Mingyuan, Qin Qiu, and Luo Shui surrounded Ye Nianzhen, leaving Hong Xiao standing not far away, watching silently. She pursed her lips, feeling a pang of resentment.
Unlike these three, he was always portrayed as a villain in his previous reincarnation, and was ultimately killed by Ye Nianzhen in the final battle.
He now recalls those memories and feels that he truly deserved that fate.
He didn't expect Ye Nianzhen to forgive him so easily. Although he didn't have a complete memory yet, he intuitively felt that he was definitely worse off in the world outside the illusion.
Based on the information available, the outside world is probably ruled by a man named Su Mo and his sister Su Yue.
Their Eastern base levies exorbitant taxes and levies, firmly holding its position as the number one base in the apocalypse, while demanding that all other bases submit to them, with those who disobey facing certain death.
During this process, the high-level superhumans at the Eastern Base were nothing more than lackeys doing the dirty work for them.
And he, Hongxiao, was probably one of the worst among these lackeys.
He was shocked to realize how far apart he was from Ye Nianzhen, not just the distance between pursuer and pursued, but the distance between the righteous and the wicked, separated by a hatred as deep as mountains and seas.
On the contrary, he felt that if all of this was true, and Ye Nian was indeed the Holy Maiden of the Beast Clan, while he was merely a supporter of the Holy Maiden of the Beast Clan, then the distance between them wasn't actually that great...
He stood a few steps away from Ye Nianzhen, quietly watching their interaction, and felt a bitter taste in his mouth as he watched Ye Nianzhen, surrounded by people, smile and frown.
These few steps represent a distance he could never cross in his entire life.
*
Gu Shibing also distanced himself from Ye Nianzhen and others because he regained some of his memories and became more self-aware.
His persona in this world is that of a divine child, a devout follower of a saintess. He was originally the closest being to Ye Nianzhen. However, now he stands far to the side, with people passing by him, building an insurmountable wall between him and Ye Nianzhen.
He turned his head away, unlike Hong Xiao who was still staring blankly in Ye Nianzhen's direction, and resolutely left.
He didn't even disturb anyone. Just like when he came to Ye Nianzhen, the white snake that swam silently from the ice and snow once again silently swam into the sea of people.
When Ye Nianzhen looked around as if she remembered something, she only saw Hong Xiao standing there blankly with a gloomy expression and wooden movements, while Gu Shibing, who had been quietly following them and rarely said a word, had long since disappeared.
Ye Nianzhen wasn't too bothered by this. According to Mingyuan and Luoshui, they had probably recovered a small part of their memories of the real world. These memories weren't enough for them to fully understand what kind of person they were in their original world, and for them, it was just an unreal feeling shrouded in mist. But like seeing a leopard through a tube, they did manage to vaguely outline some causes and consequences through these memories.
However, whether it was Mingyuan, Luoshui, or Qin Qiu, they were actually in a state of being deceived and powerless in their original world. They developed feelings for Su Yue because of her charm and swore allegiance to her because of her actions. In that environment, they did many things against their will. The awakening to their true will actually came at the moment when they forgot their identities in their original world. They realized that they were like they had been poisoned, and their actions and words were not very clear. In fact, later on, they had actually pulled themselves out of that state of confusion, which caused them even more pain. Su Mo, who discovered their disloyalty, decided to throw them into the illusion as expendable pawns. In Su Mo's words, it was a kind of waste utilization.
Thinking of all this, Mingyuan, Luoshui, and Qinqiu all felt a sense of indignation at being played. They vowed that if they were allowed to escape from the illusion, that bespectacled man named Su Mo would not have an easy time at all!
In contrast, there are people like Hong Xiao, Mu Guang, and Gu Shibing, who were never good people to begin with.
Their encounter with Su Yue and Su Mo was like a fish in water; they hit it off immediately and together committed many bad deeds, including acts of murder, bullying others, and much more. None of these acts alone could be excused by simply saying, "I was misled."
Even if they were influenced to some extent by Su Yue's charm and made some ill-conceived decisions and actions, this can only be described as adding fuel to the fire, rather than them starting the fire in the first place.
So their current situation is quite awkward.
Despite losing their memories, they both chose to side with Ye Nianzhen in both the previous and current reincarnations, becoming curious about her, developing feelings for her, wanting to stay in her team, and even forgetting their true nature and the bad things they had done.
But then something embarrassing happened. Now that they've regained some of their memories from the original world, wouldn't it be too shameless for them to stay in Ye Nianzhen's team?
Moreover, according to the part of the truth they depicted, Ye Nianzhen was originally an enemy of their Eastern Base. The Eastern Base sent people to kill many of the budding talents and eventually used hostages to threaten Ye Nianzhen into walking into their trap. The details of their crimes are too numerous to list.
They even felt that Ye Nianzhen was too upright to tolerate them in his team instead of killing them outright, and that he disdained taking advantage of others' misfortunes.
Looking back, whether it was Hong Xiao, who was sent by Su Mo to kill many people in the budding stage, or Mu Guang, who simply captured Ye Nianzhen and put her into an illusion at the Eastern Base, or Gu Shibing, who, although he had no direct hatred for Ye Nianzhen, had killed a great many people because he lacked normal human emotions and his childhood experiences made him more cold-blooded and indifferent to human life... they all seemed to have lost the right to approach Ye Nianzhen.
Therefore, Gu Shibing's decision to leave quietly at this moment is actually the most rational choice.
Ye Nianzhen respected his choice. After all, if it weren't for the special nature of the illusion, which disrupted everyone's memories, and the fact that they had gone through some things together, they would have developed some bonds and normal emotions as teammates. However, in the real world outside, Ye Nianzhen would not associate with these people who disregard human life.
As for Hong Xiao, who doesn't seem to intend to leave... considering that she had already taught him a lesson in the last reincarnation and even killed him cleanly and decisively, Ye Nianzhen didn't plan to do anything to him again.
Whether he lives or dies, whether he wants to stay or leave, it has nothing to do with her.
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