Why could Dad find a partner like Mom, someone he could entrust everything to, but she couldn't?
Why is the feeling of love so unreliable?
Lying sprawled out on the empty belly of the mountain, she still couldn't believe... that his love was fake!
How could that be? How could that be?
She didn't know how long she had been lying there... She saw the stars, and then she saw the warm light of sunrise.
She finally stood up, her clothes and hair covered in dust. She didn't care anymore; what else was there for her to care about?
She slowly ascended the stone steps, emerging from the tomb entrance. The unobstructed sunlight from the mountaintop stung her eyes, blurring everything with white light. Unmoved, she continued walking, rounding a ravine that led to a sheer cliff. The autumn mountain winds should have been cold, but she felt nothing. She felt nothing at all, not even the pain in her heart…
This body he abandoned, this soul he abandoned, this child he abandoned...
She walked step by step toward the edge of the cliff.
She had nothing left for him to abandon. Even if she would be scolded by her parents in the afterlife, she still wanted to go to them... In the human world, she was too lonely. There was no one she could trust or rely on anymore.
"Want to die?"
Was it an illusion? She heard his voice again. Wasn't he already triumphantly running off to the border with the treasure?
She turned around and saw him.
In the sunlight, he was still so beautiful, so incredibly beautiful. His smile was both sinister and alluring, yet it held a cruel glint that had once captivated her. That look had once made her believe he loved her deeply!
She smiled too, unsurprised. He could no longer surprise her; he could deceive her, and of course, he could deceive anyone. He could spread rumors to lure those fools to chase after him beyond the Great Wall, while he himself leisurely enjoyed the scenery. She forgot that he had always been a master of deception!
"Give me a break." He scoffed.
She tilted her head to look at him. To grant his wish? To grant him what?
“If I’m going to be a villain, I want to be the ultimate villain.” He laughed, his eyes unusually bright. “Don’t jump,” he said softly.
She gave a bitter smile. Not jump? To live and hate him?
"Let me push you down, and I'll personally see you off." He laughed, slapping him across the face.
She laughed too, and with the help of his palm wind, she flew gracefully... This was her last, and most beautiful, dance of death.
That's good! This ending allowed her to die cleanly, without any regrets!
Chapter 75 of "The Smiling Flower": He Really Deserved It
A mountain breeze swept across her face, her hair brushing against it, causing a slight itch and a sting. Xiaoyuan felt as if she had been freed from all constraints; she wanted to stretch out her arms and savor this last bit of lightness.
A sharp pain shot through her wrist, and she looked up in surprise. She... had been pulled back by him.
He looked down at her coldly, neither letting go nor pulling her up.
She looked back at him coldly... Loving him had always felt like this—a bottomless abyss beneath her feet; if he let go, she would fall and be shattered to pieces. She was tired... Loving him had become too exhausting and too painful for her.
She closed her eyes, letting him have whatever reason he had, whether he held her back or let her go, it didn't matter.
The wind whistled past her ears, and she stubbornly kept her eyes tightly shut. She knew he had pulled her up again. He let her fall to the ground without moving or saying a word.
She remained in that pose, the mountain wind blowing through her hair and the hem of her clothes, and then she felt the cold...
"Come with me!" He stared at her for a long time, then yanked her up from the ground with such force that her wrist ached. For the first time, he dragged her without any pity; his cruelty was finally being used on her. She was numbly pulled along, expressionless, her mind blank. She had no interest in where he was taking her or what he was going to do with her.
Somewhat unexpectedly, he pulled her back into the secret treasure chamber. She stumbled down the stone steps, nearly falling several times, but he forcefully grabbed her arm and lifted her up each time. Her arm ached terribly; it would surely be bruised… She sneered. This pain was nothing compared to the wound in her heart! Why had he brought her back here? To mock her ignorance and foolishness?
Laugh, he has every reason to be smug.
She had attempted suicide for him, had been heartbroken... and had always been manipulated by him, so he had every right to be proud.
Seeing the mockery on her face, he grew even angrier. He forcefully shoved her away, causing her to fall uncontrollably. In an instant, she instinctively protected her lower abdomen… then she laughed self-deprecatingly. He didn't want this child anymore, so why should she care?!
"Open your eyes and look!" he roared, as if cursing.
He pulled the Moon King's Seal from his robes and viciously bit his finger, as if he were biting not himself, but his mortal enemy. His bloodied finger plunged into an inconspicuous hole in the stone wall. After a loud rumble, a strange crescent-shaped groove appeared in the flat stone wall, perfectly accommodating the Moon King's Seal.
As the seal was being embedded, Xiao Yuan had to cover her ears; the sound of the boulder moving made her feel like her internal organs were being shaken.
She stared in disbelief at what she saw before her… The stone chamber she had thought after the opening of the Soul-Severing Gate was enormous, but it turned out to be merely the outer chamber of the Gem-Hidden Cave! Behind the stone door opened by Yi Chunjun lay an even larger and more magnificent true mountain interior, a completely sealed cave. By the light streaming through the dome of the outer chamber, she could clearly see the gold and silver treasures inside, like waves of gold and silver.
Gazing at these things... her mind remained blank. Before she could see this astonishing treasure, she felt resentment and hatred. Now that she saw it, she felt no emotion whatsoever.
Should I be happy, or should I cry?
“You don’t believe me!” he sneered. “Perhaps I really shouldn’t have made that final test.”
A final test? Did he secretly take the Moon King's Seal to test her?
"Testing me? Don't you trust me either?!"
She questioned him in a trembling voice.
"Perhaps," he chuckled a few times. "Before I tell you all my secrets, I'd better..." He paused. Then, frowning, he changed the subject, "Your Majesty, all your wealth is nothing but dirt compared to my beloved Li Yuan'er!"
Originally my beloved...?
She looked up at him blankly, his face cold and indifferent. The way he looked at her... she finally understood the deepest heartache!