10

"So this is the boy?" 

The young lady asked with a raised brow. She had the same brown hair as Ruo Chen with it tied into a neat ponytail, her features where sharp with a pair of deep blue eyes. This beautiful lady is Ruo Chen's mother, Yu Xin Yan, who seemed to be examining Ye Ran from head to toe.

Ruo Chen nodded in response before the dad praised, "He is indeed talented, just one look and I know he's different."

The dad, Ruo Lei, was a head taller than the mom and had short jet black hair. Despite both of them being in their 30s, they looked 20. The dad had the same forest green eyes like Ruo Chen's with a sharp jaw and nose. He looked remarkably handsome and he had an aura of confidence.

Ye Ran stood there in silence as he felt their gaze over him. His hands were clenched into a fist as he stared back at them.

Ruo Chen felt that it was a bit awkward so he decided to fill in the silence.

"So, it's fine that he stays right? I mean his family died in an unfortunate accident and he has no where to go." He said while fidgeting with his fingers.

"Yes we heard, the fire that happened a few days back. Of course he can stay!" Both the parents replied in unison when they heard their son's concerned question. They were kind people and were always happy to help others, much like their job where they travel around to give aid to those that need it.

He heaved a sigh of relief at their response before turning to Ye Ran to give him a thumbs up. 

Ye Ran looked at him and found himself returning the gesture.

Throughout the three days of waiting, Ruo Chen found that Ye Ran's personality or attitude would switch between warm and gentle to cold and distant quite randomly. He searched through his mind for answers but they always proved useless as he would always end up with a big fat question mark in his head.

The best thing he could link it to was the ancient artefact he briefly wrote about, he finally remembered its name called, Thousand Regrets. The important things were that it made the user go back in time while altering some things. What those things were, Ruo Chen did not write them but not written doesn't mean it didn't happen or it does no exist.

The world having its plot holes filled means that things he didn't write will appear, like maybe some background event or characters he never wrote about. Its just the question of who filled it. Unfortunately, Ruo Chen does not have much to work with as Xiao Pang refuses to say anything about the mysterious being behind this whole thing.

So he linked it to Thousand Regrets as it had the unknown variable of changing some things, while may or may not include Ye Ran's personality.

***

A year passed by in a flash since Ye Ran officially began living with Ruo Chen. Throughout this period of time, Ruo Chen's parent went travelling again and was only back for a few weeks. They assessed Ruo Chen's skills as well as Ye Ran's before giving them a proper training plan to follow. 

With the plan, they both were able to improve at an incredible pace and were probably top 5% for 13 year old kids. 

Puberty also seemed to hit Ruo Chen as he had a growth spurt and went from 160cm to 170cm. Ye Ran however, didn't grow and remained at 158cm. Ruo Chen felt bad but he knew that Ye Ran would grow to 191cm tall later, he just has a slow start.

Ruo Chen was also now much more familiar with Ye Ran and his personality. Despite being his creator, Ruo Chen did not know him fully. Words were not enough to truly know a person, its only when you meet them in real life then you know what they truly are.

He got used to the switch between hot and cold throughout the year and felt that Ye Ran had began to open up to him. Ye Ran started initiating conversations and felt less distant than before. This came to be a surprise to Ruo Chen as the Lord probably only spoke a few lines in the original novel when he was an adult and most of his 'speaking' was done through actions or just only existing in his mind, never making it out of the mouth.

This fact made Ye Ran seem like an unreadable book as all of his true thoughts were locked in his mind, and although he was opening up bit by bit, it was still a super slow process.

But never mind that, school would start in two years time and trials start six months before. So they only had one and a half years time before they got to go for the trials. However, the question of which school Ruo Chen should go to was still unanswered.

He resonated with dark energy and can't possibly go to the school of flames where it was mainly for people that resonated with fire energy. If he didn't change his resonated energy, they would certainly become distant if they did not go to the same school.

"It seems I'll have to change it after all..." Ruo Chen mumbled as he looked out the window.

"Change?" Ye Ran asked as he heard the mumble.

Ruo Chen felt his hair stand as he forgot that he not alone in the room.

"Nothing really!" He quickly replied while staring even more intensely into the fields, suddenly grass seemed to be very beautiful at the moment.

"Is this about which school you want to go to?" 

Ye Ran's question had hit the mark and Ruo Chen felt himself tense up. Damn the protagonist's godly brain! He coughed in an attempt to signal to Ye Ran that he didn't want to talk about it but Ye Ran pushed on.

"Don't worry about it." Ye Ran said in the end when Ruo Chen finally gave in and said his worries of how it'll be hard to stay in contact if they were in different schools.

However, Ye Ran's assurance only made Ruo Chen more anxious. Since he was going on the track that Ye Ran has been reborn, then he must definitely know of the fruit called A Fulfilled Dream. Ruo Chen couldn't help but sweat at the thought of Ye Ran changing his resonated energy. If the Lord were to change it, that means letting go of all his past powerful moves that shook the world.

It was entirely possible that Ye Ran would go to such lengths to be in the same school as Ruo Chen as through the year of living together. Ruo Chen realized just how determined Ye Ran was on some things and since Ruo Chen was the only person who's been kind to him in his whole past life time and this, Ye Ran was sure to not let him go.

Plus, how could he, the author, see his own character throw his own hard work away and skill away?

But he could not show his worry, lest he outs himself as someone not from this world.

The nights rest was anything but peaceful, with Ruo Chen constantly worrying about what Ye Ran was going to do. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore and decided to go and check up on him. 

They slept in rooms opposite each other and Ruo Chen slowly tip toed into the room. He was just going to make sure that Ye Ran was still in the room and wanted to tell him to not make any rash decisions.

It was only to his horror to realize that the bed was empty with not even a trace of warmth in it.

"Shit!" Ruo Chen cursed out loud before screaming for Xiao Pang.

"Xiao Pang, we have to find Ye Ran! Transform into something fast!" He sputtered out frantically.

Xiao Pang was still groggy from sleep and only transformed into a desolate fog wolf after a few moments of processing. Ruo Chen had to force himself to get on Xiao Pang as he remembered the dream he had. This stupid thing just had to transform into this specific wolf? 

But he kept silent as that was not the main worry here and the wolf was indeed the fastest type of wolf there is in this world. They soon sped off into the forest where the fruit was grown. It looked like any other apple except if you were to channel your energy into it, it would suddenly become translucent before turning into a spirit.

And he just had to write it that it was grown near this village!

The wind blew his bangs back as he gritted his teeth, Ruo Chen was mentally cursing himself over and over again for not predicting what Ye Ran would do. Who knew Ye Ran was so urgent and determined about this that he had to do it on the day he found out about his worries?

Xiao Pang followed his scent and they soon found themselves in front of a barrier. 

"He set a barrier up, we can't get through." Xiao Pang howled as he stopped before the barrier.

The barrier was like a bowl covering an area, it was hard to see except for the red hue around it which meant it was a fire barrier. 

Ruo Chen who was almost thrown off by the sudden stop could only frown in annoyance. Why did he have to be so cautious?!