The Way Back to You

Interlude (3)

“Who is this Ruyi, Lance?” the eleven-year-old Lucian had asked.

Little Lance couldn’t answer immediately. He had never needed to explain or rationalize to himself what was happening to him. Not knowing anything else, he simply thought that this was all normal. Thus, he didn’t know how to explain it to someone else.

“Ruyi is Ruyi,” Lance replied in the end. Even as a small child, he had been a quiet one who kept a lot of things to himself. That was why he needed to be asked directly for anyone to find out why he did what he did.

Unable to get anything more from his younger brother, Lucian thought it best to go to their parents with the information he did manage to gather.

As he listened to his elder son’s words, Lucian’s father visibly grew pale. 

On the other hand, being someone who had married into the Hill family and wasn’t born into it, Lucian’s mother just frowned in concern and wondered aloud, “Is it an imaginary friend…?”

It was only after her husband had stood up unsteadily while covering his slack mouth with his hand that she became aware something more was going on.

“Lucas?”

“I…” Lucas said to his wife Romina in a shaky voice. “I have to make a call.”

Without explaining anything else, Lucas hurried out of the living room and went to his home office. After shutting and locking the door, he retrieved a private phone from a desk drawer and called the first of the mere three numbers saved in its Contacts.

It took a while for the call to be answered, which did nothing to calm his shaky nerves. By the time the other side finally picked up, he could spare no more thought for greetings and other such niceties.

He immediately blurted out, “Grandmother, please, help me—my son, my little Lance, he…”

Haltingly, Lucas explained to his grandmother Lenore, the current matriarch of the Hill clan, what had been happening with his younger son, along with what his elder son had just told him.

After he finished speaking, there was a long silence on the other end, then the soft voice of an elderly woman finally sounded.

“He has not been exposed to the lore?” she asked.

“N-no, of course not, Grandmother,” Lucas replied, earnest despite being rattled. “Even my elder son is not yet old enough for that. It is still so far off into the future for him—I have not even given the matter much thought yet. Believe me, Grandmother, there is no one else in our household from whom Lance could have heard that name. That is why… I’m afraid he… he really is…”

“What is there for you to be afraid of?” Lenore asked amid the pause, her tone neutral and not condemning. “If what you are suspecting is indeed the case, it is a cause for celebration, is it not?”

Confronted with that question, Lucas could not speak. 

If this had happened to any other branch of the Hill family, he might have thought the same. Like nearly everyone else, he would have marveled at the revelation that the secret lore passed down to the blood members of his family was no mere fiction. 

After he witnessed for himself that, indeed, a child born of their line had been chosen as the vessel of their founder, all the doubts he had privately harbored would be erased. 

He would know then that the stories were real, along with the people who had lived them. He would rejoice with the others and pledge to do anything in his power to help their Lord reborn achieve his one aim: finding his beloved in this lifetime and reuniting with him, whoever he turned out to be in his new incarnation.

However… this was his son they were talking about, his innocent little boy… 

What kind of existence would he lead once his past memories have awakened, as Lucas knew they must when the time came?

Would he even remain his son still…?

“In any case,” Lenore continued when Lucas did not speak, “there is still a verification process that must be undergone. Calm yourself for the moment, child. Not to mention in all the centuries that came before, you are not the first to suspect that their son or daughter might be the one these past two decades.” The elderly woman paused to let that sink in, as well as to drive home her next point. “And you would not be the last, should nothing come of this as well.”

Far from settling his fears, his grandmother’s words only increased his worry. 

He knew what she was trying to say. The honor of being the one to birth their Lord back into existence was so great that other members of his family had tried to either force it or fake it using their own children.

His grandmother had seen this happen so many times that she must be jaded by now. It would take more than hearing his claims to convince her that his son was the real deal. 

But even before he himself had confirmed it, Lucas somehow already knew the truth in his gut.

Before ending the call, he received instructions from his grandmother to drop everything tomorrow and bring Lance to the main residence, which was four hours away by car from where Lucas and his family lived.

After that, he told his confused and anxious wife that he could only explain certain things to her depending on how tomorrow would unfold. 

Romina had known long before marrying into Lucas’ prestigious family that some matters regarding them were simply not talked about, especially to outsiders like her.

This rule had not affected her and her relationship with her husband before, but now, it had suddenly become a huge wall between them.

This was about her son, after all—her flesh and blood. Why was she not allowed to know about every important thing that involved him? How could they just step on her right as his mother like it was nothing?

“Darling, please,” Lucas implored, torn between two loyalties. “This is not something I can control, but I promise, I’ll find a way to tell you everything, regardless of tomorrow’s outcome.”

Knowing that she had little choice for the moment, Romina let it go. What was most important to her was finding out what was ailing her younger son and what cure, if any, there was for it. 

She was unaware that her husband was already half-certain of what the outcome tomorrow would be, which was the only reason he gave her such a promise. 

Once the Hill family elders had confirmed, as Lucas himself was about to do, that his son Lance was truly Lord Qing Xue reborn, his entire family could no longer be kept in the dark about it. 

After all, henceforth, their status within the clan would completely and irrevocably change.

“Lance?” Lucas called softly. 

Even though it was not the weekend, he was the one who went to the bathroom with his younger son to give him a bath before bedtime. And as he and his wife had had to do increasingly of late, he had called to Lance to bring him back into alertness. He was starting to nod off in the middle of his soak in the bathtub.

Lance blinked sleepily and looked at his father.

“Don’t fall asleep yet, little chap. We still have to dry you off and put on your jammies.”

“Okay…” Lance replied obediently, his voice cute and boyish despite the seriousness of his tone. “But please hurry up, Daddy. I really want to go to sleep now.”

“I know, baby,” Lucas said with a gentle smile that did not reach his strained eyes. He helped Lance out of the tub and began drying him off. After a pause wherein he tried to make himself sound nonchalant, he asked, “You really want to see Ruyi again, don’t you?”

Instead of reacting with surprise like Lucas expected, Lance just tilted his head thoughtfully to one side as he looked at his father.

“Did Big Brother tell you about him, Daddy?”

Lucas swallowed. Even without his excessive sleeping in pursuit of dreams, Lance’s rapidly growing intellect and maturity alone were enough signs that someone else’s consciousness was awakening inside him.

His heart ached for his little son. A part of him railed against Fate over the unfairness that this should befall Lance and not someone else.

But he tried to hide everything he was feeling and answered, “That is correct, and now I am hoping you could also tell me more.”

“More… like what…?”

“Like… let’s see…” Lucas pretended to think. “Why don’t you tell me who you are in your dreams?”

The little boy was sincerely thinking about it when he paused.

“I… I am not sure, Daddy,” Lance answered, sounding upset now. It seemed this was the first time he was thinking deeply about this, having been forced to do so. “I don’t always remember, and… and it is not always the same… why is it like that?”

“…Like what, baby?”

“Some… sometimes, Ruyi calls me Xue…”

Lucas’ heart skipped a beat.

“But… but other times… he calls me Briar.”

The little boy looked with obvious distress into his father’s eyes, which had already teared up uncontrollably.

“Daddy, why is that? And why are you crying, Daddy?”