He Yuan stared at Cao Luomei as if she suddenly grew three heads. What was going on? "Did you hit your head somewhere?"
Cao Luomei shook her head firmly. 'No. I just don't want to go against you anymore. Unlike a lot of noble families with an inner courtyard full of wives and concubines fighting for favour, our family has just us di children and father. Even grandmother died a year ago. It would be great if we all got along peacefully. You, me, Cao Feng and the second so-"
"Xiwang." He Yuan interrupted her. "His name is Cao Xiwang."
Cao Luomei nodded quickly. "Yes, yes. I'm sorry Cao Xiwang. All of us should get along." When she noticed the odd looks He Yuan was giving her, she scratched her nose. "Uhm... Cao Yuemei.. You should also stay away from general Shang and Mr. Jiang."
He Yuan laughed. "That is what all this is about wasn't it? Cao Luomei, how can you be this shameless? You're about to be married to the first prince and yet you're trying to hog other men. Tsk."
Cao Luomei shook her hands quickly. "You've misunderstood me. I don't want them. I don't even want the first prince anymore. As soon as I return to the capital I'm going to cancel the engagement!"
He Yuan's eyes widened. What really was going in? Did Cao Luomei forget the consequences of calling off an engagement in these times? If she broke off the engagement, wouldn't that give her free reign to capture her other harem members?
He felt a headache coming. He had thought he had already separated them. Who knew Cao Luomei would play this move?! He glared at her.
"Cao Luomei have you gone crazy? If you call off the engagement, your reputation would be ruined forever and no man would come forth to marry you. Are you trying to drag the Cao family name through the mud?"
"I don't care if I remain unmarried for life as long as I kept my life and sanity!" Cao Luomei looked at He Yuan with pleading eyes. "Cao Yuemei, listen to me alright? None of these men are good and you would only have a bad ending with them!"
Shang Wu and Jiang He, who were both heading to He Yuan's tent from different directions suddenly paused when they heard the last half of Cao Luomei's sentence.
They both glared in the direction of the tent and turned away. Marking Cao Luomei as an obstacle that tried to turn Cao Yuemei away from them.
He Yuan eyed Cao Luomei suspiciously. It couldn't be what he was thinking right? That would be impossible...would it? "What do you mean?" He asked slowly.
Cao Luomei bit her lips. She was very distressed at the moment. She couldn't possibly tell Cao Yuemei that she had a hyper realistic dream that she suspected was her past life. Even she did not completely believe herself!
She stared at He Yuan with a determined look. "Cao Yuemei I just feel they're not good okay? If you still believe I'm after them I would prove to you that I'm not when we return to the capital." And then she stormed off.
He Yuan stared after Cao Luomei with disbelief all over his face and then confusion settled in. If Cao Luomei regained the memories of her past life, shouldn't she be more focused on getting her harem back?
Why was she rejecting them with all her might? Or could it be that she suddenly lost faith in men and wanted to stay away from all of them? That sounded so unreasonable.
"888 what do you think?"
The system materialized beside He Yuan. "I also think she regained her memories somehow."
He Yuan stared at 888. It's been a while since the system materialized. The last time was when Yu Ming sneaked into his room late at night years ago.
He was wearing a black blazer over a black shirt and black jeans. With, of course, black shoes. His black attire made a beautiful contrast against his milk coloured skin.
His long white hair was currently in a messy bun at the top of his head and tiny wisps of hair slipped out of the band to frame his face.
The system still had his signature silver rimmed glasses protecting his cerulean blue eyes. He was a combination of beautiful and unmistakably masculine at the same time. A beautiful face but height and muscles that made him seem like a predator feline.
He Yuan suddenly sighed in disappointment. If only 888 did not have that annoying nonchalant attitude.
888 notched a brow and cocked his head to the side with a frown. "What?"
He Yuan shook his head. "Nothing. I've been stuck with soldiers covered in blood and dirt these past months so seeing you look so clean seems out of place and outright weird."
888 rolled his eyes. "Are we going to talk about Cao Luomei or not?" He sounded impatient.
He Yuan nodded. "I don't know how-" He suddenly paused and his eyes widened. "I just realized that Cao Luomei's ending was not part of the storyline information that I received. Do you think something bad had happened?"
He shook his head and murmured to himself, "No that doesn't make sense. Cao Luomei is a special one. If she had an unremarkable ending then that would mean her luck had been siphoned off by the realm. If that had happened, I wouldn't be counterattacking against her."
888 nodded after hearing He Yuan's mumbles. "True. Unless... This realm had entered a state of infinite loop."
He Yuan frowned. "What's that?"
"When a realm loses its driving force, aka luck, a rip appears in the fabric of its existence, you know this. What you don't know is that sometimes, when the realm attempts to repair itself, mishaps could occur leading to a situation whereby the realm covers the rip without it's missing part."
He Yuan stared at 888 in slight confusion. "Elaborate."
The system sighed. "Look, when this realm began to repair itself, Cao Luomei began to run out of luck. Unfortunately before the realm could succeed, Cao Luomei must have lost her life, causing the realm's luck to dissipate.
-Since the realm completely lost its missing part, it had to hastily patch itself up hence entering a state of infinite loop. It would keep going back to the moment Cao Luomei was reborn, until it achieves an ending where its luck is taken back from Cao Luomei before she loses her life."
He Yuan frowned. This meant that Cao Luomei must have died unfortunately in the original storyline. He shook his head. "What happens if that ending is never achieved?"
888 shrugged. "The realm crumbles in on itself and it's billions of inhabitants go into nonexistence. This is why taskers are usually deployed before a realm begins the attempt to patch itself up."
He Yuan shuddered. "How many times do you think the inhabitants of this realm had lived this particular lifetime?"
888 shrugged again. "Who knows? It could be three times or a thousand times. I'm not privy to that information."
He Yuan rubbed his hand over his face. "Just when you think you've seen the worst, something more outrageous comes along."
888 chuckled. "You think this is outrageous? This task realm is quite simple actually. Just take away Cao Luomei's golden fingers and it's solved. For our own good, let's hope you don't encounter a task realm with an advanced infinite loop where its inhabitants are conscious of their repeating lives because that... Is true hell."
After watching the soldiers moving about for a while, 888 dematerialized and He Yuan walked back into his tent. His mind kept drifting to Cao Luomei's words and the state of this realm.
If Cao Luomei truly kept her words and called off her engagement with Yu Ming, her luck cycle would be broken and this realm would return to normal.
He Yuan smiled and then he froze. Once Cao Luomei ran out of luck, his task would be over and he would have to leave. What about Cao Xiwang?
His smile slowly turned into a frown. He had raised that kid right from when he was a baby so admittedly, he was quite attached to the little spitfire. He Yuan sighed sadly.
The next day, reinforcements from the Eastern and Southern frontiers arrived at the camp. Shang Wu began the battle to take down the enemy camp. He had been stuck within their barriers for months so he was quite familiar with their set up.
This made it very easy to take them down and in two months, he achieved a resounding victory. For the first time in months, the soldiers were cheering happily.
They'd finally taken down the enemy and the nation was safe. They'd lost a lot of their comrades but they were thankful that they'd managed to protect the families that their comrades had left behind.
In another month, a procession was ready to return to the capital. He Yuan stared at the Northern camp one last time before entering the carriage meant for him and Cao Luomei.
The girl in question offered him a smile but He Yuan stared blankly. He honestly didn't know how to respond as his mind was filled with the fact that he was going to have to leave Cao Xiwang behind.
In another month, they arrived at the gates of the capital.
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