The setting sun's afterglow always evokes a sense of desolation, and twilight is always so quiet.
Even in one of human's largest gathering places—the campus—there are only a few whispers, and this near-silent hum in the teaching building makes the surroundings seem even more silent.
Collapsed in the stairwell, I looked up at her beautiful figure under the sunset's afterglow. Time seemed to have stopped, much like the past three years…
Our eyes met, silent and staring.
One second, two seconds, three seconds…
Liu Qianqian suddenly turned and ran toward the other end of the corridor. At the moment she turned, tears once again surged out and fell in the wind—those were the remnants of her ravaged defiance.
"Hey!"
With tears falling in the wind, shining crystal clear in the afterglow, Fang Ren immediately scrambled up from the stairwell and hastened after Liu Qianqian.
He had clearly intended to leave just moments before...
"Liu Qianqian!" Fang Ren called out as he reached the corridor.
Thanks to regular exercise, and the medicinal pill he had taken today, his agility far surpassed that of ordinary people. With just a few strides, Fang Ren caught hold of her arm.
However, the moment he grasped her arm, Fang Ren froze, his eyes vacantly staring at his hand, his heart asking over and over—what exactly was he doing?
Liu Qianqian struggled twice, failing to break free, and then her body went limp, bending slightly as her black hair cascaded forward.
"Did you hear everything?" Liu Qianqian's voice still had a trace of sobbing. In fact, she had been trying hard to suppress her voice.
Fang Ren immediately let go of her arm, his eyes complex as he nodded slightly, "Yeah... I heard it all."
"Then you should have turned and walked away..."
"I was planning to pretend I hadn't seen anything and leave, but then... I tripped."
Suddenly, Liu Qianqian turned back, tears continuously falling, her eyes red and swollen, her voice dense with resentment, "So why come after me now? Do you really want to see me like this?"
Her current appearance was like that of a severely wounded little animal. Anyone who approached her would be met with illogical fury out of self-protection.
"I..." Fang Ren paused for two seconds before saying, "Suddenly felt that instead of pretending to have seen nothing, I should come and comfort you."
Liu Qianqian clenched her teeth, trying to control her emotions, but after hearing Fang Ren's words, she just couldn't keep it under control.
"What right do you have to comfort me? What are we to each other that you comfort me?"
Fang Ren spoke somewhat stiffly, "Aren't we... good friends?"
In reality, that relationship ceased to exist the moment he confessed; even if they verbally insisted on it, their interactions were no longer those of "good friends."
"Good friends..."
Liu Qianqian repeated the three words he had said, her teary eyes suddenly filled with even more sorrow, "Let's not be good friends anymore... You're about to get married..."
"Do the two matters have anything to do with each other?" Fang Ren retorted.
"Yes!" Liu Qianqian suddenly shouted loudly, her beautiful eyes looking at him, filled with seriousness and various complex emotions.
"..."
Fang Ren was stunned as he looked at her, still.
Because of these two unrelated matters, did she deserve to be so serious?
If there had to be a link between the two, then unless Liu Qianqian liked him... Otherwise, what could her friend's marriage possibly have to do with their friendship?
Of course, this was just a guess, and one that Fang Ren tried to avoid in his mind.
Seeing Fang Ren suddenly freeze, Liu Qianqian quickly withdrew her serious expression, wiping the tears from her face with one hand, and softly apologized, "Sorry, I got a bit emotional, don't overthink it."
"I know, about my confession before... just pretend it never happened. I'm just concerned as a good friend now, with no other intentions, really," Fang Ren said.
After hearing his words, Liu Qianqian's heart filled with bitter laughter. Pretend it never happened? Impossible. You're getting married, and I've yet to escape a fate bound by my family's constraints...
"I got it."
Liu Qianqian nodded, continuously wiping tears from her face, then knelt to pick up her shattered phone from the stairwell with her other hand.
As vice president of the student council, she couldn't just leave trash scattered around.
Seeing this, Fang Ren also knelt down to collect the fragments scattered afar, noting, "I've only just realized that your marriage isn't up to you."
"What use is it for you to know?" Liu Qianqian didn't look at him, her tone laced with a trace of resentment.
Fang Ren couldn't understand her tone, which seemed to loathe him. He had done nothing wrong, and it wasn't like her to speak such words.
"What do you have inside you that they insist you marry a specific person?" Fang Ren continued to inquire.
"Spirit Embryo."
As those two words left Liu Qianqian's mouth, the phone pieces in Fang Ren's hands also slipped to the ground, shocking him.
The Spirit Embryo was a special constitution that had appeared only twice since the beginning of the Great Cultivation Era, only found in females, who were unable to cultivate.
But the Spirit Embryo contained immense nature's spiritual energy. A male Cultivator could receive help in his cultivation during conjugal relations, and during pregnancy, the fetus would absorb most of the Spirit Embryo's energy, ensuring the child would be born with incredibly high Cultivational Talent.
For this very reason, women born with this constitution were married off to some of the current Cultivation geniuses, being used like Furnaces for cultivation, or to put it more cruelly, as tools for childbirth.
"Do you find my predicament pitiful?" Liu Qianqian turned back to look at him, her beautiful face revealing an expression of helplessness and a bitter smile that Fang Ren had never seen before.
"..."
Fighting the complexity in his heart, Fang Ren once again bent down to collect the pieces of the phone, and looking at the Liu Qianqian before him, he felt, for the first time, the malice of the world.
Everyone thought that a woman like her was supposed to marry a cultivation genius, with no right to choose freely, and certainly couldn't marry an ordinary person as a wife; otherwise, she would be considered an "irresponsible" woman, a superfluous dross in society.
Everyone also crowned their recognition with a reason as ostentatious as it was glorified: She was contributing to the entire human society.
Contribute my ass!
Clenching the shards of her phone tightly in hand, Fang Ren gritted his teeth.
Two seconds later, he suddenly lifted his head and laughed, looking at Liu Qianqian opposite him, his laugh full of confidence: "You will get first place."
"..."
The sudden confident smile on his face, catching Liu Qianqian's eye, seemed exceedingly abrupt; she didn't understand why he suddenly laughed. He wasn't mocking her or rejoicing, but it seemed like a firm assertion that she could break free from the family's bindings and obtain the right to marital freedom.
She couldn't understand where he got such great confidence in her.
"Give it to me, I'll throw it away."
Fang Ren then took the cell phone shards from Liu Qianqian's hand and placed the sim card in her palm.
"It's no use..."
Liu Qianqian shook her head, saying, "I can't escape fate..."
"Isn't the result still undecided?" Fang Ren then said.
"The result has long been decided; it's just that I'm unwilling to accept it," Liu Qianqian said.
"It's not."
"It is..."
"It's not."
"..."
"There's still time," Fang Ren then said, his face still wearing that confident smile.
"You don't understand my past, don't jump to conclusions so easily," Liu Qianqian said.
"Have you resigned yourself?" Fang Ren then asked.
"I don't want to, but I must acknowledge it..."
"Are you still going to participate in the alchemist competition?"
"I'll participate, consider it futile struggling."
"As long as you participate, that's good," Fang Ren then said: "What's that motivational quote on the internet? 'You just do your best; leave the outcome to fate.'"
"Fate doesn't protect me. If it truly did, it wouldn't have given me this physique or left me without any talent in alchemy. They say when fate closes a door, it will open a window for you, but it wouldn't even give me a window," Liu Qianqian said with a bitter smile.
"I take back that saying," Fang Ren then laughed: "You just do your best; it's nothing but a fart."
"..."
Liu Qianqian stared at him blankly.
Pointing towards the distant sunset, Fang Ren then said: "It just floats there, and naturally someone will come to whip it."
"I don't have that power..."
"Others do."
"That's none of my business."
"It is."
"...You're acting strange today."
"These details are not the point," Fang Ren then shook his head with a smile: "Just remember, everything will get better tomorrow."
After saying this, Fang Ren then abruptly turned and left, lingering any further might have made him seem like he had an ulterior motive.
Liu Qianqian didn't try to speak to him again. Watching his retreating figure, a slight warmth stirred in her distressed heart, but... it didn't make much difference.
She couldn't beat reality, not marriage, not this romance.
After Fang Ren had left, a black shadow suddenly appeared in the corridor, silently appearing next to Liu Qianqian like a ghost.
It was a woman dressed in a black robe, her cover so complete that not even her face could be seen.
"Miss, do you want me to teach him a lesson?" the woman in black said.
"What right do you have to teach him a lesson?" Liu Qianqian said, frowning at her.
"What he said could lead you astray. In the coming month, I'm afraid you might do something that you would regret for the rest of your life," the woman in black said.
"Ridiculous. While others are telling me I should hold on to my own thoughts, you're telling me that anyone who supports me is leading me astray," Liu Qianqian said with a helpless expression: "And in your eyes, what action of mine would lead to lifelong regret? Are you reminding me that as long as I don't obey you, I'll have to regret it for life?"
"Your subordinate did not mean that," the woman in black said: "Bluntly put... I'm just afraid that Miss, you won't be able to resist personal affections."
"..."
The woman in black continued: "He's going to get married. Miss, I think there's no point in opposing the family's wishes. Even if you really get first place, who do you plan to marry?"
"..."
The bitterness in Liu Qianqian's heart grew heavier. The woman in black was right; even if she succeeded in rebelling, what was the point? In the end... wouldn't she still be unable to be with the person she loved?
It's meaningless...