Chapter 576: Lost Things

"Let me die here..."

Wen Qiaoyun's expression froze for a moment, but she quickly decided it wasn't a big deal. She then asked softly,

"Dying here is fine, but... will you really... never come again?"

"Yes." Chu Tianqiu nodded, his voice trembling. "Today is the last time we'll meet in this life."

"Really... never again?"

Wen Qiaoyun's eyes seemed to change slightly. She reached out her dirty hand and gently touched Chu Tianqiu's cheek, murmuring the same words to herself.

"It's really goodbye." Chu Tianqiu nodded, his voice growing fainter. "I should have closed this door long ago... but I've kept it open out of my own selfishness."

"Mm..."

Wen Qiaoyun nodded with a complex expression, her mind no longer able to support any other reactions. She could only nod mechanically.

Although her mind was blank, she could still feel something important slipping away from her heart, dissipating like flesh turning to dust in the air—impossible to grasp, impossible to hold onto.

The scent of blood in the air drifted into the room, carrying a hint of mockery. It circled around the two of them before settling there.

"Perhaps I said it wrong." Chu Tianqiu gave a bitter smile. "We shouldn't say 'goodbye,' because whether here or out there... we'll never see each other again."

With that, he stood up and gently pushed away Wen Qiaoyun's hand, as if pushing away thirty years of his life.

Wen Qiaoyun now understood that feeling—it was like a piece of flesh that had been with her for decades being torn from her body, the pain so intense that she couldn't think at all.

"Don't... don't go..." Wen Qiaoyun's lips moved, making the surrounding air seem to stall for a moment.

Chu Tianqiu turned back, looking at the panicked expression on Wen Qiaoyun's face. He wanted to say something but only opened his mouth.

"I... I'll treat you to little piglet... Can you not go..."

Wen Qiaoyun spoke with the last bit of her rationality, but her thoughts were still shattered, like sharp thorns piercing holes in Chu Tianqiu's heart.

"Qiaoyun, you're free now." Chu Tianqiu said with a bitter smile. "From now on, you won't have to suffer anymore. We're not saying 'goodbye,' but 'farewell.'"

"No... My little piglet... Ours..."

Wen Qiaoyun's hands trembled as she gestured in front of her, but she couldn't say anything. "He... He's ours..."

She tried to make some expression, but all that showed was endless numbness.

What is sadness?

What is sorrow?

She was just a child who had lost her emotions, with only helplessness left in her eyes.

"Qiaoyun, you've always been the brightest sun in my heart." Chu Tianqiu's eyes flickered with a gentle yet desperate light. "I shouldn't let you linger on like this, so I have to say goodbye here. You deserve to die and become bones, not stand here turning into bones. It's not fair to you."

Wen Qiaoyun lowered her head silently after hearing this, as if she understood the meaning of "farewell."

"What about you..." Her voice trembled slightly, her already clumsy words failing her completely.

"I'll try my best." Chu Tianqiu nodded. "Even if the path ahead is filled with thousands of thorns, I'll flatten them with your light and our regrets."

"You will." Wen Qiaoyun nodded. "You can do it."

"Once I cut ties with you... I won't have anything left to hold onto in Zhongyan Zhidi." Chu Tianqiu smiled bleakly. "I'll just be without someone to talk to when I'm sad... without my sun... that's all..."

"Sun..." Wen Qiaoyun forced a smile and carefully raised her fist to her head. "Is that the 'sun' you mean?"

Seeing her effort, tears streamed down Chu Tianqiu's face.

Memories suddenly flashed before him.

"Qiaoyun, if you can't speak, you can use your hands..."

"Qiaoyun, follow my gestures..."

"Yes! That way, I'll know what you're saying!"

"It's okay, it's okay, Qiaoyun. Even if you can't gesture... it's fine..."

"As long as I look into your eyes, I understand everything."

"Me...? I'm just... just a delivery man."

"So... do you still remember me?"

Chu Tianqiu gritted his teeth, feeling the metallic taste of blood between them.

Wen Qiaoyun remembered... she remembered every word he had said.

"Go... you go..." Wen Qiaoyun reached out and kept pushing Chu Tianqiu. "The 'sun'... won't be lost. It's there..."

"Where?"

Wen Qiaoyun lifted her withered hand and placed it on her chest. "It's always been here..."

Chu Tianqiu bit his lip to hold back his tears, but the pain was overwhelming. He couldn't save Wen Qiaoyun.

She shouldn't be awake, because she shouldn't have to face this anymore. And she shouldn't be lost, because she was the brightest sun.

But thinking that this was the last time he'd see her, Chu Tianqiu felt a heavy weight on his chest, making it hard to breathe.

Letting go of everything was harder than he imagined.

Chu Tianqiu knew that what he had been holding onto had already collapsed, yet he still clung to it like a foolish child in this place.

In this godforsaken spot, kindness never bore fruit. Those who fought for others met the same fate.

Wen Qiaoyun was like that, and so was he.

"Don't cry..." Wen Qiaoyun reached out and gently wiped Chu Tianqiu's cheek. "Don't cry... don't cry..."

Hearing her words, Chu Tianqiu frowned and trembled with sobs.

"Qiaoyun... it's too hard... all of this is just too hard..."

"It'll be okay... we'll both be okay..." Wen Qiaoyun showed the purest smile of her life, her dry wrinkles smoothing out as she stepped forward and embraced Chu Tianqiu. "It's fine... it'll be okay... everything will be okay..."

Chu Tianqiu leaned on Wen Qiaoyun's shoulder and wept bitterly.

From the day he set foot in Zhongyan Zhidi, he had been giving and losing constantly.

What he gave kept increasing, and what he lost was countless.

Now, even Wen Qiaoyun was slipping away.

When he walked out that door, facing the sun above and heading into the abyss, he would lose even himself.