At this moment, my pain was real, etched deep into my bones.
It was precisely because I had never wanted to abandon Ranxing that I had suffered through this kind of agonizing struggle time and time again.
Who could possibly understand how I felt?
No matter who it was, the first person they saw would always be Zhaoxuan.
Shuang Yue had been waiting for me to make a choice.
I slowly lifted my head, my gaze rippling like water, flickering incessantly.
"Senior Sister Shuangyue, have you ever thought about something?"
"Many people have said similar things to me, telling me to abandon Ye Ranxing. If she was destined to be disliked from the moment she was born, destined to have no one care about her, then what if I, her mother, did the same? Wouldn't her life be left with nothing but despair and darkness?"
"I've always told myself that even when surrounded by darkness, I must never forget to yearn for the light."
"Honestly, I am afraid of the light, and even feel a little repelled by it."
"But that's no reason for me to abandon my daughter, or to refuse to reach out and pull her up again."
"What I'm trying to say is that even if she's a baleful star who brings misfortune, even if she was born without a single blessing and stands against the entire world, I, her mother, will still reach out to her without hesitation."
"Maybe, just maybe, I'm the last straw she has left to cling to."
"In everyone else's eyes, she may be nothing but a vessel for evil. But to me, she's simply my daughter—the daughter I gave birth to myself."
The empty courtyard fell silent in an instant.
All that remained was the rustling of the Ginkgo Tree and