Chapter 79 Part 1

“So, those masters haven’t left yet?” Yu Qingxian gradually relaxed.

“Yeah, now do you believe me?” Chu Yi’s eyes curved into smiling crescents as he smoothed a messy lock of hair on top of Yu Qingxian’s head. Stars seemed to sparkle in his deep eyes.

Yu Qingxian lowered his head. He had never disbelieved Chu Yi…

“Chu Yi.” Yu Qingxian seemed to have finally made up his mind. He lifted his gaze and glanced at the handsome young man, asking nervously, “The little boy with the special fate pattern you told me about before… that was actually you, right? Do you have memories from your previous life? Or…”

Chu Yi had been too tense about his own fate pattern, and he couldn’t explain it clearly either. He had only said it was his master’s definitive divination, and that he had experienced everything in the dream. Gradually, Yu Qingxian started to understand.

“You guessed it?” Chu Yi raised an eyebrow, not at all surprised by President Yu’s perceptiveness. He even felt a bit proud. As expected of the man he had set his sights on!

“Let me put it this way: the previous Chu Yi was me, but also not me. He was my reincarnation, inheriting a few strands of my remnant soul. Naturally, his shallow familial ties followed from me.”

Chu Yi’s tone was extremely casual, just like when he had recounted the little boy’s story before. But Yu Qingxian’s heart ached as he listened. He knew how much Chu Yi craved family and companionship. This was evident from how often he mentioned his master and sect, and how his attitude had changed drastically upon learning of the marriage bond between them.

He wasn’t truly indifferent. He had forced himself to let go because he knew he couldn’t keep them.

“How… how much do you remember?” Yu Qingxian asked uneasily.

“I remember everything from my previous life. Back then, I was performing a sacrificial ritual to pray for rain with everyone from my sect when I suddenly ended up in this body.”

His tone remained equally nonchalant, without mentioning the dangers or his brush with death.

Yu Qingxian’s heart felt squeezed tight, aching fiercely. He blinked hard to keep the tears from falling.

Suddenly, someone lifted his chin. A pair of warm hands wiped away his tears. Though they lacked the rough calluses from before, the way they wiped his tears was identical to the dream…

Yu Qingxian broke down completely. He pressed his forehead against Chu Yi’s shoulder, letting tears fall one by one from his eyes, soaking into the blanket and forming spreading water stains.

“What’s wrong?” Chu Yi had originally wanted to grip Yu Qingxian’s shoulders and push him up to look, but feeling the other’s body trembling lightly from the emotional upheaval, he hesitated and stopped. “Are you… afraid?”

On second thought, he had been gauging President Yu with his own mindset all along. Wasn’t that testing his limits a bit too much? President Yu wasn’t like him, having spent half his life dealing with demons and ghosts, accustomed to things like reincarnation and souls… Would President Yu find him terrifying?

“Heh.” Yu Qingxian suddenly broke into a smile through his tears. He sniffled, wrapped his arms around Chu Yi, and hugged him tightly. “I’m not afraid. I love you. How could I be afraid?”

As if eager to prove himself, he suddenly lifted his head and planted a kiss on the corner of Chu Yi’s lips, then buried his face in the crook of Chu Yi’s neck, rubbing against it hard, as if gathering courage for his final confession.

Chu Yi was stunned. He had thought their mutual admiration and natural progression to being together was enough, but President Yu had actually said he loved him?

Feeling the light kiss on the corner of his mouth and the soft, slightly ticklish strands of hair rubbing against his neck, Chu Yi’s mind exploded like a barrage of fireworks. He felt on the verge of being overwhelmed by the dazzling bliss.

He grinned. “I love you too.”

His ears turned bright red after saying it, but he had to admit, it felt pretty good.

Fortunately, he was familiar with modern ways. He had heard that if modern people confessed love and got no response, their partner would definitely get angry, maybe even doubt if they were truly loved.

Chu Yi felt that his feelings for President Yu still carried some impurities right now—born from learning he was his fated partner. But he had liked President Yu from the start and genuinely thought he was better than anyone else. Turning that fondness into pure love should be easy enough?

Chu Yi didn’t even consider how biased he was toward President Yu—how he immediately cowered the moment President Yu got angry. What else was that but love without realizing it? And if heaven hadn’t tied the Red Thread to President Yu, would he be this thrilled?

But Chu Yi was immersed in surprise and excitement, so it wasn’t his fault he couldn’t tell the difference. Fortunately, he instinctively knew how to appease his partner, soothing Yu Qingxian until he wasn’t so uneasy anymore.

Yu Qingxian slowly stopped moving, his head still resting on Chu Yi’s shoulder, not daring to lift his eyes. “If—and I mean if—the one who caused your fate pattern to become like that was me, and not just in one lifetime, what… what would you say?”

Chu Yi also froze, slowly furrowing his brows. “Why assume something like that?”

Did President Yu know something?

He had suspected some connection between them before because President Yu kept separating his soul to follow him. Now, hearing President Yu’s words and seeing his previous conflicted expression, could they have been archenemies long ago, harming each other?