Chapter 34 - Solace in Suffering
"This is a dream, little fellow. So, you can do anything you want to do."
"Everything about you started because of this girl. Your destiny, your pain, your struggles—you can reclaim them all from her in this dream."
"And the real her won't be harmed in the slightest. Don't you think this is a good opportunity to 'relax'?"
Huoxin's bewitching words continuously came from beside his ear.
Her voice carried a snicker, carried mockery, carried cold indifference.
"You also don't need to worry about overdoing it. This is a dreamscape woven by me from peeking into their memories, and it will also automatically repair itself according to the memories."
"When the time comes, it will return to this day, starting a new round of the game for you again."
"You can enjoy it to your heart's content."
Huoxin was a person very capable of empathy; this was not a derogatory statement.
Precisely because she could savor the wondrous aspects of various emotions, she could apply them so skillfully.
After casting a technique and prying into a corner of Luo Hongyu's and Gu Jing's true inner hearts, she created this absurd, grand dream.
This dream, targeted at Luo He—warm, yet containing malice.
Look at him in those two's memories: his soul snatched away by someone, tied like a dog beside the instigator.
The source of his pain was right beside him, enjoying his things, yet shamelessly ignorant of all this, treating him with cold indifference.
And in this long, painful period, the only person who would show him goodwill was, comically enough, the person who most needed him to die.
Huoxin was truly very curious: from Luo He's perspective, what did everything Gu Jing did count as?
Huoxin, as an onlooker, only felt a bone-chilling irony from Gu Jing, and this irony made her laugh.
He endured pain that was not his, carried expectations that were not his. He lived like rotten mud, as if born just to be trampled under Luo Hongyu's feet.
Having such experiences, Huoxin didn't believe he didn't have hatred in his heart, didn't believe he didn't have the thought of repaying all this twofold.
If he didn't, then the hatred wasn't enough. No matter, Huoxin would draw out his hatred in this dream.
As long as she succeeded, this dreamscape would never end.
And Luo Hongyu would then never see the day of her breakthrough.
Huoxin still didn't understand now why Luo He would fight so desperately for Luo Hongyu, but now, she also had no mind to bother about this.
She hid outside the dreamscape, waiting for Luo He's actions.
But whether it was Huoxin or the Luo Hongyu in the dreamscape, Luo He responded to neither. Instead, he quietly walked to the pond beside the small vegetable garden, gazing at his own reflection in the pond's surface.
He wasn't wearing a mask, but he also couldn't see his own face clearly.
He tried to say a few short phrases; he could feel himself speaking, but he couldn't hear it clearly.
After all, neither Luo Hongyu nor Gu Jing had memories of his true appearance or speaking voice; very reasonable.
"How should I leave this dreamscape?"
Luo He splashed some water on his face to wash it, stood up, and asked in the direction of Huoxin's voice.
"Hey, who are you talking to?"
Luo Hongyu's dissatisfied voice sounded, but Luo He paid her no heed.
"Heh... do you think I would tell you?"
"Since it's a dream woven from memories, presumably, after reaching the end of the memories, this dream will have no way to continue."
"...Do you know, your comprehension is so good it makes me sick."
Luo He understood Huoxin's intention.
In Luo Hongyu's and Gu Jing's hands, there should now be a script written for them by Huoxin.
Once he deviated from the Luo He persona in this script, this dreamscape would, as Huoxin said, directly restart.
And Huoxin clearly didn't have true control over this dream either; otherwise, she could completely trap them for a lifetime—why bother with all this talk?
That is to say, he just needed to be an actor.
The role he played was a self he didn't recognize.
A Luo He who might have once lived in the hearts of Gu Jing and Luo Hongyu.
This was definitely a script extremely unfriendly to him, Luo He could imagine.
Because Huoxin's voice was very confident, she was extremely confident that he would absolutely be thoroughly enraged by her in the dreamscape, madly destroy all of this, and wander endlessly in the dreamscape.
Then, let's see who's better.
Directly ignoring Huoxin's incessant chatter, Luo He shook his head and wiped the water droplets from his face.
This was a beautiful spring morning; on Still Water Peak, the greenery was vibrant.
Luo He turned around. This exquisite and beautiful girl stood charmingly before him, just as when they had first met.
Luo He actually understood Luo Hongyu very well. He had accompanied her throughout her life so far; he had seen her good side, and also her bad side, a side she had never shown before the world.
So he roughly knew what Luo Hongyu was thinking in her heart.
He had clearly long forgotten the feeling of making expressions, but the naturalness with which a smile appeared on his face surprised even himself.
"Hello, Young Master Luo."
He fluently pieced together these five characters that he probably would never have spoken in his entire life.
Luo Hongyu leaned on her sword, looking at this strange child who just now didn't know who he was talking to in his sleep.
In the instant he faced her, for some reason, she suddenly felt that this person's eyes before her... were truly beautiful...
As if to hide her embarrassment, her cheeks turned slightly pink, and she turned her head away a little.
"Wh-What Young Master Luo, it sounds so awkward when you say it.”
"Everyone else says you are Senior Sister Gu's child. Senior Sister Gu is my daddy's disciple. According to seniority, you should call me Martial Aunt."
"Then, Martial Aunt Luo."
"Wuwu... you should still call me Young Master!"
This should have been a beautiful scene of innocent childhood friends.
In early spring, the young girl encountered a young boy whom, at that time, she did not yet know, a young boy who would accompany her for her entire life.
It was just that after that young boy finished saying this sentence, he no longer looked at the person before him, but instead habitually lowered his gaze.
What was sedimented in those pupils was a detachment from worldly affairs that had never changed over so many years.
A calmness like that of an ancient well, or perhaps...
Utter indifference.
...
"You're back!"
Starlight flowed bright; outside the window was a stretch of silent twilight.
Gu Jing saw that thin, small figure push open the door and walk in; her already gentle brows immediately smoothed out with joy.
On her young and delicate face, with this change, traces of a "good wife and loving mother" air were revealed.
She put down the needlework in her hands, immediately went up to meet him, and gently pulled him into her embrace.
She looked at the boy before her, meticulously stroking his hair.
This boy was called Luo He; the name was one she had asked the Sect Master to help choose.
In her memory, three years ago, she had been ordered to pursue and kill a demon-fallen sword cultivator who had defected from the Sword Sect.
But unexpectedly, because she pressed him step by step, that traitor actually chose to directly slaughter an entire village of people to sacrificially refine their blood power for a desperate battle against her.
Although in the end she still dealt with that traitor, facing the village strewn with corpses, her heart still endured immense torment.
But fortunately, in the ruins, she discovered the infant Luo He, who still had a trace of life force.
She brought him back to the Sword Sect and took him in under her own peak.
Everyone teased that she had brought back a son. Gu Jing initially refuted it somewhat, but gradually, she felt that this... seemed not bad either.
She had this obligation to take care of him like this, didn't she?
Moreover, for some reason, Gu Jing always felt that she could find a certain kind of heartbreaking solace in him.
Vaguely, she believed that was something she needed.