Chapter 103

Chapter 103

Looking around, the dream remained hazy, its edges seemingly shrouded in darkness, as if on the verge of being devoured at any moment.

The time Meng Shijiu spent within Ye Lingxi's dream was slowly lengthening, yet the surrounding blurriness did not fade.

The world was still a vast sea of chaos, though certain corners stood out with unnatural clarity—layered pavilions, tapering spires, a small patch of blue sky.

The clearest of all was the flock of pigeons that suddenly swept across that patch of blue sky, so tangible they seemed within arm's reach.

Meng Shijiu could even see the glistening white sheen on the feathers as the flock flapped past. In that instant, he was certain—

Wherever in this dream Ye Lingxi was, he too was watching these pigeons.

This was Ye Lingxi's dream. Wherever Ye Lingxi's gaze fell, that place became clear.

Meng Shijiu averted his eyes and looked at his own hand. Well.

—Then again, he himself was also very clear.

Against the blurred background, the silver-haired Alpha stood in a courtyard resembling a garden, casting a sharp shadow on the ground.

When he looked up again, the flock of pigeons had already grown indistinct.

Just as Meng Shijiu was about to head toward the clear areas in his search, he suddenly noticed his surroundings began to change—

The ground beneath his feet, the flowers behind him, the low surrounding wall... all gradually came into sharp focus, as if meticulously painted with fine brushstrokes.

Colors grew more vibrant; the world regained its breath and came back to life.

It was clearly a bright and beautiful scene, yet it inexplicably sent a chill down one's spine.

Meng Shijiu's frame went rigid. He whirled around—

The gray-blue-haired Omega had already drawn near without a sound, right behind his back.

On that pale face now mere inches away, those amber eyes blazed with a frightening intensity, churning with a thick, near-obsessive color.

The corner of Ye Lingxi's mouth slowly twisted into a stiff, dangerous arc. His icy fingers, like snakes, slithered silently up to the silver-haired Alpha's neck.

Meng Shijiu's pupils contracted sharply: !?

Before he could even move, he was horrified to discover his entire body suddenly paralyzed, unable to move even a fingertip.

A cold, numbing sensation raced up his spine, quickly paralyzing every inch of his limbs.

A chill crept up his slightly trembling eyelids, spreading through his bloodstream, almost enough to make his hair stand on end.

It took Meng Shijiu only seconds to realize this was probably a side effect of the [Dream Entry] skill.

After entering the dream, the realm was governed by the dreamer. That meant he would change according to the behavior of the "Meng Shijiu" in Ye Lingxi's consciousness.

In other words, every reaction he had right now was being compelled to match what the "Meng Shijiu" in Ye Lingxi's mind should be like.

Meng Shijiu felt the surroundings appear to grow darker.

The originally bright floral colors gradually took on a bizarre, garish tint, as if everything had been soaked by some invisible moisture, weighing heavily on each breath.

"Meng Shijiu," under Ye Lingxi's ever more enamored stare, suddenly spoke coldly: "Get lost."

Meng Shijiu: ...?

"You're leaving again." Ye Lingxi's voice was hoarse, as if seeping from a very deep place, carrying a damp, rusty quality that fell beside the silver-haired Alpha's ear. "Every time... you always look elsewhere."

"Meng Shijiu" knit his brows, remaining silent, and took a step to leave.

As if anticipating this, Ye Lingxi closed in, his fingers gripping his wrist tightly, cold as if soaked in well water.

"I forbid it."

For a moment, Meng Shijiu couldn't tell if this was a replay of a memory or a twisted fantasy. Just then, he suddenly realized he seemed to have regained the ability to speak.

He took the opportunity to speak softly: "I'm not leaving."

"You clearly are." Ye Lingxi suddenly let out a low laugh that was utterly joyless. "You look at the sky, at the pigeons, at the flowers... you never bother to really look at me."

Meng Shijiu: ...?

This must be a fusion of memory and fantasy.

The next second, Ye Lingxi confirmed his guess.

"Can't you... just look at me alone? Even if it's just a dream..."

"...Stay where I can see you." He leaned close to Meng Shijiu's ear, his voice light as a threat, yet also like a plea. "Otherwise... I don't know what I might do..."

*Smack—*

A crisp slap suddenly landed on Ye Lingxi's pale cheek, cutting off his unfinished words.

"Meng Shijiu" remained expressionless. With a backhand, he delivered another, heavier slap, causing the other to turn his head slightly, strands of gray-blue hair sticking to the suddenly reddened skin.

Meng Shijiu: ...?

Meng Shijiu: Do you have some kind of masochistic tendency, always fantasizing about me hitting you?

Ye Lingxi let out a low laugh amidst this rough treatment.

He raised Meng Shijiu's wrist and gently rubbed his own cheek, now burning from the slap, against the other's palm, his breathing slightly hurried.

Ye Lingxi: "Just like this."

"Well done." Ye Lingxi kissed his palm.

Meng Shijiu looked at him for a moment, then suddenly sighed.

A dream. It's like a holographic map, just a subspace.

...The reversal of time always feels somewhat eerie within a dream.

The surrounding scenery hadn't actually changed much; after all, it had never been the focus of Ye Lingxi's gaze.

In the few seconds his ability took effect, Meng Shijiu turned around.

He grabbed Ye Lingxi by the collar, pulling him close. His eyes held a cold, calm detachment akin to annoyance: "It's me."

"I have something to ask you."

The silver-haired Alpha's fingers paused slightly.

"Just act normal," he patted Ye Lingxi's face. "Understand?"

Ye Lingxi's expression shifted from mild surprise to gradually freezing, betraying not a trace of emotion.

"Is it that system?" Ye Lingxi's tone carried an overly sharp edge as he suddenly looked up. "—Are you leaving?"

"I'm not leaving."

Ignoring the mention of the "system," Meng Shijiu remained calm. "I already told you."

At this, the man's cold and stern demeanor softened instantly. Ye Lingxi leaned in toward his hand, deftly loosening Meng Shijiu's grip and wrapping his arms around Meng Shijiu's waist. "...I'm sorry."

Meng Shijiu: "...Are you faking it again, Ye?"

"...I'm sorry."

Ye Lingxi's arms tightened wordlessly, as if he could only confirm the other's existence by melding him into his very bones and blood.

But dreams have no sense of touch.

For a moment, he still felt the person before him was just a product of his imagination.

These past few days, from not being able to find him at first to later not being able to see him, it felt like a punishment. He hardly even dreamed of this person anymore.

He still couldn't shake off the feeling that this might be just another self-deception.

He feared that if he loosened his grip even a little, the person before him would vanish like morning dew, leaving him alone to sink into eternal night once more.

Meng Shijiu: "...Never mind, I didn't come here to talk about this. Can you change the setting first?"

Ye Lingxi: ...

The surroundings suddenly shifted—the gloom vanished, transforming into an open grassy field. Sunlight streamed down to where mountains met the sea in the distance, and clouds drifted lazily by.

The two of them lay in the grass.

Squinting in the sudden brightness, Meng Shijiu cut straight to the chase:

"How do you know about the system?"

Ye Lingxi cautiously edged closer. "I regained some memories."

Meng Shijiu recalled See's words. "Did you reincarnate?"

Ye Lingxi shook his head, then nodded slowly.

Staring at the silver-haired Alpha's face, Ye Lingxi wore his longing openly. "Yes... memories from later."

Meng Shijiu looked at him. "Memories from a future where I never crossed over?"

Ye Lingxi didn't like that phrasing.

Ye Lingxi: "You were always here."

Meng Shijiu gave a small smile.

Meng Shijiu suddenly asked, "How did I get here?"

Posing this question to Ye Lingxi was rather abrupt. Moreover, See had firmly stated that the binding was due to worldline deviation needing repair, and See had no reason to lie.

But Meng Shijiu wasn't convinced.

This world had dropped hints long ago.

From early on, he had wondered why all the major characters in "But the Sun Is So Bright" matched their character settings, except for one person who was completely opposite.

This novel felt more like a world of illusion and reality. Only after peeling away the layers did the true prototype of his world emerge.

If there was someone who should have been a "key character" like the others but appeared before him unlike all the others...

That had to be the novel's protagonist.

Meng Shijiu: "Was it you?"

—Who brought him back to this world.

But not for the reason See gave.

Ye Lingxi smiled faintly, but the smile quickly faded. "Yes, I did. But you returned at 19, not..." not at 21, when you left me.

At 21, Ye Lingxi stood in a world without Meng Shijiu, watching it turn upside down, undergoing the so-called destruction after Meng Shijiu left.

But he didn't care about the apocalypse.

Countless days and nights of missed chances and losses had already pushed him to the edge of the abyss.

He and this person had missed each other too many times. He absolutely couldn't let him go again.

"It feels like there's always a time difference between me and this person."

When they reunited months ago, looking at the person who had fainted in his arms, he had simply thought this.

But the Ye Lingxi of three years later couldn't accept it.

He wanted to break this time difference, to seek the impossible.

And he succeeded.

Being an illegitimate child, being forcibly transformed into an Omega through drugs, hemophobia, fear of heights, fear of water, and everything that hadn't yet happened were all insignificant prices to pay.

If their pheromones clashed, then he'd just remove his scent gland.

But human growth is an extremely uncertain process; one can never predict how they will grow.

Until one dawn, Ye Lingxi let go of all his schemes and obsessions, and the past vanished like smoke.

Standing in a brand-new world, Ye Lingxi finally understood—

As long as you're doing well, that's enough.

He regretted it.

So dreams were just dreams. In them, he missed this person with reckless, desperate longing, yet he never forgot the fear and despair he felt when he saw the empty hospital room at WM.

Ye Lingxi didn't finish, but Meng Shijiu understood.

So that was it. The system had bound him to the wrong age—it wasn't See's mistake at all.

Ye Lingxi's voice was low, as if afraid of disturbing something. "Were you doing well in that world?"

Ye Lingxi only found out after regaining his memories that System 011—a system that was supposed to be emotionless and solely responsible for executing tasks—had involuntarily fallen in love with Meng Shijiu during the mission. So, it broke all the rules, left its original host, and took him out of this world—in a way nobody saw coming.

Meng Shijiu didn't answer his question: "I want to see your memories."

He had already guessed most of it, but between what's real and what's not, he had to see it for himself. Even if it felt a little invasive, he didn’t mind.

Ye Lingxi didn’t hesitate: "Alright."

He wouldn't refuse him anything.

As he finished speaking, everything around them slowly grew dark—the grass, mountains, sea, and sunlight all faded away.

Ye Lingxi’s pale face, under the dim light, looked like a water ghost that had soaked too long in moonlight. His amber pupils gazed quietly at Meng Shijiu, and before completely vanishing, a raw, wild possessiveness welled up deep within his gentle eyes.

When Meng Shijiu opened his eyes again, a chill of mental energy radiated from him.

The master of this space silently endured the mental search, like a silent offering.

*

The Alpha in the garden was like cold jade emitting mist, sharp and austere, moving like a pine-scented breeze over a blade, all his sharpness on display.

"Didn’t you say you were tired?" a friend’s voice sounded beside the silver-haired Alpha.

Ye Lingxi stepped across the courtyard.

A whistle and Meng Shijiu’s voice rang out simultaneously.

"But the sunlight is so nice," Meng Shijiu raised a hand.

A white pigeon flew overhead.

Only a few drifting down feathers slowly landed on his shoulder.

This was their first meeting.

-----------------------

Author’s Note: Memories related to Ye will be written in his side story.

This is simply a story where 19 was originally in this ABO world, then was sent away by 011 (Jiang Zhenshi), started anew in a post-apocalyptic world, and then Ye brought 19 back, only to run into See.

The Frost part only has a few chapters left. [Heart]