Just like back then, when she witnessed her father forcing her mother to take the medicine but could only pretend not to know. Later, after her mother died, she had to face the culprit every day, still calling him "Father," forcing a smile while secretly wishing he would pay a terrible price for her mother's death. She lived in constant fear that she might become his next experiment. Over time, that hatred fermented into something far more sinister, until one day, she could no longer endure it...
And the suppressed ferocity within Gu Jinghong was even more terrifying than what she had felt back then.
Explode in silence, or perish in silence—such extremes left no other path.
This was one of the reasons she had always been reluctant to get close to him.
Gu Jinghong noticed her and stopped his movements, lowering his gaze to look at her. Suddenly, he smiled. "I knew you'd come sooner or later."
His clear, mellow voice wasn't loud, yet it cut through the howling wind with ease.
Gu Jinghong raised his hand, and a long rope lashed out, coiling around An Jiu and pulling her onto the roof.
Standing at this height, the wind was even fiercer. Even with her face covered, An Jiu could feel the biting gusts like knives against her skin.
"Care for a drink?" Gu Jinghong held out a wine jar to her.
An Jiu took it but didn't drink. "I came to ask about my mother. What will it take for you to tell me?"
Gu Jinghong retrieved the jar and took a swig. "The Dragon Martial Guard she belongs to is one secretly rebuilt under the Emperor's approval. Most people don't know of its existence. I was responsible for recruiting her. She passed the secret trials and is now nominally part of the Divine Strategy Army."
He reached up and removed his Ghost Mask, his eyes smiling. "If you have time, why not share a drink with me?"
The wind tangled his hair, strands clinging to his face. An Jiu saw that beneath the mask, he wore no other covering. His skin, untouched by sunlight for years, was as pale as night-blooming jasmine, his features soft yet carrying an indescribable authority. His face wasn't as breathtakingly handsome as she might have imagined, but it was undeniably captivating—as if meeting his gaze, both clear and unfathomable, would pull her under in an instant.
Gu Jinghong said, "Won't you try it?"
"No." An Jiu stared at him intently. "Are you... planning to kill someone important?"
Gu Jinghong paused, raising a brow. "What makes you say that?"
"A feeling."
For someone like Gu Jinghong, who had killed countless times, mere bloodshed wouldn't stir his emotions. Only if the target was someone he deeply cared about would it matter.
"Yes. I'm going to kill someone important." Gu Jinghong slumped down.
They remained like that—one sitting, one standing—until night fell. Finally, Gu Jinghong muttered, "You got your answer. Why haven't you left?"
"You took off your mask—was that to seduce me into drinking with you? If I left, would you feel crushed?" An Jiu asked seriously.
Gu Jinghong looked up at her, strands of ink-black hair falling over his cheeks, his narrow eyes half-hidden. A slow smile curved his lips. "You're amusing. But you've always been wary of me. Why suddenly care about my feelings? Did the seduction work?"
Gu Jinghong possessed Mind Reading, but with An Jiu, he didn't need it to discern the truth in her words.
An Jiu was silent for a moment before saying, "You still haven't told me how to find my mother."
"Why should I?" Gu Jinghong replied coolly.
"Fine. Keep your secrets." An Jiu turned and leaped off the roof.Her body was halfway down when suddenly her waist tightened. An Jiu looked down to see Gu Jinghong's rope coiling around her again. She drew her dagger and slashed fiercely.
The seemingly ordinary rope didn't break. After several forceful sawing motions, she finally managed to fray it halfway through.
Gu Jinghong approached the edge, holding a wine jar as he looked down at her. "You'd better look behind you."
An Jiu paused her movements and glanced downward out of the corner of her eye. A cold sweat instantly broke out on her back—below her had somehow become a bottomless abyss! But with another blink, she saw through the illusion as it gradually dissipated, revealing thick snow beneath.
With a sharp motion, An Jiu severed the remaining rope and landed steadily on the snow, looking up at him.
In the raging blizzard, Gu Jinghong laughed even more heartily. His tall figure stood like a sturdy pine in the fierce wind, his handsome face wearing a smile tinged with sorrow—like an exiled immortal or a nightmare demon.
An Jiu wanted to leave, but her feet seemed rooted to the spot. If back then, when she was on the verge of collapse, someone had listened to her secrets and shown her a way forward, perhaps she wouldn't have taken that path of no return?
"What happened to you?" she asked.
"Don't ask why. Just drink with me, and that would be..." Even if it's the next life, I, Gu Jinghong, will remember this kindness of yours.
"Alright." An Jiu reached out her hand to him.
Gu Jinghong lowered the rope.
An Jiu grabbed it and used the momentum to leap onto the roof.
As they sat down, Gu Jinghong picked up a cloak lying on the roof ridge and draped it over An Jiu's head.
Her vision blocked, she tugged it down to reveal her face. Hesitating for a moment with the wine jar in her hands, she finally took only a small sip.
Gu Jinghong took it back and drank deeply.
They drank in silence, and soon the jar was empty.
A flush appeared on Gu Jinghong's pale cheeks, his eyes becoming unfocused. When he smiled at her, An Jiu felt as if the dark night had brightened.
"Gu Jinghong, you must come back alive," An Jiu said clumsily, trying to comfort him. "Even if everything seems hopeless now, as long as you're alive, one day you'll find life interesting again."
"I can't survive," Gu Jinghong said with a bitter smile.
His lips glistened with wine, moist and bright. His eyes half-lowered, his expression full of confusion and suppression. "I was born because someone needed me. My very existence is to fulfill someone's needs. From birth, I've been nothing but a furnace."
An Jiu's eyes widened. "The Emperor even uses men for..."
"Ha!" Gu Jinghong laughed. "If that were the case, do you think The Emperor would still be alive today? These hands of mine have never failed to take a life."
If he spoke, she would listen, but she wouldn't pry. An Jiu had her own principles—the more you knew of others' secrets, the more dangerous it became.
"Not all furnaces have to offer themselves in that way," Gu Jinghong said, draining the last drop of wine. "What they want is my life..."
An Jiu frowned. "Why not resist?"
"Of course I'll resist." Gu Jinghong raised his hand, and as he clenched his fist, the surrounding snowstorm momentarily stilled. "If they want to take what's mine, they'll have to pay the price! They can take my life, but..."
Gu Jinghong sneered. "I will destroy what they value most."
"Is there... no other way?" An Jiu asked.Gu Jinghong remained silent. Over the years, he had been searching for other methods, but they all led to dead ends. "I always thought that by making myself useful, I could survive. All these years, I've completed countless missions for them, yet this is still the outcome." (To be continued...)
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