Chapter 94
Chapter 94: We’re Even Now
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Lin Muyu’s words fell like a violent thunderbolt, suddenly striking Su Wanqing’s heart.
This scene was exactly what she had been dreading.
She wasn’t afraid of Lin Muyu crying and wailing at her, pouring out all her grievances and anger.
She also wasn’t afraid of Lin Muyu scolding her harshly, or even punishing her in any way, she felt that would be better than this moment.
What she feared most was Lin Muyu’s current appearance.
Using silence to build a high wall between them, then step by step, quietly retreating until she completely withdrew from her world.
The current situation, though not entirely silent.
But that deliberate distance, that coldness that kept people thousands of miles away.
How much difference was there compared to the situation she feared most?
“Muyu, listen to me, I can really explain! Please, listen to my explanation just once!”
Su Wanqing’s voice was tinged with obvious urgency.
She instinctively stepped forward, as if this could somehow shorten the invisible chasm between them.
“It’s still because of that poison, isn’t it?”
Lin Muyu’s body imperceptibly shrank back slightly, as if startled by this sudden approach.
She raised her eyes, her two clear pupils meeting Su Wanqing’s gaze.
But the depths of her eyes were as calm as an unfathomably deep cold pool, without the slightest ripple, so calm it made Su Wanqing’s heart feel frightened.
“…”
Lin Muyu’s light words were like a fish bone, instantly choking all of Su Wanqing’s explanations.
Those rehearsed phrases, those reasons she urgently wanted to pour out, all stuck in her throat, neither up nor down.
Her hands unconsciously clenched her sleeves, feeling somewhat at a loss for a moment, only able to stare blankly at the other person.
“The first three times, you also said the same thing…”
Lin Muyu continued speaking in a distant tone.
That attitude couldn’t be clearer, she had heard enough of such reasons, whether true or not, there should be an end to it.
“But everything I said was true! Muyu, you know this, I’m normally not like that at all! If it weren’t for that poison causing trouble, how could I…”
Su Wanqing hurriedly explained, her voice carrying a barely perceptible tremor.
Her steps couldn’t help but move forward again, almost getting close to Lin Muyu.
As if this way she could make her feel the sincerity in her words.
“Mm, I know…”
Lin Muyu remained silent, slowly nodding.
This sentence was like a ray of light, instantly igniting a faint hope in Su Wanqing’s dim eyes, and her heart lifted along with it.
But her next words were like a basin of cold water, pouring down over her head, instantly extinguishing that spark of hope completely.
“Since you yourself are also clear that you’ve been poisoned, why don’t you go find Master to solve it thoroughly?”
“The sect surely has methods, but you insist on using this way to torment me instead?”
Hearing these words, Su Wanqing only felt her heart sink, as if pressed down by a boulder, falling straight into an icy abyss.
Lin Muyu’s tone was very light, as if she were merely asking a stranger she’d met by chance about some trivial matter.
“…”
Su Wanqing, hearing these words, felt as if all her strength had been drained away, instantly falling into silence.
She lowered her eyes, her long eyelashes casting a shadow below her eyes, concealing the turbulent emotions in their depths.
How could she not know in her heart that while Senior Sister Qingyao’s medical skills were good, she indeed had no way to cure this strange poison.
But her Master, as a Peak Master with unfathomable cultivation and vast experience, surely had methods to resolve this poison.
Yet she ultimately didn’t do so, only because her heart harbored too many selfish thoughts she was unwilling to speak of to others, like a net that trapped her firmly.
At first, she was afraid.
Afraid of being known by her Master, who viewed her as her pride.
That she, who had always been perfect and flawless in her eyes, never making mistakes, would actually commit such an absurd error.
She feared seeing disappointment in her Master’s eyes, and even more feared disappointing those expectations.
Later, as days passed and she spent more and more time with Lin Muyu.
That different kind of feeling began to spread, and she became afraid again.
Afraid that after Master learned of this matter, she would forcibly separate them.
She couldn’t bear to give up this hard-won intimacy, and even more couldn’t bear to lose the occasional dependence that flashed in Lin Muyu’s eyes.
She had even harbored a humble fantasy, hoping that Lin Muyu could understand, could accept this self of hers, bound and helpless against circumstance.
But reality gave her a harsh blow.
In the end, this poison was only barely suppressed in such an embarrassing and hurtful way.
“I’m sorry…”
Su Wanqing could only lower her head, her voice hoarse.
Her eyes reddened, filled with dense pain and regret.
“As long as you’re willing to forgive me, Muyu, I’m willing to do anything! Even if you asked me to die right now, I would be willing…”
And at this moment, Lin Muyu seemed to have made some kind of resolution.
She forced herself to endure her body’s instinctive resistance, slowly raised her hand, and gently pressed her cool fingertips against Su Wanqing’s trembling lips, stopping her next words.
Her tone remained calm, with no discernible emotion:
“I don’t want you to die… and besides, I forgive you.”
“Really?!”
Su Wanqing suddenly raised her head, her eyes full of incredulous joy, like seeing light in darkness.
The tears she had suppressed for so long could no longer be held back, sliding down her cheeks with a tremor of tears of joy.
“This child really is hopeless.”
That sinister voice in Su Wanqing’s mind rang out again, carrying undisguised mockery, as if it had already seen through everything that would follow.
“Does forgiveness spoken aloud necessarily mean forgiveness from the heart?”
Sure enough, just as that voice had predicted.
Lin Muyu’s next actions instantly threw Su Wanqing, who had just been immersed in joy, harshly back into the valley of despair.
“From the first time we met, I saved you, and later you also saved me. Between us, we’re even, neither owes the other.”
As she spoke, Lin Muyu carefully took out a jade pendant from her bosom.
The jade pendant was warm and translucent, with clearly visible carved patterns, and traces of warmth still remained on it.
“This is the jade pendant you gave me back then. I’ve always kept it. I imagine it must be very important to you. Now, I’m returning it to you…”
“Consider us even.”
“How could we possibly be even?!”
Su Wanqing’s tone instantly became agitated again, even carrying a barely perceptible panic.
“How can the matters between us be calculated with the word ‘even’?”
“Consider this thing compensation for those two incidents. You don’t need to return it to me.”
Faced with the emotionally agitated Su Wanqing, Lin Muyu only paused slightly.
Her gaze didn’t waver in the slightest, then she continued in a tone so calm it was almost cold:
“No need.”
“You also gave me a lot of help later. Consider those as offsetting it.”
Only then did Su Wanqing belatedly understand that Lin Muyu wasn’t talking about any compensation at all.
She was clearly settling accounts one by one, wanting to completely sever all relationships with her!
Originally, the relationship between them had become deeply intertwined, already entangled by karma, difficult to separate.
But Lin Muyu’s current actions were like personally cutting these bonds.
Even if she suffered losses, she wanted to sever all karmic connections between them with a single stroke, removing them completely clean, leaving not the slightest trace behind.
“What about the last two times? No matter what, I must take responsibility, Muyu. You can’t not let me take responsibility…”
Su Wanqing’s tone still carried agitation.
But compared to just now, it already carried several parts of indescribable desolation and powerlessness, like making a final struggle.
“Take responsibility…”
Lin Muyu softly repeated these two words.
Could she, a small cannon fodder who could perish at any time in this cultivation world, really bear the “responsibility” from the female lead?
Understanding this point, Lin Muyu took a deep breath, suppressed the turmoil in her heart, and continued in a tone so calm it was almost cruel:
“I don’t need you to take responsibility. The third time, consider it as offsetting the companionship you gave me these days. Calculated this way, you don’t owe me, and I don’t owe you.”
Speaking to this point, Lin Muyu paused, as if organizing her thoughts, or as if giving herself encouragement.
“As for this time, it was my problem. I carelessly fell into someone else’s trap, causing you to have no choice but to use Blood Burning to break through in order to protect me.”
“This time, consider it as me owing you, as my compensation to you.”
After saying the last sentence, Lin Muyu let out a long sigh of relief.
As if she had unloaded a thousand-pound burden, her entire being became much more relaxed.
She had finally sorted out these entanglements that had been winding around her heart, one by one.
After experiencing so much these past days, she had finally completely awakened.
She shouldn’t have indulged in the seemingly peaceful and good atmosphere of Qinglan Sect.
Forgetting that she was merely a visitor from another world, forgetting the cruel laws of this world.
This was ultimately a cultivation world where the strong prey on the weak and dangers lurk everywhere, never a place where one could safely dream.
She wasn’t a protagonist blessed with luck, just a minor character in the original story.
An existence who could be cannon fodder at any time for standing on the wrong side or touching the protagonist’s reverse scale.
She must maintain clear rationality at all times, planning each step carefully, in order to survive well in this cruel cultivation world!
“No, I don’t accept this! These matters absolutely cannot be settled like this!”