“Senior, Senior Brother?”
Xiao Luoyi hurriedly reached out and patted his back.
“Are you okay? I… I was just saying whatever…”
“Not, nothing…”
Lin Xiao finally stopped coughing and looked up at her, his eyes full of shock and suspicion.
“Why… would you say that?”
Xiao Luoyi felt a little uneasy under his gaze, her fingers unconsciously twisting one end of the bandage.
“I saw it in a dream.”
“A dream?”
“Yeah.”
“A very strange dream.”
“In the dream… Senior Brother seemed to say that kind of thing to me too, saying you like men and telling me to stay away.”
“Then something terrible seemed to happen, but I can’t remember clearly.”
“Isn’t it ridiculous? How could something in a dream be real?”
Lin Xiao’s throat tightened, and he couldn’t say a single word.
‘Ridiculous?’
No, not ridiculous at all.
To him, it had really happened.
Only in another reset timeline, the sole trace left behind was the Petal Birthmark on his wrist.
He looked into Xiao Luoyi’s clear eyes.
There was no probing, no scheming in them, only simple confusion and a bit of embarrassment after saying her dream aloud.
She truly thought it was just a messy dream.
But that was exactly what made it terrifying.
If dreams could pierce the barrier of rollback, then how many hidden rules in this world did he not know?
Could the other female leads also have similar dream remnants?
That’s right…
Why would Master take them both as true disciples ahead of time?
Why would Chu Qingchen come to Soaring Moon Peak ahead of time?
It seemed everything made sense now.
Then Huange, Shuanghua, where are you?
Are you also plotting to give me some kind of surprise?
The good news was that from Junior Sister’s behavior, their dreams seemed to still be at the vague, fragmentary stage.
They probably also wondered why they were having these strange dreams.
“Senior Brother?”
Xiao Luoyi saw him silent for a long time and uneasily shook the wrist tied to his.
“Are you angry? I shouldn’t have said that…”
“No.”
Lin Xiao took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.
“Senior Brother isn’t angry.”
He looked into her eyes and said seriously, “Things in dreams are all fake. Senior Brother doesn’t like men.”
“As for why I avoided you before…”
Lin Xiao thought it best to tell Xiao Luoyi the truth, just in a different way.
“I had a dream too.”
“In the dream, I got too close to you, and you killed me.”
Xiao Luoyi’s expression froze.
In those eyes that were always full of dependence, a trace of complicated emotion now appeared.
After a long while, she asked softly, “Was it… with a sword?”
“It was a cleaver.”
“A cleaver?”
Xiao Luoyi was stunned for a moment, then unexpectedly began to think seriously.
“But… a cleaver isn’t sharp enough. If I really were going to kill Senior Brother, I should use a sword.”
Lin Xiao cleared his throat.
“The point isn’t what kind of blade was used. The point is… I died.”
“Yeah.”
Xiao Luoyi nodded.
“And then?”
“And then I woke up!”
Lin Xiao didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“The dream ended there. So before, I was a little scared and thought it would be safer to keep some distance from you.”
After he said that, he carefully watched Xiao Luoyi, bracing himself for her anger and grievance.
But Xiao Luoyi’s eyes curved into a bright crescent moon.
‘This reaction… isn’t it a little off?’
“Senior Brother dreamed of me too, and I dreamed of Senior Brother too!”
“Senior Brother dreamed I killed him, and I dreamed Senior Brother said he likes men…”
Xiao Luoyi muttered quietly, her fingers unconsciously tightening and clutching Lin Xiao’s sleeve.
“This isn’t a coincidence, right? We must have had a special fate in a past life.”
She raised her head, eyes sparkling.
“Maybe we were together in a past life, so in this life we dreamed of each other.”
Lin Xiao opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but found he didn’t know what to say.
If she put it that way, she wasn’t exactly wrong.
The previous playthrough was basically a past life, wasn’t it?
Although that past life lasted only a short while, it had indeed existed.
Maybe explaining it this way was fine too.
At least it was much better than directly saying, “I transmigrated here, and I know you’ll turn dark in the future.”
At least this explanation gave them a feeling that they were destined.
She leaned back against his shoulder.
“If I killed Senior Brother in a past life… then Senior Brother must have done something that made me especially, especially sad.”
“Senior Brother, you just said everything in dreams is fake, right?”
Lin Xiao nodded.
“Then outside the dream, Luoyi won’t hurt Senior Brother.”
“That’s good.”
Lin Xiao stroked her hair.
The bandage tied between their wrists was like a silent vow, and also like a sweet shackle.
Zhongzhou Imperial City, East Palace Side Hall.
The room was brightly lit by candles.
A young girl in a goose-yellow palace dress sat behind a desk practicing calligraphy.
She was not writing any royal classics, nor poetry and songs, but a person’s name.
Lin Xiao.
She wrote it over and over until the desk was covered.
“Princess.”
The maid Qingluan beside her asked softly, her tone a little tentative.
“Ever since you found out that someone named Lin Xiao is in Lingxiao Sect, you’ve been writing this name… You’ve written it hundreds of times already.”
Qingluan paused.
“This Lin Xiao… just who is he, to make you worry so much?”
The girl, Chu Qingchen, the current Human Emperor’s most beloved Third Princess, paused the brush in her hand.
“Half a month ago, I saw Immortal Ling Qingxue of Lingxiao Sect in a dream.”
She spoke slowly, as if recalling.
“The Immortal guided me in Sword Intent in the dream. After I woke, I went into seclusion for three days, and the bottleneck in my sword dao actually broke through.”
Qingluan looked astonished.
“Teaching in a dream? That’s a great opportunity! Immortal Ling’s Sword Intent is rare in this world. To receive her guidance, Your Highness, you are truly blessed.”
Chu Qingchen shook her head.
“The opportunity was real, but that dream… wasn’t only about that.”
“In the dream, besides Immortal Ling, there was another figure, standing far away in the clouds and mist, unclear.”
“When I discussed sword techniques with the Immortal, I could feel that person watching us.”
“Watching?”
“Yeah.”
“Not secretly peeking, but… a very familiar gaze.”
“He seemed to watch for a long time, so long that I felt he was supposed to be there.”
“What’s stranger is that after I woke, I quickly forgot the details about that figure. But that name lingered in my mind.”
“Lin Xiao.”
Qingluan was silent for a moment.
“According to the Dark Guard Bureau’s roster of the thirty-six immortal sects, Lingxiao Sect does have an outer sect disciple named Lin Xiao…”
“I know.”
Chu Qingchen interrupted her, her eyes even more confused.
“I read the Dark Guard Bureau’s files three times. Eighteen years old, from Nanjiang Lin Family Village, Dual Spiritual Roots aptitude, only entered the outer sect this year. Everything is clear. Nothing suspicious.”
“But I just feel something is off.”
Chu Qingchen’s heart suddenly skipped a beat.
‘This feeling is like…’
Something lost had been found again.
“It’s as if… I’ve known him for a very, very long time.”
“So long that… even the word ‘know’ feels too shallow.”
The hall was silent, with only the crackling of candle flames.
After a while, Chu Qingchen put down the brush and looked up at Qingluan.
“How are the arrangements for the exchange visit to Lingxiao Sect going?”