It suited Lucian perfectly.
He gestured toward the sofa. "Sit."
Lana obeyed, smoothing her clothes as she sat down. Her heart beat steadily, yet her fingers curled slightly in her lap.
What was it that had forced him to leave the country for so long in that particular year?
Lucian t Lana’s questioning gaze.
He remained quiet for a long while before finally speaking, his voice low and restrained.
"There are certain matters bound by confidentiality," he said. "I can’t talk about them right now."
Even though he couldn’t tell everything openly to Lana, he still wanted to ease her worry.
He paused, then added firmly,
"But I can promise you one thing. I will return. And when I do, I’ll bring you a big surprise."
Lana narrowed her eyes slightly.
"Are you going abroad... for my sake?" she asked.
Lucian didn’t answer. Instead, he smiled faintly and reached for a small box on the table, placing it gently in front of her.
The mont Lana saw the box, her breath caught.
It was the sa box.
Exactly the sa as the one Lucian had given her in her previous life.
Her fingers trembled as mories surged forward. That box had once held a family heirloom, sothing Lucian had bought after taking a dangerous shortcut.
Back then, Lucian used his enhanced senses as a spirit summoner, hoarding rare treasures and artifacts he had accumulated over ti.
Almost everything he owned was extraordinary, except for this single piece of jade.
Lana had never truly known what the jade did.
She only knew one thing... Lucian cherished it deeply. So deeply that even she rarely saw it.
Three years later, after knowing each other well and going through a life-and-death situation together, he had finally handed it to her, saying that it should have belonged to her long ago.
She had never understood what he ant, but she had been overjoyed, believing that he loved her enough to part with sothing so precious.
Now, in this life, Lucian opened the box.
Inside lay a jade bracelet, smooth and faintly warm to the touch.
He handed it to Lana and looked at her seriously.
"This jade may look ordinary," he said, "but you must wear it every single day. Don’t ever take it off."
Lana blinked, then nodded, accepting it carefully as if it were fragile. "I will," she said softly.
Lucian chuckled lightly. "You’re not going to ask anything?"
Lana glanced at the jade, then at him. "I trust you."
What she didn’t say was that in her previous life, everything had been fine until the day this jade broke.
When Lucian died, her grief had been so overwhelming that she had nearly destroyed the world in madness.
In that chaos, she had accidentally shattered the jade.
The mont it broke, she had been possessed by a ghost.
Even now, she didn’t know the jade’s exact function, but she suspected it had protected her body from spirits.
Later, driven by selfish desperation, she had searched endlessly for a fragnt and worn it as a necklace. It had stayed with her until her death.
Lucian spoke again, his tone turning solemn.
"There’s one more thing. You need to drop your blood onto the jade."
Lana frowned. This was new.
In her previous life, he had never asked her to do this.
Thinking back, she realized she had never once used her blood on it... until the very end of her life.
After a deep breath, she nodded. She trusted that the jade wouldn’t harm her.
She bit her lip gently, letting a drop of blood fall onto the bracelet.
Before her eyes, the blood was absorbed completely.
Lana stared at it in shock. ’Will I gain a secret space or so hidden power?’ she wondered, recalling countless novels she had read.
She even tried to sense sothing, imagining herself entering a space but nothing happened.
Only then did she realize she had been overthinking.
She exhaled softly and looked up at Lucian. "What does it do?" she asked.
Lucian t her gaze seriously.
"It’s activated now," he replied. "From this mont on, if you’re ever in danger, the jade will protect you."
Lana nodded slowly. "Thank you."
A hint of reluctance flickered in her eyes as she looked at him again.
"Even if we’re just friends," she said, forcing a smile, "we can still call each other every few days. Maybe video calls too."
Lucian’s expression darkened. He shook his head. "I can’t."
The refusal struck her harder than she expected.
"Why?" Lana asked anxiously. "Why can’t we? It’s such a simple thing. As friends, we should at least be able to do that."
Lucian fell silent. He shook his head again. If she had looked closer, she would have seen the deep reluctance in his eyes.
He didn’t want to stop talking to her at all.
In fact, he had already arranged another way to see her... but for now, he couldn’t tell her.
Lana, however, misunderstood.
’So he won’t even miss ,’ she thought bitterly. ’Well, then again... he never lacked admirers anyway...’
Suppressing the ache in her chest, she reminded herself not to expect too much. She smiled, though it didn’t reach her eyes.
"If that’s the case," she said lightly, "then I won’t contact you. I’ll just invite you directly to my wedding."
Lost in thought, Lucian responded without hesitation, a faint amusent in his tone. "I will attend."
The words sliced cleanly through her heart.
Lana felt helpless bitterness rise within her.
She had thought... just for a mont... that perhaps he felt sothing for her. But his calm, detached response made it seem like there was nothing at all in his heart.
She stood up.
"Then let’s go downstairs," she said quietly. "Everyone must be waiting."
Without giving him another look, she walked out of the room.
She didn’t want Lucian to see how upset she truly was.
In her upsetness she even forgot about the gift she had prepared of Lucian.
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