Facing Sanhua

Jinhsi finished speaking, Ages of Harvest appeared out of thin air in her hand.

Without any unnecessary preamble, she raised her hand and slashed straight down at Kexi.

Holy crap! You're serious?!

Kexi was so frightened that she instinctively rolled to the side.

The blade grazed the spot where he had just been standing, slashing down.

Before he could even catch his breath, Jinhsi's second slash came right after him.

Kexi scrambled and rolled, dodging left and right.

"The Sai! Help me!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.

Selina flashed forward, blocking Kexi's path.

The flute-sword was drawn and used to block Jinhsi's descending blade.

The metal collided, sparks flew, and the impact made her wrist slightly numb.

"Get out of the way!" Jinhsi's eyes were red, and her voice sounded like it was being forced out from deep in her throat.

"Magistrate Jin, please calm down. There must be some misunderstanding." Selina stood her ground, her feet seemingly rooted to the spot.

"Yes, yes, yes! There must be some misunderstanding!" Kexi shrank behind Selina, peeking out half her head, looking utterly wronged.

Jinhsi looked at his face, and her anger flared even more.

She didn't want to get entangled with Selina, so she snapped her fingers.

A golden light burst from her fingertips, rippling across the entire front hall like waves.

Selina's body remained in the blocking posture, but her entire being seemed to be frozen in time, not even her eyelashes moving.

"Selina! Selina!" Kexi called out twice and patted her on the shoulder.

No response.

A chill ran through him, and he turned and ran, Jinhsi had already caught up with him, knife in hand.

"Are you fucking serious?!" Kexi yelled as she ran.

"I never play games!" Jinhsi's knife chased after him, splitting tables and chairs in two wherever it went.

"The Sai! You're not going to move! Damn it! You're a real bastard!" Kexi dodged a knife and rolled over a table, looking extremely disheveled.

"Don't waste your energy, she can't save you," Jinhsi said coldly, her blade gleaming with golden light.

"Hmph! I don't think so!"

Kexi gritted her teeth and flung her hand away.

A golden light of the same color flew out from his palm and struck Selina precisely.

Selina felt as if she had been hit by a heavy hammer, jolting back to her feet and staggering forward two steps before regaining her balance.

"Young Master!" She turned to look at Kexi, then saw Jinhsi, her expression changed drastically, and she gripped her flute and sword, ready to rush over.

Jinhsi raised her hand and snapped her fingers again.

Selina froze again.

Kexi then unleashed another golden light.

"Young Master!"

Selina moved again.

Jinhsi will be set again, Kexi will be resolved once more.

The two pulled back and forth like this, with Selina twitching intermittently between freeze-frames and movements, like a PowerPoint presentation with extremely slow internet speed.

"You bastard, why do you have my power of time?" Jinhsi turned her head and glared at Kexi, her eyes full of shock and confusion.

"It's none of your business. I can do whatever I want." Kexi was panting heavily, still being sarcastic.

"You bastard! I'll kill you!" Jinhsi was so enraged by his behavior that she turned her blade and slashed at him again.

Kexi flipped over the table, grabbed Selina who was still frozen in place, and pushed her towards the door. "You go out first!"

Selina, having been thrown out the door, finally returned to normal. Just as she was about to rush back in, Kexi stopped her with a look.

"What did I do? You tried to kill me right away!" Kexi shouted at Jinhsi, her voice full of grievance and bewilderment, "Did I sleep with you, or did I sleep with your master!"

"You—" Jinhsi blushed for a moment, then became even more furious, her voice cracking, "Just how many people have you written love letters to! Answer me!"

Kexi opened his mouth, his arrogance immediately diminishing by half. He scratched his face, his eyes darting around.

"It should be... more than you think."

"You bastard!" Jinhsi's eyes were even redder than before. "You've killed someone, do you know that?"

Kexi was stunned for a moment. "Who did I kill?"

"Sanhua." Jinhsi's voice suddenly lowered.

She looked at him and said, slowly and deliberately, "Sanhua committed suicide."

Kexi's mind went blank.

I was completely stunned.

The lobby fell eerily quiet for a moment.

A stunning transition.

Kexi stood outside Sanhua's hospital room.

He raised his hand to knock on the door, but his fingers hovered on the door for a long time before he let go.

He looked down at the tips of his shoes, then looked up at the ceiling.

Jinhsi's words were still replaying in his mind.

"I'm warning you, if you don't resolve her inner conflict, and she dies, I'll make you pay with your life."

"Damn system! You've killed people, do you even know that?!"

The system remained silent.

Kexi raised his hand and wiped his face. Then he took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

Kexi pushed open the door; the ward was quiet.

The curtains were half-drawn, and light leaked in through the gaps, falling directly on Sanhua's hospital bed.

She lay there with her eyes closed, her face pale. Thick bandages were wrapped around her wrists, with a faint trace of blood seeping through them.

Kexi stood at the door for a while before tiptoeing inside.

He had prepared a lot to say.

"How could you be so fucking stupid?"

"It's just a few letters, why are you making such a fuss?"

Phrases like, "What am I supposed to do if you die?"

But when he actually stood by the bed and looked down at Sanhua's bloodless face, all those words got stuck in his throat, and he couldn't utter a single one.

He pulled up a chair, sat down, and stared at her face for a long time.

When Sanhua is asleep, he is completely different from the cold-faced, arrogant guard he usually is.

Her features were actually quite gentle, but they were always hidden by a layer of coldness that kept people at a distance.

Kexi suddenly remembered her past, which was only mentioned briefly in the eyes of the players.

Wandering, starving, and treated as a jinx by everyone—even Naruto, at least had a place to stay and didn't have to suffer from hunger.

The difference between them might be that Naruto has always longed for recognition from others since childhood, while Sanhua...

She had no idea what the meaning of her life was.

Even the name Sanhua was never her real name.

despite this.

She still has a kind heart.

She chose self-exile because she didn't want to bring her suffering to those around her.

Perhaps his letters were like light filtering through a crack in the wall, making her feel that she hadn't been completely abandoned by the world.

Kexi leaned back in her chair and rubbed her hair.

After a long while, he raised his head again, his voice very soft.

"Sorry."

He didn't know if she could hear him, but he continued talking anyway.

"When I wrote those letters, I never imagined they would become the pillar that kept you going. I'm just an unreliable person, and I didn't take those letters very seriously. But you took them seriously. You believed them. You treated them like your life."

He paused, as if something was stuck in his throat.

"In the end, you find that I'm completely different from what was written in the letters. You must be utterly disappointed. But have you ever considered that only when you die do those letters truly become fake? Only when you live do they become real."

Sanhua remained motionless on the hospital bed.

But Kexi noticed that her fingers, which were sticking out of the blanket, curled up very slightly.

Kexi didn't say anything more.

He stood up, walked to the window, and pulled the curtains open a little.

Sunlight streamed in and fell on Sanhua's face.

A few seconds later, her eyelashes trembled.

"You can go now." Her voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible, and her eyes remained closed.

Kexi turned her head and looked at her profile.

Her lips were an unnatural pale from blood loss, but her tone was as cold as when they first spoke.

"The Prime Minister sent you, didn't he?" Sanhua said again, her voice as indifferent as if she were talking about something that had nothing to do with her.

Kexi walked back to the bedside and sat down again.

He didn't answer the question, but simply took something out of his pocket and placed it on the bedside table.

It was a letter.

The envelope still had several charred marks on it, and the edges were curled up.

That was one of the letters he had rescued from the fire, which he had gotten from Jinhsi.

"Let me make this clear first," Kexi said. "I'm shameless and not very smart. I don't know how to coax people, and I don't want to. If you die, Jinhsi will take me down with her. I haven't lived enough yet, so you can't die."

Sanhua finally opened her eyes and turned her head to look at him. Her gaze was empty and devoid of any warmth.

"So you came here today just to save your own life." Her voice was still very soft, but it was so soft that it felt like a needle pricked Kexi's heart.

"Not entirely." Kexi looked at her, "And also because I wanted to know what you thought of me."

Sanhua closed her eyes again.

"Roll."

"I won't leave."