Zhu Xian: They've all been reborn

Pulled along by Lu Xueqi, they stumbled through several massive, intricately carved jade pillars that required several people to encircle.

After passing a small, neatly trimmed grove of low pines that exuded a faint, bitter medicinal fragrance, the view suddenly opened up, yet it instantly shut out most of the noise.

This is a small platform located on the side of a huge palace, connected to the main square.

The platform is edged with white jade railings, beyond which lies a rolling, surging sea of ​​clouds, a vast expanse of white, shimmering with gold edges in the sunlight, its depths unfathomable, as if one step out would plunge into an abyss.

The platform was small and very clean, with only a few clumps of unidentified plants with pale purple flowers growing in the corner.

The wind was strong, carrying the damp coolness of the clouds and the biting chill of the high altitude. It howled and instantly swept away the heat and noise from the bustling square, leaving only the sound of the wind in the empty space and the two people's somewhat rapid breathing.

Lu Xueqi finally stopped and released her grip on his wrist.

But she didn't back down. She stood in front of him, her back to the rolling sea of ​​clouds. Her moon-white Taoist robe and ink-black hair were whipped behind her by the gale, making her figure appear even more slender and upright, as if she might ride the wind away at any moment.

She turned around, her cool eyes fixed on him, her face expressionless, but her eyes were as deep as two ancient wells, churning with emotions that Jiang Xiaochuan couldn't understand, yet instinctively felt a tremor in his heart.

Jiang Xiaochuan still felt the cool touch of her fingertips on his wrist. His mind was in turmoil, and he felt even more helpless because of the sudden "kidnapping" and the strange, quiet, and howling wind in the current environment.

He instinctively took a half step back, his feet resting on the cold, hard jade floor.

"Junior Sister Lu...why did you bring me here? Shouldn't we...shouldn't we go back? Master, Mistress, and Senior Brother are looking for us soon..."

He was incoherent, his eyes darting around, unable to look her in the eye, wanting only to escape this unsettling solitude immediately.

"Why hide?"

Lu Xueqi spoke, her voice not loud, yet strangely pierced through the howling wind and clearly entered his ears.

"I...I didn't dodge..." Jiang Xiaochuan tried to explain, but his voice lacked confidence.

"You do." Lu Xueqi took a small step forward, closing the distance between them again. The cool fragrance emanating from her body, mixed with the biting wind at high altitude, forcefully entered his nostrils.

"Ever since that day, you've been avoiding me. You wouldn't look at me while eating breakfast this morning. When practicing swordsmanship, you subconsciously kept your distance. When you spoke to me, your eyes darted around. Just now in the square, you seemed to want to hide yourself away."

She paused, her voice revealing neither joy nor anger, yet it made Jiang Xiaochuan's heart tighten.

"Is it something shameful or hard to accept that it involves me?"

"no!"

Jiang Xiaochuan suddenly looked up, met her gaze, and then quickly looked away as if he had been burned, his face burning, his voice rising with urgency.

"It's not shameful! Junior Sister Lu, you...you're very good, extremely good! It's me...it's me..."

"Is it that you're not worthy?"

Lu Xueqi interrupted him, her voice still calm, yet like a precise knife, dissecting the deepest, most hidden inferiority and panic in his heart.

"Are you trying to say that you're just average in talent, mediocre in cultivation, not smart enough, not good enough, and don't deserve my kindness?"

Jiang Xiaochuan opened his mouth, but his throat felt blocked, and he couldn't utter a single word.

Yes, that's exactly what he was thinking.

Lu Xueqi is the moon in the sky, the snow on the mountain peak, and a once-in-a-century genius of the Qingyun Sect. Her future is destined to be brilliant.

Jiang Xiaochuan was just an ordinary disciple who was lucky enough to be a transmigrator and reborn, and who also had a bit of a script.

My greatest wish is simply to live a peaceful life, chopping bamboo, cultivating immortality, and ideally, avoiding those deadly plot twists and emotional entanglements.

What merits does he possess to deserve Lu Xueqi's devoted treatment?

This kindness is too heavy for him to bear, too heavy for him to repay.

Seeing the expression on his face—a mixture of shame, panic, and a hint of grievance—that showed he had been exposed, the icy depths of Lu Xueqi's eyes seemed to melt slightly, but her expression became even more serious.

"Jiang Xiaochuan," she called his full name, her voice clear, each word striking the wind and his heart.

"Let me make myself clear."

I'm good to you, I help you cultivate, I teach you swordsmanship, I find materials for you, and I've poured my heart and soul into refining the Snow River, not because of your aptitude, cultivation level, or intelligence.

Those things are unimportant to me, they never have been.

She tilted her head slightly, letting the wind tousle her hair, but her gaze remained firmly fixed on him:

"I'm nice to you only because you are Jiang Xiaochuan."

It's all because of you.

I wanted to be nice to you, so I did this.

This has nothing to do with whether or not someone is worthy of the other.

It's just a matter of whether I want to or not.

Jiang Xiaochuan stared blankly at her, at her face, which was slightly flushed by the wind but still incredibly beautiful, and at the undisguised, deep emotions in her eyes.

My heart felt like a lake tossed with a giant rock, creating a turbulent storm.

Just because he is Jiang Xiaochuan?

What kind of reason is that?

There are many people in this world named Jiang Xiaochuan, so why him?

"But...but feelings aren't like that..."

He murmured, as if trying to convince her, or perhaps himself, his voice broken by the wind.

"It's not something you can just decide to do... It requires mutual affection, it requires... it requires mutual liking..."

"I know that relationships require mutual affection."

Lu Xueqi interrupted him again, her tone resolute, with an almost obsessive calmness.

"So I'm waiting."

"wait?"

Jiang Xiaochuan was puzzled.

What are you waiting for?

"I'll wait for you." Lu Xueqi looked at him with deep eyes, as if trying to see through his panicked eyes to the deepest part of his soul, to see the soul she had hidden in her heart and loved for two lifetimes.

"I was the one who fell for you first, and I knew it was you."

Then, no matter what you think now, or whether you'll like me in the future, I will hold onto you and make you mine.

But I can wait for this process.

Her voice lowered, mingling with the howling wind, somewhat ethereal, yet carrying a strange, heavy weight, each word clear:

"Wait until you slowly get used to my presence, get used to my kindness, get used to... my feelings."

When you are no longer afraid, no longer running away, and no longer using words like "unworthy," "grateful," or "fraternal bond" to fob me off, and to fob yourself off.

When you look at me, your eyes will no longer only see "Junior Sister Lu," "good friend," and "teacher."

She paused, her long eyelashes drooping, concealing the fleeting, almost fragile emotions welling up in her eyes, her voice so soft it seemed almost carried away by the wind:

"I'll be able to see you in your eyes too."

It was neither Lu Xueqi, the genius of Qingyun, nor Lu Xueqi, the disciple of Xiaozhu Peak.

But... Lu Xueqi.

A woman who likes you.

Jiang Xiaochuan's heart felt as if it had been violently struck by something, a mixture of soreness and numbness. A strange, scalding heat burst forth from his heart, instantly spreading to every part of his body, making his fingertips tremble.

He looked at her drooping, slightly trembling eyelashes, at her profile that was disheveled by the wind yet still breathtakingly beautiful, and listened to her calm yet weighty words. The clump of thoughts in his mind seemed to be stirred up even more by the raging wind and her words, but deep within the chaos, something was quietly loosening and cracking.

When he could see her again...

He suddenly recalled many scenes.

In Shoujing Hall, she and he were sparring, and she looked into the light in her own eyes.

In Heyang City, she secretly took him out to play, and the joy in her expression was palpable.

In the bamboo forest behind the mountain, she held his wrist as she corrected his sword moves, her fingertips slightly cool and her profile focused.

By the pond, a fleeting glint of tenderness crossed her eyes as she handed him a snack.

On an unnamed mountain peak, in the setting sun, her trembling eyelashes and burning breath as she forcefully kissed him.

And every morning or evening, she would arrive on her sword, her moon-white figure ethereal and otherworldly in the rosy light or morning mist, yet she would only linger for him…

Those moments that he deliberately ignored and forcibly defined as "gratitude," "admiration," and "dependence."

Those moments when my heart raced inexplicably because she was near, and when my cheeks burned because of her touch.

Because of that moment when she was focused and at a loss... at this moment, it flickered in his chaotic mind as if strung together by an invisible thread, with unprecedented clarity and... weight.

"I..." His throat was so dry it hurt, and his voice was terribly hoarse, as if it had rusted.

"I don't know... Junior Sister Lu, I really don't know... what I feel for you... is..."

Is it gratitude?

It seems there's more than that.

Is it admiration?

That doesn't seem enough.

Is it dependency?

Perhaps.

But besides these, there seems to be something else.

What is it?

He couldn't explain it.

Was it that fleeting, unfamiliar flutter and tingling sensation when she kissed me that day, besides the shock?

When I woke up that morning and found her holding me, besides the panic, there was a secret, hidden longing and warmth deep in my heart that I didn't even want to admit.

Even now, listening to her words, I feel a surge of bittersweet, burning, and somewhat helpless unfamiliar emotions welling up inside me.

He couldn't tell the difference.

For him, emotions were too complicated, too unfamiliar, like a tangled mess that he couldn't untangle.

His mental age, including his past and present lives, is quite advanced, but his romantic experience is almost nonexistent.

All he knew was reading books, reading other people's stories, and feeling moved and saddened by other people's love.

When it came to him, he became a complete idiot, only knowing how to run away and using reasons like "I'm not good enough" and "I shouldn't" to protect his pitiful self-esteem and... fear of the unknown.

"It's okay."

Lu Xueqi suddenly spoke again, her voice regaining some calmness.

She raised her head and looked at him again. The deep emotion in her eyes had not faded, but there was a rare, almost indulgent, gentleness.

She reached out, not to grab his wrist as before, but to gently stroke his cheek.

Her fingertips, cool from the high altitude, touched his burning skin, and both of them trembled almost imperceptibly.

Her movements were exceptionally gentle, with an almost tender care as she used her fingertips to slowly caress the skin of his cheek, from his cheekbones, which were slightly taut with tension, down to his well-defined jawline.