The story was already approaching its end.
Hearing He Qingfu’s words, little Jiang Yan was confused, but He Qingfu gave her no time to react. Just before entering the valley, she pushed her down.
The girl’s body tilted, and the moment she fell from the horse, she turned into a red string.
Just as He Qingfu had said, she drifted into the wind, waiting quietly until the cavalry thundered past before quietly transforming back, standing alone in the snow, amidst the swirling blizzard.
Little Jiang Yan bent down and picked up the dagger from the ground.
She brushed the snow off it, then turned to look toward the valley.
On the other side, He Qingfu had just ridden into the valley when a hail of arrows rained down like a storm.
He Qingfu returned control of the body to Jiang Chixi.
Except for caring for the little girl, all her actions had followed Jiang Chixi’s historical path.
Jiang Chixi was a dazzling woman in history.
So playing her, she herself seemed to shine in this era.
But apart from sharing the same soul, she and Jiang Chixi were not truly alike. Memory is what makes a person; she knew very well that she and Jiang Chixi were two entirely different people. She was not as calm as Jiang Chixi, nor as courageous.
She had once thought herself so bold, daring to cross a thousand years, but when it came to the fate of humanity, she found herself unable to act.
Jiang Chixi’s voice sounded: “You’ll regret this.”
“Hesitation and softness where you shouldn’t be soft—how could my future self be you?”
He Qingfu replied softly, “I’m sorry.”
Jiang Chixi answered, “You don’t owe me an apology.”
“It’s just that you said you came to save future humanity, so I let you reside in my body. Now that you haven’t done it, I’m a little disappointed.”
“But in any case, I’ve lived my life to the fullest. You didn’t help, but you didn’t disrupt my choices either.”
He Qingfu smiled faintly. “Your life was beautiful.”
Jiang Chixi didn’t deny it. “Of course.”
Her voice was confident, her smile calm and steady.
As she spoke, Jiang Chixi raised her shield and sword, fighting back against the dense rain of arrows overhead. Even though she knew she couldn’t hold out for long—everyone knew they couldn’t hold out for long—they still kept fighting.
Life was now in its final countdown. He Qingfu, as a bystander, watched Jiang Chixi’s end.
After this battle, the Empress of Jiang would die. Her body would be secretly returned to the imperial tomb by Jiang Rongge, while Yao Shian’s body would be left in the valley.
Jiang’s battle plan would succeed, dealing a heavy blow to Chu and Xiao.
Gu Zhaojun, as the architect of the plan and Jiang’s military strategist, would rise to fame, sought after by all nations, but she would swear loyalty only to Jiang, guarding the border with the new general Xin Liang, living to the age of eighty.
Jiang Rongge would become Jiang’s third empress in history, ushering in fifty years of prosperity. A hundred years later, Jiang would gradually fade from the stage of history, recorded in detail by scholars and studied by generations.
But all this would now be written in a parallel world.
The little wedding-dress yao did not die; the original timeline collapsed, all because of her own hesitation.
Jiang Chixi’s judgment of her was not wrong.
He Qingfu tried to empty her mind, not to think about what she had done, about how much was right, how much was wrong.
“Actually, the decision just now was made in an instant,” after a moment of silence, He Qingfu began to speak to herself, “I even brought the dagger. I tossed and turned last night, thinking about seriously injuring her, about killing her avatar.”
“But she hugged me. In such a dangerous place, she suddenly appeared and hugged me with complete trust.”
“At that moment, I couldn’t think of anything else.”
He Qingfu said, “So small, so warm. I didn’t even dare to think what she wanted by suddenly appearing.”
“I’ve never, until that moment, realized so clearly that I’m just an ordinary person.”
He Qingfu kept talking, though there was no response:
“I used to be proud, thinking I was amazing. My master said I was gifted, talented. I was born with everything, and never had to fight for anything. Whatever I wanted—money, status, rare talismans—would appear before me.”
“I didn’t even need to cultivate spiritual power; the energy of heaven and earth would fill my body on its own.”
“Though I never showed off, I did sometimes feel secretly pleased with myself at night when I couldn’t sleep.”
“But now I see clearly: my strength isn’t my own doing. It’s because of karma from past lives, because my previous incarnations were all so outstanding that I won the lottery, and when I became He Qingfu, I was born strong.”
“But I’m still just a person.”
“An ordinary person.”
He Qingfu’s voice choked:
“Not a great person, but a selfish one.”
“I am a sinner of history, but at least I am no longer a sinner to my daughter.”
No matter how conflicted, one belief in He Qingfu had never wavered.
That was: little Jiang Yan had done nothing wrong.
And if she had done nothing wrong, she shouldn’t be punished.
Jiang Chixi didn’t respond to these words, only sighed softly.
There were too many arrows; she was exhausted. Now, fewer than a hundred Jiang soldiers remained in the valley, but the rain of arrows seemed endless.
Two minutes later, unable to dodge, an arrow shot straight into her shoulder.
The sound of the blade piercing flesh was clear.
Jiang Chixi staggered back two steps. Her horse had already died, lying on the ground, its back soaked in blood. Jiang Chixi used the horse’s body as cover, broke off the long arrow shaft, then stood up again to keep fighting.
He Qingfu said nothing more.
Soon, a second and third arrow struck Jiang Chixi’s arm and calf. Blood surged; Jiang Chixi lowered her head and coughed up blood.
The remaining soldiers nearby, eyes red with worry, shouted:
“General Yao, let us get you out!”
“We’ll surround you—if anyone can escape, you can!”
Jiang Chixi waved her hand.
She tried to reply, but before she could speak, an arrow hit a young soldier in the chest. He reached forward in vain, then fell back, splattering the snow.
After a fourth arrow pierced Jiang Chixi’s abdomen, she could see no more Jiang soldiers around her. From the direction of the valley came angry shouts and the clash of weapons.
The Jiang troops who had circled around to the mountaintop had arrived.
Jiang Chixi took a deep breath. Now there were no more arrows overhead, only the occasional Chu or Xiao soldier falling nearby, shattering on the ground.
She leaned on her sword, slowly sitting in the snow, her consciousness growing faint, blood spreading around her.
But just before her awareness faded completely, she suddenly heard a distant, faint voice.
“Mother?”
Jiang Chixi’s mind sharpened instantly.
She looked in disbelief toward the sound.
A red shadow was running toward her. The girl’s hair was a mess from running, her nose red from the cold, hands tucked in thick winter sleeves. Somehow, there were two scratches on her left cheek, tiny beads of blood frozen by the snow, congealed on her face.
As she got closer, she pulled the dagger from her sleeve, raised it high, and threw it at Jiang Chixi’s feet.
The blade hit the snow with a “thud.”
“Why?”
Before He Qingfu could take control, Jiang Chixi managed to ask first:
“It’s not time yet.”
“Didn’t I say you’d only win if you found me after ten minutes?”
Little Jiang Yan ran up to the empress, panting, then wiped the blood from her face.
“Why should I compete with you?”
She squatted down, placing her hand over Jiang Chixi’s abdomen as if to stop the bleeding. “Winning matters on ordinary days. Today I don’t want to. Today, you can win.”
Jiang Chixi looked at the girl for a long time, then leaned forward and picked up the dagger.
“You should think about it.”
“Because I am ruthless, you don’t know what you’ll face.”
The little girl frowned lightly. “Of course I know.”
“You wanted to kill me, didn’t you?”
This was earth-shattering. He Qingfu, who was about to take control and throw the dagger away, froze in an instant. Her consciousness hovered in Jiang Chixi’s mind, flustered and at a loss.
“I don’t know why you think I’m stupid, but I’m actually very smart. And this wasn’t hard to guess.”
Little Jiang Yan said, “You’ve been distracted all month. Yesterday, you dropped the dagger twice in the camp.”
“You want me to guard the tomb for you, right?”
“Taotao told me, two years ago an emperor’s tomb was shaken open, all the burial goods smashed, even the emperor’s body was buried in mud. Father Consort also told me this isn’t uncommon, and I read it in books too—Jiang cares a lot about the dead. If the body is gone, it means there’s no next life.”
Little Jiang Yan spoke bluntly: “You had me put my true form in the imperial tomb, then brought my avatar with you. Isn’t it so you could kill the avatar, gravely injure my true form, and have me guard the tomb for you?”
The world suddenly fell silent.
He Qingfu wanted to say something, but found herself speechless.
The little girl didn’t wait for an answer, continuing on her own:
“I already told you the answer.”
“The night we left the underground palace, I said it.”
“You asked where I wanted to go. I told you, I have nowhere I want to go, so anywhere is fine.”
“Did you forget?”
“—Or did you not understand?”
Little Jiang Yan’s gaze suddenly became extremely scrutinizing. She looked Jiang Chixi up and down, as if examining an adult with a dull mind. He Qingfu hadn’t taken control yet, so Jiang Chixi faced this look head-on.
It was the first time in her life she’d received such a look.
A look of disdain.
She wanted to punish the little girl, so she drew the dagger and waved it threateningly, but the girl didn’t even blink, her face expressionless.
She continued, “Honestly, I’m a little angry.”
Jiang Chixi was curious. She forced her scattered mind to focus on the girl.
She asked, “What are you angry about?”
“I’m angry you look down on me,” little Jiang Yan replied.
“You saved Father Consort, so he willingly stayed in the underground palace to care for me, never seeing the sun, for three years. You saved Taotao in your last life, so he tried his whole life to be the prettiest peach tree, hoping you’d notice him, then spent his life trapped in the narrow temple, never daring to take human form, and still thought he’d gotten a great deal.”
“They all wanted to repay you. Why do you think I wouldn’t?”
The little girl lifted her chin and asked Jiang Chixi, “Why not just say it?”
“Who taught you such bad habits, making me guess?”
“I have life because of you, and I transformed on my own. You were forced to care for me, so it’s normal for me to repay you. You’re not asking for my life back. As long as it’s not that, if it’s something I can do, I’ll do my best. That’s a fair exchange, not something you can’t say.”
“So you really look down on me.”
Jiang Chixi looked at the girl for a long time, then suddenly laughed, shaking her head and tossing the dagger to the ground.
“Can you do it yourself?”
Jiang Chixi said, “I can’t quite bring myself to do it right now.”
The little girl kept her face stern, rolling her eyes in disdain. “Humans are so wishy-washy. If you’ve decided, just do it. Don’t back out at the last minute. You’ve thrown the dagger away twice now. That’s cruel to me, too.”
With that, little Jiang Yan picked up the dagger from the snow, flipped it in her palm, and stabbed it straight into her own heart.
She was so fast, no one had a chance to react.
By the time He Qingfu rushed to take control, only the handle was left exposed to the air. He Qingfu frantically reached forward, trying to cover the blood on the girl’s chest, but her body was already at its limit—even a simple movement was enough to kill her.
A sob welled up in her throat, her vision blurred.
Little Jiang Yan turned her face away. “I helped you this time, so we’re even. I won’t help again.”
It took He Qingfu a long time to crawl over to the little girl. By then, her eyes were already closed, her small form lying in the snow. Snowflakes fell on her soft face, stuck to her lashes, slowly melted, and slid down her cheeks, leaving a faint trace of tears.
Two minutes later, the girl’s body completely disappeared.
A thin red string was swept up by the wind and snow, flying high into the sky.
Death was certain.
Jiang Chixi slowly closed her eyes.
He Qingfu’s consciousness also began to break apart.
“Do you know why I never watched you two together?”
In the blankness, He Qingfu seemed to hear Jiang Chixi’s question.
“Why?”
She reflexively asked.
Jiang Chixi replied, “Because I was afraid that if I watched her too much, I’d come to like her. I also longed to have a daughter like that.”
“She’s very clever—stronger than either of us.”