With Ruan Mei taking the initiative, Bai Ming gave a summarized explanation of her situation.
For example, her relationship with Herta, and how her relationship with Acheron had changed over time.
She also covered the suppression of Nihility, the removal and replacement of Acheron's anchor, and so on…
Leaving out some of the more ambiguous interactions, she conveyed the problems she was currently facing as accurately as possible.
After listening to the entire story, Madam Ruan Mei looked at Bai Ming in confusion.
Her guess about the current situation hadn't been wrong, but she hadn't expected Bai Ming to be this conflicted.
Just how had this person managed to tie herself into such a knot?
From initially wanting to eliminate the hidden danger of Nihility, to later agreeing to Herta's request—researching Nihility and helping Acheron solve her problem was perfectly normal in itself.
And afterward, because Acheron trusted Bai Ming to resolve everything, she let go of her inner burdens. That, too, was normal.
On top of that, Bai Ming, as an Aeon, becoming Acheron's new emotional support was only reasonable.
In that case, as a qualified Aeon, she just needed to accept the other party's faith.
With that framework—human devotion toward a god—most of Bai Ming's worries would no longer even be issues.
After all, both Ruan Mei and Herta knew Bai Ming had found herself an Emanator over on the Xianzhou Luofu, and Herta hadn't raised any objections. But not only had she not done that, she had even personally asked Madam Acheron to remove the anchor in her heart.
So the aspect of faith in a god had been dismantled by Bai Ming herself, and now she was here agonizing over whether the other party's feelings toward her had changed.
"…Have you been too idle lately?"
Ruan Mei felt this person was simply too free. Having reached the level of an Aeon, she probably wasn't encountering any real difficulties anymore, so she started creating trouble for herself.
"I'm idle?!"
Bai Ming raised her eyebrows, surprised. Was she really idle? She had just finished dealing with the Nihility Equation, okay?
Where was the idle part?
Ruan Mei ignored her retort and instead smiled, lifting a piece of pastry to Bai Ming's lips, watching her eat it little by little.
"How does it taste?"
"There's a very unique fragrance in it. It's delicious. That thing you added actually smells this good?"
Hearing the praise, Ruan Mei's eyes curved as she smiled.
"I don't know how you define your relationships with everyone, but from my perspective, your relationship with me, with Herta, and with Acheron aren't all that different—only varying slightly in distance. In my view, your troubles are actually quite… childish."
As a woman who had lived for who knew how many thousands of years, even without personal experience in romance, her abundant life experience was enough for Ruan Mei to consider Bai Ming's worries extremely "ordinary."
Or rather, as a scholar who studied life, Ruan Mei's understanding of emotions was highly rational—she saw them as merely physiological reactions.
Bai Ming becoming closer with Herta, growing more intimate—
To Ruan Mei, she had always considered that merely a phase.
Sooner or later, her relationship with Bai Ming would become just as close.
She even thought Herta probably believed the same.
Even though Ruan Mei knew that Bai Ming and Herta's closeness wasn't just psychological, but physical as well—she still thought so.
Or rather, to Ruan Mei, the physical intimacy that came with deepening relationships wasn't something she cared about.
So Ruan Mei reached out, lightly pinching Bai Ming's cheek. Her fingers then slid downward, resting against the exposed collarbone and the pale skin beneath.
"See? You're getting nervous again. You care a lot about this kind of direct, simple interaction. That's actually not normal—because you're an Aeon."
Ruan Mei sighed as she looked at the tense and slightly bewildered Bai Ming.
No wonder Herta always scolded Bai Ming—perfect in every way, except she never had a proper understanding of herself.
"For example, whether out of personal feelings or admiration for an Aeon, I would consider it perfectly natural for my relationship with you to advance further, just like yours with Herta."
"Similarly, Acheron, whom you saved—after you forcibly extinguished her worship of divinity—her relationship with you becoming closer is also perfectly natural."
"You always want so-called 'pure feelings,' but mortals are bound by flesh and nerves, mechanical intelligences by programs and circuits, even heliobi are influenced by others' emotions. The feelings of life in this world never appear without cause."
Ruan Mei's fingertip poked lightly at Bai Ming's chest.
But at this moment, Bai Ming stared at Ruan Mei with trembling pupils.
Had this woman just casually said something terrifying?
What did she mean—"your relationship with me advancing further, like yours with Herta, is perfectly natural"?
Did she even know what she was saying???
Was this person normal… oh right, Ruan Mei had never really been normal. Never mind.
Bai Ming recalled how, a few days ago, Ruan Mei had asked her—almost complaining—what she actually considered her to be.
At first, Bai Ming had felt a little guilty.
Now it seemed—where did Ruan Mei get the confidence to ask that?
"…Were you serious about the first half of what you said?"
Ruan Mei raised her eyebrows slightly, withdrew her fingertip, and picked up another piece of pastry.
She took a bite, then nodded faintly at Bai Ming.
"Of course."
"You… I… uh…"
Right now, Bai Ming really wanted to ask—were you here to chat, or just to make things worse?
"Did I scare you?"
Ruan Mei's teasing smile made Bai Ming feel like she was being flirted with.
But in Ruan Mei's eyes, Bai Ming was indeed extremely young. Even if you removed the centuries affected by different flows of time—Bai Ming's age still wouldn't amount to a fraction of Ruan Mei's.
So yes, she had been teasing her.
But what she said wasn't exactly false.
For Ruan Mei, she usually didn't like forming emotional bonds—not because she was naturally cold. In fact, when she was young, she had been quite emotional.
The reason she became like this had everything to do with her family.
After her family passed away, Ruan Mei felt that since everything would end this way anyway, it was better not to form bonds in the first place.
So she sealed off her heart not because she lacked feelings, but because she hated the parting at the end.
On the contrary, she valued emotions deeply.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have made such a decision.
And that brought things to the key point.
If, at the beginning, her friendship with Bai Ming and Herta had essentially been drawn by projects and resources, and she hadn't intended to grow close—then now, Bai Ming had already reached the position of an Aeon.
Aeons weren't immortal, but compared to mortals, they were currently the most long-lived and stable existence known.
Especially for Ruan Mei, who was still striving toward the path of an Aeon herself.
Since that premise—that relationships would inevitably end—was no longer reliable, what reason did Ruan Mei have to keep her heart locked when it came to Bai Ming?
Moreover, being able to build a reliable relationship before the other party became an Aeon was itself an unrepeatable, extremely rare event.
So Ruan Mei didn't mind—she even looked forward to forming a sufficiently intimate relationship with Bai Ming.
Because aside from Bai Ming, everyone else—including geniuses like Herta—wasn't reliable enough.
Only Bai Ming was the closest thing to "Eternity."
Of course, even though this was what Ruan Mei thought, after so many years of keeping people at arm's length, suddenly becoming proactive or enthusiastic felt unfamiliar and impossible.
So even now, saying such bold words directly to Bai Ming, her tone remained as calm as ever—like she was simply discussing whether today's dessert tasted good.
It was hard to tell what she truly thought.
Bai Ming looked straight into Ruan Mei's eyes.
She saw amusement there—but not the attitude of a joke.
Which meant that although Ruan Mei had mostly been teasing her, those words were genuine.
A lethal strike delivered through humor.
Bai Ming felt that coming to Ruan Mei hadn't solved anything—if anything, the problem had only grown bigger.
And the culprit was still laughing at her.
"…Ruan Mei, you're being very mischievous right now."
"Heh~"
Ruan Mei chuckled.
"So, would you like to hear my reasons?"
Alarm bells rang in Bai Ming's head.
She felt that if she listened, she'd probably be left speechless—but not listening didn't seem right either.
This wasn't something she could just gloss over. Pretending to play dead wouldn't work.
Seeing Bai Ming remain silent, Ruan Mei took it as agreement and began speaking.
She talked about her childhood, about what she later did for her family, and the decisions she made because of them.
Of course, she kept it brief—she wasn't trying to gain sympathy, only to let Bai Ming understand her mental journey.
After all, constantly being seen as some strange person would make even Ruan Mei unhappy.
So when she explained why she wanted to build a closer relationship with Bai Ming, Bai Ming truly didn't know what to say.
It almost sounded like Ruan Mei had developed a kind of stress response due to past trauma.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL