Nihon Nation, Shimizu Residence.
A girl in a kimono was sitting in the doorway, her hands supporting her head, her legs swinging slightly.
His pure black eyes were fixed intently on the distance.
Footsteps approached slowly from behind the girl. As the wooden door opened, a tall woman, who looked a little older than the girl, also dressed in a kimono, came up behind her.
"Sister." The girl glanced at the woman and greeted her with a smile.
The woman smiled and gracefully and gently sat down next to Ichika.
" Ichika is still waiting for the leaves."
"Mmm, because I really wanted to Ciqing..." As she spoke, a blush appeared on Ichika's face.
Ichika's older sister chuckled twice.
"You two have such a good relationship, but I remember that you were initially arranged by your father to marry his brother, right?"
"Yes, that's right." Ichika nodded with a smile.
"Many years have passed. Back then, after those two brothers came to establish a cooperative relationship with our Shimizu Clan, it seemed like Father wanted to deepen the relationship or tighten the ties..."
"Anyway, they've arranged for me to marry Brother Ye."
"But Brother Ye is really something else. He seems to have no interest in women at all. He only agreed on the surface, but he won't even touch me."
Ichika, as if she had thought of something incredibly sweet, Ichika smiled happily.
"As a result Ciqing was very interested in me at the time, saying things like... he wanted to see what Japan women were like, and he often took me out to play."
"Ye is really interesting," Sister Ichika teased with a smile.
"That's right." Ichika nodded.
"And he's very gentle, always considerate of my feelings, it's really comfortable being with him."
"I gradually fell in love with him too, and finally confessed my feelings during the fireworks festival. We even kissed!"
As she spoke, her face flushed again, and she shyly covered her burning cheeks.
"Moreover, Brother Ye also strongly approves of the two of us, and I don't even know how he persuaded my father."
"Although my father looked terrified the next day."
Ichika smiled, then seemed to remember something, "But... I heard that Ye seems to like flirting with other women, is that true?"
Upon hearing Ichika, Ichika was taken aback for a moment, then nodded somewhat awkwardly, "Yes, it's true..."
But then she waved her hand as if afraid of being misunderstood.
"But Ciqing did all this for me, because he felt that I was usually very timid and afraid to express my emotions."
"So he would occasionally interact with other girls, which made me jealous. Gradually, I became bolder, and now I dare to get angry with him if he's being intimate with other girls..."
As she spoke, her face flushed again, and she looked quite embarrassed.
"Oh, I see." Ichika was slightly surprised.
His gaze fell on Ichika's little belly, and he gave a slightly mischievous smile before reaching out to touch it.
"Hey...! Sister, what are you doing!" Ichika's face turned bright red.
"The night before Ye left, didn't I tell you I'd try my best to get you pregnant with his child? How did it go?"
Ichika swayed shyly, lowered her head, and spoke hesitantly.
"When it was time to do it, I told him... but he didn't agree."
"Why?"
"Hmm... He said he would marry me after this was over, without needing to do it this way, and also said that he has the blood of an evil person flowing through his veins and cannot have children."
"But he said that more importantly, he didn't want me to suffer, because he said childbirth is very painful."
"Ah..." Ichika looked at Ichika with eyes full of envy.
"I'm so envious of you, having such a great boyfriend."
"Hehe, I also think Ciqing is the best person in the world!"
She slowly raised her head, gazing longingly at the other side of the sky.
"I really look forward to his return; our wedding there will definitely be amazing!"
"We must have been so happy back then!"
Snowflakes drifted slowly down from another direction in the sky, landing on the chest of the headless corpse and turning into water droplets.
He lay there quietly in the thick snow, the blood from his neck staining the surrounding white snow red.
It was as if a wild goose, having finished its winter and preparing to return home, had died in a foreign land during winter.
The darkness within a radius of one kilometer slowly dissipated.
The giant dark spider collapsed, its body caved in, and slowly transformed into a scarred woman.
"Ugh..."
A large amount of blood gushed from Ye Linwan's mouth.
The backlash from her soul and the wounds on her body began to flare up at this moment, causing her Life to drain away rapidly.
But Ye Linwan didn't care about that. She struggled to get up, but stumbled and fell in the snow.
He struggled to his feet again and stumbled toward Ye Ciqing.
Two enormous poisonous Venomous Spider crawled to Ye Linwan's side and offered her their huge spider legs for support.
With Spider's help, Ye Linwan arrived at Ye Ciqing's body.
Looking at her once most talkative and energetic son lying there quietly, An'an Ye Linwan felt that everything was starting to feel unreal.
With a thud, she released the spider leg she was holding and knelt down beside the headless corpse.
He reached out a scarred hand and slowly pulled her into his arms.
"I'm sorry... it's Cici because of Mom..."
"It's Mommy's fault for being stupid, Mommy's fault for being foolish, bringing you here so you could join the Light God Society..."
"It's all my fault... If Mom hadn't fallen in love with that man, you would have been a very happy child..."
Tears mixed with blood dripped onto Ye Ciqing's corpse.
Ye Linwan held him in her arms, kneeling quietly in the snow, letting the snowflakes fall on her.
Those beautiful eyes, filled with tears and a sense of vicissitude, slowly... closed.
"Squeak--!"
"Squeak--!"
Dozens of Venomous Spider around him sensed the king's passing and collectively wailed, bidding him a final farewell.
Heavy snowfall.
In this snow-covered landscape stained with blood, a mother holding her son is slowly covered by snowflakes.
Resting here forever...
Gallop!
Chi--
Galloping...
I don't know how much time passed.
Several hurried footsteps approached rapidly, then gradually slowed down until they stopped completely in front of the group of spiders.
As if sensing something, the cluster of Venomous Spider turned their gazes toward the newcomer.
Then, with utmost respect, they cleared the way in the center.
There... was a mother kneeling, holding a corpse.
Hidden by dozens of spiders, they were not covered by the heavy snow and were completely exposed to the public eye.
Ye Yiqing stood there watching all of this. After a long while, he finally took a difficult step and walked step by step toward the corpse.
With each step, a blood-red footprint would be left on his completely worn-out feet.