The next day was still the same as yesterday.
I played with Velvet, and Shen Yuan occasionally offered suggestions that made both Velvet and me even more joyful.
At noon, I squatted in the shadow of the big tree and broke the steamed buns in my hand to feed Velvet.
I looked up and saw the strong men of Yanfeng Lumen escorting a carriage along the road leaving the town.
The curtains on the carriage swayed in the wind, and through the gap, I glimpsed the black-clad knight sitting inside.
They didn't notice me feeding the dog under the tree, nor Shen Yuan enjoying the shade on the branch.
When they walked away, I looked at the tree. "Your old friends are gone."
Shen Yuan took the fan he had woven from leaves and fanned his stomach while lying with his eyes closed. He hummed as if he didn't care. After a while, he opened his eyes, lowered his head, and asked me, "Do you want to go back to the inn to rest for a while?"
I shook my head and rubbed Velvet's head. "I want to play with Velvet for a while longer."
The sun tilted. Time went at its own pace toward evening. Outside the town, I found an open space with no trees around, no mountains. I stood in the middle of the clearing with Velvet, while Shen Yuan stood next to me, arms folded, looking at me.
And I squatted in front of Velvet, feeling inexplicably nervous.
After two days and a night of getting along, Velvet already looked at me when I squatted down, with big black eyes, as if I were someone special.
I reached out and touched its head.
The night before last, when we first met, I was afraid of it and it was afraid of me. But today, it would push my hand with its head. The fluffy little head nudged against my palm for a while, then fell to the side by itself, turned to show its belly with some expectation, stuck out its tongue, and let me pet it.
"Velvet." I called it, and it immediately turned over and tilted its head to look at me.
I swallowed.
Time passed slowly. Velvet didn't urge me, and neither did Shen Yuan.
Shen Yuan even sat down next to me and reached out to pet Velvet with me.
"Everything is ready. I think I should say it now..." I said. "But I don't know what I'm hesitating about..."
"Then hesitate for a while." Shen Yuan lay down on the spot.
I was stunned when I heard this. I really didn't expect to hear such an answer. I turned my head and saw Shen Yuan actually lying on the ground, resting his hand on his head and starting to look at the stars!
"Just... like that?" I was puzzled. "Our plan is for tonight."
Shen Yuan looked at the night sky. "I really didn't think it through today, so let's leave it to tomorrow. Emotional matters are like this—born with the heart, moved with the heart. They cannot be forced. Let's look at the stars for a while."
Shen Yuan said this and patted the open space next to him.
I lay down with confusion, and when I looked up, I saw a dazzling array of stars I hadn't seen before.
The stars twinkled, eternal and unchanging.
In the Divine Realm, in order to mature, I worked hard every day—persisting through wind and rain, constantly competing for spiritual energy. I wanted to be a tree. I just wanted to hold onto the ground under my feet, so I never had time to look at the starry sky above.
It turned out that every night when I didn't look up, they flashed so beautifully.
Velvet thought that Shen Yuan and I were lying on the ground playing, so it ran over, nuzzled my head, and stretched out its tongue to lick my face.
It tickled. I smiled and dodged.
After playing around for a while, the fluffy dog's head settled between me and Shen Yuan. It also turned onto its back, stuck out its tongue, and looked at the starry sky with us.
I raised my hand, reached to the side, and touched Velvet's paw. "Velvet, you are so cute. I like you so much."
Dogs don't lie, and neither do my most straightforward feelings. As Shen Yuan said, emotional matters are born and move according to the heart, as if... it doesn't need to be that hard at all.
I don't know if Velvet understood what I was saying, but I seemed to understand myself a little better.
I really liked it... at this moment.
In the sky, a red star was twinkling, falling from far to near. This time, I saw clearly the whole process of the "falling stone from the sky" descending.
Before it had a real impact on the world, I suddenly sat up from the ground and picked up a stone.
"Velvet!" I shouted. "Go chase!"
I used all my strength to throw the stone as far as I could.
I watched Velvet bound happily, chasing after the stone.
Then the fire came, the blazing white light shining on everything. At the last moment, I felt Shen Yuan next to me also sit up. He put his hand on top of my head and touched it gently. "You know, it must like you too."
"Boom."
The world went dark.
I was up and down, and once again I fell into my body.
It was still night, and I had returned to this inn.
This was the first night when Shen Yuan and I came to the world. We walked out of the mountains and forests. Shen Yuan went to the temple to steal the offering money of other immortals, and then we came to stay in this inn.
Now, at this moment, it should be the moment before I saw Velvet, so Shen Yuan should have been standing outside the door of my room holding Velvet.
But I waited for a long time, and there was no knock at the door.
"Come in." I simply took the initiative to speak.
The door was finally pushed open, and Shen Yuan walked in holding Velvet in his arms.
It was still the same puppy, but when Shen Yuan put it on the ground, it gave me a timid look, then hid behind Shen Yuan's heels.
As before, it was a little afraid of me.
I still remembered playing with it before. I still remembered that we were lying on the grass together, that it rubbed against my palm, that I touched its paws and said I liked it. But I didn't remember...
No, it had never experienced it at all...
"Where did you find Velvet?"
"It was left at the door of the inn."
It turned out to be an abandoned puppy...
"Then help it find a kind family who is willing to raise it." I said. "It's too dangerous to follow us."
Shen Yuan nodded. "I'll go find one. You have a good rest tonight."
In the most ordinary conversation, Shen Yuan didn't joke or tease me. He even cooperated, picked up Velvet, and walked outside.
I watched Shen Yuan leave with Velvet. I pursed my lips and gritted my teeth before saying—"Wait, let me touch it again."
This time, I was also afraid. Afraid that if I said this, Velvet would follow me to endure hardships.
When Shen Yuan's voice going downstairs disappeared, I touched my heart, only to feel that my heart was pulled by something, sour and aching.
It seemed it hadn't been long in the world, but it felt like a long time had passed. I had hated Shen Yuan, I had liked the puppy, and now...
I would still feel reluctant and sad.
I threw myself on the bed, lay flat, looked at the ceiling, kept my eyes open all night, and kept thinking about the past few days. The more I thought... the angrier I became!
Angry at Shen Yuan.
"What kind of love advice are you giving!" Early in the morning, I found Shen Yuan who was sending the dog away, with dark circles under my eyes, and I began to scold him. "Humans and dogs are different species—how can it be true love! Why did you give me this bad idea two days ago!"
What's even more infuriating!
I actually believed it!
Shen Yuan, who was blocked by me at the door of the room, blinked. He looked at me, then smiled and emphasized, "To be precise, it should be the idea I gave you last night. But because time has gone back, I haven't given you any advice yet."
"You don't have to smile at me! Get around me!" I fumed. "I don't think you understand your work at all, and you can't tell what true love is."
"Xiao Liangguo, what you said is a bit unjust. My work has been fruitful." He quibbled. "Look, puppies can't lie. Doesn't Velvet really..."
"Don't say those dangerous words!" I interrupted him.
"Hmm... In short, the puppy really responded to you. As for you, you also have some insights. This proves that my strategy is correct. Dogs are more sincere than humans and are easily drawn in, but I didn't expect that it wouldn't recognize your curse."
"This curse of mine was inflicted by your eight hundred immortal friends!"
"Yes, and not by me." Shen Yuan said innocently. "It's because they understand the scope of true love too narrowly."
After saying this, he picked himself clean of all responsibility.
"I think you are just unreliable." I turned my back, ignored him, and began to think about how to solve the problem on my own.
Shen Yuan gracefully circled in front of me and approached. "Actually, the past two days weren't in vain. I have a new idea now..."
"Stop." I interrupted him. "I tried your method once. This time you can cooperate with my method."
Shen Yuan raised his eyebrows. I saw that he still had opinions to express, but I was too lazy to argue with him more, so I simply said arbitrarily, "If you tell me to stop, I've given you a chance, but you didn't grasp it yourself. Now look at what this is!"
I raised my hand.
Shen Yuan was right—the past two days weren't in vain. I had also signed this red thread contract with him. This contract was connected to his true body in the Nine Heavens, and it did not follow our time back and forth in the human world.
I pointed to the red acacia flower mark on the back of my hand and said proudly, "I am saving your aura, and our cooperation is what you asked me for. Who should be in charge—do you know clearly? Is this your attitude toward asking for help?"
After being lectured by my words, Shen Yuan looked at me, then at the flower on my hand, then pursed his lips and nodded. "Well, okay, okay. You say. Let me hear your solution."
He straightened his attitude. I snorted, walked past him, and stood on the second floor of the inn. I looked down through the stairs.
The town inn didn't have many pedestrians, so I thought for a moment. "Don't pick from this inn. Go out. Widen the field of vision." I patted my heart. "Although Velvet didn't stay, the feeling for Velvet remained. As long as I find someone who makes me feel like I felt about Velvet, it should be them."
Shen Yuan didn't say a word. He held his hands behind his back and followed me onto the street.
With my dark-circled eyes, I searched left and right on the street, looking around, afraid of missing a "destined person."
I saw a handsome-looking man. I felt carefully and found that there was no fluctuation in my heart. I was just about to walk past when the man suddenly squatted down and petted a stray dog on the side of the road. His expression was gentle. The way he petted the stray dog was very similar to how I petted Velvet.
My heart moved! Immediately! I grabbed the feeling! Stepped forward immediately...
And then...
It was back to the moment before I saw this man.
This time, I passed by the man who was sympathizing with a stray dog on the side of the road.
Then, I set my sights on another man who was performing on the side of the road. He was about to perform breaking stones on his chest, and he shouted, "Look over here, passers-by! I have been lonely since I was a child! Learned martial arts in solitary mountains! After thousands of refinements, I finally achieved the iron shirt golden bell technique! Dear officials and wealthy..."
Since childhood, he had been lonely and learned martial arts in solitary mountains...
This was not unlike Velvet, who had been abandoned since childhood...
With pity, I grabbed the feeling and stepped forward bravely again.
And then...
Reset again.
This time, I walked past the man's stall, listened to his lonely words, watched the feat of breaking stones on his chest, and then chose to pass him silently.
Next, I found a beggar with a broken leg begging on the side of the road, a hunchbacked old man carrying water by the river, and finally even a little girl selling flowers.
Some of them made me feel pitiful, some made me feel cute—these were the feelings I had felt with Velvet.
Yet!
Although they were human, they were not my true love.
My love sank into the sea.
This repeated, tossing and turning nonstop, back and forth, dying repeatedly...
I asked almost everyone I saw on the street, but everyone I touched was not my true love.
I died in different ways, until the sun set...
I was exhausted, not only physically but also mentally.
Under the big tree outside the town—the last time Shen Yuan had taken me and Velvet to play under this tree, this time I had taken Shen Yuan here. With my dark-circled eyes and pulling at the corners of my mouth that couldn't lift, I turned my head and asked Shen Yuan, "Come on, aren't you the god of love? Tell me, what is true love?"
The flower butterfly that had been silently following me sat under the tree. He propped up his head and looked at me with a smile. "Come on, aren't you the god of laws? Tell me, what is an attitude of asking for help?"
My attitude was—with my tired body, I grabbed a stone and threw it hard at Shen Yuan. "That was my small attitude just now. I have a bigger attitude. Do you want to try it?"
Shen Yuan tilted his head to dodge, listened to my words, and laughed again. "What a murderous spirit."
He sat up straight. "Xiao Liangguo, I told you when we went out this morning, I have a new idea. Do you want to listen to it now?"
"Dogs won't work, neither will cats, and animals won't work." I said.
"Then..." Shen Yuan looked at me with a smile, his eyes seeming to shine slightly against the backdrop of the sunset. "Lu Beiteng—do you think he can work?"
Lu Beiteng.
These three words gave my chaotic brain a clear human face.
Mountain road, dressed in black, with tough facial features and a strong physique... and...
Boulders rolling...
"He won't work!" I shook my head and seriously refused. "I tried."
Shen Yuan raised his eyebrows. "You tried?" He looked at me, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Tell me in detail?"
"Didn't you guess it before?" I glanced at Shen Yuan. "Before we met, those two time reversals were because I met Lu Beiteng. I tried twice and both failed."
"But he still remembers you."
I thought for a while. "Perhaps, because the third time, when I hid at the corner of the mountain road and used spiritual energy to save him, he saw it."
Shen Yuan was slightly startled. "Oh." His tone was flat, a little strange. "So I'm not the first person you saved with spiritual energy."
I looked at Shen Yuan. "What's wrong?"
Shen Yuan chose to smile under my indifferent and calm gaze.
"It's nothing."
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