My wife is a witch princess

Chapter 150 The First Bite of Ice Cream is Delicious

Song Che discovered that the more carefully he tried to distinguish them, the less clear they became. Theoretically speaking, both Xia Lis were Xia Lis.

If they wanted to, Song Che wouldn't be able to tell them apart. But under normal circumstances, Song Che could tell that one Xia Li was more lively, and the other Xia Li was not very lively.

The word "lively" is inaccurate; it should be described as "a bit cunning."

The bad woman's demeanor is completely different now compared to back then.

Back then, she was gloomy and like a female ghost, just standing there without saying a word. Now she talks more and has become more cunning.

Song Che didn't know how long she would stay.

A few months is fine, but staying here for a long time and balancing relationships is a real challenge for him.

He didn't tell his parents, and Tao Xiang was also silenced by the bad woman. They could live a normal life for a while, but it always felt strange to have two Xia Lis at home.

It's not that two Xia Lis mean two kinds of happiness.

The temperature in Nanhui has risen a bit, so there are more popsicles in the refrigerator. Xia Li loves eating popsicles now, and Song Che is worried that she will get sick from eating them.

After each meal, I would sit facing the fan.

Xia Li's bedroom was spotless. Song Che bought her a bookshelf to store books, and there were quite a few physical books on it. She didn't like reading comics or novels, but preferred literary works, which were as boring as reading comprehension exercises in Chinese. In addition to literary works, she also liked to study human laws and philosophy, and now she could speak eloquently.

The wicked woman meditated on the balcony near the window, Xia Li read a book in bed with the bedroom door locked, and Song Che slept in his own room. He was quite relaxed at the moment.

Xia Li is different; she has recently discussed a lot of things with the bad woman.

"You say you haven't disappeared—is it because I still don't understand what human emotions are?" Xia Li doubted herself. "But I clearly understand them, it's so strange."

The wicked woman chimed in, seemingly nonchalant and convincing, "Your understanding is only superficial. Do you even remember why a witch is a witch?"

"Because the witch cultivates the path of ruthlessness."

"Yes, that's it. It's very similar to the cultivation of immortality in humans. If you want to understand it completely, I recommend you read some cultivation novels." The wicked woman became interested when she talked about this. "I've read several recently. Do you want to take a look?"

"I don't like it, I like literature."

"When I was your age, I also enjoyed written works. As I got older, I started to enjoy reading novels. Why don't you give it a try?"

"No, I'd rather continue researching how to be a real human being."

"You just can't understand this."

"—I understand!" Xia Li's tone hardened. "Just wait to disappear."

"Fine, I'll wait." The wicked woman said calmly. "You're still the witch, and there's no sign of you disappearing."

"I know! You don't need to remind me every time."

Xia Li no longer wants to be a witch.

Boom—

Song Che knocked on the door and came in, carrying two bowls of mung bean soup.

"Have a drink, don't get heatstroke in this stuffy room. Remember to turn on the air conditioner at night." Song Che reminded him a couple of times, then turned and walked out. He was used to this routine almost every day.

However, Xia Li's image has changed somewhat recently.

I want ice cream. I want popsicles. I want ice cream.

Goodness, it's all food.

The previous "Witch Princess" has all been turned into eating.

Song Che suspected that she had gone mad from the heat.

The bedroom door was closed again, the curtains were drawn to block out the sunlight, and the fan was placed on the bedside table in oscillating mode, blowing air intermittently.

Xia Li leaned against the headboard, holding a thick book open in her hand. The cover had several large characters on it, and the title was "Existence and Nothingness".

She's been reading for over half a month now, with the bookmark on page 100. She flips through a few pages every day, then just sits in a daze, then flips through a few more pages. Today she flipped through a few more pages.

Xia Li, with her black hair, sat by the window, her legs crossed, on a cushion. There were no books or phones in front of her; she just sat there. But her eyelids occasionally twitched, and her overly expressive face suggested she was looking at something interesting.

Xia Li glanced at her, then glanced at her again, sensing that this wicked woman was trying to suppress a laugh.

"What are you looking at?"

"Meditate," said Xia Li, who has black hair.

"Isn't meditation done with your eyes closed?"

"It's closed."

"Then why are your lips moving?"

Xia Li, with her black hair, opened one eye, looked at her, and then closed it again. "Thinking about something interesting."

"What is it?"

"The book you're holding."

Xia Li looked down at the book "Being and Nothingness" in her hand. "You want to read it?"

"No," said Xia Li with black hair. "I was thinking of recommending another book to you, 'The Mad Dragon Immortal Emperor's Son-in-Law'."

Xia Li paused for a moment, flipped the book to the cover and glanced at it. "This is philosophy. It studies what a human being is, what existence is."

"I know," Xia Li with black hair said. "So, what have you figured out now? What do you want to know?"

Xia Li thought for a moment, "Because I want to know how to become a real person."

"I can't learn by reading books."

"Then how do I learn it?"

Xia Li, with her black hair, didn't answer. Instead, she asked, "Where are you looking?"

Xia Li took out the bookmark, "Page 123. It's about the relationship between self and other."

"Can you understand it?"

Xia Li was silent for a while. "I understand some things, but not all of them," she said. "It says that the self is confirmed through the gaze of others."

You should perceive yourself based on how others see you. But I don't think that's right. Song Che sees me in one way, you see me in another, and I see myself in yet another. Which one is the truth?

Xia Li, with her black hair, listened, still trying not to laugh.

Which one do you think is true?

"I don't know," Xia Li said, "that's why I'm looking."

Xia Li, with her black hair, opened her eyes and looked at her. After a long time, she suddenly said, "You know what? What you just said was more interesting than what's written in that book."

Xia Li was taken aback. "What do you mean?"

"It means you're using reading as a way to avoid thinking about the things that are truly important."

Xia Li didn't speak, but her fingers gripped the pages of the book tightly.

Xia Li, with her black hair, stood up and walked to the bookshelf. There were more than a dozen books on the shelf, all of which Xia Li had bought in the past few months.

There were books on philosophy, psychology, anthropology, and several literary classics. She ran her finger over the books—books she had already read.

"You buy these books because you want to understand what it means to be human," she said. "But have you ever considered that understanding humans isn't just about reading books?"

Xia Li looked at her, "Then what do you rely on?"

"Live." Xia Li, with her black hair, pulled out a book, flipped through it, and put it back. "Every day you live, you become more human. You don't need a book to tell you that."

Xia Li closed the book and placed it on the bedside table. "Is what you're saying the same principle as recommending cultivation novels?"

Xia Li, with her black hair, turned to look at her. "What do you think?"

"I think you're talking nonsense," Xia Li said. "Cultivation novels are fake; they're just made-up stories."

"Literary works are also fabricated."

"It's different. Literary works depict human nature; they depict real things."

Xia Li, with her black hair, smiled. She walked back to the cushion and sat down, in the same posture as before, but with a different expression.

He became somewhat serious.

"Do you know why I recommended you read fantasy novels?" she asked.

"have no idea."

"Because cultivation novels are about time."

Xia Li was stunned for a moment.

"That book in your hand," Xia Li, with her black hair, pointed to *Being and Nothingness*, "is about how humans exist. But the person who wrote it lived for less than a hundred years. He didn't see what would happen a hundred years from now, a thousand years from now, let alone ten thousand years from now. How could he know what existence truly is?"

Xia Li didn't say anything.

"Cultivation novels are different," said Xia Li with black hair. "They're about people who have lived for a very long time. Hundreds of years, thousands of years, tens of thousands of years. How do those people live, how do they change, how do they transform from a passionate young man into someone who can let go of everything?"

She paused for a moment, then said, "I've seen these before."

Xia Li looked at her.

"I read cultivation novels not because they're well-written," said Xia Li, who has black hair. "It's because they depict my life."

After saying that, she fell silent. Xia Li didn't speak either. The fan was still oscillating, the wind blowing from Xia Li's side to the black-haired Xia Li's side, and then back again.

Xia Li spoke up, "How many books have you read?"

"I can't remember."

Which book is your favorite?

Xia Li, with her black hair, thought for a moment, "There's a book about a man who lived for 100,000 years. At the beginning, he was very motivated, wanting to cultivate immortality, achieve longevity, and protect everyone. Later, his friends died, and his enemies died too. Those he protected became just a few lines in a history book. Then he became the patriarch, and his disciples changed generation after generation. No one remembered what he looked like when he was young. In the end, he lived alone on a mountaintop, watching the clouds every day."

"Is it pretty?"

"It's not pretty," Xia Li with black hair said, "but it's real."

As Xia Li listened, she suddenly asked, "Do you look like him?"

Xia Li, with her black hair, thought for a moment, "It looks somewhat similar."

"How is it similar?"

Xia Li didn't say anything, got off the bed, and walked to the bookshelf. She looked around and pulled out a book from the bottom shelf.

It's a novel, with a green cover depicting a wheat field.

"This one—" she handed to Xia Li, who had black hair, "is my favorite."

Xia Li, with her black hair, took it and glanced at the cover. "The Catcher in the Rye".

"What were they talking about?"

"It's about a person who doesn't want to become an adult," Xia Li said. "He thinks adults are all fake—their words are fake, their actions are fake, even their smiles are fake. He wants to guard the wheat field and prevent the children from falling in."

"And then?"

"Later, he couldn't hold on. His sister pulled him back."

Xia Li, with her black hair, flipped through it, then closed it again. "What do you like about it?"

Xia Li thought for a moment, "I liked the part where he didn't want to become an adult. But later I realized that it wasn't that he didn't want to become an adult, but that he didn't want to become that kind of fake adult. He felt that Song Che wasn't fake, Aunt He wasn't fake, and Zhang Shushu wasn't fake either. So he wanted to become like them."

Xia Li, with her black hair, looked at her. "You too?"

Xia Li was stunned for a moment. "What?"

"You, too, don't want to become a fake person?"

Xia Li thought for a moment and nodded. "Mm."

Xia Li, with her black hair, returned the book to her. "This book is better than your philosophy books."

Why?

"Because it's about what kind of person you want to become," said Xia Li, who has black hair. "Your books are about what people are. But what people are isn't important; what's important is what you want to become."

Xia Li took the book and put it back on the bookshelf. She stood there for a while, then suddenly said, "You just said that cultivation novels are about time."

"Um."

"So, what do you think time is?"

Xia Li, with her black hair, thought for a moment. "I used to think time was the enemy. It takes everything away—people, things, memories, everything. I hated it."

"And then?"

"Later I discovered that time is not the enemy. It is—"

She paused, as if searching for the right words.

"It will pass."

Xia Li didn't understand.

Xia Li, with her black hair, looked at her and said, "When you eat ice cream, the first bite and the last bite taste different."

Xia Li nodded.

"The first bite is cool, sweet, and delicious. The last bite melts, it's not so cool anymore, but it's still sweet. Time is that process. You can't say the first bite is real and the last bite is fake. They're both real."

She paused, "The same goes for the wound on your hand. It hurt when you first cut it, then it scabbed over, and then it healed. Every stage is real. You can't say that it's only real when it hurts, and not real when it's healed."

Xia Li looked down at the faint mark on her left hand. It had faded considerably and was almost invisible unless you looked closely.

"So—" Xia Li with black hair said, "you don't need to understand what a human being is. You just need to live. Every day you live, you become a human being."

Listening to this, Xia Li suddenly asked, "And what about you? You've lived for so long, have you become human?"

Xia Li, with her black hair, was stunned for a moment.

Xia Li looked at her. "You said you've seen things from hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of years ago. You said cultivation novels depict your life. So, have you become human?"

Xia Li, with her black hair, remained silent.

"Or," Xia Li pressed, "did you become something else?"

"I have no idea."

Xia Li looked at her.

"I used to think I was human," said Xia Li with black hair. "I had feelings, I could be happy, I could be sad, and I could miss him. But later I realized that the difference between humans and witches isn't feelings, it's time."

She looked up at Xia Li and said, "No one lives as long as I do. When you live a long time, some things change. Not for the worse, but they change."

"Turn into what?"

"Become—" she thought for a moment, "become a kind of—observer."

Xia Li didn't understand.

Xia Li, with her black hair, pointed out the window, "Look at that tree outside the window."

Xia Li looked over.

The old tree had dense leaves that rustled in the wind. When Xia Li first saw it, it was bare; the second time she saw it, it had sprouted new buds.

"When you look at it, you think it's beautiful. It sprouts in spring, grows lush in summer, sheds its leaves in autumn, and is bare in winter. You think that's just how nature is."

She paused for a moment, then said, "When I look at it, I'm reminded of what it looked like when it was a baby. Decades ago, it wasn't this tall. It was blown down by the wind once, but it grew back up."

Xia Li turned back to look at her.

"You're looking at the present," said Xia Li with black hair. "I'm looking at the past. That's the difference."

Xia Li didn't speak, but walked back to the bedside and sat down. She picked up the book "Being and Nothingness," flipped through it, and then put it down.

"Do you think I shouldn't be reading these books?" she asked.

"It's not that you shouldn't have," Xia Li with black hair said, "it's that you're reading too hastily. You're afraid you won't have enough time to become human, so you're frantically reading books, trying to find the answer. But the answer isn't in the books."

"Where?"

"In—" Black-haired Xia Li thought for a moment, then suddenly smiled, "In the ice cream."

Xia Li was stunned for a moment.

"When you ate ice cream today, did the first bite and the last bite taste the same?"

Xia Li thought for a moment, "It's different."

Which one do you like?

"The first bite."

Why?

"Because it's cold."

Xia Li, with her black hair, smiled. "That's the answer."

Xia Li looked at her without saying anything.

"You don't need to understand what a person is," Xia Li with black hair said. "You just need to know that the first bite of ice cream is the coldest, midday is the hottest when you're basking in the sun, and your heart is softest when you're with him. That's enough."

Xia Li listened and suddenly smiled too.

"What are you laughing at?" Xia Li, with her black hair, asked.

"What you just said is more interesting than what's written in that book."