Chapter 60 The sky will never brighten, and the person you want to see will never appear.

"Or perhaps, you're sympathizing with the older sister in the story?"

Lan asked softly, catching a glimpse of the boy's face through the rising white smoke.

He was clean-cut and handsome. The scar on his forehead had faded a bit over time, but it was still clear, like a fine crack on the surface of warm porcelain.

Upon hearing this, Pipa blinked and gently shook her head: "No. I was just thinking, if only that little brother could really leave with the little Taoist priest as my sister made it up."

"..."

“Tell him everything, and then leave the cage that has imprisoned him for so long with the young Taoist priest.”

"Would that be better?" Lan asked softly.

Would it be better?

Loquat doesn't know.

"But at least... that way my brother won't die again, right?"

It might sound like wishful thinking, but Pipa hopes for an ending where her younger brother can leave that place alive.

However, after hearing the story so many times, with many variables involved, the outcome was always the same: in the end, none of the stories resulted in the younger brother surviving.

"Who knows? Maybe it's just moving from one cage to another."

Lan's voice remained calm.

"To place all your hopes on others is to constantly put yourself in a passive position, like a fish on a chopping board, at their mercy. Even more foolish is to harbor lustful fantasies about that other person, which will ultimately lead to a tragic end. You are clearly asking for trouble, yet you complain that others are heartless and ungrateful, saying that your sincere heart was misplaced. Isn't that absurd?"

After Lan finished speaking, she suddenly met the boy's thoughtful gaze, then smiled gently: "Alright, it's just a story, why take it so seriously?"

Is it really just a story?

"Does it matter to you whether it is or not?" Lan seemed a little puzzled.

Pipa smiled shyly.

"Indeed, like you said, even if it really happened, I couldn't go back in time and change anything. I'm just an idiot who can't even handle my own affairs. Trying to save others is just too presumptuous of me."

“At least you can come and talk to me,” Lan said, resting her chin on her hand with a happy expression.

"But all I can do is talk."

Pipa couldn't help but feel even more ashamed: "Besides, talking is a two-way street, isn't it?"

While I was spending time with Lan, wasn't she also spending time with me?

No, that's not it.

Lan chuckled and tilted her head, her eyes narrowing into two crescent moons.

"For a lonely person like me who rarely leaves the house, having someone to sit and talk to is almost as good as saving a life."

Upon hearing this, the boy looked around the dimly lit room, where candlelight and smoke flickered and danced, while outside the window lay the unchanging darkness of night.

Since the loquat first stepped into the bamboo hut in the orchid forest.

The sky never rose again in that place.

Sometimes he wondered if he had really seen those daytime scenes he remembered.

The magnificent palace covered in lingering snow, the male and female palace servants coming and going, and the young man who looked just like Young Master Lan.

...By the way, Young Master Lan.

Pipa wondered how many years it had been since Young Master Lan left—even Li Xiao… Li Xiao was already as distant as a memory from a past life.

Initially, he remembered that he started waiting because he wanted to see Senior Sister Yingxue.

Two people, one candle, and Pipa gradually got used to sitting opposite each other like this.

Time flies, and Pipa in reality has grown from a half-grown child into a teenager. He enters the dream as a teenager, while Lan in the dream remains a young adult.

That's right. In this dream, time stopped on the night before Yu Qingzhou's wedding.

Orchids, too, will never age.

Sometimes Pipa thinks that maybe one day when she is seventy or eighty years old, Lan will still look like the young woman she is now.

The thought of Lan, who looked like a young man, sitting opposite him as a decrepit old man is rather ridiculous.

Pipa thought to herself, but couldn't help but smile.

If that time really comes, try your best not to have that dream anymore.

Let's treat this as yet another farewell, but unlike before, this time, I'll be the one saying goodbye first. And of course, there won't be a goodbye.

"Has Lan ever thought about going out to see the world?" Pipa asked.

Just like the younger brother in the story, he left the dark room where he never saw the sun and went out to a wider world.

"But even outside, it's pitch black. It's the same darkness and silence, so what's the difference between inside and outside?"

Lan paused slightly as she spoke, a mischievous smile suddenly appearing on her lips—an expression rarely seen on a young person's face.

"You should have noticed it by now."

"What?"

"I lied to you." Lan stared into Pipa's eyes and said softly, word by word, "The sky will never brighten, and the person you want to see will never appear."

"Um."

Upon hearing this, the boy only gave a slightly helpless smile: "I had some guesses, but I didn't expect Lan to tell me herself. So I'm very happy."

Aren't you angry?

Lan Wei sat up straight, a serious expression on her face: "I lied to you, didn't I? I lied to you about wasting so much time in such a boring place. Don't you think that's awful?"

"But Lan has always stayed in this place, hasn't she?"

"..."

Pipa smiled at Lan: "I've always been alone, and I only dream about you occasionally. Besides—"

The boy paused, then suddenly showed a very embarrassed expression again.

"I don't know when it started, but the thought that I might be able to come here just by sleeping, and that Ran would appear as always, waiting for my visit, makes me feel inexplicably at ease. Although it may sound a bit selfish, it really does make me feel at ease."

"..."

"So maybe, compared to Lan, I'm the one who relies on this companionship more."

"Fool."

Lan couldn't help but mutter softly.

Suddenly, a scene from countless years ago flashed before my eyes: the young man carrying a long sword laughed as he spoke of how he wasn't exactly a paragon of virtue, and how he harbored his own selfish desires and regrets...

Even though they had only met once, he blurted out all his secrets.

—That's really stupid.

Whatever they say goes. They told him to settle his debts honorably before he died, and he really did die on the way to pay off his debts.

Serves them right.

This is a classic example of... asking for trouble.

That's why he didn't want to get too involved with that kind of guy.

"In that case, we are quite similar to the siblings in Lan's story, especially Lan and the younger brother in the story. They always give people a strange feeling of resemblance."

Pipa let out a somewhat sudden sigh.

Upon hearing this, Lan paused for a moment, then turned her head and replied somewhat coldly, "Stop talking nonsense, there's no such thing."

Seeing this, Pipa smiled slightly: "That's right, there are still some differences. Cough cough, for example..."

Hearing the boy's deliberate pause, Lan unconsciously pricked up her ears, only to hear—"Lan shouldn't be as pretty as the brother and sister in the story."

"..."

Seeing the young man's unusually downcast face, Pipa couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm truly sorry, I am so plain-looking, please excuse my appearance." Lan said with a blank expression, speaking in a sarcastic tone, which looked strangely cute.

However, Pipa felt it was necessary to explain: "Um... I was just joking."

"So you're using a joke to express your true feelings? But it's certainly the truth."

Lan, who was usually very easy to talk to, suddenly became a little awkward. Pipa hadn't expected that the other party would care so much about the comments about her appearance.

"orchid?"

"What's up."

"I've always thought Lan is very beautiful, the kind of beauty that grows on you," Pipa explained earnestly, and he genuinely believed it.

"What if you compare them to the people you like?" Lan asked.

"...Those people I like?"

Pipa was taken aback. Lan said that the people he liked... could it be referring to Young Master Lan and Li Xiao?

If Young Master Lan were still alive, he would probably still be the same humble and gentlemanly man he always was.

And Li Xiao... Li Xiao should have grown into a young man by now.

But they're all gone now.

Thinking of this, Pipa's mood couldn't help but darken a bit.

"What about Chen Yun?" Lan suddenly asked. "Isn't there another one, Chen Yun?"

Upon hearing the name Shen Yun, Pi Pa paused for a moment, as he hadn't expected it at all and was genuinely surprised: "What's the story with Shen Yun?"

Don't you like him?

"Deep Rhyme?"

"yes."

Lan nodded in agreement, then suddenly changed to a somewhat teasing tone: "If I remember correctly, that young Master Shen looks exactly like Senior Sister Yingxue, whom you most want to see, right?"