"That was how things stood," Dong Qianqiu said slowly. "That was why Gonggong kept spreading floods throughout the Nine Provinces."
"That's a good story too." Du Yu felt a little sad.
"And Houtu was also the reason Gonggong and Zhurong fought," Dong Qianqiu continued. "In the original story, Zhurong saw Houtu suddenly turn into a demon and blamed it all on Gonggong, who had been committing all kinds of evil. He believed Gonggong's murderous aura had affected Houtu. Naturally, Gonggong refused to accept that, and the two came to blows. But in this version of the Legend, although Houtu was grief-stricken, she didn't go so far as to turn into a demon, so none of the later events happened either. A few more years passed, and Houtu grew into an adult and came to understand Gonggong's painstaking intentions. Father and daughter talked things through, and Gonggong stopped spreading floods and returned to the Flame Emperor's camp."
Du Yu slowly furrowed his brow after hearing this. "Sister Qianqiu... in that case, the story already has a perfect ending. Do we... really have to interfere?"
"I'm torn too," Dong Qianqiu said. "But ultimately, we're the people who manage Legends... no matter how painful a Legend is, we can only take what actually happened as our foundation and pull every deviating plotline back into place. Otherwise, these Legends would change the world beyond recognition. After all, the world is what it is today because of the Legends, so we can't change the content of a single one."
Du Yu understood that reasoning. The present world was like a towering building, with countless Legends forming its bricks.
Now that the building was finished, they wanted to replace its bricks. But who could know whether the building would collapse once those bricks were removed?
"Sister