QT: Against My Will (Volume 2)

5.1 - Her Fourth Lifetime - His Intellectual & Her Genius

The council watched the arriving cage, examining the man who regained his consciousness.

Why did they have to make things so complicated for the existing couple? All of it was because of this man, Xuan Mu.

It had been Xuan Mu's idea to send Guan Fei to the same world as Bing Shi.

In the past, he and Bing Shi put a lot of emphasis on their private life and safety, and someone decided to leak everything; every dirty secret about Bing Shi and her family, who didn't have the cleanest records.

Xuan Mu was cautious of Guan Fei, wanting to eliminate the trouble she could cause. Bing Shi was against it, thinking that he was getting paranoid over her safety, which he truly was.

Blame it on his nth sense or so, but when it came to Bing Shi, he could feel danger coming her direction miles away. Didn't his nightmares become a reality? She was inhumanly tortured in the past. And someone truly stole her away from him (his other lifetimes).

After the HQ gave him the basic information regarding soul energy, Xuan Mu made a deal with the HQ. He suggested they send his soulmate with him together with Bing Shi's mission. (Like this, they'd gain energy from the soulmate bond.)

If it didn't work out with Guan Fei (which didn't because Guan Fei decided to abandon her mission), Xuan Mu'd help Bing Shi finish her mission three times faster.

What he was afraid of was the time for him to retain these particular memories.

Xuan Mu put all his trust in Bing Shi, to prove to the HQ that there was no point in locking his memories when sooner or later, he'd recall them. If not all, at least some.

The mission took longer than he predicted. That veteran host, Guan Fei, was either too sharp, too fearful, or too prideful.

Guan Fei had a reason to hate Bing Shi due to her heightened senses and loathing for white lotuses. His wife had a hard time getting attached to someone. She couldn't help the thoughts of taking advantage of other people, and her feelings weren't the most genuine.

Bing Shi didn't make friends, but allies. She would try to compensate for it by treating everyone nicely, which could sometimes be misunderstood as two-faced.

Xuan Mu on the other hand saw it as her being a professional, similar to a stewardess who had to keep her conduct despite a passenger being an āss.

· · ──────── · ⊱❈⊰· ──────── · ·

Xuan Mu stared at his surroundings with eyes like hollows of madness. "What was the cause of my fatal insomnias?" he asked, making the ring on his left hand vanish.

"Two possible reasons," an arbitrator explained. "Either your soul was trying to break the bond with your soulmate, or your body couldn't handle the power of your soul."

Just like human bodies, souls could evolve too. With the difference that souls were less predictable.

The stakes were turned over. He was able to sever the bond with his soulmate, so throwing him into the reincarnation cycle without another soulmate would equal an even bigger loss for the HQ (his unique soul might break again).

The HQ was considered giving Xuan Mu responsibility for systems and the Host's missions, given his skills. It would help manage their vast network of operations. But that would mean Xuan Mu would have to stay back at the HQ, which he would never agree to.

He had his own ideas, which they agreed to consider only after evaluating his and Bing Shi's performance.

Both passed.