Time seemed to be stretched out, yet also compressed.
Su Nian froze in Xie Chen's arms, her mind blank. Her cheek pressed against his chest, her heart pounding uncontrollably, each beat heavy and erratic, striking her eardrums and her chaotic heart. His aura—a cold, woody scent, a faint hint of blood, and a static-like heat from surging energy—completely enveloped her. The embrace was forceful and clumsy; his arms gripped her back so tightly it hurt. It was less a comfort and more an instinctive restraint, as if trying to lock away the tears and emotions he couldn't understand that had just welled up within her, along with her as a person, preventing any further "abnormal" leakage.
"Don't cry."
The commanding whisper still echoed in his ears, harsh, hoarse, carrying a kind of almost helpless forcefulness that he himself was unaware of.
Su Nian even forgot to struggle. It all happened too fast, too unexpectedly. One moment he was calmly treating her as a "stabilizer" and a "parameter," the next he was interrupting her grief in such a barbaric way. This was completely out of character for his consistently extremely rational behavior.
[Beep—The target's core logic has experienced violent fluctuations! The rational module has been severely impacted by an unknown emotional variable! Repeat, severe impact!] 088's broadcast carried unprecedented shock and… a hint of excitement? [Host! There's hope! He seems to have crashed!]
System crash?
Su Nian moved slightly, trying to lift her head to see his expression. But as soon as she moved, the arms around her back tightened even more, almost suffocating her.
"Don't move." His voice came from the top of her head, still with a commanding tone, but underneath, there seemed to be a suppressed tremor, similar to "panic".
He didn't know what to do in this situation. Hugging her was clearly not on his carefully calculated list of "optimal solutions." It stemmed from a more primal, uncontrollable impulse, a simple command that exploded from the depths of his soul upon seeing her tears: "I don't want to see her cry."
Behind them, the alarm from the soul fragment model continued to blare sharply, the red dots representing uncontrolled energy flashed wildly, and the energy lines in several areas even began to twist and break. The pale blue energy field throughout the room fluctuated violently, flickering uncertainly, as if it were about to collapse at any moment.
This was clearly a "side effect" of the embrace. Xie Chen forcibly suppressed his instinct to process the model and chose to prioritize dealing with the more troublesome "variable" in his arms, causing his internal energy to spiral out of control.
Su Nian could feel the tension in his body and hear his suppressed breathing, almost squeezed out between his teeth. He was under double pressure—the rampage of internal energy and the external "Su Nian," a gentle yet chaotic being that he couldn't analyze logically.
“Model…alarm…” Su Nian managed to utter in his arms, trying to warn him. She didn’t know what the consequences would be if the energy were completely out of control, but it certainly wouldn’t be a good thing.
Xie Chen's body stiffened for a moment. He seemed to have barely regained a sliver of reason from the shock of that unfamiliar emotion. He slowly and reluctantly released his arm, but one hand still held her wrist tightly, as if afraid that she would disappear as soon as she was out of sight, or... continue to shed those tears that were making him feel uneasy.
He turned his head and looked at the chaotic soul model, his brows furrowing tightly. In his deep eyes, the light of rational analysis began to gather again, trying to understand and deal with the crisis before him, but Su Nian could clearly see that beneath that rationality, there were still turbulent and chaotic waves.
He raised his free hand, his fingertips tracing rapid lines in the air, attempting to reconnect the broken energy lines and stabilize the restless light. But his movements were no longer as precise and fluid as before, carrying an obvious impatience and…distraction. His gaze kept unconsciously drifting towards Su Nian, whose wrist he was gripping, standing quietly to the side.
There were still tear stains on her cheeks, and her eyes were slightly red. She looked fragile and aggrieved, but her eyes were unusually bright as she looked at him. There was no longer any anger or accusation in them, only a complex kind of inquiry that he couldn't understand.
That look in her eyes made him feel even more... at a loss than her tears.
"Is it because of... my tears?" Su Nian suddenly spoke softly, breaking the silence. Her voice still carried a slight nasal tone from crying, soft yet like a needle, precisely piercing the core he was trying to conceal.
Xie Chen's fingers, which were manipulating energy, trembled almost imperceptibly, and a newly connected energy line snapped again. He didn't answer or look at her; his jawline tightened, and his aura grew even colder, but the unusual, scalding heat emanating from his palm as he gripped her wrist tightly was palpable.
He resisted answering the question. Because a negative answer would contradict the facts he observed (her tears triggered his abnormal behavior); a positive answer would completely overturn the foundation of his rationality (emotions could override logic).
This is a huge cognitive conflict, almost as great as the internal war among the fragments of the soul.
Looking at his profile, at his tightly pursed lips and slightly trembling fingertips, Su Nian felt a strange dissipation of the inexplicable grievance and anger in her heart, replaced by a more complex and indescribable emotion. She seemed to have finally touched a truly soft, human part beneath his hard exterior. Even though that part was currently behaving so clumsily and chaotically.
She stopped asking questions and simply stood there quietly, letting him hold her wrist, his gaze fixed on the still chaotic soul model.
The model's loss of control seemed to reflect Xie Chen's inner state. Those restless red dots were no longer merely echoes of the fragments themselves, but also a mixture of his chaotic emotions. The solitude of the Immortal Lord was tinged with anxiety, the elegance of the Vampire was mixed with violence, and the Tyrant's desire for conquest was intertwined with a trace of bewildered vulnerability... And the source of all this chaos seemed to vaguely point to the core data node representing the existence of "Su Nian".
She is no longer just a "stabilizer" or a "variable," but has become a huge, incredibly attractive... vortex center.
After an unknown amount of time, under Xie Chen's almost brutal energy suppression, the alarm of the soul model finally gradually weakened, and the frantically flashing red light mostly turned back to the relatively stable blue. However, the structure of the entire model looked more fragile than before, as if it had experienced an earthquake.
Xie Chen stopped moving, fine beads of sweat appearing on his forehead, his breathing becoming somewhat rapid. He closed his eyes, seemingly trying to calm the still turbulent energy and emotions within him.
Silence returned to the room, broken only by the low hum of the energy field and the slightly disordered breathing of the two people.
He still didn't let go of Su Nian's wrist.
Su Nian looked at his tired profile, at the lingering confusion and struggle between his brows caused by the collapse of his logic, and her heart stirred slightly. She tentatively used her fingertips to gently scratch the palm of his hand that was tightly gripping her wrist.
It was an extremely subtle, almost comforting gesture.
Xie Chen suddenly opened his eyes and looked at her, his gaze sharp like that of a frightened wild beast.
Su Nian didn't flinch, but simply looked at him quietly, her eyes clear, carrying a hint of...tenderness that even she herself didn't realize?
“Xie Chen,” she said softly, her voice not loud, but clear enough to reach his ears, “you see, your model has stabilized. But it seems… not because of any ‘optimal solution’.”
Her gaze swept meaningfully over their tightly clasped hands.
Is it because of this?
This thing that cannot be quantified by data, cannot be rationally categorized, is both simple and complex... physical contact?
Xie Chen followed her gaze to his hand, which was tightly gripping her wrist. The slender wrist bones in his palm were warm and fragile, as if they would break at the slightest pressure. It was this seemingly insignificant connection that had just strangely given his chaotic thoughts and raging energy a sense of rest.
The logic is being challenged once again.
He raised his eyes and looked into Su Nian's eyes, which seemed to see through all his chaos. For the first time, he felt a kind of panic called "nowhere to hide".
And, a deeper longing that even panic couldn't conceal...
(End of Chapter 162)
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