Chapter 78 Wishing Senior Brother a Long and Prosperous Life
As Pei Wenjing gazed at the bright moon hanging high in the sky, he had a fleeting illusion that he had long hoped that he and Shen Cangyu could one day sit together quietly like this, without arguments, without deep-seated hatred, and without heart-wrenching pain.
This scene feels like a dream.
Pei Wenjing's favorability +5
Current favorability rating: 60
Hearing the notification sound in her ear, Shen Cangyu's originally serene face darkened: "Stop increasing your favorability, it's such a killjoy."
Her muttering was drowned out by the sound of water; Pei Wenjing only caught the last four words: "What?"
Shen Cangyu shut his mouth.
She disliked the favorability system, but couldn't figure out how to turn it off. Now, Shen Qingyan's favorability system, honor system, and shop all belonged to her; she could use her honor points to exchange for all sorts of cheat codes in the shop.
She even saw a spiritual medicine worth 9999 honor points in the shop. As long as she ate it, she could immediately ascend to become the next Kunlun Immortal Lord.
System, shop, cheat codes—these are probably standard features for the protagonist. When she opened the shop, the comments section was full of starry-eyed viewers, seemingly all expecting her to acquire some cheat codes to dominate the battlefield and slap people in the face.
Shen Cangyu, however, shut down the online store.
She didn't want to touch those things. If she accepted the cheat system, the plot, and the favorability system, then what difference would there be between what she was doing now and what Shen Qingyan was doing back then?
She wants to compete for resources, win favor, and kick away all obstacles. How are these behaviors any different from those of the protagonist she used to hate?
She never hated a person, but a practice. What she hated was cheating, unfair competition.
If she really did the same thing as Shen Qingyan, she would hate herself too.
Now that Shen Cangyu is the protagonist, her inner thoughts will be revealed in the novel's plot, allowing everyone to see them.
Why would you think that? Isn't a cheat system a protagonist's privilege? Others would love to have it, so why would you want to throw it away?
It's an insult to everyone's efforts for the weak to rise to the top with a magic touch, but for the strong to use a magic touch to climb even higher is just icing on the cake.
[I clicked it. Turns out, I never really disliked stories with overpowered characters; I just disliked stories where the characters didn't deserve their positions.]
Are you overreacting to the system...?
[Forget it, Cangyu is always overthinking things. She'll figure it all out eventually.]
The downside of becoming the protagonist is that she loses all her privacy, and all her actions and thoughts are exposed to the readers.
She needs to be careful with her words and actions, because she doesn't know where their triggers are, and if she is not careful, it could cause a bloodbath.
But correspondingly, she seems to have gained a lot more viewers. Sometimes when her thoughts get stuck in a rut, readers will notice and offer her some words of guidance.
She doesn't dislike readers. Just as Wenxin Diaolong said, all books are readable. She also believes that every idea has its reason for existing, and she has benefited greatly from them.
Many times she thought how wonderful it would be if she weren't a character in the book, and they weren't the readers.
She hated being stared at, even though she knew that not all the looks directed at her were malicious.
But the feeling of being watched at this moment is like...
The Truman Show.
A word popped into Shen Cangyu's mind.
She didn't know where the word came from, but she could assure her that she had never seen it in the comments or the original work. The word seemed to be deeply hidden in her subconscious, only appearing in her mind under the stimulation of specific keywords.
Does Cang Yu also know about The Truman Show? It's a movie.
This is probably foreshadowing by the author.
[As expected, Cang Yu's identity is not simple. She must also be a time traveler. So, the next part of the plot should be Cang Yu starting to search for her lost memories and remember her identity again, right?]
[Suddenly mentioning The Truman Show... This development is so strange. I have a feeling that Cangyu can see our comments and is talking to us?]
Goosebumps rose from Shen Cangyu's skin.
She rarely felt this utterly absurd. Why were words from another world appearing in her mind? Who was she? Was she really a time traveler? Did Shen Cangyu truly exist?
Thoughts exploded in her mind, so chaotic that this time her ideas were not incorporated into the plot.
Shen Cangyu's hands, which were braced against the rock, suddenly tightened. Pei Wenjing, sitting beside her, noticed that she was trembling slightly and her gaze was unfocused. He asked anxiously, "Is it too cold?" But Shen Cangyu did not answer.
The spring chill hadn't dissipated, and the night was deep with heavy dew. They were sitting by the waterfall, and the temperature was extremely low. Perhaps she really did feel cold. Pei Wenjing thought to himself, and subconsciously tried to shield Shen Cangyu from the chill, but his hand, which was hovering in mid-air, suddenly stopped.
He recalled the last time he had warded off the cold for Shen Cangyu, she had told him to get lost. She probably didn't like him doing it for her. Pei Wenjing had taught Shen Cangyu this method of warding off the cold, so that if she felt cold, she would ward off the cold herself, instead of him doing it on his own.
That should be right, right...?
Pei Wenjing thought for a moment and then withdrew his hand.
Shen Cangyu didn't answer or look at him, but her mood was very strange. Pei Wenjing hesitated. Did he really have to just watch her like that and do nothing?
He suddenly remembered what Qiu Sheng had told him.
"If you don't tell her, how will she know what you're going to do? If you don't ask, how will you know if you're doing the right thing?"
Pei Wenjing bit his lower lip, then pulled a blanket from his sleeve and draped it over Shen Cangyu, wrapping her up. With her head covered, Shen Cangyu heard Pei Wenjing ask through the blanket, "Are you still cold? Should we go back?"
Shen Cangyu opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
She suddenly felt someone grab her hand, which was bracing against the rock. The person brushed away the pebbles embedded in her palm and asked softly, "What happened? Please tell me. Don't keep everything bottled up inside. How can I help you if you don't tell me?"
A warm current emanated from where their palms touched, dispelling the chill around Shen Cangyu.
“What’s the point of telling you? We’re not from the same world,” Shen Cangyu heard himself say.
Upon hearing this, Pei Wenjing instinctively pulled her into his arms through the blanket: "No matter where you go, I will find you; no matter what you do, I will stand behind you." A hundred lifetimes, a thousand lifetimes, countless lifetimes…
Shen Cangyu suddenly looked up at Pei Wenjing. Under the blanket, her hair was disheveled, revealing a pale face and a pair of dark eyes, making her look like a ghost: "Pei Wenjing, do you recognize me?"
Looking into those eyes, Pei Wenjing felt as if he had been struck on the head, his vision blurred, and a throbbing pain shot through his head.
He frowned, raised his hand to press the throbbing veins on his forehead, and the scene before him kept changing.
Shen Cangyu watched as his aura surged outwards, black and white fish hovered in the air, stirring the air, and even his Suyou sword flew out from his sleeve and hovered in the air.
On Pei Wenjing's neck, veins throbbed and sprang outwards, a sign of impending demonic possession.
Pei Wenjing may become possessed by a demon, but not now.
Shen Cangyu raised his hand and pressed on both sides of his temples, forcing him to look at him: "Pei Wenjing, calm down, this is Kunlun."
Pei Wenjing looked at her, his eyes somewhat confused.
Do you remember who I am?
Hearing her voice, he opened his mouth.
He remembered. How could he possibly forget her? She was his most gifted junior sister, the one who had disappeared and whom he had searched for countless lifetimes.
Before he could finish speaking, everything went black, and he collapsed to the side. Shen Cangyu quickly reached out to grab him, but only managed to catch a corner of his robe. The inner disciples of Kunlun wore robes of excellent quality, but that was the problem.
The hem of her clothes slipped through her fingers, and Pei Wenjing plunged headfirst off the cliff into the spring.
"This is terrible!" Shen Cangyu cursed. All the chaotic thoughts in her mind disappeared, and she suddenly became clear-headed.
She threw off the blanket and jumped into the water.
*
With a loud bang, Pei Wenjing turned around in surprise, only to be covered in a dazzling array of colorful ribbons. He brushed the ribbons aside and saw Shen Cangyu smiling at him, saying, "Happy birthday, senior brother!"
He pulled off the colorful ribbons on his clothes and asked, "What's this?"
"A salute." Shen Cangyu shook his head.
"Is it something Senior Brother Chu researching again?"
Shen Cangyu retorted, "Why do you always think of Senior Brother Chu? Couldn't this have been invented by me?"
Pei Wenjing looked at her puffed-up face and smiled, "This flashy stuff is definitely your style."
Upon hearing his words, Shen Cangyu pretended to kick him.
After kicking her, Shen Cangyu muttered to himself, "Getting kicked and still getting more affection, what a masochist."
"What?" Pei Wenjing didn't hear clearly. In his memory, Shen Cangyu always seemed to like talking to himself like that.
Shen Cangyu waved his hand: "It's nothing. Today is my senior brother's birthday. I prepared longevity noodles for you!"
When Shen Cangyu was a child, she didn't like longevity noodles and only clamored for birthday cake on her birthday. None of the people of Dragon Ridge Mountain had ever heard of a birthday cake. Chu Xun followed Shen Cangyu's instructions and made it, blowing up the kitchen several times. Shen Cangyu could only look at them with a disappointed expression, so she took matters into her own hands.
Pei Wenjing had also tried it a few times; it was very sweet. Perhaps this was why Shen Cangyu loved cake—she always liked very sweet things.
Shen Cangyu is an excellent cook. She always has many strange and wonderful ideas in her mind and can make many oddly shaped things. At first, Pei Wenjing didn't dare to try, but later he found that they were actually quite delicious. Qiu Sheng also said that Cangyu was probably a heavenly chef descended to earth, otherwise how could their Dragon Ridge Mountain have raised such a good cook?
At such a young age, she had to shoulder the responsibility of providing meals for their Dragon Ridge Mountain. Even people from other sects would occasionally come to Dragon Ridge Mountain to freeload. Even Xu Qiubai went so far as to say that Elder Xu Mei should become Shen Cangyu's apprentice and learn her culinary skills.
As a result, Xu Qiubai kept pestering Shen Cangyu. Pei Wenjing disliked him, so he told Shui Linglong about it and asked her to deal with Xu Qiubai.
After all, let Xingxiangtang handle their own affairs.
In the past, Shen Cangyu would make cakes for Pei Wenjing on his birthdays, but she stopped making cakes at some point and started making longevity noodles for him instead.
Perhaps she knew that he loved noodles. Actually, it wasn't that he preferred noodles; it was just that he felt Shen Cangyu would make cakes for everyone, but he wanted something different.
That day, Shen Cangyu watched him finish eating longevity noodles and then hide in his courtyard to drink the peach blossom wine that had been brewed for five years. She lay on her back by the small pond, looked up at the moon, and said, "The moon is so round tonight."
"Hmm," Pei Wenjing replied casually as he drank his wine.
"I really want to go home," Shen Cangyu muttered. This time Pei Wenjing heard her clearly, but he didn't know where Shen Cangyu meant by home. Wasn't Kunlun her home?
He looked down at Shen Cangyu lying beside him, only to see her suddenly open her eyes again, grin at him, and say, "Happy birthday, Senior Brother! I wish you... a long and healthy life!"
Pei Wenjing smiled and said, "Okay."
At that time, he did not know that the wish to live to a ripe old age would eventually become a curse.
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