"When did he leave?"
Ying Bing sat up, finding the space beside her empty. The morning light flooded the room, making it glow so brightly she could hardly keep her eyes open.
By now, the sun must have been high in the sky.
She knew—last night, Li Mo had entered her dreams.
Truthfully, she had already awakened when he was painting for her, but faced with those hazy, long-buried fragments of happiness, she had instinctively deceived herself.
Now, the fog in her memories had cleared, and everything from the dream surfaced vividly before her eyes.
Her pretending to be serious, calling him "brother."
The calamity beast that had appeared at their doorstep ten years ago.
And the relieved, joyful look in her parents' eyes as they faded away.
"Six Apertures of Divine Observation..."
Ying Bing realized her cultivation had advanced, yet she didn’t feel the overwhelming joy one might expect.
She moved to the tea table, basking in the sunlight as she brewed a cup of light tea, quietly gazing at her reflection in the water.
Her clear, phoenix-like eyes were slightly red, tinged with confusion.
Herself.
She seemed... different somehow?
Before, her childhood memories had always been indistinct, but now they were crystal clear.
And more than that—
The words her parents had spoken in the dream, just before it dissolved, clearly went beyond the boundaries of mere dreams...
A whirlwind of thoughts flashed through her mind, but she couldn’t quite grasp whether this was due to her rebirth or something else entirely.
After a long silence, Ying Bing lifted the teacup and took a small sip.
Her parents’ words from the dream echoed in her mind.
"Dreams must end—but as long as it was beautiful, that’s enough."
After finishing her tea, she returned to the bedside and knelt down.
Beneath the bed lay a long-forgotten box, covered in thick dust. It wasn’t locked.
"I remember now."
"I wasn’t alone on every birthday... at least, not when I was in the Li household."
"A long, long time ago, I used to receive gifts on every birthday."
Click—
The box opened, stirring the dust and making the dazzling sunlight ripple like water.
Inside were things a little girl would adore—a cloth doll, a rattle drum, a silver bell...
These lost fragments of happiness, untouched for years, were now bathed in warm sunlight once more.
"Every birthday when I was little, he would give me one."
Ying Bing lowered her eyes, her expression softening, making her already radiant features even more striking.
......
Meanwhile.
In the Li family’s main hall, a full-scale interrogation was underway!
Li Dalong sat at the dining table, holding a steamed bun in one hand and sipping winter melon pork rib soup with the other. His stern expression made him look like a magistrate presiding over court.
Ms. Xue Qin stood with her arms crossed—uncharacteristically severe for her usually gentle demeanor—staring down their precious son with a scrutinizing gaze.
Gulp…
The accused, young Li Mo, swallowed hard.
This kind of scene hadn’t happened in a long time.
His parents had never been overly strict with him, raising him with a carefree approach that allowed his mischievous nature to flourish. As a result, little Li Mo’s childhood had been... somewhat notorious.
On the rare occasions he did cross the line—like the time he scribbled on their tutor’s face—his father, Li Dalong, would step in, spank him as the "bad cop," before his mother, Xue Qin, soothed him with gentle words, reminding him not to do it again.
A classic good cop, bad cop routine—just enough discipline to teach him a lesson, then move on.
True "parental tag-team punishments" were rare in the Li household, countable on one hand. The last time had been when Li Mo was ten and stole money to buy a tobacco pipe, curious about the taste of dry tobacco...
Thud!
"The accused!"
Li Dalong slammed the bun onto the table like a judge’s gavel, declaring solemnly:
"Do you confess to your crimes?"
"Dad, why does this feel like a trial—"
"Be serious! This is a trial! Don’t call me ‘Dad’—if the allegations are true, I may have to disown you for the greater good!"
Normally, parents would be thrilled to learn their son had taken an interest in romance.
But Ying Bing was different.
She had been entrusted to the Li family by her parents before their deaths—treated like their own daughter. While the idea of the two youngsters getting together would be a happy union, it had to be done properly.
"I mean, it was just—"
The young offender, Li Mo, nearly tried to bluff his way out, but under his parents’ piercing stares, he faltered.
"Just... dual cultivation, you know? Sharing a dream and all..."
"Excuse me?"
"Dual cultivation?!"
Li Dalong and Gu Xue Qin’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
Li Mo quickly realized they’d misunderstood—though he couldn’t blame them. The term was usually associated with lecherous outlaws who practiced "yin-stealing" martial arts—something his father had dealt with before.
"Not that kind of dual cultivation—"
"I don’t care what kind! Guards! Drag him out and give him fifty lashes first!"
"Mom, Dad, it’s a spiritual exchange, a meeting of souls—you get it? Oh, right, you’re still a ways off from the Divine Observation realm, so maybe it’s hard to grasp..."
"????"
"Wife, disrespecting the court—should we make it a hundred lashes?"
The scene descended into chaos.
Then, just as suddenly, silence fell.
Li Mo turned his head and saw the "ice block" (Ying Bing) stepping over the threshold into the hall. Her eyes were slightly red, her hair loose and unbound.
The usually aloof ice block looked unusually weary today—like a beautiful cat that had just woken up.
Li Mo tentatively asked, "Did you sleep well last night?"
"Mm... it was a good dream."
Ying Bing thought for a moment, noticing the unease on Li Mo’s face—he was worried about whether she remembered what happened in the dream.
She frowned slightly.
"But you lied to me last night. You’re a bad person."
"???"
Li Mo’s heart, which had been hanging by a thread, finally plummeted.
The ice block remembered.
And now, it wasn’t just about whether she remembered—
He turned stiffly toward his parents, whose initial shock was rapidly giving way to vanishing parental affection.
"Execute him! Drag him out and execute him!"
"Wife, go fetch the rolling pin—the thickest one!"
"!!!"
Li Mo leaned back in his chair, his scalp prickling with dread.
Here he was—the "Little Tyrant of the Divine Hammer," the "Wife-Fortune Battle Soul," ranked fourth among the Hidden Dragons, with perfected body-refining techniques and even the Indestructible Vajra Body.
But as everyone knew, the terror of parental discipline wasn’t about pain...
It was pure fear!
"Ice block, say something!"
This wasn’t how things were supposed to go!
...