Chapter 131
"I love both of you," Huan Zheng whispered between the kisses, his voice no longer lazy, no longer flat, but gentle—so very gentle—like a father stroking the hair of his sleeping children, like a lover whispering into their partner's ear in the middle of a silent night.
"And I will never stop loving you, until death, and even after death. If you believe in reincarnation, then I will search for you in the next life, and the life after that, and the one after that, until you grow tired of my presence and ask me to leave."
Hhhh!!
Six months after the wedding—six months during which Ling Xu learned how to become a wife, learned how to become a queen, learned how to become someone who could not only kill and burn and destroy, but also love and be loved, forgive and be forgiven, laugh without guilt and cry without shame—she felt something strange inside her stomach.
It was not pain, not nausea, not discomfort, but something moving, something alive, something kicking from within like a baby still inside the womb, wanting to come out, wanting to see the world, wanting to become part of something greater than itself.
"Huan Zheng," Ling Xu whispered one night as they lay on the same bed, with The Singer already asleep on Huan Zheng's other side, her red hair scattered across the pillow like a fire that would never burn out, her breathing steady and calm like the flow of a river in the countryside. "I… I'm pregnant. We're going to have a child. You're going to become a father, Huan Zheng. The father of our first child."
And Huan Zheng—upon hearing the news, upon hearing that he would become a father, that he would have a child, that he would have a new family after losing the old one—felt his chest tighten.
Not because of the Cancer plague, for he no longer had it, but because of happiness. A happiness so immense, so deep, so absolute that he could not speak. He could only hold Ling Xu tightly, bury his face in the white hair streaked with vein-like patterns of color, and cry.
Cry for the first time since marrying Ling Xu and The Singer. Cry because he realized that even though he had lost everything, even though he had been betrayed by the people he loved most, even though he had been sentenced to death, exiled, and forgotten, he still had Ling Xu, he still had Singer, he still had the child who would be born a few months from now.
And that was more than enough. More than he had ever dreamed of. It was a happiness that could never be taken away from him—not by The Silent One, not by the soul of the God of the Vast Cosmos, not by all the Gods and Goddesses who had once ruled this infinite universe.
Meanwhile, in a small village on the outskirts of the capital, The Silent One—who now possessed a stable temporary body, who could now walk without a cane, who could now smile without guilt—sat on the terrace of Mu Yao's house, accompanied by the woman who had taught him that love did not need to be obtained through violence, that love could grow from kindness, patience, and sincerity. That love was choosing to stay even when you could leave, choosing to forgive even when you could hate, choosing to share even when you could keep everything for yourself.
"Mu Yao…"
The Silent One's voice sounded different this time—no longer hollow like when he had merely been a puppet, nor heavy and echoing like when he had merged with the great cosmic soul.
Now his voice was soft, almost fragile, like a man who had finally found the courage to reveal something he had long kept buried in silence.
"I… I also… we're going to have a child."
He paused for a moment, taking a breath weighed down by emotion.
"Six months ago… that night… when The Singer and Huan Zheng… the night that made Ling Xu endure the pain of jealousy… at the same time, you and I…"
His sentence trailed off unfinished, yet its meaning had already been conveyed.
Mu Yao needed no further explanation.
She had understood long before the words were spoken.
Her body had already told her first—her stomach slowly beginning to round, the pulse of a small life growing inside her, a presence that was quietly changing everything.
It was not merely a physical change, but the beginning of something far greater.
A future that was slowly taking shape.
"We… are going to become parents, The Silent One," Mu Yao whispered with a trembling voice, filled with emotions she could no longer fully contain.
No longer merely calm as usual, her voice now carried an overwhelming happiness mixed with deep emotion.
"We're going to have a child… a child who will be born into a different world. A world no longer filled with wounds like before."
She lifted her face, her eyes wet yet shining brightly.
"A world where they can live without fear. Where they can laugh, learn, and love without the shadow of darkness looming over them."
Her breath caught briefly before she continued softly.
"And all of this… happened because of them. Because of Ling Xu, Huan Zheng, and Tje Singer. They chose to forgive. They chose to move forward. They chose to believe… that the future does not have to remain chained to the wounds of the past."
On an empty piece of land at the edge of the capital—in a place where there were no buildings, no trees, nothing except wild grass growing freely because no one cared for it, because no one paid attention, because no one remembered that beneath this soil, someone had been buried with her head severed from her body, with wounds that never healed, with tears that never dried—Ling Xu knelt down, with Huan Zheng standing beside her, their hands tightly intertwined, their hearts beating faster than usual because she was about to do something she had not done since her mother died, since she became an orphan, since she lost the only person who had ever made her feel that she was not alone in this cruel world.
Before her, inside a teakwood coffin carved with lotus flowers—the symbol of purity, rebirth, and hope—rested her mother's head. The same head that humanity had once displayed as proof that they had succeeded in winning the Harmony Conflict, proof that they had the right to indulge in the goddesses' holiness in depraved ways, proof that no one could stop them, no one could punish them, no one could avenge the innocent victims who had died in vain.
"Mother…" Ling Xu whispered. Her voice was no longer gentle like when she embraced Huan Zheng, no longer filled with happiness like when she discovered she was pregnant, but shattered and soaked with grief, like the string of a harp snapping in the middle of the most beautiful melody.
And for the first time since losing both of her eyes, since choosing to become empty, since deciding that there was nothing left for her to feel except pain with no outlet, tears truly fell from her hollow eye sockets.
To be continued…