TSFLIP Chapter 242

“Let’s go find Qingyu together. We’ll tell him together.” Xue Ran tried to pick her up, but as soon as he moved even slightly, she began coughing violently. The fit escalated until she spat out a mouthful of black blood.

Feng Guang weakly opened her eyes, her voice full of apology. “I’ve dirtied your clothes…”

“If you’re the one who dirtied them, then it’s only fair you clean them,” Xue Ran replied calmly, gently wiping the blood from her face. Her pale, jade-like skin was never meant to bear such stains, and the sight of the black blood was utterly jarring.

His touch was tender, but she could feel the tension in his body as he held her. Reaching out, she grasped his hand and smiled faintly. “Don’t bother… You’re the Sage of Medicine and Poison. You must already know I don’t have much time left. Xue Ran, you see, the heavens are fair after all. Even if you’re called a god who can bring the dead to life, that’s all just a rumor. In the end, you’re still only human.”

She had waited until the poison had thoroughly invaded her lungs to see him, ensuring that even he would have no way to save her. It was like pulling someone from quicksand only after they’d been completely submerged—what would be the point?

Xue Ran lowered his head, his cheek pressed against hers. Using the tone one would use to coax a child, he said, “Feng Guang, if you take the elixir of immortality, I’ll make osmanthus cakes for you every day.”

“Osmanthus cakes… You still remember,” she murmured. “But… it’s too late. It’s useless… The elixir of immortality can’t cure my poison.” Her gaze gradually grew unfocused.

His arms tightened around her, but his voice remained soft. “Do you think your death will make me spare those people?”

“Whether you spare them or not… I won’t be around to see it,” she replied faintly. His threats meant nothing to her now. She wasn’t as noble or selfless as she might have imagined herself to be.

“Feng Guang, is this your revenge on me?” Xue Ran muttered. “A year, ten years, a hundred years from now, maybe I’ll meet another woman. Maybe I’ll love her more than I love you, and she’ll willingly share eternity with me. What does your death achieve?”

With great effort, she opened her eyes, her voice barely a whisper. “But none of them will ever be me. Your side… will never have me again.”

Yes, there was only one Xia Feng Guang.

A wave of panic he refused to acknowledge surged within him, accompanied by a confusion he couldn’t suppress. “You love me. Why won’t you stay with me?”

“I love you. Even knowing you caused my father’s death, I still love you… But the day you decided to kill my father, we became impossible. I’m not Guan Yueyue. I can’t forgive Nangong Li like she did.” The searing pain within her body began to fade, replaced by the slow unraveling of her consciousness. Feng Guang let out a long breath, as though savoring her final one. “Xue Ran, I couldn’t bring myself to kill you… But I thought of a better way to get back at you. I’ll… kill myself instead.”

“Wouldn’t living on and hating me be better?” His dark eyes reflected her increasingly pale face. “Even if you die, it won’t affect me much. Your revenge won’t hurt me.”

At most… it would be a regret. After all, he had seen so many people die before.

Yet the feelings he had now were unlike anything he’d experienced watching others pass. So who was he trying to deceive with those words?

Xue Ran didn’t understand.

“It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t hurt you…” Feng Guang used the last of her strength to lift her head. Her bloodstained lips brushed against his ear as she whispered, her voice filled with reluctant affection. “Xue Ran, you must live well… Live forever, even if you’re the only one left in the world… You have to live alone. I don’t want you disturbing my peace while I wait in line at the Naihe Bridge.”

At last, she let out a soft laugh, closed her eyes, and allowed the rushing mountain wind to carry away her consciousness, taking with it the warmth from her body.

Time passed. Long after night had fallen, Xue Ran kissed her cold lips. A lock of white hair slipped across her cheek as he smiled faintly, his eyes narrowing and his lips curling upward. “I’ll do as you wish. I’ll live well.”

The eyes that had always gazed with warmth were now chillingly clear. The smile that could once outshine the moon’s glow held no trace of human warmth.

He seemed to have returned to the person he once was—the Xue Ran who didn’t understand what it meant to be moved.

Simply because, in his endless life, there would never again be the one person who would sweetly smile and tell him how beautiful he looked.

Xia Feng Guang was gone.

And in this world, no matter how many centuries passed, there would only ever be one Xia Feng Guang.