Tang Yin felt her consciousness return dreadfully slow. It was slippery like an eel, almost there, yet an illusion whenever she wanted to grasp it with her hands.

Instead, she ended up in her mindscape.

Feeling like twice run over by a truck and then kicked by a buffalo just for good measure after a Roman legion decided to play goddamn ancient Rome versions of soccer with her head.

But while being there instead of doing or anything od something helpful happening, she was stuck with her mind in some limbo staring into the distance before somehow, in her state of blankness, managing to crack open a singular eye and stare into a night sky.

Her gaze wandered as she cracked open the other eye with physical Exhaustion filing her body head to toe. Her entire body seemed in fact stuck somewhere between whoozy and heavyweight tired, as she rose to a sitting position. Leaning heavily on her arm.

She looked around while mentally filing the people in front of her.

Tang San...still half out of it right next to her.

Xiao Wu was obviously back in action already, despite her worried facial expression.

Her father....well, he looked better than the last time she saw him, she guessed, more alive, more like a person who still carried a spark inside them, and then her gaze fell on Jiang.

He was no longer the massive teenager she knew. He was wearing a proper adult appearance now.

Even taller, taller than ever before, but weirdly he hadn't gained much in bulk; instead, he appeared more slender due to his height. His long hair was braided down his back, and his eyes were lighter and filled with vicious storms inside them, and his face was cut in sharper, more defined lines. ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by NoveI~Fire.net

Nothing handsome about it anymore but just male in every sense.

He smiled, and then a sheen of color enveloped him, and suddenly, the Jiang she knew was back. The bulky teenage giant that accompanied her, his clothes too large now that he was back to his old self.

"You are awake." He said and smiled, Yin wanted to say something, anything, alongside the hurt that still bubbled inside her.

Yet she couldn't...so in the end she chose to remain silent and say nothing instead. Jiang visibly flinched at her doing that, but he did not comment, either, choosing to stay quiet as the awkwardness between them persisted. Slowly, Tang San also rose to consciousness.

Tang Hao interrupted them, gazing at Xiao Wu. "Little Rabbit, you should leave. Go where you belong until you are strong enough." He pointed out.

"Not without them being able to say goodbye!" Yin hisssed. Her father looked at her, and she bared her teeth.

"Even if she has to leave, they should be able to say goodbye. Not being able to say goodbye hurts; it's important to be able to do that. A few minutes more or less will not make much of a difference either way."

Tang Hao frowned. "As you think it will be the best daughter."

"Yes." She insisted and smiled at Xiao Wu, who had tears in her eyes at his words.

"Thank you." She whispered so low it was almost inaudible.

She bowed over the still unconscious Tang San and gently kissed his temple, stroking his cheek. "You will be the only one to ever brush my hair." She whispered. "I love you."

Tang Sans' eyes fluttered as he opened his eyes at that right moment and stared right into Xiao Wu's eyes, the moment only theirs as they were lost in their own small world, as he smiled faintly. Yin knew he was still hurting, but she also understood that he did not even feel it the slightest right now.

"Wu." He whispered, and she nodded as tears streaked down her cheeks and fell onto his face. "Don't cry." He said, and then raised his hand to cup her face.

"I will wait for you." Xiao Wu said her voice was still a faint whisper.

"I know. I will become strong." He told her. "Strong enough to protect you. So no one may harm you, so we can be together."

"Mhh." Xiao Wu hummed, and Yin could no longer watch, feeling like she was intruding in a far too intimate moment. She looked away, and her gaze hit Jiand, who was silently sitting by the fire. For a moment, she was captured by him.

Nothing like the elegant handsomeness of Tang San, he was devastatingly male; there was nothing graceful about it, but more like a fist into your face, and the pure aura of danger he emitted.

For a moment, she felt herself laughing; he was exactly the kind of person she would have avoided in the past. Someone who would have had her hackles rise and immediately peck him as dangerous, hot, and stay the hell away.

But then again, back she didn't have a trained bone in her body, and today she was a reasonably competent fighter who had little to fear in everyday life.

"I will leave now." She turned to Xiao Wu, her mind ripped out of her, and her musing about the past. "Thank you again for everything." She bowed, and Tang Yin, although still a bit whoozy, got up and tumbled to Xiao Wu before hugging her tightly.

"Take care, will you?" She said, and Xiao Wu nodded before gently hugging her back. "I don't want to lose my future sister in law."

"I will. But you too." She smiled at her. "I like my future favourite sister in law alive very much."

"Just you wait up. I aim to be the crazy aunt." She joked, and Xiao Wu's eyes widened a moment before she made a chicking sound and nodded.

Shortly later, she left them behind, vanishing into the depths of the forests, with Tang San looking after her whistfully. Tang Yin sighed. It would be a while before she saw Xiao Wu again. This brought her to think that Sea God Island, she had to return; she had lost a lot of time making this slight detour as she did.

"I have to leave soon as well," she said and turned to her father and Tang San. "Sea God Exams, I am currently undertaking the Exam."

"You are far too young," her father hissed, but she merely tilted her head.

"That doesn't matter," she clarified. "I had no choice. I needed to survive, and the exams were my best shot. I already passed the first one."

He quieted then sighed. "What level exam did you get?"

"Red." She told him, and he stared at her, shrugged. "Could always have been worse. I could be dead."

Tang Hao let out a huff that sounded anything but excited at that thought. Still, then Yin didn't care. Frankly, she did not really consider him anything but her biological father.

Even Chen Xin was more of a father figure in her head than Tang Hao. She hadn't forgotten how he treated them, and it would need a lot of making up for his side to ever consider him a father and forgive him.