Two days later, deep in Gourd Valley, beneath the five-colored peach tree—the place where Mu Tong had been buried—Dan Qiulin and Mu Tong stood facing each other, yet neither said a word.
Over the past two days, Dan Qiulin had explained everything that had happened to Mu Tong, and she now understood her situation.
She had already died, but Dan Qiulin had gone to extraordinary lengths to bring her back to life. Something that should have been impossible had truly happened. The impact this had on Mu Tong was easy to imagine.
After an unknown stretch of silence, Mu Tong looked at Dan Qiulin and smiled sadly. Her eyes brimming with tears, she choked out, "Senior Brother, why did you go to such lengths? It wasn't worth it. I wasn't worth all this."
"You're my junior sister. I couldn't bear to face you as nothing but a cold corpse, and I didn't want to see you turn to the dust of history with the passage of time. So I wanted to bring you back, and I did. Whether it was worth it or not doesn't matter," Dan Qiulin replied calmly.
"But, Senior Brother, did you ever think about how I feel? Did you ask what I wanted?" Mu Tong said with a bitter smile.
Before Dan Qiulin could answer, she continued, "Yes, Senior Brother, you went to extraordinary lengths to bring me back. That's a great kindness to me. But did you ever think about what meaning there is in my coming back to life? Am I supposed to go on living in torment and pain?"
Dan Qiulin had no answer to that. He could only remain silent.
Indeed, now that he thought about it, bringing Mu Tong back had been something he'd done on his own assumption, without ever