After a good and relaxing bath, Hai along with everyone went to eat something as they were hungry due to their training.
The dinner was uneventful as everyone was relatively tired, so they only ate and made small talks.
However, Hai observed throughout the dinner that Hong Li-Wei was behaving strangely.
'…' Silently observing her and studying her body language, Hai could more or less guess what caused such a reaction.
Holding in a sigh, he decided to talk with her after dinner, because if she didn't bring it up now, then he also wouldn't, at least now.
Like this, the dinner went by in the blink of an eye.
*SNORE*
*SNORE*
Looking downwards, Hai saw Kryn's peaceful expression as she slept while leaning on him and hugging Chilly, who was also sleeping.
"…" Not saying anything, he observed the pair with a small smile on his face.
"Young master." Hearing Elena's voice, Hai turned to the side and was met with Elena wearing more casual clothes and looking at him.
He said nothing and only nodded.
Elena smiled and carefully manipulated her mana, enveloping both Kryn and Chilly before taking them toward the bedroom.
Chang Hua who saw this interaction looked at Hai and then at Hong Li-Wei.
"I will be excusing myself for today." She commented while putting her hand before her mouth to contain a yawn.
Hai only looked at her and nodded while smiling.
"You two, let's go." Chang Hua used her aura and dragged away both Bing Qing and Stella who were still sitting, thinking about mundane life.
Seeing them walking away, Hong Li-Wei also woke up from her daze.
"I…will also be going." She muttered after noticing Hai looking at her.
"Sweetie, nah, Li-Wei, do you want to go for a walk?" Hai asked in a calm tone while getting up.
Hong Li-Wei's bunny ears twitched and she halted in her steps.
Turning around, she was faced with the usual calm Hai she knows.
And because of this, she knew that he had already caught on to the fact that something was bothering her.
With a complicated expression on her face, she sighed before bitterly smiling.
"I can't hide anything from you, can I?" She commented with her ears slightly dropped.
Hai didn't comment anything in response, but widened his smile a little and started to walk toward the door.
"You coming?"
Looking at him, Hong Li-Wei decided to go along.
"Yes, yes, I'm coming." She spoke dismissively before walking to his side.
"…"
"…"
As they both just silently walked through the mansion's corridors, the moonlight entered through the windows granting an even more beautiful illumination to the corridor.
Amidst this silence, Hong Li-Wei was already sure about what he would talk about with her.
"Hai…" Not knowing how to start the conversation, she ended up just calling him.
"Hum~?" He answered with a hum and looked at her with a side glance while still maintaining his calm, peaceful smile.
"About today… the training…" She trailed off, lost in words as to how to phrase it.
Meanwhile, Hai patiently waited for her to organize her thoughts.
Without interrupting her, he silently guided her to the garden where he first met Lin Feng.
Sitting on one of the benches, Hai tapped the seat near him, prompting her to sit.
Without wasting time, Hong Li-Wei sat down and kept silent.
As he observed her immersed in her own thoughts, Hai decided to give her some more time before initiating the conversation.
Taking out an apple from his storage ring, he took a bite and started to munch on it while also thinking to himself.
Hai was still running a few tests with the "power" of the girls being able to hear his thoughts, so he didn't know if they could hear him now or not, but he didn't care at the moment.
As Hong Li-Wei was immersed in her own thoughts and memories, she didn't notice his thoughts, but the other girls did.
Elena, Chang Hua, Stella and Bing Qing who were going to bed heard it and the ones who hadn't noticed something off with Hong Li-Wei earlier started to catch onto something.
"What is he doin-"
*BONK*
"Gah-!" Stella yelped due to the sudden hit and turned to look at Chang Hua, who had a bat made of aura.
"Kryn is sleeping, so shush." She narrowed her eyes when she saw Stella opening her mouth to complain and she raised the bat again.
"…" Stella wisely shut up and let herself continue to be dragged.
Back with Hai, he was still waiting to see if Hong Li-Wei would snap out of her daze and recompose herself.
'System, make yourself useful. Any advice?'
[I apologize host, but I have no knowledge that might be helpful in this case.]
'…'
'When it comes to being useless, you sure shine brighter than the sun.' Hai remarked with a plain face. He already expected as much.
[…]
*SIGH*
Getting out of his thoughts, Hai saw that Hong Li-Wei was still lost in her own thoughts.
Seeing that she probably wouldn't be "waking up" soon, he decided to bring her back to reality.
Moving closer to her, he entered her personal space and noticed that she still showed no reaction.
Smiling mischievously, he slightly opened his mouth and softly bit her bunny ear.
'!!!'
"HYAAAHH❤!!!" She released a loud and slightly erotic scream when she felt the sudden sensation in her ear.
Snapping out of her daze, she turned to the side and glared at Hai.
He, who saw her back to reality, smiled and playfully licked her ear from the tip to the middle.
"Hm!❤" Hong Li-Wei gritted her teeth as her body shivered due to his actions.
Not wanting to go past her limits, Hai contained himself and returned to sitting on his seat, and took a bite of his apple.
"Awake yet?" He completely ignored her glare.
Hong Li-Wei clenched her teeth seeing him blatantly ignoring what he did, but only sighed, in the end.
"Yes." She replied before organizing her thoughts.
"Today at the training… I remembered that day." Her previous countenance took a gloomy turn.
Her expression now was a mixture of anger, self-loathing, sadness, and loss.
The previous energetic bunny woman was no more; now, only a wounded and sad woman was left.
Taking another bite of his apple, Hai calmly looked at her with his light blue neon eyes shining in a mysterious light.
When looking at her like this, his mind instantly spun in action to think of the best solution to the current problem, however, no matter how much he thought, Hai could only reach solutions on the "logical" side of the spectrum, solutions that wouldn't be good in the long run or that involved outright manipulating Hong Li-Wei.
<*SIGH* I'm really a rotten bastard. To think that my "help" would lead my thoughts there.>
Hai was greatly displeased with the direction his thoughts took, but he refrained from expressing it and focused back on Hong Li-Wei.
Then, he saw her looking straight into his eyes as if she could see through him.
'…' Hai chose to keep silent and smiled a little at her.
From her reaction, he knew that his previous thoughts were heard.
"Hai, I have something to tell you." Still with her complicated expression, she spoke after some time looking into his eyes.
"I'm all ears, sweetie." It was already pretty obvious to him what it would be. The timing was too perfect to be something else.
Observing his reaction, Hong Li-Wei stayed silent for some time, before eventually opening her mouth.
"I can hear your thoughts."
'Déjà vu.'
"…" Then, she waited for his reaction while scrutinizing his face.
"Can I also say something?" He asked with a playful smile.
Hong Li-Wei could already see the sarcasm coming her way, but she still nodded.
Hai bent his upper body and bit and placed his mouth near her ears.
"I already knew."
"༼ ◕_◕ ༽" She didn't know how to react.
As Hai amusedly observed how Hong Li-Wei.exe stopped working and her brain went through a reboot, he threw the apple away and it shattered into ice shards.
Picking Hong Li-Wei by her waist, he used of his mana and made a light blue mist, that he molded into a shape to his liking.
Then, he sat on the mist floating midair before laying down on it with Hong Li-Wei on his chest.
"Better now?" He asked while caressing her hair.
Hong Li-Wei woke up from her earlier daze and looked at him.
"…" Not saying anything, she buried her face in his chest.
"I know this sounds cliché, but you can always count on me, you know? I'm not the best with those issues, but I sure am always ready to learn how to be better in them to help you." He said while caressing her hair.
"…" However, he received no answer again.
Not caring, Hai kept going.
"I can't say that I have your years of experience in that field, as I have been living in a caged way. Nor can I say that I understand your suffering since sometimes I don't even view people as people."
"…"
"However…"
"Remember that life is hard, unfair, and full of ups and downs. We sure always like the ups more than the downs, but we've got no choice but to go with both. You suffered unfairly when you were a child; you discovered how hard life was in the "wonderland" called "society"; you experienced several ups from getting to where you stand today, to downs like losing your previous team."
Hong Li-Wei clenched her fists on his clothes.
"It's okay to mourn."
She gritted her teeth.
"It's okay to feel sad."
"S…p." A low whisper escaped her lips.
"It's okay to grief."
"St..op."
"It's okay to cry."
"Ple…ase…"
"It's also okay to hold your tears in, if you wish."
"Please… stop." Her already cracked voice came out so soft and low, like a plea, Hai felt his heart trembling for a moment due to how fragile she looked, but he steeled himself.
"However, sweetie, what is not okay, is to ignore the people that want your good." Hai smiled and cast a magic to stop sounds around them from being heard.
"…" By now, Hong Li-Wei's body was trembling while memories kept replaying in her head.
Her team.
Her friends.
Her family.
Their deaths.
Her grief.
Her sadness.
Her rejection.
Her false self.
Everything played like a movie before her in quick succession.
Unbeknownst to herself, tears appeared at the corner of her eyes and started rolling down her cheeks.
Seeing this, Hai tightened his hug on her and kissed the top of her head.
"Take it slowly, sweetie. And always remember, I love you." He spoke while caressing her head and back.
That night, Hong Li-Wei silently cried while the burden in her heart finally didn't seem to completely squash her down anymore.
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A/N: Hello there, I hope you are having a wonderful day!
Sorry for the lateness, but here is today's chapter
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