In a daze, she seemed to hear a long, long sigh, as though something had finally been freed from its shackles.
She released her hand. Everyone, stunned by her actions, finally snapped back to their senses. Qin Feichang quickly stepped forward and handed her a towel. “Madam, please wipe your hands.”
Luo Yuan turned her head and found the look in her eyes carried a kind of realization—“As expected, I knew you were a murderous demon.”
She didn’t know how to explain her sudden actions. Just now, something within the depths of her body had driven her to do such a thing—probably that viscous substance that had just left her.
Qin Feimo came over holding some documents and said, “Madam, rest assured. We will take care of everything here.”
These words made them seem even more like some shady criminal group—but thinking about it, that wasn’t wrong either. The Qin family also had many things that could not see the light of day. The existence of Clan Deity was no longer known to the general public. Incidents of this nature, related to Clan Deity, would generally never have their truth disclosed.
She silently wiped her hands clean, still feeling unsettled, and suddenly wanted to see her Er-ge. She walked aside and dialed a video call.
Qin Clan Deity saw the chaos behind her through the phone screen. He smiled faintly, and in his usual calm tone asked, “The matter is resolved. An, when will you come back?”
Luo Yuan: “Er-ge, did you know about the situation here and intentionally send me over?”
The deity shook his head slightly. His unbound long hair lay to one side, floating gently with his movement. “I didn’t know. It’s only that the Luo clan deity seemed to still have lingering obsessions, so I had you make a trip.”
He had originally planned to find the cause, wait for his wife to return, and then help her deal with it—unexpectedly, she resolved the matter herself.
“An, when will you come back?”
He was like a lonely child, constantly asking when family would return home. Although his voice and expression didn’t match that impression at all, Luo Yuan couldn’t shake the feeling. Because of the countless bones weighing on her heart, she suddenly felt it soften and relax. She answered with gentle brows and eyes, “I’ll be back right away, very soon.”
Qin Feimo stayed behind to handle follow-up matters. Qin Feichang led people to escort her back to Yuzhou. On the way, because of her unusual silence, Minghuang worriedly ran over to quietly comfort her.
“Sister An, although you suddenly took action earlier and it was a little abrupt, I don’t think you did anything wrong. If we handed this over directly to the public security office in Yanzhou, they’d still need to follow procedures. That old man is too old, and they might even activate a protective mechanism, letting a criminal spend his remaining years in prison comfortably. Yanzhou’s customs value ‘respecting the elderly and loving the young’ the most—tch… just thinking about it is infuriating. It’s still much more satisfying that you took care of him directly.”
Though grateful for her comfort, Luo Yuan wasn’t actually thinking about that old man. And her psychological burden was far lighter than Minghuang imagined.
She was thinking about the relationships between deities and their clans. There were situations like her second brother and the Qin family, others like Qi Ji and the Liang clan deity, and now yet another state like the current Luo clan. There were deities who wanted to remain forever, clans who forcefully held onto their deity, and clans who wanted to destroy their deity. Human desires differed, and so did deities.
And so did their endings. What kind of ending would her Er-ge have?
After only two days away, seeing the familiar old residence again made Luo Yuan feel at ease. The lingering foul smell of the lotus pond that clung to her nose was instantly driven away by the fresh fragrance of the mountain forest.
Qin Feichang escorted her to the door, dutifully concluding his task. With cheeks slightly red, he even asked for her contact information before leaving—he still needed to go back to Yanzhou to help his cousin deal with the situation.
Minghuang chirped beside her about telling Minghui all about their trip to Yanzhou. The bodyguards scattered to their original posts, returning to the old residence with relaxed steps—as for Luo Yuan, only she could see the long-sleeved, white-robed deity waiting at the door to welcome her home, floating at her side, accompanying her back to the shrine.
The old residence was not noisy like the outside. It was filled with ancient trees and quiet deep woods. A stranger might find it eerie and terrifying, but once familiar, Luo Yuan only felt that this residence was just like her Er-ge. At a glance, it looked a little cold and gloomy—yet it was actually full of life accumulated over time, lush and thriving.
“Er-ge.”
“Mm?”
“The Luo clan deity… what’s the situation?”
“He? He should have long since perished. But the clanspeople were unwilling and forcibly used polluted methods to preserve a part of him. This karmic stain remains in all Luo descendants’ bodies. It is both a curse and a protection.” The deity sighed softly. “Humans are truly strange. Whether love or hatred, they will do the same things.”
Loving the deity, wanting to keep him. Hating the deity, wanting to destroy him. Yet both used the same methods—polluting the deity.
Luo Yuan lowered her head, her guesses confirmed. Her hand was quickly taken. The hand holding hers was icy cold, yet the voice was soft like a spring breeze. “An, did this trip scare you?”
Luo Yuan answered truthfully: “No. But it seems others were scared by me.”
The deity let out a composed, amused laugh. “It’s truly odd. I’m like that sometimes as well. Even when I’ve done nothing, I end up frightening those children.”
Luo Yuan: “Well… Er-ge, I don’t think our situations are the same.”
The deity: “We are husband and wife, how could we not be the same?”
Seeing he insisted, Luo Yuan could only change her words, “Alright, the same, the same. We are both the same.”
Talking with Er-ge like this, her mood finally calmed completely.
“Er-ge, I want to hug you.”
The deity’s smiling expression did not change. He paused for a few seconds, lifted his gaze to the ancient woods and deep forest around them, the half-person-tall flower wall, and the path where people might pass at any moment, and asked, “You want to… here?”
Luo Yuan: “…Er-ge, just a normal hug.” She always felt Er-ge seemed to have some misunderstanding about her.
The deity smiled cheerfully and spread open his sleeves. Luo Yuan leapt forward and hugged him tightly. It truly was a very pure embrace. Luo Yuan’s heart was as calm as still water, her hands did not even move. The deity smiled, thinking to himself—was removing the Luo clan deity’s curse perhaps a mistake? His wife didn’t seem as passionate as before.
“An, those remnants left behind by the Luo clan deity need to be handled. How about you make another trip?” the deity suddenly said.
Luo Yuan looked up in confusion. “You mean those sludge and corpses in the lotus pond? But I already told them to deal with it. The corpses will be cremated and buried. As for that sludge, because it looked extremely ominous, I told them to dilute it ten thousand times and separately flush it into the five great oceans…”
The deity’s entire body trembled, hair and sleeves shaking along with him. His tone became strange as he asked, “You said, diluted ten thousand times… and flushed… into the oceans?”
Seeing his reaction was wrong, Luo Yuan immediately became hesitant. “Yes… why? Is that not okay? It was a bit troublesome, yes, but I thought—the five oceans are far away and very vast…”
The deity watched his wife blankly repeat her reasoning, and suddenly burst into laughter while hugging her. It was the first time he had ever laughed like this. Luo Yuan was nearly frightened speechless, truly thinking she had ruined everything. She clutched his waist and looked up at his chin with pleading eyes.
“Er-ge, did I do something wrong?”
“No, not at all. An is truly clever.” The deity held her head and shook it gently, lovingly kissing her once. “Thanks to An, the Luo clan deity should be completely free now. It’s just that… hahahahaha!”
So why was Second Brother laughing like this? Luo Yuan looked at him helplessly yet curious, and her heart also filled with joy.
“Er-ge, what kind of ending will you have in the future?”
The deity stopped laughing, released her head, and brushed over the space between her brows. In his palm, a red camellia bloomed suddenly. He offered it to her. “With An here, it must be a good ending.”
The issue that had troubled Luo Yuan throughout the journey dissolved instantly within these light words. She inhaled deeply the cool fragrance on the deity’s body, pressed her hand against the red flower, directly covering the flower while clasping his hand—ten fingers interlaced through a single bloom. “Okay. Let’s go play games.”
Two figures, one tall and one short, inseparable, intertwined as they disappeared into the sea of flowers.
