Chapter 6: Realizing the Dao in a Dream

 “Impossible.”
Xie Yurong rejected it flatly.
“That kind of thing would never happen.”

“How can you be so sure it never will?”
Su Yanwei asked in return, looking at him steadily.
“No one can predict the future. Anything could happen.”

Xie Yurong frowned deeply, remaining silent, clearly disagreeing.

“That’s why,” Su Yanwei continued, “we should leave each other room to choose freely in the future, don’t cut off every possible retreat from the start.”

Xie Yurong lowered his eyes, staring at the ground, silent for a long time.

In the end, the conversation ended on an unhappy note.

The marriage between the Su and Xie families was eventually called off. Even though Xie Muchun personally went to persuade Su Jinting and Ye Qingmeng to change their minds, they ultimately chose to prioritize Su Yanwei’s feelings and wishes.

Perhaps because she had been thinking about it so much, that night Su Yanwei had a vivid dream.

In the dream, she and Xie Yurong had been engaged since childhood. As they grew up, Xie Yurong fell in love with another woman. He yearned for her but also felt bound by his engagement to Su Yanwei. Torn between desire and responsibility, he couldn’t bring himself to stay away from that woman, yet also couldn’t admit the truth to Su Yanwei.

Xie Yurong hesitated endlessly, unable to choose, yet couldn’t help himself from secretly helping and protecting that woman. All the while, Su Yanwei was kept in the dark until finally, their secret was exposed to the world.

Overnight, the three of them became the laughingstock of the entire cultivation world. Rumors some true, some false, spread everywhere, drawing scorn and mockery. Xie Yurong was seen as a fickle, morally corrupt man who betrayed his fiancée; the female cultivator was branded a seductress who stole another woman’s fiancé; and Su Yanwei became the pitiable woman who failed to keep her fiancé and ended up abandoned.

In the dream, Su Yanwei was furious and immediately confronted Xie Yurong, demanding they break off the engagement. But he refused, saying it would damage the reputation of both the Su and Xie families.

“I promise you, I won’t see her again,” the young Xie Yurong in the dream said, looking weary and haggard.
“Father has already decided to come next month to formally propose marriage to your parents.”

Su Yanwei couldn’t believe her ears.

“After everything that’s happened, how can you possibly think I’d still marry you?”
“Do you think I have no pride, Xie Yurong!?”

“This is the best way to handle it,” Xie Yurong insisted.
“Only if you and I marry can we minimize the damage to both families.”

“……”

Su Yanwei trembled all over, too angry to speak at first.

“Are you stupid!?” she finally exploded, pointing at him.
“Even now, all you care about is the family’s reputation. If you want to sell yourself to save the Xie family, go ahead, but don’t drag me into it!”

“Marriage? Marry you? Like hell!”

“I’ll say it here and now: your engagement to me must be dissolved. I will never marry a man whose heart belongs to someone else!”

“You may be blind, but I’m not! What do you even have in your head? Has the Xie family completely brainwashed you?”

In the dream, Su Yanwei resolutely tried to break the engagement. But it wasn’t so simple. Their engagement wasn’t only about two people, it was the foundation of alliance and cooperation built over years between the Su and Xie families. Their interests were deeply intertwined. That’s why, after the scandal, the Xie family’s first reaction had been to rush over and push for the marriage to protect the family’s honor.

By then, separating the two families had become nearly impossible.

Even though Su Jinting and Ye Qingmeng loved their daughter and supported her, breaking off the engagement still faced countless obstacles.

In great families, privilege and protection always come with chains.

---

In the dream, Su Yanwei, desperate to escape the marriage, finally ran away from home. After losing hope of dissolving the engagement through proper means, she chose to abandon everything and flee.

Su Jinting and Ye Qingmeng, though heartbroken, turned a blind eye and even secretly helped cover her tracks so she wouldn’t be caught and brought back.

Freed from the Su residence, Su Yanwei felt like a bird escaping its cage, or a fish finally returning to the sea, free to fly and swim wherever she pleased.

“Hah!”

Su Yanwei woke with a start, sitting upright on her bed, her heart still pounding.

“Terrifying… too terrifying!”

The dream had felt so real, the sense of being there so strong.

It was as if she and the Su Yanwei in the dream had become one. She fully understood that version’s anger and helplessness: born and raised in the Su family, nurtured and protected, given resources and status, but also expected to repay it all. When she refused to give what the family demanded, the Su family became the very force that oppressed her. And at that point, no one could save her, not even Su Jinting and Ye Qingmeng, who themselves had times when they were powerless.

In the end, she had chosen to flee, abandoning everything.

Only after leaving did she taste freedom for the first time.

Outside, even breathing felt free.

By contrast, Xie Yurong was forever shackled by his family.

The young Xie Yurong in the dream had a weary, defeated look on his face.

The boy who once said, “I will protect you,” was finally crushed and buried under the weight of the Xie family’s rigid traditions.

---

Sitting on her bed, Su Yanwei thought deeply.

She remembered the dream’s version of herself: born in the Su family, raised there, never leaving. She grew up cherished by Su Jinting and Ye Qingmeng, enjoying the family’s resources and prestige.

Before the scandal, that dream-self had a perfect life: stunning beauty, powerful family, doting parents, and a seemingly perfect fiancé. Everyone envied her. But after the truth of Xie Yurong’s affair came out, everything crumbled. The family that once protected her became the very force that trapped and hurt her.

Only when she abandoned everything and fled could she finally breathe and live again.

Is that my future too?

Sitting there, Su Yanwei couldn’t help but wonder:

If I keep growing up in the Su family’s shelter, won’t I end up like her?

Even if it wasn’t Xie Yurong, there might be a Wang Yurong, a Gu Yurong…

She could say no once, twice, even three times, but could she keep refusing forever?

Could her parents protect her once, twice, three times, but every single time?

---

For the first time in her life, Su Yanwei felt the desire to escape.

In that moment, she and the dream-self became one, sharing the same cry:

To abandon everything, run far away where no one knows them, and start over by their own hands, relying on no one.

To master their own life.

Outside, even breathing feels free.

Those were the words the dream Su Yanwei spoke when she finally left the Su family standing beneath the endless blue sky and white clouds, looking at the vast forests and lands beyond.