Bodies lay strewn for miles, their purplish-black blood mixing with sand and seeping into the cracks of the earth. The searing sunlight illuminated Jingwei from behind, casting a blurry shadow before her. Within that shadow seemed to hide a person, a child trapped in an alleyway for fifty thousand years, weeping in self-loathing for her own weakness.
Hua sat slumped on the pile of Honkai Beast corpses. Upon seeing the person before her, her dead, withered eyes sparked back to life. It was like a single drop of rain falling into a mirror-still lake, creating ripple after ripple that spread through her heart, as soft as goose down.
Ever since the deaths of Nuwa and Fuxi, Li Mo and Hua had gone their separate ways.
One, filled with confusion and doubt, had left decisively, desperate to find the answer to death; the other, insecure and sensitive, had hesitated too long to ask him to stay, losing a thousand years of his time.
Waiting through the long years, Hua's memories became an unbearable burden. Over and over, she used Fenghuang Down to store the excess.
To avoid guilt and pain, she stored away all the memories of causing her comrades' deaths.
To avoid regret and suppression, she forgot every last detail of every battle from the Previous Era.
To avoid fatigue and weariness, she sealed away every person she had met over the past few hundred years—whether interesting or dull, kind or ugly—from the emperor who revered her as a national preceptor and swore to praise the Immortal Jingwei's name for a thousand years, down to the street vendor who sold her wontons.
Insignificant memories, meaningless memories, or perhaps irreplaceable memories, precious memories—all were sealed away one by one.
But she never discarded a single memory related to Li Mo.
She had thought this was how she would live out the rest of her life, her old friends withering away one by one, until no one in the world knew her anymore.
Even her closest family would no longer approach her. Or perhaps, he had met someone better and forgotten her.
Forgotten Hua.
That's how it should have been. But Lady Luck played a joke on Hua.
She said, You are lucky.
"I'm here, Hua. It's me, Mo."
"I found you."
Li Mo, whose time had begun to turn again, stepped forward and held the blood-stained Hua in his arms.
Hua cautiously raised her head, blinking her eyes repeatedly.
It was him.
It was just...
His appearance had changed. The romantic pink eyes were gone, replaced by a pair of simple, unadorned eyes.
There was no brilliant color, no radiant light shimmering within them.
They were plain, and ordinary.
And he called her not by Jingwei, but by her real name—Hua.
"Mo... why are you here? Weren't you..."
Li Mo, with some difficulty, lifted Hua into his arms, interrupting her. A joyful smile bloomed on his face. "I've walked too far, so far that I almost forgot myself."
"Hua, did you know? I set out to find you three hundred years ago, because I had already found the answer I was looking for. I also know what I'm living for—"
"I want to make you happy."
"Barren jungles, barren deserts, dark swamps, hazy valleys, icy snowfields..."
"I walked these paths quickly, but whenever I entered a crowd, I would forget the way I came, and where I was supposed to go next. I think, it's not just me. Nuwa, Fuxi, Xiao Yun, and you—we're all the same. We're easily influenced by others and forget what we originally wanted to do, what we should do."
"The easiest place to get lost is not a vast jungle, but a bustling crowd."
Li Mo lowered his head. His ordinary, brownish eyes, typical of the people of Shenzhou, were filled with an incredibly rich tapestry of emotions, seeming even more dazzling than his once-brilliant pink eyes.
Hua didn't understand. If he was always getting lost in the crowd, how could he have found her so accurately?
Li Mo didn't answer the question. He kept his gaze fixed on Hua and said, word by word:
"Hua, my time has begun to turn."
Hua asked, puzzled, "What do you mean?"
Li Mo shook his head and squeezed Hua's delicate body tightly in his arms. Hua couldn't help but bury her head to hide her embarrassment.
"It's nothing. Go to sleep. When you wake up, everything will be better," Li Mo said, gently stroking Hua's blue-gray hair, signaling her to rest.
"No... I'm afraid that if I close my eyes and fall asleep, you'll leave without a word, just like you did before. And when I wake up, I'll be all alone."
"I searched for a long time, asked many people. They said you had left long ago, without leaving anything behind."
"I had a feeling you would leave, but I didn't have the right to ask you to stay. I knew I had done something wrong... I was afraid that if I said anything, it would make you even more upset, and you would leave me."
Li Mo let out a long sigh, looking up at the clear, blue sky. A pale yellow dawn was breaking on the horizon, slowly spreading.
"Their deaths weren't your fault. Be good. Listen to me. You're very tired. Get some sleep."
"I won't leave this time."
"As long as I'm alive..."
Li Mo coaxed the revered and feared Immortal as if she were a small child.
"Mmm... okay..." Gradually, Hua slowly closed her eyes.
After several days and nights of high-intensity fighting, Hua was completely exhausted.
It was true she was a psychic-type MANTIS, but her heart was already like dead wood. She was depressed and suppressed by countless negative emotions, and the almost frenzied slaughter had left her physically and mentally drained.
Li Mo had seen it all. He had watched Hua become cruel, using the most primitive methods to relieve her stress.
If this had been before he sank into the lake, Li Mo would have stepped in to stop her immediately.
But now he had been reborn. At the cost of his endless life, he had regained the concept of self. He was no longer someone who simply went with the flow.
His appearance would not change, but at the end, he would age rapidly and eventually die.
But that was a matter for later.
This was his choice.
He chose to die, and he would die willingly.
Li Mo gazed calmly at Mount Taixuan, and many things came to mind.
Before they died, Fuxi and Nuwa created the Book of Fuxi for Jingwei, adding many humorous and witty system functions so that Jingwei would no longer be lonely.
Xiao Yun, even as her mind was nearly overwhelmed by memories, had held on for hundreds of years, dragging it out until she found the whereabouts of the Immortal Jingwei and told him, so that he would not be lonely.
And he... he couldn't do the same thing. A mirror could never give Hua happiness.
But Hua had opened the box and released him. He had to give Hua happiness.
Over the long years, Li Mo had searched his mind for the memories he had overlooked. Finally, he found the answer.
To throw the box that sealed him into the Mirror Lake, then sink to the bottom himself, and await a special rebirth...
Li Mo didn't know the price of doing so, but as long as there was hope, he wouldn't give up. He was on the verge of losing his self; he absolutely couldn't delay any longer.
"Just like at the very beginning, Hua. This time, I will walk with you to my end."
Li Mo took the initiative and crossed that boundary, leaning down to kiss Hua's forehead.
This was something he absolutely could not have done before. Because Hua wouldn't take the initiative, so he wouldn't either.
Now, he could act on his own desires, without being constrained by his nature.
Dusk. The setting sun was fading. The last warm ray of sunlight shone through the window into the room. The soft light was like a golden silk ribbon, gently covering every inch of space.
Attracted by the hazy light, Hua rubbed her eyes. Above her was the familiar ceiling of her room.
"Was it a dream...?"
"It must have been a dream. How could Mo have said something like that..."
Hua hugged herself, her lips pursed. A sense of loss filled her heart, and a lonely expression appeared on her face.
But the sadness didn't last a second before it was dispelled by Li Mo's voice.
"Good afternoon, Hua. Would you like some afternoon tea? I just got it from your pantry and brewed it. I don't think you have the habit of drinking afternoon tea, though. The tea set was practically a dust set. I spent a long time washing it."
Li Mo poured tea into a delicate little cup and held it out to Hua.
Hua froze for a moment. Her mind hadn't caught up yet, but her hand had already subconsciously taken it.
"What, are you staring at me because you're hoping for more? Alright, alright. Today, this former house-husband will cook you a nice home-cooked meal. You just wait here and don't move. I'll go down the mountain to buy two oran—oh, wait, I mean, buy some ingredients."
Li Mo stood up, ready to push open the door and leave.
Seeing this, Hua quickly put down her cup and rushed over to grab his wrist.
"Don't... go..."
"...Look at my memory. Let's go together. The last time we went grocery shopping together was fifty thousand years ago. I remember we were in elementary school then. Because you couldn't cook, your uncle told you to go buy groceries."
"But when you went alone, you either lost the money on the way there, or you lost the groceries on the way back. Pfft... haha, sorry, sorry, I couldn't help but laugh. Anyway, to boost your confidence and break your bad luck curse, your uncle had me go with you. And what happened? The aunties at the market saw me and gave us a whole bunch of fruits and vegetables. We got all the groceries without spending a single cent and went home."
"What do you think? Will the same thing happen this time?" Li Mo said enthusiastically, throwing Hua an obvious yet hard-to-judge question.
Hua listened to these familiar stories. She couldn't remember them clearly; most of these memories seemed to be stored in Fenghuang Down.
But there was one thing she remembered very clearly. At that time, she was like a little sidekick, holding Li Mo's hand as they walked through the bustling crowd.
The whole way was safe and sound. Nothing unlucky happened. Even she herself couldn't believe it was real.
"You really are Mo..."
"Could it be fake? My eye color may have changed, but you can't have forgotten me this quickly, right? I'm a little hurt. I remember you very clearly. I'm sad, I want to cry..."
Li Mo sighed dramatically, putting on a wronged expression.
Before the dazed Hua could react, Li Mo took her hand. "Hehe, I'm just kidding. Let's go, let's go. I didn't take off your clothes when you were in bed anyway, so let's just go down the mountain and buy ingredients. Tonight, I'll cook you a delicious meal!"
"...Mhm."
The crowd at the foot of the mountain was still as large as ever, immersed in the joy of the New Year. Many vendors had set up their stalls, calling out to passersby to buy their wares.
Hua was currently dressed in an ink-wash style Taoist robe, revealing her long, fair thighs. In Li Mo's opinion, it was a bit... risqué.
However, this tiny bit of sexiness vanished without a trace under her flat chest, failing to arouse any desire.
"Mo, this isn't right..."
Hua wanted to warn him. His gaze was fixed squarely on her chest, which was very impolite for a girl.
But Li Mo had a solemn expression on his face, without a trace of impure thoughts in his eyes. After a moment of contemplation, he said, "This can't be right... Fifty thousand years, and it's still not bigger than before? Are you sure you're my Hua?"
"..."
Hua nervously clenched her hands, walked past Li Mo, and hurried ahead with quick, small steps.
If it had been anyone else who had said such rude and crude words, their head would have been kowtowing on the ground three times over.
But...
Hua bit her lip. She didn't seem to dislike Li Mo's flirtatiousness...
Am I being too bad?
Unconsciously, Hua walked into a butcher shop.
"Immortal, what an honor! Your presence brings light to my humble shop! Please, stop there, Immortal. It's too dirty inside; I'm afraid it will stain your clothes."
"Just tell me what you'd like, Immortal, and I'll be sure to get you the best!" the butcher greeted her enthusiastically, calling over his slacking assistant to pick out the best cuts of meat.
"That won't be necessary, I..."
Hua was about to say that she ate lightly, but then she suddenly remembered Li Mo was there. She fell silent and turned to look at him.
Li Mo naturally walked up beside Hua and, in plain sight, reached out and held her hand firmly.
"Ngh..." Hua grunted, then turned her head away, pretending not to care.
She knew Li Mo was recreating the scene of them shopping together fifty thousand years ago.
"Boss, a pound of this, five liang of that. Yes, yes, no fat. Thank you."
"When I get back, I'm definitely going to cook a delicious meal for my Immortal!"
Li Mo made his requests familiarly and shouted boisterously.
Instantly, his somewhat arrogant words attracted the gazes of countless neighbors and passersby. Pedestrians, vendors, and even frolicking children couldn't help but turn to look.
The Immortal Jingwei, protector of Shenzhou, the one true Immortal—everyone was too busy being in awe of her. How could someone dare to claim the Immortal was theirs?
"Who is this spouting such nonsense! How dare you be so disrespectful to the Immortal Jingwei!"
"That's right! This is outrageous! Don't you know who the Immortal Jingwei is? She was personally appointed by the emperor, a national preceptor who can ignore court affairs but is above all others!"
The Immortal's fervent believers jumped out from the crowd and roared. But when they saw Li Mo holding Hua's hand, and that Hua not only didn't resist but even showed a shy, pleased expression like a mortal woman, they were immediately silenced.
An idea suddenly popped into Li Mo's head. He leaned in close to Hua's ear and whispered, "Hua, you have so many fans. This is so much fun~"
Hua lowered her head, really wanting to say she didn't know them.
Just as she was about to explain, Li Mo said something that would have shocked Hua for fifty thousand years:
"Actually... I'm a huge fan of yours too, Hua~" Li Mo whispered in her ear.
It was incredibly intimate.
In the eyes of the crowd, Hua's ears turned crimson at a speed visible to the naked eye. The bright blush didn't fade, but instead spread to her swan-like, beautiful white neck, adding a touch of exquisite color.
This time, it seemed that everything was heading in the right direction.