The next day, as the morning light gently crept in.
Claremont Manor, the secluded main castle building.
Outside Lin Nuo’s room.
The old Pharmacist, who had followed them from the chapel, looked just like Xī remembered—just as before, he reminded her of all the details she needed to pay attention to while nursing Young Master Lin Nuo back to health.
“Miss XÄ«, I heard that yesterday you and the Young Master went through a magical convergence explosion inside the Illusion Technique.”
“Although the Young Master doesn’t seem to have any obvious wounds, his health wasn’t all that great to begin with.”
“The herbs and potions in the Pharmacy are for your free use. The important things are all here, but the Young Master will still need you to put in extra effort to care for him. Come to think of it, you’re probably the person the Young Master trusts most…”
“Mm.” XÄ« nodded.
“Miss XÄ«, your condition seems pretty good… I heard from Lord Dax Migludia that you didn’t allow the Chief Physician to treat you yesterday…”
“I was curious—since you and the Young Master were trapped by the Illusion Technique together, you should have been injured as well. Which healing expert helped you recover so quickly?”
“If possible, Miss XÄ«, could you perhaps allow the sorcerer who healed you to come in and take a look at the Young Master as well…”
XÄ«’s hands, busy controlling the heat under the medicine cauldron, froze for a moment, her fan pausing in mid-air.
The one who treated her yesterday was actually just the injured Young Master in this very room…
When the Young Master revealed the true purpose of the Water Tornado, and used it to send the Paper Blossoms they were hiding in into the sea, pushing them deeper underwater with a whirlpool to avoid the explosion as much as possible—
XÄ« had felt a warm current surge into her body while she was held tightly in his arms.
It was as if the Young Master, seeing she was completely drained and on the verge of passing out, was sending what little magic power he had left into her.
Something seemed to have sensed his desire to heal her.
Even in her dazed, hazy state, she could vaguely feel his magic flowing into her body, giving off a gentle white light filled with healing warmth.
XÄ« couldn’t remember much else.
All she could recall clearly was that, amid the roaring waves and the surging force of the magical explosion, the Young Master told her to hold on tight.
So she used all her strength to hold him as tightly as she could.
In the end, it was the Young Master who carried her out, and he ended up being the one most severely injured.
XÄ« glanced at the steaming medicine in her hands, steadying her mood.
She raised her hand and pushed open the door.
As the first magician to break the Illusory Cycle Mirage, Lin Nuo, who had earned his wounds with honor, didn’t think it was any big deal.
Just like always, he was sprawled out on the bed, clutching his little yellow book, beginning his second day of recuperation in lazy comfort.
“Good morning.”
When the door opened, Lin Nuo, leaning on the headboard, put down his book and habitually greeted her.
Noticing XÄ«’s outfit today was different than usual, his gaze lingered a bit longer.
Her jet-black hair was tied into three neat braids that hung over her shoulders, perfectly framing her sweet, first-love face—soft, refined, with a straight nose, gentle lips, and dewy skin like a delicate, unopened rosebud.
Even just standing there quietly, she filled the whole room with an inexplicable sweetness.
“Chirp chirp…”
Having been fed by XÄ« for so long, the Fatty Bird, which had once slimmed down thanks to Lin Nuo’s forced diet, had regained all its weight.
It flapped its wings, landed on XÄ«’s shoulder, then, seeing she was carrying something it couldn’t eat, flapped back to Lin Nuo’s side to warm his hands.
XÄ«, as usual, placed the bowl of medicine by his bed and with a swift “swish” pulled the curtains open, letting the morning light gently spill through the spotless windows.
But Lin Nuo felt that today, XÄ«’s clear eyes seemed to have a trace of… unhappiness?
Sure enough, she rarely approached with such a serious face to check on him.
Seeing that Lin Nuo hadn’t started drinking the medicine, her pale fingertip pointed at the bowl.
“Drink it all.”
She said, “Are you going to drink it yourself, or do you want me to feed you? Choose one.”
XÄ« quietly added, “Just so you know, if I have to kiss you this time, I won’t be gentle about it.”
“…”
‘Wait, hold on… Like you were gentle the last time you bit me.’
‘Besides… I’m a patient! Is that how you treat someone who’s sick?’
Normally, XÄ« would soften her voice and say in the gentlest tone, “Young Master, time for your medicine,” coaxing him to drink.
If he thought back further, Lin Nuo remembered when he was a child and scraped his knee, the then-young XÄ« would squat down, ask him where it hurt, carefully apply ointment, and blow gently on the wound…
And somehow, it really did feel like the pain was blown away.
Sitting at the foot of his bed with her skirt smoothed out, XÄ« looked at him for a while before softly asking, “How did you realize, right away in the cellar, that the ‘me’ there was fake?”
“The way she spoke wasn’t like you,” Lin Nuo replied, “Also, I asked the fake you whether you’d told me the day before that you were actually very weak.”
XÄ« thought back two days and couldn’t remember ever saying that to the Young Master.
But she didn’t pursue it, only nodded lightly.
“See?”
“The real you would never get hung up on such details.” Lin Nuo shrugged, “If you really want specifics, I could tell by how long she hesitated.”
XÄ« nodded again.
That day, she remembered, she’d kissed him for quite a while.
If he tried to talk, she’d just silence him with her lips.
A few questions were easy to recall.
“As for hypnosis, once the Dream Eye is inscribed on the Illusion Technique scroll, it can’t be undone…”
XÄ« said, “Only I can control your mind. I won’t use it on you easily…”
Lin Nuo waved his hand, “If it can’t be undone, then just leave it.”
“I never planned to remove it anyway.”
“….”
“I’ll be going out then.”
“Bye.”
XÄ« suddenly turned, casting a glance full of hidden emotion at the man on the bed.
“Chirp chirp…”
Fatty Bird, still flapping its wings as if waving goodbye and telling her in bird language, “Come back soon when you can,” suddenly shrank, sensing something, and buried its head under the covers.
“Don’t you have anything you want to ask, my dear Young Master?” XÄ«, already at the door with her hand on the handle, suddenly spoke.
“Like how I recognized the fake you that was just like you at a glance…”
“Like how you knew I wanted to control your mind, or what I really wanted when I locked you up…”
“The things that fake tried to stir up between us, you and I both heard, didn’t we? You can ask me—was it true when he said I don’t touch you because I look down on you now…”
“And also, when I raised the whip to you, what were you thinking at that moment, and what was I thinking…”
XÄ« seemed very patient, “Any of those is fine.”
“You mean all that…” Lin Nuo thought for a second, “but I don’t have any questions.”
“…..”
“Click!”
Suddenly, XÄ«’s hand moved on the doorknob, calmly turning the lock and twisting around to face the man on the bed.
The sound of XÄ«’s sudden approach made Lin Nuo finally look up from his little yellow book.
Before he could react, XÄ«, already barefoot and kneeling on the bed, pulled him upright in shock.
She grabbed him first, casually tore off the lace ornament from his fair neck, looped it behind his head, and tugged down.
“…Eh!”
Completely unguarded, Lin Nuo nearly fell right into XÄ«’s fragrant, delicate arms.
“I thought you weren’t asking because you’re just slow to react…”
Her voice, barely holding back some intense emotion, rang by his ear, “Now I realize, Young Master, it seems like you’re just itching for trouble—you really need to be taught a lesson!”
“???”
“Young Master, sorry, but I really have to control you now…”
Without another word, XÄ« reached out her hand toward his face.
A blood-red eye appeared in her palm—it was unmistakably the Dream Eye, the mark that triggered his hypnosis.
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