That single golden vertical pupil snapped Jiang Nuan's mind awake.
Everything before her began to sway.
The outline of the study twisted and warped violently—the porcelain cup, the red bean cake, the soft slippers by the sofa. Every warm, familiar thing was cracking apart in a soundless way.
Her legs gave out. She dropped to her knees.
The golden vertical pupil floated before her eyes.
Close enough to touch, suspended at the center of the collapsing world.
It stared at her, cold and unblinking.
Waiting for her.
【Wake up.】
The next second, her eyes flew open.
Real, heavy darkness pressed against her eyelids. Her consciousness felt like it had been yanked violently from deep water.
She gasped for air.
Her vision blurred for a few seconds before slowly focusing—the same ceiling as in her dream.
But that familiar warmth from the dream? Gone.
Someone was gripping her wrist, the pressure tight.
Jiang Nuan turned her head.
Ye Que sat on the edge of the bed.
He leaned over her, half his face carved from shadow by the dim lamp on the nightstand.
His expression was something she'd never seen before—grave, heavy.
Those usually icy black eyes were now holding back some barely contained emotion.
That emotion looked like fear.
A sniper, a man of killing calm, was looking at her like this.
"Jiang Nuan." Ye Que's voice was low. "Can you hear me?"
Jiang Nuan opened her mouth. Her voice came out hoarse.
"...Yes."
The tension in Ye Que's face eased by a fraction, but he didn't let go of her hand.
Jiang Nuan's gaze traveled past his shoulder and found another figure standing beside him.
Shen Wu.
No jacket, just a sleep shirt, collar hanging loose and slightly disheveled, hair mussed—clearly he'd rushed over.
Those pale eyes were quietly fixed on her. She'd seen that look before.
It was the look Shen Wu wore when analyzing a situation—calm as a machine with no emotions.
"What happened?" Jiang Nuan pushed herself up on her elbows, head spinning.
Ye Que's other hand moved instantly to steady her back, his palm's warmth seeping through the thin fabric of her sleep shirt.
"Two minutes ago, Shen Wu detected abnormal fluctuations in your mental waves and alerted me," Ye Que said, his voice steadying. "Your vitals were normal, no external injuries, but you had no reaction to any outside stimulus. Calling you, shaking you—nothing worked."
No reaction at all.
Meaning she'd been trapped inside that dream.
"Shen Wu." She turned to him, voice still rough. "...Thanks."
She figured it was his professional sensitivity as a mental-type esper.
Shen Wu's gaze lingered on her face for a beat, then he gave a small nod without speaking.
Jiang Nuan glanced at the nightstand, meaning to check the clock—but for some reason she felt there should be a little deer-shaped cup sitting there.
02:47.
Not quite three in the morning.
She lowered her head, looking at her own hands. They were still trembling slightly.
"Just now... was I dreaming?"
But that dream had felt too real.
The scratch of Bai Siyuan's pen across paper as he wrote, the dense sweetness of red bean cake melting on her tongue, the cool of bare feet on wooden floor—every detail was so vivid it felt impossible that her brain had fabricated it.
It felt more like something that had actually happened.
Had Bai Siyuan done something to her mind?
The thought barely crossed her mind when she reacted on instinct—she reached out and clamped her hand over Shen Wu's eyes.
"No mind-reading."
The moment her palm touched him, she felt his lashes brush against her skin.
It tickled.
He didn't pull her hand away.
That surprised Jiang Nuan.
Normally, Shen Wu with his sharp tongue wouldn't miss a chance to throw out some sarcastic remark.
But right now, he just stayed still, letting her cover his eyes. He even closed them cooperatively.
She could feel his eyelids shut beneath her palm, lashes grazing once more, then going still.
A few seconds later, he spoke.
"Take your hand away." His voice was deeper than usual, missing its habitual teasing edge. "I can't read you if I don't see your eyes—you know that."
Jiang Nuan slowly withdrew her hand.
As her fingertips slid past his cheek, they brushed a few strands of loose hair at his temple—cool, soft.
Shen Wu opened his eyes, but deliberately kept his gaze off to the side, fixed on her shoulder rather than meeting her eyes.
"Go on," Shen Wu said, his tone even. "Tell me what you dreamed."
Jiang Nuan straightened up and gave a brief description of the dream.
That dream had been uncannily real, as if she'd truly lived in the Bai household.
Shen Wu kept his gaze on her shoulder. After she finished, he was silent for a moment.
"Your memory is incomplete—you know that yourself."
He spoke slowly, as if weighing every word.
"I probed it before. The method used to seal your memories is extremely sophisticated. The memories were compressed into the deepest layer of your consciousness. Unless the person who placed the seal undoes it themselves, it's nearly impossible to break."
He paused, as if sensing something. His long fingers unconsciously pressed against his temple—his habit when concentrating his psychic energy.
"But now, that seal shows signs of loosening."
Jiang Nuan's breath caught. "Loosening?"
"Like the one who sealed it is wavering themselves, hesitating about whether to undo it."
Shen Wu's brow furrowed deeper.
"And in that gap of looseness, another force slipped in. It forcibly invaded that gap, dragged out fragments of memory inside, and shoved them into your dream."
He looked toward the window, pale moonlight reflecting in his eyes. "The method is crude—totally disregarding how much mental strain you can take."
"So that memory-dream required both factors," Jiang Nuan said slowly. "The person who sealed my memories hesitated, and someone else took advantage of that hesitation to forcefully pull those memories out."
Shen Wu glanced at her. Didn't deny it.
"So that's why my head hurt so badly," Jiang Nuan said, rubbing her temples. "Sounds like whoever that force belongs to is in a hurry."
"In a hurry to make me remember."
The room fell silent for a few seconds.
Jiang Nuan's mind was racing.
The sealer was hesitating. A force had invaded forcefully.
"Is it Bai Siyuan?" she asked.
The question didn't require much deduction.
Before coming to the Bai household, she'd already learned from Lu Shiyan that Bai Siyuan was highly likely the culprit behind her fragmented memories.
But if he was the one who placed the seal, why was he hesitating now?
The image of dinner surfaced in Jiang Nuan's mind.
The jarring screech of Bai Siyuan's silver fork scraping against the porcelain plate.
"...He saw my relationship with Ye Que at dinner," she said, piecing it together as she spoke. "The reason he's hesitating is because he thinks I'm getting too close to someone else. He wants me to remember my past with him at the Bai house, wants me to come back to him."
She paused.
"But in that past, there must be parts he doesn't want me to remember. So he's torn—he wants me to remember the good, but he's afraid I'll remember the bad along with it."
Ye Que's profile was hard to read in the dim light, but his shoulders were tight.
"Then the other question," Jiang Nuan said, lowering her voice. "That force that forcefully invaded."
If Bai Siyuan was only hesitating over whether to break the seal, then the person who actually dragged the memories out and stuffed them into her dreams... was most likely someone else.
"Song Huaicheng." Ye Que voiced the name for her, his tone carrying a hint of chill.
Shen Wu narrowed his eyes slightly. "Song Huaicheng's behavior today was indeed strange. Not only did he deliberately ask Jiang Nuan about her past with Ye Que at dinner to provoke Bai Siyuan's emotions, but he also left early."
"The timeline matches." He flipped his wrist, the information terminal projecting a glowing screen. He scanned it quickly. "Song Huaicheng left at 20:13. There's a six-hour gap between that and the mental fluctuation when you entered the dream—plenty of time to set something up."
"But why would he do this?" Jiang Nuan frowned. "A federal observer with no grudge against me—why would he be in such a hurry to restore my memories?"
No one had an answer to that question.
Shen Wu shut off the screen. "His officially registered ability is A-rank water manipulation."
His tone wavered slightly—a rare thing for Shen Wu. "If this intrusion of power really was his doing, then he's hiding at least one unregistered ability, or..."
"He used a tool." The image of the old pocket watch in Song Huaicheng's hand surfaced in Jiang Nuan's mind.
Shen Wu glanced at her and nodded. "Can't rule it out."
Ye Que had listened to the entire exchange in silence.
Then he stood up.
"Sitting here guessing," he said flatly, "is a waste of time. Let's just drag Song Huaicheng over and ask him directly."
The way he said "ask" made the room temperature feel like it dropped two degrees.
He took a step forward.
Jiang Nuan and Shen Wu moved almost at the same time.
One on each side, left and right, they both grabbed Ye Que's arms in unison.
"Wait." Jiang Nuan yanked him back with some effort.
Ye Que looked down at her. The urgency to act was plain in his eyes, but he didn't shake her hand off.
"Let's not stir up trouble before we're ready." She released one hand and looked up at him, trying her best to keep her tone level. "Ye Que, think about it. If it really is him, would he be stupid enough to leave evidence lying around for you to find?"
Ye Que said nothing.
"He's federal. No concrete harm done, no physical evidence, and his identity is too sensitive."
She continued.
"Acting rashly will only expose the fact that we've caught on. Once he's on guard, it'll be even harder to get anything on him."
"She's right."
Shen Wu let go on the other side and stepped back, sitting down on the edge of the bed, crossing his long legs.
"The enemy's cards aren't on the table. Acting hastily does more harm than good. Take precautions first, observe second."
Ye Que stood there.
His shoulders were tense for a few seconds.
Then he slowly sat back down.
Jiang Nuan let out a quiet breath and lowered her gaze.
Actually... she had one more selfish reason she hadn't voiced.
She wanted to enter that memory dream again.
Those images were too real—not like something fabricated or hallucinated. They were the genuine past of this body.
But if they were real...
Then there was one piece of information hidden in them that made her whole body tremble.
In that dream, "she" had transmigrated into this world from a young age.
From the ruins of the refugee district. From childhood.
The memories were first-person, the sensations continuous, the emotions authentic.
It was "her" lived experience—memories that truly belonged to this body.
But she had only arrived in this world less than two months ago.
Two transmigrators... in the same body?
How was that possible?
The moment the thought surfaced, Jiang Nuan felt her heartbeat booming so loudly it was like someone drumming against her eardrums.
That feeling of standing on drifting ice returned.
A terrifying hypothesis began forming in her mind. Hazy and unconfirmed, but logically coherent.
Because if that hypothesis was true, then the "self" she thought she knew had been wrong from the very start.
Jiang Nuan's fingers unconsciously clenched the blanket.
...No.
She needed more information. The handwritten journal Qi Sui mentioned, or completely filling in the blanks of her memories.
Either way, it wasn't something that could be resolved tonight.
She took a deep breath and forced those churning thoughts down.
The three of them quickly discussed their strategy for tomorrow.
Jiang Nuan would maintain the status quo in front of Bai Siyuan and Song Huaicheng, showing no signs of anything being off.
Shen Wu would investigate Song Huaicheng more deeply without alerting him, with special attention on the pocket watch.
Ye Que would handle unexpected situations and ensure they always had an escape route.
Then, a more immediate problem presented itself.
"To prevent tonight from repeating, I need to monitor your mental state in real time." Shen Wu's tone shifted back to business. "We don't know when the other side will make their next move. If I'm too far away, I might not react in time."
He paused.
"In other words, I need to stay here."
Jiang Nuan understood—this was a genuine safety requirement.
After all, she had only briefly drifted into that memory dream, and already her head was splitting with pain. She did need Shen Wu on site for real-time protection.
The problem was...
Three people. One bed. One sofa.
Ye Que was silent for a moment.
"You take the sofa." He looked at Shen Wu, his tone leaving no room for negotiation.
"I'm one meter ninety-two, and that sofa looks about one meter sixty." Shen Wu raised an eyebrow, a faint, enigmatic smile curling at the corner of his lips. "You curled up on it at noon, and your neck still hasn't straightened out tonight."
Ye Que: "..."
"Unless you take the floor." Shen Wu's tone was airy. "In which case, I'll graciously take the sofa."
Two seconds of silence.
The atmosphere hung in a delicate stalemate.
Jiang Nuan cleared her throat, interrupting the standoff.
Both of them looked at her at once.
"Both of you sleep on the bed," she said. "It's big enough."
It was indeed big enough—the bed looked at least two meters twenty wide. All three of them could sleep sideways without crowding.
Shen Wu was staying to protect her. Letting him curl up on the sofa or sleep on the floor would weigh on her conscience.
Besides, it was just sleeping. Nothing else.
Ye Que and Shen Wu both looked at her at the same time.
The contents of their gazes differed, but one thing overlapped:
"Are you serious?"
The words were practically written across both their faces.
Jiang Nuan was a little baffled by their looks.
"What? I mean actual sleeping. What's with those expressions?"
Shen Wu was the first to look away, ducking his head and letting out a quiet laugh.
The laugh was soft, like a breeze skimming the surface of water.
"Fine."
Jiang Nuan shifted herself to the innermost side of the bed, leaving the middle and outer spots open.
Then she pulled up the blanket, wrapped herself in it, and lay down facing the wall.
With her back to them.
From behind her came a familiar presence carrying a faint trace of gunpowder smoke.
Ye Que lay down behind her, in the middle.
Then the outer edge of the mattress dipped slightly, the movement barely noticeable.
Shen Wu took the outermost spot.
About half an arm's length separated each of them.
No one spoke.
The room sank back into darkness and silence.
But Jiang Nuan's heart still hadn't settled.
She thought about the images in that memory dream.
Those details were too natural—too natural to be anything but the sediment of day-after-day genuine companionship.
He had really been good to "her."
But what could make him tamper with the memories of a sister who had been his only companion, the one he loved most deeply?
Was he protecting himself?
Or protecting her?
Or perhaps protecting some secret she didn't know about?
Her thoughts grew heavier, and just before her consciousness slipped away again, she heard a faint voice behind her.
"Sleep."
It was Ye Que's voice.
"If anything happens, I'll call you."
Further off, Shen Wu's breathing was steady and even.
In the darkness, Jiang Nuan's closed eyelids quivered slightly.
Her awareness was sinking, bit by bit.
In the haze, she felt the corner of her blanket being gently tucked.
The motion was extremely light and slow, as if afraid of waking her.
His fingertips brushed across the back of her hand.
A touch, then gone.
A second later, her consciousness sank completely.
And she didn't know that in the dark, Ye Que lay with his eyes open, watching for a long, long time.
A very long time.
