“Things haven’t been very peaceful lately…have they?”
His voice was soft, almost casual, as though the question had occurred to him without much thought.
Yet there was no uncertainty in his tone.
He was not asking because he wanted an answer.
He already seemed to know.
Yu Jin froze slightly, genuinely caught off guard for a moment.
Not peaceful?
What exactly did he mean?
Was he referring to what had happened at the spiritual spring?
Or—
Yu Jin’s thoughts instinctively returned to the dream.
The endless corridor.
The doors bursting open.
The black vortex.
The golden light.
And the people she had seen there, including the man now standing before her.
Her thoughts grew increasingly tangled, but none of that confusion showed on her face.
Yu Jin did not answer his question.
Instead, she looked directly at him, her expression becoming more guarded.
“Who are you?”
Her voice had tightened slightly.
That was the question she cared about most.
The man looked at her but did not answer immediately.
Silence settled between them once again.
For several moments, neither of them moved.
Then, at last, he spoke.
“You’ll know in the future.”
His tone remained calm, so calm that it sounded as though he were speaking about something entirely unimportant.
Yu Jin stared at him.
“…”
That was it?
You’ll know in the future?
What kind of answer was that?
Her brows drew together slightly.
Before she could question him further, however, the man raised one hand.
With a small movement of his fingers, a talisman slipped free.
There was no burst of spiritual light, no strange phenomenon, and no sudden fluctuation in the surrounding air.
The talisman simply drifted toward her and came to a quiet stop before her.
Yu Jin hesitated for a moment before reaching out.
Warm.
The talisman carried a faint warmth against her palm.
It was not hot or uncomfortable, merely warm enough for her to notice.
Yu Jin lowered her eyes and studied it carefully.
At first glance, it looked no different from an ordinary talisman.
She turned it slightly between her fingers, but there was nothing visibly unusual about it.
It was simply a talisman.
Nothing more.
Her confusion only deepened.
Yu Jin looked up again.
“What is—”
Before she could finish, a breeze suddenly slipped in through the open window.
Whoosh—
It was not strong, only a passing current of air.
Yet as it swept through the silent Scripture Pavilion, it lightly stirred the edges of Yu Jin’s robes and sent a few strands of hair across her cheek.
She instinctively turned toward the window.
Then she stopped.
The space beside it was empty.
Yu Jin’s eyes narrowed.
The man was gone.
She had heard no footsteps or rustle of clothing.
There had been no movement and no warning.
He had simply disappeared, as though he had never been standing there at all.
Yu Jin remained motionless.
The Scripture Pavilion fell silent once more.
The faint fragrance of sandalwood still lingered in the air, and pale morning light continued to stream through the window.
Nothing had changed.
Nothing had been disturbed.
Yet she was now the only person left in the room.
“…”
Yu Jin stared at the empty space beside the window for several seconds.
Then a single thought surfaced in her mind.
What exactly was that?
She remained there for a while longer, her fingers still closed around the object in her hand.
Eventually, she lowered her gaze.
The talisman was still there, resting quietly in her palm.
Solid.
Warm beneath her fingertips.
At the very least, it proved one thing.
What had just happened was not another dream.
She really had seen him.
The person who had appeared in that strange dream had truly stood before her.
They had spoken, even if the entire conversation had been frustratingly brief.
Before disappearing, he had left this talisman behind.
Yu Jin studied it in silence.
The longer she looked at it, the more questions surfaced in her mind.
Who was he?
Why had he appeared in her dream?
Why was he here in Qingqiu?
And what exactly had he meant when he asked whether things had been unsettled lately?
Most importantly, what was this talisman for?
Yu Jin slowly exhaled and closed her eyes for a moment.
There was no point in continuing like this.
She forced the confusion in her mind to settle.
No matter who that man was or what his words were supposed to mean, standing there and turning the same questions over and over would not give her any answers.
If he refused to explain, she would simply have to wait until she could find the answers herself.
Yu Jin opened her eyes again.
The confusion in them gradually faded, replaced by her usual calm.
She looked down at the talisman one last time before carefully putting it away.
Whatever it was, she would keep it for now.
Yu Jin turned and walked toward the entrance of the Scripture Pavilion.
Her footsteps echoed softly through the quiet room.
When she reached the doorway, she pushed the door open and stepped outside.
A moment later—
Creak.
The wooden door slowly closed behind her.
The instant Yu Jin stepped back into the bamboo forest, the world seemed to come alive again.
The wind began to move.
Bamboo leaves rustled softly overhead, and the faint sounds of the forest gradually returned to her ears, one after another, replacing the unnatural stillness that had surrounded the Scripture Pavilion.
Yu Jin stood there for a brief moment before continuing down the path.
Behind her, the Scripture Pavilion remained silent.
Ahead, the bamboo forest stretched beneath the morning light.
Everything had returned to the way it had been.
Only the faint warmth of the talisman hidden on her person remained, quietly proving that the encounter had been real.