Chapter 155: Chapter 155

An Yan decided to take things one step at a time.

She would leave future problems for the future.

"Even if you find them, you’re not allowed to leave me!" the man insisted.

"Say you won’t leave me!"

The man’s fingers repeatedly grazed her cheek, a touch that felt both lingeringly affectionate and unnervingly obsessive.

An Yan took a breath, her expression unchanging, and forcefully changed the subject. "In the dream, your eyes were black! But in reality, they’re amber. Why is that?"

He wasn’t angered by such a clumsy attempt to change the subject; he even played along. "In reality, they were black at first too."

"Then why have they turned this color now?"

"I don’t know. Maybe it’s because my physical condition is deteriorating. Perhaps when the color completely fades, I’ll be gone too."

He glanced at her. It seemed he wanted to see her reaction to the possibility of him being gone.

An Yan was only momentarily stunned, her beautiful eyebrows knitting together involuntarily.

A person’s eye color doesn’t usually change unless they’re sick! But how could Li Tianyao be sick? With that substance in his blood, even if he really were ill, he’d be healed immediately. However, everything has a beginning and an end. Surely, the healing factor was no exception?

Seeing the little girl frowning in thought, Li Tianyao felt quite pleased.

Through the dreamscape, by letting her gradually understand his past, perhaps she wouldn’t be frightened away when the truth was eventually revealed? Right now, the little girl must be thinking about how to help him emerge from his psychological shadows, mustn’t she? Maybe she would even initiate a kiss or a hug!

While Li Tianyao was quietly pondering, An Yan spoke. "When did you first notice the color lightening?"

"Has the process been gradual, or did you suddenly realize one day that the color had changed?"

An Yan watched his eyes closely.

Amber was actually quite an attractive color, especially with his stunning looks. But if it was due to an illness, then the more beautiful it appeared, the more terrifying the implications!

An Yan frowned. "Then do you at least know approximately when it changed?"

"Little girl, I might not live much longer. As long as you promise not to leave, I can leave all my inheritance to you!"

An Yan was momentarily speechless.

In his eyes, was she someone who could be bought with money? Besides, with the healing factor in his body, he might outlive her. Inheritance? Heh.

"You’re so healthy, you’ll surely live a long and prosperous life!" An Yan didn’t want to continue this topic and directly voiced another doubt. "In the dream, I watched you grow from a teenager into an adult. Li Tianyao, if I remember correctly, you joined the military at eighteen, in the same unit as my second brother! Right?"

He’d forgotten that in this little girl’s eyes, he was supposed to be an ordinary person, just like most others! This age discrepancy was going to be a bit troublesome!

An Yan looked at him intently. "So, everything in your dreams isn’t real, right? You were the one who pulled me into the dream, weren’t you?"

An Yan had felt something was strange from the beginning. The first time she entered his dream, it was her own doing. But this time, she had done nothing and was pulled in directly.

"The things I saw in my dreams, they were all things you wanted me to see, right? All just so I wouldn’t leave you? Are you exploiting my sympathy?"

The man looked at her, his eyes deep and unreadable. After a moment, he raised his hand and gently rubbed her earlobe with his fingertips.

Ever since she’d entered his life, even the Buddha Beads seemed to have become secondary. He increasingly enjoyed touching her; the mere contact of his fingertips with her body, the sensation of her warmth, sparked a desire in him to keep living! This was a desire he had never felt before. He wanted to seize it. But he didn’t want the little girl to think she could manipulate him. She was clever; if he showed the slightest hint of softening, she’d surely take a mile!

The man’s lips curved into a smirk. "So what if it is? And what if it isn’t?"

His tone, once gentle, became dangerously playful.

She had also forgotten that she currently had no leverage against him. If he decided to target her loved ones, she had no power to stop him! No, she had to find a way to regain control of her Xinyan Group! She couldn’t let Li Tianyao interfere!

Seeing her face taut with suppressed anger, his heart softened again. "Little girl, do you think dreams can be fabricated by one’s subjective will?"

An Yan shook her head.

Theoretically, dreams were products of an overactive cerebral cortex, meaning one couldn’t control whether they dreamed or not. If one couldn’t control it, then naturally, it couldn’t be influenced by subjective will. Moreover, if he had truly pulled her into the dreamscape, then she wasn’t entering his dream but a world he had constructed. With Li Tianyao’s abilities, if he could control the construction, he could have made that world perfectly logical, rather than allowing such incongruous flaws like anachronistic clothing and props to appear!

"It’s theoretically impossible," An Yan said. "But if one is extremely fixated on something, it can indeed occur in dreams. The saying ’what you think about by day, you dream of by night’ describes this situation perfectly!"

The man picked up her train of thought. "Correct. Only by fixating intently on something does it manifest as a dream."

"And I am fixated on capturing Gu Shifang! That’s why the things Gu Shifang did to me are reflected in my dreams."

"As for the age you mentioned, I only wish those painful experiences had come much later!"

"Are you saying those things happened when you were young?"

An Yan frowned again. The information she had on Li Tianyao only went as far back as him joining the army at eighteen. Before he was eighteen, there was only one line: ’Sent abroad by the previous head of the Li Family!’ That was the only entry. So, everything he’d experienced had happened before he was eighteen?

"It doesn’t matter; it’s all in the past! If you choose not to believe, then don’t. Some pain is enough for one person to bear; there’s no need to drag you into it!"

His somber yet pleasing voice carried a faint trace of loneliness that made An Yan quite uncomfortable.

She had assumed he was pulling her into his dreams. But in reality, the other person couldn’t control dreams; she had overthought it. She had equated the dreamscape with his actual memories, latching onto its irrational elements to argue her point, unreasonably suspecting him of using the suffering in his dreams to win her sympathy in reality. The crucial part was, he didn’t even blame her! Compared to his tolerance and attentiveness towards her, had she been too guarded and harsh?

She wanted to talk to him frankly about their relationship. "Li Tianyao, physical forces are reciprocal, and I believe affection is too. I know you’re good to me, and truthfully, I want to be good to you too!"

An Yan’s voice was soft and gentle. "But the ’good’ I want isn’t suffocating protection. It’s freedom, respect, and equality!"

Freedom? If he let go, wouldn’t she just fly away? Respect? Even if she was with another man, he wasn’t supposed to get angry? Equality? Did she want the opportunity to get close to more men? In her dreams! Dıscover more novels at novel·fiɾe·net