"No, that's what your eyes were saying."
"Oh."
Pei Ye lowered his head and fell silent for a while. Then, something seemed to occur to him, and he abruptly looked up at the woman beside him, blurting out, "Miss Ming, what about Ming Yun, then? She won't just disappear, will she?"
"...Have you always thought of us as two people?"
"..."
Ming Qitian was quiet for a while. "Then I can meet you as my sixteen-year-old self, too, with my sixteen-year-old memories. This is my Mindscape Realm, after all."
She glanced at the youth, and once more became that clear-eyed young girl, looking up at Pei Ye.
"Is this better?" she asked evenly.
Pei Ye had never thought much of chatting with Ming Yun before, but now, watching the Miss Ming he admired transform before his eyes into a quiet girl two years younger than himself was rather too much of a shock.
He hurriedly waved his hands, but some dark thought slipped out of his mouth. "L-little sister Ming, please don't do that-"
It was as though an invisible hand had suddenly seized his throat.
"..."
"..."
Ming Qitian returned to her original appearance and watched him for a while. "Then I'll do as big brother Pei says," she said mildly.
Pei Ye slowly buried his scarlet face in his knees, and a faint smile flickered through the woman's clear eyes.
The night on Zhongnan Mountain finally passed.
After the rain, the clear sky looked freshly washed. Traces of moisture still clung to the trees, but the entire sea of forest had taken on a new freshness.
In the end, neither of them ate any fish from the pool. As the sky first began to pale before dawn, Pei Ye packed up all their things and, leaning on