At the end of the path, a voice sounded, as gentle as the wind.
As that voice drifted through the air, the blank space around her gradually filled with color.
"A Jiu..." he called again, as though waiting for Su Jiu to answer.
Su Jiu kept walking toward the voice. As she walked, she broke into a run without realizing it.
She ran like that for a long, long time... until she saw a dark silhouette.
Su Jiu stopped, and the dark silhouette gradually came into focus.
It was Yun Huanling.
There was clearly no light in this space, yet a pale golden halo still radiated around him, as though he had been born carrying that glow.
"A Jiu, it's been so long."
His voice was gentle yet elusive, like a dandelion that might drift away at any moment, so fragile, so easily broken.
Su Jiu reached out, but her hand passed straight through his shoulder...
"How... how did you end up like this?" She held her emotions down with all her strength, furious yet helpless.
She knew perfectly well why Yun Huanling had ended up like this. She knew...
"A Jiu, this was my own choice. Could you please not be sad...?"
Su Jiu sank helplessly to her knees. "We still had other ways!"
"There were no other ways."
Between him and A Jiu, one of them had to die. How could he bear to let A Jiu shoulder all of this alone?
"Your soul will shatter and scatter..."
Yun Huanling stroked Su Jiu's long hair, a flicker of regret passing through his eyes. He could no longer touch the person he loved...
"A Jiu, I was never meant to exist in the first place. Now I'm only returning to what I originally was. Really, it's all the same."