97 Angels and Devils

  This night seems long, yet it also seems short.

  Xiao Qingzhu woke up when it was still dark outside. The soreness all over her body made her involuntarily recall the scenes from last night, and she blushed slightly, turning sideways to bury her head in Du Siling's arms. Du Siling's body always had a faint scent of milk, and although this warm fragrance now carried a hint of coolness, it still made Xiao Qingzhu feel at ease and nostalgic.

  Douslin seems to be sleeping very soundly, her deep breathing, chest slowly and regularly rising and falling. Xiao Qingzhu hooked up a gentle smile, this fool, still tightly holding her hand in his sleep.

  After a long while, Xiao Qingzhu finally lifted her head, and her gaze fell on the tangled green silk threads, and she smiled again.

  "Fool, your heart is like a double-layered net, with thousands of knots inside. What you're thinking in your mind, how would I not know? Xiao Qingzhu's fingertips gently swept across Du Shilin's cheek, and Du Shilin's eyebrows seemed to furrow slightly, but his hand grasping Xiao Qingzhu's tightened its grip instead. "Alright, I should be going." Xiao Qingzhu coquettishly scratched the bridge of Du Shilin's nose and said."

  She lifted the quilt and got up. Her long hair fell down like a waterfall, setting off her skin's pure whiteness.

  Douslin opened her eyes, sat up from the bed, and rubbed her temples. Her voice was as calm as a dead sea: "You still have to go."

  Xiao Qingzhu's body shook slightly, but she didn't turn around again. She just responded with a "Hmm" and then silently got dressed and packed up.

  "You have a part in this too, don't you?" Du Siling remained seated, her throbbing temples making her feel unwell. Xiao Qingzhu's impending departure made her heart ache, yet she couldn't bring herself to stop him.

  All she heard was the sound of clothes falling to the ground, Xiao Qingzhu turned around, staring at Du Siling in disbelief. In that instant when she turned around, her eyes seemed to have a stormy sea, raging and ravaging. But it was only for that one moment.

  When her gaze fell on Duslin's body, there was only calm left.

  "You all know now?" Xiao Qingzhu took a deep breath and smiled.

  "I knew it from the moment I saw you." Du Sulin got up from the bed, casually grabbed a robe and put it on, and walked step by step towards Xiao Qingzhu. A surge of anger rose in her heart for no reason. When she stood in front of Xiao Qingzhu, she stretched out both hands to grasp Xiao Qingzhu's shoulders and shouted: "Are you stupid? Why...?"

  She wanted to say, Xiao Qingzhu, why don't you want to tell a lie to deceive me? Why do you have to admit it? But as she spoke, her hands slowly fell, and she knelt down in front of Xiao Qingzhu.

  She lowered her head, and the heaving of her shoulders told Xiao Qingzhu that her heart was stormy.

  Xiao Qingzhu's heart was as if pierced by a sharp blade, and she subconsciously wanted to squat down and pull Du Siling into her arms. The hand that had been suspended in mid-air looked hesitant and heavy, but in the end, she still withdrew it.

  "So, you're going to kill me?"

  Xiao Qingzhu's words were like heavy drumbeats, echoing in Du Siling's ears again and again. Her head was getting more and more painful.

  "Si Lin," Xiao Qingzhu finally squatted down, but her face was icy cold. Her hand rested on Du Si Lin's shoulder as she called out to him.

  Du Sulin still lowered his head and refused to make eye contact with Xiao Qingzhu, like a sulky child.

  Xiao Qingzhu pinched Du Siling's chin, and as their skin touched, the warmth of last night flashed through her mind again. She furrowed her brow, and her grip tightened slightly, a smile playing on her lips, seemingly mocking yet disdainful. "Du Siling, you're so weak now, how could you have killed me?"

  Du Sulin looked at the woman who was close to her, with an icy expression as if she were a thousand-year-old ice mountain. She was still somewhat bewildered, why did her heart ache so much, yet she was still so gentle towards this woman.

  She already knew this fact when she saw her.

  Her body was shrouded in too much resentment and death, the intensity of which was unbelievable. Yet she had no karma. There could only be one explanation for this.

  Xiao Qingzhu's hands were stained with too many lives. Those people died unjustly, and the resentment they had before their death also fell on her body. She didn't know what means she used to cut off the cause and effect with all those people, so that these resentments couldn't be transmitted, but only entwined around her body.

  Such a person is more terrifying than a devil from hell. Du Shulin knows everything, but she just can't bring herself to raise her hand to kill her.

  "It's boring." Xiao Qingzhu said coldly.

  She withdrew her hand, and Duslin was still in a daze, and actually fell to the ground.

  "Why..." Duslin was still muttering to himself.

  Xiao Qingzhu turned around and was about to leave, no longer hesitating.

  But when she wanted to push the window open, she found that the entire room had been unknowingly sealed with a large array. A pale golden spiritual force barrier isolated this room from the outside world.

  "You still haven't given me a reason." Du Sulin propped himself up and stood up, looking at Xiao Qingzhu with deep eyes, the black pupils hiding a stormy rain, the clarity of the past was no longer visible.

  Xiao Qingzhu sneered and said: "Killing is just killing, what reason is needed?"

  "Do you know that what you're doing will bring heavenly punishment and your soul will scatter?! Du Siling finally couldn't help but roar out in anger. Such thick resentment, just how many people did Xiao Qingzhu kill?!"

  "A person lives only once, just doing what they want to do, why bother accumulating for the next life." Facing Du Si Lin's anger, Xiao Qing Zhu seemed too calm, and the more she was like this, the more furious Du Si Lin became. "It's late, I should go."

  She turned sideways, wanting to stretch out her hand to push the window when a bright yellow talisman, like a sharp dagger, was almost stuck to Xiao Qingzhu's hand and nailed straight to the place where she was about to touch.

  Douslin's chest heaved violently as she panted heavily, seemingly trying to calm down her anger.

  Xiao Qingzhu didn't get angry, but instead looked at Du Siling with a smile that had a deep meaning, "What, do you still want to keep me here and have a romantic night together?"

  "I..." Du Sulin's words got stuck, she didn't think so herself, but Xiao Qingzhu mentioned it, and her gaze caught the remaining kiss mark on Xiao Qingzhu's neck, she was stunned for a moment.

  "Haha... " Xiao Qingzhu's hand touched the talisman paper that Du Siling had just shot onto the window, and this time, she easily pushed open the window, walked out to the balcony, and jumped down.

  All Du Sulin could do was to follow the trail left by Xiao Qingzhu, stretch out her hand and grab it, the soft long hair slid across her palm, and her heart suddenly felt empty.

  "Fool!" Tai Yangzi's figure appeared beside Du Si Lin, he looked at Du Si Lin's hand still suspended in mid-air and shook his head with a sigh.

  Du Sulin ignored him and simply withdrew her hand. She lowered her head, looking at her own hand slowly clenching into a fist, with cracking joints.

  "Are you really going to kill Xiao Qingzhu?" asked Tai Yangzi.

  Douslin remained silent and walked back to her room, passing by the floor-to-ceiling window, she reached out and stroked it, the golden spiritual energy following her hand back into her body.

  It wasn't until the sky gradually brightened that Du Sulin raised her head, gazing at the sky which had already turned a pale white. A scene suddenly flashed in her mind.

  That woman, serene and otherworldly, smiled with eyes like a crescent moon. She placed her hand on her own chest and said to her, "There is no eternal darkness in the night sky; the sun will always rise, bringing vibrant vitality." She asked her, "Xī Lín, has the sun of life risen within your heart?"

  "What's in my life..."

  "Where's the sun...?" Duslin subconsciously stroked her own chest, where there was no heartbeat. But she seemed to still be able to feel her true heartbeat. "Without you, how can it rise?"

  Douslin's fist clenched tighter and tighter, she raised her head, her eyebrows locked into a dead knot, her eyes somewhat empty and dazed.

  "Sunzi, do you love Peng Hua Tian?" She asked Sunzi beside her.

  Taiyangzi was taken aback, a thoughtful expression on his handsome face. "To be honest, I don't know how to answer this question. All I can say is that I've loved before, because it was Luo Qian who loved Peng Haotian, not Taiyangzi."

  "Aren't you Luo Qian? Isn't Luo Qian you?" Du Siling said with a hint of sarcasm.

  Taiyangzi shook his head and said: "Lu Qian is Lu Qian, I am me, Lu Qian was a certain period of my past, but not the current me."

  "That you of the past must have also loved deeply, otherwise you wouldn't have ended up with a suicidal outcome."

  The sun has set, and perhaps Luo Qian's choice to get married and have children is a form of escapism and cowardice, but isn't it also a way to protect Peng Haotian? After all, Luo Qian didn't know that Peng Haotian was an untransformed bone. In that society, how could they tolerate two people like them? If they insisted on taking this path, they would only be treated as outcasts and subjected to the scorn of the world.

  There is always someone who has to take the first step. There is always someone who has to make a ruthless decision.

  The soft slippers trod on the ground without leaving a single sound, Du Siling was light as if she were a floating ghost, she muttered to herself: "So I think, she's like that too."

  As I walked out of the room door, I inadvertently glanced at the balcony of the guest room and found that there was a spark flashing.

  Dousilin took a step forward, subconsciously walking towards that spark of fire.

  Dong Shuanghe appeared in her line of sight, with three or four cigarette butts already scattered around her. The smoke rings she had just blown out were carried away by the morning breeze, leaving behind only a faint scent of tobacco.

  "Can't you sleep either?" Dong Shuanghe suddenly spoke out while leaning against the window.

  Douslin silently sat down beside her, without asking why. Douslin didn't even make a sound with her footsteps, but Dong Shuanghe could sense that it was her. Dong Shuanghe had always been an unfathomable person, and her perspective on the world was always so different from others.

  "Has Qing Zhu left?" Dong Shuanghe glanced at Du Siling beside him, who looked somewhat dispirited, and asked.

  Du Sulin was shocked and turned her head to look at Dong Shuanghe, why, why did she even know this?

  Dong Shuanghe took a deep drag on his cigarette, turned sideways, sat cross-legged facing Du Siling, and smiled.

  For some reason, when Du Sulin saw Dong Shuanghe's smile, the depression in his heart seemed to ease a bit.

  "It's rare to see you looking so disheveled and down in the dumps, and what's more, you didn't even notice that your slippers are on backwards. So I think Qing Zhu must have left." Dong Shuanghe winked at Du Siling, gesturing to his own slippers.

  Du Sulin lowered her head, and indeed it was so. Her slippers were not only worn on the wrong feet, but also belonged to two different people. A wry smile involuntarily appeared at the corner of her mouth. Xiao Qingzhu was right, she was too weak like this.

  "Look at you," as Dong Shuanghe's voice rang out, a hand slapped forcefully on Du Siling's shoulder. "Don't take things too seriously, Qing Zhu has left, can't we just chase after her and bring her back?"

  Du Sulin's eyes seemed to have gained some light, as if she had understood something, but what it was, she still couldn't say.

  "You two, both disappeared for a year, and when you came back, both of you had changed." Dong Shuanghe said as he stroked his chin with his right hand, a thoughtful glint in his eyes. "For you, it's still just a vague feeling, but for Qing Zhu, that feeling is very strong."

  "How does it feel?"

  "Qing Zhu should have killed a lot of people, right?" Dong Shuanghe said with a relaxed tone, as if she didn't care much about Qing Zhu killing people. "I smelled a strong bloody smell on her body, which was not the case with the old Qing Zhu. Moreover, I noticed that when she is alone, she can always emit an aura that separates herself from her surroundings. So I think she probably has been avoiding getting too close to people, after all, the more people you get involved with, the softer your heart becomes."

  "Why then you..." Du Sulin was stunned, Dong Shuanghe's intuition was too sharp, and her powers of observation were also too terrifying.

  "Me?" Dong Shuanghe shrugged, smiling indifferently. "You want to ask me why I didn't mind, right? Why should I mind? Life and death are all predetermined by fate. Besides, I trust Qingzhu. She must have her reasons for doing these things. As a friend, I just need to understand. I think not only me, but everyone who stayed here tonight will have the same thoughts as me."

  "I don't like her being so reckless with herself," Du Sulin lowered her head, her slightly drooping eyelids covering the pain in her eyes. "You probably know that too much killing will bring heavenly punishment, and in the end, it's a path of no return where one's soul disperses. Even if there's some earth-shattering reason, why can't she tell me? Why can't we face it together and take responsibility for it? Why must she choose such an extreme and irreversible path?"

  "Ah!" Dong Shuanghe sighed, "You want Qing Zhu to tell you everything so that you can share the burden with her. But have you done the same for her? When you went alone to kill the drought demon, did you ever think about what would happen to Qing Zhu if you really died together? I think Qing Zhu's changes also occurred during the year you were missing. How could she tell you everything and let you accompany her in bearing it when your life or death was unknown? Although it is not clear where she went during that year, it must be related to Peng Haotian. And the reason she did so was still for your sake. Moreover," Dong Shuanghe's mouth curved into a smile as he turned back and leaned against the window, his profound gaze falling into the distance, "Du Sulin, even if Qing Zhu were to suffer heavenly punishment, would you not dare to accompany her? Whether it is above the blue sky or below the yellow spring, would you not dare to be with her?"

  Along with the crisp sound of the lighter, Dong Shuanghe lit another cigarette and handed the pack to Du Siling.

  Du Sulin pulled out a cigarette, lit it. Her eyes grew brighter and brighter, yes, Dong Shuanghe was right, she had been trapped by herself. She suddenly remembered the firm gaze that Xiao Qingzhu inadvertently revealed at the time, and at that time, she should have endured many things that she didn't know about.

  But as for herself, she said that Qing Zhu was not good at taking care of herself, and in the end, it was still her own fault for not being by Qing Zhu's side when she needed her most.

  "Cheer up! No matter how long the dark night is, daylight will always come. Today, you are going to be the hero who saves the beauty."