Shen Yebai knew Shen Mo was right, so...
"I will complete the plan," Shen Yebai said in a low voice.
Shen Mo nodded in satisfaction. That's more like it.
“But,” Shen Yebai suddenly changed the subject, raising his head with a resolute expression.
“I am Shen Yebai, not you, Shen Mo.”
Shen Mo didn't understand why Shen Yebai was still bothered by such a trivial matter: "I've already said, there is no such person as Shen Yebai in this world."
He spoke with absolute certainty and brimming with confidence.
“But now we have it.” Shen Yebai looked at him and suddenly smiled.
"What do you mean?" Shen Mo frowned.
Shen Yebai knew long ago why he existed—simply to replace Shen Mo, who was unable to be born, and to promote the implementation of the plan.
Whether it's someone like Zuo Mei who fears him or someone who hates him, they all see Shen Mo, not Shen Yebai.
During those days of following Shen Mo's orders and carrying out the plan, he didn't know what he was. He was neither human nor ghost, and although the world was vast, he couldn't find a place to belong.
—Until he met Qin Moyu.
When he was seriously injured, he thought he was going to die. He didn't want to die with the same face as Shen Mo, so he activated the formation and changed his face at will.
The days Shen Yebai spent recuperating by Qin Moyu's side were his most cherished memories. Only when he was by Qin Moyu's side, under Qin Moyu's gaze, did Shen Yebai feel like a person, a living, breathing human being named Shen Yebai.
Instead of being Shen Mo's stand-in.
But the days of recuperation passed too quickly, and he had to continue to complete the plan under Shen Mo's urging.
But after parting ways with Qin Moyu that day, he began to hate his identity.
A voice kept echoing in his heart: If I weren't Shen Mo, but Shen Yebai, could I stay by Qin Moyu's side forever?
This voice has been completely unstoppable ever since he met Qin Moyu again and understood his feelings at Guanlan Sect.
—I don't want to leave Moyu.
This idea grew wildly like weeds, and Shen Yebai even tried to hide the fact that Qin Moyu had the Red Lotus Karmic Fire from Shen Mo, thus going against "himself" for the first time.
Although the truth was revealed, Shen Yebai did not regret it.
Only the memories with Qin Moyu are unique to Shen Yebai, and only this feeling is unique to Shen Yebai.
“You actually know nothing,” Shen Yebai said with certainty.
"No, I..."
Shen Yebai interrupted him: "You don't know my memories with him, nor do you know my feelings for him, but I—"
He stepped forward, his dejected expression shifting to a mocking tone identical to Shen Mo's: "I wonder about your memory."
He pressed on, posing the simplest of questions:
"How can we be considered human beings if we're like this?!"
Shen Mo was stunned.
The technique of separating one's soul to become another person was a forbidden art he found in ancient books. In order to prevent the "backlash of split soul" mentioned above, he deliberately did not give Shen Yebai all his memories and abilities, but only a part of them. However, he did not expect that it was precisely because of this that Shen Yebai refused to acknowledge his identity.
Shen Yebai recalled his casual conversation with Qin Moyu that day and asked, "Moyu, what do you think defines a person?"
"Hmm, a person?" Qin Moyu sat on the swing, swinging her legs back and forth, and said with a smile, "If you can run, laugh, eat, sleep, and still have time to think about such nonsense, then you're a person."
"I'm serious." Helplessly, Shen Yebai helped push the swing under Qin Moyu's bright eyes, earning a radiant smile from Qin Moyu.
Qin Moyu gripped the swing ropes tightly, feeling the gentle breeze on his face and the weightless sensation of swinging, and laughed heartily: "Where in this world is there any standard answer? There are beasts in human skin everywhere, who can tell the difference between the real and the fake? If I had to say..."
"I think, therefore I am [Note 2] Ah—Night White—"
Qin Moyu didn't take Shen Yebai's question to heart. She just suddenly remembered a philosophical quote from her previous life and felt that such a philosophical question should be answered with a philosophical quote. Little did she know how much this sentence would shake Shen Yebai.
These words were like a seed planted in Shen Yebai's heart. Just as he was wallowing in self-pity, he suddenly remembered them and realized that he had fallen into Shen Mo's trap from the very beginning.
Shen Mo said that Shen Yebai was a split off from him, which is true, but Shen Yebai did not exist solely for Shen Mo.
From the moment Shen Mo decided to separate from Shen Yebai, Shen Yebai was no longer the same as Shen Mo.
Having two sets of memories and emotions that he lacks, how could Shen Yebai be Shen Mo?
After calming down from his self-pity, Shen Yebai quickly figured out Shen Mo's purpose. After all, to some extent, he was the person who understood Shen Mo best in the world.
“You keep emphasizing that I am you because even you don’t think I am you,” Shen Yebai said calmly, suddenly realizing that Shen Mo wasn’t as unfathomable as he had imagined. “You’ve never treated me as you, and you don’t think I am you.”
"Shen Mo, you've emphasized this so many times, are you trying to convince me, or are you trying to convince yourself?"
Silence, a deathly silence.
Shen Yebai curled his lips. He had never gained the upper hand in a confrontation with Shen Mo before, and this was the first time. What gave him this confidence was Qin Moyu, who was waiting for him to return.
A fire ignited in Shen Yebai's heart; he desperately wanted to see Qin Moyu.
"I will help you carry out the plan—after you avenge Qin Moyu."
Shen Yebai left after saying those words, leaving Shen Mo alone in silence.