That fool

Noah, with a tired look and heavy shoulders, raised his eyes to her. "What was that? Who were those people? You didn't mention anything about them before..." His voice trembled slightly, filled with confusion.

The woman waved her hand repeatedly as she approached him, trying to dispel the worry she saw in the boy's eyes. "No, no... I definitely talked about them. Not only did I mention their names, but I also described the characteristics I remembered," she insisted, as if the words she had spoken before could magically fill in the gaps in Noah's memory.

Still on his knees, Noah straightened his back and looked up at the ceiling, letting out a soft laugh before turning his face to the side. "So, I'm going to need to piece together this puzzle, huh?" he asked, more to himself than to her.

The woman shrugged. "What else did you expect? I didn't have much time to prepare The Dossier of the Future for you... you should already be happy I managed to give you so much," she replied, winking at Noah. He, in turn, started gently rocking back and forth, as if trying to find a rhythm to calm his mind. Finally, he stood up.

Noah ran his hand over his throat, touching the still sensitive skin with his fingers, as if trying to wipe away the marks left by the visions. "Sure, sure... only you could pull that off," he murmured, accepting the strange reality he found himself in.

The woman watched Noah for a moment, noting that he seemed to have recovered enough. "Looks like you're better now. Since I have nothing more to say, it's time for us to part ways. But don't worry, we'll meet again soon," she said, placing her hands on her hips and letting out a sigh. She then brought a finger to her lips, signaling Noah to stay silent. "Don't ruin my moment this time. Let me savor it... I deserve it, right?" she asked, with a smile that suggested this would be their last memory together, for now.

With a final wave, she turned her back to Noah and left the house, gradually disappearing into the falling snow.

Noah stood there, staring at the empty space where the woman had been moments before. "In the end, she left without leaving any clue about who she really was... and the worst part, she didn't even appear once in those future visions," Noah reflected, his mind racing with everything he had seen and everything she had said. The unanswered questions weighed heavier on him as he tried to understand the woman's role.

Some time passed, and the woman continued her walk through the snowy slopes of the mountain. The cold breeze cut through the air, her steps firm over the snow-covered, treacherous terrain. When the clock was about to strike thirteen minutes to five, she finally spotted the entrance to a cave hidden among the rocks.

"Finally... I thought I'd never find this place," she murmured, relieved as she moved forward. However, sensing the approach of several presences, her relief quickly turned to irritation. With a frustrated sigh, she muttered, "Where are these wild animals coming from?"

Turning around, her eyes caught sight of nine imposing tigers, their icy fangs gleaming in the dim light, and their eyes radiating a blue flame that seemed to consume the air around them. The creatures advanced toward her with evident ferocity. But as soon as the woman fixed her gaze on them, the tension evaporated. All she heard was a small grunt of fear from the tigers, which began retreating slowly, step by step, until they finally turned and fled from her.

"They showed up just to waste my time..." she muttered disdainfully, turning back to the cave entrance. With firm steps, she entered the dark interior, feeling small waves of discomfort running through her body. However, these sensations quickly faded after a few minutes.

When exactly two minutes remained until five o'clock, she reached the back of the cave, where, in the middle of a crack in the wall, a small flower sprout emerged, vibrant and alive despite the surrounding darkness. The sight brought a smile to the woman's lips as she sat down beneath the sprout.

"Well, looks like I made it in time... I wonder if there's something I'd like to say to myself... not that I could, haha... In that case, I suppose the pattern will do," she murmured, more to the empty space than to herself. Resting her head against the cold wall, she let out a soft sigh. "Don't be afraid. You'll make it."

For a moment, her words seemed to echo in the empty cave, carrying an ancient promise. But as she realized what she had said, she chuckled softly, a laugh almost sad. "Wait... I just repeated what my grandfather told me... that one time..." Her voice began to falter, her heavy eyes slowly closing.

When the clock struck five, a delicate drawing of a lily appeared on her wrist, glowing brightly. The scar that had once marked her skin reopened, and from it, her body began to dissolve, like a work of art disintegrating into a myriad of tiny lily petals. The petals fell silently to the cold cave floor.

On the other side of the nation, far from the mountain, inside the imposing Mansion of the Hong Baihe Family, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed through the halls. The frantic pace of the steps announced the urgency of the situation, culminating in front of a heavy wooden door. The person on the other side knocked frantically eight times, with precise half-second intervals between each knock. Then, they struggled with the lock as if it were jammed, fiddling with it three times before finally managing to open the door.

The figure who entered was a maid of the mansion. Her face was pale, her eyes trembling, and the expression of terror etched on her face reflected the gravity of the news she bore. Upon seeing the middle-aged man seated at his desk, hands clasped together and elbows resting on the tabletop, she closed the door behind her and tried to speak with as much calm as she could muster. "It happened... Not only did the young miss's hair change color, but her eyes did as well, and a glowing lily appeared on her wrist."

The man, maintaining an eerie calm, asked in a low, controlled voice, "The aura she emits... did you notice any changes in that as well?" His face was partially illuminated by a soft yellow light, emanating from his internal energy radiating from his arms.

"No, sir, not yet... But I believe it won't take long to happen," the maid replied, her voice carrying a note of unease. She barely had time to process the situation before feeling a small gust of wind that made her body tremble slightly, caused by the man's slight movement to increase the strength of his grip as his fists tightened around each other.

"I see... so the world has plunged into chaos for the second time," the man murmured as he stood, allowing his internal energy to dissipate, fully revealing his face. He had hair as red as fire and eyes of different colors – the left as black as night and the right as golden as the sun. However, contrary to what his position of power in that nation would suggest, he wore a simple white hanfu, made from second-rate fabric, with no adornments or extravagances.

"Now that we've received this warning from the future, you know what to do. Prepare her for a journey. While that flower remains marked on her wrist, we cannot stay here."

The maid, with a hand over her chest and a reassuring smile, replied, "Everything is already prepared, sir. The young miss herself took care of packing her bag and left me this message to give you at the right time." She repeated the girl's words almost like a spell: "It seems I made a big mistake, Grandpa. You'd better come quickly and help me fix everything. I'll be waiting on the mansion's roof."

The man stared out the window, his gaze distant and worried, before placing his hand over his face and murmuring to himself, "That fool... the sun is still in the sky... Her way of doing things makes me dread what she may have altered in the past."