A Gift (Part 2)

In her memories, Leng Yulai had been proud, passionate, radiant, exceptionally gifted, and arrogantly ambitious.

Even if she hated her, resented her, or ran away in a fit of spite, she should have done so openly and honorably. How could she have fallen so low, becoming an evil soul master—the enemy of the entire continent?

Decades.

A full several decades.

For half her life, she had worried, felt guilty, and punished herself.

Countless times, she had promised herself that if they ever met again, she would cast aside all pride, explain everything properly, make amends properly, and clear up the misunderstanding from back then.

But the truth was so cruel it suffocated her. Her sister had never been avoiding her out of spite.

Overwhelming regret and heartbreak instantly swallowed Leng Yaozhu whole. It felt as though an invisible hand had gripped her heart fiercely, the pain leaving her barely able to breathe.

So it had not been a rift between them.

It had been destruction.

Her momentary silence back then, her failure to explain herself, had personally destroyed the only family she had.

Leng Yaozhu's eyes instantly reddened. For the first time, agony and self-reproach surged through those usually cold, placid eyes with the force of a complete breakdown.

Xiling stood beside her, holding Benares in his arms. He said nothing, merely watched quietly and gave Leng Yaozhu time to steady herself.

Seeing her lose composure, seeing the heart-wrenching pain on her face, Leng Yulai did not soften in the slightest. Instead, her smile became ever more frenzied and shrill. Tears mixed with blood rolled down her cheeks as she spoke in utter misery:

"Surprised? Can't believe it?"

"Leng Yaozhu, you forced all of this upon me!"

"Back then, I saw with my own eyes that you went to find Yun Ming. I thought you had someone you loved and had abandoned me without a care!"

"Everyone's eyes were always on you! Talent, reputation, glory, favor—everything belonged to you!"

"I could only ever live in your shadow!"

"You stood at the peak of the light, so I fell into endless darkness! You were the pure vice tower master of the Spirit Pagoda, so I became the filthiest evil soul ghost!"

"I wanted to destroy myself! Destroy everything around you! I wanted you to spend the rest of your life drowning in guilt!"

Every word wept blood, every sentence was madness.

The room fell deathly silent.

Leng Yaozhu stood where she was, her body trembling faintly, unable to say a single word for a long time.

All the concern, hope, and self-consolation she had buried in her heart over the years shattered completely in that instant.

At last, she understood.

She understood the years of utter silence, her sister's obsessive hatred, and just how laughable the torment of her own half-life had been.

After a long while, she slowly closed her eyes. When she opened them again, there was only endless exhaustion and self-reproach in them.

She turned to Xiling beside her, her voice hoarse and broken, carrying a vulnerability she had never shown before.

For the first time before another person, she completely shed the pride and composure of the tower master, laying bare all her wretchedness and regret.

"I... never knew."

"I truly... didn't know at all."

"I thought she only hated me, avoided me, and didn't want to see me."

"I never imagined... she would become like this."

Leng Yaozhu's gaze dimmed, every word heavy.

"It was I... who wronged her."

Seeing his teacher like this, though he had expected it, Xiling still could not help sighing. "Teacher, she is the one who wronged you."

With that, he glanced at Leng Yulai and continued, "I'll leave her to you, Teacher. Whether you let her go or keep her, you decide."

He did not offer any comfort. The matter between the two sisters was not something an outsider like him could speak on. It was better to let them handle it themselves.

Leaving the space to the two of them, Xiling carried Benares out of the room with light steps and closed the door behind him.

He drew a clear line between things.

Master and disciple were master and disciple. Grudges were grudges.

The blood and tears that had entangled the Leng sisters for half their lives were a dead knot that outsiders could neither enter nor untie.

No matter how much consolation there was, no matter what was fair or right, it all seemed shallow and unnecessary at this moment.

Rather than remain to watch this suffocating collapse, it was better to step away entirely and return the little space and dignity they had left to the two sisters.

The sounds of cooking gradually rose from the kitchen.

Washing vegetables, chopping them, heating oil—the ordinary, trivial warmth of daily life slowly diluted the bone-chilling hostility that had filled the room moments ago.

Yet the whole house remained deathly quiet.

The heavy door shut out every sound from outside, along with that small warmth of human life.

Only the two women remained in confrontation, along with decades of resentment and regret.

After Xiling left, the frenzied, shrill smile on Leng Yulai's face slowly froze and faded.

No one was watching her. No one was judging her. No one was using righteousness or right and wrong to scrutinize the filth covering her entire body.

The hysterical facade she had put on just moments ago no longer needed to be forcibly maintained.

The chains hung on the floor, utterly motionless.

She lowered her eyes. Her long lashes trembled without pause, bloodstains marring her face as she looked wretched, almost pitiful.

The towering hatred she had just poured out at Leng Yaozhu abruptly hollowed out by more than half in the dead silence where no one watched.

Did she hate her?

She did.

But that hatred had sustained her for half her life. It had carried her from a radiant genius to an evil soul master despised by all, kept her barely alive in the darkness, and allowed her to survive amid blood and filth on the edge of a blade.

Yet when Leng Yaozhu truly broke down, truly regretted it, and clearly told her—I wronged you—

She was instead at a loss.

The satisfying revenge she had imagined, the thrill of utterly crushing the other woman's pride, did not come at all.

All that remained was a barren, empty coldness.

Leng Yaozhu still stood where she was, her body trembling faintly, the redness in her eyes refusing to fade.

She did not step forward, did not touch her, and did not say another word of apology.

She was too intelligent.

Decades of distance and decades of darkness were wounds that could not be erased by a few words of apology.

At last, she saw it clearly.

Yulai's avoidance, obsession, madness, and self-destruction all these years had never been born from a simple misunderstanding.

It was the small measure of affection left unfulfilled in her heart when she was young, endlessly fermented by time until it rotted into hatred that cut to the bone.

It was Leng Yaozhu standing high in the light, her brilliance too dazzling, yet unable to illuminate the shadows in her own sister's heart.

The long silence stretched on, oppressive enough to make it hard to breathe.

Only after a long time did Leng Yulai slowly raise her eyes.

The violent crimson madness was gone from them. All that remained was exhaustion, coldness, and a thin layer of ice deliberately built around herself.

Her voice was hoarse and dry, devoid of madness, carrying only distance:

"Are you satisfied now?"

"You've seen me neither human nor ghost. You've seen me fall into becoming an evil soul master, covered in sin... Are you satisfied now?"

She was still stabbing at her.

By habit, by instinct, she used the act of hurting each other to protect the heart that had long since shattered beyond repair.

Pain stabbed through Leng Yaozhu's chest. She gently shook her head. "I never wanted this for you."

"Didn't want it?" Leng Yulai laughed softly, the sound bleak and cold. "But you did it."

"Leng Yaozhu, you didn't do anything. You merely kept silent, merely refused to explain, merely took it for granted that you were heaven's favored daughter."

"But your taking it for granted ruined my entire life."

Her words were incomparably sharp, but they no longer carried the blood-weeping madness from before.

There was only the cold resignation of someone who had accepted her fate.

She no longer had the strength to rage.

She was tired of being mad.

After taking revenge for half her life, all she had achieved was the other woman's half-life of guilt, along with her own thoroughly rotten shell and sins that could never be washed away.

Leng Yaozhu choked up, overwhelmed by countless emotions yet unable to offer any defense.

Yes.

She had not harmed anyone.

But her silence had hurt more deeply than harm ever could.

The aroma of food outside gradually seeped in through the crack beneath the door, warm and simple, carrying the scent of ordinary human life.

That was Xiling's peaceful, stable life—the warm, unremarkable daily life of ordinary people.

It was also the past that the two sisters would never be able to return to for the rest of their lives.

Catching that faint scent of cooking, a trace of exceedingly slight, bitter envy flashed through Leng Yulai's eyes.

For this entire life, warmth had long been beyond her reach.

"You really did take in a good disciple." She suddenly turned her head, her tone indifferent.