Even after someone managed to infiltrate the residence with great difficulty, they could not find Miss Biao’s whereabouts.
It was as if she never existed.
Prince Xin, enraged, broke a writing desk in half and immediately had the unsuccessful person executed.
Wei Yun’s trip to Yidan country was to seek an answer.
Prince Xin had been guarding the border for many years, winning many battles, but Wei Yun, upon close investigation, felt that something was amiss.
This time, he was determined to find out the truth in Yidan country.
And his journey there was bound to be especially arduous and perilous.
But he did not want to mention these dangers to Xie Tao.
“Will it be very dangerous?”
Xie Tao suddenly looked up.
“Not particularly dangerous,” Wei Yun replied briefly.
“That’s good then.”
Xie Tao seemed to be slightly reassured, “Then you must come back soon…”
She rubbed her cheek against his chest, holding onto his sleeve, her fair face showing obvious reluctance.
“Alright.”
Wei Yun softly agreed, his hand supporting her waist, his long eyelashes casting shadows over the complexity hidden deep within his eyes.
The lively sound from the TV continued, but Xie Tao fell asleep in Wei Yun’s arms without realizing it.
Listening to her gentle breathing, Wei Yun’s fingers lightly brushed over the soft hair by her ear, his expression as tender as the shimmering light on spring water, melting the snow in the mountains.
Finally, Wei Yun gently picked up Xie Tao and carried her upstairs.
After placing her on the bed and covering her with a thin blanket, Wei Yun sat on the edge of the bed, his eyes fixed on the girl’s sleeping face, not moving away for a long time.
Such an expression was deeply affectionate and tender.
After a long while, he suddenly bent down, only inches away from her, almost feeling her breath coming towards him.
When his lips touched her soft ones,
he saw the girl, who had her eyes closed, seemingly couldn’t help but twitch her eyelids, causing her eyelashes to tremble as well.
Wei Yun’s pupils shrank slightly, his back stiffening for a moment.
But as he quickly pulled away, he saw the girl still unwittingly frowning, her eyes tightly closed in a stiff manner, while the slightly red-eared Wei Yun inexplicably tugged at the corner of his mouth.
Then he reached out and pinched her cheek.
“Open your eyes.”
Wei Yun’s voice was a bit hoarse, yet still clear and cold.
Xie Tao had actually woken up in a daze when Wei Yun picked her up, but she had not opened her eyes.
She had been pretending to sleep quite successfully, but at the moment Wei Yun kissed her, she couldn’t help but move her eyelids, even her breathing unconsciously held.
She had given herself away.
But at this moment, she still did not open her eyes.
“Xie Tao.”
Wei Yun pinched her cheek, his voice low, as if very calm.
But seeing that she still refused to open her eyes, Wei Yun shook his head, chuckled lightly after a moment, and simply let go, standing up, only saying, “Go to sleep.”
But as he turned to leave, Xie Tao, who had been lying on the bed with her eyes closed, suddenly sat up and grabbed his wrist.
When Wei Yun turned back, he met her round apricot eyes.
“Wei Yun…”
She knew, once he left this room, he would return to that time and space.
Wei Yun looked at her for a moment, as if sighing, he suddenly picked her up.
Xie Tao almost instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist, and just as she looked up at him, he pinched her chin with one hand.
His kiss came very suddenly.
As if deliberately lingering on her soft lips for a moment, later, his nose touching hers, when he spoke, his voice became even more husky:
“Tao Tao,”
His lips gently brushed the corner of hers, “Wait obediently for me to come back.”
At this moment, Xie Tao was like a curling mimosa, feeling a bit dizzy, her face already flushed, her eyelashes trembling again and again.
He rarely took the initiative to kiss her like this, even showing such affection.
The Xie Tao, who was used to stealing kisses from him, faced such a him, became even more shy, even afraid to look at him.
Later, Wei Yun put Xie Tao back on the bed and picked up the thin blanket that she had kicked under the bed, covering her with it.
When Wei Yun walked out of her room and closed the door, leaning against the wall, he lightly touched his slightly warm earlobe with his cold fingertips, those eyes that had just shown tenderness were now gradually icing over.
As he stood straight, a mysterious veil that seemed to carry the swirling nebula of a thousand miles appeared before him.
The moment the light veil disappeared, there was no one left in the corridor.
Xie Tao pushed open the door and walked out, staring at the empty corridor for a long while, not knowing how much time had passed before she lowered her gaze and walked back to her room.
What Xie Tao did not expect was that Wei Yun’s departure would last a month.
It was as if she had returned to the days before she met him, when they could only contact each other through WeChat.
But it seemed a little different than before.
No longer busy with part-time jobs, she had only studying to do during this holiday, though sometimes, she would also help out at the small tavern.
Perhaps the medicine from Old Xi had an effect, as Xie Tao found herself learning spells much faster than before.
Now, besides setting off fireworks, she could also use some other minor spells.
But throughout the entire summer vacation, she still had not seen Wei Yun.
Worse yet, a week after school started, she suddenly lost contact with Wei Yun, and even Meng Lichun and Nian Jitang disappeared one after another, no longer to be seen.
Xie Tao tried sending many messages to Wei Yun but never got a response.
Even when she sent videos, they could never connect.
Upon learning of Wei Yun’s disappearance and Meng Lichun’s vanishing, Old Xi, usually calm and composed, also furrowed his brows.
He seemed to sense something was amiss.
“Don’t worry, Tao Tao, I’ll look into this,” Old Xi finally said to Xie Tao.
He was not supposed to interfere with matters between timespaces, but… the inexplicable disappearance of Meng Lichun, even he could no longer sense her presence, which made him uneasy.
This was the first time in many years that Old Xi had left the tavern.
Xie Lan said he must have gone to the divine realm, a unique existence stripped away from two timespaces.
In the two days after losing contact with Wei Yun, Xie Tao barely slept well, always worried that he might have encountered some danger.
But ultimately, there was nothing she could do.
The night was very dark, with hardly a star or the moon in the sky outside the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Xie Tao sat in the empty living room, her eyes blankly staring out the window for a long time, at the pitch-black sky, yet as she watched, she always remembered that summer night in the Great Zhou.
On the high rooftop, the stars seemed within reach.
Remembering the cool night breeze blowing his snow-white sleeves, momentarily covering her eyes with that inch of white.
She sat alone in the living room until deep into the night.
Later, she curled up on the sofa, her eyes fixed on the crystal lamp on the ceiling, not knowing if the sudden moisture in her eyes was because the light was too dazzling or something else.
Holding her phone, she lit up the screen, staring quietly at the screen saver until the screen went dark again, and then she lit it up once more.
Her wallpaper was no longer the painting it used to be.
Instead, it was a photo she had secretly taken one afternoon of Wei Yun reading in the garden.
Meanwhile, Wei Yun, in another timespace, had just cut through someone’s throat with the sword in his hand, blood spraying out, dots of blood staining his face.
At that moment, his eyes were bloodshot with fury.
Heavy rain poured down, each drop of rain smashing down and soaking into the numerous wounds on his body, blending with the blood that flowed from them.
His once vibrant crimson robe was now soaked with blood, marked with numerous cuts from swords and blades.
The long sword in his hand was also stained with many droplets of blood, which, washed by the rain, faded in color and gradually slid off the tip of the blade.
He leaped up and thrust the long sword downwards, deeply into the heart of a man in black.
Without hesitation, he withdrew the long sword, splattering blood, and the man lying on the ground stared wide-eyed, dying with his eyes open.
Thus, a total of thirty people had died by his sword.
Wei Yun finally collapsed from exhaustion, thrusting his long sword deep into the ground, and knelt on one knee, his face smeared with blood, slightly lifted. The rain hitting his face eventually brought him back to a semblance of consciousness.
After a moment, he struggled to get up, walked over to the other side, and bent down to pick up the blood-stained copper talisman.
The wound on his arm, pierced by a bullet, was still bleeding, along with several other cuts and gashes on his body. Wei Yun had hardly walked a few steps before he fell into a patch of withered grass.
At that time, the sky was very dark, and a sweet, metallic taste surged in his throat, causing him to spit out blood.
As his consciousness began to blur, his hand propped himself up with the long sword. As he pushed himself up, his fingers slid from the hilt to the sharp blade, instantly cutting his palm.
But he did not let go; instead, he gripped the blade even tighter.
It seemed that only this acute pain could keep him momentarily conscious.
Suddenly, a light curtain that seemed to encompass spirals of nebulae appeared, wrapping around the only living person in this wilderness, and in the blink of an eye, it vanished without a trace.
Xie Tao was suddenly awakened by the sound of something falling to the ground.
As she opened her eyes, she saw the blood-stained man lying in the living room.
“Wei Yun!”
