“Fengliu Shop sent out large numbers of people but couldn’t find us, so they’ve set up bait, wanting us to voluntarily appear to save people.” A’Shui stamped her foot. “Have they already started killing people?” Lin Bu shook his head. “No, they said that at the third watch tonight, if they can’t catch the demons, they’ll kill people.” After hearing this news, he had already told the family in the cellar to flee quickly to avoid falling into Fengliu Shop’s hands.

“How many people did they capture?” Tang Lici’s gentle voice came from within. A’Shui and Lin Bu were startled. Yu Tuan’er spoke first: “Hey! Are you going to save people? Your wound hasn’t healed yet! They’re trying to lure you out. If you go, you’ll be playing right into their hands.” Tang Lici held his book and smiled slightly. “My wound has healed quite a bit.”

“For saving people, we’ll figure out a way. You absolutely cannot go.” A’Shui walked to the doorway and said in a low voice, “They must have set up an inescapable net to catch you.” Tang Lici turned a page of his book, not looking at her, and said softly, “Are you saying you’re willing to die in my place?” A’Shui trembled slightly. “Young Master Tang bears great responsibilities in the martial world. If my death can ensure Young Master Tang’s safety, A’Shui’s death is not worth regretting.”

With a “bang,” water splashed in front of A’Shui, several ceramic shards flew out, cutting thin wounds across A’Shui’s face. Yu Tuan’er was greatly shocked. “What are you doing?” Lin Bu was also startled. After Tang Lici heard A’Shui’s words “death is not worth regretting,” he suddenly hurled his book away. The book carried fierce anger and inner force, thunderously smashing the table. The teapot on the table flew up and shattered in front of A’Shui, cutting her face with the fragments.

“What are you doing? Why are you throwing things for no reason? How did Sister A’Shui offend you?” Yu Tuan’er pulled A’Shui behind her, glaring angrily at Tang Lici. “She means well for you. If it were me, I wouldn’t be willing to die for you! Why did you hurt her face?” Lin Bu tugged at Yu Tuan’er’s sleeve. “Miss Yu.” Yu Tuan’er turned around. “What?” Lin Bu applied more force, pulling her out of the room and closing the door.

Fengfeng crawled out from under the blanket, looking at the two of them.

Thin streaks of fresh blood slowly seeped from the wounds on A’Shui’s cheeks. Tang Lici looked at the scattered fragments of wood and porcelain on the floor, his eyes showing no regret, saying coldly, “Someday, I want you to truly and sincerely die for me.” A’Shui closed her eyes, shook her head, and said in a low voice, “If I’m never truly sincere, will you never let me go?”

“Even if I find someone more stubborn and untamable than you, I still won’t let you go.” Tang Lici said ominously, “I will never let you go!” The blood from the wound on A’Shui’s face congealed into a drop, slowly sliding down her cheek like a tear. “Making me… making me truly and sincerely go mad for you and die for you, what can you gain from it? Watching me die for you… is it really… really so interesting, so worth anticipating?”

“It can make me happy.” Tang Lici rose from the bed, bent down to pinch A’Shui’s chin, lifting her head slightly. “You are a rare treasure, naturally charming and able to seduce all men. You conquer all men, I conquer you – isn’t that wonderful?” He said softly, “You can also imagine… this is because I’m deeply attracted to you, it’s a way I love you.”

“You don’t love me!” A’Shui pushed him away forcefully, turning her head aside, her chest heaving. “Many people love me, many people go mad for me, but I know you don’t!” Tang Lici laughed, slowly helping her up from the ground. His cheek pressed against hers, slowly sliding down, his warm lips reaching behind her ear and the side of her neck, gently breathing out. A’Shui’s whole body trembled as she heard him say softly, “That’s right, they go mad for you and die for you, you go mad for me and die for me… this will make me very happy. Miss A’Shui…” He kissed behind her ear. “You are very fortunate.”

A’Shui collapsed in his arms. Tang Lici’s kiss was undoubtedly more soul-stirring than any man she had ever experienced, but tears flowed freely from her eyes. “If I die for you, and you’re very happy after I die, I’ll be very sad in the underworld… don’t you ever… care that I’m sad?” Tang Lici looked carefully at the woman fallen in his arms and said softly, “Of course, your sadness is your own business.” A’Shui said faintly, “You once said that you thought I was good, hoped I would live forever, hoped I would smile, hoped I would be happy.”

“I said that. When I said it, the pond was full of moonlight, and the lotus flowers were blooming large.” Tang Lici smiled, his voice becoming even more gentle. “Fragrant flowers and wine, you were very tired then, missing your child very much.” A’Shui stared at the ceiling beams with vacant eyes, slowly asking, “Were those words… false?” Tang Lici picked her up, slowly kissing her forehead. “Those words were what you wanted to hear.” A’Shui said slowly, “I just wanted to take Fengfeng and live alone, didn’t want to know any Young Master Tang, Marquis Hao, Venerable Liu… didn’t need any man to love me. I could live well by myself.”

“But that’s not happiness.” Tang Lici embraced her waist, lifting her entire body horizontally, turning toward the winter sunlight. “You need someone who can hold you tightly, hold you while watching the sunrise and sunset; hold you tightly when you’re sad, hold you tightly when you’re dreaming, hold you tightly when you do wrong; never blame you, always think you’re beautiful…” He kissed her beautiful, warm nape, that warmth mixing with Tang Lici’s characteristic tender breath. “That is happiness.”

A’Shui leaned in Tang Lici’s arms, looking at the sunlight with him, saying in a trembling voice, “Why don’t you look forward to ‘happiness,’ but instead anticipate someone dying for you?” For someone like him, what difficulty would there be in finding a woman who truly loved him? Why wouldn’t he? Why did he only anticipate someone truly and sincerely dying for him?

“Even ‘happiness’ may not leave something permanent behind.” Tang Lici said softly, “But ‘death’ can.”

A’Shui looked at the sunlight before her in a daze. The man holding her was really… insane, wasn’t he? Tears fell drop by drop. She didn’t know what she was crying for – was it because she very much wanted to understand this man, very much wanted to know why he was so mad, very much wanted to know what he deeply yearned for, what he lacked? She wanted to convince herself to sympathize with him, very much hoped he could be happy, but – to open her heart and wait for Tang Lici to gradually invade her heart and occupy her soul, letting her own life collapse and abandoning Fengfeng, she couldn’t find such courage… “I… can never love you no matter what… I’m thinking of someone else in my heart… in my heart…” She murmured, “In my heart…”

Tang Lici gently set her down, sat in a chair himself, slowly smiling. “Who are you thinking of in your heart?”

“Fu… Zhumei…” She staggered back two steps, standing far against the wall, her gaze completely unfocused.

Tang Lici raised his eyes to look at her. She slid down the wall to sit on the ground again. His gaze was very strange, extremely strange… The Tang Lici she saw through her eyes was transforming and transforming again in the haze, impossible to say what he was becoming. She heard him ask softly in her ears, “Why?”

Why? She looked at the constantly changing demon in her eyes, a shallow smile forming at the corners of her mouth, saying foolishly, “Because little Fu is very good, he’s better than you.” The white-clothed servant from Yinjiaozi Restaurant, in spring he would take his turtle to the outskirts for walks, to see if there was a female turtle of the same size. When returning, he would break off a willow branch. Those snow-white clothes, the green willow branch… the azure sky and endless white clouds. At that time, she would follow behind, watching and watching, always fantasizing that one day he might see her, that one day she could drive that turtle with him, go to deeper valleys to find that female turtle…

Her dreams were illusory and small.

What are called dreams are absurd and groundless fantasies.

Fu Zhumei…