My wife is a witch princess.

"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's up?"

"The book you're holding."

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

"I don't want to," 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 it means to be human and 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 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; she had already read them all.

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

Xia Li looked at her, "Then what should we 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 and 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 cultivation novels?" she asked.

"do not know."

"Because cultivation novels are about time."

Xia Li was stunned for a moment.

“That book in your hand,” Xia Li with black hair pointed to “Being and Nothingness,” “is about how humans exist. But the person who wrote this book 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 really 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 are well-written,” said Xia Li with black hair, “but 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 asked, "How many books have you read?"

"I can't remember."

Which one 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 the mountaintop, watching the clouds every day."

Is it pretty?

“It’s not pretty,” said Xia Li with black hair, “but it’s real.”

Listening to this, Xia Li 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?"

"When I'm alone."

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 after?"

"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 also 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 a person is. But what a person is 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."

"Ah."

"So, what do you think time is?"

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

"and after?"

"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 and isn't as cool, 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 turn into something else?"

"I do not know."

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 is not feelings, but 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… bystander.”