Chapter 91 Dream Return

Chapter 91: Dream's Return

Jing Miao saw his fourteen-year-old self.

The teenager submitted his grandmother's death certificate at the government household registration office. Her entire existence became paper and data, and the assets under her name were officially transferred to Jing Miao.

There was only a small house, on a pasture blooming with dandelions, unclaimed.

It became a sentinel.

It watched as the young man left this land, heading to a vibrant, prosperous place to seek his roots, while it remained rooted in place, becoming a brushstroke in a painting, a storage place for memories and love.

From here, Jing Miao saw a life he had forgotten.

He remembered the farewell, remembered the Peace Dove Scooter he saw by the roadside. He picked up those Dream God Talismans, glittering in the daylight, and he found his mother.

Then he saw Xi Siyan.

Their true meeting was backstage at a math competition. The Alpha blocked his path in a confined space, eyes brimming with laughter.

He said, I don't know your scent, but I fell in love at first sight.

So it was true, love at first sight really exists in this world.

Jing Miao had always thought such a thing was just his illusion.

He remembered their first handhold, their first hug, their first date, when Xi Siyan bought him an ice cream cone from the shop at the school gate.

The boy in casual sportswear ran towards him with a smile, no longer in his formal suit. He emerged from the crowd, only to melt back into it with him.

Their first kiss was in a bustling square. There was a band performing that day, something Jing Miao had never seen before.

The Alpha lifted him up, over the sea of bobbing heads, to see the neon lights on the stage.

Xi Siyan said, I play guitar, you know. I'll play for you one day.

Amidst that lively world, he leaned down and kissed him.

"I love you, my little China rose."

Their first temporary mark, their first overnight stay, their first trip to the hills to watch meteors.

The Omega, just barely an adult, shyly bared himself and asked if he could accompany him to the Sixth District to see the stars.

The process of the lifelong mark was painful, yet filled with even more joy. Jing Miao remembered their two hands, intertwined and grasping, knuckles like climbing vines, growing in dependence.

In the rise and fall of the ocean waves, Jing Miao saw a blooming bud.

It was the Suguanheding Orchid.

Xi Siyan's proposal wasn't romantic or grand. They were both science-minded men without an artistic bone in their bodies. But he designed two one-of-a-kind rings.

In an era where diamonds were no longer rare, what Xi Siyan gave him were meteorite fragments, with a beautiful name:

"Dream Return."

When polished, the purple stone's surface became a transparent white. Under sunlight, it sparkled like dewdrops; under moonlight, it seemed like frost covering the ground. It was set in the center of an orchid. The petals were outlined with crushed rose quartz powder, bearing a strong resemblance to the Alpha himself.

On an utterly ordinary night, in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of Xi Siyan's city apartment. Jing Miao was leaning in his arms playing a game. The moment the screen showed the 'Victory' message, Xi Siyan suddenly took his hand, kissed his fingertips, and then asked him if he was willing to be his partner.

"I haven't reached the legal marriage age."

"But I can't wait any longer to be your Alpha." Xi Siyan's moonlight-like eyes were engraved on Jing Miao's heart. He cupped his face and murmured, "Marriage, law, marking... none of those things mean much to me. I only want you. I want you so much that I suddenly feel grateful for the existence of these rules."

He didn't give him vows or promises, no fireworks or roses. He gave him the ultimate gift: himself.

This is my Alpha. He is mine.

"He is yours. Everything the name Xi Siyan represents is yours."

For the first time in his memory, he saw Su Wan and Xi Yucheng, a traditional family of a male Alpha and female Omega.

On the way home with Xi Siyan, Jing Miao was so nervous he felt like vomiting.

The gap between them was too vast. An Omega from the civilian district, alone in the central city, without power, status, or outstanding qualifications.

He had heard too much gossip, but Jing Miao never felt he wasn't good enough for Xi Siyan; he often ignored it. But this road was too long, so long that those words now surfaced with crystal clarity.

Xi Siyan said: "My parents are good people. My father proposed the examination system; he doesn't care about social standing. My mother likes you very much. She always thought I seduced a minor, taking advantage of your innocence to completely bewitch you."

Their hands, wearing wedding rings, clasped together. Xi Siyan asked him: "Did I seduce you, little one?"

Jing Miao lifted his face. The nervousness in his heart vanished instantly, his eyes holding only this person.

"Maybe you did." He smiled at his Alpha. "But I left innocence behind a long time ago."

That woman often seen on TV representing the city-state at various world economic forums was now flustered. She wore a beautiful silk gown and looked very young.

It wasn't that Su Wan hadn't worried about Xi Siyan remaining single his whole life—almost no physiological reaction to pheromones, and psychologically indifferent to everyone around him.

Every mother fantasizes about her son's partner.

From smart, beautiful, elegant, and graceful, preferably Xi Siyan's equal, to gentle, kind, and easy to get along with, and finally, to just being a person would do.

But Xi Siyan gave her a surprise.

A beautiful Omega, a love unrelated to pheromones. She held Jing Miao's hand, as if afraid he would run away. Her first words were incoherent: "Call me Mom."

Xi Yucheng was used to being authoritative, but Jing Miao only felt warmth when he saw him. He was like Song Jincheng, his gaze holding genuine affection.

They said, welcome to our family.

Xi Siyan turned his head and said with a smile, it's welcome home.

Their future warm nest was Rose Dream, chosen by Xi Siyan. A moderately sized villa estate. It wasn't the best residence Xi Siyan could give him, but it was the most suitable.

This house was close to the Gene Research Institute, the Mathematics Institute, and A University, making it convenient for future work. Xi Siyan said when he bought it, he thought no matter how busy or tired, being able to see each other every day felt like happiness.

The house was in Jing Miao's name alone. He had a home in the central city. Xi Siyan said what material things can express is less than one ten-thousandth of the love I want to give you.

Jing Miao wrote "1/10000" on the ground with a branch.

"Then I have a little more than you." He was picked up and kissed by Xi Siyan. Between breaths, he choked up and said, "I can't find a set of numbers to express it."

The swing he chose himself was natural wood-colored. Xi Siyan didn't let the workers in.

The Alpha, wearing a short-sleeved shirt, was sweating profusely. His beautiful muscle lines strained as he assembled and secured the massive swing frame.

"Embarrassing." Xi Siyan raised a hand to wipe his sweat. "I should have joined the military. What am I doing in research?"

Jing Miao sat in the doorway eating watermelon, watching him with eyes crinkled into smiles: "But I like you just as you are. It's perfect."

The war broke out suddenly, and he was surrounded by patients being used in drug experiments.

He was afraid of nothing.

Jing Miao no longer wanted to look back on the period of Xi Siyan's kidnapping. What he saw again was an Alpha who had been shattered.

He was originally clean and elegant; all of Xi Siyan's tenderness and lightheartedness were given to him, while the image he presented to the outside world remained flawless.

On the hospital bed, wheeled out and surrounded by a crowd, Xi Siyan bore wounds and bloodstains, his white trench coat filthy.

Jing Miao ran after them, pulled back by many people. They called to him, crying and shouting, but Jing Miao couldn't hear.

The operating room door slammed shut before his eyes. Jing Miao saw himself kneeling on the ground, eyes vacant: "Xi Siyan, Xi Siyan..."

He awoke, but could never return to how things were before.

Xi Siyan became silent, his face devoid of smiles, drifting in and out of sleep. When asleep, he longed for Jing Miao's company; when awake, he was often wracked with pain.

Jing Miao tirelessly faced and absorbed all his negativity. Xi Siyan saw the beautiful boy speaking to him under the simulated sunlight, his smiling face always warm and radiant.

Yet he couldn't bear to look directly at such radiance.

"Get out!" He yanked out the IV needle, eyes bloodshot. The physical gap between Alpha and Omega was still clear. Jing Miao was pushed away, crashing heavily into the wall behind him.

As blood blurred his vision, he saw Xi Siyan's face filled with despair and grief. The Alpha stumbled toward him, cradling Jing Miao's bleeding head, saying, "I'm sorry."

It's okay.

I'm not in pain.

He watched as Xi Siyan entered a period of complete rejection of life. Xi Siyan hated himself, welling up with tears every time he saw him, closing his eyes.

In this oppression, Jing Miao found a release. For the first time, he felt fragile. He had lost his parents, grown up alone, lost his grandmother, and left his childhood behind.

Jing Miao had never thought it bitter, but at this moment, he found it unbearable.

If only he could escape.

But he couldn't bear to leave.

It was then that Xi Suye came to his side. Jing Miao sat by Xi Siyan's bedside, hoping he could sense the new life.

"Brother, I can't live without you."

That was the first time they held each other and cried. Their tears soaked not just skin and fabric, but two hearts desperate for salvation.

Xi Siyan went from aversion to life to seeking survival. He still had parents, would soon have a child, and he still had that fragment of his soul, lost in the sea of people, finally found again.

Jing Miao curled up with him on a single hospital bed. His strong, handsome Alpha had changed—very thin, eyes lifeless, his illness plain to see—but he could still curl up in his arms.

He read poetry to him.

"Beloved, if I die and you remain alive, beloved, if you die and I remain alive.

Let us not allow sorrow to occupy a larger territory; the place where we dwell is the vastest space.

The dust of wheat, the sand of the desert, time, the wandering water, the hazy wind,

Like flying seeds guiding us, lest we might not find each other in time.

This grassland where we found ourselves, ah, the tiny infinity. We return it.

But, beloved, this love is not yet over."

The Omega's voice was like a wind from the place of origin. Xi Siyan listened, as if glimpsing life's end.

They grew old and frail, while the world still turned day and night.

"Do you know what I'm thinking, Miao Miao?"

Jing Miao smiled at him: "I hope you're thinking about the nursery?"

Xi Siyan raised his hand to touch him, then weakly let it fall. There was no sadness or despair in his voice, as if reciting a vow: "Miao Miao, if I don't make it through this, there's one thing I want to ask of you."

Jing Miao didn't speak. He didn't stop Xi Siyan's heartfelt words. He knew that no matter the outcome, he would be by Xi Siyan's side.

"In our marital home, I prepared a potted plant—a Snowfield Dream that I cultivated from a cutting. The ceramic pot is white, with wave patterns on it, seven waves in total. Lift the plant and soil; underneath, there's a chip in a waterproof bag."

Xi Siyan closed his eyes, speaking already exhausting him: "Take it to the Central Bank. Everything I've left behind is there. I don't have much property, but it's enough for you to live on for a lifetime. All traces of the name 'Xi Siyan' existing in this world are there."

Remove the mark, become my parents' child.

Forget your love for me, but don't forget me. Nothing in this world is eternal; the concept of ownership always has an expiration date.

I've fulfilled my promise in the most unwilling way.

Miao Miao, I belong to you.

I will be the dust of wheat, the sand of the desert, the time you possess, the wandering water, the hazy wind... I love you, unchanging.

Jing Miao turned away, shedding tears. Xi Siyan was asleep, or perhaps not. He saw his own tears drip onto the book, spreading into a blur.

"But, beloved, this love is not yet over.

Just as it was never born, it will not die. It is like a long river, only changing the land, changing the shape of lips."

Jing Miao got up and kissed his dry lips.

Don't be afraid, Xi Siyan, don't be afraid.

They lost Xi Suye.

Traces left by the passage of time, love and hope erased and reborn. Jing Miao waited for Xi Siyan for three months.

During these three months, he chose to escape.

An Omega who never experienced parental love perhaps also lost the chance to give love to a child flowing with their blood.

Jing Miao experienced unprecedented darkness during these three months, worse than any day before.

He was afraid to sleep, and afraid of not being able to sleep. Every day felt sunless because Xi Siyan still hadn't woken up.

He also lost his teacher.

Jing Miao saw his own cowardice. On a night without his Alpha, his head splitting with pain, as if walking through hell, he chose to forget.

He stopped time within himself.

The day Xi Siyan came back, Jing Miao saw the shock, tears, and emptiness in his eyes.

They began five years of estrangement.

Jing Miao waited for Xi Siyan for three months, but Xi Siyan waited for him for five years.

The Omega was on the floor, intently building with blocks, while Xi Siyan sat beside him, gazing at him blankly.

Jing Miao's numerical system had malfunctioned; he didn't know how many times Xi Siyan had appeared in this zombie-like state.

He said, "Miao Miao, won't you love me?"

Guided by his own confusion and naivety, Jing Miao relived those five years.

"Is continuation really necessary? If I knew you would one day love a child more than me, I'd rather you couldn't bear children."

Jing Miao, at seven years old, didn't understand.

He gave Xi Siyan an innocent, delighted smile, eager and dependent: "Brother, hug me."

Xi Siyan lifted his hand and kissed the ring: "Then let me be your brother."

He never truly wanted to part from him.

It will not end, just as it was never born and will never die.

You will wait until I love you—I have always loved you.

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

"My Love, If I Die and You Live On" — Pablo Neruda.

This poem truly captures the feelings of many people. It represents Miao Miao's parents, grandmother, Professor Song Jincheng; it represents Xi Siyan, Xi Suye, Jing Miao; it represents many people in the future.

Our Miao Miao has reconciled with his brother within his memories. Someone loves you, that's why they long for your love QAQ

Rest day tomorrow! [Author's note: Please leave a 'sea star' rating!]