Chapter 243 Epilogue - The New World Arc (40)

The child leaned against the railing and slowly closed his eyes.

A gentle breeze carries the scent of flowers, the stench of blood, and a lingering sweetness on the tongue.

There's a vague sense of familiarity about it.

It seemed to be just a summer afternoon like this.

He once sat with his eyes closed, taking a short rest by a dry well in a quiet courtyard.

A slight emptiness came from my stomach, but it was still within my tolerance range.

After all, pain and hunger have long been commonplace for children.

However unloved they may be, as long as they bear this surname and a face that bears an uncanny resemblance to that man's deceased lover—

Those opportunistic scoundrels wouldn't dare let the child die here.

However, sometimes children feel confused... about why they were born into this world.

Is it just to endure scorn and bullying, and witness the coldness and cruelty of this world?

Then one day, the child suddenly understood.

That was after he personally pushed a servant who had mocked him and then foolishly tried to steal his jade pendant into the icy water.

The child watched indifferently as the ugly face, twisted and deformed by pleading and fear, slowly lost its life, finally revealing a hideous death...

Everything settled down, and he collapsed onto the edge of the pool, utterly exhausted.

There was no guilt or regret whatsoever; it was simply because his small body couldn't withstand such strenuous exercise.

Upon seeing the pale, swollen face soaked in the pond water filled with floating dead leaves, the child's first reaction was to frown in disgust.

It's so dirty.

He thought.

The mere thought of touching such a thing makes a child feel as if ants are crawling all over their body.

So he stood up unsteadily.

The ugly corpse was left to float on the desolate pond without any attempt to conceal it.

He dragged his feet and went straight back to his room.

I used water I had collected the night before to wash my hands thoroughly, especially my palms and the backs of my hands, which had obvious abrasions and even pinch marks.

Make sure every part is thoroughly cleaned.

The child then picked up the jade pendant whose knot had been broken during the snatching, carefully threaded it back onto a new silk thread, and wore it around his neck.

Perhaps because his body was too cold, he felt a slight warmth emanating from the jade stone on his chest.

It's strange, really. It's just an inanimate object, yet it feels warmer and more tender than anyone else a child could ever have seen.

Perhaps that's the reason.

That woman would never let go, not even until her death.

He stared at an inanimate object, yearning for it day and night, until he finally trapped himself within those cold, high walls and died.

Thinking he was deeply in love, he was actually incredibly foolish...

Mingming—

According to children, only by living can people have something to look forward to, something to hope for, and the opportunity to strive, fight, and get what they want...

She shouldn't have died like that woman, dying meaninglessly and leaving him with such a mess.

【Xiao Nian…】

A woman who never wants to look at herself directly will only show a hint of tenderness in her eyes when she calls a child that, perhaps due to a moment of distraction.

Li Nian... Li Nian...

With such a surname and such a given name, it's hard to tell whether it's meant to express longing or to end delusions.

But since they keep calling it that, they're still saying it.

As for what the woman was actually chanting, Li Nian had no idea.

But he realized early on that the other person was not calling out to him.

Even though she verbally proclaimed the name, the woman never spared a glance for Li Nian.

The other person preferred to stare blankly at the distant sky or to stare at a jade pendant in their hand in a daze.

Sometimes he smiles broadly, sometimes he frowns with a gloomy expression.

More often than not, he just stares blankly without saying a word.

Later, Li Nian heard some rumors, some true and some false, that the woman had had a lover while she was away from home.

She was separated from her husband for some unknown reason, but by chance, she met him later, who was also Li Nian's biological father.

Unfortunately, even the finest clothes and delicacies, and the utmost favor... cannot compare to the white moonlight that falls upon the heart in the dead of night.

The initial fawning eventually wore off over time, turning into a cold sigh as one walked away.

Then one day, the woman suddenly realized that her lifestyle seemed different from before, and the smiling face that used to be so welcoming now avoided her even when she was invited out.

Instead of taking any action, she allowed herself to sink into deeper distress.

That mournful and resentful attitude made it seem as if the whole world had abandoned them.

From that time on, the woman's obsession with the jade pendant deepened, almost to the point of being possessed.

Li Nian still remembers the winter when the woman died.

The weather was exceptionally cold.

The child sat by the bedside, listening to the woman's delirious ramblings.

The woman alternated between periods of lucidity and confusion, her words becoming incoherent and disorganized.

Once, the woman woke up from a dream with a start. Still half asleep, she mistook the person beside her bed for someone else and screamed in terror.

Li Nian stepped forward to investigate, but was shoved to the ground. She almost fell into the burning charcoal.

The waiter who came upon hearing the commotion was also shocked by the woman's mad appearance.

He rushed off to call for help, but did not return for a long time, leaving the young child and the woman, who was both crying and laughing, facing each other.

Li Nian tried to call out to the other person, but no matter what she did, she couldn't bring herself to utter the name.

I don't know if it was because I got burned.

A burning pain suddenly rose in one side of my abdomen.

The child was struck by the sudden, sharp pain, his body swayed abruptly, and he was about to crash headfirst into the cold stone ground.

At the critical moment, his hands, braced against the ground, firmly stabilized his body.

As he came to his senses, a sense of horror swept through Li Nian's heart—he clearly hadn't reached out!

The two arms, however, seemed to have their own ideas...

Moreover, he found that he seemed to have lost control of his body.

Limbs, head, lips and tongue...

They all became unresponsive.

Li Nian should have been the owner of this body, but at this moment she was completely unable to control her words and actions.

It's like another soul has taken up residence in my body.

Someone who knows better than him how to control this body.

Everything that followed felt like a dream.

He watched helplessly as "himself" walked step by step toward the woman who appeared to be insane, until she was right in front of her.

[—Yun Yao.]

These two words slipped so naturally from between their lips and teeth.

It's even more familiar than the title that's linked by blood ties.

Upon hearing this, the woman shuddered and abruptly turned her head toward the direction where the child was standing.

Her eyes were cloudy, and her long, unkempt hair was disheveled and scattered across her thin face, making her eyes appear even more sunken and her face gaunt.

【Yun Yao.】

As "his" voice fell, another slight tremor ran through him.

The woman stared at the child standing beside the bed for a long time, a look of surprise and doubt gradually creeping into her cloudy eyes.

【Who are you……】

The woman murmured to herself, her voice hoarse from shouting earlier, like that of an old woman, but her tone was exactly like that of a timid young girl.

Li Nian felt a slight tug at the corner of her mouth.

It seemed as if another person inside the body was laughing silently.

Then, he heard that "himself" speak. The child's tender voice was lowered slightly, and at first glance, it sounded like a teenager whose voice had not yet fully changed.

Look at you, it's only been a short time since we last met, and you've already forgotten me?

The man spoke softly, his tone gentle, even carrying a hint of tenderness.

The woman, however, seemed to have seen some kind of monstrous flood. Her eyes widened, her mouth gaped open, and she began to breathe heavily and laboredly, like a trapped animal.

[...]

I still remember that night...

The man paused, as if he were truly lost in some kind of memory.

After a moment, he slowly spoke again: "The night you killed me with a knife was also a full moon night like this."

The woman suddenly stopped moving.

As if frozen in place, she stared intently at the person in front of her.

His mouth was open and closed to its limit, while a suffocating, fragmented creaking sound came from deep in his throat.

That really doesn't look good.

The person inside her body was still smiling... smiling, watching the woman with a sorrowful yet cold expression.

[It's time to switch back. We agreed on just one day. Although it's a bit late, it's not too late. Yun Yao... do you still prefer me to call you 'elder sister'?]

[...]

You owe me a life and a jade pendant... now you can return them... right, sister?

Accompanied by that person's low, gentle voice.

A sudden burst of light appeared before my eyes.

It turned out to be a lit candlestick that a woman, in a moment of desperation, had thrown in this direction.