Upon seeing Chu Ci cry, Lin Yuan’s heart instantly tightened.
From Lin Yuan’s recollection, Chu Ci had never cried more than a few times since childhood. However difficult a problem they encountered, she would always wear a smile while standing by Lin Yuan’s side.
Now, Lin Yuan immediately felt a little numb.
He did not know how to make her feel better so that her tears would stop falling.
Just as he was mulling over this in his head, Chu Ci suddenly threw herself in his arms and said, hiccuping, “Brother, don’t worry. I only cried because I was overjoyed.”
Lin Yuan extended his arms to wrap them around Chu Ci and lightly patted her on the shoulder.
Lin Yuan and Chu Ci were both inept at expressing their innermost emotions.
Hence, the only other time they had both revealed their true emotions like this had occurred during their first year of seeking survival together.
It was when Chu Ci had been so sick that she almost hadn’t made it—such a scene had taken place, but it had never happened again.
As Lin Yuan lightly patted Chu Ci’s shoulder, he sighed in his heart.
Lin Yuan was extremely sensitive to Chu Ci’s moods. She had definitely not been weeping with joy but getting her worry off her chest.
Moreover, Chu Ci had called him ‘Brother’ instead of ‘Lin Yuan’.
Obviously, she had also known the whole story behind his injuries, so she must have been worried sick during this period.
Lin Yuan only came up with something to say to Chu Ci to comfort her after a long time.
Chu Ci asked softly with her face buried in his shoulder, “Brother, do you feel discomfort anywhere on your body?”
As she spoke, Chu Ci raised her head off Lin Yuan’s shoulder, extended her hand, and wiped off a tear from the corner of her eye.
After which, only a smile remained on Chu Ci’s face. Large teardrops would no longer fall from the corners of her eyes.
Upon hearing Chu Ci’s question, Lin Yuan tried to open his mouth to speak, but he found that his throat was dry and rough from having slept for so long.
Before he could utter a single word, he began coughing.
Chu Ci hurried to the jade porcelain tea table beside her and poured Lin Yuan a cup of spirit tea from the teapot.
When he took the cup from Chu Ci’s hands, Lin Yuan smiled sheepishly.
After drinking two mouthfuls of tea and his throat no longer felt dry, Lin Yuan immediately said, “I feel extremely well now! I don’t feel a hint of discomfort!”
When Lin Yuan had been inside the dimensional rift struggling to stop its evolution, he had been the most worried about Chu Ci.
He would never have expected that the first person he would see when he awoke would be his sister, who he had not seen for so many days.
Chu Ci studied the sincere expression on Lin Yuan’s face. It seemed like he really wasn’t experiencing any discomfort.
After another round of scrutiny, she finally felt at ease when she saw that Lin Yuan was in radiant spirits.
At that moment, Chu Ci’s expression grew earnest and severe. She reached her hand out and tidied the corner of Lin Yuan’s blanket before saying, “Lin Yuan, I need to tell you something in earnest.”
Upon hearing how Chu Ci had addressed him, Lin Yuan could not help but stop smiling.
This change had happened too quickly!
Once he had said that he was fine, she had gone back to addressing him as ‘Lin Yuan’.
Nevertheless, upon seeing her serious expression, Lin Yuan also immediately grew serious.
Having grown up with Chu Ci, Lin Yuan understood her extremely well. He knew that she was about to tell him something that was very important to her.
He said very earnestly while leaning against the bed, “Why did you suddenly become so serious? Tell me. I’m all ears.”
Suddenly, Lin Yuan saw a trace of grievance flash in Chu Ci’s eyes.
Immediately after, her eyes reddened once more. Just as Lin Yuan became confused again, Chu Ci’s words stunned him.
“Lin Yuan, can you feel what I felt when I heard that you had been sucked into the dimensional rift, and you were hanging between life and death?
“You can’t understand because I have a brother, but you don’t.”
This sentence, which sounded almost like bragging to Lin Yuan’s ears, caused his heart to tremble fiercely.
Lin Yuan was very good at putting himself in others’ shoes. Whenever he faced problems, he would try his best to consider them from another person’s standpoint.
While he could not accept what some people did, he could at least understand their choices as long as they did not violate moral principles.
However, Lin Yuan realized that he had forgotten to put himself in the shoes of those whom he was closest to.
Lin Yuan’s thoughts suddenly returned to a time when he had been eight years old, and it had been raining overnight in the Xia Region.
Then, Chu Ci’s high fever had not been receding, but he had not had enough money to pay a healer to heal her.
In the end, it happened that Auntie Zhang had just brought Uncle Li, who had been suppressing his leg, back and had found out about Chu Ci’s condition.
Auntie Zhang had hurried to find a healer to heal Chu Ci. Only then had Chu Ci survived the ordeal.
The despair that he had felt at being weak and the belief that the only companion in his bitter life would disappear were deeply engraved in Lin Yuan’s heart.
His eyes reddened involuntarily.
He moved the corners of his lips, meaning to say something.
However, he did not end up speaking his intended words out loud.
Still, he said them softly in his heart.
“I have a sister, but you don’t.
“So I know!”
Chu Ci froze when she looked at Lin Yuan. His eyes had unexpectedly reddened.
Chu Ci immediately became flustered.
Just then, she collected herself and changed the topic.
“Brother, I have comprehended another Willpower Rune.”
In the next instant, Chu Ci’s spiritual energy directly shot forth a Willpower Rune that had an unusually heavy feeling.
This heaviness was like a sturdy shield, but an indomitable might seemed to be hidden behind it.
It was just that this might was hidden behind the heaviness as if only after the latter were shaved off would one be able to see the former.
Lin Yuan could not believe that Chu Ci had comprehended yet another Willpower Rune in such a short period.
However, this Willpower Rune looked somewhat special. Lin Yuan was also rather puzzled by what the will in this rune actually represented.
Lin Yuan could not help but ask, “Chu Ci, under what conditions did you comprehend this Willpower Rune?”
After thinking for a while, Chu Ci responded, “I comprehended this Willpower Rune when I saw the patterns on the wings of the Vajra Butterfly.”
Upon hearing this, Lin Yuan felt as though he was receiving a blow for the first time.
He had always believed that his comprehension of Willpower Runes was already very impressive. Unexpectedly, it was nothing compared to Chu Ci’s.
After all, Lin Yuan had been looking at Genius every day, but he had never comprehended the Willpower Rune that he should have comprehended from doing so.
Still, since the Willpower Rune that Chu Ci had comprehended was from the Vajra Butterfly, then it must have been one that the butterfly could use when it became a Fantasy Breed.
In the room, as Lin Yuan studied Chu Ci’s Willpower Rune, Chu Ci also answered his questions fully.
It was as though they had both forgotten how their eyes had been red just a minute ago.
Steam curled from the tea in the porcelain cup, and the room was stained with the fragrance of matcha.
A jade safety pendant hung on the head of the bed, witnessing the peacefulness through the years under the curl of the steam.