414: Chapter 414 Xuan Yin's Proposal to Jasmine

King Xuanyin looked at her: "I didn't run away."

"You didn't run away? You left early in the morning without even saying a word; if that's not running away, then what is?"

"I simply departed according to my scheduled itinerary."

"Scheduled itinerary?"

Molly "humphed."

"You told me yesterday evening that you wanted to stay two more days, yet you were gone first thing this morning. Your scheduled itinerary was changed at the last minute, wasn't it?"

King Xuanyin did not answer.

She raised her hand and waved it, opening the access permissions to the Small World.

"Come in and sit."

The two of them sat down on the stone stools under the peach tree.

Molly rested her hands on her knees, her body leaning forward slightly:

"What exactly is going on with you?"

"What do you mean, 'what's going on'?"

"Don't play dumb with me."

Molly's voice became a bit more serious.

"You didn't have this attitude toward that boy Lin Yun two days ago."

"In the corridor, you were whispering in his ear and holding his arm, and at the wedding banquet, you even drank with his legal wife for ages."

"How, after just one night, have you become so cold as if you don't even know him?"

King Xuanyin lowered her gaze:

"It's nothing. I just thought things through."

"Thought what through?"

"Thought through that he is not someone I should be provoking."

Molly was stunned for a moment: "What do you mean by that?"

"It means that my interest in him was just a passing fancy. Once the novelty wore off, it naturally faded."

"You're full of it." Molly said bluntly.

"Xuanyin, I've known you for so many years; when have you ever cared about someone just because of a 'passing fancy'?"

"In the past, those nobles and Prodigies chased you for eight hundred years, and you didn't even bat an eyelid. And you're telling me you have a 'passing fancy' for a forty-eight-year-old boy?"

King Xuanyin did not respond.

Molly continued to press: "Has he influenced you in some way?"

"No."

"Then why did you run?"

"I didn't run."

"Say it again—you didn't run?"

King Xuanyin looked at her, remained silent for a few breaths, and then sighed softly.

The sigh was very short, as light as the wind blowing over flower petals.

"Molly, stop asking."

"I insist on asking." Molly leaned forward another half-inch. "Tell me the truth, did you really fall for him?"

The courtyard was silent for a moment.

The wind chime at the corner of the eaves emitted a faint tinkling sound.

Peach blossom petals fell from the branches, drifting down onto the stone table and onto their hems.

King Xuanyin neither nodded nor shook her head.

She just sat there quietly, her gaze fixed on the peach petal on the table, not moving for a long time.

Molly waited for a while, then asked again: "Did you?"

King Xuanyin finally looked up.

Her gaze was calm; it didn't look like she was avoiding anything, but rather like a resignation-filled acceptance.

"Molly, if you are truly that curious..."

She paused, her tone level, carrying a seriousness Molly had never seen in her before:

"You can try interacting with Lin Yun more."

"Try it out; spend time with him, talk to him, look into his eyes..."

"Then you will understand."

Molly was stunned.

She had prepared a whole basket of questions to press her with, but King Xuanyin said this instead.

A sentence she had not expected at all.

"You... you want me to interact with him?"

"Mm."

"Are you serious?"

"I am."

Molly opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again: "You're not... you're not..."

She thought for a long time but couldn't come up with the right words.

King Xuanyin filled it in for her: "Dragging you into the water."

"You're dragging me into the water?"

"I'm just giving you a suggestion."

"You call this a suggestion?"

Molly jumped straight up from the stone stool.

"You tell me to interact with Lin Yun, and then what? What does this have to do with you running off without saying a word?"

Molly's voice rose several octaves; she braced her hands on the edge of the stone table, leaning forward until she was almost face-to-face with King Xuanyin.

"If you don't explain clearly, I won't be able to sleep tonight!"

King Xuanyin watched her anxious, jumping-up-and-down appearance, and unhurriedly reached out to brush a peach petal off her shoulder.

"Interact with him a few more times, and you'll naturally understand."

"Stop talking in riddles!"

"I'm not talking in riddles."

King Xuanyin's gaze was calm.

"I'm telling the truth. After you interact with him, you will know why I left."

Molly glared at her, her cheeks slightly puffed out.

She had known Xuanyin for eight thousand years; this woman always spoke with three parts truth and seven parts lies, twisting and turning between reality and falsehood.

But today, this sentence, "After you interact with him, you will know why I left," didn't sound like a brush-off.

Molly narrowed her eyes: "You're letting me interact with him, so aren't you afraid I'll really be dragged into the water by you?"

"I am."

King Xuanyin answered crisply.

Molly was stunned: "Then why are you still letting me go?"

"Because I am telling the truth."

King Xuanyin's tone remained level, carrying a kind of unfathomable frankness.

"I do hope you understand why I left. But I also don't want you to fall too deep."

She paused and added: "So, you must gauge the situation yourself."

Molly was bewildered by her words.

Standing in place, her legs slightly apart, her brows knitted together.

"Xuanyin, what exactly are you trying to say? One moment you're telling me to interact with him, the next you're saying not to fall too deep. Do you want me to understand, or do you not want me to understand?"

"Both."

"You—"

Molly opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again, unable to find a suitable response.

She had lived for over eight thousand years and prided herself on having seen every kind of trick and scheme.

Yet, King Xuanyin's logic today of "You'll know once you go, but don't fall too deep" was something she simply couldn't figure out.

"Are you afraid that I'll find something out?"

"No."

"Then why don't you just tell me directly?"

"Because even if I told you, you wouldn't believe it."

King Xuanyin looked at her, revealing a smile that held a touch of self-deprecation, a touch of helplessness, and a touch of "you'll know once you try it yourself."

"Molly, I've known you for so many years; no matter what I say, you always want to get to the bottom of it. Instead of me saying a hundred sentences, it's better for you to try it yourself once."

"You tell me to try, and then you tell me not to fall too deep. Isn't that contradictory?"

"It's not contradictory."

"How is it not contradictory?"

"Because you will understand after you try, but after you understand..."

King Xuanyin stopped there.

She lowered her gaze, looking at the peach petal on the stone table, and was silent for two seconds.

"After you understand, you might regret having understood."

This sentence was spoken lightly, like a leaf sinking into water.

But Molly's heart skipped a beat upon hearing it.

She stared at King Xuanyin for a long while, her tone suddenly becoming serious: "Are you serious?"

"I am."

"So... you really fell for him? Is that why you regret it?"

King Xuanyin did not answer.

She just sat there quietly, peach petals landing on her plain-colored hem, only to be blown away by the wind.

After a long while, she spoke: "Try it first, then we'll see."

Molly looked at her face, which was so calm it was almost indifferent, her mind churning with a thousand guesses.

But she didn't continue to press.

She knew Xuanyin too well.

If this woman didn't want to say something, you couldn't pry it out of her even with a knife to her throat.

"Fine."

Molly slapped the stone table.

"I'll go. I want to see what kind of ability that Lin Yun has to make you, the dignified King Xuanyin, run off without a word."

She finished and added:

"But don't count on me falling into it. My eight-thousand-year-old Dao Heart is much steadier than yours."

Upon hearing this, King Xuanyin gave her a deep look.

That look held a certain indescribable meaning, as if she wanted to laugh but held it back.

"Mm, you're steady."

"Stop being sarcastic!"

"I'm not."

"You clearly are!"

King Xuanyin finally couldn't help it and chuckled aloud.

"Then good luck."

Molly was choked by her "good luck" and couldn't speak for a long time.

She stared at King Xuanyin for quite a while, then finally let out a heavy hmph:

"Fine. You just wait. Once I figure it out, I'll come back and settle the score with you."

She finished, turned around, and walked out. After two steps, she stopped, turned back, and added: "Don't you dare run off halfway again."

"I won't."

"Do you promise?"

"I promise."

Molly stared at her for a few seconds, as if judging whether she was lying.

Finally, she withdrew her gaze, pushed open the courtyard gate, and walked out of the Small World.

Her figure gradually faded in the white light and disappeared.

Only King Xuanyin was left in the courtyard.

The old peach tree was still shedding blossoms, and the wind chime was still tinkling.

She sat on the stone stool, looking down at the peach petal on the table that Molly had pinched.

Her fingertip touched it lightly, then withdrew.

Then she stood up and also exited the Virtual World.

The small courtyard was empty.

The peach tree was in full bloom, and petals fell in a flurry, covering the ground.