Chapter 124 - 3.20

______

"Why must it be you? It should be me! You- you stole my position! My everything! The Duke was supposed to be mine! I was- going to cure him, and, and live a happy life with him.. But why is it you??!"

The scene Xu Jiaqi opened her eyes to was so shocking that she wondered if she had accidentally been transmigrated by the System to another world.

There was a blonde woman on top of her. In her hands was a sharp knife completely covered in blood. Tears streamed down her face like a waterfall. A scary expression, her face all scrunched up and grim. Her makeup was smudged, and her hair unkept.

'Who?'

Then, out of nowhere, she was attacked.

Relentless stabbing from the woman, aimed towards her abdomen. She could feel her flesh being penetrated again and  again, as if she was nothing but a flesh of meat. She was rendered unable to move, and could only listen as the mad woman spiralled into a string of shrieks and wails.

"DIE! IF YOU DISAPPEAR, THEN HE WILL FINALLY.. RECOGNIZE MY EFFORTS!" The woman yelled, stabbing as hard as she could into Xu Jiaqi.

She didn't understand the situation at all, nor did she want to understand.

Who was this woman, and where was she?

She was still Xu Jiaqi, right?

No... the woman was wearing clothes that seemed more suited to the Victorian era, whereas Xu Jiaqi's last memory contained people who wore clothes similar to traditional Chinese apparel.

A dream.

It should be a dream.

She couldn't contact the System, nor did she recall ever going through such an event. If it wasn't a dream like in the continuous series she had to experience, what could it be?

'These fucking dreams are getting too real.' Xu Jiaqi realized where she was and didn't know how to react.

This was probably the closest she had been to actually entering the body of the person in her dream. It was like she truly was being stabbed. She even felt the excruciating pain, but it slowly dulled down as more stabs came. There was a burning sensation throughout her whole body.

Another dream. Twisted ones that kept appearing. Each time a world passed, she felt like it began to get closer to reality and affect her thoroughly.

'I need to get out of this situation, but how..?'

Xu Jiaqi could only law down as the crazed woman repeated a man's name over and over again.

Hans. Duke Hans. A name that was unfamiliar to her.

She didn't know how much time had passed, nor was she able to comprehend how she survived to the point she currently was in.

Her body was a mess. After wreaking havoc in her abdomen, the woman started to stab other areas as well. She ended it with a clean stab to the head, piercing her brain. She was supposed to die, right? There is now way she would be able to live on?

However, she still couldn't get out of the dream.

That was, until a man entered the room. He was covered in sweat as he ran towards her cold body with a ghastly expression. His sultry voice calling out her name in despair.

Xu Jiaqi was half asleep, but she immediately caught on something strange inside the man.

'..Zenith's soul!' Xu Jiaqi was still conscious, yet not aware of her surroundings at the same time. Her senses were dulled, and it was unclear whether the cause for it was her severe blood loss that pushed her to the death's door, or because she was in a literal dream.

One thing was for sure. She felt the waves of Zenith's soul. She couldn't have mistaken it.

Zenith's soul, which had protected her in the last world. In her current world, she guessed that it was inside Xie Yongrui's body, but it was still not certified. 

The familiar traces.. It was much stronger this time, however. As if it was the strengthened version of Zenith's own.

'Could it be.. This man possesses the soul I am looking for?'

The one she was apparently intertwined with in her past.

Xu Jiaqi tried her best to keep her eyes open, but it was futile.

Just as she realized it, the dream was ending.

She tried her hardest to reach out to the man and shout out her questions, but she wasn't capable of doing so and passed away right then and there.

'No.. No!'

________

The tired girl ended up with a fever. A rather high fever that would've cost her life if it was left untreated. Luckily, the doctors were skilled and was able to lower the severity of her condition and make her rest easier.

However, she was still unable to wake up. It had been a whole day since she fainted. The doctors said that it was only excessive fatigue, but Xie Yongrui still couldn't help but be worried sick.

On a bright, sunny day, Xie Yongrui called out Lin, the personal maid he had assigned to her.

"Lin, what do you think about the Qiqi?"  Xie Yongrui questioned. 

"..Pardon? Do you mean Miss Xu?"

"Of course. Who else could it be? In the time you have spent with her, don't tell me your brain malfunctioned? How come you need to ask such a question.." Xie Yongrui chided, dissatisfied at her.

"P-please excuse me, my lord." Lin coughed to clear up her throat and gain the confidence to speak once more. "About Miss Xu, I haven't discovered anything strange about her. However, it has to be noted that the Miss does possess strange knowledge that has no explanations bound to it. For example, the magic that she showed while sparring with the knights, and her sudden skillful swordsmanship. I find it weird, but outside of those moments, she usually acts pretty normal. She has no obvious vigilance or hostility even when I purposely made some subtle mistakes, and acted forgiving in those cases."

With the report Lin just made, Xie Yongrui was further thrown into a spiral of thoughts.

This girl called Xu Jiaqi, who exactly was she? No matter how hard he thought about it, he didn't seem to find any traces of him meeting the girl in his entire life. His memory was supposed to be peerless. It couldn't have failed him.

Then, why was it did he feel a tingling sense of familiarity and longing? It made his heart ache, to the point where he was convinced that it was an underlying disease. However, the doctors all said that there was nothing wrong with him.

However, he still insisted to himself that something was wrong with him.