2: Underneath A Thousand Skies

274 Reality (30)

Song Jia broke the kiss with difficulty and pushed him away with all of her might.

"Xiang Feng, enough!"

It didn't escape her notice that every time she confronted him, he tried to confuse her mind by kissing her.

Xiang Feng gently smiled, running his fingers through her hair as if he was trying to calm her down.

"Jia, don't you miss me as well? Why are you pushing me away?"

His words, delivered in a low tone, made her feel a pang of guilt.

"I'm not pushing you away," Song Jia explained. Her voice had softened by a few degrees. "I just wanted to talk to you."

Xiang Feng reached for her hand and slowly twined her fingers with his.

"No, it was my fault. I just missed you too much, Jia. Let's get out of here and talk outside."

The two of them came out of the temple and sat by the wooden bench that was overlooking the lake. Xiang Feng picked up some pebbles around their feet and absentmindedly flicked his wrist.

The pebble skipped across the surface of the lake, bouncing four, ten, twenty, thirty, forty times before it sank, and that was only because it had nearly reached the other side. It created arcs of ripples on the calm water, and Song Jia watched speechlessly as Xiang Feng was about to throw another one.

She touched his arm. "Stop that, I can't talk to you like this."

If he kept skipping stones, Song Jia felt that she would probably count the number of skips than pay attention to their conversation.

"Alright, Jia." Xiang Feng immediately obeyed.

He turned around and smiled at her, looking extremely well-behaved. Because of how calm and considerate he was, Song Jia felt a little unnerved.

Did Xiang Feng always behave like this? Or was it that just like Zhao Cheng, he had changed after she left him?

Song Jia shook her head and focused on the problem at hand.

"Xiang Feng, does Xu Jinhai know about your existence?"

"Of course he knows." The corners of his mouth raised a little higher. "We've been with him for a long time."

"We?" Song Jia immediately perked up.

"Well, there were four of us before, but I think there's only three of us left." He shrugged carelessly, as if to say there was nothing he could do about it. "I don't know if he disappeared or merged with Xu Jinhai's mind. Maybe Xu Jinhai killed him."

"He wouldn't." The words left her mouth before Song Jia realized it. "Who disappeared?"

There were four incarnations of Xu Jinhai's past lives that Song Jia had encountered during her transmigration missions. She didn't think it was a coincidence that Xiang Feng also mentioned there were four personalities inside Xu Jinhai's mind.

"Jia, you shouldn't trust Xu Jinhai too easily." Ignoring her question, Xiang Feng reached out and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear.

He put his hand under his chin, studying her for a moment.

"Well, it's alright." He chuckled. "I'll protect you from him."

Song Jia furrowed her eyebrows. He was trying to reassure her, but the calmer he was, the more nervous she felt.

"Xiang Feng, answer me. Who disappeared?"

"A person called Zhao Cheng. You don't have to worry so much, Jia." He leaned back and stared at the lake. "Aren't we all just incarnations of Xu Jinhai? We're all the same person. That's why, even if you ask me to return Xu Jinhai's body to him, you don't have to feel too guilty."