Chapter 343
Unfortunately, while the couple spoke in hushed tones, they failed to notice a single strand of hair drifting through the window and landing on the bed.
Li Dalong entered the room and walked behind the screen, only to see his son lying peacefully on the bed.
His breathing was so light that one would hardly notice unless they got closer.
“...”
“Is my sixth sense off?”
Li Dalong took a quick glance, didn’t linger, and quietly stepped back out.
“How’s it going?”
“The little rascal is in the room.”
“Alright, then let’s head back and get some rest.”
Gu Xueqin nodded, relieved yet inexplicably feeling a bit down.
Li Dalong glanced at the room where Ying Bing was staying, but something still felt off in his heart.
“Darling, you should go to sleep first.”
...
Meanwhile, inside the guest room.
Li Mo, lying next to Bing, relaxed his mind and quickly stopped using his external manifestation technique. He was only at the Observation Realm, and having just emerged from Bing’s dream, maintaining it was quite taxing.
Beside him, Ying Bing’s breathing steadied.
“She seems to be sleeping more soundly than ever.”
Li Mo quietly watched her sleeping face, his eyelids growing heavier.
【Congratulations, host. You have successfully invested in ‘Ying Bing’ and freed her from her nightmares.】
【You have a pending investment feedback to collect.】
The system chimed in with a notification.
But in the vastness of the world, sleep was the greatest treasure. Li Mo hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in ages, and the night was long. After Bing, there was still Princess Jiang waiting in the World Seed.
“Let’s check tomorrow...”
Lost in thought, Li Mo drifted into a deep, dreamless slumber.
He had no idea how long he had been asleep.
When he finally opened his eyes again, the window paper was illuminated by the morning light, and the Li residence was quiet, indicating it was indeed morning.
“Hmm? This isn’t my room...”
Li Mo yawned and realized he had been so tired last night that he had fallen asleep next to Bing.
Taking advantage of his parents still being asleep, he got up and pushed the door open.
“Little rascal!”
A figure jumped out from the bushes, a serious-looking Li Dalong.
“!! Dad, what are you doing here?”
Li Mo’s heart skipped a beat.
Li Dalong squinted his eyes:
“You little rascal, I finally caught you! You thought you could escape my keen eyes. I sensed something was off this morning. Why are you in Xiao Bing’s room?”
“Eh? This is Bing’s room? I just went to the bathroom last night; did I walk into the wrong one?”
“?”
---
Chapter 375: The Lost Beauty - The Li Family's Triad Inquiry
“When did he leave?”
Ying Bing sat up, feeling the emptiness beside her. She looked around the room, now bathed in morning light, making it hard to open her eyes.
It must be well past noon.
She knew that Li Mo had entered her dream last night.
In fact, she had already woken up when he was drawing for her, but facing those dusty, blurred memories, she subconsciously deceived herself.
Now, the haze of memory had been wiped away, and everything from the dream vividly resurfaced before her eyes.
The serious boy who called her “sister.”
The disaster beast that had come to their door ten years ago.
And the comforting, joyful gazes of her parents at the moment they vanished.
“Observation Realm...”
Ying Bing realized her realm had grown, yet she didn’t feel the ecstatic joy one might expect.
She sat at the tea table, basking in the sunlight as she brewed a cup of tea, quietly gazing at her reflection in the water.
Her clear, phoenix-like eyes were slightly red, filled with a hint of confusion.
Herself.
It seemed she had changed a bit?
In the past, her childhood memories had been quite vague, but at this moment, they were crystal clear.
Moreover.
The words her parents had spoken in the dream, just before it faded, clearly transcended the realm of dreams...
A flurry of thoughts flashed through her mind, but she couldn’t quite grasp whether it was due to her rebirth or something else.
After a while, Ying Bing picked up her teacup and took a gentle sip.
The words her parents had said in the dream echoed in her mind.
“Dreams will eventually wake; as long as it’s a good dream, that’s enough.”
After finishing her tea, she returned to the bedside and crouched down.
Under the bed lay a box she had forgotten about for a long time, left there all this time.
The box was covered in dust and wasn’t locked.
“I remember now.”
“I wasn’t always alone on my birthdays; at least... not when I was at the Li residence.”
“A long, long time ago, I used to receive birthday gifts every year.”
With a snap—
The box opened, and the dust stirred in the sunlight, creating ripples of brightness.
A cloth doll... a rattle... silver bells... all items a little girl would love.
These lost beauties, after many years, were once again warmed by the sunlight.
“Every birthday when I was little, he would give me a gift.”
Ying Bing’s gaze lowered, her brows softening, making her beauty shine even brighter.
...
Meanwhile.
In the Li family’s main hall, a triad inquiry was underway!
Li Dalong sat at the dining table, holding a steamed bun, sipping winter melon and pork rib soup, looking as serious as a judge.
Madam Xueqin crossed her arms, her usually gentle demeanor rare as she scrutinized her precious son.
“Gulp...”
The little culprit, Li Mo, swallowed hard.
This kind of atmosphere hadn’t appeared in a long time.
His parents had never been particularly strict with him; their approach was more about joyful education, allowing him to express himself freely since childhood, which led to a somewhat unpopular childhood.
When he did make a mistake, like writing on the teacher’s face, it was usually Li Dalong who stepped in, giving him a light spanking, playing the bad cop, and then letting his mother come in to comfort him, gently reminding him not to do it again.
The combination of tough love and sweet words usually resolved things.
The Li family rarely had a mixed double act from the parents; he could count the times on one hand. The last time was when Li Mo was ten, stealing money from home to buy a smoking pipe, wanting to try out what it was like to smoke...
Smack—
“Criminal!”
Li Dalong slammed the bun down on the table like a gavel, declaring sternly:
“Do you plead guilty?”
“Dad, why does this feel like I’m on trial...”
“Be serious; we’re interrogating you. Don’t call me ‘Dad.’ If what you did is true, don’t think I won’t consider disowning you!”
Logically, if their son was getting married, the parents would be happy.
But Xiao Bing was different.
She was entrusted to the Li family by Ying’s couple before their deaths, treated like a daughter-in-law. It was a good thing for the two kids to get together, but only under proper circumstances.
“Really...”
Little Li, wanting to retort, felt guilty under his parents’ scrutinizing gazes and muttered:
“It’s just... dual cultivation, you know, like sharing a dream or something...”
“What on earth?”
“Dual cultivation?!”
Li Dalong and Gu Xueqin’s eyes widened in shock.
Li Mo realized his parents had definitely misunderstood, but he couldn’t blame them; after all, this term usually associated with scoundrels. His father had caught several of them, all practicing the ‘dual cultivation’ techniques of yin and yang.
“It’s not what you think...”
“I don’t care what kind it is! Guards! Take him away and give him fifty lashes!”
“Dad, Mom, do you understand spiritual communication and soul resonance? Oh, you’re a bit far from the Observation Realm, so you might not get this...”
“????”
“Darling, if we’re going to rage in court, should we add another fifty lashes?”
The scene descended into chaos.
But it quieted down just as quickly.
Li Mo turned around and found Bing had crossed the threshold of the hall, looking slightly red-eyed, her hair unbound.
The usually cool and aloof Bing appeared a bit weary today, like a beautiful cat just waking up.
Li Mo tentatively asked, “How did you sleep last night?”
“Hmm... I had a beautiful dream.”
Ying Bing thought for a moment and noticed the awkward look on Li Mo’s face, as if he was worried she remembered what happened in the dream.
She slightly furrowed her brows:
“But you lied to me last night; you’re a bad person.”
“???”
Li Mo’s heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally sank.
Bing indeed remembered.
And now it wasn’t even a matter of whether she remembered or not.
Turning stiffly, his parents’ shock quickly morphed into a loss of parental affection.
“Execute him! Take him away and execute him!”
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