Don't mess with that Miao boy, he's sickly and perverted.

Upon hearing her question, Wu Li was stunned for a few seconds by her own sudden thought.

Because the first title that popped into his mind was "brother".

She called him that the day she first met him, but that's a term of endearment that Miao girls use for their sweethearts. Besides, she's a year older than him, so why would she want her to call him that?

It's crazy.

She was the one who was bewitched by the love potion, not him.

Moreover, his purpose in going to Youquan Town was to remove the love curse from her body and allow the poisonous scorpion to return to his body.

"Li Li".

A girl's clear voice suddenly rang out.

"How about I call you Li Li?" she said. "The word 'Li' has a bad meaning, but when you put the two together, it makes a positive!"

"Two negatives make a positive?" Wu Li wondered, why did she always come up with such strange things?

Chai Xiaomi excitedly ran to get paper and pen, spread the yellow hemp paper flat on the table, ground the ink, and wrote the word "separation" neatly.

"The character '离' (lí) means separation," she said, writing another one as she spoke.

What do the two "separation" characters mean?

Chai Xiaomi raised her bright eyes to look at him, the brush between her fingers spinning quickly and smoothly, ink splashing here and there, one drop landing right on the tip of her nose, like a small black mole, but she was completely unaware of it.

Wu Li's gaze lingered on the ink stain for a moment before he said lightly, "It's still separation."

"Eternal separation."

His mother, whom he had never met, gave him this name and this "pure blood," and also stuffed her hatred and curse into his bones, making him live with a mission.

His mission was to kill the faithless man who betrayed and deceived her.

Otherwise, this pure blood would flow endlessly in his body, and he would never die.

That pitiful woman naively believed that he would avenge her to break the curse. After all, the price of immortality is watching those around her grow old and die one by one, but to him, it was clearly a blessing.

There was no one in this world he cared about.

As time passed, when even the high priest turned to dust, no one could control his body anymore.

He obtained the immortal body with ease, something that countless people throughout the world desperately prayed for.

How delightful!

Out of curiosity, or perhaps out of sheer boredom, he secretly went to find the so-called unfaithful man.

*

The first year of Zhaoyuan.

The streets were bustling, and snowflakes, as fine as goose feathers, drifted down.

Icicles hung from the eaves, the ground was covered with a thick layer of white, and the Spring Festival couplets and New Year pictures in front of every household bloomed with spots of red in the pure white world.

A little beggar was huddled beside the dry well, his tattered clothes offering little protection from the bitter cold.

He came from the perpetually hot Chishan Mountain, and this was the first time in his life he had ever seen snow.

It turns out that there really is such pure and flawless white in the world.

Passersby said that the little beggar probably wouldn't make it through the New Year. Most of them just sighed with regret, and occasionally someone would throw down a copper coin and hurry away.

The little beggar seemed to hear nothing, remaining curled up motionless as the cold gradually froze his body.

Suddenly, a cacophony of voices erupted at the end of the long street.

The wheels rolled over the snow, leaving two deep tracks. The magnificent sedan chair slowly approached, followed by a grand procession.

The man in the sedan chair, dressed in brocade and jade robes, grabbed a bag of grains from a pottery bag beside him and scattered it to both sides of the street.

The New Year's procession, in which the monarch personally sows seeds, is a ritual to bestow upon the people the "foundation of livelihood."

A dirty little face lifted up amidst the noise, its gaze passing through the swirling snowflakes and landing on the canopy beneath it.

The man's face was somewhat pale, and his brows showed signs of exhaustion, but his expression was kind and benevolent. He gestured for the sedan chair to stop, and with the help of his attendants, he stepped down, took off his cloak, and draped it over the trembling shoulders of the little beggar.

She put down another small bag of silver coins, gently stroked the child's messy hair with her palm, and said in a gentle voice, "Poor child, go buy some food."

The heat seeped down from above, and the little beggar stared blankly at the steaming bun in front of him. The white steam made his eyes slightly hot.

Is this... Father's warmth?

Suddenly, the sedan curtain was lifted, revealing a handsome young man in brocade robes and a jade crown. He was about the same age as him, but lived in a completely different world.

The little boy shouted, "Father! You promised to buy me candied hawthorns today! Look, the stall is right over there!"

"You brat." A lively smile finally appeared on the man's sickly face. "You just lost a tooth yesterday, and it was decayed all the way to the root. Eat less sweets. I'll only indulge you this time."

He lowered his voice and added, "Don't let your mother know when you get back."

"Okay, okay, you're so long-winded!"

The sedan chair started moving again, crunching through the snow, and slowly disappeared at the end of the long street.

The little beggar stared at the receding shadow until it shrank into a tiny black dot and was completely swallowed by the snow.

It's not as bad as I imagined...

If only he were truly a thoroughly evil person.

But he was different. He loved his son and the people, but he didn't love that foolish woman.

He also didn't love the child in her womb.

Ignore it.

He remembered even the boy's missing tooth perfectly.

Little did he know that today was the anniversary of that foolish woman's death, and also his eleventh birthday.

At that moment, he suddenly understood her jealousy and hatred.

If you're going to take revenge, then you have to choose the most ruthless way.

The soft, warm buns soon turned cold and hard in the chill, and fell into the dry well along with the money bag.

The snow was still falling, and soon it covered all traces.

......

"Hey! What are you thinking about? Look how well I drew it!"

A piece of yellow hemp paper was almost touching the tip of his nose when Wu Li suddenly came to his senses and stared intently.

On the paper, there are two "separation" characters with a pair of small hands clasped together. The lines are vivid and lifelike, as if you can really feel the warmth of their fingertips touching.

"Two separate things together mean—never to be separated."

She leaned closer: "How is it, Lili? Do you approve of your older sister's drawing skills?"

Thinking of the "monkey" he drew in his dream, Chai Xiaomi couldn't help but laugh.

The candlelight flickered, making her eyes seem to sparkle with light, as if her whole being glowed warmly.

Wu Li shook his hand, and a few drops of cold wine splashed onto his fingertips. Only then did he realize that he had been holding that cup of rice wine the whole time. The aroma of the wine spread out as he shook the cup, and wisps of it seeped into his breath.

His brow furrowed suddenly, and his gaze darkened abruptly, becoming as deep as a still pool.

"What's wrong? Don't you like this nickname?" Seeing his expression, Chai Xiaomi's excitement immediately wilted, and her voice lowered. "I spent so much time drawing this..."

"No," Wu Li interrupted her, her voice icy. "The problem is with this wine."