Chapter 441 – I dare not love for I fear this is only a dream (2)

Engrossed in her reading, the nearby coworker read aloud, “I dare not calculate my fate for I fear the fickleness of heavenly law. I dare not love for I fear this is only a dream. Hey, Ji Man, don’t you think these words are quite interesting?”

The hand that was going to start the computer paused. Ji Man turned her head and blankly stared at her.

I dare not calculate my fate for I fear the fickleness of heavenly law. I dare not love for I fear this is only a dream.

Hadn’t she just had a long dream? Fortunately, she hadn’t fallen in love.

“What’s wrong?” The coworker was startled by Ji Man’s behavior. She quickly pulled out tissues and offered them to her. “Ah, don’t cry. What’s wrong? You were perfectly fine yesterday. Did you have a bad breakup?”

“How could I have a bad breakup? I’m not even in a relationship.” Ji Man was also stunned by her own behavior. She took the offered tissues and dried her tears. Smiling, she said, “It’s probably because my eyes are feeling too tired since I stayed up late reading a light novel.”

With a face ready for gossip, the coworker looked at her and said, “Stop pretending. I’ve dated a lot. How could I not know what a bad breakup looks like? You’re too competitive and tough. You have no idea how many people call you Abbess Miejue behind your back. You should occasionally be a bit more gentle, dress up, and go out on a date. There are so many good men out there. You shouldn’t care too much about the few that upset you.”

(T/N: Abbess Miejue is a character from the The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber by Jin Yong. She is dogmatic about her views and ruthless when it comes to obtaining her goals. She stubbornly chooses to die rather than accept help from her enemy.)

“You’re right.” Ji Man smiled. “It’s okay. I don’t care.”

Why should she care about him? He was such a playboy. She reached out to pick up her phone and realized that she had forgotten to bring it. She suddenly remembered that it was opened up to the novel that she was reading. She hadn’t read the ending yet.

What would the ending look like? When she left, the soldiers had already surrounded Ning Yuxuan.

After thinking about this for a while, Ji Man opened up a browser, searched for the light novel that she had read, and skipped to the latest chapter.

“Marquis Moyu was trapped by the army. Zhao Zhe had meticulously designed this trap. He was determined to get rid of Marquis Moyu once and for all. Just as a hooked spear was going to stab through Ning Yuxuan’s chest, a sound came from outside the military training field…

There was a link for the next chapter after the ellipsis. Ji Man held her breath as she clicked on the link. To her surprise, the page does not exist error was displayed!

When she clicked to the webnovel’s cover page, she saw that the novel’s last update was half a year ago!

The author gave up? Ji Man was furious. She looked for the author’s name, but it was anonymous. She opened the website’s customer service page and couldn’t resist letting loose a stream of outraged curses. The customer service very apologetically told her that they had lost contact with the author after that update, so the novel remained unfinished.

There was no ending? There was actually no ending? Ji Man was so angry that she started to laugh. She flipped back and looked at the chapters that she hadn’t read yet. As soon as she saw the words, she froze in surprise.

The novel had changed from the last time she read it. It was revealed that the secondary female character had faked her death. After that, her behavior was exactly the same as hers. Slowly, little by little, she had taken back the male lead’s heart and pushed the female protagonist off her altar.

The author probably had no idea how to continue this novel. The female protagonist had already been replaced, so how could the author continue writing? If the author had switch the male lead, there would still be readers. But, if the female protagonist was replaced, why would the readers still read this novel?

Ji Man had blankly stared at the screen for a while when someone suddenly patted her shoulder from the back. When she turned her head to look, her manager was looking at her screen with an unhappy expression.

“Sorry.” Ji Man closed her eyes. Just as she was going to close that page, she heard someone calling her, “Ji Man.”

“When you’re at work, don’t do things that are unrelated to work.” Her manager was still standing behind her and nagging her. “The company is in a slump. At any moment, they’re going to lay off employees. If you don’t want to work here, there are plenty of people waiting to take your spot…”

“I’m not willing to accept this…” This time, it wasn’t Nie Sangyu’s voice. When she listened to it carefully, she realized it was Ning Yuxuan’s.

“Why haven’t you closed that rubbish yet?”

“You do love me. Why do you always lie to yourself and say that you don’t feel anything?”

“Ji Man?” The manager was somewhat angry.

Ji Man was dumbstruck and stared at the webpage. Suddenly remembering something, she got up and rushed out of the office.

Behind her, the manager angrily shouted, “Ji Man! You’re fired!”

Fine, fire her. It was only after she returned to modern-day that she realized she liked that old feudalistic world more. Although there were many areas where it was inferior to modern-day, and equality between men and women wasn’t as good, she still ended up liking it.

If it was only a dream, then let her keep dreaming. She wasn’t happy with the ending either. She had worked so hard to change the secondary female character to the female protagonist, but she wasn’t even added to the list of actors and actresses. As Ah Sang once sang, “There’s clearly three people in this movie, and yet my name will never be on the credits.”

(T/N: This song is called 一直很安静 (Always in Silence). Here’s a link for the translated lyrics, and a link if you want to listen to the song. It’s one of my favorite songs ^^.)

“Ji Man…”

“Stop calling me.” Ji Man was running very quickly on her eight-centimeter high heels. “This old lady will definitely come back!”

Suddenly, her heel caught on something, and Ji Man fell over. She fell into boundless darkness and abruptly woke up.

When she opened her eyes, she was greeted with an appealing antique canopy curtain.

“Miss, what’s wrong?” A servant girl from the marquis’s estate pushed open the door. Looking at her, she said, “It’s time for you to get up. The marquis is almost about ready to leave for the military training field.”

Leaving for the militarily training field? Ji Man was dumbfounded. She stared at the servant girl and asked, “Is the marquis leaving for the military campaign today?”

“Yes. Miss, please get up first.” The servant girl looked at her strangely.

Translator Ramblings: Even though the word “Dreamer” is in the title of the novel, I want to believe that Ji Man’s return to the modern era is just a nightmare. And that, because she dies in her nightmare, she wakes up as Nie Sangyu again.