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Writer: StarReader
Proofreader: Silavin
Touba Lian’er tucked Zhuo Fan back in bed as the rest of the girls watched with worry and heartache.
Princess Yongning, the most naïve and blunt of them all blurted, “How are we going to do this? Should we draw straws on who goes first in reliving our first meeting? I can’t wait to start. I’m sure applies to all my fellow sisters. The question is, how to make it both fair and acceptable to all of us?”
Shangguan Qingyan offered, “Let’s go with cultivation. That always settles it.”
“Of course you’d say that, being the strongest here. I bet you wouldn’t have the nerve to say it if Yuyu was here.” Lei Yuting shot down the obviously biased proposal.
“Well do you have a better idea, Miss Shadow?” Qingyan teased.
Lei Yuting huffed, “Don’t call me that! I’m only doing my job among shadow corps to gather intel since I’m most suited for it. As for how to go about this, yeah, I do have a great alternative, far fairer than yours will ever be. We’ll go by time spent together.”
“That doesn’t mean mutual love and you know it, baring Chu Qingcheng, everyone here was given the same constant and infuriating cold shoulder in regard to our feelings,” Touba Lian’er said with exasperation and a little anger.
The girls might have found common ground of kinship in Zhuo Fan’s plight, but that didn’t mean all their conflicts were resolved. All this helped was for them to start talking to each other and get to know one another better, in the hopes that their sisterhood would include all the girls if Zhuo Fan would ever be taken in by one among them.
Though, in some cases, it proved to be a trigger to their insecurity and worries. Would the object of their affection ever return their feelings? They had all tried, in their own way, to get closer to Zhuo Fan. Unfortunately, it has always been a complete refusal from his part.
That hurt more than anyone here would admit it. It was an open wound that could not heal, and being around other girls aiming for the same man was bound to send spark flying at some point or another.
They all knew they would get hurt coming here, that it would be the hardest thing they could do, but they still loved him far too much to not be by his side. They naturally would be willing to do all they can to bring him back, even if it meant him being in the arms of another. None could forgive themselves if they didn’t do at least this much for him.
“We should go in the order of our first meeting with him.” Chu Qingcheng’s soft voice was followed by silence.
They were all giving it some serious thought. It had nothing to do with cultivation, a persons’ talent in Dao, nor did it involve time together, be it out of necessity or want. It was a completely objective and fair proposal.
Some grumbled being last, or after Chu Qingcheng, since her time with Zhuo Fan was long from the start. However, since this was the best option, they went with it.
Despite the low chances, each was eager and hopeful their retelling of their first meeting would be the trigger to bring Zhuo Fan back to the living, that it was their immense love that woke him up.
It turned into an unspoken challenge among them. They would give their best and more to be the ‘winner’. They knew they needed to avoid anything that might come at the expense of Zhuo Fan or these fellow sisters. They knew they were in this together for the long term. Currently, without much confidence in themselves, all they hoped for was to be able to stay around and get Zhuo Fan to accept them no matter who he loved. Regardless of the ‘winner’.
The girls focused on Luo Yunchang, since she was the very first to have met Zhuo Fan. Technically, it was also she who had spent the most time with him since he had been born a servant in the Luo Clan.
Luo Yunchang regarded her fellow sisters, her voice thick with emotion. “Let’s go to Tianyu, where most of us met him. I believe the location will also help him bring him back.”
The other nodded and started packing.
It didn’t take long, both out of eagerness and the convenience of spatial rings. Through subsequent teleportation arrays, they were back in Tianyu in just a short couple of days, needing the rest of the week to get to Blackwind Mountain.
Luo Yunchang spent the following week taking Zhuo Fan through the same forest that almost ended up as the tomb for the Luo Clan, back to Windgaze City where he won his way into Veiled Dragon Pavilion’s good graces to help rebuild the clan, as well as save her from a loveless marriage with Cai Xiaoting.
Through it all, she had noticed some fidgeting and twitching from him, taking them as signs that he would soon be back and conscious. However, it never happened. It dampened her spirits as she walked back and supported Zhuo Fan into the room the girls all shared on Blackwind Mountain.
The girls felt her aura even before she entered, looking expectantly as she brought Zhuo Fan in, but alas, it proved to be disappointing. Zhuo Fan was still numb and unresponsive as before. Luo Yunchang wished from the core of her very being that he would wake up. She made sure to be as faithful to the original encounter as possible. But with so much expectation and energy given into this attempt, the failure proved just as crushing.
While this encounter did not work, the other girls were there for her, encouraging her not to give up. All that mattered was that they would try and try again until they succeeded.
Each of them was confident they would be the one to wake him up, especially since they heard Zhuo Fan had some reaction from this.
They were all eager to try for themselves at rousing him.
