51 Reincarnations, 51 Loves
Yunxi sat up, reached out, and gently probed Shixu's breath.
Faint, but definitely present.
She withdrew her hand and looked around. In the distance, rolling mountains stretched out, while nearby, a clear stream flowed silently.
What is that point of light...?
She looked down at the unconscious Shi Xu, her light brown eyes filled with complex emotions. She slowly raised her hand, but suddenly stopped, hovering above his cheek. In the end, she simply brushed away a blade of grass that had fallen on his hair.
“Idiot,” she whispered, her voice so soft it was almost carried away by the wind.
Sunlight filtered through the banyan leaves, casting shimmering spots of light on Shi Xu's face. His eyelashes fluttered, and he opened them with difficulty.
The first thing that came to mind was pain. It felt as if every inch of my being had been torn apart.
His second thought was of Yunxi sitting beside him, her back straight, her profile like cold porcelain in the sunlight. She was looking towards the stream, her gaze focused, her fingertips unconsciously twirling a blade of grass.
She's alive. She's fine.
The excruciating pain seemed to have lessened. He tried to move, but he didn't even have the strength to lift a finger.
The gap in the clouds seemed to have eyes in the back of its head. "Awake?"
She didn't turn around, her voice was flat.
When Shi Xu tried to make a sound, only broken breaths came out of his throat.
Yunxi finally turned her head, her light brown eyes falling on his face, devoid of emotion. "The aftereffects of burning out divine power?"
Time barely blinked.
She bent down, picked a large blade of grass from the side, rolled it into a tube, went to the stream to fetch some water, and brought it to his lips.
His movements were hardly gentle, even somewhat clumsy, and a few drops of water slid down his chin.
But as Shi Xu looked at her face so close to his, and felt the cool liquid sliding down his burning throat, he felt that this was probably the sweetest taste that even a god could experience.
“Something’s not right here.” After he caught his breath, Yunxi straightened up and looked back at the stream. “Time is almost frozen.”
Following her gaze, time seemed to follow. A babbling brook flowed, and a fallen leaf hung suspended above the water's surface, poised to fall, a pose it had held for a long time. Birds in the sky flapped their wings, yet remained motionless in place.
“The Lost Garden…” he said hoarsely, fragmented records flashing through his memory, “a legendary… refuge outside of time.”
"Legend?" Yunxi raised an eyebrow.
"Hmm. A place the system can't find either." Shi Xu tried to prop himself up, but collapsed back down, panting. "We... are safe for now."
Yunxi watched him struggle in silence, without offering to help. After a few seconds, she said, "You almost died."
Time itself gave a pale smile: "Worth it."
A gap in the clouds shifted the gaze, looking into the depths of the valley. There, the outline of a small house could be vaguely seen.
“There’s something there,” she said.
Shi Xu followed her gaze, his pupils contracting slightly. He sensed a faint, familiar fluctuation.
“It is…” his breathing quickened, “It is 'them'…”
Those lingering fragments of his memories of her, those things he didn't want to forget, stripped away by the system. The thirty-seventh time... perhaps even earlier. They had drifted here, only to be taken in by the "Garden."
The clouds sensed it too. A subtle, pulling force from different directions, carrying the same obsession and warmth, lingered around her.
She looked down at her palm.
So, does this "lock" not only anchor time, but also attract all the wandering obsessions born from her?
She stood up.
"Can we walk?" she asked Shixu, her voice still flat.
Shi Xu watched her walk towards the cabin, and with all his might, he moved his body little by little to follow her.
His steps were unsteady, yet resolute.
Just like the previous fifty-one cycles.
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