Chapter 85: A Night of Dreams and Revelations

No, this simply couldn’t continue. If it did, Chixiao felt as if someone would bring him a bucket of lemon juice to marinate him in. He had to quickly change the subject.

He abruptly lifted his head, gazing at the night sky, and spoke in a rather strained voice, “The stars tonight… they’re truly brilliant.”

“Indeed,” Ye Xingchen murmured, his gaze inadvertently falling upon Su Liyue’s beautiful hair, which lay spread across his lap.

“Like someone’s silvery-white long hair, enchanting as the Milky Way descending from the heavens.”

‘Damn it…’ Chixiao had never felt such an intense sense of awkwardness before.

‘He could even connect to that?’

He desperately wanted to ask Mu Wanqing how she usually managed to survive the onslaught from this ‘brother and sister’ duo.

Though his mind was reeling with complaints, he still feigned composure.

Realizing the stargazing topic was a dead end, Chixiao quickly shifted the conversation once more. “Brother Ye, have you… ever considered your dreams after graduation?”

“After graduation?” Ye Xingchen’s hand suddenly paused on Su Liyue’s lower abdomen.

Su Liyue, nestled in his arms, also lifted her gaze. The moment their eyes met, the air seemed to fill with a tender warmth, then solidified in an instant.

Indeed, after graduation, the first thing they would face was the marriage arranged by their families. The prospect of marrying oneself, after all, was an inevitability.

“First, we marry, then—” Ye Xingchen blurted out, immediately realizing his slip of the tongue, and promptly clamped his mouth shut.

“Marry?!”

Chixiao seemed to have caught wind of something extraordinary and eagerly pressed for details.

“Brother Ye, do you have someone special in mind? Are you planning to tie the knot right after graduation?”

Ye Xingchen gazed at the docile and lovely Su Liyue in his arms, and calmly replied,

“After graduating from the academy, doesn’t everyone face the choice of settling down and establishing a career? I merely started pondering whether to establish a family first or a career first…”

Chixiao nodded, feigning understanding.

“I see. Brother Ye, you truly think far ahead. It seems you’re a person of great conviction.”

‘In truth,’ he grumbled inwardly, ‘I don’t believe a word of it! You and Chief Su are blushing so furiously, your faces could pass for wedding invitations. What’s with the pretense of profound thought!?’

“Then, Brother Ye, have you carefully considered your career path after graduation?”

After all, for magic students like them, graduation marked the first major crossroads in life. Not every mage attending the academy possessed a strong family background or exceptional talent and resources to help them reach higher realms.

On the contrary, many mages from ordinary families might, due to factors like family obligations, aptitude, or lack of resources, pursue a respectable job after graduating.

“I haven’t thought that far ahead yet,” Ye Xingchen replied, gently stroking Su Liyue’s long hair. “Perhaps I’ll continue cultivating, or register as an adventurer with the Adventurers’ Guild, and then travel the world?”

As a transmigrated cultivator, his greatest obsession had always been to find a way back home.

Yet, as he gazed at the quiet, picturesque girl in his arms, he suddenly felt that traveling this异世界 with her and Mu Wanqing as adventurers, witnessing landscapes utterly different from Earth and the cultivation world, seemed like a rather good alternative.

“Travel the world?”

A flicker of longing appeared in Chixiao’s eyes.

“That sounds truly romantic. If it were possible, I’d also like to take Yueyao to see the world…”

His voice gradually softened as he gazed up at the star-studded night sky.

“However, once outside the Aethelred Empire, one must contend not only with ferocious magical beasts but also with threats from different races in other territories, not to mention the powerhouses scattered across the continent. Without sufficient strength, it’s likely one couldn’t even cross the national borders.”

“Don’t be so pessimistic. One should always have dreams; what if they come true one day?” Ye Xingchen comforted him, though his hand never stopped moving on Su Liyue’s stomach, even trailing downwards.

“Brother Ye’s words ring true…” Chixiao’s gaze inadvertently fell upon their clasped hands, and he suddenly found Ye Xingchen’s words remarkably convincing.

After all, the man before him was a formidable individual who had achieved the unprecedented feat of winning over the academy’s most unapproachable chief beauty queen, despite ranking last.

“A tutor…” Ye Xingchen recalled that Dean Yu Qinglan had once told him that a teaching position at Starfall Magic Academy was like a civil service job on Earth—a stable, secure career.

It meant avoiding the conflicts of the magic world, while offering good pay and opportunities for further study. Indeed, it was a dream job for many mages, allowing them to continue their magical research and pursue their dreams.

The bonfire crackled, and Su Liyue stirred softly in Ye Xingchen’s embrace.

Chixiao watched the ‘brother and sister’ pair, and suddenly, his own dreams no longer seemed so distant.

The night breeze swept through the forest, carrying the fragrance of an unknown world from afar.

“If I truly become a tutor, perhaps Yueyao and I will even open a flower shop together. She adores flowers; every time we pass a flower bed, she can barely tear herself away.” A gentle light shone in Chixiao’s eyes.

Ye Xingchen, upon hearing this, commented:

“Being a tutor while running a flower shop? Your dream is certainly romantic. To pursue a shared goal with the one you love—perhaps that’s the happiest thing in life…”

He suddenly recalled when Mu Wanqing and Lin Yueyao had discussed ‘Flower Fairies’; the two young girls’ sparkling eyes had been filled with longing for the Seven-Colored Flower and the various languages of flowers, brightening the very air around them.

Chixiao scratched his head, a hint of embarrassment in his demeanor:

“Brother Ye, please don’t tease me. Compared to those powerhouses aiming to conquer the continent, my wish is merely a most ordinary one.”

“How can you say that?” Ye Xingchen’s fingers gently caressed Su Liyue’s beautiful face.

“Everyone is born with a different script for their life. Yet, it is precisely these diverse dreams that weave together to form this relatively complete world.”

He lowered his gaze to the girl resting peacefully in his arms, and his voice unconsciously softened:

“Dreams inherently hold no distinction of high or low, noble or humble. The best dream is always the one that suits oneself.”

Chixiao stared blankly at the young man before him.

In that moment, he suddenly understood why even a ‘high-mountain flower’ like Chief Su would fall for this person. Within those seemingly calm eyes, there appeared to be a breadth of spirit even vaster than the starry sky.

A gust of night wind swept past.

Chixiao suddenly felt that this vigil, which had initially seemed so arduous, no longer felt quite so long.