(P.S. The first half of this chapter is best enjoyed with the melancholy version of "Myth of the Stars and Moon.")
Zhang Lexuan stood stunned for a long while before coming back to her senses.
"Let me help." As she spoke, she bent down too, picked up the books from the floor, and carefully returned them to their places one by one.
The library was so quiet that the only sound was the soft brush of pages against wooden shelves.
Golden-red sunset streamed through the window lattice, bathing the entire library in a lake of warm hues.
Lin Mo stood on this side of the bookcase.
Zhang Lexuan stood on the other.
The tall bookcase stood silently between them, like a soundless wall.
The scent of old books, accumulated over the years, floated in the air, pressing their shadows onto opposite ends of light and shade. They were clearly so close, yet seemed an entire lifetime apart.
Lin Mo's hands never stopped moving, but his mind had long since wandered elsewhere.
Because whenever he was with Zhang Lexuan, he would always find himself uncontrollably remembering the days he had spent with her in that secluded little teahouse in Star Luo City in his previous life.
Though he had never managed to voice that confession back then.
Yet the place Zhang Lexuan held in his heart had always been no different from that of a first love.
The true devastating power of first love never lay in the relationship itself, but in this-
Even after a long, long time had passed, so long that you thought you had already let go, the slightest appearance of anyone or anything connected to her around you would send a sudden tremor through your heart.
Then, helplessly, you would plunge headfirst into those memories.
That was exactly how Lin Mo was.
"Pfft~"
An exceedingly soft laugh escaped from this side of the bookcase. Lin Mo himself had not even noticed when the corners of his lips had begun to curl upward.
On the other side, Zhang Lexuan's hands paused in the middle of arranging the books, and she instinctively looked toward the sound.
One glance, and she could no longer look away.
The ray of sunset slipping through the gap in the bookcase happened to fall over the boy's entire figure. At this moment, Lin Mo was completely different from his usual self.
Usually, he was always like a hedgehog curled up inside its shell.
Whether he was reading or speaking to her, there was always a hint of languor and distance in his expression. Even his smiles were restrained, going only so far, never allowing her a glimpse of the true feelings beneath.
But now, it was as though he had shed all his defenses.
He smiled, his eyes curving into beautiful arcs. Those normally quiet, reserved eyes were now filled with the molten-gold light of the setting sun, astonishingly bright.
The smile at his lips was not concealed in the slightest either, curving upward openly.
Even the corners of his eyes were tinged with little traces of laughter.
Genuine, vivid, ardent.
Perhaps the boy before her was simply too dazzling-so dazzling that even through all those shelves of books, he could still easily light up her eyes.
As Zhang Lexuan watched him, she could not help smiling too.
Even she did not notice the inexplicable tenderness that had crept into that smile.
"Lin Mo."
She could not help calling softly:
The call fell gently into Lin Mo's ears, and he lifted his head.
The sunset was just right, dust motes scented with books drifting slowly through its light. Across the bookcase, Zhang Lexuan's eyes were smiling too, her whole figure so gentle that she seemed to have stepped out of bygone days.
In that instant, the figure before him overlapped completely with her from his previous life.
Lin Mo's heart jolted, and he answered instinctively:
"Sister Lexuan, I'm here."
As the words fell, both of them froze.
Lin Mo was thinking of the "Zhang Lexuan" of his previous life, little knowing-
All the strange things about the Zhang Lexuan before him over these past three months, things even she could not explain, her long and stubborn wait each day, every inexplicable flutter of her heart and moment of distraction, the hollow melancholy in her palm...
Were all because the "Zhang Lexuan" of his previous life was thinking of him too.
When Lin Mo returned to the dormitory and pushed open the door, he saw that Huo Yuhao had already returned and was sitting cross-legged on his bed, meditating and cultivating.
Lin Mo closed the door behind him and climbed onto his own bed.
Once he had settled cross-legged, he released his martial soul and soul rings again with a thought.
His dark teal wings folded in, and two yellow soul rings floated quietly before him.
Lin Mo reached out and touched them lightly. They had a glasslike texture, cool and translucent, suffused throughout with a warm yellow glow. The image of a blue bird beating its wings was also branded into the top of each soul ring.
After a wild soul ring was absorbed by a soul master, its pattern would change with the soul master's martial soul, bearing the martial soul's mark from then on.
Examining them carefully at such close range really did let Lin Mo spot a few clues.
First was his second yellow soul ring.
From the bottom upward, it faintly shimmered with a pale purple tint.
A hundred-year soul ring turning purple meant that its age was approaching a thousand years. But here was the problem: he clearly remembered that his second soul ring should only have been a little over six hundred years old.
Why would it be turning purple?
Then he looked at his first yellow soul ring.
This one had not turned purple, but some blue-green markings were actually clinging to its surface, spreading upward little by little.
Lin Mo stared at that blue-green tint, his brows knotting tightly.
Were there... blue-green soul rings in this world?
Good news: a new discovery.
Bad news: nothing but questions.
He pondered it over and over for ages, but ultimately could not make any sense of it. He could only give up dejectedly, close his eyes, and begin meditating and cultivating instead.
His breathing gradually grew long and steady.
The night breeze slipped through the gap in the half-open window, gently stirring the bed curtains.
Just as Lin Mo sank completely into cultivation, Huo Yuhao's eyelashes trembled almost imperceptibly on the bed opposite.
The next instant, he slowly opened his eyes.
Those normally clear, gentle eyes were now staring straight through the dim night at the boy on the opposite bed, their depths churning, dark and unreadable.
For the next three days straight, Lin Mo practically lived in the outer court library.
The freshman assessment also went very smoothly for Huo Yuhao's trio. Apart from Huang Chutian's team, which possessed a Martial Soul Fusion Skill, on the third day, the three of them had basically steamrolled every other team.
To celebrate, the three dragged Lin Mo along that evening, invited a few others, and held a grilled fish party.
At the party, Lin Mo's legs kept trembling as he struggled to keep his expression steady.
Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong'er, Xiao Xiao, Mu Beibei, Tang Ya, Xu Sanshi, Jiang Nannan, and several older students who often came to buy grilled fish-all of them were people Lin Mo did not want to see.
Had he known it would be like this, he would not have come even if they beat him to death!
But every time he tried to flee, Huo Yuhao would unerringly catch him and haul him back.
I wanted so badly to run~ but I couldn't get away~
And so, Lin Mo could only turn his grief and indignation into appetite, chomping his way through the grilled fish. Before long, he had already polished off seven or eight.
Huo Yuhao wore a smile the entire time.
While grilling fish, he would even free up a hand now and then to take a tissue and wipe the corners of Lin Mo's mouth.
By then, however, Lin Mo had no attention to spare for any of that. Of the dozen or so people present, more than half were love-brained. All he wanted now was to shrink his presence as much as possible, terrified of catching that deadly love brain.