What are you looking at? You're the female lead too!

"A deal to save your family?"

Upon hearing this, Shen Xuqiu raised an eyebrow, curled his lips into a smirk, and pointed his slender white finger at Shen Yuedong's face: "Pah! You shameless bastard."

"Isn't all the danger to our family your doing? And now you're telling me to save our family? Shen Yuedong, are you even thinking straight?"

"Quickly! In my elder sister's name, I order you to immediately put your hands behind your head, kneel down, and await your elder sister's judgment!"

Seeing the angry Shen Xuqiu, Shen Yuedong looked up at the sky and let out a long sigh.

"Ugh!"

He looked at his sister with eyes full of care for someone with intellectual disabilities.

Although he is called the older sister, Shen Xuqiu and Shen Yuedong are actually twins. Shen Xuqiu just came out a few minutes earlier than him.

Therefore, Shen Yuedong often doesn't treat Shen Xuqiu as an older sister, and Shen Xuqiu's behavior is indeed quite different from that of an older sister.

"Feed".

Shen Yuedong seemed to have given up on communicating with Shen Xuqiu, turning to look at Ye Wen beside him: "The fact that your elder sister arranged for you to be by her side means you have her deep trust. So, you also know the truth about Riju, right?"

"She probably won't believe anything I say now. Could you please explain?"

Shen Xuqiu: "?"

She looked up at Ye Wen in shock: "Huh? You knew?!"

She is clearly the heart of Riju, so why do these people know things that she doesn't?

At the same time, Shen Xuqiu began to feel uneasy.

The things Shen Caichun went to so much trouble to keep from her couldn't possibly be good, could they?

She could only look at Ye Wen with a complicated expression, while Ye Wen shrugged after thinking for a moment.

"I do know, but I only found out recently."

"Although your sister told me not to tell you, it's clearly not a good time to keep it a secret any longer."

"The so-called Japanese chrysanthemum."

"It is a curse that sacrifices the mother's heart."

Ye Wen calmly recounted Shen Caichun's previous account of the truth about the Japanese chrysanthemum to Shen Xuqiu, and Shen Xuqiu was stunned for a long time after listening.

Her expression turned extremely ugly.

Disbelief, loss, sadness, self-blame, pain, depression... a multitude of emotions mingled together, like a palette of colors being stirred haphazardly.

The final color produced will inevitably be the most murky, pitch-black.

"So...that's how it is..."

"ha……"

Shen Xuqiu chuckled self-deprecatingly: "So that's why I've never met any of my mother's generation of relatives. They're all dead."

"They all died because of this heart."

She pressed her hands tightly against her chest, as if she wanted to tear out her heart and crush it through flesh and bone.

One day, will her eldest sister also become nourishment for this heart?

Her loved ones will die without her knowledge, and she will live alone, influenced by her heart condition, finding someone she believes she loves to reproduce and continue the cycle of reincarnation.

It's really, really cruel.

Such a thing.

A tear glistened in Shen Xuqiu's eyes.

"Why didn't I realize this sooner...?"

"Because your older sister protected you very well."

Shen Yuedong couldn't help but say, "And happiness can make people blind."

"I must take action so that no more family members will die because of this."

Even if this operation is extremely cruel.

"Again?" Shen Xuqiu caught the key word: "What does 'again' mean? Could it be that...?"

"That's right."

Shen Yuedong nodded.

"The real cause of Second Sister's death was the sacrifice initiated by the Heart of Chrysanthemum."

When talking about the deceased Shen Zhixia, a deep sadness flashed in Shen Yuedong's eyes: "Although my second sister was surrounded by the enemy during the mission due to incorrect intelligence, she was still far from death."

"My older sister is arriving soon with reinforcements; she doesn't have to die."

"But," Shen Yuedong gritted his teeth, "that damned Chrysanthemum Heart believed that Second Sister was no longer of value and took her life prematurely."

"Because He is about to awaken."

Shen Yuedong slowly approached: "The true essence of Riju, the source of the heart."

"An ancient monster from the distant past."

"Each cycle of sacrifice makes the sun chrysanthemum stronger, but there is a limit to how strong it can be. Once it reaches that limit, it will awaken."

"At that time, we will all die."

Shen Yuedong took a deep breath: "And I used deceptive means to make Him temporarily enter a false awakening."

"This is the best time to eliminate Him, and the key to ending this long torment."

"You won't refuse, right?"

"For my family."

Shen Xuqiu: "..."

She paused for a moment, then looked up and asked, "So, what exactly do you want me to do?"

"It's very simple."

Shen Yuedong said with a determined look, "I will transfer the heart of Riju into my body, and then I will commit suicide, taking Riju with me."

"I'll die in exchange for your and my sister's lives. That's a good deal, isn't it?"

Shen Yuedong didn't explain his purpose to Shen Caichun because he knew that his eldest sister loved him and would never agree to the proposal. Trading family members' lives for each other's lives was simply absurd.

But Shen Xuqiu was different. They were siblings who had never gotten along since childhood. They would fight over snacks, toys, their sister, their room... they could argue about anything. They hated each other.

Now, when faced with this deal of exchanging a hated younger brother for a beloved older sister, Shen Xuqiu would surely agree without hesitation, right?

Shen Yuedong thought so.

He has always thought so.

however……

"How could I possibly agree to something like that!"

Shen Xuqiu became agitated: "So in the end, aren't you still going to die?!"

"Why? Why does someone have to die? And why does it have to be you?"

"I disagree!"

"I can die too!"

Shen Yuedong was stunned.

He never expected Shen Xuqiu to refuse.

Why?

He saw his lips slightly parted and, almost fleeing in panic, asked, "Don't you hate me?"

"Yeah, I hate you so much."

Shen Xuqiu clenched his fist forcefully: "I hate how you always mock me for being stupid, how you eat my favorite foods in front of me when I'm on a diet, how you scold me for being bad at video games, how you laugh at me for ages when I fall into a ditch while walking, and how your nostrils swirl like they're on top of the world when your grades are higher than mine..."

"But, but."

Shen Xuqiu said firmly, "No matter how much we dislike each other, we're still family!"

"They are the family members who were carried by their mother for eight months and were born, the family members who grew up together, the family members whose blood is thicker than water."

"There is no hierarchy or social status among family members!"

Shen Xuqiu practically shouted the words out.

She simply couldn't understand why Shen Yuedong seemed to take his self-sacrifice for granted.

This is really not right.

Shen Yuedong: "..."

Looking at Shen Xuqiu's face, he knew that the other party was serious, and at the same time, he understood.

It turns out that, from beginning to end, the person who could turn on their own family...

He's the only one.

A look of self-loathing lingered around his mouth.

The raised hand fell limply to the ground.

Shen Xuqiu was so anxious that he stood on tiptoe.

"There must be other solutions, right?"

"Don't give up so easily, you idiot, Ye Wen, you too..."

Shen Xuqiu's eyes widened as Ye Wen, lacking any sense of martial ethics, knocked her unconscious with a karate chop from behind.

"Don't look at me like that."

Ye Wen naturally pulled Shen Xuqiu into his arms and winked at Shen Yuedong: "Anyway, your method can completely cut off the Japanese chrysanthemum right now, right?"

"Then there's nothing more to say. It would be a waste not to use such an efficient method. Since she can't make the choice, then I will."

Ye Wen grinned at Shen Yuedong:

"After all, you're not my family."

Shen Yuedong: "..."

He gave a self-deprecating smile.

"Too."

"Then come with me."

Shen Yuedong turned around and gestured for Ye Wen to follow.

Ye Wen simply stared silently at Shen Yuedong's waist.

What I just said was undoubtedly a lie.

Ye Wen is not so domineering as to make choices for other people's lives at will; he has neither the right nor the inclination to do so.

This is merely a delaying tactic and a move to penetrate deep into enemy territory.

Ye Wen's reason for doing this was very simple.

There was one thing he needed to confirm.

pattern.

Ye Wen narrowed his eyes, and after looking at it several more times, he was sure he hadn't made a mistake.

The pattern on the sign hanging from Shen Yuedong's waist was a strange pattern made of countless black lines twisted and intertwined.

He had seen it before.

In my own dream.

In a dream called "The Female Protagonist".

Ye Wen took a deep breath and followed Shen Yuedong's steps.

He must find out.

for sure.