Gu Yuena remained in her previous posture, sitting perfectly still, her violet eyes fixed on the spot where the light screen had vanished.
Long Jinyu sat quietly beside her.
After roughly a dozen breaths, Gu Yuena gently closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the light in those violet eyes had dimmed somewhat.
"...Jin Yu, she chose it herself. She chose it herself, didn't she?"
"She did."
"Then when she sacrificed herself, did she know she would die?"
"She knew. She understood very clearly what sacrifice meant."
"...Then why did she still do it?"
Long Jinyu fell silent.
He recalled Wang Qiu'er's final glance before her sacrifice in the original story—there had been no fear, no unwillingness, only the calmness of someone who had finally accomplished something.
"...Because she liked him."
"She liked him..."
"Yes. She liked him enough to trade her life for his. When she left, she had no regrets."
Long Jinyu added, "But she should never have been driven to that point."
Gu Yuena's eyelashes trembled. "What do you mean?"
"The Auspicious Beast's tragedy had already been destined from that moment onward—the strand of divine consciousness Tang San planted between her brows was not merely meant to make her fall in love more easily. It was a wedge."
Long Jinyu's voice was low. "It took root in her bloodline, turning her fate, destiny, life, and death into a chess game that some existence could arrange in advance. She thought she had 'chosen' to like him, 'chosen' to sacrifice herself—"
He rose to his feet and looked at his two elder sisters.
"But how many of those choices were truly hers, and how many had been written for her by that strand of divine consciousness?"
Yu set down the cup in her hand, her emerald eyes reflecting