Heiress

Qiao Yuanxi suddenly looked up, and her vision blurred.

A figure had abruptly appeared in the empty space beside her.

Qiao Yuanxi's eyes were filled with disbelief.

That gentle smiling face seemed truly real—not in her longing and memories, nor in a dream.

"Don't recognize me anymore?" Lu Ran patted Xiao Yuanxi on the head.

"Brother?" The girl's voice was soft, as though she feared that speaking too loudly would wake her up and make the figure before her vanish.

"Long time no see, Xiao Yuanxi."

Qiao Yuanxi did not respond. Instead, she reached out with her pair of soft, fair little hands, pulled down the hand resting atop her head, and squeezed it hard.

Again and again, she confirmed that the youth before her was real.

Lu Ran smiled. "What, you don't believe it?"

He instinctively caught the girl as she threw herself into his arms, staggering back a step.

Qiao Yuanxi had been kneeling before the Celestial Goat Stone Statue.

When she rose and lunged into Lu Ran's arms, she had the momentum of a football player diving for a header.

Her head struck Lu Ran's lower abdomen first.

Hmm. There had probably been some intent behind that, too?

Lu Ran did not dodge.

He had even thoughtfully dismissed his Water Flow Armor.

This was his precious treasure. What if her head got damaged from the collision?

"You're back." Qiao Yuanxi wrapped her arms tightly around Lu Ran's neck and buried her face beside his.

She murmured in a whisper, as though sleep-talking in a dream.

"Mm." Lu Ran gently rubbed Xiao Yuanxi's head with one hand, lamenting that the younger sister of old had already become a grown young woman.

In truth, Lu Ran had accompanied Qiao Yuanxi all the way when she climbed the mountain.

When