Love is an eternal theme, celebrated in all forms of literature and drama. While other subjects have their audiences, none resonate as easily as love. Thus, many are moved by the sight of a desolate, tragic romance.
But Fan Li’s rationality told her that love wasn't that important.
Now she had Xitian. In the future, she would have a few children and plenty of time to conduct research, run experiments, and develop more potions and arcanum to benefit the entire Light Sea. That was good enough. Why bother with romance? Falling in love was far too exhausting.
"No, Li-zi, I’m still curious." In Feisi’s eyes, Fan Li had transformed into a sort of superwoman. "Are you really not sad? How do you do it?"
"I am sad, but not *that* sad. As long as one’s life is full, there are many things that can replace love. So, don't worry about me. I’ll be fine."
Seeing Fan Li’s eyes crinkle into a smile, Feisi’s lip twitched. "Fine. You really are no ordinary woman."
Fan Li was right; there were many things in life worth pursuing. There was no need to act as if the world were ending just because of a breakup. Feisi felt she had learned something.
"Then go back and get some good rest." Feisi, who had been feeling sentimental, felt much better now. "Think about happy things. Don't think about Xinghai or Su Shiye anymore. Everything will pass."
"Mhm." Fan Li nodded with a smile.
Su Shiye was already a thing of the past.
Fortunately, she didn't love him as much as she had thought.
She felt she was doing well—to lose her most beloved and still remain so composed. She truly was a woman destined for great things. Fan Li even felt a flicker of self-admiration.
Returning to her dorm alone, she prepared to pack her things and move to the Sea Mist Woods.
She had lived in this one-bedroom dorm for over a year, and now it was time to leave.
However, the moment she swam to her door and pressed her key against the lock, a terrible premonition began to spread. It was pervasive, dissolving into every surrounding water molecule and seeping into her body.
She shook her head, telling herself not to overthink it. Things weren't that bad. Maintaining her clarity, she slid the key into the keyhole.
With a *click*, the door tightly shut in her heart unlocked at the same time as the door before her.
With a *creak*, the physical door opened, and the door to her heart swung wide.
Everything in the room was exactly as it had always been. The pen holder, the algae bottles, the calendar, the ornaments, the embroidered cushions, the books... everything was in its original place. Even the little sunflower she had asked Yujin to look after was still on the table. The book Su Shiye had been reading before he left was still lying face down on the small table beside the lounge chair. Not long ago, he had been leaning there lazily, reading by the soft light from the window.
On the desk sat a photograph of her and Xinghai—not the Mimic Xinghai, but the Xinghai who held Su Shiye’s soul. In the photo, they stood before the gates of St. Yejiana University. He had a shark tail and she had the face of an ordinary young beauty; his arm was around her shoulder, his smile handsome and dashing. She looked tiny in his arms, the very image of a girl in the first flush of love.
It all looked so real, yet it was so hollow.
Fan Li stood at the threshold for a long time. Then, flicking her tail, she slowly swam inside and gently closed the door.
Another *click*. The door was locked.
She looked around, her mind a complete blank. She told herself: *It’s okay, it’s okay. Don't break. Don't break. Don't break...*
She managed to hold it together until she sat at the desk and picked up the Xinghai Life Pearl hidden in the corner. Suddenly, she realized something. At this moment, she didn't particularly want to see the flawless, perfect Mimic Xinghai.
The one she wanted to see was the man who was both complete and flawed.
She looked up one last time at the empty room, at Xinghai’s dorm across the window, and at the book on the small table. She froze. A few seconds later, she clutched her arms around herself like a mortally wounded beast, let out a sharp cry, and began to wail.
Su Shiye was gone.
The man she loved most was gone.
She had lost him forever! The man she loved most in this life, the man she had once sworn to spend her life with, the man who had knelt in the undersea forest to propose to her—he would never return to her side!
As it turned out, a human heart truly could shatter completely.
She hugged her arms tight, her ears ringing from the pressure of her tear ducts, her entire body trembling from the heartache, burning with a total, physical pain. She had lived for over two hundred years; she had been thrown into slave markets, beaten and abused, humiliated and threatened. Even at her most aggrieved, she had never broken down like this.
And the more she collapsed, the more she suffered, the more the sweetest memories refused to let her go.
*"Thank you for saving your greatest tenderness for me."*
*"You little dummy, why are you throwing things around again?"*
*"Stop fooling around and come here."*
*"Lili, marry me."*
*"Alright, Lili. From now on, my entire self, my entire life, belongs to you."*
...
She had overestimated her own endurance. In fact, the current pain was even more violent than she had ever imagined.
She knew she hadn't taken the wrong path. But she also knew that if she weren't Sui, if she didn't have these eyes that could clearly see the suffering of so many, she would never, ever have made this choice.
Now, even if she had saved the entire Light Sea, so what?
In the trajectory of her life, there would never be another Su Shiye.
Two days later, Dangdang arrived at St. Yejiana specifically to admire the grand mansion Fan Li had bought in the Sea Mist Woods. However, neither she nor Feisi had received any word from Fan Li.
Sensing something was wrong, Feisi immediately rushed to Sui’s dorm. She rang the bell for half an hour, but no one opened the door. Finally, she swam to the window and peered through a gap in the curtains.
Fan Li was lying on the bed, her long rose-colored hair fanned out, hanging halfway off the edge of the bed along with her tail fin.
"Li-zi! Li-zi!!" Feisi pounded on the window. "Fan Li!!"
Fan Li finally woke up. She rubbed her eyes, her shoulders slumped. She sat up slowly, drifted to the window to open it for Feisi, and then returned to the bed to lie down in the same position as before.
"How did you just disappear..." Feisi leaned in. "You scared us to death!!"
She received no response.
Silence spread through the seawater. Soon, Feisi understood. Fan Li’s emotional reflex arc had always been longer than most. When faced with a major setback, her first reaction was usually cheerfulness, indifference, or strength. But once the excitement faded and she was alone, she would collapse more completely than anyone else.
Feisi sighed. "You sleep first. I’ll call Dangdang over, and we’ll help you pack and move."
Fan Li’s "Mhm" was so quiet it was almost inaudible.
When Fan Li woke up again, another four hours had passed.
It was dark now. Feisi and Dangdang had already packed seven boxes and were currently tidying the kitchen. She stood up and leaned against the kitchen door, watching the chaotic scene. Lacking even the strength to say "thank you," she returned to the living room.
Feisi and Dangdang hadn't finished the living room yet. All the decorations were still there, but all of Su Shiye’s things had been cleared away, including the photo on the desk.
Fan Li wanted to ask where they had put the things, but she didn't—she knew they had done it on purpose.
Besides, what was the point of knowing where they were?
She hunched over, burying her face in her palms, remaining silent.
She had cried too much over the past two days, whether awake or dreaming. Now it felt as if her tears had run dry; she couldn't cry anymore. The saddest part was that the inability to shed tears reflected that her body could no longer withstand any more pain.
However, her brain refused to obey, stubbornly conjuring up memories of its own accord.
"Thank you both," Fan Li said softly.
Though her voice was small, the two of them heard her clearly.
"Thank you for what? We’re old sisters!" Dangdang was as boisterous as ever, puffing out her flat chest. "I don't need to marry a man now. I’ve got a tycoon bestie to cover me. Why would I get married?"
"No need for thanks. It’s just packing, no trouble at all. Saying thanks makes us sound like strangers."
Fan Li didn't explain. She wasn't thanking them for helping her move.
She was thanking them for letting her leave this home sooner.
Because as long as she stayed in this room, she would constantly think about how she used to excitedly dive into his arms and rest her head against his neck. Even while he was reading, he would never forget to turn and kiss her forehead, smiling as he said, "Lili is actually quite clingy."
*"Why do you think I'm so clingy..."* she would always answer playfully. *"Because I love you."*
That same scene had repeated not a hundred times, but at least fifty. And now, that image was like a movie clip set on a loop, constantly replaying, constantly making her remember his tender gaze, constantly reminding her that she was once a small woman who, in the arms of the man she loved, would say: *Because I love you.*
***
At this moment, at the bottom of the Meteor Trench, nearly ten thousand meters deep in the sea, amidst endless, desperate darkness and water pressure that could flatten any land creature in a second, the bioluminescence of deep-sea predators flickered, illuminating a garden of deep-sea coral reefs. The cold-water coral thickets here were larger and more inaccessible than the reefs of the Light Sea.
Because there were no algae capable of photosynthesis here, these corals did not rely on sunlight. Instead, they used their tentacles to catch "marine snow" drifting down from the Light Sea. But because there were no algae, they grew incredibly slowly, gaining only the diameter of a single hair in a year. The corals here were the rarest resources in the ocean; a small piece could buy a house in an ordinary city in the Light Sea.
The young Hunter-tribe man lay beside the coral reef. Marine snow drifted sparsely, landing on his slightly swaying white hair.
This sea was territory once ruled by the Crimson, completely detached from the regions where the Deep Blue had once been active. Consequently, it was entirely devoid of arcane energy. However, within the cracks of the seafloor basalt, black and red light of fel energy intertwined and spread upward. Like smoke caught in a breeze, it drifted onto the man’s skin and was rapidly absorbed.
A communication signal from the Twilight Zone, eight thousand meters above, drifted faintly into his ears:
"Lord Su Shiye, where are you? Can you hear us?"
Receiving the signal from his followers in his mind, Su Shiye slowly opened his eyes. His golden pupils deepened as fel energy flowed through them in cycles. He blinked, sat up quickly, and rubbed his head, finding that his energy had mostly recovered. Moreover, the restricted feeling he had in the Light Sea had vanished; the power in his hands felt a sense of transcendence he had never known before.
He calmly surveyed the boundless darkness around him and continued to concentrate, listening to them speak:
"Lord Su Shiye, are you alright? We are gathering outside the Well of Storms. If you hear us, come find us. Sui is truly detestable, to betray you like this! We wish we could cut her into a thousand pieces! Let’s gather our forces in the Twilight Zone and fight our way back to St. Yejiana!"
"I am at the bottom of the Meteor Trench," Su Shiye said softly, flicking his finger. A bolt of red and black fel light carrying his voice flew toward the upper reaches of the sea, vanishing in an instant.
The voices of those people turned to sobs of joy:
"Ahhh, Lord Su Shiye!! You’re alive!! That’s wonderful!!!"
"Is it true? Is it really Lord Su Shiye? Can you hear us? Can you come up?" It was Aize’s voice.
"The Eye of Flame is in their hands; I cannot go back," Su Shiye said, sounding unexpectedly calm. "Besides, the actual power in the Light Sea has surely fallen into the hands of the Storm Party. Even if I return, I cannot be the Dictator. You should go back. The living conditions in the Abyss are too harsh."
"No, no, no! Even if we die, we want to be with you!!"
"Lord Su Shiye, losing once is nothing. we will help you make a comeback. One day, we will accompany you as you rule the world again," said the voice of the Starry Sea Governor.
Aside from them, there were only the pleas of a group of his loyal followers.
"Fine. I will find a way. Wait for me, I’m coming up."
But before he could set off, he heard another voice. This voice did not come from outside his ears; it rang directly in his mind, like an inner demon:
"Lord of Ether..."
"Lord of Ether..."
"Lord of Ether..."
"Who is it?" Su Shiye looked back, fel light flickering in his eyes and at the tips of his hair. "Lord of Flame?"
"Old friend, it has been over four billion years. I have missed you dearly. Have you been played by the descendant of that Deep Blue hag? Release me, and we shall fight our way back together."
"I am not the Lord of Ether. I am merely his divine sense."
"You can change back. Release me, and I will teach you. You must know, I am the only complete god left in this world."
"No need." Su Shiye looked ahead again. "In my view, you are far more dangerous than the descendants of the Deep Blue."
With that, he vanished from the seafloor in an instant.
"You brat! Come back! Lord of Ether! Come back..." Whatever the Lord of Flame said next, Su Shiye did not hear. He charged straight toward the Well of Storms.
***
Gath Xitian moved to St. Yejiana to serve as the Grand General of the Glaze Legion, using the opportunity to seize control of the city's military power. He waited for Fan Li and Su Shiye’s marriage rings to expire before holding a wedding with her. When Jieli offered him the White Eagle Palace as his primary residence, he not only refused but also ordered nearly a thousand arcanists to use relocation spells to sink the Temple of Memories built by Su Shiye to the bottom of the Well of Storms. Simultaneously, he spent 78 million Fu to begin constructing a "Hall of Justice," carving the Gath clan crest onto the palace walls. From the first day of construction, eight banners of the Gath clan’s Scales and Sword flew at the entrance of the Hall of Justice.
Later, the Light Sea Legislative Council held elections in St. Yejiana on September 17th. This new bill laid the groundwork for the abolition of slavery, drawing the attention and criticism of many whose interests were harmed. In response, remaining supporters of the Holy City Party took advantage of the chaos to illegally break into the Legislative Council. Twenty-seven people were charged with rioting, facing a maximum sentence of 120 years.
Fan Li continued her tireless work for the future, but her physical condition remained off. Every day, her alarm failed to wake her, and when she finally got up, she felt like slapping herself. Thinking she wasn't getting enough rest, she moved her bedtime up by an hour. But even with enough sleep, her appetite became strange. She used to hate raw food, but now she could eat several large bowls at once. Yet after eating, she felt like vomiting, as if the food were surging up her throat. She could only eat small amounts, but she would quickly feel hungry again.
One morning, her anxiety peaked, and she suddenly got into a massive argument with a colleague at the research institute. Her words were incredibly harsh, leaving the other person stunned. When she snapped out of it and realized she had gone too far, the other person was already sobbing and twitching. She hurried to apologize and went home to reflect on what was wrong with her lately. She even bought some psychology books, but found nothing useful.
Feeling that something was wrong, she discussed it with Feng Jin while they were out for dinner. But after Feng Jin said only a few words, Fan Li managed to make her cry as well.
"If I didn't know you didn't have a boyfriend, I’d really think you were pregnant," Feng Jin said, her voice trembling. "When my mom was pregnant with my sister, her reactions were exactly like yours. She even used to say things like she wanted to die with the baby in her belly. It was terrifying..."
Fan Li went to the supermarket and bought a pregnancy test. When the result came out, her face was whiter than the packaging.
"I really am pregnant."
Hearing such an explosive revelation, Feng Jin looked as if a pause button had been pressed on her head. She stared blankly for ten seconds before saying, "Do you plan to keep this child?"
"Of course!" Fan Li said without a second thought. She was quickly startled by her own answer. But what had flashed through her mind just now was indeed the "miniature version of her brother" she had dreamed of since her teenage years.
"Marry Xitian quickly. Don't tell him."
"You know the child isn't Xitian’s?"
"If you have this child, you definitely can't let Gath Xitian know. Don't you know his personality by now?" Feng Jin skipped over her question. "Forget knowing you have a child with another man—even if he knew you’d only kissed someone else once, he’d hire a dozen cleaners to disinfect your mouth."
"Aren't you going to ask me who the father is?"
"I can probably guess." Feng Jin looked at her with an expression that said *'I'm a green tea bitch, what of it?'* and said solemnly, "You absolutely cannot let Xitian know the child isn't his, understand? You know how much the descendants of the Ancestral Gods care about bloodline purity. A wife bringing another man's child into the clan is a sin that leads straight to hell. The Sea God tribe can pause the growth rate of a fetus; push the timeline back."
Fan Li began to admire Feng Jin a little. When Feng Jin was still engaged to Su Shiye, she could turn a blind eye no matter how much he messed around. It would be one thing if she didn't love him, but to be able to do that even with feelings involved proved how much she valued clan interests. Now, to persuade Fan Li to stabilize her clan relations, she had come up with these clever yet treacherous ways to trick Xitian. She truly was the Feng Jinjin she knew.
Thus, Fan Li soon sought out Xitian to discuss the matter.
"I am pregnant with Su Shiye’s child. The war is over, and there is no longer any need for a political marriage. Let’s break the engagement."
This bombshell sent Xitian racing to Fan Li’s home.
She had just moved into the apartment in the Sea Mist Woods, and the place was filled with messy boxes. She could only clear a small space on the living room daybed for him to sit. He sat down and lowered his head, not wanting to look at the chaotic environment, which only made his mood more turbulent. Fan Li couldn't see his expression and remained silent, continuing to organize her books, occasionally flipping a page to read.
Later, a cold laugh from Xitian broke the silence. "The wife of Gath Xitian had her first time taken by another man and got pregnant, all while being unmarried. I truly cannot believe it."
"I’m not your wife yet. I said we can break the engagement."
"How many men have you had?"
"One."
Clearly, whether it was one or ten thousand, Xitian would find it painful. He frowned deeply, forcing himself to continue: "So, you, this virtual human girl, had a pure and passionate romance with Su Shiye. A lonely girl came to the Light Sea alone, lived in a lowly body, and was finally tricked out of her virginity by Su Shiye’s sweet words. Why did you come up with such a rotten idea?"
"This 'rotten idea' overthrew Su Shiye’s regime. It was this 'rotten idea' that allowed the Storm Party to win, and it was this 'rotten idea' that made you the Grand General of the Glaze Legion."
"But there was absolutely no need for you to give up your body."
The veins on Fan Li’s forehead were already throbbing. She really wanted to say: *But even if it was just my fictional life, I wanted to give my body to him. Don't you understand that sleeping with Su Shiye was fun? If you're not convinced, you can go try sleeping with him yourself.*
But what she said was: "I’m sorry, Xitian. I understand how you feel. This human girl did many foolish things. But the reason I could never fool Su Shiye before was precisely because I wasn't foolish enough. Just consider this part of the strategy."
She gave herself a mental thumbs-up for being so understanding.
***4.3 Theater***
Su Shiye: "Why is the baby already here but the father still hasn't made his entrance?"
***
