In the living room.
Longyue and Lin Fan sat silently in the living room. The silence made the air feel incredibly heavy.
Setting aside for a moment how to return to the Immortal Demon Continent, the next problem was probably how to survive in this world.
If it so happened that the two great sovereigns of the Immortal and Demon Realms starved to death on Earth, that would truly be a joke of colossal proportions...
Lin Fan looked at a certain green messaging app on his phone. After a slight hesitation, he opened it and logged into his account.
As soon as he logged in, the chat list immediately received 99+ message notifications.
He had been an orphan since childhood, with no parents, so most of the chat messages were greetings and concerns from a few friends.
In the year he was gone, most friends sent one or two messages asking if he was safe. Only one person had sent a full 99+ messages over that year.
He opened the chat box, and the messages, each clearly marked with a time, appeared before his eyes.
Starting from the day he disappeared, this person had continuously sent messages periodically, sometimes after a few minutes, sometimes after one or two weeks.
—Lin Fan, what are you doing? Why aren't you replying?
—It's been a day, are you that busy? Don't even have time to look at messages?
—Stop messing around. Remember to reply when you see this. If you dare to play tricks on me, I won't forgive you!
—Hey! Dead or alive, at least let me know!
—I went to your place to look for you, nobody was home. Where did you go, man?
—Lin Fan, don't do anything stupid. There are no hurdles in this world that can't be overcome. Come back quickly, your big brother will take you for a foot massage.
—The police couldn't find me either. Where did you go, seriously?
—Lin Fan, I admit it was me who secretly drank your calcium milk back in the university dorm. You just come back, and I'll compensate for it!
—Sigh, it's not worth it for that woman! Why couldn't you think better! So stupid!
—My brother, may your journey be smooth. You must live happily in the other world.
—My brother, I burned a few billion for you, a few houses, a few cars. If it's not enough, come back and see me, I'll burn more.
—...
Looking at the messages on his phone, Lin Fan couldn't help but let a knowing smile bloom on his lips. He replied to the message:
—I'm back.
As soon as the message was sent, a string of replies came in the very next second.
—???
—Holy crap! You actually came back to look for me!
—Are you alive or dead?
"Would a dead person send you a message?" Lin Fan was speechless, typing a reply with a smile.
—Holy crap! Not a single word from you for a whole year, making me worry for so long.
—Quickly tell me, where did you go to play? And you didn't even take me with you!
—Forget it, I'm coming to your place to demand an explanation face-to-face. You're home right now, right?
Lin Fan looked at the message in his hand, then turned to Longyue, who was sitting beside him in a daze. After a momentary hesitation, he replied:
—Perfect, I also need to discuss something with you. Let's meet up outside, I'll send you the address.
—Alright, I'll be there in two minutes!
"Empress, this sovereign is going out." After arranging the meeting place, Lin Fan put away his phone and opened the door.
"Where are you going?" Longyue asked anxiously.
"To meet a friend." Lin Fan replied curtly, then closed the door with a bang.
Watching Lin Fan leave, Longyue pouted her lips with dissatisfaction.
That guy just left her at home all alone...
...
At a certain milk tea shop.
A man dressed fashionably and stylishly, with his hair combed to the side, sat by the window. His gaze was fixed on the crowds coming and going outside the shop, as if he were searching for someone's figure.
Lin Fan pushed open the shop door, spotted the man in the corner near the window at a glance, and walked straight towards him.
"Long time no see, Yan Zi."
Zhou Yan, his best friend from high school until now.
They went to and from school together, shared a dormitory, and ate together in the cafeteria. They were inseparable like shadows, and they talked about everything. It was no exaggeration to say that the only thing they didn't do was wear the same pair of pants.
From high school to university, even after graduation, they often hung out together.
Zhou Yan lifted his head and saw Lin Fan in front of him, his expression filled with shock and disbelief.
"You... are you Lin Fan?"
The face of the person in front of him was clearly his good friend, Lin Fan, but the aura he exuded was completely different from what he had known before, as if he had become a different person.
In his memory, Lin Fan's figure was quite slender, and he usually didn't talk much, belonging to the type who wouldn't stand out in a crowd. But the person in front of him gave him a completely different feeling. His physique was much more muscular and robust, and he even had the unexpected aura of a gangster boss!
"Who else but me? We haven't seen each other for just a year, and you don't recognize me?" Lin Fan pulled up a chair and sat in front of Zhou Yan.
Zhou Yan kept observing Lin Fan in front of him and couldn't help but say: "Lin Fan, did you join the triads?"
Lin Fan: "..."
"Why would you ask that?" Lin Fan asked, confused.
"Hmm... I just feel like you now look like a hired thug for the triads, especially in terms of aura, it's very similar...!"
"...No, how could I join the triads." Lin Fan was awkwardly silent for a moment before refuting.
"That's true, a good person like you who doesn't even dare to kill fish, how could you possibly associate with the triads, hahaha."
Zhou Yan was greatly amused by his naive thought and laughed heartily, while Lin Fan sat silently on the side.
Running around in the Demon Realm... that probably doesn't count as joining the triads, right...
"Eh-eh, Lin Fan, you're really not cool at all. You disappeared for a whole year and didn't reply to a single message." "You should at least tell me where you went, right?"
Remembering that he came today to demand an explanation, Zhou Yan quickly put away his smile and stared at Lin Fan exasperatedly, his heart full of resentment.
Lin Fan had disappeared for a whole year. He reported it to the police, but they couldn't find him. The police speculated that he was most likely murdered or committed suicide and told him to be mentally prepared. That made a grown man like him hide under the covers in the middle of the night and silently shed tears...
"I'm sorry, I went to a very distant place. Everything happened so suddenly, I didn't have time to tell you," Lin Fan said apologetically.
After you disappear, to have a best friend who always thinks of you and worries about you, what more could you ask for?
"A distant place? Did you go abroad?" Zhou Yan asked curiously.
"Mmm... you could say that." Lin Fan gave an awkward smile and agreed.
He had no choice. He couldn't possibly tell him that he had actually been thrown into another world, right...
Even if he really said it, he probably wouldn't believe him.
"So you went abroad. That's good too. Going abroad for a change of scenery is not a bad thing." Zhou Yan didn't have the slightest bit of doubt. Instead, he looked Lin Fan up and down with a curious gaze and questioned:
"Lin Fan, did you secretly work out behind my back during your year abroad? How did your physique get so good!"
"I just did a little training..." Lin Fan looked down at himself.
When he first landed in the Demon Realm, he was constantly on the run for his life, embarking on a period of survival in the wild.
To stay alive, he ate whatever he saw, not even hesitating to consume the flesh and blood of demonic beasts and fortify his body with demon blood. Coupled with life-and-death battles against various powerful enemies, he had unconsciously been completely remolded, forging this physique.
"Damn! So hard! This is the real deal!" "They say working out can change a person's disposition, it seems it's true...!" Zhou Yan reached out and felt Lin Fan's firm chest, his face full of envy. He immediately vowed:
"Damn it, starting tomorrow, I'll start working out too!"
"Lin Fan, you can be my workout buddy. Later, the two of us will take off our shirts and stand on the street. It's bound to mesmerize all the young girls to death, hahaha." As he spoke, Zhou Yan himself couldn't help but let out a mischievous laugh.
Lin Fan couldn't help but laugh along with him.
To him, it felt as if hundreds of years had passed, but here, only one year had gone by. His old friend hadn't changed in the slightest.
It must be admitted, this was truly something to be grateful for...
———-