Memories Awaken! Please Live On!

Leisurely days always passed quickly. Half a year later.

As usual, Ye Zichen picked a time when he was free once a month to visit Mu Lingxi, who was always selling flowers at the boundary between the inner and outer cities, and say hello.

Over the past six months, Mu Lingxi had learned that Brother Ye had opened a medicine shop in the outer city and worked there as a physician.

Today, as usual, Ye Zichen saw Mu Lingxi in the evening as she was getting ready to go home.

Ye Zichen walked up to her and asked softly, "Lingxi, have you sold all your flower wreaths today? I'd like to buy one too."

Mu Lingxi held out her basket. "Brother Ye, you're here! Lots of people bought flowers today, but I secretly saved a bunch for you. Ta-da!"

Mu Lingxi pulled back the cloth covering the lower layer of the basket and took out an exquisite wreath unlike the ones she had made before.

"Brother Ye, I carefully wove this wreath myself. What do you think? Isn't it pretty?"

Mu Lingxi beamed. It was the prettiest one she had managed to weave, and it hadn't been easy! Knowing Brother Ye was coming today, she had made it especially for him!

"Mm! It's pretty! I didn't expect the wreaths Lingxi wove to be this pretty already!"

Ye Zichen smiled and patted Mu Lingxi's head.

"Brother Ye, lower your head and I'll put it on you!" Mu Lingxi waved him over, delighted.

Today was the first time she had given Brother Ye flowers she had woven herself!

Ye Zichen crouched down and lowered his head. Mu Lingxi placed the wreath on his head, then shifted it a little when she thought it wasn't straight.

Her absorbed expression was adorable.

"Pretty, pretty! Brother Ye, you look especially good wearing it!"

Ye Zichen looked up.

Mu Lingxi looked at her handiwork again and again, utterly pleased with it!

"Not bad! Here, this is your reward!"

Ye Zichen took out a tael of silver and put it in Mu Lingxi's basket.

"Thank you, Brother Ye!" Mu Lingxi jumped up in excitement.

"Brother Ye, it's almost New Year. Would you like to come visit my home today? More and more people are cultivating immortality, and fewer people remember the holidays now."

Mu Lingxi had sounded eager at first, but by the end she seemed a little dejected.

"Sure, let's go!"

Ye Zichen readily agreed. He had indeed come today because he had something to do.

"Yay! Brother Ye, my family moved! Our new place is bigger than the house we had when we first came here!"

Chatting as they walked, they made their way home, Mu Lingxi skipping all the way.

It was still in the south of the city.

Compared with before, the area had been repaired following Ye Zichen's suggestion. Even the houses that had looked ready to collapse had been rebuilt.

"Looks like that old man is pretty efficient," Ye Zichen murmured.

"We're here! Ta-da!"

Looking at the open space outside the house, twice as large as before, Mu Lingxi seemed very proud.

"I'll go get Grandma!" Mu Lingxi ran inside happily.

This time, however, Ye Zichen didn't wait outside. He followed right behind her of his own accord, his expression no longer cheerful.

There were two pairs of footprints in the open space outside the house.

"What's bound to come will come." Ye Zichen's voice suddenly became immensely heavy.

Suddenly-

"Grandma! What's wrong, Grandma?!"

Before Ye Zichen had entered the house, Mu Lingxi's voice rang out loudly.

Ye Zichen pushed open the door. Before his eyes, Grandma lay in a pool of blood, no longer breathing.

Mu Lingxi knelt beside Grandma, calling out to her again and again. Her sobs rang throughout the house and beyond, and her little hands were covered in blood.

Mu Lingxi had lost her parents at a young age. Living with Grandma, she had been a very sensible child.

As soon as she was old enough to remember things, she had taken on the burden of supporting them both, helping Grandma with the work so she wouldn't have to suffer and toil so much.

"Grandma, when I grow up, I'll earn lots of money and buy you a big house! Then you won't have to work so hard anymore!"

"My granddaughter is so sensible. Grandma is looking forward to it too!"

Happy memories kept welling up in her heart. Seeing Ye Zichen enter the room, Mu Lingxi turned back, sobbing, and choked out:

"B-Brother Ye, what... what happened to my grandma?"

Seeing this, Ye Zichen couldn't bear it. "Grandma... has gone to another world."

"No, you're lying, Brother. Nothing will happen to my grandma. Please save her... please save her."

Her hands covered in blood, Mu Lingxi came forward and tugged at Ye Zichen's hand, pleading with him again and again.

The child, not yet eight years old, was now truly alone. Even if it was the work of fate.

"I... I still have to take Grandma to live in a big house. P-please... aren't you... a physician? You must have a way."

Mu Lingxi went on, the words coming with great difficulty. Every word she spoke was as agonizing as a needle piercing her.

Ye Zichen crouched down and used his other hand, the one unstained by blood, to wipe away Mu Lingxi's tears.

"Be good, Lingxi. Grandma... is already gone."

It was not yet time, Ye Zichen said to himself.

"No, she can't be! Big Brother, you're lying to me."

Hearing Ye Zichen tell her this again, Mu Lingxi seemed to lose herself. She crouched down beside Grandma again, crying without stop. Her clothes were already stained red with blood.

One big and one small, the two crouched there. Ye Zichen listened quietly to the grieving Mu Lingxi's sobs.

After an unknown amount of time, Mu Lingxi's sobs grew fainter and fainter. She collapsed onto Grandma and passed out.

"Is it finally coming?"

Ye Zichen finally spoke. He had expected it long ago; this was the tribulation she was fated to face.

But looking at such a frail little body suddenly forced to shoulder so much, Ye Zichen couldn't bear it either.

That was why he would save this kind little girl, no matter what!

Ye Zichen carried Mu Lingxi to the bed and cleaned up the blood at the scene. Then he waved a hand to seal off the place and sat down to wait.

Mu Lingxi, lying in bed, was dreaming. In her dream were countless little girls who looked just like her.

In the first life, she was the last princess of a dynasty. At only ten years old, she set out on a journey of revenge, but ultimately entered her second life with regrets.

In the second life, she was the daughter of a great mortal clan;

In the third life, she was a cultivation genius of a Lineage;

In the fourth life, she was of a cultivation clan in the immortal realm;

The fifth life, the sixth life, the seventh life...

And finally, the hundredth life.

In every life, Mu Lingxi was so dearly loved, yet so tragic and pitiable.

Losing her loved ones again and again in every life, Mu Lingxi eventually ceased to live happily and became full of hatred for the world.

Every Mu Lingxi who looked like her was just as lively and adorable, just as sensible.

And there was also her grown-up self, just like her, but no longer lively and adorable, no longer looking forward to the world.

The fragments of memory kept coming together, until they all gathered in the mind of this life's Mu Lingxi and formed one final sentence.

Mu Lingxi, in this life, please live happily!