This feels pretty good!
Yes, yes, yes, that's exactly the kind of shyness! Ding Yumian, you're practically a genius at being shy. Textbook shyness!
On the way back, Lu Ling and Ding Yumian walked shoulder to shoulder. After sensing what Lu Ling was getting excited about, Ding Yumian could only feel her cheeks burning.
He really is a weirdo...
Ding Yumian secretly studied the white-haired young man beside her. His looks truly were breathtaking enough to topple cities, something she had already come to appreciate deeply over the past few days.
But what drew Ding Yumian in at that moment was not Lu Ling's peerless beauty, but...
"Lu Ling... actually, it's not without side effects. Is it?" Ding Yumian suddenly asked.
"How could that be? If I say there aren't any side effects, then there aren't any."
"People generally can't lie in front of me." Ding Yumian stopped and looked earnestly into Lu Ling's eyes.
As a Psychic Element Calamity Survivor, she could innately sense other people's emotions and use them to work out their true thoughts!
It was a skill many Psychic Element mages possessed to varying degrees, but Ding Yumian automatically employed this practically bugged ability to read people almost every moment.
And Lu Ling really did not know how to hide his emotions... so she had picked up on a few clues.
At her words, Lu Ling fell silent.
He had not expected a Psychic Element Calamity Survivor to have this function too. It seemed she was very calm at that moment, calm enough to distinguish lies, rather than being tricked into suicide as she would be in the future.
"Do you really want to hear it? The process in detail," he said calmly.
"Please tell me."
"The price is that I need to experience the pain you suffered in the past."
Silence. Utter silence.
"I'm sorry..." Ding Yumian felt sad, but she had held everything in for so long that her body had even forgotten how to grieve. Positive emotions were fine, but once a negative emotion like grief affected those nearby, it became the deadliest weapon for killing.
"Why the fuck are you so stupid? Who told you to apologize?" Lu Ling said calmly, uttering something not particularly gentlemanly.
He gently drew Ding Yumian into his arms and softly soothed her.
Such a warm embrace. He's really amazing... But the thought that, while she was feeling this warmth, Lu Ling was enduring the pain she had once wanted to escape made a deep sense of guilt well up within her.
"I'm sor..." Ding Yumian instinctively wanted to apologize, but after Lu Ling's rebuke, she no longer knew what to say.
"The side effects are very, very small, and there'll hardly be any again in the future. So you don't need to feel sorry." Lu Ling softened a little.
"Cry it out. Take back your emotions while you can."
"..."
Ding Yumian buried her head against his warm chest, her shoulders trembling slightly.
After an unknown amount of time, she suddenly raised her head, wearing the brightest, most radiant smile.
"Lu Ling, you really are a weirdo!"
Those were the most emotionally vivid words Lu Ling had ever "seen" from her. She was entirely like a living, breathing ordinary person.
At that moment.
Had there not still been tears at the corners of her eyes, he might have mistakenly thought Ding Yumian had been secretly laughing in his arms.
"Is that any way to talk about the person who saved your life?" He chuckled, wiping the corners of her eyes.
"Weirdo!" Looking slightly angry, she turned and ran.
"Hey, you're going the wrong way!"
The lingering glow of sunset.
The girl ran, and the boy followed leisurely behind her.
Without realizing it, they had long since strayed from their original direction.
Ding Yumian looked back and found Lu Ling still behind her. She laughed aloud.
What a weirdo. A really, really wonderful weirdo!
That evening.
"I'm back."
"Brother, welcome ba..." The moment the door opened, Xin Xia immediately looked up to welcome him.
She seemed to have been waiting by the door the whole time, just so he would see her first when he came home.
"Brother... may I ask who she is?" Ye Xin Xia froze, her beautiful eyes settling on the unfamiliar woman behind Lu Ling.
"A woman I picked up. Her name's Ding Yumian," Lu Ling explained offhandedly.
"Uh..." Ding Yumian felt a little awkward. Afraid of hurting others, she had spent all these years alone.
She was not actually good at dealing with people. That she could get along with Lu Ling was also due to his own exceptional qualities. Only because Lu Ling had considered her at every turn had things developed as they had.
Ye Xin Xia. On the way there, Lu Ling had already explained the household's basic situation.
He had a younger sister.
"How can you just pick someone up and bring her home? Besides, she doesn't look like a woman living on the streets!" Lu Ling's dismissive attitude immediately made Ye Xin Xia bristle.
Ignoring the angry Ye Xin Xia, Lu Ling continued the introductions:
"This is Ye Xin Xia. I picked her up too."
"Huh?"
Stunned.
Both girls were stunned.
"Brother, how could you say that..." Ye Xin Xia's voice trembled. She could hardly believe the person before her was her brother.
Although it was true, he had never been so blunt about it before.
"You two have a chat. I think you should be able to become friends." Lu Ling smiled, then turned straight into shadow and dissipated inside the room.
Awful.
Absolutely terrible...
For a moment, these two unfamiliar women reached a consensus.
Lu Ling (Brother) is a bad person!
The Shadow Element...
He even used Shadow Element magic!
Lu Ling must be running away!
"H-hello, my name is Ding Yumian. I'm Lu Ling's friend," Ding Yumian said.
"Hello, my name is Ye Xin Xia." Ye Xin Xia introduced herself very politely, then asked:
"Ding Yumian, why did you come here?"
"Uh... how should I put it? For certain reasons, I'll need to live here starting today."
"Live here!?" Ye Xin Xia's eyes widened. She wished she could stand up out of her wheelchair and interrogate her.
"What reasons?!"
"It's something like... I'm sick, and your brother, Lu Ling, is my doctor. So let's get along from now on..."
"Exactly, exactly. That's how it is!" Before Ding Yumian could even finish, Lu Ling's voice interrupted the conversation they had only just managed to establish.
Lu Ling had returned at some point, and many takeout containers had appeared on the table.
It turned out he had gone to buy dinner.
"Brother, what illness does she have? Why does she need to live here?"
Until she got an explanation, Ye Xin Xia would never let it go, nor would she accept this unfamiliar woman living with her (Lu Ling)!
"An illness where she'll die if she doesn't sleep with me." Lu Ling carefully opened the lavish takeout he had bought, sparing some attention to deal with Ye Xin Xia.
"What!?!!"
"Sleep together!?"
Both girls' faces immediately flushed pink.
Ye Xin Xia was even a little angry.
It looks like this seemingly harmless woman isn't so simple! Brother must have been living very comfortably during the two years he was gone! Very comfortably!
"Brother, what do you mean by that?!" Ye Xin Xia demanded. Even if he picked up a streetwalker, he doesn't need to fob me off with such a bizarre excuse, does he!?
"Lu Ling... I-I don't mind." After seemingly hesitating for a moment, Ding Yumian spoke in a voice as faint as a mosquito's hum. But by then, she was visibly flushed, like a cooked duck. It was the bashful look Lu Ling loved most.
Huh?
Lu Ling was puzzled.
Duang.
Xin Xia turned to stone.
Oh no, this unfamiliar woman has outdone me...
Ye Xin Xia slumped in her wheelchair as though all her vitality had drained away.
Brother is going to leave me...