With a smack, Wang Dong hit the floor.
After all, this was different from their first meeting. This time, Lin Xi had acted instinctively, paying no attention to his strength, much less controlling his aim to throw her onto the bed. The impact left her utterly dazed.
Seeing that she was about to explode, Lin Xi frowned and snapped first:
"What were you doing? Why were you leaning right in front of me without a word? Don't you know how easily that can trigger a swordsman's instincts!"
He knew what Wang Dong wanted to say. He had already sampled more than enough of this sort of farce in the original novel.
This had been Wang Dong's fault to begin with. She had crept so close to him, then wanted to use violence to cover her embarrassment after he caught her. It was only natural for Lin Xi to strike back.
He had no desire to get tangled up with Wang Dong over this.
"You... I..."
Her spell interrupted, Wang Dong suddenly had no idea what to say.
In the end, she could only give a soft huff, avert her gaze, and mutter resentfully:
"I was only worried about you..."
What Lin Xi did not know was that it was already nearly evening.
His circumstances differed from Huo Yuhao's. Huo Yuhao could absorb energy through the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and the Ice Empress, while he could only absorb it himself.
As a result, even though his physical constitution was stronger than the original Huo Yuhao's by who knew how many times, he was still much slower.
Wang Dong had stood outside for several hours, waiting and waiting, before she finally lost patience and barged in.
With no word from him for so long, it was hard not to suspect that Lin Xi had been attacked in the dorm room by the resentful curse on the Spirit Devouring Fierce Blade.
The moment she entered the dorm room, Lin Xi, seated on the bed, caught her attention.
As she looked at Lin Xi, she kept feeling some inexplicable attraction coming from him, making her unable to resist drawing closer.
That was why, as though possessed, she had propped her face in front of Lin Xi's to examine his features up close.
In truth, the reason Lin Xi exerted this attraction on her was the slight leakage of vitality during absorption.
The vitality contained in the gold of life was immense in both quality and quantity, an extraordinary tonic for every living creature in the world.
Humans were creatures that sought benefit and avoided harm, so they naturally wanted to approach an existence possessing vitality of this level.
Now that Lin Xi had completely finished absorbing it, Wang Dong felt that strange attraction disappear.
Although it had disappeared... the fact that she had just stared fixedly at Lin Xi's face like some lovestruck creep did not disappear with it. Her feelings were incredibly complicated, her face turning red one moment and pale the next. She practically wanted to find a crack in the ground and crawl into it.
Fortunately, Lin Xi had not noticed her unusual behavior. His mind was filled with the conjectures Electrolux had just voiced.
He had to find Huo Yutong and confirm them.
No sooner had the thought occurred than he acted, swiftly rising from the bed and running out of the dorm room.
Startled, Wang Dong hurried after him.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
Yet Lin Xi paid him no attention at all. His feet seemed borne on the wind, and before long, he disappeared from Wang Dong's sight.
Wang Dong sighed and could only return to the dorm room dejectedly.
At that speed, she could not possibly keep up even with her Martial Soul activated. She really had no idea what could have made Lin Xi so anxious.
Soon, Lin Xi arrived outside the girls' dormitory and asked the dorm supervisor standing at the entrance:
"Hello, could you call Huo Yutong for me? Just tell her Lin Xi is looking for her."
The dorm supervisor paused, then gave him a peculiar smile before walking into the building.
Clearly, in her mind, Lin Xi had come to exchange sweet nothings with Huo Yutong.
Normally, Lin Xi would certainly have inwardly snarked a little about the strange way people on the Douluo Continent thought, but he was in no mood for that now.
Before long, Huo Yutong came out and approached Lin Xi somewhat shyly.
"Brother Lin Xi, what did you want to see me about?"
Lin Xi scanned their surroundings and discovered many students sneaking looks at them. The corner of his mouth twitched.
"This isn't a good place. Let's go somewhere else."
Then he took Huo Yutong's hand and left.
As they left, he heard plenty of whispers along the lines of "How bold" and "How forward."
For the first time, he found his excellent hearing a nuisance.
After bringing Huo Yutong to a deserted grove, Lin Xi stopped.
Huo Yutong's face was slightly flushed.
"Brother Lin Xi, what did you want to say?"
Lin Xi took a deep breath and gazed earnestly into Huo Yutong's eyes.
"Yutong, can you tell me about your childhood before you met me? In as much detail as possible."
"Huh?"
Huo Yutong blinked in surprise.
Actually, she knew Lin Xi had not sought her out for the reasons those teasing onlookers imagined.
But she truly had not expected him to ask about this.
Lin Xi said somewhat apologetically:
"I'm sorry. I know those experiences weren't very pleasant for you, and you surely don't want to remember them, but I have to understand them in depth now. Please."
Huo Yutong hurriedly shook her head.
"It's all right, Brother Lin Xi. That's all long past. I'll tell you now."
For her, those painful memories had long since been replaced by the happy memories Lin Xi had brought her.
The reason she still harbored hatred toward the Duke's Mansion was that Dai Hao's neglect of her and her mother had indirectly caused Huo Yun'er's death.
She frowned in thought for a while, then carefully recounted every relevant memory she possessed.
Having kept her attention on Lin Xi's emotions, she knew he was extremely anxious right now. In her memory, the number of times he had been this anxious could be counted on one hand, and she did not dare take this lightly at all.
After listening to her, Lin Xi fell silent.
He was now basically certain that Electrolux's third conjecture was most likely correct.
Although he did not know what the original Huo Yuhao's childhood had been like either, he could clearly tell that some things really had changed.
In just those few short childhood years, Huo Yutong's path through life had already diverged from Huo Yuhao's in many ways. Even without Lin Xi's interference, her future course was destined to be completely different from Huo Yuhao's.
He gritted his teeth, unwilling to accept it.
It was such a simple truth, yet he had never considered this aspect of things.
Simply because he was a transmigrator, someone from another world who did not belong here, he had taken it for granted that he was the person with the greatest influence on the state of this world, overlooking a change as enormous as the protagonist's gender swap...
Lin Xi felt ashamed of himself for this.
Shame had to spur him to courage. Next time, he absolutely could not indulge in this sort of transmigrator's arrogance again.
Admonishing himself inwardly, Lin Xi let out a long breath.
Huo Yutong looked at him worriedly.
"B-Brother Lin Xi?"
She could sense that Lin Xi's current emotions resembled what he had felt when he first ran into Ma Xiaotao.
In other words, he was blaming himself.
She took the initiative to clasp Lin Xi's hand.
Meeting Lin Xi's somewhat surprised gaze, she said:
"Brother Lin Xi, I'm very weak. I don't know what happened, and perhaps I can't resolve your troubles either, but there's one thing I'm certain of: you saved me."
It was Lin Xi who had brought unprecedented warmth to her childhood, and Lin Xi who had given her, a piece of trash, the chance to turn her fortunes around.
"So no matter what happens, I'll always stand by your side."
Looking into Huo Yutong's resolute eyes, Lin Xi froze for two seconds, then suddenly let out a bitter laugh.
That's right. Losing my composure over something so small-this is hardly how Huo Yutong's role model should act.
In the end, things really were very simple.
He slowly drew Huo Yutong into his arms.
"B-b-b-b-b-b-b-brother Lin Xi-!"
Huo Yutong's body abruptly stiffened, her little face flushing bright red.
Feeling the petite, soft body in his arms, Lin Xi smiled and swore:
"No matter what happens, I'll absolutely, absolutely keep you safe."
Whatever his mission in coming to this world might be, he had to protect his most important family.
This was his responsibility, and also the greatest wish of someone who had come to this world all alone.