Chapter 45
Chapter 45
Once, she had wanted to use the lives of everyone in the city as burial offerings for those who had died in the past.
Now, when she thought back and realized that these people’s lives were what the dead had fought desperately to protect, the weightless thing in her hand suddenly felt unbearably heavy.
Humans often said that when you loved a person, you loved even the house they lived in and the crows that perched upon it. It turned out the saying worked here as well.
Bai Xue used Mu Yunshu’s name and Mu Yunshu’s identity, and saw herself as another version of her. How could she possibly do something that went against Mu Yunshu’s wishes?
She snapped out of her daze and looked toward Qiao Ying, who was standing some distance away.
Qiao Ying had just said so much, yet she had remained far away the entire time. She and Shen Qingyu had always seemed like outsiders. Thinking about it carefully, they were outsiders to begin with. Precisely because they stood outside it all, they could see things more clearly.
Bai Xue said, “Thank you for telling me all of this.”
Once upon a time, even she, the one closest to Mu Yunshu, had been like everyone else, mistakenly believing that Mu Yunshu was nothing more than someone consumed by hatred. If that was the case, then how was she any different from the likes of Zhao Fanhua and Song Zhenzhu?
Qiao Ying seemed unsure how to respond. After thinking for a long while, she finally said, “You’re welcome.”
Shen Qingyu laughed.
The corner of Bai Xue’s lips moved slightly, as if she too had managed to pull out a faint smile. Then she turned and walked step by step toward Zhao Fanhua.
Shen Qingyu leaned down and said by Qiao Ying’s ear, “Aren’t you going to stop her?”
Qiao Ying replied, “Stop what?”
“She’s about to kill someone.”
Qiao Ying asked, “Is she going to kill the common people in the city?”
Shen Qingyu’s smile was faint. “Thanks to you, her murderous intent has lessened quite a bit.”
“To be honest, deep down, I’ve always felt that killing is wrong.”
Shen Qingyu knew she was not lying. In this world where human lives were treated as worthless as grass, she had killed a man who tried to violate her in order to protect herself. Yet not only had she not felt relieved, she had suffered nightmares for several days in a row.
He could not understand it. Killing was only a matter of a head hitting the ground. Why was she so afraid?
Qiao Ying paused for a moment before continuing, “But my own hands aren’t clean either. I have no standing to criticize others. What happens next is her settling her own grudges. We’re outsiders. We have no right to interfere.”
Shen Qingyu’s smile slowly faded, and that same bewildered confusion surfaced again.
Qiao Ying asked him, “What’s wrong?”
After a moment, Shen Qingyu’s masklike smile returned. He took her hand and led her into a corner to stand. Now, they had truly become bystanders.
The young man smiled. “Your hands aren’t dirty either.”
Only belatedly did Qiao Ying realize that the hand he had taken was the very hand she had used to kill that man back then.
Shen Qingyu lowered his head slightly, a trace of gloom appearing faintly in his smile.
Back then, it would have been better if he had killed that man first.
Xue Heting was badly injured. After learning the truth of what had happened in the past, he knew he had no right to beg Bai Xue to spare his master. But that person was still his master.
When Ming Caihua saw Xue Heting about to walk over, he quickly grabbed him. “You’re already in this state, and you’re still rushing over there to get yourself killed?”
Xue Heting said weakly, “I can’t just watch Master be in danger.”
To Bai Xue, Zhao Fanhua and Song Zhenzhu were both her enemies.
But to him, they were the elders who had watched him grow up.
Ming Caihua could not win against Xue Heting’s stubbornness and was still tugging back and forth with him when he saw Qiao Ying make a gesture from the other side.
Qiao Ying raised her hand and motioned toward Shen Qingyu’s neck. To make her movement easier, Shen Qingyu, being so tall, even bent at the waist and willingly offered his vulnerable neck up in front of her.
Ming Caihua understood. He struck Xue Heting on the back of the neck with his palm. Xue Heting’s eyes rolled back, and in an instant, his body went limp. He collapsed against Ming Caihua and fell unconscious.
Ming Caihua supported Xue Heting with some difficulty, then gave Qiao Ying a thumbs-up.
To be honest, he also felt that all of this love, hatred, and resentment belonged to the generation before the one before theirs. What did it have to do with them?
Besides, Bai Xue had finally become somewhat normal again. If they provoked her and she really scattered the souls of everyone in the city, that would be a true hell on earth.
Bai Xue looked coldly at the old man kneeling on the ground. “Why do you think Qingshuang stopped you from killing yourself?”
Zhao Fanhua froze, then lifted his aged face.
Bai Xue said, “Because Qingshuang knew that only if you killed Song Zhenzhu would everyone else be able to live.”
Zhao Fanhua’s thoughts were in utter chaos.
Before regaining his memories, he had indeed vaguely sensed that something was wrong with Song Zhenzhu.
For example, she avoided speaking about his past.
And after he lost his memories, the first time he bought her water chestnut cakes out of what seemed like habit, Song Zhenzhu’s expression turned a little strange. Yet she still accepted them, and for the past forty years, she had always said her favorite food was water chestnut cakes.
There had actually been many clues, but he had ignored them all. He had only thought that after forty years as husband and wife, what difficulty could there be that they could not overcome?
But after his memories returned, he finally understood that some hurdles could never be crossed.
She had caused the death of the person he loved in his youth. Everyone from his hometown was gone.
The Qingshuang Sword flew before Zhao Fanhua. He knew very well that this was a transaction: if he killed Song Zhenzhu, Bai Xue would spare the others in the city.
Zhao Fanhua tremblingly gripped the hilt of the Qingshuang Sword. This divine weapon that had accompanied him for decades now felt ice-cold in his hand.
Once, when he held this sword, he had been so high-spirited, so full of ambition.
Now, he could no longer find his Sword Heart. He was merely someone holding a sword, no longer a swordsman.
Yes. They were the ones who deserved punishment.
The more painful it was, the better.
At first, Zhao Fanhua’s steps were unsteady, but by the end, they became firmer. Step by step, he walked onto the stone platform, his turbid gaze falling on the wife who had accompanied him for forty years.
Song Zhenzhu was crying. Perhaps out of regret.
Regret for that single wrong thought all those years ago, or perhaps regret that she had not handled things cleanly enough, giving her enemy a chance to strike back and causing her to lose everything.
Yet deep in her bones, she was still that proud Miss Song who refused to admit defeat.
“Mu Yunshu!”
She already knew the person before her was not Mu Yunshu, yet she stubbornly called out that name all the same.
“Do you think you’ve won? In the end, even if I have to die, I still got what I wanted. I became his wife. The one who stayed by his side for decades was me!”
“I’m not afraid of death, and I will never lose to you!”
Zhao Fanhua’s sword hand trembled. “You still don’t feel the slightest remorse.”
“Why should I feel remorse?” Song Zhenzhu’s expression was resolute. “Only the weak feel remorse. I know exactly what I want. I was simply less skilled, one move short of victory. There’s nothing more to say. Zhao Fanhua, the one who stayed with you for forty years was me. The one who was husband and wife with you was me. The one who raised your bloodline with you was also me. Haha. Did I lose?”
“No. I didn’t lose!”
“So why should I regret anything?”
Qiao Ying muttered, “She really does know how to run her mouth.”
Shen Qingyu smiled. “Usually, when you run into someone like this, you just tear her mouth apart. Then she’ll behave.”
He said it with great experience, as though he had done plenty of such things before.
At that moment, Qiao Ying placed her hand on the stone wall, touching the blue patterns there.
Perhaps it was her imagination, but she felt the light radiating from those patterns seemed to have dimmed considerably.
From the other side, a piercing scream suddenly rang out.
An arm fell to the ground, blood spraying everywhere.
Zhao Fanhua held the blood-dripping sword and asked once more, “Do you regret it?”
Song Zhenzhu’s face was deathly pale. She knew what answer Zhao Fanhua wanted, yet in the end, she still had only one thing to say:
“I do not regret it.”
Those unimportant people were worth no more than weeds. If they died, they died. What was there to regret?