With Ruan i taking the initiative, Bai Ming gave a summarized explanation of her situation.
For example, her relationship with Herta, and how her relationship with Acheron had changed over ti.
She also covered the suppression of Nihility, the removal and replacent of Acheron's anchor, and so on…
Leaving out so of the more ambiguous interactions, she conveyed the problems she was currently facing as accurately as possible.
After listening to the entire story, Madam Ruan i looked at Bai Ming in confusion.
Her guess about the current situation hadn't been wrong, but she hadn't expected Bai Ming to be this conflicted.
Just how had this person managed to tie herself into such a knot?
From initially wanting to eliminate the hidden danger of Nihility, to later agreeing to Herta's request—researching Nihility and helping Acheron solve her problem was perfectly normal in itself.
And afterward, because Acheron trusted Bai Ming to resolve everything, she let go of her inner burdens. That, too, was normal.
On top of that, Bai Ming, as an Aeon, becoming Acheron's new emotional support was only reasonable.
In that case, as a qualified Aeon, she just needed to accept the other party's faith.
With that frawork—human devotion toward a god—most of Bai Ming's worries would no longer even be issues.
After all, both Ruan i and Herta knew Bai Ming had found herself an Emanator over on the Xianzhou Luofu, and Herta hadn't raised any objections. But not only had she not done that, she had even personally asked Madam Acheron to remove the anchor in her heart.
So the aspect of faith in a god had been dismantled by Bai Ming herself, and now she was here agonizing over whether the other party's feelings toward her had changed.
"…Have you been too idle lately?"
Ruan i felt this person was simply too free. Having reached the level of an Aeon, she probably wasn't encountering any real difficulties anymore, so she started creating trouble for herself.
"I'm idle?!"
Bai Ming raised her eyebrows, surprised. Was she really idle? She had just finished dealing with the Nihility Equation, okay?
Where was the idle part?
Ruan i ignored her retort and instead smiled, lifting a piece of pastry to Bai Ming's lips, watching her eat it little by little.
"How does it taste?"
"There's a very unique fragrance in it. It's delicious. That thing you added actually slls this good?"
Hearing the praise, Ruan i's eyes curved as she smiled.
"I don't know how you define your relationships with everyone, but from my perspective, your relationship with , with Herta, and with Acheron aren't all that different—only varying slightly in distance. In my view, your troubles are actually quite… childish."
As a woman who had lived for who knew how many thousands of years, even without personal experience in romance, her abundant life experience was enough for Ruan i to consider Bai Ming's worries extrely "ordinary."
Or rather, as a scholar who studied life, Ruan i's understanding of emotions was highly rational—she saw them as rely physiological reactions.
Bai Ming becoming closer with Herta, growing more intimate—
To Ruan i, she had always considered that rely a phase.
Sooner or later, her relationship with Bai Ming would beco just as close.
She even thought Herta probably believed the sa.
Even though Ruan i knew that Bai Ming and Herta's closeness wasn't just psychological, but physical as well—she still thought so.
Or rather, to Ruan i, the physical intimacy that ca with deepening relationships wasn't sothing she cared about.
So Ruan i reached out, lightly pinching Bai Ming's cheek. Her fingers then slid downward, resting against the exposed collarbone and the pale skin beneath.
"See? You're getting nervous again. You care a lot about this kind of direct, simple interaction. That's actually not normal—because you're an Aeon."
Ruan i sighed as she looked at the tense and slightly bewildered Bai Ming.
No wonder Herta always scolded Bai Ming—perfect in every way, except she never had a proper understanding of herself.
"For example, whether out of personal feelings or admiration for an Aeon, I would consider it perfectly natural for my relationship with you to advance further, just like yours with Herta."
"Similarly, Acheron, whom you saved—after you forcibly extinguished her worship of divinity—her relationship with you becoming closer is also perfectly natural."
"You always want so-called 'pure feelings,' but mortals are bound by flesh and nerves, chanical intelligences by programs and circuits, even heliobi are influenced by others' emotions. The feelings of life in this world never appear without cause."
Ruan i's fingertip poked lightly at Bai Ming's chest.
But at this mont, Bai Ming stared at Ruan i with trembling pupils.
Had this woman just casually said sothing terrifying?
What did she an—"your relationship with advancing further, like yours with Herta, is perfectly natural"?
Did she even know what she was saying???
Was this person normal… oh right, Ruan i had never really been normal. Never mind.
Bai Ming recalled how, a few days ago, Ruan i had asked her—almost complaining—what she actually considered her to be.
At first, Bai Ming had felt a little guilty.
Now it seed—where did Ruan i get the confidence to ask that?
"…Were you serious about the first half of what you said?"
Ruan i raised her eyebrows slightly, withdrew her fingertip, and picked up another piece of pastry.
She took a bite, then nodded faintly at Bai Ming.
"Of course."
"You… I… uh…"
Right now, Bai Ming really wanted to ask—were you here to chat, or just to make things worse?
"Did I scare you?"
Ruan i's teasing smile made Bai Ming feel like she was being flirted with.
But in Ruan i's eyes, Bai Ming was indeed extrely young. Even if you removed the centuries affected by different flows of ti—Bai Ming's age still wouldn't amount to a fraction of Ruan i's.
So yes, she had been teasing her.
But what she said wasn't exactly false.
For Ruan i, she usually didn't like forming emotional bonds—not because she was naturally cold. In fact, when she was young, she had been quite emotional.
The reason she beca like this had everything to do with her family.
After her family passed away, Ruan i felt that since everything would end this way anyway, it was better not to form bonds in the first place.
So she sealed off her heart not because she lacked feelings, but because she hated the parting at the end.
On the contrary, she valued emotions deeply.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have made such a decision.
And that brought things to the key point.
If, at the beginning, her friendship with Bai Ming and Herta had essentially been drawn by projects and resources, and she hadn't intended to grow close—then now, Bai Ming had already reached the position of an Aeon.
Aeons weren't immortal, but compared to mortals, they were currently the most long-lived and stable existence known.
Especially for Ruan i, who was still striving toward the path of an Aeon herself.
Since that premise—that relationships would inevitably end—was no longer reliable, what reason did Ruan i have to keep her heart locked when it ca to Bai Ming?
Moreover, being able to build a reliable relationship before the other party beca an Aeon was itself an unrepeatable, extrely rare event.
So Ruan i didn't mind—she even looked forward to forming a sufficiently intimate relationship with Bai Ming.
Because aside from Bai Ming, everyone else—including geniuses like Herta—wasn't reliable enough.
Only Bai Ming was the closest thing to "Eternity."
Of course, even though this was what Ruan i thought, after so many years of keeping people at arm's length, suddenly becoming proactive or enthusiastic felt unfamiliar and impossible.
So even now, saying such bold words directly to Bai Ming, her tone remained as calm as ever—like she was simply discussing whether today's dessert tasted good.
It was hard to tell what she truly thought.
Bai Ming looked straight into Ruan i's eyes.
She saw amusent there—but not the attitude of a joke.
Which ant that although Ruan i had mostly been teasing her, those words were genuine.
A lethal strike delivered through humor.
Bai Ming felt that coming to Ruan i hadn't solved anything—if anything, the problem had only grown bigger.
And the culprit was still laughing at her.
"…Ruan i, you're being very mischievous right now."
"Heh~"
Ruan i chuckled.
"So, would you like to hear my reasons?"
Alarm bells rang in Bai Ming's head.
She felt that if she listened, she'd probably be left speechless—but not listening didn't seem right either.
This wasn't sothing she could just gloss over. Pretending to play dead wouldn't work.
Seeing Bai Ming remain silent, Ruan i took it as agreent and began speaking.
She talked about her childhood, about what she later did for her family, and the decisions she made because of them.
Of course, she kept it brief—she wasn't trying to gain sympathy, only to let Bai Ming understand her ntal journey.
After all, constantly being seen as so strange person would make even Ruan i unhappy.
So when she explained why she wanted to build a closer relationship with Bai Ming, Bai Ming truly didn't know what to say.
It almost sounded like Ruan i had developed a kind of stress response due to past trauma.
-- --
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL
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