QT: Don't fall in love with the Male Lead Chapter 187: Don't twist yourself into knots

Xi Zirui follows Ji Lii out of the library and through a series of courtyards until they reach a squat stone building, at the edge of the Jade palace complex.

Ji Lii moves with purpose through the multiple rooms, greeting all the higher and minor gods as she makes her way across the building, until reaching a wall filled with bound up volus and scrolls.

She approaches a wooden table where a blank piece of paper and an inkstone and brush sit. With confident strokes, she writes the characters of Xi Zirui's na into the paper. Monts later they vanish into the white sheet, at the sa ti that a bamboo strip scroll flies out of the shelf and into Ji Lii's hands.

Xi Zirui peers over her shoulder as she runs her eyes over all the nas and their specific prayers, coming to a stop when she finds Xi Zirui's.

"Why is a human praying for your safe journey into the afterlife?" she asks, her eyebrows climbing almost all the way up to her hairline.

Xi Zirui rereads the contents of Han Yu's prayer, as well as the date and his personal information. From his calculations he must have prayed for this in the second world, when he was the crown Prince, and Su Xueyi his Emperor father.

But how can that be? Supposedly, the realms the Transmigrator 4000 took him to, were alternate realities, parallel tilines.

"Can ti flow backwards? And uh, run parallel?" he asks, trying to make sense of his own thoughts.

Ji Lii gives him a curious look. "Of course, otherwise how would it be possible for us to undertake heavenly tribulations in ti periods long past the current chronological ti?" She looks smug for a mont. "You've always been a slacker when it cos to studies, so it doesn't surprise that you didn't pay attention to those lessons."

"For humans, ti and space exist as two sides of a piece of paper, they can see one or the other, but they are forever separated. It's not the sa for us, ti is space and space is ti." She frowns. "That still doesn't explain why this human is praying for you as if you were just another human."

She gasps suddenly and breaks into a smile. "Oh, I must have been infected by your idiocy." She nods to herself. "Of course, the jade Emperor has determined that you'd go on your tribulation already, that is as good as setting the events into motion. This must be one of the people you et there, who, thinking you are a human, prays for you."

Ji Lii looks up at Xi Zirui excitedly, as if Han Yu's prayer proves what she was trying to explain about ti and space. "You might have not left on your tribulation yet, but sowhere, it already happened." She lifts the scroll up to Xi Zirui's eyes. "This is an echo, of what is going to happen."

Xi Zirui nods, he thinks he understands what she ans. However, his brain is snagging on bigger implications.

Ji Lii is assuming Han Yu is soone Xi Zirui is going to et after leaving on his tribulation, but Xi Zirui knows the truth: that prayer was made by Han Yu in the second world.

Is that only confirmation that the events that happened in the Transmigrator 4000 really took place -- not that he believed otherwise -- and like Ji Lii explained; this is an echo of things to co reverberating all the way in the past?

Or is sothing else going on that Xi Zirui isn't quite able to understand.

He feels like there's sothing just outside of his reach that he can't make sense of.

Ji Lii goes very still suddenly. "Wait, it's one thing for the echo of sothing that is going to happen to show up here, but it's another for you to know the na of a human you haven't even t." She narrows her eyes at him. "How did you know his na?"

Xi Zirui keeps his gaze fixed on the scroll, and on the characters that spell out Han Yu's na.

'I'm an echo of things to co, too,' he thinks silently to himself.

---

With the date of birth of Han Yu's first lifeti, Ji Lii manages to find his book in the library after a few minutes of search.

It's a bound volu, old and dusty like everything else in the library.

She hands it to Xi Zirui with a smug smirk. "Like I said, there's a system."

Xi Zirui doesn't want to read the book of Han Yu's life with Ji Lii looking over his shoulder.

"Thanks, you can go now."

She isn't impressed by the quick way he dismisses her, but makes her way to the doors nonetheless. "Don't forget that you owe ."

Xi Zirui doesn't, but right now he has bigger worries.

He looks at the book in his hands, nondescript in every way, and wavers before opening it, feeling in a way like it's a violation of Han Yu's privacy.

He debates with himself for so ti before flicking it open to the first page.

Han Yu's first life isn't one he's familiar with, but the beats and events of it make him smile as Han Yu grows from child into young boy and Xi Zirui starts recognizing so of his defining personality traits.

And then he reaches a paragraph that almost makes him drop the book.

He keeps reading, his heart lodged up in his throat.

He starts flipping through the pages, desperate to reach another reincarnation.

When he does, he can scarcely believe his eyes.

How is any of this possible?

Xi Zirui closes the book, his mind swimming with possibilities.

He might not know what any of this ans yet, but one thing he's sure of: he needs to find a way to ensure he ets Han Yu during his heavenly tribulation.

When she confronted him in the last world, Ji Lii claid that the events that led him to throw everyone into the Transmigrator 4000 happened after he returned from his tribulation, in love with Han Yu, and determined to stay with him.

There's sothing he's still missing about the whole situation, but he wants to find his way back to Han Yu no matter what.

---

He visits his mother in her quarters again.

She's still sitting by the moon window with a view of the courtyard, but this ti she's practicing the guqin. She's playing a soft lody he doesn't recognize, but ceases plucking the strings as soon as she hears him co in.

"How was the conversation with your grandfather?" she asks.

Xi Zirui sits down next to her, tilting his head towards her so she can run her fingers through his hair. "Productive. My heavenly tribulation will be in four days."

She coos at him. "Oh, you'll see it won't be so bad. You might hurt for a while, after you return, but you just need to rember it's all temporary," her tone his breezy, carefree. "We're gods, the dust of the mortal world never sticks to us for long. You don't need to worry."

His mother's words are ant to reassure him, but Xi Zirui thinks he's probably neck deep in the dust of the mortal world, by now.

"Who decides what my heavenly tribulation will entail?" Xi Zirui asks, trying to keep his tone even.

Lei Zu smiles. "The Book of Fates will be consulted, of course."

"Of course," Xi Zirui says, his smile strained.

He stands to leave but his mother holds him back by the wrist. "I can tell sothing is weighting on your mind. You should ditate before your tribulation, to ensure everything goes smoothly."

Xi Zirui thanks her and makes his way out of her rooms. No closer to finding a way back to Han Yu.

He could of course leave it all up to fate and hope he'll end up eting Han Yu again, but since fate is the very force trying to keep them apart, he'd rather not leave everything up to it.

Without noticing he's doing it, his feet take him deep into the palace gardens, until he cos upon a flowering plum orchard.

The rain of pink flowers makes him feel nostalgic for the ti he was a sect master and Han Yu his devoted disciple.

There are always little things reminding him of all the lives he has had with Han Yu.

He's so absorbed in his thoughts that he doesn't notice another presence nearby.

"I've heard that you'll be leaving on your own tribulation soon," Su Xueyi says, sneaking up behind Xi Zirui and whispering the words against his neck.

Xi Zirui spins around and puts so distance between them, pushing his back into the bark of a plum tree.

Su Xueyi ignores Xi Zirui's scowl and leans in again. "I can give you so pointers regarding what to do."

Xi Zirui is about to send him on his way again, when an idea strikes him. "Do you know if it's possible to keep our mories during a tribulation?"