The improved female villains regained their memories.

Humans have always been able to endure darkness.

At first, she huddled in the dark room, where the walls were pitch black and she couldn't see her own hand in front of her face, and she didn't think anything was wrong.

Over time, she even lost sight of her own fingers, and came to believe that there was no light in the world and that darkness was a given.

There were lice in the dark room, and they bit her all over, making her itchy.

At first she would scratch, but later she stopped scratching altogether. Scratching was useless anyway, so she let the lice invade her skin.

The lice were quite sensible; they didn't bite too much, only sucking lightly where she didn't feel pain or itching, and they lived in peace.

She had heard of the existence of "light" but had never seen it herself, so she suspected it was nonsense.

People outside the dark room would occasionally come to persuade her to go outside for a walk, saying that there was light, flowers, and trees outside.

She shook her head, thinking: I am perfectly fine here, why should I go out? Besides, what exactly is light? It is probably just another kind of darkness.

One day, a crack suddenly appeared in the wall of the dark room, and a ray of light pierced through.

The light was as sharp as a knife, piercing straight into her eyes.

She jumped in fright and instinctively reached out to cover herself, only to find her arms crawling with lice, so densely packed that they completely covered her skin. Then she felt an intense itch, a itch a hundred times more unbearable than before.

She scratched her entire body frantically, and the lice scattered, some crawling into the seams of her clothes, others into her hair.

The more she scratched, the itchier it became, and the more it itched, the more she scratched until her skin was torn open and bleeding profusely.

Only then did she realize the filth she had been living in all along.

The people outside the dark room were calling her to come out again.

She gazed at the faint light, hesitant and undecided.

Go outside, the light is too bright; stay, the lice in the dark room are too rampant.

She lingered at the boundary between light and darkness, and suddenly thought: If I had never seen the light, I could have continued to endure the darkness.

The cracks in the wall gradually widened, and light poured in like a flood.

Wen Shihan's eyes stung, yet tears flowed, a mixture of pain and joy that he couldn't tell.

Wen Shihan/Yang Pingsheng Side Story Part 2

eternal life.

How can humans achieve immortality?

Wen Shihan asked himself.

The reason she can live forever is because she is an anomaly in this world. If Yang Pingsheng could be turned into an anomaly, could he also live forever?

She felt her heart sink to the bottom of an abyss. No one knew Yang Pingsheng better than her. If she insisted on doing things by any means necessary, he would definitely try to stop her by committing suicide.

What should she do?

Will they resort to the same harsh methods as before?

No.

Wen Shihan realized that regardless of whether such methods would succeed, Yang Pingsheng would definitely hate him.

This hatred, which accompanies immortality, will become endless torment.

She had already expressed her love to him so that he didn't stop himself because of the confusion, but Wen Shihan knew that this confusion wouldn't last for more than a few days. Perhaps tomorrow, or perhaps the day after, Yang Pingsheng would figure it out.

After thinking it through, regardless of whether he accepts her feelings or not, she will not let her continue.

...Right?

She slightly raised her head and saw Yang Pingsheng standing at the entrance of the main hall.

It happened faster than she expected—not tomorrow, not the day after, but right now.

The wind outside the hall was blowing, making a whistling sound.

Wen Shihan's fingertips were still suspended in mid-air, and the wisp of spiritual power that had attempted to unleash the great formation had not yet completely dissipated.

She slowly raised her eyes, her pupils fixed on him, the moonlight at the palace gates being pierced by that familiar figure.

"Pingsheng, you've come."

Her voice was so soft it was almost inaudible.

Yang Pingsheng was standing there.

The night wind lifted the hem of his plain white clothes, and his hair was still damp with night dew. His eyes were frighteningly clear, with not a trace of his previous confusion.

"The movement was faster than I expected."

Wen Shihan subconsciously took a half step back, his hand secretly clenching in his sleeve.

She had imagined countless possibilities, but she never expected this confrontation to come so suddenly. Only a few hours had passed, yet the boy she had swayed with sweet words had already regained his senses.

The moonlight flowed across the blue brick floor between the two of them, like an uncrossable Milky Way.

Yang Pingsheng's gaze swept over the magic array she hadn't yet put away, and a bitter smile appeared on his lips.

“Sister, I understand what you’re thinking.” Yang Pingsheng said, “I’ve always felt lucky. From the time you found me, to now being loved by you like this, I’m lucky.”

"But sister, you can't do this."

“Birth, aging, sickness and death are the natural order of things. My older sister is very capable of breaking free from this order, but I cannot.”

"I'm willing to spend the rest of my life with you, sister, and reciprocate with the same passionate love, but all that you've done..."

Stop.

A leaf drifted in from outside the door, swirling and falling between the two of them.

“Pingsheng…” Wen Shihan looked at Yang Pingsheng and slowly said, “Death is the easiest thing in this world, but the difficult thing is how to live a painful life.”

"How can I live without you?"

Yang Pingsheng opened his mouth, but then stopped himself from speaking.

Confusion resurfaced in his eyes; he clearly still didn't understand why he had received such terrifying love from Wen Shihan.

"I have said it before, you are the person I love most in my life, the first and the last person in this world to love me."

"You said that people can't be together forever, and yes, I know that too."

"But knowing and accepting are two different things..."

"If you die, then there will be no one in this world who will love me."

Yang Pingsheng looked up in a daze.

He saw that Wen Shihan had already walked up to him, his eyes as dark as the night, deep enough to swallow all the stars.

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[Minor Cold, people always have to part ways]

It's better to forget each other in the vast world than to share our breath and saliva.

Time will wash everything away; love and hate will both vanish into nothingness in the passage of time.

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Wen Shihan recalled his conversation with Yang Pingsheng that year, but he needed to understand the meaning behind his brother's words, both then and now.

------------------

Yang Pingsheng was shocked by Wen Shihan's confused emotions, but he had finally accepted it, so he said, "I'm sorry, sister, I still don't quite understand some of what you said."

“I don’t understand why you say that I am the first and the last person to love you. It was clearly you who loved me first. Besides, with your status and position, there are many people who respect and love you.”

"There are many kinds of love. Does my sister really think that letting me live forever is love? Not necessarily. If I really live forever and we are together forever, I might change, and maybe my sister will change too. We might go from cherishing each other to hating each other. Does my sister want our relationship to become like that?"

Yang Pingsheng reached out and touched Wen Shihan's face, saying, "Sister, love is only beautiful in memory. I would rather our relationship stay at its most beautiful moment than be cursed with eternal life and fall into an endless abyss."

Love and hate are two sides of the same coin, existing and coexisting.

Wen Shihan's eyes trembled. She knew that Yang Pingsheng was right, but she just couldn't accept it.

But in the end, she saw his eyes, and those eyes were filled with all his love for her.

Such love turning into hatred... No, she didn't want that.

"I see......"

She closed her eyes, trembling.

"We spent our final moments together..."

"Throughout my life, and for the rest of my life, I have lived with love and without hatred."

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For the rest of my life, I will only love, not hate.

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Wen Shihan eventually released those people.

She no longer coveted power and status, but instead announced her retirement, taking Yang Pingsheng with her to live a secluded life in the world.

In spring, the Broken Moon Pool shimmered with fine, scaly light, and the old willows on the shore drooped their new green branches, providing just the right amount of shade for the two anglers.

"Sister, the buoy has moved."

Yang Pingsheng lowered his voice to remind him, but Wen Shihan had already formed a hand seal, and a wisp of black mist was quietly creeping towards the surface of the water.

He quickly grabbed her wrist: "We agreed not to use any deadly moves."

Wen Shihan pursed his lips, and when he withdrew the mist, a gentle breeze followed.

The willow branches swayed slightly, startling the silver carp that was about to bite the hook.

"What does it matter? When it comes to fishing, all you have to do is catch the fish, right?" She deliberately rested her fishing rod on the bluestone, took out a packet of pine nut candy from her sleeve and handed it to him. "It reminds me of when you were little, I was fishing next to you, and that's what you said."

The roles have been reversed; now it's Wen Shihan's turn to talk about how you were when you were little.

Yang Pingsheng's ears turned red, and he was about to retort when he suddenly felt the fishing rod in his hand sink, and a bright silver splash of water burst open on the surface of the water. He frantically pulled at it, and the water droplets from the fish's tail splashed all over his face.

"Don't pull him too hard." Wen Shihan suddenly wrapped his arms around him from behind, his calloused hands covering the back of his hands. "Let it flow naturally... Yes, just like that."

Just as the carp burst out of the water, willow catkins landed on their clasped hands.