Are you really trying to cultivate immortality? Something feels off.

He spent four years in the Fountain of Spirits, and his skin became so pale it was almost sickly. Fortunately, he was born with a warm complexion; otherwise, he could have easily starred in a ghost movie if he wore a red shirt.

"I'll back away when I get close," Xie Weixing said, a slight smile playing on his lips, his eyes scrutinizing her. "What do you mean?"

He had heard Jiang Jiu say that her younger brother stopped being close to her after she went to art exam training for more than half a year.

He blocked her on social media, secretly got his ears pierced without telling his family, and stopped talking to her.

He had seen that child before; he was as round as a dumpling, and still had baby fat in junior high, but he wasn't as cute as Tan Suiting.

She was saddened by this for a long time, and kept muttering about how she wanted my mother to give birth to a younger brother.

Xie Weixing even mocked him at the time.

"It's normal for kids to have their own ideas as they grow up. Just like when you were little, you would always pester your dad to ride horses and your mom to kiss you. You can't expect him to still be like that when he's seventeen or eighteen. If he sat on you, he would be crushed to death if he weighed 100 pounds."

Jiang Jiu turned her head and glared angrily. She didn't even have time to pretend to be a melancholy long-haired girl to seduce the sweet girl with pigtails in the next class. She said coldly, "You're talking nonsense. You damned only son don't understand anything. Besides, I only weigh ninety pounds."

Xie Weixing now realizes just how hard it was for Jiang Jiu to accept back then.

Seeing that he was clearly unhappy, and not knowing what to say, Tan Suiting's fingers trembled slightly with anxiety.

That dream felt so real, like it really happened.

He felt that this was wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on why.

How could I dream of such a senior brother?

……

Xie Weixing felt a deep sense of desolation when she saw that he really didn't want to talk.

After four years away, I came back to find that my beloved cheeks were gone, which was bad enough, but now I've even lost Xiaolong's heart.

He sighed softly, suppressing the melancholy in his heart and the slight malice he felt in wanting to force the little dragon back to the way it was four years ago, and got up to leave.

You can't force teenagers; otherwise, you'll only push them further away.

Before Tan Suiting could figure out what to say, a gust of wind brushed against his face, carrying Xie Weixing's familiar scent.

Looking up, I saw that the other person was about to leave.

No.

Almost instantly, the thought popped into his head, and his actions were even faster than his thoughts.

"Huh?" Xie Weixing swayed, almost thinking that something was trying to harm him.

I looked down.

Tan Suiting hugged his waist tightly.

"Don't go." He buried his chin in his long, slender waist, his voice muffled, "Senior brother, I..."

Xie Weixing was stunned: "Huh?"

If you wanted to distance yourself from him, why did you suddenly hug him?

This trend doesn't seem quite right.

"Senior brother, I haven't been cold to you," Tan Suiting hugged him tightly. "I miss you, I miss you so much I can't sleep. When I close my eyes, you're all I see. Really. Senior brother, don't go, don't leave me."

Xie Weixing was stunned again.

Uh... isn't this even more wrong?

"Back then, you abandoned me at the Sword Tomb. I thought you were dead," Tan Suiting choked out. "I wanted to die with you, but Su Boyu was still alive. He harmed you, and I couldn't let him live in this world. Later, I wanted to commit suicide in the southern border, but my mother told me you were still alive."

Xie Weixing wanted to sit down, but he couldn't move Tan Suiting's hand.

"Ouch," he exclaimed, caught off guard, "What happened so suddenly..."

"I wanted to see you, but Yuanheng wouldn't let me, saying I'm only a Nascent Soul cultivator and can't get in." Tan Suiting buried her face in his waist, her eyes slightly red. "I want to see you, Senior Brother, I miss you so much."

"He won't let you in?" Xie Weixing finally removed the hand that was tightly hugging his waist, and looked at the other man at eye level. "Old man, he doesn't even know how to open a back door."

Yuanheng is just stubborn.

"I didn't mean to distance myself from you," Tan Suiting turned his head to hide the redness in his eyes. "You can't wrong me."

"Alright, alright," Xie Weixing pulled the person into his arms, "Senior brother was wrong. So, you're cultivating so fast because you want to reach the Taixu Realm as soon as possible and come to the Night Water Abyss to see me?"

"Yes," Tan Suiting nodded slightly, "I'm sorry, senior brother, my cultivation is too slow."

"Four years to go from Nascent Soul to Void Realm, where's the slowness?" Xie Weixing was amused. "Master was extremely talented back then and was later hailed as the head of the Sword Sect. It took him a full twelve years to break through from Nascent Soul to Void Realm. You only took four years, Little Dragon."

Tan Suiting buried her face in his shoulder, wiping away the slight moisture from the corners of her eyes: "Senior brother, have you...?"

He spoke the last few words unclearly, and Xie Weixing didn't hear them.

"Um?"

"Do you—" Tan Suiting raised his voice, but his words were still mumbled, as if he found it difficult to say, "...miss me."

[Okay, so this is a normal relationship between fellow apprentices.]

Do what you want, and I'll take responsibility if things go wrong.

[The best thing about the Dragon Palace is that it only talks like this to Kunkun. In front of others, it's always concise, spirited, and has the feel of a big miner.]

[Just now, when Tan Suiting only took half a step back, the Emperor's eyes instantly turned cold. I think the yandere among you two is someone else.]

[Look at the way she's looking at me! Sleepyhead, Little Dragon Prince really, really misses you.]

Xie Weixing turned off the live comments, hugged the person in his arms, and smelled the faint, cool scent of iris around his nose: "Of course I missed you."

"Is it the same feeling you have for your senior sisters?" Tan Suiting clutched his hair ribbon and the hem of his clothes tightly, her eyes shining. "Is it the same feeling you have for your master and senior uncles?"

Xie Weixing thought for a moment, then took something out of his waist and opened his hand.

His eyes were sincere, with a slight smile: "What do you think?"

Tan Suiting lowered his eyes to look.

The half-pearl in the palm is lustrous and translucent, with a delicate sheen, clearly indicating that it has been held in someone's hand for many years.

Tears of the Dragon Clan of the Eastern Sea.

These are his tears.

"Why do you still keep this?" Tan Suiting felt a surge of warmth in his heart, his face flushed, and his heart pounding. "It's ugly, it's broken."

"Not bad," Xie Weixing said. "That day at the Sword Tomb, your crying almost broke my heart. When I was rebuilding the spiritual veins in the World Spirit Spring, looking at it and knowing that there were still people waiting for me made it less unbearable."

Mentioning the Sword Tomb, Tan Suiting's heart tightened.

He held Xie Weixing's hand tightly: "Senior brother, I will never let you get hurt again, and I will never let you leave me again."

"Hey, can anyone go through life without getting hurt?" Xie Weixing pinched his cheek. "Why aren't you eating properly since you got back to Donghai? There's no meat left."

"Don't you like it anymore?" Tan Suiting asked anxiously. "I'll eat properly. I promise you, senior brother, when the president comes back."

Xie Weixing looked at him with a faint smile in her eyes, her voice low and gentle: "Silly, Xiaolong, I love you no matter what."

Tan Suiting was finally relieved. A smile curved his lips, his eyes crinkling, a far cry from the cold indifference he had shown towards strangers, who were now readily ready to become victims of his sword.