TIMO - Chapter 80

Chapter 80

Fu Zhao thought she was surely dead this time.

But when she opened her eyes again, it was as if she had come back to life.

Everything before her was unfamiliar-it wasn't Nanke Island, nor was it RT Planet.

The night was like ink, silent and still. A hazy, bright crescent moon hung in the sky, and the brilliant expanse of stars tore through the quiet night, bringing with it a soft glow.

A few scattered fireflies flitted through the grass, emitting a shimmering fluorescence.

It was somewhat like the ancient world in her memory, because among all the planets she had visited, there was no such creature as a firefly.

So she could only say it was as if she had come back to life.

Fu Zhao glanced around, her gaze finally landing on the wooden table in front of her. Seated opposite was a woman with red clothes and red hair. A gentle breeze stirred, lifting the hair on her forehead. Her features were bright and elegant, her eyes long and narrow at the corners. Her defined features had a certain sharpness, but her clear, bright eyes softened that edge, adding a touch of gentleness.

She was sure she had never seen this woman before, yet she felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

Fu Zhao stared in silence for a moment, recalling everything the red-clothed woman had told her before. She raised her eyebrows thoughtfully. "You mean to say, you're my sister?"

"To be precise..." the red-clothed woman's tone drawled lazily, "I'm your sister from a past, past, past life. It all has to be told from thirty-four thousand, five hundred and fifty years ago..."

"Wait..." Fu Zhao promptly interrupted the red-clothed woman, pressing her lips together. "It's not that I don't want to hear your story, it's just that I'd like to know your name first. It's a matter of courtesy."

"Hm?" The red-clothed woman raised an eyebrow, her features softening slightly. She spoke as if making casual conversation, "I've created countless Realms of Regret, and you're the first one to ask for my name."

Fu Zhao froze for a few seconds, then moved her lips. "Didn't you say you were my sister?"

"I want to know my sister's name. Isn't that perfectly normal?"

"Yes, it's very normal." The red-clothed woman chuckled, her voice softening considerably as she added, "From a past, past, past life."

Fu Zhao didn't want to get tangled up in the "past, past, past life" issue with the red-clothed woman any longer. Her gaze remained fixed on her. "So what's your name?"

The red-clothed woman didn't answer immediately. She leisurely poured herself a cup of tea from the pot on the wooden table and took a few sips. Her gaze drifted out the window for a while before she finally spoke slowly,

"Fu Hui, courtesy name Yunqi. What do you think? Isn't my name lovely?"

"You used to be called Fu Yu, courtesy name Changle, my only younger sister. Oh, right, we also had an older brother named Fu Jing, courtesy name Hanzhi."

Fu Yunqi drained the tea in her cup, placed it upside down on the table, and lowered her eyes. Her voice grew calm, each word spoken slowly and deliberately. It sounded casual, yet it carried an imperceptible sorrow.

"But later, Father, Mother, our brother, and you all died. Because of me."

"And after that, I became this undying, immortal being, not knowing if it's an eternal existence or an endless demise."

Perhaps realizing the grief in her own words, Fu Yunqi paused after speaking. When she looked up at her, her eyes were smiling, and her tone became lighthearted again.

"The story's over. Wasn't it exciting?"

Fu Zhao stared intently at Fu Yunqi and nodded lightly. "It had all the elements of a complete story."

"Your storytelling style is very similar to a friend of mine."

"She can also tell an entire story in a single sentence, just like you. But the last story she told was about the person she likes."

"Do you have one too? Someone you like?" Fu Zhao added.

Fu Yunqi lowered her gaze, picked up another teacup, poured a cup of tea, and pushed it in front of her. She spoke nonchalantly, seemingly unprepared to answer her question.

"Drink up and go. It's time."

Fu Zhao's eyes fell on the teacup before her. Steam was rising from the tea. She pursed her lips. "It still looks a bit hot. I can ask a few more questions."

Fu Yunqi was stunned for a few seconds, then burst out laughing, finding the person before her rather endearing. She spoke in a leisurely tone, "Time for three questions."

"Think carefully about which three questions you want to ask." Her gaze drifted lightly past the teacup and onto Fu Zhao's face. She stared at her for a moment, then blinked. "You're only allowed to ask three~~"

Fu Zhao nodded lightly, looking at Fu Yunqi with a candid expression.

"First question. Regarding your punishment, how exactly can it end?"

Fu Yunqi's eyes widened in disbelief. She hadn't expected Fu Zhao's first question to be so difficult to answer. She was dazed for a moment, her fingertips tapping a rapid rhythm on the tabletop.

"How did you know I'm being punished right now?" she asked in return.

Fu Zhao's eyes flickered, but she stared at Fu Yunqi without a change in expression. "It's quite simple."

"First, you said your parents, brother... and sister have all passed away, leaving you alone, undying and immortal. That in itself is a very painful thing. Second, you have to specifically handle others' regrets, repeatedly witnessing so many partings by life and death, deepening your own pain over a certain regretful moment again and again. Third..."

She paused, finding it a bit hard to continue. Fu Yunqi, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind. She just watched her fixedly, a smile playing on her lips, gesturing for her to go on.

Fu Zhao hadn't expected this reaction from Fu Yunqi. She hesitated, took a breath, and finished her sentence with a frown.

"From my perspective, you aren't omnipotent. Instead, you're constantly trapped in other people's Realms of Regret. You must have done something in the past... that made a true god inflict this punishment upon you."

The fingertips on the wooden table froze, trembling abruptly. Fu Yunqi lowered her gaze and chuckled, a smile on her lips. When she looked up, her eyes were full of admiration. "As expected of my sister, figuring out so much at once."

"Yes, I'm the one being punished." Fu Yunqi admitted it frankly, cleared her throat, and said in a nonchalant tone, "As for your question of how much longer I'll be punished, I don't know either."

"Perhaps, I have to wait for the true god to let me go; or perhaps I need to find a true successor; or perhaps..." She looked up at the sky, and with a slight movement of her fingertips, a firefly flew in through a crack in the window. It circled around them, only to be trapped under a teacup in an instant.

After a faint rustling sound, the movement inside the teacup ceased.

Fu Yunqi stared for a moment, then looked up and smiled at Fu Zhao. "It's also possible that I'll be trapped here forever."

Fu Zhao watched quietly for a while, her lips pressed into a tight line. She lifted the teacup. The barely-living firefly waited for a moment, then flew up and out the window, disappearing from sight.

She relaxed her tightly clenched lips and spoke softly, "You won't be."

"I believe that any mistake can be corrected. Since He gave you this ability to change the regrets of others, then one day, you will escape this punishment and get what you want."

Fu Yunqi's lips moved slightly. "Perhaps."

"This question is over." She decisively changed the subject. "Now for the second one."

"Mother said before that my engagement was actually a choice I once made myself." Fu Zhao bit her lip and clutched the corner of her clothes, feeling a little lost.

"Was it because of me, or because of you?"

"Hmm..." Fu Yunqi drew out the sound, speaking lazily. "That's a really difficult question to answer."

"If I were to say it was because of you..." She paused, saw the instantly nervous expression on Fu Zhao's face, and laughed again. "Then wouldn't your story with Shi Nan involve past and present lives?"

"A divine couple entangled for lifetimes, a tragic and profound love? When you loved me, I didn't love you; when I loved you, you were already gone..."

"Unfortunately, that's not it."

Fu Zhao received a straightforward answer, and her fingers clutching her clothes relaxed. "Then it was because of you."

"Mhm~~" Fu Yunqi glanced at Fu Zhao, her eyes softening. "The first nine times all failed. The tenth time brought a change. So, seeing that this attempt was showing signs of success, a good friend asked me to use a little trick."

Fu Zhao didn't have time to dwell on who Fu Yunqi's good friend was, focusing only on one question. She looked at Fu Yunqi with a probing gaze. "Does it have anything to do with that person you like?"

She paused, then continued nonchalantly, "I thought you and the person you like had a tragic and profound love-when you loved me, I didn't love you; when I loved you, you were already gone. So you regretted your past choice to break off the engagement, and that's why you told me not to actively break mine off either, for fear that I would repeat your mistakes?"

Fu Yunqi was slightly taken aback. A flicker in her eyes was quickly replaced by calm. She pouted with great regret. "The script is exciting, and very reasonable."

"Unfortunately, it's not as you imagine. Regarding this matter, there is only the reason I stated above. It was just to prevent you from having regrets, nothing more."

Before Fu Zhao could press further, she lowered her eyes again and absently changed the subject. "Alright, third question."

"After you ask, you should wake up."

"So soon." Fu Zhao ran a fingertip over the teacup. The wall of the cup, which had just been scalding, had indeed cooled down. It was no longer as hot as before, but at a suitable temperature for drinking.

"The last question..."

She lowered her head in thought, staring at the teacup in front of her.

"Can I not drink this tea? Kong Weiyan."

As her words fell, the room grew quiet, leaving only the sound of slow breathing.

After a long while, the Fu Yunqi before her spoke again, her voice filled with unstoppable complaint. "I thought you hadn't figured it out! Turns out you did and didn't tell me, playing hide-and-seek with me here?"

Fu Zhao sighed softly. "How could I not have figured it out?"

"Your tone of voice, your mannerisms, your little gestures-they're all exactly the same."

"Right, right." Fu Yunqi muttered, "And I was even trying to hold back on purpose."

After saying that, she coughed lightly. "But you still have to drink this tea. Otherwise, with so many people entering the Realm of Regret, if so many knew of my existence, things would have been chaotic long ago."

"You exist solely to resolve people's regrets..."

Fu Zhao said this softly, lifting the teacup. As she raised her eyes, the light in them shimmered. "Yet the god doesn't allow her existence to be known to the world. How cruel."

Fu Yunqi froze for a moment before reacting, tapping Fu Zhao on the head and lowering her voice.

"What nonsense are you spouting, you little brat? Be careful He hears you and has you damned for all eternity. He'll make you fail everything, whether it's the nine Realms of Regret or true reality."

"Since you can go back safe and sound now, although I'll have to receive a certain punishment..." She paused. "It also means that what I'm doing now is permitted by Him."

"This time, He has already been quite magnanimous."

As Fu Yunqi said, what was happening was against the rules, yet the god had allowed Fu Yunqi to do it.

Perhaps it was really as she thought. It seemed the god was punishing Fu Yunqi, but perhaps it was also a way to let her repent and figure out what her own regrets truly were.

While Fu Yunqi created Realms of Regret for others, the god was also creating a Realm of Regret for her.

It seemed this god was much more approachable than she had imagined.

Once Fu Zhao figured this out, her expression relaxed, and the ripples in her eyes softened as she looked at Fu Yunqi. "Although I still can't bring myself to call you sister... you're still making me drink this tea."

"But before I drink, I still want to say."

She lowered her voice, which was a little choked. "Thank you, Kong Weiyan."

"And, Fu Yunqi, I hope you are freed from your punishment soon, to escape this eternal yet prolonged suffering."

"Perhaps your punishment will end in the very next moment."

Fu Yunqi met Fu Zhao's forthright gaze. Her eyelashes fluttered, and she softly spoke a single word.

"Okay."

Having received the answer she wanted, Fu Zhao brought the cup to her lips and drained the tea inside.

Ripples spread through the air, and Fu Zhao's figure was gradually swallowed by the surrounding environment until she vanished completely.

The room returned to silence, the dim yellow light flickering.

Fu Yunqi stared at the empty wooden chair before her for a long while. An intense, surging pain struck her chest. Unable to hold it back any longer, she braced her hands on the wooden table as liquid erupted from her throat.

The taste of blood filled her mouth, bringing with it a boundless loneliness and coldness.

Ripples once again spread through the air, and a figure in black stepped inside, dispelling the room's chill.

"Ah Xun," she called out in a daze.

The black-clothed woman didn't answer her. She sighed softly, and with a slight movement of her fingertips, the bloodstains on the chair and table vanished in an instant, restored to their original state.

Then she walked over. Fair, jade-like fingers emerged from her pocket and covered Fu Yunqi's wrist. Her voice was clear and cool, her tone thin, as if scolding her for being a disappointment.

"Is the god's reward for you to transfer her injuries onto yourself?"

Fu Yunqi stared blankly at her own wrist. A cool sensation seeped in from the palm covering it, suppressing much of the pain in her chest.

She struggled to move the black-clothed woman's hand away. "It can't be healed."

"This is the punishment I deserve..." She lowered her eyes, a deep sorrow hidden in her tone. "Don't waste your energy."

The black-clothed woman said nothing, just watched her quietly. Her gaze trembled slightly as she stubbornly held onto her wrist.

Fu Yunqi used some force to push the black-clothed woman away slightly. Clutching her chest, she stood up, and another surge of liquid gushed out, splattering on the floor in a somewhat horrifying manner.

It had been a long time since she had seen so much blood.

Especially her own.

Fu Yunqi stared blankly for a moment, until the large patch of blood before her eyes dissipated again, returning everything to normal.

The black-clothed woman came over to support her.

She looked up at the black-clothed woman, and the flickering light in her eyes softened considerably.

"Ah Xun, Changle said that one day, we will be able to break free from this prolonged suffering. She said the reason the god kept us here, not letting us return to dust, was already giving us a chance."

The black-clothed woman didn't speak. Her eyelashes fluttered as she looked down at her, the depths of her eyes as profound as the deep night outside, as if she were looking through the present time and space, gazing at boundless memories.

Fu Yunqi continued speaking, as if murmuring to herself, or perhaps to the person before her.

"She's still the same as before, innocent and artless, pure and sincere."

Her voice grew lower, tinged with a faint sadness and heartache. She called out a name, as if hoping the person before her would respond.

"Ah Xun..."

"I owe her this."

The black-clothed woman's hand, which had been suspended in mid-air, dropped. Her lowered eyelashes trembled, and the emotion in her eyes was so faint it was almost invisible. She was silent for a long while before she finally spoke, her voice so soft it seemed to be scattered by the wind outside.

"This is thirty thousand years in the future. Since you've been here for so long..."

"You should know that the two of us no longer exist in this world."

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