The Stone King's Lover (石王的愛)

Chapter 69

Wen Reian

2005 years after The Long Night

Wúmeng

<Town Hall>

"Wen Reian? Be still now child, breathe..."

After having run all the way back to Wúmeng, tears blurring his vision and causing him to trip and scrape both his hands and chin, Wen Rei was now gasping for air as he tried to fit everything that had happened in a few short phrases.

"Yi-jun!" He panted, "Turned to stone... Su Lan, my fault-"

"Calm down," Cai Yimu had sat him at the table and was already halfway through healing the boy's hands, when she blinked in surprise.

Reian could tell it was because she could feel the obvious wrongness of his aura. It had shifted, now it was so different that he didn't even feel like the same person anymore...

"Tell me what has happened, slowly."

After taking several deep breaths Reian nodded and began, though it all felt like a terrible nightmare instead of real life.

"The snake demon that lives inside The Howling Cave is Su Lan, Yi-jun's old friend. His mind was riddled with holes after so much time, so I tried to create a barrier in his head, between his untouched memories and the pain. He recounted his story to us, and when I thought it was over, I suddenly began to see something, something that I knew couldn't possibly be there..."

Cai Yimu waited patiently for him to continue, but Reian didn't know how to. It was all his fault! He shouldn't have tried to use his abilities on someone as powerful and unstable as Su Lan. He'd put all of them in danger-

"Reian? What then?"

The boy swallowed, having to look away...

"It was Jin Songcai, who I've been dreaming of for months. I saw him so vividly, I began to believe that he was real. But he wasn't like himself, he was angry with me. He was shouting, threatening me, and I felt like I couldn't breathe!"

The town head was listening intently, so Reian continued;

"I didn't even realise that I was still connected to Su Lan's mind, though I should have. I was panicking, and somehow that broke down the wall I'd built in his head. I could feel it, he was stuck lingering in the same memory over and over again, and it was the moment when he cursed Xie Yi-jun. I know Su Lan wasn't really awake, I know it all happened because I was careless and didn't think of how something like that could go wrong. I never expected... Yi-jun would push me out of the way! He's still there, I... can't wake him anymore-"

Seeing that Cai Yimu was watching him with half-closed eyes, her lips pressed thin, Reian didn't know what else to do besides beg.

"Please," he said. "I don't know why Yi-jun won't wake up. You must help me, I can't do it alone..."

The woman sighed slowly, then replied in an even, chilling tone;

"The demon's curse has set rules," she told him. "Not even I can tamper with such a thing. If the young King must be awoken by his mate, then that is all you need to know."

Feeling his heart begin to pound inside his chest, Wen Rei exclaimed a little too loudly-

"But I tried!"

Cai Yimu opened her eyes to stare at him, so Reian apologised and lowered his voice...

"I tried, and nothing happened! It wasn't like last time. I don't even know why he woke up in the first place... I am not Jin Songcai."