Once again

It was around half past eight at night and Yang Jingshen was holding a small script practice session in his hotel room with Meng Siqi– of course, with Feng Xue and little Sun acting as chaperons. In Feng Xue's words, previously the two of them acted together in 'My forever spring' as well, so they can't have any unnecessary gossip spreading around.

But of course, Feng Xue was more than happy with his decision to help the young actor– after all, it can be said that the two of them owe a debt of gratitude to Meng Siqi and Han Qi. And another thing that Yang Jingshen found in the last few months was that just like him, Feng Xue also hated owing to others.

After their little discussion earlier today, Yang Jingshen proposed to help the other to practice his lines to get a better feel of the character Lu yang. Of curse, he only had to make the suggestion for Meng Siqi to agree with both his hands and feet. This enthusiasm– really unprecedented!

Yang Jingshen faltered in the mid sentence and nearly bit his tongue. It was by using a great deal of his best acting abilities that he was able to pretend as if nothing happened and continue.

But inside, he was like, 'Da fuk id zat?'

'...'

Later that night, Yang Jingshen sat on the window seat in his hotel room as he quietly observed the panel floating in the air in front of him. When this thing appeared in front of him after that slight warning, he could only say that he had been literally scared out of his pants.

'I mean, who wouldn't be?' It had been true that he had been kind of expecting this to happen -what with the soul guardian saying that he could enter the heart lake after three months-, but for it to happen so suddenly… it was only his good acting skills that saved him this time ah!

'*sigh* Should I ask that soul guardian for a solution for this? It's such a nuisance!'

Needless to say, the rest of their script reading session had gone to dogs after that. How can he focus on reading his lines when that damned thing kept cheerfully floating in front of him? Not to mention, even when he finally put it away when Meng Siqi's attention was diverted, Yang Jingshen found that he really couldn't concentrate.

'I mean, who can?'

In the end, he had sent Meng Siqi and the other two away with an excuse of a headache -even though he was the one to propose the meet-up in the first place- and with a promise to continue this tomorrow. Fortunately, tomorrow was an off day for him, and by the time this junior brother finished with his shooting tomorrow, he himself would have recovered from his fatigue from the travel to and from that heart lake– hopefully.

Yang Jingshen sighed and pressed on the 'entry/exit' option on the bottom right corner of the panel and selected the 'Yes' for the 'Enter the heart lake?' that was no longer grayed out. And without any delay, he could once again feel himself falling into that unfamiliar darkness and vertigo.

Once he came to his senses, he realized that he was back again in that familiar darkness without any light or sound. Why did he suddenly feel like he never left it in the first place?

"You're here." The familiar male voice, with a tinge of a metallic rumble, sounded out of the emptiness, startling him out of his thoughts. Yang Jingshen paused for a few minutes before humming lightly in response.

"I know you have a lot of questions– but only ask the most important ones. We don't have much time."

'This mofo!' Fine… he'll ask. Since this thing said to ask– he won't be courteous!

"First– tell me why the time I can stay in the heart lake reduced after that first time? And don't lie– I know it did!"

The soul guardian: "..." What a fierce and unfriendly response! He was only telling the other to make the maximum use of the little time they have. Why was this person this angry?

"It was because I used a part of my soul power that could have helped you to stay longer to instead allow you to possess the ability of speech."

"Hah!?"

"You seemed to fear the darkness and the silence and my voice didn't seem to be helping either. And your soul is too fragile to bear the burden of the added stimulus of fear. The first time you were here, you unconsciously used your own soul power to speak, and it weakened you further. So I thought letting you speak using my power will slow your descent into madness."

"... I-am-not-mad!" And who won't be frightened of this gloomy darkness where one can't even see their own fingers and hear their own voice?

"I didn't say the darkness wasn't frightening. Humans are inherently fragile creatures, so there is no shame in having a weakness or two in the first place."

"... You shut up! Didn't I say earlier not to read my mind!"

"..." The poor soul guardian who was attacked out of nowhere silently swallowed its grievances. Didn't it clearly explain earlier that it can't help hearing the other's thoughts in this place? Why was this little human blaming it for this even now?

Hearing this person, Yang Jingshen, scolding it and calling it 'dog guardian' and 'stupid fucker' and a bunch of similar vulgar names in his mind, the soul guardian fell speechless. This person clearly knew it could hear his thoughts and still went ahead without a care.

After a constipated silence, it decided to speak up once again. "Do you have other questions?"

Finally feeling a bit refreshed after scolding this dog thing in his mind - and clearly knowing that the other could hear him- Yang Jingshen collected his thoughts before finally talking. "How long will it take for my soul to get fully repaired? No– more like, how many soul coins would I need?"

"This– I can't say for sure for now."

"..."

"It will be repaired in stages." Seeing Yang Jingshen's silence, the soul guardian spoke hastily. It didn't want this human blowing up once again. "For the first stage, you'll need around a hundred soul coins. As for the rest, I can't predict a value for now."

A hundred!? How long would he have to work to gather this much? No– more importantly, what does it mean by the first stage? There's more!?

"Listen to me. It's not as difficult as you think."

"... Explain!"

And after listening to the said explanation, Yang Jingshen fell silent again, not knowing what to say or do for a moment. They call this saving his soul from getting obliterated!? This was clearly slavery ah! Do they expect him to work to his death, eh? He doesn't want that!!

He'd rather die and have his soul obliterated or whatever. Who can bear this type of nonsense!?