Narcissus, Even in Bud, Still Blooming

"How cute."

Stelle raised a hand. At some point, she had taken off her black glove, and now her smooth, warm fingers lightly touched the Trailblazer's cheek.

"Not only does Aha find your flustered look amusing, but so do I."

"Huh? Me, you..."

The Trailblazer instinctively took a step back, avoiding Stelle's touch.

No way.

Was she really this pathetic?

It was one thing for Aha to laugh at her; now she was even laughing at herself.

What kind of situation was this?

Stelle's fingers remained suspended in midair after being avoided, but there was no displeasure on her face as she slowly lowered her hand.

"So, what's going on with the other me?"

Hearing the Trailblazer's question, Stelle lowered her eyes. She said nothing, only slowly smiling.

The Trailblazer could not understand what that smile meant.

Though they were the same person, the joyous Stelle before her was another version of herself.

Yet she always felt that the other woman was impossible to read.

She had no idea what she was thinking.

And looking at the smile Stelle was giving her...

Only one sentence came to the Trailblazer's mind:

Oh God, Stelle in her joyous state is terrifying!

The Trailblazer simply could not imagine what Sampo, Jing Yuan, and Professor Ratio—whom she had pursued in Joy Mode—had gone through when facing joyous Stelle.

Stelle looked exactly like a domineering sadistic queen!

It would have been one thing if she only acted that way toward the characters she pursued.

But why was she showing that side of herself to herself too? Hey, did she really have to spare no mercy even for herself?

"You haven't awakened yet. Your real self has lost consciousness, which is why you can see me."

That was Stelle's answer.

"Don't worry. Aha is handling it. You'll wake up soon."

The Trailblazer watched Stelle open her four-dimensional backpack and rummage through it.

"What are you looking for?"

"Your backpack is a complete mess." Stelle searched through it for quite some time. "Whenever I take control of the body, I clean it up for you. How did you make it this messy again?"

The Trailblazer scratched her head.

"What does it matter if it's messy? Everything's still in there. It's not like I can't find what I need."

"Ah, forget it." Stelle clearly had no interest in arguing with the Trailblazer. She pulled a Jade Lotus from the bag. "I found it."

"A flower?"

"Yes, a flower. Before you wake up, we need something to pass the time."

Stelle glanced at the Trailblazer. "Come here and watch closely. Your flower-arranging skills are truly appalling. Last time you arranged Jade Lotuses, did you just shove all the stems into a vase and call it done?"

"You really are a cleanliness freak if you noticed even that."

For some reason, the Trailblazer actually let Stelle lead her around by the nose.

She did not realize at all that ever since meeting Stelle, the other woman had held complete control over the direction of their conversation.

But she clearly did not care about that—or perhaps she had not noticed it at all.

At that moment, the Trailblazer moved closer to Stelle, waiting for the little flower-arranging lesson that was about to begin.

(That's right, the great narcissistic plot, the great stream of consciousness, was finally about to begin!)

"The first step of flower arranging is trimming the base of the stem."

Casually, Stelle grabbed a pair of scissors from her backpack and, with a snip, cut away the somewhat cracked root end of the Jade Lotus.

The flower stem seemed to have been in the four-dimensional backpack for too long, so it still needed to be conditioned.

Fingers as fresh and tender as scallions placed the stem into the vase.

Flowers of this variety could not bloom without a little human intervention.

The Trailblazer obediently stayed beside Stelle, watching her flower-arranging technique.

She saw Stelle hold the flower bud steady with one hand while reaching over with the other.

"Wait!"

The Trailblazer suddenly spoke up.

"Do you have to do that to condition the flower? I've never manually opened the petals of a Jade Lotus before."

"That's why I said you know absolutely nothing about flower arranging."

Stelle turned her head to glance at the Trailblazer. "Watch carefully and learn properly. The next time you buy flower stems, don't just toss them into a vase and be done with it. When I'm not by your side, there are things you'll have to do in my place."

"Oh, okay."

She somehow felt looked down on...

The Trailblazer rubbed her nose.

But she had absolutely no grounds to argue back.

After all, the other woman was another version of herself.

No matter how she argued with Stelle, the person she would be denying was herself.

There was no point in denying herself, so she might as well forget it.

Meanwhile, Stelle continued her pioneering work.

Passed review.

Passed review.

Passed review.

Passed review.

Stelle gave that assessment as lightly as if it were nothing.

The Trailblazer drew in a breath, yet she could not suppress her ragged breathing in the dim, silent air.

"Wait, Stelle, I... I'm not learning anymore. I don't want to learn..."

"Why not?"

Stelle stared intently at the flower before her.

Passed review gave off a sweet fragrance in the air.

The Trailblazer shuddered, her damp gaze turning toward Stelle. "There's no reason..."

"But this is what I want."

Stelle remained unmoved beneath that pleading gaze, insisting on carrying the conditioning process through from beginning to end.

When everything was finally done, Stelle clapped her hands as though brushing away the traces left on them.

"Now that you know this much about flower arranging, your aesthetic sense should have improved quite a bit, right? Even if I'm not by your side in the future, you should be able to condition flowers properly on your own, shouldn't you?"

"I... I probably can."

Flower arranging was not easy to learn, either.

It was more exhausting than she had imagined.

So the Trailblazer slumped onto the floor without the slightest concern for appearances.

She looked at her legs. The dark green Leg Ring at the slit of her short skirt seemed to have slipped down slightly.

Stelle walked over, crouched beside the Trailblazer, and adjusted the Leg Ring back into the proper position.

"Very tired?"

Stelle looked at the Trailblazer. For some reason, after that little lesson, her attitude toward the Trailblazer seemed to have softened a little.

They seemed closer now.

"Pretty tired."

The Trailblazer nodded. She really was tired, since she had needed to stay completely focused on it.

"Do it a few more times. You'll get used to it after a few more times."

Stelle smiled faintly at the Trailblazer, then turned to search through her backpack for another Jade Lotus.

"Huh? No, let's not!"

The Trailblazer immediately sprang up from the floor and lunged at Stelle.

Unfortunately, Stelle had already pulled out a second flower from her backpack.

"Don't want to? Heh. You don't get to say no."

And so, a new round of flower conditioning began.

She could not say how many flowers underwent flower-arranging lessons beneath Stelle's hands.

Later, her consciousness gradually scattered again.

Her mind broke apart, then gathered itself back together.

The aching pain throughout her body brought the Trailblazer's senses back.

She only felt sore all over, her limbs weak and powerless, as though she had just gone through intense exertion and been drained of all strength.

And she had forgotten what had happened while she was unconscious.

Slowly opening her eyes, she no longer saw nothing but darkness.

Smoke-filled earth, shadowy corners untouched by light, and the crackling sounds of burning filled her ears.

The Trailblazer had awakened.

Lu Yan was somewhat surprised. He hadn't expected the evaluation of his first stream-of-consciousness piece to fail.

"Is the content problematic, or is it because my writing style is too avant-garde?"

He muttered to himself, checking the review failure notification on his screen. The reason given was simple and direct: Content does not meet compliance standards; please revise.

There were no specific guidelines, just a cold rejection.

Lu Yan rubbed his chin. As a transmigrator who had inherited this body, his writing foundation was naturally solid, but the literary standards of this world seemed somewhat different from his previous life. Stream-of-consciousness writing, which emphasized the flow of inner thoughts and psychological activity, apparently didn't sit well with the automated review system here.

"Fine, let's play it safe."

He shook his head, abandoned the avant-garde approach, and decided to write something more traditional. After all, he needed to clear reviews to publish and earn income. He was currently living in a rented apartment with barely any savings left, and rent was due soon.

Opening a new document, Lu Yan began to outline a standard fantasy web novel. Tropes were tropes for a reason—they worked. Reincarnation, cheat systems, face-slapping, and rapid progression; these were the elements that readers in this world craved.

As his fingers flew across the keyboard, the familiar rhythm of creation took over. The words flowed smoothly, paragraphs forming under his steady gaze.

Knock, knock.

A sudden sound at the door broke his concentration.

Lu Yan paused, glancing at the clock on his computer screen. It was past ten in the evening. Who would be visiting him at this hour? His landlord? But rent wasn't due for another five days.

He stood up, walking toward the wooden door with a hint of caution. In this world, caution was always warranted, especially for someone living alone in the outer districts.

"Who is it?" he asked, keeping his voice neutral.

No one answered. The hallway outside remained dead silent.

Lu Yan frowned, his hand resting on the doorknob. He peered through the peephole, but the lens on the other side was completely dark, blocked from without.

A cold draft seeped in through the gap beneath the door.