Unease

After Chi Li woke up, Si Jinyan did not feel any more grounded because of it.

Chi Li no longer grew angry at his approach, no longer showed obvious rejection. Instead, he was rarely silent, quietly observing and scrutinizing him.

Chi Li's changes made the hollow in Si Jinyan's chest grow ever larger. Something was slowly fading away within it, making him increasingly uneasy.

Chi Li sensed it too. Si Jinyan was deliberately keeping his distance.

Perhaps he was giving him enough space, but regardless, Chi Li truly needed time to sort through some thoughts.

Whenever he saw Si Jinyan, he thought of Jin lying in a pool of blood. What followed were the deaths of his fathers, and that stifling, crushing pain swept over him once more.

Chi Li felt that the cruelest part of this "memory" was probably how real it was. Decades later, he had experienced that pain again, pain that pierced his heart.

That was perhaps one reason why Chi Li repeatedly questioned its authenticity after waking up.

He doubted whether he had truly experienced those memories.

After waking from the "dream," there was too much Chi Li needed to piece together again.

His uncle had passed away. As for the deaths of his fathers, he could only seek confirmation from Luolan's current emperor. His fathers' pasts—why could nothing at all about the pasts of these "heroes" be found in historical records or on Starnet?

And Si Jinyan...

After Chi Li woke up, he recalled the scene of Si Jinyan cutting open his heart and taking a Scale. He did not know why that perspective remained in his memories. He had already passed out then, yet he had seen Si Jinyan cut open his heart and take a Scale in the dream.

He should not have