Would there be power outages even in the villa district of the imperial city?
Xin Hexue hadn’t received any notice from the property management about power maintenance or nearby construction that might lead to temporary outages.
Usually, only areas near the edges of the safe zone would experience strange water or power outages due to energy fluctuations in Folded Zones.
The bathroom’s window, like the door, was made of frosted glass. Xin Hexue could see that the streetlights outside were on, and the distant standalone villas had lights too.
‘No power outage at the neighbors’…just here?’
Xin Hexue found it a bit strange.
A sudden eyelid twitch made his right eye spasm slightly.
Xin Hexue wasn’t a superstitious person.
An eye twitch could be explained by sleep deprivation and eye fatigue, and maybe the power outage was caused by a tripped breaker.
Ever since He Botian left, Xin Hexue had been living alone.
Only a part-time cleaner came every day to clean.
But to return to their hometown to visit family, the cleaner had requested a week off. He was at the White Tower at the time and simply replied that he understood.
The original cleaner knew which areas needed cleaning, and which areas not to go to. Because he thought it would be troublesome to go over all the necessary instructions again if someone else were assigned, Xin Hexue declined the White Tower’s offer to find someone new for him.
It was just for about a week anyway.
There was a robot vacuum cleaner in the villa. He didn’t move around much, and he was used to putting things back in their place after using them. Xin Hexue’s living habits meant that he wouldn’t mess up the house in just one week.
That’s why, being completely alone now, Xin Hexue ended up in his current predicament.
Before, he could have called He Botian to check if the power had tripped.
But now, the villa was empty except for him, quiet and empty.
In the darkness where nothing could be seen, Xin Hexue grew a little tense.
He hadn’t brought his communicator into the bathroom, so he couldn’t contact the outside world.
Fortunately, he was almost done with his shower.
He turned off the shower and dried the water from his body with a towel.
The bathroom had a dry-wet separation structure. Based on his memory of the layout, Xin Hexue reached out to feel around for the bathrobe he’d hung up.
He didn’t know what he touched.
Something unusual brushed beneath his foot, it was soft and flexible.
Xin Hexue froze in place in the darkness.
A chill slowly crept up from the tiles under his feet, winding its way up his slender ankles, past his knees, twisting and turning between his thighs, burrowing into his bones like a tumor clinging to bone, or like a poisonous snake licking tenderly with its tongue.
But there was nothing there.
There was nothing on his legs.
Because of the power outage, the electric heating system wasn’t working either.
The temperature in the villa had started to drop.
The steam from his earlier shower had condensed on the frosted glass door, trickling down in long streaks.
Xin Hexue frowned and bent down.
What he had stepped on… was his bathrobe.
Maybe he hadn’t hung it properly to begin with, so it had fallen without him noticing.
Now that it had been stepped on by his damp soles, he couldn’t wear it anymore.
Creaaak…a soft sound sliced through the quiet villa.
Xin Hexue let go of the door handle and calmly tossed the bathrobe into the laundry basket.
He needed to contact the property management.
Flashlights or other lighting equipment were probably stored in the utility room. First, he needed to find his communicator.
Otherwise, he couldn’t see anything.
Xin Hexue walked to the bedside. Water still clung to his body, trickling down from the base of his thighs, leaving faint wet streaks that slid from between his legs down to his inner ankles.
Among the mess of quilt and clothes on the bed was the sleepwear he had just taken from the closet.
Xin Hexue remembered putting the communicator on the nightstand.
As he threw on his pajamas, fastening only a couple of buttons hastily, he reached toward the nightstand with his other hand.
He felt nothing.
Only the cold, empty air in his palm.
Xin Hexue’s Adam’s apple rolled faintly beneath his white skin.
His breathing stagnated.
Sharp cat-like instincts surged through him, and every cell in Xin Hexue’s body screamed trap, danger, escape now!
But clearly, the hunter hidden in the darkness had already sensed the prey’s intention to flee.
The drifting clouds overhead parted in an instant, and the moon emerged from behind them.
White wings unfurled, and in nearly the same moment, thick, swollen vine-like shadows spread across the wall.
They lashed out, and in the blink of an eye, engulfed the young man.
Swallowed by the dark, deep green.
“Mm…!” A muffled gasp squeezed out from his chest.
Within the tangle of dark green, a white, slender wrist struggled to stretch outward, the fingers extended fully, almost spasming from the effort.
Just as it reached the air, the vines immediately wrapped around it, curling not only around the wrist but forcefully sliding between every finger joint.
The fingers visibly flushed pink.
The vines yanked the hand back mercilessly.
Ambiguous breaths became sealed inside the mass of vines.
The communicator lit up in the darkness.
It stayed open on a chat with a young sentinel.
[Yan Ji: I have a midterm next week. I might stay in the training hall these next few days and won’t be able to check messages on time.]
[Yan Ji: But once it’s over, it’ll be Christmas Eve. Can we have dinner together that night?]
[Xin Hexue: Okay.]
[Xin Hexue: Focus on preparing for your exam.]
[Yan Ji: [Voice Call] No response from recipient]
[Yan Ji: [Voice Call] No response from recipient]
[Yan Ji: Are you already asleep?]
[Yan Ji: Then… good night.]
[Yan Ji: Sweet dreams.]
In the air, two pure white feathers floated and swirled, eventually drifting down onto the carpet.
………
Wei Zhuo was at the front desk of the Sentinel-Guide Research Institute, filling in the application form.
A sentinel-guide compatibility test required meeting certain prerequisites.
Sentinels had to submit many examination results, which were quite tedious and included, but were not limited to, a physical check-up report from within the past month, monthly reports on mental pollution levels over the past year, and proof of no hereditary diseases in the family history.
Some tests could only be performed at the military district’s Sentinel-Guide Research Institute.
This was precisely why Wei Zhuo had come.
Through the Black Tower, he had learned the inside story that Xin Hexue urgently needed a sentinel with a compatible match.
Sentinels and guides were naturally complementary. The fusion of their mental landscapes would enhance a sentinel’s combat power and likewise nourish a guide’s mental power.
Xin Hexue’s mental power had been depleted too severely and couldn’t recover on its own.
For a guide who had already bonded with a sentinel, bonding with a new sentinel was clearly the most appropriate and effective method given the current situation.
He wanted… to submit a match assessment application for Xin Hexue alone.
Even if the other party had no idea yet.
Wei Zhuo’s grip on the pen tightened, the ink bleeding into a dark spot on the paper.
Fortunately, it didn’t affect anything important.
He continued filling out the form.
The next step would be the professional instrument testing phase.
But before the testing, someone tapped on the marble counter beside Wei Zhuo.
Ji Yushan spoke slowly, “You want to bond with Xin Hexue?”
The pen rested on the countertop. Wei Zhuo’s expression was cold and stern as always. From the look on his face, no one would guess the form he was filling out was related to pre-marital procedures.
Ji Yushan was wearing a white lab coat, his hands in his side pockets. Although he seemed aloof and unconcerned, he couldn’t help provoking, “Don’t tell me… you think you can surpass He Botian’s place in his heart?”
“Besides… He Botian and Xin Hexue’s match rate was one hundred percent.”
Ji Yushan’s appearance was refined and elegant, but his almond-shaped eyes, with the corners slanted upwards, gave off a feeling of a scheming fox. Coupled with his tone, he appeared more sharp than scholarly.
“A one hundred percent match, a perfect pair.”
He shook his head. “Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
Wei Zhuo’s hands hanging at his sides clenched into fists.
Ji Yushan seemed to suddenly remember something, and said in a tone of sudden realization, “Oh, I almost forgot.”
“If the Wei family hadn’t canceled the engagement, you could’ve ignored the match rate and bonded directly, right?”
Wei Zhuo said nothing. His thin lips pressed together coldly.
Ji Yushan continued with a sigh, “After all, it was a marriage arranged personally by His Majesty…”
“I’m not mistaken, am I? Sigh, I’m not from some noble family either, so I only know half of it.”
The Ji family and the Wei family had a relationship like that of rising stars clashing with ancient nobility, mutually hostile.
The two of them had been in the same circle since childhood, and were always compared to each other.
Until Wei Zhuo tested as a combat-type sentinel, and Ji Yushan was just a normal human.
Their names were finally no longer uttered in the same breath.
It felt strange, like the lifelong rival he had always targeted suddenly evolved into something completely different.
For a while, every elder who saw Ji Yushan would sigh with regret.
Ji Yushan had always borne a grudge.
He believed someone like Wei Zhuo didn’t deserve such favoritism from the heavens, it was too biased.
This kind of person should suffer at least one setback in this life.
When Ji Yushan returned from studying in Nancheng to the Imperial Capital University Medical School, the news from the Joint Military Academy reached him.
Wei Zhuo had canceled an engagement with a guide?
Ji Yushan didn’t pay it much attention, but by chance, he followed his mentor on a visit to the Joint Military Academy to give a lecture.
He saw the rumored guide who had been rejected.
And Ji Yushan fell hard.
But he was just a normal human, and it was almost impossible to form a family bond with a guide.
From the corner of his eye, he saw the way Wei Zhuo looked at Xin Hexue.
At least in this matter, the heavens hadn’t played favorites.
“You know?” Ji Yushan said frankly, “Sometimes I’m really jealous of you.”
“Just think, your luck is so good. Xin Hexue had just come out of the tower and was arranged to be engaged to you.”
Wei Zhuo’s face grew darker and darker.
“What are you trying to say?”
Ji Yushan laughed, “Birds are sacred spirits of the sky. Being trapped by a marriage contract, like a golden cage, is really pitiful.”
Ji Yushan sneered, “Fortunately… you didn’t cherish him much anyway.”
He slowly took out a seal from his pocket. There was a red ink pad on the counter.
Without hesitation, he stamped it on Wei Zhuo’s form…two glaring red words: “Not Approved.”
Ji Yushan: “He found someone better than you.”
Ji Yushan: “This time, it was his own choice, just like he chose He Botian back then.”
Before leaving, Ji Yushan added leisurely, “Though honestly, I doubt anyone can replace He Botian, right?”
“He died for Xin Hexue, and so violently. We’ll always live under his shadow.”
How could the living ever compare to the dead?
As time passed, the dead only became more perfect.
All the bad impressions would trickle away like sand. What remained were shining, golden memories worth cherishing.
Ji Yushan let out a mocking laugh, unclear if he was laughing at the frozen Wei Zhuo, or at himself.
“Unless He Botian came back from the dead.”
“But how could that possibly happen?”
So, Xin Hexue would only love him, and love him even more.
………
“Ugh…!”
Even his groan was hoarse.
Xin Hexue’s mind exploded like a fireworks display, and his vision was filled with black and white static.
He was groggy, and with the morning light, saw the completely messy bed.
The pillow had been flung to the foot of the bed.
The quilt had vanished.
No… the quilt… the quilt was under him.
So…
Xin Hexue realized he was lying on the carpet, on top of the quilt.
But he had later gone to bed last night.
He was…he was… dragged off the bed and f***ked on the floor by vines…
Xin Hexue felt dizzy, but in his peripheral vision, he saw the vines solidify again into the form of his dead husband.
He shuddered as if it had become a conditioned reflex.
At the same time, his communicator screen lit up: “Wei Zhuo.”
The ringtone rang out.
Xin Hexue propped up his knees, but his waist gave out completely. He collapsed again and could only crawl toward the bedside table.
Several thick vines instantly coiled around his legs.
Xin Hexue’s fingers scratched at the edge of the bed weakly, leaving no marks.
“Mm!”
Xin Hexue never knew his body could fold into this kind of angle.
His abdomen was taut, and the outlines of the vines inside could be seen clearly.
White light burst before his eyes from overstimulation, and Xin Hexue silently screamed in collapse.
He must, he must, he must… kill He Botian!
