The beauty of a moment ago had been fleeting. Reality was still this dark, damp dungeon, still his broken body and his seemingly rotten soul.
"Soon..."
Yuan Shao forced himself upright, his gaze utterly dark.
From the jailers' conversations during this time, he had learned that Liu Xie would soon lead his army south, and that would naturally be the day of his death.
But he felt no fear. Instead, he eagerly awaited it.
Because his endurance was finally about to reach its end.
All this time, he had had countless opportunities to kill himself if he wished, but he scorned doing so.
Because choosing suicide would amount to admitting that he could not bear the torment Liu Xie inflicted on him. It would mean yielding and conceding defeat, rendering all his previous endurance meaningless.
So he would rather drag his broken body through this sunless dungeon, clinging to his last breath, waiting for his death to draw nearer day by day, waiting to be killed by Liu Xie in the end, than take his own life.
Even if he died, he would die standing!
His thoughts tangled like a skein of hemp. His body could no longer sustain prolonged wakefulness, and soon he leaned against the wall and fell into a deep sleep.
Yet through his haze, he felt someone gently wiping his face and calling his name. He could not help opening his eyes a little.
What met his eyes was a familiar figure.
A figure he yearned for day and night.
"Another hallucination."
Yuan Shao gave a self-mocking smile and closed his eyes again.
He could not remember how many times this had happened.
But even if it was a hallucination, please... let it last a little longer, let him remain immersed in this beautiful dream a