Chapter 32: Wei Sheng Embracing the Pillar (VIII) — But, she died again…
"...Father already has his plan in mind, so why ask me?"
Lian Qiang sat in a wheelchair, much shorter than An Chen, but the lights in the room could not outshine the brightness of her eyes.
An Chen stared at her in silence for a long moment before finally making up his mind and speaking slowly, "From childhood to adulthood, you've never caused your mother and me any worry. Born with a disability, others would probably be devastated, but you've never been discouraged. You've even told us that man can conquer nature, and that you need to practice tenfold or a hundredfold harder."
An Chen's tone softened as he recalled the past, a gentle smile playing on his lips. His daughter's innocent yet stubborn expression seemed to still be before his eyes. He had assumed Sijia would remain sensible and respectful, but now she was taking such a rebellious action.
"Your mother is old. She hasn't practiced cultivation, so she may not have many years left to live. Her only wish is for our family to be together and happy. I remember you made this wish on your tenth birthday, right?"
Although Lian Qiang was an outsider, she couldn't help but feel a little moved when she saw An Chen immersed in his memories.
If An Sijia were in that situation back then, what would she do now? Would she continue to do as she pleased and insist on going to her date with Xuze, or would she accede to An Chen's wishes and change her mind?
…She would try again. Lian Qiang softened her tone and said coquettishly, “Father, since you love me so much, why don’t you fulfill your daughter’s wish?”
Her words immediately brought An Chen out of his memories. He straightened his expression and said seriously, "That's a demon! Not just anyone else! If it were an ordinary person, why couldn't I, your father, do as you wish?"
An Chen's aura was intimidating, but Lian Qiang wasn't intimidated by his power at all: "If ordinary people can do it, why can't monsters? Don't monsters have good and bad advantages and disadvantages..."
Before she could finish, An Chen interrupted her firmly, "No! That's a demon! How many times have you seen demons devouring and harming people? Do you know how many people have been displaced and their families destroyed because of demons?"
"There are always exceptions!" "There are no exceptions!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a loud thunder sounded in the sky, and the father and daughter looked at each other silently.
Finally, it was An Chen who spoke first: "Be obedient and don't go looking for that demon again. From now on, no matter which man you like, your father will never stop you. From childhood to adulthood, you have always listened to your father. This time, listen to me too."
"I don't want it."
Although An Chen's attitude made Lian Qiang a little hesitant at the beginning, now she felt that there was nothing more to say to him.
It is true that he loves An Sijia, but from beginning to end, he never considers her perspective for a moment. Even if he has a little trust in An Sijia, he will not completely deny Xuze.
An Sijia's well-behaved behavior since childhood was not an excuse for him to ignore his daughter's thoughts.
An Chen refused to give up and tried to persuade her earnestly, "You are still young, and it's not uncommon for you to be deceived by that monster. But we are your closest family. Are you really going to abandon us for that monster? Sijia, if you are willing to change your mind, your father will immediately send people to strangle that bewitching monster and pretend nothing happened!"
He had thought the escape route he had paved for her was wide and secure enough, but to An Chen's surprise, Lian Qiang laughed intermittently, as if she had heard a very funny joke: "It's like this again... It's always like this..."
What a sincere love for his daughter! When had she heard similar words before? Only then, she had been the one being sacrificed after being weighed on the scales.
Without a role-switching experience, how could one empathize with others? That was why, at this moment, she could feel how ridiculous and cruel An Chen's proposal was.
"I have made up my mind. You don't have to worry about me." At this point, Lian Qiang was too lazy to talk nonsense with him, and even didn't want to put on An Sijia's role and call him "father".
Lian Qiang turned her wheelchair and turned away, unwilling to look at him again. Unexpectedly, An Chen laughed as she did. "Si Jia, do you think you can leave without your father's permission? Do you think that even if you can leave, that demon will still be waiting for you?"
The wheels made a sharp sound as they slid. Lian Qiang suddenly turned around and looked at him: "What do you mean?"
"What it means is that my father has sent dozens of people to kill him."
An Chen spoke clearly and walked towards her step by step. Thunder exploded continuously at that time. When Lian Qiang heard his words, she felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave and trembled.
"He did nothing wrong. He has a kind character and has never hurt anyone—" Xu Ze's actions were still vivid in her mind, and Lian Qiang's words of defense for him stopped abruptly. Something seemed to overflow from her lips, a fishy smell, followed by a sharp pain as if her chest was pierced.
Lian Qiang lowered her head slightly, and a sharp dagger pierced her heart accurately. Lian Qiang looked up in the direction of the dagger and met An Chen's expressionless face.
"No, he was wrong. He was wrong for deliberately seducing you. You were also wrong for not knowing right from wrong." His voice was trembling, but it contained a kind of determination that was determined to succeed. "If you had been obedient, your father would not have been willing to do it. But why, why did you have to disobey me?"
Lian Qiang struggled to open her lips several times before the words came out smoothly from her throat: "You didn't think you could convince me from the beginning..."
"No, you're wrong." An Chen drew his sword, only to plunge it into his own daughter's heart once again. "Your father taught you that you should never leave only one way out when doing things."
The blood and vitality were quickly lost. If Lian Qiang still had the strength, she would have refuted An Chen harshly, but she didn't.
At the last moment, she could only watch him throw the dagger aside, stumble into the rain, fall to his knees without any dignity, and burst into tears.
"Sijia! My daughter! Sijia!"
If I had known this, why would I have done it in the first place...
Just because it was an illusion, Lian Qiang didn't worry about her own safety. She thought that the illusion might break, or restart somewhere.
——As a result, when she opened her eyes, she saw the same scene as before.
——This is the scene before An Chen arrives.
Lian Qiang exhaled twice, trying to calm herself down. At least she knew who had killed An Sijia... Thinking of this, Lian Qiang felt extremely sad.
Was An Chen's affection for An Sijia a pretense? Not necessarily, but if so, he was so decisive and resolute in killing his own daughter.
If the matter is over but the illusion is not over, it means that the key to breaking the deadlock is not here. Could it be that it is to let An Sijia survive from An Chen's hands?
Lian Qiang thought so and was prepared. Although An Sijia's cultivation level was not as good as An Chen's, she might still be able to survive.
But once, twice, three times... no matter what choice she made, whether she obeyed or escaped, An Sijia's ending was always to be killed by An Chen, and Lian Qiang experienced reincarnation over and over again.
With each reincarnation, the pain and despair of being killed became more real, and she inevitably became more terrified of An Chen's face, as if... as if she was becoming An Sijia.
Where was the breakthrough point? Lian Qiang tapped the handrail in frustration. The thought of An Chen's upcoming visit inevitably made her mood sink, and she couldn't think straight at all.
Boom—another loud thunder rang out. Lian Qiang instinctively wanted to cover her ears, but she saw the window being pushed open!
She was still in shock and doubt, and shouted, "Who!"
Bringing the cool breeze and night dew, Xu Ze, with a calm face, climbed over the window and landed lightly in front of her.
The deep but long-forgotten memories seemed to be opened again. Lian Qiang stared at the uninvited guest in a daze. He was obviously a completely different person standing there, but he made her think of another person for no reason.
"Chi Xingji..." Lian Qiang slowly lowered her hands that were about to cover her ears.
The young man who once climbed over the wall and window of her house late at night just to meet her.
——She actually thought she saw him again, but how could it be possible? This was an illusion, not her memory...
And "Xu Ze" just nodded as if it was normal: "Yes, it's me."
As if she didn't hear what he said clearly, Lian Qiang rubbed her ears: "Who did you just say you were?"
"Chi Xingji." "Xu Ze" looked helpless, "Did you hear clearly this time?"
Xu Ze didn't know Chi Xingji at that time, so there was no possibility of disguise. She quickly recognized Chi Xingji, and he could tell from this that she was Lian Qiang. However, Lian Qiang's face turned strange: "Why did you become Xu Ze?"
"I don't know either. My last memory of reality is the three of us in front of An Sijia's courtyard. I think you feel the same way, right?"
Lian Qiang nodded, and then thought of another question: "Hey, how did you recognize me?"
"Since I became Xu Ze, there's a chance you could become someone else. I just took a gamble and guessed who the owner of this illusion was. To my surprise, I was right."
Chi Xingji said it very calmly, but the difficulty of putting it into practice can be imagined.
It seemed this illusion was far more far-reaching than she had imagined. Lian Qiang initially thought this illusion existed only within this courtyard, but she hadn't expected An Sijia to have even imagined the situation on Xu Ze's side.
She glanced at Chi Xingji's hem and saw a scratch, clearly caused by a sharp weapon. Recalling An Chen's earlier words, she knew Chi Xingji must have met the cultivator he had sent. Lian Qiang hurriedly turned her wheelchair closer to him: "Are you injured?"
Chi Xingji himself didn't seem to notice that his clothes were torn, and hurriedly shook his head and said, "I'm not hurt."
If it was Chi Xingji himself, even if he was injured, it would not be difficult for him to fight ten people alone. But if it was Xuze, he would be lucky to escape death.
After a careful examination, Lian Qiang realized that what he said was true, and finally felt relieved. "When did you realize that something was wrong?"
"The timing of the illusion's restart was strange. I was either fighting them or escaping on my own. What I did had no real impact on the illusion. I thought, if you've also entered the illusion, perhaps the key lies on your side."
Lian Qiang woke up early this time. In a short time, Chi Xingji got rid of them and found her?
"Tell me the truth," Lian Qiang asked Chi Xingji again, staring at him intently for a moment, "How many times have you tried to find me?"
With his own strength, he could have broken the impasse by force, but for the sake of hidden dangers, he stayed willingly and abided by the rules of the illusion master. Lian Qiang wondered, was he afraid of delaying the discovery of the cause of An Sijia's death, or was he worried that she would be affected and unable to extricate herself from the same environment?
"...The third time." Being stared at like this, even Chi Xingji couldn't help but tell the truth, "It's really a stretch to escape with the cultivation level of this body."
He lowered his eyelashes, feeling quite helpless, but Lian Qiang couldn't help laughing, as the shadow of the successive deaths was much alleviated.
It turns out that she is not the only one who is burdened with all this. Thinking of this, Lian Qiang felt a lot lighter. With Chi Xingji by her side, she felt very successful even though she knew that An Chen was coming soon.
——But, she died again. In the appearance of An Sijia, she died in front of Chi Xingji.
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