Feng Guang’s face was pale, yet when she gave a faint smile in her weakness, it carried an eerie kind of beauty. With the last of her strength, she raised her hand and touched his cheek. “When I close my eyes… maybe then you’ll finally know the answer.”
As her final word fell, her eyes fluttered shut. The hand on his face slipped away. For a long, long time, she made no sound—not even the faintest breath.
When the body in his arms began to grow cold, Zhongran finally stirred. His gaze dropped, and in his eyes reflected her bloodless face. That beautiful face would never again open those bright, lively eyes to look at him with joy, nor would those red lips ever whisper in adoration, “You’re so good-looking.”
His arms tightened around her. He had his answer now—yet his expression remained calm, detached. Cradling her, he rose to his feet. Not once did his eyes so much as glance at Liuli. Then, carrying Feng Guang, he vanished into the desolate battlefield, the ground soaked in blood.
“After that,” Liuli said, finishing her long story, “I never saw Zhongran again.” She poured herself a cup of tea to steady her spirit. Even now, just remembering that battlefield scene made her chest tighten with unease.
Whether it was Zhongran’s cold indifference or Feng Guang’s stubborn resolve, even after all this time, Liuli could not understand. But she had no intention of asking further—because she was not the same as them.
Listening to Liuli’s tale, Feng Guang felt unsettled for a long while. She hadn’t expected that parts of the original story would still come to pass—for instance, that she really had once been Emperor Jian An’s empress, and after Jian An’s death, Liuli would also be willing to sacrifice her own life to save him.
But many things still made no sense.
“So, according to you, I died. Then why am I alive again? And… Jian An—wasn’t he dead? Why is he still alive too?”
“I know you still have many questions,” Liuli said gently. “Don’t rush. I’ll explain everything I know.” She drained her cup of tea, then began recounting what happened afterward.
Back then, after Zhongran disappeared with Feng Guang’s body, Liuli had still planned to save Jian An with her own heart. But she soon discovered she was pregnant with Jian An’s child. She was torn. In her desperation, she thought of going to the Hall of Yama. After all, when people die, their souls pass through there. If she could steal Jian An’s soul back, he could be revived.
But when she arrived at the Hall of Yama, she found it eerily silent. The underworld was always bleak, yes—but day and night, it should still echo with endless cries of the dead. How could it be so quiet?
Then she encountered the King of Hell, wounded and frail. He told her:
“A man came here searching for a woman’s soul. I told him the underworld held no such soul. He stole the Book of Life and Death, saw that her name was not in it, and went mad. He struck down countless spirits until they scattered into nothingness. In the end, only because Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva intervened did I survive—but even the Bodhisattva suffered greatly.”
The first person Liuli thought of was Zhongran. Surely, he must have regretted everything. Surely, he was searching for Feng Guang’s soul, trying to bring her back. But Feng Guang’s soul wasn’t in the underworld. And what was stranger still—Jian An’s soul wasn’t there either.
Liuli was at a loss. She couldn’t understand why neither of their souls had entered the underworld. But she wasn’t ready to give up on saving Jian An. So she returned to the heavenly realm.
Loveguy On CFRFGC Chapter 7