Chapter 576: The Things She Lost
"Let me die here..."
Wen Qiaoyun's expression froze slightly, but she quickly dismissed it as no big deal, then asked softly, "It's fine to die here, but... after this, will you really... never come again?"
"Yes." Chu Tianqiu's voice trembled as he nodded. "Today is the last time we will ever meet in this life."
"Really... never coming back?"
A subtle change flickered in Wen Qiaoyun's eyes. She reached out her grimy hand and gently touched Chu Tianqiu's cheek, murmuring the same words to herself.
"We really have to say goodbye." Chu Tianqiu nodded, his voice growing softer. "I should have closed this door long ago... but I kept it open out of selfishness."
"Mm..."
Wen Qiaoyun nodded with a complicated expression. Her mind could no longer support any further reactions; she could only nod woodenly.
Though her mind was blank, she could still feel something important slipping away from her heart, scattering into the air like pulverized human flesh—impossible to grasp, impossible to keep.
The scent of blood drifted continuously into the room, carrying a hint of mockery, swirling around them before settling in the space between.
"Maybe I was wrong," Chu Tianqiu said with a bitter smile. "I shouldn't have said 'goodbye.' Because neither here nor outside... can we ever truly 'see each other again.'"
With that, he stood up and gently pushed aside Wen Qiaoyun's hand, as if pushing away thirty years of his own life.
Wen Qiaoyun finally understood that feeling. It was like a piece of flesh that had accompanied her for decades was being ripped from her body, causing such pain that she couldn't form a single thought.
"Don't... don't go..." Wen Qiaoyun's lips moved, and the air around them seemed to freeze.
Chu Tianqiu turned back, looking at Wen Qiaoyun's panicked expression. He wanted to say something, but could only open and close his mouth.
"I... I'll treat you to a little piglet... Can you not go..."
With her last shred of rationality, Wen Qiaoyun spoke the words in her heart, but her thoughts were shattered, broken into sharp thorns that pierced countless holes in Chu Tianqiu's heart.
"Qiaoyun, you're free now." Chu Tianqiu smiled bitterly. "From now on, you won't have to suffer anymore. We're not saying 'goodbye'—we're saying 'farewell forever.'"
"No... I, my little piglet... ours..." Wen Qiaoyun's hands trembled as she gestured frantically in front of her eyes, but she couldn't get the words out. "He... he is ours..."
She seemed to want to make some expression, but only endless numbness showed on her face.
What is sadness?
What is grief?
She was just a child who had lost her emotions, with nothing left in her eyes but helplessness.
"Qiaoyun, you have always been the brightest sun in my heart." Chu Tianqiu's eyes shimmered with a gentle yet desperate light. "I shouldn't have let you drag out your existence, prolonging your radiance. So I have to say goodbye to you here. You should die and become bones—not stand here as living bones. That's not fair to you."
Wen Qiaoyun listened and silently lowered her head, as if she finally understood the meaning of "farewell."
"Then you..." Her voice trembled slightly, her clumsy mouth unable to form any more words.
"I will try my best." Chu Tianqiu nodded. "Even if the road ahead is lined with ten thousand thorns, I will carry your light and your regrets and trample them all flat."
"You will," Wen Qiaoyun nodded. "You definitely can."
"Once I sever ties with you... there will be nothing left for me to cling to in the Land of End." Chu Tianqiu smiled desolately. "I'll just have one less person to talk to when my heart is heavy... I'll lose my sun... that's all..."
"The sun..." Wen Qiaoyun forced a faint smile at his words, then cautiously raised her fist, slowly lifting it above her head. "Is this... the kind of 'sun' you mean?"
Seeing her gesturing with all her might, Chu Tianqiu's tears burst forth.
A memory suddenly flashed before his eyes.
"Qiaoyun, if you can't speak, you can use your hands instead..."
"Qiaoyun, follow me..."
"Yes! Like this, I'll know what you're saying!"
"It's okay, Qiaoyun, it's okay if you can't gesture..."
"As long as I look into your eyes, I can understand everything."
"Me...? I'm just... just a deliveryman."
"So... do you still remember me?"
Chu Tianqiu clenched his teeth, feeling the taste of blood seeping through the gaps.
Wen Qiaoyun remembered everything... She remembered every word he had ever said.
"Go... you go..." Wen Qiaoyun reached out and kept pushing Chu Tianqiu away. "The 'sun'... won't be lost. It's still here..."
"Where?"
Wen Qiaoyun extended her withered hand and placed it over her chest: "It's always been right here..."
Chu Tianqiu gritted his teeth to hold back his tears, but the pain was unbearable. He couldn't save Wen Qiaoyun.
Wen Qiaoyun shouldn't have woken up—she shouldn't have to accept any of this again. But she also shouldn't have been lost—because she was the most brilliant sun.
But thinking that this was the last time he would ever see her, Chu Tianqiu felt as if something hard was pressing on his chest, making even breathing heavy.
Letting go of everything... was far harder than he had imagined.
Chu Tianqiu knew that the things he had been holding onto had long since crumbled, yet he still stumbled and crawled in this place like a naive child.
In this godforsaken place, "goodness" never bore fruit. Those who fought for others all 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's brow tightened as he sobbed and trembled.
"Qiaoyun... it's too hard... all of this is too hard..."
"It'll be okay... we'll both be okay..." Wen Qiaoyun showed the purest, most flawless smile of her life. The withered wrinkles on her face seemed to smooth out in that moment. She took a step forward and pulled Chu Tianqiu into her embrace. "It's okay... everything will be okay..."
Chu Tianqiu wept bitterly on Wen Qiaoyun's shoulder.
From the very first day he set foot in the Land of End, he had been constantly giving and losing.
What he gave grew day by day, and what he lost was beyond counting.
And now, even Wen Qiaoyun was about to be lost.
When he walked out that door and faced the sun in the sky as he stepped into the abyss, he would lose even the last version of himself.