Love Threads
Instantly, I woke up from my dream.
The thread connecting me and Bai Er within my body is still there; I can even feel the faint smile on the other person's face...
I clutched my wildly beating heart, trying to calm it down, but it was no use...
As darkness fell, Baohe returned to the well, only to see faint orange-red light seeping from the wellhead...
I have no idea how Baohe managed to fall asleep with a lantern on his head...
The supervisor remained seated to the side, drinking tea as always, seemingly unchanged...
I looked at the supervisor and said, "Supervisor, I dreamed about Bai Er."
"Oh?" The supervisor glanced at me slowly. "Dreamed about it again?"
"I feel like there's an invisible thread connecting us, but I can't see that thread..."
"Hmm..." The supervisor took a sip of tea: "If you can't see it, you can't see it. Why worry about it?"
"But I feel that what connects us... is the thread of love..."
"Oh?" The supervisor's voice rose in a high-pitched tone: "But didn't you and Muli already..."
"You knew about this too?" I was shocked...
"I sensed... that you didn't come home last night, and you seemed a bit different from usual today... so I naturally guessed it..."
"Uh..." I was a little embarrassed: "But that's not the point, it's just..."
"So you were involved with Mu Li during the day, and then Bai Er used his love threads to seduce you in the evening?"
Uh... that sounds a bit strange, but it's really true...
"I..." I touched my nose: "I'm just wondering, Mu Li and I are already together, how could I still have feelings for Bai Er..."
“You’ve got it backwards, Xiao Xuyi,” the supervisor interrupted me. “You developed feelings for Bai Er first, but you didn’t know it then, so you didn’t feel it clearly… Now,” the supervisor glanced at me, “you’ve already developed feelings, you know about love, so naturally you feel it clearly…”
"Me and Bai Er?" I was even more shocked...
“Yes,” the supervisor nodded, “you’ve always been with Shiro, it’s just that Kuri suddenly came into the picture…”
Why does it sound like Muli is the one who came later?
"This...isn't something wrong?"
"Sigh..." The supervisor sighed, "People, they never realize what's happening until later, and by then... things are never the same again..." The supervisor shook his head at me, then leisurely went back to his room...
I was left alone, bewildered in the wind...
Me and Bai Er?
When did Bai Er and I develop feelings for each other? How come I didn't know?
I was a little confused, so I silently went back to my room...
That night, I dreamt of Bai Er again. We were in the cave where we first met. He was facing away from me, tidying up something. I called out, "Bai Er?"
Bai Er didn't turn around. I went around to take a look and found him tidying up the snakeskin that had been given to us... smoothing it out little by little, and then folding it into a neat square...
The whole process was extremely long. The shed snakeskin was very wrinkled and extremely hard. He had to use magic to unfold the bent snakeskin piece by piece, smooth it out, and then continue working on the next piece... and so on...
I never imagined that this snakeskin, which was handed to us in perfect condition, would require so much time to prepare...
Wu Zi and I only saw its final state, but we never thought about the long process it went through to achieve the final result...
Bai Er, who was tidying up the snakeskin in front of me, suddenly disappeared. I felt a warm chest press against my back, and he whispered in my ear, "Xu Yi..."
I was startled and quickly turned around and took two steps back...
As a result, Bai Er still managed to catch up with me even after I took two steps back...
"You, you, you..." I stammered again, "Why do you come to my dreams every day?"
He tilted his head and smiled: "Maybe it's because I miss you, or maybe... you miss me..."
"I...I...I have someone I like, we're already together, you...you...you need to sever the ties between us..."
"Oh?" Bai Er raised an invisible thread. "Is this it?"
I could clearly feel the force pulling my body forward, so I nodded: "It's that, you...you, you cut it off..."
He smiled and looked down, then pulled back little by little on the invisible thread in his hand. I was pulled closer to him by the forward force, and in a few moments, I was pulled in front of him.
He put his arm around me and said softly, "Xu Yi, this is a thread of affection, not fate, not cause and effect, not something you can sever as you think..."
"Then...how should we cut it off?"
"The threads of affection will only break when there is no more affection between two people..."
Mutual? That means he likes me too, he likes me! My heart started pounding again…
So... I like him too... I like him...
He seemed to know what I was thinking, and leaned in to kiss my forehead: "Yes, you like me, and I like you too. That's why we are connected by love."
“But…but I’m already with Muli…” I nudged him, and he let go knowingly, then backed away little by little until he disappeared into the thick fog…
What's going on? "Bai Er?" I stepped forward, stopped in front of the thick fog, and called out again, "Bai Er?"
There was no response from the fog. I lifted my foot and stepped into the thick fog. The instant my foot touched the ground, the lush jujube tree appeared before me, and Bai Er stood in front of it, smiling at me...
"You...you did this on purpose?"
I just smiled, didn't say anything, and didn't go forward...
He was waiting for me, waiting for my reaction...
I stopped ten steps away from him, stunned, suddenly unsure of what to do...
I... I should have turned around, but... my wildly beating heart betrayed my deep reluctance...
I want to be close to him, I really... can't bear not seeing him...
He smiled again, his lips curving into a wider smile, and the mist around him began to slowly gather, blurring the surrounding scenery... He and the jujube tree behind him also slowly receded, becoming smaller and smaller in my eyes...
I tried to suppress the urge to run towards him... but his receding figure made my breathing quicken, and I gradually found myself gasping for breath...
No, you can't...
I ran towards him as fast as I could, shouting, "Bai Er... Bai Er..."
I never expected I could run so fast. I was afraid, afraid that if I slowed down even a step, I would never see him again...
The next second, the rapidly shrinking scenery quickly approached me...
In an instant, he pulled me into a tight embrace... then he lifted my chin and lowered his head to kiss me...
His kiss was predatory, carrying an overwhelming force...
Then he pulled me around and trapped me in front of the jujube tree trunk...
He pressed closer and closer until there was no space between them anymore...
I could see my own face flushing in his eyes...
I filled those eyes, and they showed a blissful, blissful state...
Finally, he pulled me into his arms, our rapid breaths filling the space between us, creating an unusual warmth...
When I woke up, all I remembered was his words: "Xu Yi, the love between you and me is already engraved on the Stone of Three Lifetimes, it doesn't depend on a single day or night; but the fate between you and Mu Li is only for a single day or night..."
That bastard actually went to the Three Lives Stone to check... and even calculated the time of my destiny with Mu Li... What a complete bastard!
Fortunately, he eventually promised not to interfere with this relationship again...
Actually, he doesn't need to do any of this now, since he'll be a part of my long life ahead...
But this person still showed up and pulled me around when I got close to Muli... totally jealous and trying to get attention...
Really...
Forget it, I shook my head and generously decided not to make a fuss...
Before I could even sit under the eaves for long, I heard that Muli had been dismissed...
Sure enough... here it comes...
I rushed to the Imperial Guard, only to hear that Mu Li had left the palace after receiving the imperial decree, and his whereabouts were unknown...
Damn it, I quickly rode off to chase after him, only to find out when I got to the Mu residence that he hadn't returned at all...
In such a large city as Beijing, where am I supposed to find him?
In the end, he had no choice but to walk around asking around, hoping to find out where he was from passersby...
As a result, nobody remembered it at all...
I slunk off to the Prime Minister's residence, intending to have one of the Prime Minister's guards go out and search, but instead I saw Mu Li playing chess with the Prime Minister...
Seeing Muli frowning in thought, I breathed a sigh of relief, went over and poured myself a cup of tea...
Then I heard the Prime Minister ask me, "What's going on? Why are you so late in coming to the Prime Minister's residence? Mu Li has been waiting for a long time..."
"It's really not my fault..." I wiped the water from my lips haphazardly. "I've been asking around since I left the palace, but no one knows where he is..."
"Stupid!" The prime minister criticized me without any politeness: "I told you this would be the outcome before, so of course you should have come to my residence immediately. Why did you have to wander around and ask questions all the way?" The prime minister rolled his eyes at me: "Alright, now that you're here, you two can play by yourselves. I need to go back to my room to rest."
After saying that, he left.
As I watched the prime minister's nonchalant departing figure, I murmured, "Doesn't he care that other people's cabbages on the ground are being eaten at a time like this?"
"Heh..." Mu Li chuckled, tapped my forehead, and said helplessly, "You, it's one thing to compare yourself to a cabbage, but you actually complain that your elders don't give this pig a good look?"
"No..." I took Muli's hand: "From now on, you'll have to stay with me every day. Remember not to run around."
"Alright!" he nodded. "But... may I enter the Imperial Observatory?"
Uh... it seems he really can't get into the Imperial Observatory... and now that he's lost his official position, he can't stay in the palace for long...
"Then... I'll move out and live in the Prime Minister's residence?"
His eyes lit up: "Great! I don't plan to go back to the Mu residence anytime soon, so that's fine. Then we'll... stay at the Prime Minister's residence?"
"Sure!" I nodded. "Let's put in a good word with the prime minister and see if he'll take us in?"
As we were talking, the butler came over and bowed to us, saying, "Miss Xu, the master said that if you want to stay, you should stay in the courtyard next door, so as not to offend his eyes."
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