyuan.

"Wu Tongyuan?"

Chen Ling saw the haggard figure who had lost a lot of weight, and his gaze then fell on Lou Yu beside him.

The previous Lord Wuji Lou Yu had not hidden his intent to kill Wu Tongyuan in the slightest. But this time, Lou Yu walked beside Wu Tongyuan, so close that he could kill him with a mere flick of a finger, yet he showed no intention of acting.

This suggested that the Lou Yu currently before him truly wasn't the Lord Wuji Chen Ling remembered.

Neither Lu Xun, Wu Tongyuan, nor Lou Yu had noticed Chen Ling's hidden presence.

"Lou Yu, why do you seem so much thinner than before?" Lu Xun carefully observed Lou Yu beside him.

"Our last meeting was already last year, wasn't it? After the New Year, I think I've always been like this." Lou Yu gave a bitter smile. "After all, I'm not like you, with such a highly respected teacher as a backer... The pressure on me is too great."

Lu Xun subconsciously wanted to say that they had just met recently, but according to Lou Yu's statement, the one they met last time must have been the other him.

No wonder when he interacted with Lou Yu last time, he felt Lou Yu was a bit different. He had thought it was because Lou Yu had made breakthroughs in research over the past year and had become much more composed.

"A true gem will always shine," Lu Xun said earnestly.

"We've known each other since you were a doctoral student. I know how well-suited you are for a career in research. Later, I suggested you come with me to the institute in Shanghai, but in the end, you chose another path. If you had come with me to Shanghai then, perhaps everything would be different."

"...You know, Lu Xun," Lou Yu said, shaking his head with a bitter smile, "back then, they were the only ones willing to give me a high scholarship... My mother was sick, I had no choice..."

"It's not that I didn't want to choose a brighter future," he continued. "I'm just a child from a poor family. I didn't have the confidence or the resources to pursue such a future... And, my luck isn't as good as yours."

Lu Xun looked at the dejected Lou Yu beside him, wanting to say something but stopping himself.

"Lu Xun, I only recently found out that you invited me to join the expedition a while ago," Lou Yu said. "Honestly, I'm very grateful to you. All this time, you're the only one who has consistently trusted me and given me opportunities to prove myself. But during that period, my phone was stolen, so I had no idea about it at all."

Lou Yu paused for a moment, his gaze drifting towards the deep night in the distance, and murmured to himself,

"If I hadn't missed your invitation back then, and had gone with you to explore the Scarlet Star, and had also had an adventure like you... Perhaps my life would be different too?"