The next day, early morning.
Just as Fang Qiu was curled up comfortably in a ball, nestled in her quilt and sleeping for a day and a night to catch up on rest, Liyue Harbor had already awakened.
Smoke from cooking fires curled spiraling upwards, and the stream of pedestrians was endless. At the pier, fishing boats heading out to sea drifted slowly towards the open ocean.
Inside the editorial office.
"So tired, I don't want to go to work... I don't want to work... When can I achieve financial freedom? That way I wouldn't have to work."
A female editor collapsed onto her desk as soon as she sat down, her face full of drowsiness and exhaustion.
"I'm also so sleepy, I want to sleep."
Another female editor also slumped onto the table, her face full of weariness; clearly, she hadn't slept well either.
"Say, if I resign now to go home and write novels, is it still too late?"
"I also want to resign and go home to write novels. The biggest benefit of being an author is 'sleep freedom'—sleeping whenever you want and waking up whenever you want. Those authors who have submitted their manuscripts are probably still sleeping right now."
"I'm so envious. If only I could work from home in the future. So tired... can I ask for leave to go home and sleep today?"
The two female editors conversed feebly.
"Of course not. Publication day is almost here. Have you collected the manuscripts from the authors you are responsible for? Have you sent them to the printing press after proofreading?"
Looking at her two juniors lying on the table like Salted Fish, Li Ling rolled her eyes and said, "Hurry up. If you delay too much, once that batch of books for Inazuma arrives, we won't be able to finish our work."
"Senior, it's not work time yet, is it?"
The two female editors lay on the table, speaking with lazy expressions.
"Speaking of which, where is Ah Qing? It's almost time for work, why hasn't she arrived at the office yet?"
"Generally speaking, isn't she one of the earliest to arrive?"
"Now that you mention it, that's true. Where is that girl?"
Hearing the words of the two female editors, Li Ling couldn't help but be slightly stunned, casting her gaze toward Bai Qing's workstation.
The desk by the window was empty.
"Could it be that she's sick?"
Just as Li Ling frowned, pondering whether to stop by Bai Qing's house to check on her when she went out to sign contracts with authors later, a noise rang out at the office entrance.
Li Ling and the other editors turned their gazes over one after another.
They saw Bai Qing walking into the office holding a large stack of original manuscripts. Her eyes were red, and her pretty face was filled with fatigue.
"Are you alright?" Li Ling asked.
"I'm fine, thank you for your concern, Senior. I just stayed up late reading Fang Qiu's novel," Bai Qing said, squeezing out a faint smile.
"As long as you're fine. Don't push yourself," Li Ling said.
"Mm, there's still some I haven't finished reading. I'll continue first." Bai Qing nodded and said.
"Mm." Li Ling nodded.
Bai Qing hugged the manuscripts and walked all the way to her own workstation.
"The way Ah Qing looks... it seems like she had a good cry."
"Indeed. It seems Fang Qiu's novel is a tragedy again this time."
"Luckily I held back my curiosity and didn't buy Fang Qiu's novel, otherwise I would be just like I was after reading Your Lie in April."
"Right? Even now, I can't forget the line Kaori yelled with a crying voice to Arima Kousei in the snow: 'Don't leave me alone.' Fang Qiu writes with too much imagery and emotional rendering power; even someone like me with zero romantic experience cried uncontrollably."
"The Eternal was the same. After my brother finished that book, he drank alcohol for several days. When he got drunk, he kept muttering the name of his childhood sweetheart."
"Sigh, for a moment I don't know whether to envy Ah Qing or pity her. I envy that she has such a good author as Fang Qiu under her, getting plenty of bonuses every time a book is published. But every book by Fang Qiu makes people cry a river. One or two books are fine, but a third one being like this... it's simply torment."
"It's a good thing Ah Qing is still young and doesn't have any 'stories' of her own. If it were someone else with a past, this would be like tearing open a healing wound over and over again."
"Just thinking about it feels awful."
"You guys don't know, a few days ago when I got off work, I saw quite a few people who, after finishing Fang Qiu's novel, went to the tavern to drink while crying. They cried so miserably."
"My older sister was the same. She was silent for a whole night after reading it. The next day I saw her pillow was wet; she probably cried all night..."
"Cherish life, stay away from Fang Qiu."
Bai Qing didn't pay any attention to their conversation.
In order to finish reading before noon today, she had read until midnight yesterday.
Jing Tian and the others traveled all the way to Leizhou and obtained the Thunder Spirit Pearl.
After one twist and turn after another, Jing Tian and Tang Xuejian finally revealed their feelings to each other at the lantern festival.
Xu Changqing also finally stopped resisting the feelings in his heart. He left Jing Tian's group, traveled all the way to the Nanzhao Kingdom, and expressed his feelings to Zixuan.
In order to obtain the Wind Spirit Pearl, and under Chonglou's reminder, Jing Tian and Tang Xuejian passed through the Well of Gods and Demons in Leizhou and arrived at the Divine Realm. There, they met Xi Yao, uncovering the romantic destiny between Xi Yao and Fei Peng, as well as the mystery of Tang Xuejian's origins.
It turned out that Jing Tian was a Divine General of the Divine Realm, the reincarnation of Fei Peng.
Back then, he privately dueled with Chonglou in the New Immortal Realm, leaving the gates of the Divine Realm unguarded. The Heavenly Emperor sent people to capture Fei Peng and bring him back, banishing him from the Divine Realm and into the cycle of reincarnation.
Xi Yao could not accompany Fei Peng into reincarnation, so she plucked a fruit from the Divine Realm and made the fruit take human form to accompany the reincarnated Jing Tian.
And this fruit was none other than Tang Xuejian.
Looking at Jing Tian and Tang Xuejian before her, Xi Yao was very calm—as calm as the Celestial Realm that had been without ripples for millions of years.
After explaining their origins to Jing Tian and Tang Xuejian, she handed the Wind Spirit Pearl to them, hoping Tang Xuejian would cherish everything she had now, and then sent them away.
After Jing Tian and Tang Xuejian left, Xi Yao silently shed a single clear tear. She reached out her hand, wanting to touch the spot where Jing Tian had just stood, but then silently retracted it.
"No, he is not Fei Peng. I know, Fei Peng will not return anymore."
Fang Qiu handled this plot sequence extremely cleverly.
She didn't write about how sad Xi Yao was, how hysterical she was, or how much she missed the past. There wasn't even excessive dialogue.
Just a simple line of clear tears, coupled with a single line of dialogue and a vast amount of white space left for the reader's imagination, rendered that surging sorrow hidden beneath the calm.
Yesterday, when Bai Qing read up to here, she couldn't hold back her tears anymore. She cried for a long time and fell asleep directly on the table.
Waiting in loneliness for thousands of years in front of the Divine Tree, finally waiting for the person her heart had longed for day and night.
But he was no longer him.
He was Jing Tian, not Fei Peng...
And Fei Peng would not return anymore.
________________________________________
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