Shen Hui felt the warmth coming from her head and tilted her head to dodge Shen Yue's attack of touching her head.
"Don't touch my head, it'll prevent me from growing taller." Shen Hui rarely said childish words, which reminded Shen Yue that both her and Shen Hui were only 15 years old now.
She walked back to the bedside and lifted the quilt, "Do you want to sleep with me?"
Shen Hui turned her head away and got up to leave, "Who wants to sleep with you."
Just as Shen Hui was about to touch the doorknob, she heard Shen Yue's faint voice behind her, "Can't you not sleep well by yourself?"
Shen Hui immediately stopped her movements. She turned around to look at Shen Yue with a very dangerous look in her eyes, "You..."
Before Shen Hui could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by Shen Yue, "You look haggard. I guess you haven't been sleeping well these days.
You unconsciously glanced at the bed three times before looking away just now. I guessed that you should be tired and there was no situation of being used to the bed.
Eliminating being tired and being used to the bed, not being able to sleep can only be left with psychological reasons. According to the information given by brother, I guessed that you were afraid to sleep alone, so I asked. Judging from your reaction, I guessed right."
The sudden long speech left Shen Hui stunned. After a while, she finally spoke up, "Are you analyzing me?"
"...I'm sorry, it's a habit. If you find it annoying, I'll restrain myself a bit in the future." Shen Yue seemed to really feel embarrassed. Her head was slightly lowered, her expression unseen, as she lifted the quilt and beckoned to Shen Hui, "Let's sleep together."
But Shen Hui suddenly laughed, "Is this how you schemed against those brothers?"
Shen Yue's movements stilled slightly, but soon returned to normal. "It's not scheming, it's exchanging sincerity with sincerity."
Shen Hui curled her lips. Her feet finally changed direction and walked towards Shen Yue's side. "What exchanging sincerity with sincerity. The traces of being molded on them are too obvious. It was you who did it, right?"
Shen Yue didn't deny it. She only said, "People are not creatures that remain unchanged forever. When they meet someone they want to protect, they will spontaneously make themselves stronger to guard the one they want to protect."
While speaking, Shen Yue had tucked Shen Hui in with the quilt. Shen Hui awkwardly looked away.
"So you just made yourself the one they wanted to protect?" Shen Hui looked at Shen Yue and asked.
"Who you want to protect is your own choice, just like now I want to protect you."
Shen Hui didn't speak again.
Shen Yue directly turned off the lights and lay down next to Shen Hui.
After some unknown time, amidst the darkness, Shen Hui suddenly asked, "Why do you want to protect me?"
Shen Yue didn't answer, seeming to have fallen asleep already.
Just when Shen Hui was about to give up on an answer, she heard Shen Yue's sentimental voice next to her, "You and I are alike. Rather than saying I want to protect you, it's more like I want to protect myself. If I hadn't been abandoned back then, now your appearance would be my appearance."
Shen Hui didn't know what she felt when she heard this. Even at the beginning when she entered the Shen family and was rejected by them, she never felt wronged. But somehow, with just a few words from Shen Yue, her heart crumbled.
"Talking like that makes it sound like it's your fault."
Shen Yue heard that Shen Hui had softened her attitude. The thread that had been tight in her heart also loosened slightly.
"Weren't you saying it was all my fault in what you first said to me?"
Shen Hui recalled the scene of her first encounter with Shen Yue. She exclaimed, "I was simply annoyed at seeing you protected by others that day."
Shen Yue chuckled lightly. This Shen Hui was somewhat close to the willful and unconstrained mad scientist from her memories.
"Then I'll protect you from now on."
When Shen Hui heard this, her heart inexplicably moved. But she still scoffed on the surface, "You can barely protect yourself. As the fake young miss of the Shen family, you still cling on instead of leaving after the real young miss returns. The upper-class social circles must really like this kind of plot."
Lying next to Shen Hui, Shen Yue couldn't see her expression. But just from Shen Hui's tone of voice, Shen Yue could already understand what Shen Hui wanted.
"Then how about this plot - after the real young miss returns, she feels bad for the fate of the fake young miss and decides to support the fake young miss herself. This is much more novel than your old-fashioned real and fake young miss tearing each other apart."
At this point though, Shen Hui's focus was no longer on what was novel or old-fashioned, but rather...
"Why would I be supporting you?"
Shen Yue's reply was righteous and confident. "You're the real one and I'm the fake one, so of course you'll be supporting me."
Shen Hui was suddenly confused. "Didn't you say you were going to protect me?"
"Yes, I protect you and you support me. The two of us are moving towards each other."
For the first time, Shen Hui realized that "moving towards each other" could be used like this. And somehow it was even strangely appropriate?
Before Shen Hui could think more deeply, she heard Shen Yue say, "Stop overthinking and go to sleep."
"Oh." Not long after closing her eyes, perhaps because she could feel the warmth emanating from the other person next to her, Shen Hui, for once, slept soundly.
As for Shen Yue, she was reviewing.
After all, memories were still just memories. The experiences and theories in them didn't belong to herself.
But as long as she practiced them afterwards, the experiences in the memories would become Shen Yue's own.
Firstly, in order to establish trust between people, one side's solely paying out does not work. The other side must also feel needed. For example, during the prison scene of first meeting Danni La, trying to draw her over. This aligned with her dialogue with Shen Hui earlier.
To establish trust between her and Shen Hui now, she couldn't solely rely on herself to say things and to contribute. She had to make Shen Hui feel needed too.
Ah, so tiring.
She had almost exposed her abnormalities before Shen Hui earlier.
Shen Yue had no doubt that if she was discovered to be abnormal by Shen Hui now, she would definitely die on the spot.
That was exactly why she had always been afraid to be in contact with Shen Hui.
The Shen Hui in her memories was indeed very kind to her, but that was under the condition that Shen Yue and her were of the same kind and Shen Yue was clearly weaker. Then Shen Hui would protect "Shen Yue".
Just like what she answered Shen Hui on why she would protect her. Shen Hui had said similar things to herself in her memories. That was how the two's beginning started.
But now, she was protected by the brothers. The one truly alone was only Shen Hui herself. In such a situation, it was unlikely that Shen Hui would initiate closeness.
That was why Shen Hui's parents were needed.
She had to make Shen Hui realize the true circumstances of the Shen family through her parents. Then use the interactions between her and several brothers to attract Shen Hui's attention. Only the judgement made by Shen Hui as an individual would prevent her from becoming suspicious.
Calculating based on the timeline of her memories, Shen Hui now should already be proficient in using the spacetime medium.
However, unlike Si Chengyou and herself, Shen Hui's memory transfer only targeted specific points.
For example, when Shen Hui suffered an assassination attempt with a knife to her stomach, she would immediately commit suicide to transmit that memory segment of her being stabbed back 10 minutes to avoid the danger to her stomach.
Only transferring specific partial memories, to Shen Hui, was like foretelling the future.
And precisely because of this, no matter how many memory transfers, Shen Hui would always be just Shen Hui.
...
At night, Shen Yue had a dream where she was entangled by snakes, which coiled tighter and tighter.
In the dream, Shen Yue struggled hard until she finally opened her eyes!
Then she saw Shen Hui now completely lying on top of her.
Shen Yue was confused for half a minute before finally recalling that Shen Hui didn't sleep very well - she was extremely restless!
She had let her guard down last night and hadn't dodged.
*
Had a fever today. Writing back the other two chapters only tomorrow or the day after since I recovered in the evening.
