The Ordinary Me is Worshipped as a Deity by the Extraordinary Them-Chapter 125.2 - Art (part 2)

Fortunately, Su Li’s friend hadn’t gone astray.

Unfortunately, most people who grew wildly while “feeling their way across the river” ended up with regrets they couldn’t resolve.

Counting his time since transmigrating, Su Li figured he was about 31 years old now. Though he was a great wizard like that friend of his, normal men his age might already have children running around.

In other words, all the feelings of guilt and awkwardness that Qi felt were just emotions that Su Li could understand and accept.

But still…

Su Li looked at the hand that had unconsciously grabbed his sleeve, hesitated for a moment, then looked up at the boy standing beside his seat and said, “I can accept living together, but I won’t accept hand-holding or sleeping together.”

Su Li was the type who enjoyed solitude. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to retire at 28 and live freely until 30, never directly contacting that friend during those two years.

Contact was acceptable, but intimacy was a no-go!

After Qi released Su Li’s sleeve, his eyes uncontrollably turned red.

“Thank you.”

Su Li didn’t say there was no need to thank him—that would have ruined the mood.

He just nodded slightly and made a soft “mm” sound.

So the three people who would have gone their separate ways after school now walked home together.

But what made Su Li sigh was…

There was one more person looking for a beating.

Literally looking for a beating.

Qi followed Cyril and began getting pummeled daily by the Holy Sons and Holy Maiden squad.

During this time, Su Li’s reputation, which had improved in the class of poor students, deteriorated again.

Unrelated to his elemental affinity, people thought Su Li must have a powerful father with money and influence, which was why Cyril and Qi acted as his lackeys, and he could beat them up whenever he wanted to vent.

Su Li: ……..

Regarding this, Su Li felt that the reason those aristocratic gossips became accepted as truth was because everyone in this world had issues.

Perhaps making wild assumptions was some kind of traditional art form.

……

A few more days passed.

Before Asa Academy’s spring advancement exams, the Chinese New Year’s Eve that Su Li had been thinking about for a long time arrived.

This world’s calendar used a new system, with the year based on how long Amikbi had existed. As for the twenty-four solar terms, various festivals, and the lunar calendar…

There was absolutely nothing of the sort.

What could Su Li do but rely on his memory?

Early that morning, Su Li got up and changed into a hanfu instead of the “hero’s attire” commonly worn by people from other worlds. The hanfu had been specially made based on Su Li’s memory, which he had described to Cyril, who drew it on paper, and then Euphia had taken the design to have it custom-made.

It had a crossed collar with wide sleeves, predominantly light gray with silver crane patterns embroidered on it, bound at the waist with a jade-colored belt. Perhaps thinking the overall color scheme was too light, Euphia had rushed into the Mercenary Alliance’s storage room after the outfit was made and taken out an extremely pure green jade.

No one knew that the Mercenary Alliance’s heir also had carving skills, but the jade pendant she created now hung on Su Li, truly becoming the finishing touch that lit up his entire appearance—crystal clear and green as spring water.

After putting it on, Su Li tugged at his clothes with a hint of strangeness. There was a mirror in his room, so it wasn’t difficult to see himself clearly.

But he just couldn’t shake the feeling of oddness.

His face was excellent, his figure was attractive, and even short hair didn’t look bad with hanfu. But he just felt, deep down…

Strange.

The feeling of discomfort and incongruity permeated everything.

Platinum blonde hair, almost approaching white if it were any lighter, and green eyes, no matter how beautiful, couldn’t compare to the pure black eyes he had seen for 30 years in his memories.

Different was simply different.

The person in the mirror smiled at him, looking quite handsome. But the slight curve of his lips gradually straightened.

Strange, uncomfortable, and somewhat painful, as if someone were squeezing his heart.

—He had indeed arrived in a different world completely unrelated to his past.

This world was different from before, with no familiar history, no familiar faces, and no familiar language.

Special powers, special magical beasts, a civilization at a standstill.

Everything was different.

Even when trying to find one last special thing to commemorate on a special day, all he could feel was that he didn’t belong.

Su Li stood in front of the mirror for a long time, until someone knocked on his door, and he suddenly came back to himself and replied through the door, “Coming right away.”

Lan Zhe, who was knocking outside, felt that the voice was a bit deeper than the one he heard every day. But remembering that this was the special day from Su Li’s homeland, Lan Zhe simply assumed that Su Li had stayed up late to prepare for this special day, and the difference in his voice was due to lack of sleep.

He then turned and went downstairs.

Not long after, the door opened.

However, the young man who pushed open the door with the winter sunlight behind him was no longer wearing that long-anticipated outfit, but rather clothing randomly selected from his wardrobe—clothes that Euphia had previously helped purchase.

Although he felt guilty about disappointing his friends and Euphia, after letting out a soft sigh, Su Li decided to go downstairs as he was.

A place one cannot return to shouldn’t be forced.

Things that can be remembered linger in the mind.

Clothing didn’t represent anything, and the strange feeling of not belonging couldn’t stop Su Li from missing his homeland.

But Su Li also knew clearly that this was still a different world with no similarities to his homeland.

Putting away that outfit wasn’t about going with the flow.

It was his understanding that it couldn’t be forced.

When he came downstairs, the people below were stunned.

During the making of that outfit, to ensure the design and details matched Su Li’s memories, it had been brought to this small building multiple times for adjustments during production.

No one had seen Su Li fully dressed in it, but everyone knew that even when trying on just parts of it, he had always been looking forward to the day he could wear the complete outfit.

Suddenly, there was silence.

Although the young man coming down the stairs was wearing a shirt, vest, cape, and trousers that harmonized perfectly with this world, no one felt happy about it.

Egbert suddenly felt that he had only understood about thirty percent of what Diz had said before.

Otherwise, why would his heart now feel like it was being cut by sharp knives?

When trying on those not-yet-completed clothes, Su Li had been excited.

When Su Li was looking forward to something, those green eyes were clearer than the most expensive jade in the world.

But now, those watching him could still see brightness and clarity in those green eyes. However, those eyes that should have been empty now reflected all of their figures.

They should have been happy about this, after all, they had all slowly made their way into Su Li’s heart.

But they weren’t.

Everyone’s thoughts were surprisingly consistent.

—This world was slowly and cruelly changing him, even against Su Li’s will.

“It shouldn’t be like this,” Egbert lowered his head, avoiding those green eyes as if escaping.

No matter how much he had said he wanted his image to be reflected in Lord Su Li’s eyes… when he saw this scene, what he felt wasn’t possible jealousy toward others, nor uncontrollable happiness.

Now Egbert’s emotions were filled with inexplicable sadness.

He suddenly remembered what Diz had said before.

[“The world is assimilating him.”

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“While his spirit resists the erosion of the entire world, all of us are trying to accelerate this process.”]

Now it wasn’t acceleration, but rather the final stages of this process gradually coming into view.

The unexplained sadness made what should have been a happy atmosphere heavy.

Su Li now lacked the rationality essential to adults. He acted as if nothing had happened, his lips curving into the same slight smile as always.

“What’s wrong? Don’t I look good in this?”

“This is a new outfit,” he said in an intentionally exaggerated tone that only made people’s eyes involuntarily moisten.

The new clothes did look good—a brown cape with lighter brown trim around the edges. A vest darker than Su Li’s eyes, bordered with dark golden fabric.

As for the black fitted trousers, they made the young man’s legs look particularly long and slender.

The “hero’s attire” was never too plain. The matching outfit also had wide green bracers, and the footwear consisted of knee-high boots.

Euphia’s aesthetic sense had always been on point.

No one understood better than she did how well the clothes she chose would suit this young man.

But…

These clothes had never received any anticipation from Su Li.

Euphia had helped purchase them only because she didn’t want the handsome young man living among a group of men to gradually become rough around the edges.

But now, she would have preferred him to be a little rougher.

“Very nice,” came a voice as if obstructed by sand.

Euphia raised her head, patted her face with both hands, and with a smile on her lips said, “I knew that when it comes to choosing clothes, Eg is at least ten streets behind me.”

Egbert, who would normally be trading barbs with her, didn’t say a single word this time.

“Don’t be like that, you’re smiling as if you’re crying,” Mavis next to her pinched Euphia’s cheek.

“Rather than feeling sad about something you’ve imagined, why not just ask Su Li directly why he didn’t wear the outfit he was so looking forward to?”

“Trust me, he’ll definitely give an answer that everyone can understand and accept.”

Su Li rubbed his nose with a wry smile.

Mavis always seemed to be the one who broke inappropriate atmospheres, although Su Li didn’t want to describe the scene before him as inappropriate.

“There are many reasons I didn’t wear it, but if I had to explain something, it would definitely be… not fitting in.”

“Everyone is wearing your usual attire, while I would be dressed like some noble, I’d just feel self-conscious. To be honest, I’m the kind of man who has beauty-shame syndrome. Though I wouldn’t rough up my face to make it coarse, too delicate an outfit would still make me feel awkward. Besides, if I’m the only one wearing that kind of clothing…”

Su Li’s eyes showed amusement, “Wouldn’t that be like me excluding all of you?”

Mavis sat up straight with a serious expression. “That excuse might work on some people, but not on everyone.”

Su Li lowered his head in thought. “Then I’d better think seriously about what other excuses I can come up with.”

Then he smiled again, his eyes showing no trace of gloom as he said…

“I’m still me, and I won’t neglect myself because of those unimportant things you’re thinking about.”

Su Li’s emotions changed quickly. He occasionally felt he needed to show some intense emotions, whether sad or happy, after all, traditional Chinese medicine says that long-term emotional calm can easily lead to liver stagnation.

No matter what he did, said, ate, or thought, his habits couldn’t escape the influence of the other world. That being the case, why bother trying to say goodbye to that world on a special day like Chinese New Year’s Eve?

Sadness never lasted long in Su Li.

He raised an eyebrow and said candidly, “Rather than getting caught up in complicated emotional matters, why not think about whether the dumplings you made are actually edible?”

“I vaguely remember that when we talked about making dumplings before, Julius stuffed stinky fruit into them.”

Stinky fruit was durian.

When Julius stuffed that thing into the dumplings, everyone tried to beat him to death.

Unfortunately, Raven, the only one who could beat him, was attending school with Su Li at the time.

When Roy later held his nose and reported this, Su Li replied, “You can choose to specially cook a pot of stinky fruit dumplings for Julius to eat. That’s called reaping what you sow.”

What could Roy do but accept it while holding his nose? After all, he couldn’t win in a fight, and cursing would lower his dignity.

So those durian dumplings were eventually put into the ice storage prepared by the ice elementalist, with Roy watching in disgust.

However, when he took these dumplings out of the ice storage, Lan Zhe refused to cook them.

“Whichever pot I use to cook such dumplings, I think I would never touch that pot again in the future.”

Julius wrinkled his nose. “Aren’t you overreacting a bit?”

“No, normal people would never combine durian and dumplings,” Su Li waved his hand.

Julius narrowed his ice-blue eyes. “Are you saying I’m not normal?”

Su Li just smiled.

He suddenly realized that his smile could also be a weapon, especially when the angle of his lips curved differently.

A slight curve meant he was in a good mood, a larger curve, somewhat brilliant, meant he was very happy, and overly brilliant looked particularly sarcastic.

As for a smile that didn’t reach his eyes…

Under this expression, Raven would only interpret it as displeasure or anger.

So Raven very calmly circled above Su Li’s head and looked directly at Julius. “Do you have any objections?”

“A mixture of two souls, a new concept of consciousness, a youth’s body—if you’re normal with all that, then everyone here is normal.”

Mavis pouted, twirling her gray hair with one hand while saying, “Don’t use ‘normal people’ as a blanket statement. I don’t want to get dragged into men’s conflicts.”

Euphia raised her eyelids, deliberately looking Julius up and down.

“Honestly, with that appearance, you can hardly be called a man.”

“What about Su Li then?” Julius gritted his teeth.

Euphia looked surprised and said, “Don’t you know that all evaluations of men have a prerequisite of excluding Su Li?”

Julius’s face turned red with anger.

Qi secretly glanced at him and carefully said to Lan Zhe, “Um, please choose any pot for him to cook the dumplings he made. I’ll buy you a brand new pot afterward.”

Lan Zhe raised an eyebrow, discovering for the first time that “one takes on the color of one’s surroundings” was really true.

Of course, he didn’t say that Su Li was as black as ink.

As for that pot of durian dumplings…

In the end, Julius, who was held down firmly, had to eat them one by one.

Raven had transformed into human form to restrain him, and to avoid the small building collapsing during the fight and causing everyone’s anger, Julius could only eat the durian dumplings while feeling resentful toward Raven.

He tried to drag others down with him. “These are really delicious.”

“Don’t believe me? Try one, Su Li.”

The person whose name was specifically mentioned couldn’t easily leave this New Year’s Eve gathering held because of him, so he could only look heavily at the dumplings in the pot not far away.

In the end, he decided to try them.

……

How to put it?

Su Li finally put down his chopsticks and said with a calm expression devoid of a smile. “The taste is very artistic.”

Roy looked at Su Li with a “Really? Don’t lie to me” expression.

In the end, he decided to fork one up and eat it himself.

The Lion’s Club leader curiously asked, “How does it taste?”

Roy controlled his expression, smiled, and said, “The little master’s evaluation is very accurate. This is truly artistic.”

Until another believer appeared.

Like the Gourd Brothers saving their grandfather… no, more accurately, like dumplings being dropped into a pot, everyone eventually fell into the trap.

Today they deeply understood that art was this incomprehensible thing.

By the way, that day, Julius was forced to face everyone except Su Li.

Forced.

Julius openly cursed the deceased Pope of Light: an old man who lived for over 70 years and had zero life experience!