The Unfathomable Human Heart

"You!"

Ye Shu's eyes widened, staring fixedly at the breathtakingly beautiful woman before him. Her eyes were filled with resentment and tears, her lips bitten tightly, and her cheeks covered in tear stains. His eyes were full of disbelief.

Because the person who had arrived was none other than Danxia!

"Why are you here?"

At this moment, Ye Shu truly panicked a little.

Because this was completely beyond his expectations.

This shouldn't be possible! Why was Danxia here?!

"Why can't I be here?" Danxia grabbed him by the neck, gritting her teeth.

Ye Shu asked in disbelief.

"Didn't I leave you behind in Crescent Moon Town?"

"This... how is this possible? You shouldn't have been able to follow me. That child hasn't even opened her meridians; there's no way you could have borrowed her body to come here..."

In the next second, Danxia answered his doubts.

"It's very simple."

She gently raised her left hand.

Immediately after, Ye Shu's right hand was raised along with it.

And on the ring finger of his right hand, there was a ring of ancient design.

"This is!"

Ye Shu abruptly looked down at the familiar ring on his right ring finger, completely stunned.

"This... why? ... I clearly already..."

Halfway through his words, he suddenly froze.

He suddenly remembered.

The ring he had handed over was worn on his left ring finger.

But his right hand... clearly didn't have a ring!

"When we were in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, I secretly made a fake ring while you were sleeping, and then swapped it with the real one," Danxia revealed everything.

All of this had been planned by her long ago.

"So you actually never..."

Ye Shu was shocked.

"That's right. So from the very beginning, I never left you. What you gave away was just an ordinary ring."

Danxia's eyes brimmed with tears, her voice choking up.

"It was all to test you, to see if you were just acting!"

"And you, you heartless man... you really... really didn't have the slightest bit of attachment. You really didn't want me anymore."

As she spoke, her tears fell continuously.

Obviously, her test had yielded a result.

He wasn't acting.

Was this the result Danxia wanted? She didn't know. She only knew that her heart ached terribly, hurting so much she could hardly breathe.

It was absurd, wasn't it?

The person who successfully set the trap and controlled everything was crying.

The person who was at a loss and knew nothing had won.

Xiaobai, who was sitting on the table, widened her eyes, staring blankly at the two figures overlapping on the bed, her small mouth slightly agape.

This was too terrifying, you know?

If anyone ever told her in the future that the human heart cannot withstand testing, she would fiercely throw this scene right in their face.

This was more than just withstanding a test!

It could practically withstand being forged in fire!

They say the human heart is like a glass cup, unable to withstand testing, shattering at the slightest touch. But looking at Ye Shu's heart, how was it like a glass cup? It was like forged iron. Not only could it not be shattered, but it also had thornmail equipped with a spike enchantment.

He had a calm and magnanimous expression.

Instead, it was Danxia, the one who set the trap, who was crying like a tearful mess.

"But regardless, he managed to subdue Danxia, right?" Xiaobai muttered, swinging her little feet. "Now she shouldn't suspect smelly Ye Shu anymore."

"As expected of this guy, winning without doing a single thing."

Just as she was thinking this, she suddenly heard a burst of suppressed laughter.

"Heh... hehe... hahaha..."

It was Ye Shu laughing.

He covered his face, not looking at Danxia's wet face, ignoring the illusory tears falling onto his lapels, merely letting out a suppressed and mocking laughter from his throat.

This was too ridiculous, you know?

How could a person's heart ever be seen through?

"Shu'er, you..." Danxia was stunned by his laughter. Her tears hung on her face, forgotten, as she looked somewhat lost and bewildered.

Ye Shu opened his eyes, staring at her through the gaps between his fingers, and said word by word, "How do you know I haven't been playing hard to get, and that all of this was within my expectations?"

"You thought you had calculated everything."

"But you forgot, if you don't stay, I can only leave."

"So how do you know I'm not still acting?"

Having said that, Ye Shu said no more.

He closed his mouth, merely looking at Danxia with that eye. That eye revealed mockery, and... sorrow...

Danxia was dumbfounded.

She thought she had seen through him, but now, after Ye Shu's words, a tremendous fear surged in her heart again.

Right, what if he really was acting?

If he really just had no choice but to do so, wouldn't she be jumping into a fire pit herself?

At this moment, Danxia was confused.

She couldn't tell anymore.

The thoughts she had finally managed to sort out were beaten back into a tangled ball of yarn by Ye Shu's few words.

She thought she wouldn't doubt her Shu'er anymore.

She thought she had seen her own heart clearly.

But no, she hadn't.

This was an unsolvable paradox.

Ye Shu stopped talking. Danxia gripped his neck, not knowing what to say either.

Leaving only Xiaobai sitting alone on the table, her head swaying back and forth. She didn't understand why the two people who had finally reached a happy ending suddenly fell silent again. What was all this how do you know stuff? Her little brain's CPU was about to fry.

Moonlight spilled through the windowsill.

A deathly silence spread along with the moonlight.

The entire space was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and a suffocating sense of oppression filled every corner of the room.

Xiaobai felt a bit uncomfortable and only felt better after climbing onto the window.

The faint bustling noise of the streets and the cries of peddlers drifted in from outside the window.

But for the two on the bed, only silence remained.

Finally, after an unknown amount of time.

Danxia slowly spoke:

"I was reborn. In the memories of my rebirth, you once betrayed me, hurt me, coveted me, and loved me, yet you abandoned me in a desperate situation, leaving behind only a heartless figure."

Her voice was hoarse. She spoke very slowly but very earnestly, every word extremely clear. She spoke in detail, recounting everything from her past life.

Then she asked.

"If we judge actions and not the heart."

"Then what do your actions amount to? What does my pain and despair of being abandoned amount to?"

She finally let it all out.

She spoke of her rebirth, and she spoke of the knot in her heart.

Ye Shu looked at her red-rimmed eyes. After a long silence, he quietly said:

"But right now, you are still standing here talking to me."

"Wu..."

As soon as these words came out, Danxia finally couldn't hold it back anymore. She covered her mouth, trying her best to suppress her sobs, but she still couldn't stop the tears from bursting out of her eyes.

"I'm sorry... I'm truly sorry..."

She suddenly burst out crying aloud, wrapping her arms tightly around Ye Shu's neck. Sobbing uncontrollably, she just kept apologizing over and over.

Ye Shu didn't say much, simply holding her gently.

Embracing her illusory body.

It was truly a wondrous feeling.

Reason told him that Danxia was currently a soul body and couldn't possibly have any tangible touch, yet he could somehow feel her warmth.

It was warm, and relieved.

After an unknown amount of time, Danxia finally calmed down.

She stopped crying, but still clung tightly to Ye Shu's neck, unwilling to let go.

This peerless Alchemy Venerable of a generation was actually acting like a child at this moment.

"So..."

Ye Shu gazed at the night sky outside the window and suddenly asked, "If I really am just putting on an act, if I truly am the heartless and ruthless person from your memories, what will you do?"

"Then I'll wait until you expose your true colors, and kill you," Danxia replied softly, making a swift, chopping motion with her hand.

Ye Shu finally smiled, a sense of relief washing over him.