5 | In Each Other's Arms

Xi Ning's eyelashes trembled slightly as she stared at the magnified features of the handsome man she never expected to see ever again. "Xiao Ye?"

An artiste to their manager was like a child to their parents.

Ye Jiang had just turned 20 when Xi Ning first came to this world to complete her previous mission. He was a young man in his prime, experiencing his first love.

Although she didn't witness the process of how he fell in love with Xiao Feng, Xi Ning knew from their past altercations—with her foiling Ye Jiang's plans to reunite with Xiao Feng—how deep his love for her should have been.

She had still been lamenting over how she couldn't make it up to him before, for ruining his chances of getting back together with his white moonlight for the sake of completing her previous mission, when she was transmigrated back here.

This time, regardless of what that special situation 'Xiao Wu' told her was, Xi Ning vowed to not let this opportunity slip by.

She would definitely put forth her best efforts in helping this Film Emperor find himself a better woman, not only for the sake of her mission, but also to absolve her of the guilt she was feeling.

But what was with this situation?

Why did Ye Jiang push her on the bed?

Was he so drunk that he mistook her for Xiao Feng?

While mulling over this possibility, Xi Ning was suddenly distracted and pulled from her thoughts by Ye Jiang's next movements.

The man's toned arms, which were placed on either side of her head to support his body weight, wrapped themselves around her neck all of a sudden.

Xi Ning's surprise didn't end there!

Ye Jiang buried his head in the crook of her neck, his lips brushed against her exposed skin as he said in a muffled voice:

"You finally came back to me. Thank you! Thank you for coming back to me! Did you know how scared I was? I was scared, very very scared. I thought you'd leave me forever. I tried to contact you, but I couldn't reach you. Why did you leave without telling me? Did, did I do something wrong? Tell me, please. Tell me, so I can change..."

Ye Jiang's quavering voice was barely above a whisper, but Xi Ning heard every single word, loud and clear.

She not only heard the evident relief from his words, but also the hint of grievance and plea he tried hard to restrain.

Xi Ning froze. An intense feeling of guilt surged from deep within, eating away at her heart.

As a "parent", she truly failed big time in protecting "her child". Not only that, she even contributed a lot to his pain.

After going through countless mission worlds, it was only now that she truly felt the realness of the characters she was interacting with.

They weren't just a bunch of data created by world designers.

At least that's how Xi Ning felt as she hugged Ye Jiang back.

She couldn't see the expression on his face right now, but she could imagine his beautiful eyes must be gleaming with unshed tears as he pursed his lips into a tight frown.

There were many things she wanted to express at this moment. She wanted to tell the man that she was sorry—sorry for ruining their chance of reconciliation, sorry for not realizing how hurt he was because of this, sorry for everything.

Xi Ning acknowledged that she had played a huge role in causing this pain towards Ye Jiang that no amount of comforting words and apologies could alleviate his heartache.

In the end, she could only whisper "sorry" again and again.

Her hands moved as if they had a mind of their own, stroking Ye Jiang's trembling back with a gentle yet firm motion.

She didn't know how long it took, but she only let herself fall asleep when Ye Jiang's ragged breathing eased until it became even.

In this way, the former manager and her former artiste spent the night in each other's arms, unaware of the major changes happening in this world.

—

In a separate dimension, a few minutes ago.

A small red fox entered a half conscious, half dormant state, its form turning slightly incorporeal.

The series of operations it initiated a while ago had consumed most of its remaining energy. Even if its level was at the risk of regressing, it couldn't care less at this point.

Its desire to find its host overpowered its reason.

There was only one last thing it needed to do right now...

System 514 wanted to use every last bit of the energy it had been preserving to conduct a wide search that would encompass this whole mission world.

It had even exchanged for those extremely expensive energy replenishers from the System Shop to help instantly supply enough energy for its big move!

Points be damned!

It was ready to stake it all, in order to find its own host. System 514 could be said to be gambling its own life.

As it was on its last phase of preparation, it suddenly heard Xi Ning ask: [Did we transmigrate back on the day of the main leads' wedding?]

System 514 paused for a millisecond, then continued preparing for its search as it pretended not to hear Xi Ning's query.

It's not in its intention to ignore her, but even it itself didn't know the answer to her question. It could only write a scheduled mail addressed to Xi Ning and System 555 to convey its sincerest apology.

[Adjusting search parameters... 100% Complete.]

The small red fox closed its eyes and took a deep breath, praying that its intuition was correct.

'Let's do this!'

But before it could launch the search program, the detection signals had already set off!

Shocked, System 514's fox's eyes widened another fraction as it urgently tried locating the soul aura that set off the detectors it had painstakingly programmed...

Only to find out that the very same person it was looking for was now embracing the host it had abducted to this world.

System 514: (° o° ; !!!