Tangled and Uncertain
The voice was not crisp, but slightly hoarse, flat in tone, and exceedingly indifferent.
It seed less like an announcent and more like the declaration of an established fact.
Chen Zixuan felt that he had heard this voice sowhere before.
Surgery... was very successful...?
A bad premonition surged violently. In an instant, like being struck by a bolt of lightning, Chen Zixuan shuddered, as if he had smashed through a phantom mbrane. His consciousness swiftly returned to reality, surrounded by darkness.
When did I fall asleep?
Without having ti to think any further, Chen Zixuan forced himself to resist the drowsiness and slowly opened his eyes.
He didn't know when, but the helt that had blocked his sight was now gone. The first thing to co into view was the familiar chandelier and ceiling of the room.
This made Chen Zixuan realize he was probably still in his own room.
But then, why would there be a woman's voice in his room?
That was abnormal. Very wrong.
Could it be Gu Yanxi...? No, impossible.
Rather, it should be another woman he was very familiar with.
In a daze, Chen Zixuan tried desperately to recall everything he had done that morning.
Forging equipnt for Dawn's Light... forging equipnt for Yuewu... forging equipnt for Gu Yanxi... forging the Rose Maid set for himself...
The Rose Maid set...
Maid outfit!
So, is it because I activated the full set of "Maid Outfit Mastery" today that logging out feels so strange this ti?
Tensing his abdominal muscles, he suddenly sat up in bed. A strong feeling of weightlessness crashed over him, leaving Chen Zixuan dizzy. He had to cover his mouth with his right hand to keep from vomiting.
My body... what has happened to it?
"I already told you, you just had surgery, patients can't engage in vigorous activity. Lie down and rest," the female voice sounded again at his side.
But this ti, her tone was gentle and smooth, with a hint of a faint, amused smile, as if she was in a particularly good mood.
Forcing down the surge of stomach acid, Chen Zixuan opened his eyes wide and turned his head to search for the source of the voice.
He was sure he'd heard this voice before, but where and whose it was, he simply couldn't recall.
Tilting his line of sight by sixty degrees, Chen Zixuan saw a woman with long, ink-black hair.
She didn't seem very old, in her early twenties at most, her features still carrying a youthful touch. Her skin was pale and almost bloodless, much like a legendary vampire.
That's right, a vampire.
She was lounging lazily in a chair by the bedside, supporting her chin with her right hand, her left hand resting beneath her right elbow, her expression gentle, gaze resting lightly on Chen Zixuan with a soft smile.
It was hardly a common pose, but this woman carried it with such natural elegance, as if she had been born graceful.
Yet, there was a sense of discord for Chen Zixuan in her expression.
Her eyes were simply too tender, their dark red depths rippling slightly, as if she were reuniting with a long-lost lover.
"Ae... Aesther... Miss...?"
Chen Zixuan blurted out instinctively.
However, what reached his own ears was still that cool, female voice.
Like a night breeze blowing past a sumr riverbank.
Aesther nodded slightly and said in a nostalgic tone: "Noble of the Dark, king of Night and Sky, guide of the Undead, tranquil existence in the river of ti. It is good to see you again... Cecilia."
Only then did Chen Zixuan finally realize that the situation he least wanted to encounter had, in the end, co to pass.
Lowering his head to look at his hands, which had shrunk a size, and feeling the strange sensation of long hair brushing his neck, Chen Zixuan was silent for a mont before letting out a quiet sigh.
Perhaps because he had already rehearsed this mont countless tis in his mind, upon its actual arrival, Chen Zixuan discovered his ability to endure was not as poor as he had imagined.
Not really.
That calm lasted less than a second. Her expression darkened suddenly, and she raised her head, almost gritting her teeth as she questioned Aesther: "You tricked ?"
"When did I?"
Aesther arched an eyebrow, her face all innocence in her reply.
"Didn't you say I still had more than twenty days?! Why am I already...?"
The last few words stuck in her throat, unable to co out.
With no other choice, Chen Zixuan voiced another suspicion that had long been hidden deep in his heart, "This whole thing had nothing to do with Angel, right? You're the one behind it all?"
Luckily, aesther could naturally grasp what Chen Zixuan was trying to say.
She leaned back, pressing her fingers to her temples with a pained look, her tone resuming its earlier, faint coldness:
"Relax, you're just dreaming right now. To affect you all directly in reality, a power of at least Tier 19 is required. I am only twenty-two, still very young, not nearly strong enough for that kind of magic."
Upon hearing this, Chen Zixuan was stunned for a few seconds. So many things that had been inexplicable to him finally clicked into place.
The missing helt... fragnted mories... and the distinctly old-fashioned high-backed chair on which Aesther now sat—these were all products of his dream.
Looking more closely at his surroundings, although this room was very similar to his own, there were subtle differences everywhere—the pattern on the comforter, the placent of objects on the desk... All this confird Aesther's words.
So, I'm actually just dreaming now... I haven't really beco like this in reality?
The unease in Chen Zixuan's heart faded, even the anger from feeling deceived cooled sowhat.
Though he knew full well he would change in a matter of days, as long as it wasn't right now, it was best to have so ti to prepare rather than none at all.
At least, it would give him a little more ti to adjust ntally.
However, as if reading his thoughts, aesther's next words rcilessly dashed the last sliver of hope in Chen Zixuan's heart:
"By the way, I forgot to ntion—at my current level, I don't have the right to cross boundaries to interfere directly with humans. I can only affect the dreams of those of my kind."
"Strictly speaking, those who have mingled with my blood, my kind. Do you understand what that ans?"
Mingled blood... her kind...?
Chen Zixuan's pupils shrank, his whole being struck as if by lightning, utterly losing the ability to think.
What does that an?
Am I not regarded as human anymore?
In truth, Chen Zixuan had already co to terms with the idea of becoming a girl.
He just hadn't expected it to co so swiftly, so suddenly, and so unacceptably.
He hadn't resolved his relationships, didn't know how he would explain it to Gu Yanxi, nor what he would do next...
A wave of crisis, strong enough to make his heart stop, slowly spread through Chen Zixuan's chest.
In that mont, past mories flashed through his mind like lightning, scene after scene racing by, and Chen Zixuan plunged into darkness so dense he could not see his hand in front of him, as if once again he had beco that rootless duckweed adrift in a storm.
Cecilia was a girl who should never have existed in this world.
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