Willful Beauty Takes the Villain | System | BxB

32: Overlapping

The two were standing fairly close. Jia hadn't worn a coat before going outside. The shirt was soaked and his hair was dripping. Song Min grabbed the towel from around his neck and rubbed it roughly over Jia's head. Jia swayed around from the force.

"Ehhhh. Are you still mad? Wipe it gently."

Song Min paused, feeling a sense of Deja Vue at those words and the action of drying Jia's hair.

His rough treatment caused Jia's collar to open a bit, revealing the white collarbone. Song Min was startled by a strange thought filling his mind. 

Looks good to bite.

"Take it off."

Jia's eyes widened at the command. He barely resisted the urge to call out, ' yes daddy' and strip immediately. Thinking he must have heard wrong, he asked, "...what?" 

"Your wet clothes, go change. Bring some hot tea or soup for us after."

Jia concealed his disappointment and turned toward the door. He paused before leaving the room, "Song Min, you're wet too. Don't neglect yourself and catch a cold. I'll return with tea soon."

Jia left to get cleaned up, leaving Song Min in an odd state of mind as he stood to fetch dry clothes. 

Song Min felt like important memories were flickering on the edge of his consciousness, but when he tried to focus on them, they slipped away like fish. 

Soon Jia returned with the tea and they both sat at the desk. Jia sipped his tea with a grace and elegance that didn't match his status of a servant. Nor did the way he boldly sat and drank tea leisurely with his master as if he wasn't the one doing the serving at all. Song Min was becoming suspicious of this servant's hidden depths.

He wasn't even the least bit timid about standing up to a pack of noble youths. "The boys you harassed will make trouble." 

"Pay it no mind. If any attempt to bother you, I'll stop them. I have to defend your honor after all." Jia spoke with a haughty elegance that stirred something in Song Min.

Once more Song Min felt an indescribable sense of familiarity wash over him. He felt a bit dizzy as the sounds and images of a tea house flashed through his mind. His eyebrows furrowed at a twinge of pain in his head. 

He lifted his face, crossing gazes with Jia. At this moment the image of the youth drinking tea in front of him was overlapped by a nearly identical image of a beauty in a tea house. 

A rush of images overwhelmed Song Min accompanied by intense pain. A moment later, everything went dark.

~~~

Jia quickly caught Song Min before he could slide off his chair as he lost consciousness. 

Did I push too hard? I was dropping an awful lot of phrases I had said to him before... Jia carefully moved Song Min to the bed and watched over him anxiously.

{Anything new, Seventh?}

[An increase in soul memory activity. Nothing else, Administrator.]

~~~

Song Min dreamt of intense battles and betrayal. His father destroying his cultivation and letting him be beaten and humiliated. 

He dreamt of dying. 

Just as that Song Min had accepted his fate, a lovely humming sound had comforted him. 

Next, he dreamt of walking through the forest, cold and naked but healed. There was singing from behind him. In his dream, he turned to look at the source of the song to see the most beautiful person he had ever met. 

His dream changed and he found himself entering a busy teahouse. The haughty beauty easily subdued some minor cultivators with nothing but his aura.

Song Min awoke several hours later. Night had fallen and the storm had passed. The clouds were breaking up and moonlight streamed in from the window whenever an opening in the clouds passed over.

Many of these things he had dreamt of before. This dream was more detailed though and he discovered something.

I see, the other Song Min and Sen Shuai were not separate lives.   

Song Min felt his connection to these dreams was stronger than to his everyday life. As if the dreams were more real. 

The little servant Jia seemed to have fallen asleep while sitting at the side of the bed. The moonlight washed across his face. Song Min reached over, stroking his thumb across the soft lips.  

Was it really the fever that triggered these memories or was it the arrival of this strange servant...Jia...they look so much alike. They are both shameless and silly but also bold and protective. The dream Jia is older and more beautiful. Will this Jia become more beautiful as he grows up?

Why did the servant want the name, Jia? It clearly isn't his real name. What if...he is also having dreams of another life's memories. Could the boy actually have been Sen Jia just as I have been Song Min before?

A/N Song Min is close to the truth. He could never imagine such a thing as systems though. Until his janky system starts up, he'll just have to make guesses.