Shen Qingmang had a nightmare. In the dream, Qiongju appeared, pointed a jade pen at her throat, and said that she was a fake. Gu Suihan looked disappointed. Si Rong and Hao Xin also ran behind Qiongju. The eldest brother Shi Mingli, the second brother Qi Xiao, the master Yun Xuzhou... all of them surrounded Qiongju and asked her about her well-being. Qiongju put down the pen, smiled at her contemptuously, and was surrounded by a crowd of people and left.
She gradually felt a chill creeping up on her body, unconsciously curling up into a ball, hugging her knees, her body trembling uncontrollably. It was as if she were back in that rainstorm, the overturned bus, the desperate and helpless cries of everyone on board, the increasingly thin air, until finally it filled her chest, the mud and sand blocking her mouth and nose...
"Shen Qingmang, face the reality. No one here is your kind. We are the only ones who are together."
"Who?" She looked around blankly.
"Idiot, are you having a nightmare? It's me, Li Shutong, you useless bastard, wake up quickly, you're going crazy."
"Don't I already have you..." Shen Qingmang murmured.
"Are you starving for oxygen? I'm not your inner demon! I'm rational and have my own thoughts! What's the point of being your inner demon? Don't conjure up something new to steal my territory!"
In Li Shutong's sharp voice, Shen Qingmang finally escaped from the nightmare and came to her own spiritual residence. The air here was fresh and the temperature was suitable, allowing her to let go of all her tense emotions.
"I didn't see you when I came to Lingfu several times before." She said to Li Shutong, who was sitting at the stone table with an ice cream in each hand.
Li Shutong handed her an ice cream cone. "Here, this one's chocolate. I discovered you love it when I was looking through your memories. But I've never had Haagen-Dazs, so I can't imagine it being the best. Try this. It'll cool you down and wake you up."
Shen Qingmang also sat down and took a bite, savoring the sweetness of the chocolate. "Thank you. Are you avoiding me? Is the game constructed?"
"Look! With your attitude as the client, who else should I hide from if not you? My editor has never urged me like this!" Li Shutong said angrily.
"Sorry, sorry, every time I see you I think of this first."
"You don't want me to be nice." Li Shutong nibbled on the edge of his ice cream cone and bumped Shen Qingmang's shoulder with his shoulder. "Hey, are you provoked by your eldest disciple? I told him he's not a good guy."
"No, he's fine. It's my problem."
"What's your problem? Are all of you teachers so morally upright? If I were to be someone else, I wouldn't care what she looked like before or how others treated her. I'd use those I can use, and stay away from those I can't. My own safety is the most important thing."
"You make sense, but I can't do it." Shen Qingmang looked helpless.
"Do you know why?" Li Shutong shook the ice cream cone in his hand. "Because that's the environment you grew up in. You grew up in an orphanage, essentially being nurtured by society. National policies and the kindhearted people who donated money have brought you to where you are today. So you want to give back to society, to everyone. You see giving as a way to realize your own value."
"Isn't that right? Everyone lives in society, and it's impossible for personal values to be completely disconnected from social values."
"Yes, yes, yes. But they are intertwined, not inclusive. If you contribute a lot to society, you are valuable. But even if you don't contribute to society, if you can support yourself, isn't that also a disguised way of reducing the burden on society and paying taxes? It's easy to be a qualified citizen."
Li Shutong winked at her playfully. Shen Qingmang licked the last bit of the ice cream and said, "That's all in the past. Now I'm in this world of immortal cultivation. The Taichu Sect doesn't require me to pay taxes. I don't care about my disciples and still concentrate on cultivation? Isn't that the same ending as before?"
"What's wrong with being the same as before? I'm here, and I'll keep you alive this time, okay? As long as the plot sticks close to the original, and I regain my strength, I'll protect you however I want, even making you the strongest person in the world!"
“Thank you, I still want to work hard on my own.”
"You don't even want to cling to someone you know, you deserve to be depressed." Li Shutong sneered. "You'll be crying in the future if you're so pretentious. Sooner or later, you'll be on your knees begging me."
"You'll help me even without me kneeling. After all, we're the only two of our kind, aren't we?" Shen Qingmang clinked his ice cream cone with Li Shutong's. "Cheers, friend."
"Bah." Li Shutong rolled his eyes. "You don't consider me one of the same kind. I see you've been completely taken advantage of by your wicked eldest disciple. You believe what he says this time? Have you forgotten how he lied to you before? He just pretends to be innocent. He really doesn't deserve his name."
"You gave him his last name."
"I..." Li Shutong was choked and said angrily, "So what? Does he listen to me? He even rebelled against me. Shen Qingmang, listen to me. Don't believe anything Gu Suihan says. Stay away from him. He is the mastermind behind everything."
"Really? Why?"
"He was trapped and couldn't save you? He didn't want to save you at all. Instead, it was us, Yanxiang, who were held back by him and couldn't save you. He just confuses right and wrong."
"Do you remember..." Shen Qingmang swallowed the ice cream cone in one gulp, patted the crumbs on his hands, stood up, and looked down at her: "When you tried to spoil the story before, there was an earthquake in Lingfu."
"So?" Li Shutong swallowed.
Shen Qingmang pointed overhead. "You've said so much, but there's been no movement from the Spiritual Palace. This means that what you're telling us isn't real, but lies. I don't know why you're targeting Gu Suihan, but I've spent the most time with him, and I know what kind of person he is. He would never harm me."
"I think he's completely brainwashed you." Li Shutong lowered his head and pulled out a deck of cards from his pajama pocket. "Here, the Five Elements Killing Cards. Study them yourself and don't push me anymore."
Shen Qingmang immediately smiled. "Thank you! Now the kids have something to play in their spare time."
"I think the various events in this sports meet you've created will be enough to keep them entertained for a while. Why don't you develop some props to sell? You could probably make quite a bit of money, like that patterned fire vine paper, or gold nuggets and molds."
"I asked Yiqing to do all this. Whether he makes money or not is his business."
"You've provided some ideas, too! Intellectual property is important! Forget it, I don't care about you anymore. Do whatever you want."
"Isn't it almost daytime? I have to take them to the sports day."
"Okay, okay, get out of here." Li Shutong waved his hands impatiently, then suddenly remembered something and called her back. "By the way, Shen Qingmang."
"Um?"
"Even if you don't believe what I say, at least go check on Gu Suihan's father."
"Gu Fangping?"
"Well, go check his father out and think about how he described him to you before. The rest is up to you."
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