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When did such a smile stop appearing on the boy's face?
Deepest in memory, never to be forgotten, even in the slightly blurred initial encounter, the boy, like a prince, led the girl out of the forest and into the human world, a sweet smile, melodious and light, as if he had found a treasure, hung on his lips.
The clear image, eternally etched in her mind, proved that the boy was by no means someone who disliked smiles, beauty, or sweetness.
It seems... it was from the year the boy turned nine... "Aren't you going to celebrate with me?"
"We've been traveling together for many years."
Jiang Cheng reached out and pressed his hand to his chest, asking for blessings from the girl he once held most dear, a happy smile gently gracing his lips.
Until this moment, the girl, covered by the veil of complacency, was finally stripped of her self-imposed obstruction, opening her eyes.
Her pink-blue pupils no longer reflected so-called happiness, but the boy she had ignored countless times.
He stood right there, occupying her entire vision, a boy who had unknowingly grown tall.
He was already half a head taller than her.
The clearest image of Jiang Cheng in her memory was still his childish figure by the pond, as if the boy would always be young, never growing up.
How could that be?
When did she start to even overlook the boy's growth in height?
All of this...—What have I done?!
..."Happy..."
"Happy birthday..."
Her soulless body instinctively tried to comply, her soft lips slightly parted, just as she had once offered blessings to countless people, genuinely congratulating them on finding their own happiness.
She just needed to speak.
Ah... she couldn't say it... she absolutely couldn't say it... but instinct couldn't overcome the expanse of emotion.
Aili Xiya stammered, attempting to speak several times in a row, but ultimately failed.
Her own soul had sunk into a heart, like a battlefield, that had been neglected and ignored.
Until the girl, who was to embrace everything, was assailed by a stampede of emotions, and her seemingly impregnable walls met the love that had been suppressed until now.
—The emotions still came.
They arrived irresistibly.
In a way that perhaps even the girl had never noticed.
What was expected to be a calm river, at its wildest imagining, merely a surging river, turned out to be a vast ocean.
Her own will and reason were like a solitary boat amidst a storm on the sea, liable to be shattered by hundreds of meters of waves at any moment.
Why does it hurt so much... why?
She couldn't understand.
It was incomprehensible.
She couldn't grasp it.
She used to be able to explain the origins and factors of emotions eloquently when giving relationship advice to others, but when it came to herself, she was at a loss.
Perhaps... probably... it was because the first time she came into this world, the first time she opened her eyes, the first living being she saw was Jiang Cheng.
A distant dawn, a slanting spring breeze, a verdant forest, flowers carried by the wind.
Even when the girl herself recalled that scene, she could only describe it with the gift Jiang Cheng gave her, the book titled Elysium.
—An eternal paradise, an unblemished Elysium.
Perhaps there were some thrilling and dangerous events that day, but when swaying branches might have posed a threat to her, the first person in the entire world to truly care for her had already appeared.
That scene never faded from her memory, no matter how much time passed, no matter how many complicated people she met.
Even later, for unknown reasons, she chose to interact with the townspeople, abandoning the boy she had never been separated from, with whom she had always played and entertained herself.
Even during her travels, for reasons she herself found hard to define, she focused more on others, dedicating almost all her time to them.
The girl had always cherished it, burying it firmly in her heart.
That was the boy's first—the first to see her, the first to hold her, the first gift he gave her, the first to care for her, the first... to bring her into the beautiful human world.
But now... but now.
But now!
..."Aili Xiya?"
"Are you alright?"
"If there's anything wrong, go see a doctor first; blessings can wait."
The boy's appearance remained the same; though years had brought growth and maturity, the gentle smile at the corner of his lips was as beautiful as when they first met, as if the present and past had broken through the barriers of time and merged.
The boy in her memory, in the shadowy thicket, stepping over thorns, cutting through weeds, like a hero, like a prince, facing the light, the leaves, the flowers, the birds, standing before the profound depth enveloped by the dense forest, blocking the dark shadows, reaching out to the girl and inviting her.
He brought the innocent girl back from the deep, dark woods to the human world, acting as that heroic savior who brought the initial beauty.
But he opened his lips, asking the reason for her daze, and even hoping for her blessing.
—His blessing with Vil-V... "Ah..."
"I..."
"I have something..."
Her voice began to tremble, and the girl's magnificent, clear pink-blue starlike eyes also trembled, her rosy lips suddenly turning exceptionally pale in an instant.
—She no longer had the ability to do anything.
She might even lose the ability to think; across from her, Vil-V was usually the one who would be self-conscious, timid, and avoidant, but now their personalities seemed to have flipped, and it was the girl who began to fear.
Perhaps it was due to the extremity of her emotions.
The surging feelings were as if the dam in her heart had completely opened.
When faced with something that cannot be broken through, cannot be resisted, and where even the act of impact itself is a denial, one instead runs in circles.
The girl had never been so hesitant.
The flawless fairy could be brave in the face of anything.
When encountering such a situation, the best and only option was to explain clearly.
Yet, Aili Xiya was trembling, her legs weak.
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27. The girl no longer dared to face it.
..."Sorry..."
"I have to go."
Carelessly throwing out a sentence, without even considering if her reason was appropriate, Aili Xiya turned as if fleeing and left without hesitation.
Chaotic... chaotic.
Her inner thoughts had never been so disordered.
It was like a ball of yarn played with by a cat.
There was no possibility of distinguishing beginning from end, intertwined in self-contradiction.
The girl who could say, "Because I am always where I go, that's my destination," seemed to have vanished from the world.
Run... run.
Only running.
At this moment, only escape remained as an option; she could only be like a turtle retracting its head, like an ostrich, escaping it all in a ridiculous, mindless way.
A familiar, clear call came from behind her; the boy had clearly sensed that this change was a bit strange, uncharacteristic of the girl.
But Aili Xiya merely kept fleeing.
—She deserved it.
She brought it upon herself.
—Why did it turn out this way?
Why did the childhood sweetheart become like this?
Aili Xiya clutched the ribbon in her hand tightly, a hint of sweetness from the cream still on her lips; the cake she had chosen for the boy had, unknowingly, become a generic product, only slightly elaborate on the outside.
It's simple.
Nothing difficult.
She had understood this answer long ago.
She just didn't want to face it.
Ah... ah... ah... ah... so that's how it is.
So that's how it is... so that's how it is!
Her foolish act of burying her head in the sand had been completely exposed; after opening her eyes, the so-called veil couldn't block her vision at all.
Everything from the past appeared clearly before the girl's eyes, without any concealment or distortion.
Crystal clear.