Chapter 126 Chapter 126 "It's better to save each other's face than...
In fact, Nan Qiongshuang herself didn't know why she was crying.
Since he has chosen not to rebel, it is natural for him to say that he wants to break off all ties.
It is natural that he would use torture.
For a person who is dedicated to the public and values the sect more than his own life, being able to do this for her, his enemy who stole the mountain, is already considering their old friendship.
She expected too much.
Why should one love? If one does not love, then it is nothing more than torture, which she may not be unable to endure.
If she hadn't loved him, she would have definitely completed her third mission. She wouldn't have to still be blaming the Gate of Rebirth for half of the mission, and there wouldn't be all these tangled and difficult things going on today.
With tears in her eyes, she opened his secret room deep inside the room, walked in, and lay down in the rocking chair.
She liked his secret room. It was isolated from the outside world, quiet and peaceful. The stone walls were so thick that she could not hear the wind or rain outside.
The candlelight in the secret room was dim. He seldom changed the candles here, and the wax piled up layer upon layer, forming a thick wall inside the candlestick.
She rocked back and forth in the rocking chair and closed her eyes.
Last night, he was here, kissing her and coaxing her.
Tomorrow, she will be executed.
Yesterday, I should have cherished it more.
She lay back on the recliner, the candlelight filtering through her eyes, casting a dim, old yellow glow. She took a deep breath, and the whole room was filled with the scent of his embrace.
It's like, he's here.
You shouldn't love me.
Being tempted back then was asking for trouble. They both did.
She curled up in the rocking chair, rocking back and forth until she gradually became sleepy.
She herself didn't know when she fell asleep.
Naturally, no one knew when Gu Huaijin opened the door to the tower, searched the rooms outside in a hurry, and left in a hurry.
When she was shaken awake from her sleep, she opened her eyes and immediately saw a face covered in blood like a Wu Nuo mask. Even this battle-hardened woman felt a pang of fear in her heart.
She looked at him cautiously, then at the forest-tall black-clad guards at the door of the secret room, and swallowed.
"……What's wrong?"
"Why are you here?"
He squatted in front of her rocking chair, facing her, and his voice was frighteningly broken, like a pile of ice so shattered that it was impossible to pick up.
"What...why am I here?"
She glanced toward the door again suspiciously.
Gu Huaijin waved his sleeves, and the black-clad guards in the room bowed and retreated.
She looked outside and saw that the room outside the secret room was in a mess and had been thoroughly searched.
She blinked, and wiped the tears from his face with her sleeve in confusion. "Why are you crying? What's wrong?"
Gu Huaijin squatted in front of her, as if a volcano was erupting inside his body, but he gritted his teeth and held all the magma back into the ground. He lowered his head and took a deep, deep breath.
The hand holding the armrest of the rocking chair was so strong that it was almost shaking. With a bang, the armrest exploded into two pieces.
She dodged hastily, "What are you doing? Who on earth are you..."
"stand up."
"Ah? I'll take a nap. Your wooden couch..."
"stand up!"
Before she could react, Gu Huaijin grabbed her by the waist and lifted her up from the rocking chair. He took two steps out of the secret room and threw her onto the couch without saying a word.
The wooden couch was so hard that it was impossible to sleep on it. She was suddenly thrown onto the couch, and she felt pain in her bones. She cried out in pain, turned over and roared in anger, "What are you doing! How can you throw people like this! Your broken wooden couch..."
Before he could finish his words, Gu Huaijin opened his palm towards Yun Chui, the only one left in the room, and said, "Iron handcuffs."
Yun Chui respectfully presented a pair of handcuffs with iron chains.
She was stunned on the couch for a moment. "What are you going to do now? Imprison me in the tower and handcuff me?"
Two handcuffs snapped around her slender wrists, fastened to the two pillars on either side of the bunk bed. She was stunned, unable to resist before being neatly cuffed. She was speechless at first, then laughed in anger.
"What on earth are you doing? You're trying to sleep in the dead of night, and you come in and scare people for no apparent reason, and then you're tied up here for no apparent reason. Are you sick?"
Gu Huaijin stood by the couch and looked at her without saying a word. His long hair, clothes, silk ribbons and face were all dark. He stood there like a silent but sinister ghost.
No words for Yun Chui.
She pondered and pondered, considered and considered, and left anxiously without saying goodbye.
When she encountered her own gloomy and unpredictable master and was being mocked and scolded by his rumored ex-lover, she dared not go forward and offend him no matter what.
Yun Chui left quietly.
Gu Huaijin waved his sleeves and the door slammed shut.
Suddenly, there were only two of them left on the Four Symbols Tower.
"What on earth are you going to do?" she asked impatiently. "I'm going to be tortured tomorrow. Are you going to let me sleep?"
"What's going on?" He swung a piece of paper with words on it from his sleeve, making the air rustle as it flew in front of her. "Tell me."
She picked it up and saw that it was the note she had written to him during the day.
"Don't worry. Take care of yourselves."
She sighed and rolled her eyes in annoyance.
Just now, when the two of them were talking and they were talking about breaking up completely, it seemed that his teacup was accidentally broken by him, and the tea spilled onto the Buddhist scripture that he often read, and he hung it under the window.
Then, he went to take the Buddhist scripture with the note on it from the bookshelf.
What a coincidence.
She closed her eyes, too annoyed to know what to say.
"Since you've seen it, let's talk straight." She slumped over the couch, her cloud-like sleeves draping over the disheveled quilt. She raised her eyes, their unwavering snowy color. "I've been thinking about this for a long time. This is the best way. Why don't you agree, sir?"
Gu Huaijin stood in front of her bed, listening with his head down, but seemed not to understand.
"What's the best way?"
"Master, please release me and I will escape from Wuliang Mountain. This way, there will be no question of rebellion or non-rebellion. I will tell you everything before I leave."
He laughed.
"You're lying to me again. Wasn't Tianshan enough before? Where are your informants, insiders, helpers, and flies? Where are they waiting? Now that they're here, tell them to come along." His tone suddenly became sinister, like he was spitting out poisonous nails. "Come one, I'll catch one. Catch one, torture one, one by one, make them tell me the truth. Tell it all, and then beat them to death. The more you come, the less I have to fight to the death with the Empress."
What on earth is he talking about.
"There's no insider, no informant!" she said anxiously. "It's precisely because I'm the only one here that I was able to escape."
"escape?"
"Without my colleagues here, I can just leave and never have to work for the Wangsheng Sect again. So," he sat down on the chair opposite the wooden couch, and she gently advised, "Sir, you can know everything you want to know."
Gu Huaijin just remained silent.
Nan Qiong Shuang didn't understand why he was silent.
Haven't you made up your mind and resolved to hear the truth?
"The queen escaped. Where did she go?" he asked again.
"There is no definite destination. There cannot be a definite destination. It is precisely because we don't know where we are going that we are safe!"
"If that's the case, then no." He said firmly.
She was almost stunned for a moment by the tone that left no room for negotiation.
"Why not? Don't you want the truth, sir?"
He didn't answer.
"I don't understand what exactly is wrong with you, sir. Since you've already made a choice between me and the secrets of the Wangsheng Gate, giving me up for the secrets, then I'll also give you the secrets before I leave. If so, my long-cherished wish will be fulfilled, and I won't care about treason or not, missions or not. This ridiculous fate between you and me—"
With a snap, the brush he was playing with suddenly broke into two pieces.
She paused for a moment, not daring to speak.
He still said nothing, his face motionless, his chest rising and falling heavily as he listened.
After a moment, she carefully continued, "...it can be settled. Since you, sir, still want to know what happened back then, and you also want to completely break off all ties with me, your enemy, why not let me go? That would be the best of both worlds, wouldn't it?"
"Best of both worlds." He laughed out loud, murmured meaningfully, stood up and opened the door, "No. Your Majesty, there is no need to say more."
"Huai Jin!" She rushed to the bedside, where the door was right next to it. She reached out and grabbed his arm. The handcuffs and chains made a clattering sound. She asked anxiously, "Why not?"
Gu Huaijin turned his face away, as if trying hard to suppress his emotions, lowered his head and took a deep breath.
After a long moment, he smiled with a pale face: "What do you think?"
She held his sleeve, not knowing what to say.
"You wouldn't refuse to let me go because of our old relationship, but instead want to interrogate me, would you?" She grabbed his sleeve and swallowed in disbelief for a moment. "You chose the Gate of Rebirth or Tianshan. Since you've chosen, I'll give it to you. You don't want me and the inside story at the same time?"
He still said nothing, his face tied with black silk facing her.
Once he put on the ribbon, she could no longer read his emotions.
"We have always been on different paths, and it's impossible for us to be together. Do you think that even if you force me to stay and torture me tomorrow, we can still be like before? Impossible! You are right, after the torture, it will be the end of us," she began to choke up, and Gu Huaijin looked at her expressionlessly with tears in his eyes, "By then, even if the two of us were to live together across from each other on Wuliang Mountain every day, things would have changed and we would be tired of each other. Why bother!"
"I can't let you go. Your Majesty, please don't say anything."
Gu Huaijin turned around and opened the door.
She sat on the couch, shaking with anger. Gu Huaijin was about to close the door when she yelled, "Gu Huaijin!"
He stopped closing the door for a moment.
"What on earth do you want?! You fulfilled my wish, and I fulfilled yours. After all these years, we've developed some feelings for each other. It's better to save face than to tear each other apart..."
"No emotion at all." He laughed in anger, raised his head and sighed tiredly.
"It's better to break off when necessary than to be disgusted with each other. What's wrong with being a little considerate of each other? Do we have to force things so that in the end, we'll see each other's noses are not noses, eyes are not eyes, and we'll forget everything we did together on Tianshan Mountain, and there will only be resentment every day!" She held his arm. "There will be no future from now on, and not even a trace of the past will be left. Is this what you want?"
Gu Huaijin stood at the door. There was no light in the room, and the pale moonlight poured in, immersing him in it, as if he were a cold, drowned ghost.
He just felt dizzy.
I'm so tired. Why doesn't she ever understand or care?
She held his arm tightly, "Huai Jin!"
"Your Highness has always given up on me, so easily." He gently pushed her hand away. "She can say goodbye and then disappear. She can say goodbye and then leave. What am I to Your Highness? Nothing."
She was speechless for a moment.
"Years ago, in the forbidden area of Lan Pavilion, I saw that Her Majesty was about to leave the mountain. She was in so much pain, but did Her Majesty stop? I knew then that I was just a thing Her Majesty could abandon at any time." He sighed, as if all the strength in his body had been drained away, and he held onto the door weakly.
"I haven't seen you for years, and now I see you're still the same. Your Majesty is truly the same as before. There's no need to tell me you were just acting. What were you acting for? From the very beginning, you were just a joke to me, Gu. To Your Majesty, it was just 'a little bit of affection'."
"Your Highness, there's no need to mention this matter again. Since it's Your Highness who's in Gu's hands, not Gu who's in Your Highness's hands, it's up to Gu to decide whether to have your cake and eat it too. Your Highness, have a good rest."
"Gu Huaijin!" She grabbed him, "Just understand, it was you who wanted to torture me, it was you who wanted to give up on me!"
"Then," he said, "--have you not often given up on me!"
There was a loud bang, shaking the door frame. She looked closely and saw that the door panel had been completely blown away by his sleeve, scattering shattered wood chips all over the room. Two lines of bright tears were visible under his black silk. "From then until now, when have you ever chosen me?"
Her lips trembled as she tentatively reached for his sleeve.
"Yes, there was one time before, that night in the forbidden land of Lan Pavilion. That night, you chose me. Choosing me once, and I still miss you until now. Despite the hatred for stealing the mountain, the hatred for setting up the trap, and the wrath of the world, I still can't let go." He shouted at the top of his lungs, "To tell you the truth, I wish you hadn't chosen me that night!"
"How do you think I lived those five years? The sect collapsed overnight because of me. Everyone warned me you were a spy. Everyone talked about me behind my back, but I loved you and believed in you no matter what. And what happened in the end?"
"Did you really think that if you had kept me that night, I would have survived?! I wished I were dead! Do you think that sparing my life was for my own good? If you really had it in your best interest, you should have left me with the Mountain Guarding Jade Plate rather than killing me!"
She instantly burst into two lines of tears, which flowed down from the bottom of her eyes.
"Leave me here, spare my life, let me live as a sinner of the whole mountain - this is your mercy! Who needs your mercy! It's not that you don't understand me. If you really had mercy on me, why would you take away the mountain-guarding jade token? You know very well that I would rather die! Leaving me here is just because you love me, it's a little selfish of your own -"
"Yes! It's just a little selfish of mine!" she said with tears in her eyes.
"How could I know if your selfish motives were to harm me or save me? After that night, I lived. In the past five years, I have attempted suicide twenty-seven times—"
She was shaking uncontrollably, and finally let go of his sleeve. She lay on the couch, breathless and crying, almost collapsing. He was hysterical, "It was to see you, to hear your explanation, that I struggled to live until today. In the end, when I really met you, you told me that you didn't believe me, and that my love for you was just empty talk..."
He sobbed, the dignified head of a mountain sect, almost losing his composure and unable to stand. "Well, what can I say? If you want to be tried, of course I will try you. If you want to be punished, of course I will punish you. How can I be partial?"
She lay on the pillow, her face buried in her arms, her shoulders shaking, her mind blank.
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