The walk back toward the central campus was tense in a way Li Xian found mildly entertaining.
Chen Mo had decided, without asking permission, to escort her away from the western grounds. Li Xian had allowed it, not because she needed protection, but because she wanted to see how long it would take him to realize he was being studied as much as she was being watched.
The answer, as it turned out, was not long.
"You're doing it again," he said.
They were moving along a quieter path beneath rain-heavy trees. Students still passed them occasionally, but less often now. Evening classes had begun, and much of the campus had retreated indoors.
Li Xian looked at him. "Doing what?"
"Staring."
"I am looking."
"At me."
"Yes."
Chen Mo exhaled through his nose. "That's what I said."
She tilted her head slightly. "If it troubles you, become less interesting."
That almost earned another reaction from him, but he restrained it at the last moment, which told her quite a bit about his self-control. Most young cultivators with even a little secret training and too much responsibility developed one of two flaws: arrogance or paranoia. Chen Mo had both, but they were balanced by discipline. That made him far more useful and far more dangerous than he first appeared.
"You're not a student," he said at last.
"That depends on which life you mean."
He stopped walking.
Not abruptly, but enough to make the statement hang between them.
Rain whispered over the leaves above.
Li Xian took another step before realizing he had halted. She turned and found him watching her with a much less guarded expression than before. Not trust. Certainly not. But surprise had made a crack in his control.
"You remember things you shouldn't," he said.
"So do you."
"That's different."
"Usually people say that when they have no good argument."
His mouth tightened a fraction. "What exactly are you?"
A fair question.
Li Xian considered answering honestly just to see what his face would do, but the truth was still too large for this setting. Telling a half-hidden cultivator in a modern university that she had once been the Phoenix Sovereign of another cultivation age felt excessive, even by her standards.
So she asked one in return.
"Who taught you talismans?"
He didn't answer immediately, which was answer enough.
"Family," she said.
Silence.
"Hidden inheritance."
Still silence.
"Something old enough that you were taught to pretend none of this exists while still guarding it."
Chen Mo's expression had gone very still. "You infer too much."
"I infer only what is obvious."
He stared at her for another second, then resumed walking. "You should not have gone near that well."
"You have already said so."
"And you ignored me."
"Yes."
He glanced at her. "Do you always behave like this?"
"I haven't decided yet whether this body makes me more patient or less."
That almost made him stumble.
Interesting.
So he did not merely suspect she was unusual he was beginning to understand that the person speaking to him was not the same girl who had collapsed in class yesterday. Sensible boy.
The campus square opened before them, bright with white lights and evening activity. Students hurried up staircases, ducked into cafés, and gathered beneath awnings to escape the rain. A delivery scooter buzzed past the entrance road. Somewhere nearby, music leaked faintly from a dormitory window.
So ordinary.
So thin a layer over the world below.
As they crossed toward the dormitory side of campus, Li Xian felt more eyes on her than before. Not hostile, exactly. Curious. A few girls recognized the original Li Xian and whispered behind their phones. The body's previous owner had lived quietly, but not so quietly as to become invisible to gossip.
Chen Mo noticed too.
"You should go back to your room."
"And you?"
"I have things to report."
That made her look at him more directly. "To whom?"
He met her gaze. "People who'll be very interested in the fact that a shadow beast woke in daylight, attacked near a restricted seal, and fled because a first-year student looked at it too hard."
Li Xian smiled faintly. "Then tell them to be more discreet. I dislike being investigated by amateurs."
His expression changed again. There it was that reluctant, almost unwilling intrigue. She suspected very few people had ever spoken to him like this. Good. It would keep him off balance.
Before he could answer, a voice called from the covered walkway ahead.
"Li Xian!"
A young woman in a beige sweater waved from under the awning, then hurried toward them with visible relief. Her hair was tied in a loose ponytail, and she carried a plastic bag filled with fruit, bottled water, and what looked like medicine.
The roommate.
Tang Wei.
The inherited memory clicked into place at once. Loud, kind, slightly nosy, far more protective than the original Li Xian knew how to accept.
Tang Wei reached them and immediately grabbed Li Xian by both shoulders. "What are you doing outside? You scared me half to death yesterday! The doctor said you needed rest, and when I went back, your room was empty."
Her words came quickly, warmth and worry tangled together.
Li Xian blinked once.
This sort of concern had always unsettled her more than hostility. Hostility was simple. Concern implied obligation.
"I went for air," she said.
Tang Wei looked unconvinced. "In the rain?"
She then noticed Chen Mo.
Her eyes widened slightly.
It was subtle, but not invisible.
The effect of handsome, quiet men on university campuses had apparently not changed between worlds.
"Oh," she said, voice changing immediately. "Hello."
Chen Mo, to his credit, looked as though he'd rather face another spirit beast than polite introduction. "I'm just walking her back."
Tang Wei turned to Li Xian with sharp suspicion mixed with delighted curiosity. "Walking you back?"
"He was making sure I did not throw myself into another abandoned well," Li Xian said.
Chen Mo closed his eyes briefly.
Tang Wei blinked. "What?"
"Nothing important," Chen Mo replied quickly, which only made Tang Wei more interested.
Li Xian decided not to help him.
After another few useless pleasantries and a final reminder from Tang Wei that the doctor said no stress, no skipping meals, and absolutely no disappearing, Chen Mo stepped back.
"I'll see you tomorrow," he said.
That was phrased too carefully to be casual.
Not a suggestion.
A certainty.
Li Xian inclined her head slightly. "If the campus doesn't collapse first."
Tang Wei stared at her again. Chen Mo looked like he regretted ever speaking.
Then he left.
Li Xian watched him go until his figure disappeared into the rain-dark walkways between buildings.
Tang Wei slowly turned toward her.
"Who," she asked, stretching each word with maximum meaning, "was that?"
Li Xian began walking toward the dormitories. "Someone who knows more than he says."
Tang Wei hurried after her. "That is not a normal answer."
"It was not a normal meeting."
"Li Xian!"
For the first time since waking in this body, something dangerously close to amusement stirred in her.
Perhaps this life would not be entirely intolerable.
But when she reached the dormitory building and glanced once more toward the western side of campus, the warmth in her chest returned.
The pulse below had not faded.
If anything, it had grown stronger.
And somewhere beneath Qinghe University, wrapped in darkness and old chains, a sealed egg had begun to crack.