“Sir, please scan your face over here.”
In a coffee shop, a waitress looked at the gentleman in traditional Chinese clothing with a bright smile, her eyes sparkling with a bit of admiration.
These days, it’s quite common to see people wearing various types of traditional clothing when out and about, and everyone is accustomed to it. However, most people tend to appreciate the beauty of women in traditional dresses, and compliments are rare for men.
But this gentleman in front of her… he was quite handsome.
He still had long hair, jet black like silk tied behind him, truly stepping out as if from a historical costume movie.
“Beep!”
The sound of the face-scanning device startled the waitress as the scan failed.
The young woman quickly suggested, “Sir, could you blink your eyes?”
“…” Xia Guixuan blinked his eyes.
In fact, he didn’t even know why he needed to have his face scanned to pay a bill. Seeing the people around him acting as if it were completely normal, he put away the silver coins he was holding and followed suit, feeling a bit bewildered.
“Beep.”
Another failure.
The young woman’s expression changed slightly, “Sir… do you not have a face? I mean…”
Xia Guixuan didn’t bother arguing with her and just smiled, “I might not have a face, but you’re very beautiful.”
The young woman, who had been about to say something, forgot her words and happily replied, “Maybe the device isn’t working properly. How about you scan the QR code, sir?”
Xia Guixuan: “…”
Forget about swiping my face, why are you swiping my horse? Aren’t you the ones who don’t ride horses when you go out in this day and age? (¹)
A slender hand extended from the side, and a woman’s wristwatch lightly flashed in front of the device, “I’ll pay for this.”
“Beep,” the device recorded the payment, and the young woman’s eyes held a hint of regret. She realized that this handsome gentleman had a companion.
She stole a glance at the woman scanning the code, and her small mouth pouted slightly; Hmph… why is she so good-looking too?
Xia Guixuan tilted his head slightly and looked at the woman who had unexpectedly paid for his bill.
The woman was dressed in a professional women’s suit and skirt, the standard attire of a career woman, exuding an air of elegance and intelligence. She was now smiling charmingly and inquisitively, “Are you in such a hurry to leave? Did I bore you?”
Do we know each other?
Xia Guixuan naturally understood that this was a way out of the situation, and he smiled faintly, “Of course not… Would you like to stay a bit longer?”
“Unfortunately, I’ve grown tired of you,” the woman lazily brushed past him. “Don’t be so reckless in the future. Goodbye.”
A fragrant breeze swept by as the woman leisurely left.
Xia Guixuan watched her retreating figure with contemplation.
He had just come out of seclusion and knew almost nothing about this world. He needed a fresh period of adaptation. Foremost among his challenges was his inability to comprehend even the simplest payment methods. It seemed as if the woman had sensed his awkwardness and deliberately offered assistance.
However, her comment, “Don’t be so reckless in the future,” seemed to imply something more. To an outsider, it might sound like he had carelessly offended a beautiful woman during a date and blown it. But to Xia Guixuan, it seemed like a subtle warning.
Did not understanding the payment methods put him in danger?
Perhaps this woman thought he was some kind of outsider and was trying to protect him.
A faint glint of curiosity flickered in Xia Guixuan’s eyes, and the woman’s image began to change gradually in his perception.
Behind her graceful figure, he faintly envisioned a furry tail.
A demon?
Did she consider him a newcomer to the human world?
Or maybe she wasn’t sure, but decided to help anyway.
“Brother, you really messed up your date with Yin Xiaoru, huh?” someone nearby mocked, having paid the bill. “Wearing ancient clothing for a date, dragging your feet with the payment. I really don’t know what you were thinking. No wonder she called you reckless.”
Xia Guixuan smiled at him, then turned his gaze back to the door. The woman had already disappeared without a trace.
Yin Xiaoru, huh? She sounded like someone famous…
He strolled out the door and looked up at the neon lights of the city at night, finding the affairs of the world quite fascinating.
He had been in seclusion on this planet for a long time. Originally, it had been nothing more than a desolate and remote world, unsuitable for even habitation.
But coming out of seclusion after a long time, he found that the world had changed into something entirely unrecognizable.
Cities had sprung up, humanity flourished, and he could sense the presence of those practicing cultivation. There were even demons mingling among them.
It was as if he had woken up from a dream to find the world completely transformed.
The joy of living for a long time lay precisely in this. He could encounter all sorts of things… Just like Yin Xiaoru, a unique “demon,” who was not quite the same as what he had encountered in the past.
She didn’t seem to be an animal that had undergone transformation to become human but rather a person with certain animal characteristics, a special humanoid race. A half-demon? A beastfolk? He wasn’t sure what they called themselves.
Xia Guixuan was very interested in the changes on this planet because, in a certain sense, it could be considered his planet.
Unbeknownst to him, the night had grown dark, and there were fewer people on the streets.
Xia Guixuan strolled along the roadside, admiring the urban night scene. Occasionally, people passed by on their chubby hovercrafts, and Xia Guixuan watched them with great interest.
These hovercrafts were quite fun. They had no wheels, hovering about half a foot above the ground, and moved at a decent speed, providing a stable ride. There was no visible display of spiritual energy, but they already had the feel of flying artifacts. They seemed more intriguing than the roaring cars he had seen when he briefly passed by Earth before his seclusion.
Upon reaching their destination, the riders pressed a button, and the hovercraft instantly transformed into a small sphere about the size of a ping pong ball, which they casually stowed away in their bags.
They even saved on parking spaces.
Xia Guixuan found it very fascinating.
Humanity was taking a different path, developing things that were becoming increasingly similar to what cultivators used.
In the past, he had seen everyone holding a device called a “mobile phone,” allowing them to make calls from anywhere, and he felt that these mundane means of communication had surpassed the tools used by cultivators. Unfortunately, at that time, he had passed through briefly without staying, which had caused an even greater disconnect with the present.
Communication technology had likely advanced to unimaginable heights by now. Perhaps even the telepathy used by cultivators was nothing compared to it?
“Sir, you’re wandering around at this late hour. Please cooperate with us and show your identification,” two patrol officers approached him.
Xia Guixuan: “…”
Of course, he had no intention of getting into trouble with the police and promptly disappeared.
Perhaps this city was not as calm as he had imagined if there were police patrolling at night. After some consideration, he decided to find a hotel to stay for the night and deal with it in the morning.
“Sir, we’ll need to see your identification for your stay.”
Why did they need your identification just to check into a hotel? Xia Guixuan sighed, “I forgot to bring it. Can you make an exception?”
“I’m sorry, sir, with your handsome looks, using someone else’s ID won’t pass the inspection.”
“…”
“Oh, by the way, sir, you can use facial recognition.”
“I’ll pass.”
“Hehe, sir, your elegant way of speaking is quite charming. How about staying in my room?”
Xia Guixuan fled in panic.
After wandering for a while, he spotted a bar that seemed to be open all night. Xia Guixuan breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that bars wouldn’t require ID, right?
“Sir, here’s the tap water you requested… That’ll be ten yuan. Please make the payment first, thank you.”
“No, sir, we respect your freedom to wear traditional clothing, but couldn’t you at least order something? What’s with using silver to pay?”
“Selling silver? Sir, please show some restraint…”
“Wait a minute… actually, I guess it’s not impossible, how much are you willing to give for a night?”
“Oh, you just want to exchange your silver for our local currency? We call it Daxia currency. Where are you from?”
“Oh, and sir, we don’t even have Daxia currency. Almost no one carries real money anymore because it’s all virtual payments. I suggest you go to the bank tomorrow for an exchange…”
While they were haggling, footsteps outside grew louder, and a group of police officers rushed in.
“You there, you’re behaving extremely suspiciously. Get down on the ground and put your hands behind your back…”
Xia Guixuan disappeared again.
The police officers gasped and turned to the bar counter. “Pull up the surveillance footage.”
In the surveillance footage, Xia Guixuan’s position moments ago appeared empty, as if there was nothing there.
The police officers exchanged puzzled glances, and it took them a while before someone asked, “What did that person look like?”
After a pause, another person added, “Strange, what are we here for? I forgot.”
“Oh, boss, here for a drink?”
“We still have to patrol. Strange, it was you guys who triggered the alarm earlier, right?”
“No, it wasn’t,” the bartender scratched her head. “Strange, did we find someone unusual just now, someone who didn’t even know what currency is… Why did I say currency?”
The Forgetfulness Technique, in a matter of moments, would cause these people to forget their memories of Xia Guixuan without any aftereffects.
Hiding in the shadows, Xia Guixuan quietly left and teleported to a small hill on the outskirts. He couldn’t help but feel speechless.
While these small incidents could be easily smoothed over, Xia Guixuan realized that he, a former Immortal Emperor, couldn’t even move around freely in this modern city!
Was he going to rely on invisibility and shape-shifting to get by in the future? Or just act recklessly and confront anyone who challenged him?
He knew nothing about this new world, didn’t even know if there was a threat to his existence. His injuries were also not fully healed, so he couldn’t be too carefree.
It seemed like the right course of action was to communicate with the cultivators of this world first.
Suddenly, Xia Guixuan remembered Yin Xiaoru, who had helped him in the coffee shop. A demon lurking in the human world.
Or perhaps she was the native inhabitant of this planet?
As he was pondering this, he sensed an energy fluctuation from the nearby mountain.
Xia Guixuan turned to look and saw a graceful figure leaping out of a brightly lit villa on the mountainside.
With the full moon hanging low beyond, she descended from the mountain, and in Xia Guixuan’s view, the person and the moon overlapped, as if a fox had leaped into the moon.
Yin Xiaoru.
~~~
(¹) The wordplay in the original Chinese text relies on the homophones “码” (mǎ) and “马” (mǎ). Both characters share the same pronunciation but have different meanings: 码 (mǎ): code, symbol, mark. 马 (mǎ): horse. Xia Guixuan confuses scanning the QR code with scanning the horse.
P.S.: Just to avoid confusion, this planet is not Earth. Details will be revealed gradually.
~~~