This was a genuine Twelfth Life flower, blooming and withering once every two hours, only appearing in winter. Li Fei remembered mentioning it casually to him just once, yet Lei Xiuyuan had managed to procure one.
She gently caressed the small glass bead with her fingertip, looking up to meet his eyes. For a moment, she seemed to see that young boy from Yaoguang Peak in Wuyue Palace again, plucking a peach blossom and offering it to her. His expression now was no different from then, as if he was hoping for a genuine smile from her.
“This is the second time you’ve given me flowers,” Li Fei said, her lips curving into a smile, giving him a truly radiant grin. “Thank you, I love it.”
The peach blossom from Wuyue Palace had been carefully preserved with her wood elemental spiritual energy, always looking fresh and vibrant. But now it was probably gone. So this time, she would treasure this Twelfth Life flower even more carefully.
This was the most sincere and brightest smile she had ever given him since they met. Although she often smiled, most of the time it seemed like she was smiling for the sake of smiling. Lei Xiuyuan felt an unprecedented sense of satisfaction and joy in his heart. He instinctively reached out to touch her cheek, her skin as delicate as flower petals under his fingertips. Although it was the first time he had touched her like this, it felt so familiar and nostalgic.
Li Fei looked at him with a smile and asked, “You once told me that the Twelfth Life flower tastes amazing. Have you secretly tried it?”
Lei Xiuyuan shook his head, “Although the taste is exquisite, those who eat it experience hallucinations of twelve lifetimes within a day. After waking up, they easily fall into confusion. Minor cases result in incoherent speech, while severe cases can lead to madness and death. It’s not to be taken lightly.”
Li Fei gently rotated the glass bead, the red flower inside silently blooming as it spun. She said softly, “Before, I thought that when I had the chance to see it, I would want to try it, to see what kind of twelve lifetimes I would experience. Now that I’ve seen it, I don’t want to eat it anymore. I know what hallucinations I would see, and it’s not intriguing at all.”
Lei Xiuyuan asked curiously, “What would it be?”
Li Fei winked at him, “Guess.”
…Why did he feel that these two words sounded particularly annoying coming from her mouth? He pinched her cheek, intending to leave a red mark, but found himself unable to. What he wanted to do was to cradle her in his palm, this seemingly fragile yet surprisingly resilient girl.
“Xiuyuan,” Li Fei grabbed his sleeve, her bright eyes full of aspiration capturing his soul, “In the future, we’ll go to many, many places together, and see many, many sights. We’ll always be together, forever.”
She knew, without a doubt, that even in the hallucinations of twelve lifetimes, she would fall in love with the same person twelve times. They had already come overseas, and from now on, the sky was the limit. They were free. She would retrace the scenery her master had once walked, while he and Riyan would be eager to explore all unknowns. Their future lives would surely be free from fear and tears.
Lei Xiuyuan took out a small silk pouch from his bosom and poured out a broken horn, the one he had snatched from her hand earlier.
“Now are you willing to let me heal you?” Li Fei asked. She could restore this Yaksha horn to its original position, allowing his true Yaksha power to be restored. This must be his wish as well.
To her surprise, he shook his head, “No hurry.”
Then he poured out a string of shiny glass beads from the silk pouch, clearly a hair ornament for women. Li Fei was slightly startled. She picked it up and looked at it closely, exclaiming, “Oh? This is…”
This string of beads seemed to be hers, right? She remembered that during the martial arts competition at Wuyue Palace, Lei Xiuyuan had snatched it from her head. She had always liked this string of beads, and later couldn’t find one with the same style. She never expected that even after coming overseas, he would still keep it.
“When I woke up, I found it always kept close to my heart. I thought it must have been something I treasured before, so I didn’t discard it,” Lei Xiuyuan said with a deliberate teasing smile. “You don’t recognize it? Could it be from another woman?”
“It’s mine,” Li Fei glanced at him helplessly. What a terrible joke he was making. With that nose of his held so high, no woman would dare to approach him.
Even if some secretly admired him, they would eventually discover some of his extremely unpleasant habits. For instance, he never treated those he didn’t care about as people. Most women in the cultivation world, regardless of their level of cultivation, were quite proud and would never stop desperately pursuing someone. Over the years, Lei Xiuyuan had never encountered a single instance of unwanted romantic attention. She didn’t know whether to feel relieved or amazed at the coincidence.
“Then I definitely can’t return it to its original owner,” Lei Xiuyuan snatched the string of glass beads back from her hand and continued to put it in the silk pouch. “It’s still mine now.”
This overbearing yet somewhat childish action didn’t annoy her at all. Li Fei smiled and cupped his face. Unexpectedly, he suddenly dropped another line with a straight face: “My bed is very large, it wouldn’t be a problem to add one more person. Will the Mountain Spirit lady strip naked and slip into my blanket tonight?”
“…” She was momentarily speechless. This is what men are like! When emotions run high, a single embrace or even just a glance is enough to make her heart flutter, but he immediately thinks of these things.
“Have you been hoping every night these past two years for someone to strip naked and slip into your blanket?” Li Fei glared at him. “You’re the esteemed Divine Emissary, haven’t you had your fill of luxuries and beauties?”
Lei Xiuyuan flicked her forehead, “I told you, it depends on the person.”
“I’m so honored.”
Li Fei didn’t have the patience to dwell on this issue. His gaze was like that of a wolf who hadn’t smelled meat in years suddenly encountering a piece of fat. She helplessly stood up, grabbed a handful of snow from the windowsill, and when he wasn’t paying attention, threw it all over his head and face, laughing loudly, “Dream on! You think a single flower is enough to make the Mountain Spirit throw herself at you?”
Before she finished speaking, she had already lightly leaped up, intending to jump out of the window. She had only jumped halfway when her waist was caught in his embrace. She was forced to flip over, and the next moment, cold white snow was also sprinkled all over her face. Li Fei laughed and screamed, messing up all the snow on the windowsill, grabbing it, and throwing it around.
This scene was reminiscent of their time at the academy when she had her first snowball fight, and Lei Xiuyuan was her opponent. She rolled off the windowsill into a pile of snow, quickly made a large snowball, and as she saw Lei Xiuyuan jumping out after her, she immediately threw it at him with all her might, then sprang up like a rabbit and ran far away.
He soon caught up with her. Li Fei felt a weight on her body as he pounced on her, tackling her to the snowy ground. They rolled several times together. She pinned down his two hands on the ground, straddling him with a fierce grin, just like when she was young, “Do you yield?”
Lei Xiuyuan lay on his back in the snow, his eyes flickering with an unexpectedly coquettish light.
“I don’t yield,” he said softly, just about to easily counter her when he suddenly saw her eyes redden in an instant. She stared at him, her voice trembling, “Did you remember?”
Their conversation, this endless snow, everything was just like that day, as if in a dream.
Lei Xiuyuan was silent for a moment, then raised his hand to pull her into his embrace. Falling once again into this familiar yet strange embrace, Li Fei couldn’t help but take a deep breath. His scent hadn’t changed at all. For a moment, she couldn’t tell which Lei Xiuyuan he was. She trembled with excitement, repeatedly asking him, “Did you remember?”
“…I’m sorry, I didn’t,” he said softly, stroking her slender back as if to comfort her.
Li Fei felt a wave of disappointment, her throat aching intensely. She said softly, “It’s okay, I’ll tell you many, many more things.”
Lei Xiuyuan pressed her head against him, “No need to say more.”
“You don’t want to hear it anymore?”
“It’s not that, it’s just not necessary anymore.”
Why? Li Fei looked up at him.
Lei Xiuyuan smiled, his voice becoming very gentle, “Does it matter whether I remember or not?”
He had already fallen into her delicate hands. Even if he couldn’t remember his past life, it didn’t matter. He would still fall in love with the same person, which was enough to prove that she hadn’t loved the wrong person, and he wasn’t just playing around.
Seeing Li Fei staring at him blankly, both innocent and confused, as if she hadn’t yet processed his words, he suddenly embraced her and sat up. He lowered his head and pressed his lips heavily onto her half-open, soft lips, rubbing and entangling them closely. Her breath was faint and lingering, enchanting to the bone. Countless cold snowflakes fell, licking and spreading between her lips, gradually beginning to invade inwards.
“Does it matter?”
The deep and prolonged kiss slowly turned into a series of pecks. Lei Xiuyuan kissed her face gently, while softly asking the same question.
His hand quietly slipped into her collar, his palm almost immediately covering her breast, like holding a soft little dove. Li Fei’s whole body trembled, and she immediately began to struggle. He restrained her, kissing from her cheek down to her neck, continuing downwards, still asking her, “Is it any different from before?”
Li Fei struggled greatly, and he finally loosened his grip a bit, allowing her to frantically break free. She clutched her collar, her face flushed as she gasped, “This… this is outside! You… you…”
Lei Xiuyuan spread his hands innocently, smiling slightly, “I imagine the previous me wasn’t much better?”
Li Fei glared at him for a while, then turned and walked away, “I’m going back.”
After a few steps, he caught her arm again, pulling her back into his embrace. Seeing her constant struggle, Lei Xiuyuan sighed, “Silly child, have I ever done anything you didn’t like?”
He picked her up, looked up at her for a moment, then suddenly frowned with a smile, “Since you said you’d stay with me, you’re not allowed to leave anymore. No matter what, you have to stay by my side.”