Chapter 24: She Never Left
in his dreams was always silent.
Nie Shi stood in a forest of gray ash. Around him, the trees were blackened and bare, like the husks of giants long dead. The ground beneath his feet was cracked and colorless, scorched like memory turned to dust. The air smelled faintly of something burned but not yet gone. Overhead, the sky hung low and iron-hued, heavy enough to crush breath from the world.
Void rested in his hand, trembling faintly.
He knew this was a dream.
But still, he looked around—searching.
Or rather, searching for someone .
From the mist, Lin Kui emerged. She was in her school uniform, calm as ever, walking as though nothing was wrong. That same gentle smile played at her lips, as if she had simply stepped out of a memory.
"Are you still afraid of yourself?" she asked.
Nie Shi wanted to answer. His fingers curled tighter around the spear. He tried to speak—
But no sound came.
Then Void moved on its own.
It wasn't his will.
It wasn't his strength.
The weapon pulled his arm forward like a marionette string, dragging his body with it.
"Stop," he screamed in his mind. "Stop!"
But the spear surged ahead in a blur of black light, silent and precise—aimed straight at Lin Kui's chest.
She didn't flinch.
She didn't scream.
She simply looked at him, voice soft, filled with sorrow:
"Did you dream of me getting hurt because you didn't want it to happen—
or because you're afraid it will?"
He gasped awake.
His body was drenched in cold sweat, his hand still raised in the air, fingers stiff and trembling, as though trying to stop something—too late.
The room was silent. Only his heartbeat thundered in his ears.
Void was nowhere to be seen.
But the fear—that cold, helpless feeling—had followed him out of the dream.
That afternoon, the E3 class group chat fell into a strange stillness.
Then Meng Yao sent a message:
"Sigh… I've always really respected Instructor Zhong Lan. She's helped us so many times and never once complained."
A few seconds later:
"If it weren't for some… unexpected incidents, I guess she wouldn't have been taken in for system review and isolation."
He added a regretful emoji.
He didn't name names.
He didn't say he knew.
He didn't lie.
But everyone knew exactly who he meant.
The chat turned uneasy.
—"Wait… is she being punished because of that?"
—"He's talking about Void, right?"
—"So the whole class is locked down… because of one guy?"
Some quietly exited the chat.
Others switched to "Do Not Disturb."
In a private side group, Su Xu sent a message laced with venom:
"He smiles so sweetly, but every word he says hides a blade. I swear."
Lu Jingxing didn't reply.
He sat by the window, scrolling through the chat, his expression growing colder and colder.
He saved one name into his notes: Meng Yao.
That evening, behind the library in the garden, Nie Shi sat on the edge of a bench, head bowed low. His fingers curled into his sleeves, rubbing his clammy palms over and over again.
He hadn't summoned Void.
He didn't dare.
He was afraid the dream might one day come true.
Lin Kui approached without a sound and sat down beside him. She placed a bottle of water on the bench next to him and slipped a folded note into his hand.
"Are you okay?" she asked softly.
He didn't answer right away. After a long pause, he murmured:
"I dreamed I hurt you."
She turned to look at him, calm.
"Was it you—or the spear?"
"Void moved on its own," he whispered. "I couldn't stop it."
She didn't try to comfort him. She simply placed her hand gently over his.
"Do you still want to stop it now?"
He looked up.
She wasn't afraid.
She looked resolute.
"I'm scared," he said. "Scared that next time… it won't be a dream."
Lin Kui smiled faintly. "Then I should be with you even more."
She leaned her head on his shoulder.
He tensed instinctively, as if touched by a live wire.
But after a moment, he relaxed.
She said nothing more. And he didn't move away.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves above, falling over her hair, across his eyelashes—
And over the note in his hand.
It was neatly folded, the edges slightly worn, as though it had been held and folded many times.
He opened it slowly.
Familiar handwriting stared back at him:
"It is your weapon.
You're just still learning how control it."
" I will. He nodded.