Three Years

In front of the treehouse.

Zhang Shuhui sat beneath the man-eating tree, staring blankly at the sky.

She had clearly been most afraid of thunder and lightning long ago. When had she stopped being afraid?

She couldn't remember.

She had always tried very hard to forget the things from that original world.

She had also always tried very hard to pretend that the future was promising.

But why? Why had the approachable Cult Master of Tingfeng City still decided to sacrifice a million people?

It seemed she had once again walked down the path planned for the villain.

Her butcher's knife had been sharpened to a razor edge, but this time, there was no chance to use it.

Because A-Qing had grown extremely large. The nearly fifteen-meter-tall man-eating tree had tentacles that all looked terrifying and grotesque. Outsiders instinctively kept their distance from it, so no one approached the treehouse.

Zhang Shuhui felt that A-Qing no longer needed her protection.

Lightning flickered in and out of sight.

At times, it illuminated all of Tingfeng City, as though it would split the sky in two, as though it could strike down upon her head at any moment.

But when the lightning vanished, an even deeper darkness followed.

Zhang Shuhui leaned against the man-eating tree. "A-Qing, neither of us had a choice. I understand what Lord Yan Chi meant now. It wasn't that we chose one path or another. From beginning to end, we were all being pushed forward by fate.

"A-Qing, will Lord Yan Chi die?"

She was nearly crying when she said this.

That was the child she had watched "grow up." His first meal, his first steps, his first time writing.

The child she had taught so earnestly had truly come into this world on the day Jiang You