“I always say my dog never bites, either.”
Su Yingli muttered under her breath.
She cleared her throat and said seriously, “First of all, I’m not your sister. Call me by my name, or Guide Su.”
“Second, didn’t you say you’d scared me? If I get frightened later and can’t guide you properly, you’re the one who’ll suffer.”
Su Ci lay sprawled across the table, staring straight at Su Yingli.
His dark eyes went unfocused for a moment. He blinked slowly, then the corners of his lips lifted slightly again.
“But, Sis, your surname is Su, and mine is Su too. You’re an S-rank Guide, and I’m an S-rank Sentinel.”
“Isn’t it fate that brought us together? Can’t I really call you Sis?”
He spoke rather slowly, skipping right over her second point and fixating on the way he addressed her.
Su Yingli felt a headache coming on.
She’d meant to finish the guidance as quickly as possible and enjoy a nice, relaxing end to her workday. Instead, she’d ended up with a problem child.
“Of course…”
Su Yingli had meant to say no.
But just as the words reached her lips, the pretty young man raised his eyes. His mouth drooped ever so slightly, and he looked at her with a trace of grievance in his dark eyes, his face full of expectation.
As if, the moment she refused, those clear eyes reflecting her image would fill with disappointment, and a sigh would slip from his thin lips.
That whole combo was just too effective with a face like his.
A racing heartbeat was only natural!
Su Yingli reassured herself for a second, swallowed the words she’d been about to say, and smiled. “They say every meeting is fate. Of course you can.”
Besides, judging by the look of things, Su Ci wouldn’t listen even if she said no.
No loss.
At her answer, Su Ci’s smile widened. He obediently held out his hand.
“Don’t worry, Sis. Since you don’t like it, I’ll hide Yuanxiao.”
See? No loss!
Su Yingli was afraid of snakes, especially in a situation like this, where she needed to close her eyes, focus, and work carefully.
Just imagining a snake beside her that could wrap around her at any moment made her skin crawl. There was no way she’d be able to concentrate on the guidance.
Luckily, although Su Ci was a little clingy, he was still quite considerate.
Feeling a little more at ease, Su Yingli reached out and clasped Su Ci’s hand, lacing their fingers together. She closed her eyes and summoned her mental power.
“Relax. I’m starting the guidance now.”
Su Yingli felt Su Ci give her fingers a gentle squeeze in reply.
She curved her lips into a smile and sent her mental threads into Su Ci’s mental landscape.
It was very different from when she had guided Charon last time.
This time, Su Yingli moved much more gently.
Su Ci had opened his mental landscape to her, and she entered with no effort at all.
But the moment Su Yingli stepped inside, a vine wound around her ankle. She looked up and saw that its roots grew by a lake not far away. It tightened around her, trying to drag her toward it.
She was in a misty forest.
All around her was silence. She couldn’t hear the wind, birdsong, insects, or the rustle of leaves. A faint fragrance hung in the mist, the same iris scent she had smelled not long ago.
Only now, that faint fragrance was mixed with a subtle hint of decaying wood.
Like wood that had been soaking in lake water for too long.
There was no sunlight here. The mist was so thick it seemed like ink in the air, shrouding the forest, never thinning or dispersing.
The atmosphere was bleak and eerie.
Su Yingli shook off the vine and frowned at the scene before her.
She’d felt uncomfortable all over the moment she came in.
That oppressive feeling weighed on her heart, so heavy it was hard to breathe.
Unlike Charon’s berserk state, which felt ready to erupt at any moment, the collapse of Su Ci’s mental landscape made Su Yingli feel even worse.
He’d seemed so obedient and clear-eyed just moments ago. How had his mental landscape become so damaged?
Without further hesitation, Su Yingli put her mental power to work and began the guidance.
Countless fine mental threads reached deep into the forest, gentle and unhurried. The mist shrouding the trees gradually began to clear.
A ray of sunlight fell through the woods. A breeze stirred, shadows swayed among the leaves, and dappled light played across the ground. The lake, once utterly still, rippled with clear blue waves.
With the first birdsong and insect chirps, the forest gradually came alive.
Su Yingli walked a few steps forward. A little white rabbit named Xiaobai suddenly darted out from behind a tree and ran toward her, its three-petal mouth twitching cutely.
Delighted, she cupped her hands, and it was just about to hop into them when it abruptly stopped and bolted into the bushes as if startled.
Su Yingli was puzzled.
She was just about to follow when a familiar hissing sound suddenly came from behind her…
Her whole body stiffened. Bracing herself, she slowly turned around.
A little snake, grayish lake-green and covered in colorful scales, wound its way among the branches and slowly reached toward her.
Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the leaves and fell on its body. Every colorful scale reflected a tiny glint, layered with gold and edged in crimson, as though it were covered in shards of gemstones. It was breathtakingly beautiful.
That did nothing to stop Su Yingli’s hair from standing on end.
As the little snake flicked its crimson tongue and swished its tail, darting toward her—
Su Yingli couldn’t take it anymore. She squeezed her eyes shut and let out a terrified scream, withdrawing all her mental power at once and returning to the real world.
The forest and the snake disappeared. All that remained before her was Su Ci, lying back in the guidance chair, his dark eyes hazy and filmed over.
Su Yingli patted her chest and took several deep breaths.
She took Su Ci’s wrist and checked his optical brain.
It showed that his berserk level had dropped to a safe 50 percent. Only then did she go over and release him from the guidance chair.
“Su Ci, how are you? Are you all right?”
When he didn’t answer, Yingli waved a hand in front of his eyes.
Up close, she realized he was taller and broader than she’d imagined. Even sitting in the chair, he wasn’t much shorter than she was. His lean, defined muscles showed through the tight black combat suit, making him look even sexier and more alluring.
And that impossibly beautiful face, bathed in the overhead light, was not only flawless but looked even more like porcelain steeped in moonlight.
His long lashes cast shadows beneath his eyes. His gaze was slightly unfocused, and he looked like a luminous work of art.
Su Ci’s lashes fluttered, and his pupils came back into focus.
Su Yingli raised her eyes and met the look he cast her way—tender, yet somehow touched with danger.
It made her heart tremble.
“Are—are you all right?”
She waved her hand again.
The next moment, a long, strong hand suddenly clamped around her wrist.
Su Yingli jumped at his sudden movement.
She gave her wrist a slight tug, trying to pull free, but Su Ci didn’t budge. Not even his fingers loosened.
His gaze had cleared.
But the obedience in those dark eyes and the smile at his lips had vanished at some point.