Future Zhang Lexuan, Imprisoned?? (Seeking Recommendations, Seeking Collections)

"Of course I am Zhang Lexuan." The woman's voice was low and hoarse, carrying a deep affection that had been suppressed for far too long.

Immediately, she lowered her head to look at Liu Lin, who was pinned beneath her.

"It's just that I am the Zhang Lexuan of the future."

Liu Lin sighed. He had known that neither Zhang Lexuan's soul ring configuration—which differed from the original work—nor their conversation earlier that day had been normal.

At the time, he had tried to deceive himself into thinking it was merely a coincidence, yet here she was, coming to find him in the middle of the night.

However, thanks to the incident with the Three-Eyed Golden Ni, Liu Lin's expression remained remarkably calm.

"Then how did you return here?" Liu Lin asked, looking up at Zhang Lexuan, who was straddling his waist.

Zhang Lexuan raised an eyebrow slightly. She had expected Liu Lin to be confused or to think she had lost her mind, but she hadn't anticipated such a calm expression on his face.

"You seem to have accepted that I am the future Zhang Lexuan quite quickly."

There was a hint of surprise and an imperceptible trace of disappointment in her tone; she had expected their reunion to elicit a more intense reaction from him.

Liu Lin couldn't help but roll his eyes internally. How could he not accept it quickly?

He was a transmigrator himself, and with the Three-Eyed Golden Ni as a precedent, he wouldn't have been that shocked even if Zhang Lexuan had been an Immortal Emperor reborn.

Liu Lin even felt that if another version of himself were to travel here from a parallel world one day, he probably wouldn't be too surprised either.

"You still haven't answered my question," Liu Lin said, looking at Zhang Lexuan.

Upon hearing his words, Zhang Lexuan didn't answer immediately. Instead, she tightened her arms, pulling Liu Lin closer into her embrace.

Her movements were gentle, as if she were afraid of shattering something precious, but the strength of her grip betrayed her true emotions.

It was a near-paranoid possessiveness, a fear that he might slip through her fingers once again.

Liu Lin felt a bit breathless from her hold. Just as he was about to ask her to loosen her grip, he saw Zhang Lexuan take something out of her storage soul tool.

It was a pair of shackles, entirely silver-white, gleaming with a cold metallic luster under the moonlight. The chains were thin, yet they were engraved with dense soul tool patterns—clearly a soul tool specifically designed to restrain soul masters.

Liu Lin's eyelid twitched, and he felt as if he were on the verge of tears.

No way, she has a yandere streak too? Just what kind of person did my future self provoke? Liu Lin felt like he was on the verge of a breakdown at the sight of the chains.

However, he quickly regained control of his emotions, took a deep breath, and tried to make his voice sound as calm as possible.

"Zhang Lexuan, what are you doing?"

"I'm just afraid you'll move around tonight, so I have to tie you up." Zhang Lexuan's tone was so calm it was almost matter-of-fact, as if Liu Lin were her personal property.

With that, she gently clicked one end of the chain onto Liu Lin's wrist. Looking at the shackle on his wrist, Liu Lin's face filled with despair.

"Tonight, you belong only to me. Don't move around; I won't do anything. If you don't listen, you know the consequences," Zhang Lexuan whispered into his ear.

Feeling the warmth of her breath against his ear, Liu Lin tried to use his common sense regarding national laws to awaken her reason.

"No, no, don't do this. This is pedophilia; you'll be punished for this."

Zhang Lexuan shook her head, her movements never faltering. She secured the other end of the chain to the bedpost, leaving just enough length for Liu Lin to lie down, but not enough to leave the bed.

After finishing, Zhang Lexuan lay down beside him again, pulled him into her arms, rested her chin on the top of his head, and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath to savor his scent.

Her body trembled slightly, like a traveler who had finally returned to the only place that could bring her peace after a long, arduous journey.

"I don't care," she said, her voice as soft as a dream. "Tonight, you are mine."

Then, she began to recount how she had returned. Her voice was light and calm, as if she were narrating an old dream that no longer concerned her.

Trapped by the chains at the head of the bed, Liu Lin couldn't escape and could only lie in her arms and listen.

"I returned here because of a spatial-temporal turbulence in the future. You don't need to know the rest for now; after all, you are still too weak."

"Spatial-temporal turbulence?" Liu Lin muttered to himself.

According to Zhang Lexuan, he would become a god in the future. Given his personality, if he had known about the turbulence, he should have made preparations.

The most logical explanation was that some events in the future had exceeded his expectations.

Zhang Lexuan paused upon hearing his words, then nodded. "Yes, the spatial-temporal turbulence sent a wisp of my divine consciousness back here."

As she spoke, Zhang Lexuan's fingers gently stroked Liu Lin's hair, her movements impossibly tender.

"The first thing I did upon returning was to kill those enemies with my own hands. On the night of the massacre, I used my divine power to possess my past self and slaughtered them all."

"That way, the past me wouldn't be bound by the marriage contract with Mu En. Without that contract, she wouldn't have fallen for Bei Bei, wouldn't have taken that wrong path, and wouldn't have ended up like me—only realizing what she truly wanted after losing it."

After saying this, she added as if talking to herself, "This way, we won't miss each other again."

Liu Lin fell silent, finally understanding the nature of Zhang Lexuan's current state.

"When my past self broke through to become a Great Soul Master, I woke up and used my divine power to nourish her meridians, causing a qualitative change in her physical constitution."

Hearing her follow-up, he finally understood why her soul ring configuration differed from the original work. It wasn't that he had remembered it wrong; she had been nourished by her future self's divine power from the very beginning.

She paused, her voice softening even further.

"She fell asleep tonight, and I missed you so much that I had to come out. We won't do anything tonight; let's just sleep like this."

Liu Lin glanced at the silver-white chain still hanging from his wrist, which emitted a faint clinking sound at the slightest movement.

"Can you at least unlock the chains first?" Liu Lin asked tentatively.

"No." Zhang Lexuan didn't even open her eyes, her voice carrying a faint, elusive hint of a smile.

"...Fine." Liu Lin gave up. He resigned himself to his fate, closing his eyes and letting Zhang Lexuan treat him like a heated body pillow.

I don't know how much time had passed when Zhang Lexuan's voice rang out again, as light as a feather landing on the surface of a lake.

"Liu Lin."

"Hm?"

"It's good that you're still alive."

Liu Lin didn't answer. He didn't know what he should say. He wasn't the Liu Lin from Zhang Lexuan's memories—at least, not yet.

But he could feel the emotion behind her words; it wasn't possessiveness, but the purest form of relief, one that had been smoothed of all its jagged edges by the passage of time.

Relief that she hadn't arrived too late this time, and relief that fate had granted her a second chance.

Drowsiness finally swallowed Liu Lin whole, and in the end, she drifted into a deep sleep nestled in Zhang Lexuan's arms.

Before her consciousness faded, Liu Lin vaguely felt someone press a light kiss to her forehead.