Shrek City, the rooftop of a loft.
Two figures sat shoulder to shoulder on the eaves, overlooking the bustling streets below in silence.
A gentle breeze ruffled their clothes.
"Ah—"
Leaning against a raised roof ridge, Bei Bei held a jug of wine and let out a deep sigh.
He tipped his head back and gulped it down. Wine trickled from the corner of his mouth, soaking his collar.
"Sanshi... tell me why. Why did Xiao Ya turn out like this?"
"Wasn't I good enough to her? Yes, I'm a good person... but I want to be her lover even more!"
Bei Bei took another swig and gave a hoarse, anguished growl.
Just moments ago, he had summoned every ounce of courage he had to confess to Tang Ya. All he got in return was, "You're a good person."
How could he accept that?
He had joined the Tang Sect partly because of their ancestor's hint, but also because of his feelings for Xiao Ya!
Three years!
When Xiao Ya was thirsty, he brought her water. When she was tired, he let her lean on him... You could say he'd done everything he could for her.
So why had Xiao Ya rejected him?
"I don't understand—"
Bei Bei suddenly sprang to his feet, worked up and unsteady as he pointed toward the Shrek district, where the first lights of evening had begun to glow.
"Three years ago, Xiao Ya and I met in Shrek City. Everywhere we went, people blessed us and envied us... We truly had every advantage of timing!"
"That boundless vitality, that scene of all creation surging forth—I can still see it before my eyes! How, in just three short years, had this place become the site of my defeat?"
"No matter how you looked at it... the advantage was mine! The advantage was mine!"
He roared at the sky, his voice echoing across the empty rooftop.
Then his knees buckled, and he dropped onto the tiles, supporting himself with both hands as he trembled, as if demanding to know why heaven had treated him so unfairly.
(Snowflakes drift~ The north wind howls~)
"Ah... Bei Bei, she rejected you. So what?"
Xu Sanshi patted his shoulder and sighed helplessly.
He'd lost count of how many times he'd been rejected. You didn't see him carrying on like his life was over. A man shouldn't let romance make him brainless.
"No! You don't understand!"
Bei Bei knocked Xu Sanshi's hand away and raised his head, a glimmer of tears in his eyes.
"We're not the same! Jiang Nannan doesn't give you the time of day... but I could tell Xiao Ya liked me before. At least a tiny bit..."
"But ever since he showed up, Xiao Ya changed... She became cold and selfish."
Xu Sanshi: ...
He felt as if he'd taken ten thousand points of damage, but for the sake of his heartbroken buddy, he endured it.
Still, seeing Bei Bei so utterly dejected, he couldn't help wondering who had stolen Tang Ya away.
To be fair, from what he'd seen before, Tang Ya might have been average in talent and full of tricks, but she had genuinely cared for Bei Bei.
Even so, he knew better than to ask. If Bei Bei's spirits crumbled completely, Mu En would hang him from the Golden Tree and beat him bloody.
"Bei Bei, weren't you always telling me, 'There are plenty of fish in the sea. Why pin all your hopes on one flower?'"
Xu Sanshi stepped closer and put an arm around Bei Bei's shoulders.
"Not to put too fine a point on it, but Tang Ya isn't good enough for you! It's a good thing she left! There are a few promising new junior sisters this year..."
"Like that girl from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect—uh, never mind. She's here to hook herself a rich husband."
Counting them off on his fingers, he gave Bei Bei a rundown of every famous beauty in the Outer Academy.
But Bei Bei said nothing. He just kept calling for Xiao Ya, so lovesick that the sight of him was both heartbreaking and a little painful to watch.
"I'm done with this!"
Xu Sanshi rolled his eyes, thumped Bei Bei hard in the chest, and cursed him for being so hopeless.
"It's just a woman! How can you act like your life is over—huh?"
He cut himself off.
Xu Sanshi's gaze suddenly locked onto the street ahead, and he froze as if under a binding spell.
Something there seemed to hold a strange power over him, drawing his very soul away.
"What's wrong, Sanshi?"
Bei Bei snapped out of his grief and noticed Xu Sanshi's strange behavior.
Xu Sanshi stood rigidly in place like a petrified thousand-year-old tortoise, staring blankly at the street ahead.
He didn't answer Bei Bei. Instead, his face flushed red, the color creeping from his neck up to his ears, and his whole body began to tremble.
Bei Bei followed his gaze—
Then froze too.
Far away, on the crowded street, a young man and woman strolled leisurely in the sunshine, their arms linked.
They chatted and laughed, close and affectionate.
One of them was none other than Jiang Nannan, whom Xu Sanshi had pursued for three years. And, even more coincidentally, the young man beside her was Jiang Yi.
"It's him again..."
Bei Bei drew a deep breath, his chest feeling as if something had lodged in it.
He'd never forget that guy's face, not even on his deathbed.
"You know him?"
Xu Sanshi looked at Bei Bei, holding back his surging fury. His voice sounded as if he were forcing the words through clenched teeth.
Who was this Little Scumbag? He'd come to steal Xu Sanshi's girl right under his nose?
The nerve.
"..."
Bei Bei was silent, but his expression told Xu Sanshi everything in an instant.
"Fuck! He's two-timing them, too! I'll kill him!"
Xu Sanshi exploded, rolled up his sleeves, and started to charge.
This bastard had stolen his buddy's girl, sure—but now he was going after his, too? And both at once? The goddess he'd pursued so desperately was letting someone else climb on top?
Just look at Nannan's smile... Xu Sanshi had spent three years fawning over her and barely ever seen one!
Even shit could be tolerated, but a mouse couldn't!
Fuck it. Let's go!
"Wait! Sanshi!"
Bei Bei's expression changed. He hurriedly lunged forward and grabbed Xu Sanshi.
"Let go of me, Bei Bei! I'm going to kill that bastard!"
Xu Sanshi's face turned bright red. Like an enraged bull, he struggled to charge forward.
"Everyone in Shrek knows Nannan is mine!"
"And besides—aren't I helping you get revenge? Why are you stopping me?"
"No, we can't hurt him. Xiao Ya will get angry..."
Bei Bei held Xu Sanshi back with all his strength, still thinking about Tang Ya. He couldn't make Xiao Ya angry again.
Otherwise, they might not even be able to stay friends.
Xu Sanshi: "???"
His chest heaved with fury. His trembling finger jabbed toward Bei Bei.
"I'll fuck your mother—Bei Bei! You green-haired tortoise! Let go of me!!!"
While the two tortoises struggled, Jiang Yi rubbed his hands together and looked at Jiang Nannan with an awkward grin.
"Actually, Nannan, I meant to tell you, but things got a little rushed. I didn't have time to leave your aunt a note."
Back then, he'd suddenly had an idea to wait for Huo Yutong in Star Luo City, so he hadn't returned to town.
Jiang Nannan's family also lived in Zhenxin Town.
By their family's reckoning, if you went back a dozen or so generations, she might even have been Jiang Yi's distant great-aunt.
Of course, they were far beyond the prohibited degrees of kinship, and besides, he'd survived back then thanks to Mother Jiang's charity.
The lands around Zhenxin Town belonged to the Black Tortoise Sect. Zhenxin Town alone was an exclave of the Body Sect.
And it was precisely because the Body Sect cast such a wide net that children from ordinary families like Jiang Nannan and the others could get their Martial Souls awakened for free.
Before you continue