Chapter 77 The Water Moon Monkey tries to scoop up the moon from the water, but discovers that the moon...

“I heard that Cang Yu has gotten into another conflict,” Qiu Sheng said, looking at Pei Wenjing. “Go and try to persuade her.”

Pei Wenjing stroked the book in his hand and said, "She won't listen to me."

Qiu Sheng frowned, crossed his arms, and asked, "What happened to you two? I remember you used to have a very good relationship, how did it turn out like this?"

Pei Wenjing kept reflecting. He remembered that the argument between Shen Cangyu and him initially stemmed from Shen Qingyan. Shen Cangyu felt that she had ordered the myriad swords to be aimed at Shen Qingyan, and Pei Wenjing had stood in front of her, trying to stop her. She felt he had betrayed her.

She really disliked Shen Qingyan. But Pei Wenjing wasn't in the same class as her, and he didn't have much contact with Shen Qingyan, so he didn't understand why Shen Cangyu disliked him so much.

He had observed that disciple, and he didn't seem to have anything special about him. If one were to say that he had a bad character, he was far inferior to Xu Qiubai.

Why did Shen Cangyu hate him so much? Pei Wenjing never figured it out.

“You two can’t just keep dragging this on like this. You have to resolve your conflicts,” Qiu Sheng said, sitting down in front of him. “Cang Yu is a straightforward person. If you’re willing to talk to her, she’ll definitely tell you why she’s angry.” Qiu Sheng had a conflict with Shen Cang Yu in the past, but it was resolved quickly. This was based on her personal experience.

"The premise is that you don't always avoid her," Qiu Sheng reminded him.

Pei Wenjing stared at the book in his hand for a long while before replying, "I understand." He put the book away and walked out.

Today is the sixteenth, and the moon in the sky is very big and round.

Pei Wenjing followed the mountain path and finally arrived at Shen Cangyu's courtyard.

He was about to knock on the door when it creaked open. Shen Cangyu hadn't locked it.

A lamp was still dimly lit in Shen Cangyu's room, its flame flickering, indicating she was not asleep. Pei Wenjing dared not approach; he had come without being asked, and shouldn't have entered rashly. He hesitated outside the door for a moment, then decided to send her a message.

The moment his finger touched the name tag, he suddenly felt an unusual aura emanating from the courtyard in front of him. He looked up abruptly and saw a sudden gust of wind sweeping through the courtyard, rustling the leaves and swirling up fallen petals like a vortex, sending them flying into the sky.

The wind blinded him, but in the whirlpool he vaguely saw a figure that glanced at him.

Pei Wenjing could hear his heart pounding so hard it felt like it was about to burst through his chest.

Although he only glanced at her, he felt that the figure was so familiar, as if he had seen her a thousand times and had her image engraved in his bones.

He instinctively chased after the figure, petals fluttering down on him, but the figure vanished before his eyes like a bubble.

He recalled reading the story of the monkey trying to catch the moon in a storybook when he was a child.

The monkey saw the moon reflected in the water. It quickly used a gourd ladle to scoop it up, held it close to its chest, and carried it far away, afraid that other animals would see it and steal its moon. Filled with a mixture of smug satisfaction and anxiety at possessing the moon, it traversed mountains and valleys. But when it looked down again, it suddenly discovered that the moon had vanished.

Pei Wenjing is like the monkey who stole the moon. In his life, as long as he becomes obsessed with something, it means that he is destined to lose that thing.

He couldn't hold onto anyone, whether it was family, friends, or the figure right in front of him.

No moon would bow down for him.

Pei Wenjing stood in the courtyard, looking down at his feet. Petals covered the ground, layer upon layer, obscuring the originally dark soil.

He suddenly heard a creaking sound. He looked up and saw the window wide open, with Shen Cangyu standing inside, looking at him.

The moonlight shone down and reflected in her eyes.

Shen Cangyu looked at Pei Wenjing standing in the courtyard, her eyes dark. The moment she saw Pei Wenjing, a pop-up window appeared in front of her.

Pei Wenjing's favorability +5

Current favorability rating: 55

What do you mean? So now the person who's following the plot and building up favorability has changed from Shen Qingyan to her?

The moment she and Pei Wenjing locked eyes, the comments section exploded with excitement, filled with "throwing flowers" and "kswl" (a Chinese internet slang term for extreme excitement).

[Only 55 affection points, man, your affection is quite hard to raise... Oh well, our heroine can have any man she wants, goodbye this one, there's always another, our Cangyu has no shortage of conquest targets.]

[Following the ruthless sea queen route, hehe]

Anyway, we're only interested in sex, not relationships.

Shen Cangyu admitted that Pei Wenjing was very special and important to her. Whether it was Pei Wenjing's help in her previous life that made her have different feelings for Kunlun, Pei Wenjing's death that indirectly led to her death, or Pei Wenjing bringing her back to Kunlun after her rebirth, or her entanglement with Pei Wenjing hundreds of lifetimes ago, all of this proved that Pei Wenjing was a very important person in her life.

Pei Wenjing is her anchor point to this world.

But that doesn't mean she has to love him. There are many kinds of emotions in this world; they can be familial love, friendship, admiration, envy, appreciation, or even disgust, jealousy, and hatred.

She treated Pei Wenjing as a friend and teacher, but once their feelings could be valued by this so-called favorability system, everything changed.

The moment their feelings for each other became apparent in numerical terms, their relationship became more like a transaction than a friendship; she took action, and Pei Wenjing reciprocated with his sincerity.

From then on, there was no more pure emotion, only utilitarianism and the desire to win. Pei Wenjing transformed from a living, breathing person into a symbol, her target for conquest.

Pei Wenjing once asked Shen Cangyu if they still had a chance to go back to the way things were before.

This time, Shen Cangyu truly can't go back.

"Are you alright?" Pei Wenjing looked at Shen Cangyu, who was still standing there with the window open, staring straight at him without saying a word. For some reason, he felt there was sadness in her eyes. Perhaps the moon was too bright tonight, and he was blinded by it.

"Not good," Shen Cangyu said.

"Are you still angry with me?" Pei Wenjing asked.

At that moment, Shen Cangyu felt lost and adrift, with nowhere to go. She wanted to kill Shen Qingyan, but she feared that killing him would only force the story to start all over again, rendering everything they had done futile. In her rage, she pointed her sword at Shen Qingyan, only to see Pei Wenjing shield her.

At that time, her feelings towards Pei Wenjing were a mixture of pity for his misfortune and anger at his lack of ambition. Pei Wenjing was destined to die because of Shen Qingyan, but now he knew nothing of this and insisted on saving Shen Qingyan. This fueled her anger.

She was angry not only about Pei Wenjing's blindness, but also about her uncertain future.

But things are different now. Shen Qingyan is no longer the protagonist; she is the protagonist now. The person who will cause the world to start anew after she dies is no longer Shen Qingyan, but herself.

The anger she had vented on Pei Wenjing in the past was now useless.

“There’s no need for any of this,” Shen Cangyu said.

Pei Wenjing looked at her and suddenly asked, "In that case, would you like to go for a walk with me?"

Shen Cangyu was stunned for a moment. She saw him bathed in moonlight, his head covered in petals, standing alone in the courtyard, his figure exuding a sense of loneliness. She thought for a moment, then pushed open the door and went out.

The courtyard below was like a clear, still pool of water, with algae and duckweed crisscrossing in the water, which were actually the shadows of bamboo and cypress trees.

Longjishan is not just about trees covering the mountains; the environment of the first peak is superb, and there are mountain springs and waterfalls halfway up the mountain.

As she approached the flying spring, Shen Cangyu heard the sound of water crashing into it from afar. She looked up and saw the spring water, bathed in moonlight, falling straight down like the Milky Way descending from the heavens, and the silver in this Milky Way was the silver of silver.

Shen Cangyu walked to the protruding rock by the mountain spring and sat down. Listening to the sound of the flowing water, his thoughts calmed down, and he had enough time to digest everything he had seen that night.

Shen Cangyu wondered why she had replaced Shen Qingyan as the protagonist. Although this was something she had always wanted to do, the situation had happened so suddenly, giving her no time to think or give her any hints. Even when she was reading the comments, she felt strange; these readers seemed like a completely different group of people, with drastically different personalities.

In her mind, the protagonist should have a pure and kind heart, repay evil with good, and have a heart that embraces heaven and earth. She didn't have any of those qualities.

Even though she loathed Shen Qingyan's incompetence and cowardice, she also admitted that in every battle, Shen Qingyan was the one who would risk his life to protect others. She couldn't do that; she only cared about her own interests and whether she would get hurt.

Even when she saved Xu Qiubai on Nanke Mountain, it was because she had calculated that Pei Wenjing would definitely come. Even if she attacked Tongqianyan and drew away Tongqianyan's hatred, she would not die. At most, she would suffer internal injuries from using her heart technique while burning blood.

Using her mental techniques by burning blood in front of Pei Wenjing was a deliberate act. She was certain he would soften and teach her the secrets of cultivating the inner core, a way for her to gain his sympathy.

If she's a villain, that's only natural, since she was chosen by the coin-eyed person, and she only cares about her own interests.

When she looked at Shen Qingyan, she always thought that he was so incompetent. If she were to play the lead role, she would definitely do a better job than him.

This was just her idea; she never imagined it would actually come true one day. Heaven heard her voice—no, the author heard her voice—and overturned the entire story, starting afresh.

She was bound to a system that required her to follow the path of a villain. She no longer needed to maintain a facade of kindness. Readers wanted to see her decisive and ruthless, cold-blooded and merciless, fame-seeking and reputation-building, and her ascent to the top...

After seeing the readers' comments, Shen Cangyu realized that the fine virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness of the past were now outdated, and that they wanted to see extreme egoism.

The protagonist they wanted to see was a perfect match for Shen Cangyu.

This may be why the author chose Shen Cangyu as the protagonist.