Who will ferry me across?
Under a pear tree, Xu Shulou quietly hugged his junior sister.
Bai Roushuang couldn't stop smiling: "Senior Sister, I can feel your enthusiasm. You must have been very worried about me during my disappearance!"
Xu Shulou smiled and raised his hand to take off the complicated pearl pendants for his junior sister, leaving only a few simple ones, neatly and refreshingly dotted among her hair.
Bai Roushuang shook her head in satisfaction and heard her senior sister whisper in her ear: "Thank you."
"What?"
"Thank you for holding an umbrella for me." Thank you for awakening my long-dormant tenderness towards the world.
"What's there to thank me for?" Bai Roushuang shrugged. "It's just a small favor. If you saw me getting wet in the rain, you would definitely hold an umbrella for me."
Xu Shulou looked at her: "I want to ask you a question."
"What's the problem?"
"You've been here for more than ten days, so you should have understood Bai Roushuang's situation in this world," Xu Shulou said, "Where do you think the fork in the road led you and her to different lives?"
Bai Roushuang thought seriously, "Lu Beichen? No, not him. If I were still the same person as before, even without him, there would be someone else. I would always have to rely on someone to live."
"..." Xu Shulou waited for her answer in silence.
After a long while, Bai Roushuang shook her head: "There is no fork in the road. It's just that someone around me has subtly and practically taught me how to behave in the world, how to cherish the common people, how to let go of hatred, how to be a good person, and has taken me to see thousands of mountains and rivers, accompanying me in my growth and transformation."
“…”
"If I hadn't had these experiences, no matter how many forks in the road were before me, I would probably have just kept going down that path."
Xu Shulou once traveled back in time to find the turning point that changed Bai Roushuang's life.
But there is no fork in the road.
This answer seems both unexpected and reasonable.
Xu Shulou looked at her and smiled in the spring breeze that filled the garden. His smile was warm and pure, just like the willow breeze that was not cold on the face.
"Senior sister, what are you thinking about?"
Xu Shulou looked up at the sky and said, "I was thinking, the weather is nice today, let's set up a table under the pear tree and have a copper hot pot meal."
"Okay!" Since Senior Sister was here, Bai Roushuang was no longer panicked and didn't rush to leave. "I'll go prepare the ingredients!"
"Let me do it." Xu Shulou suggested.
Bai Roushuang froze for a moment: "Well, why?"
"…I just wanted to do something for you."
"Oh, you scared me. I thought you were angry that I touched your chain ring and came to this world, and you wanted to punish me with your craftsmanship," Bai Roushuang waved her hand, "Sister, just sit here and wait for the food!"
"..." Xu Shulou was silent. It was just preparing some ingredients, and there was no need for her to stir-fry them. Her junior sister was really too cautious.
Not long after, Bai Roushuang directed the servants to carry the pots and pans and returned, and saw her senior sister leaning leisurely on the railing, holding and stroking a pink little Xiangfei fox in her hands.
This scene was so familiar. Bai Roushuang looked closely and found that this fox was one of the beauties in Lu Beichen's backyard.
The pink fox was alert with her ears perked up at first, but after her chin was touched for a while, her ears drooped softly, her eyes narrowed comfortably, and her tail was entangled on Xu Shulou's wrist. Xu Shulou tried to pinch her paws, but she did not show her sharp nails to resist.
Bai Roushuang transmitted incomprehensibly, "I was just preparing some food. May I ask how you were able to make a demon that was originally hostile to you turn back into its original form and allow you to hold and knead it?"
"Maybe it's a matter of affinity," Xu Shulou raised the pink fox in his hand to eye level and nudged its nose, "The demon tribe has always favored me."
If people in the cultivation world heard Xu Shulou talking about affinity, they would probably laugh their heads off.
Bai Roushuang smiled and shook her head, boiled water, carefully adjusted the taste, and began to put thinly sliced beef into the pot.
The spicy and fresh smell burst out, and the little fox sniffed. Xu Shulou saw what she was thinking and patted her on the back: "Change back to human form and eat together?"
The little fox looked at Bai Roushuang hesitantly, and the latter shrugged: "I never thought that one day I would be more terrifying than you, Senior Sister, in the eyes of others. This feeling is quite fresh."
Xu Shulou smiled and stuffed the little fox into his junior sister's arms: "I'll go and invite the others."
Bai Roushuang hugged Fox stiffly, and Fox was just as stiff as her: "How do you ask? Are you going to use force to coerce them?"
"…Using my personal charm?"
Xu Shulou knocked on the doors of Xiao Ya, Ling Yuechan, Luo Fusheng and others in turn. When they heard that she was going to have dinner with Madam Bai, they all showed an expression that said "You have finally gone completely crazy".
Curiosity is human nature. Everyone endured it again and again, perhaps because they really wanted to watch the fun, or perhaps because they thought, "If you dare to go, why shouldn't we dare?", and finally gave in. They came in a relatively orderly manner.
Everyone sniffed the aroma but did not move their chopsticks, as if they were suspecting that this was a Hongmen Banquet. They just didn't know which of the two people in front of them was Xiang Zhuang and which was Pei Gong.
They watched Bai Roushuang skillfully prepare the dipping sauce for Xu Shulou, and then naturally put it in front of the latter: "Try it, is it salty?"
Xu Shulou shook his head: "Just right." Then he handed his junior sister a bottle of light wine, "The green plum wine you like."
"Eh, there's more? I thought we finished it last time. This wine goes best with shabu-shabu beef."
"It's the last small jar. I'll brew some more when I get back." Xu Shulou looked up and saw everyone's stunned expressions. He asked curiously, "Why aren't you guys eating?"
"You guys..." Someone swallowed, "What were you talking about just now?"
Xu Shulou thought that the conversation they just had was very normal, but in the eyes of others, this ordinary conversation between the two of them was the most terrifying.
The two of them reacted, and Bai Roushuang smiled and said, "It's just a normal conversation between sisters. It was weird before."
She used a serving chopstick to serve food to everyone. Everyone was so kind and everyone had their own thoughts but they all started eating the hot pot in a lively manner.
Xu Shulou poured them light wine one by one and toasted them. Although she had little contact with them in this world, she had witnessed their joys, sorrows, anger and happiness in her dreams.
"You two... seem very different today." Luo Fusheng's eyes were as clear as spring water, staring at the two of them steadily.
"It's definitely different," Bai Roushuang held her face in her hands, "I am the best version of myself."
Her words sounded strange, and perhaps only Xu Shulou understood the meaning behind them.
After three rounds of drinks, everyone finally relaxed a little facing the two people talking and laughing.
There was a sound of footsteps, and Lu Beichen came out from the west moon door. He looked up and saw this table. He was slightly startled, then clapped his hands and smiled, "Good! The family is harmonious, and the wife and concubine are in harmony. Good!"
“…”
He walked over here and said as he walked: "I said, you should have gotten together like this a long time ago."
He cleared his throat and motioned for everyone to make room for him, assuming that everyone would welcome his arrival.
But they all just sat there in silence, and Xu Shulou was the most enthusiastic: "I'm waiting for you."
Before Lu Beichen could react, she swung the sword in her hand and placed it on his shoulder: "Lu Beichen, I will kill you for the last time today."
"What?"
He seemed to think she was joking, and the next moment, a dazzling sword light reflected in his eyes. It was Xu Shulou's sword, like a silver dragon, stabbing towards his forehead.
He quickly raised his weapon to block.
The pear blossoms were shaken by the sword energy of the two men's duel, and fell down in large flakes, like a heavy snow in memory.
Strangely, the others did not try to stop it, nor did they panic. They just watched everything happen in silence.
…
Until Lu Beichen fell down, Luo Fusheng leaned over, sprinkled a handful of pear blossoms on his face, and then looked up at the sky.
Lu Beichen fell in the pear blossoms, the scene was actually quite sad and beautiful. As he died, something suddenly fell straight down from the sky. Xu Shulou picked it up and found that it was a piece of debris with a corner of blue sky and white clouds on it.
After this piece fell, a dark gap appeared in the sky.
She was a little confused, but everyone else seemed to understand something and watched it all quietly.
"This is……"
Before she finished her words, more and more debris began to fall from the sky. The blue sky, white clouds, rockery, green tiles and red walls all turned into fragments, revealing the dark corridor behind. Then the corridor in the distance also began to turn into fragments, turning into nothingness...
The sky and the earth collapsed, but someone came calmly from afar, passing through the flowers and willows. This person had a face that she was very familiar with.
In the gaps between the fragments, Xu Shulou looked at another self.
"This world is collapsing, being destroyed, changing, turning the world upside down, and everything has to be torn down and rebuilt," the other girl said. "To put it simply, this timeline has been shattered by you."
Xu Shulou was stunned: "What will happen if the modification collapses? What will happen to you?"
"The best outcome would probably be to have my memory cleared, and start over from the point where I was first altered."
Xu Shulou blinked, she knew it was time for her to leave.
She clasped her fists and bowed to everyone: "I am honored to drink a cup with you today. I will say goodbye to you. I hope you will have a new life, be free from constraints, and live in peace and happiness from now on."
Everyone returned the greetings.
Ling Yuechan smiled at her: "Thank you."
"Hurry up and go," the other girl urged, "If you don't go now, you won't be able to leave."
"Will we ever meet again?"
"Probably not."
“…”
"Why? Are you worried about me?" The other girl smiled and raised her eyebrows, "Don't forget, I am also Xu Shulou, who are you looking down on?"
As she waved her sleeves, Xu Shulou and Bai Roushuang were both carried away by the white light and left this world. They couldn't help but look back, and in the last glance, they saw the world completely turned into pieces, and then instantly put together. The valley was the same as before, but without the pear blossoms in the yard and the various people under the pear trees.
No one knows what will happen to them in the future; they have to make their own new journey.
The two of them could no longer interfere, but fortunately, they probably didn't need any interference.
Xu Shulou lowered her eyes and saw a white pear blossom stained on her lapel. It was the only souvenir she brought out from that world.
She picked up the flower and brought it to her nose and sniffed. The fragrance was very faint, almost imperceptible.
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