No Other Choice

Yes.

As expected.

Even before her corruption in their past life, Zhu Zhao had already detested her to the absolute limit.

Things that reach extremes must reverse.

Now, she actually seemed to have turned over a new leaf.

Excellent, excellent.

Song Yao drank two bowls of chicken soup and ate some food before finally realizing that Zhu Zhao hadn't eaten a single bite.

She thought about it. Since the two of them were currently on the verge of shaking hands and making peace, she should still be polite. So, reciprocating the gesture, she began to place some food into Zhu Zhao's bowl.

Zhu Zhao still showed no intention of picking up her chopsticks, saying coldly, “I don't eat green beans.”

Song Yao shifted her chopsticks toward the Beggar's Chicken, but Zhu Zhao spoke up just in time: “I don't eat chicken either.”

“Or fish.”

Song Yao: “...”

She couldn't help but slam her chopsticks down, wanting to draw her sword, but she picked them up again half a second later. “If you don't eat anything, then what did you come here for?”

Zhu Zhao: “To watch you eat.”

Song Yao: “...”

How bizarre.

She let out an “oh” and raised her wine cup. “If you won't eat, you can at least drink, right?”

Zhu Zhao paused for a moment, picked up the cup in front of her, and went to clink it against Song Yao's. But before they could touch, she heard Song Yao say with a beaming smile, “Once we drink this cup, we'll wipe the slate clean with a laugh. Neither of us will owe the other a thing.”

The moment the words left Song Yao's mouth, Zhu Zhao pulled back her cup midair. With a flick of her wrist, she poured the wine onto the floor.

Song Yao was left frozen, her hand still raised in the air.

Wait. Which of her words had displeased her now?

Having already had some food and wine, Song Yao was feeling a bit more relaxed. She pulled her hand back, drained her cup in one gulp, and rested her chin in her hand, tilting her head as she asked, “What is it? You went out of your way to find me and treated me to such a large spread of food. Isn't it because you want to make peace with me?”

Hearing the words “make peace” from her mouth carried a strange sense of drawing a clean break.

An inexplicable fire flared up in Zhu Zhao's heart, making her chest feel tight.

Who wanted to make peace with her?

But when she looked up and saw Song Yao's current appearance, her anger abruptly stalled in her throat.

Her Third Senior Sister had indeed changed.

She was no longer like before, charging at her with a drawn sword every single day, eager to start a furious brawl.

She had become gentle and calm. Her clear, bright, beautiful eyes stared at her just like that, her cheeks flushed with a faint pink. There was no excess emotion in her gaze, as if she had truly forgotten all the past conflicts and life-and-death struggles.

She was even broad-minded enough to seemingly tolerate everything.

It didn't look like an act.

Why?

Why would someone who used to be so fierce and aggressive turn into this?

Facing this face, facing this quiet child, she couldn't bring herself to utter a single one of her usual sharp, thorny words.

The anger in Zhu Zhao's heart dissipated in an instant. Expressionless, she set down her empty wine cup, picked up her chopsticks, and began piling food into Song Yao's bowl once more.

Sweet and sour ribs, sticky rice lotus root, stir-fried shrimp—one chopstick-full after another.

Song Yao watched helplessly as her bowl piled high once more. She tried to stop her. “I'm full, Zhu Zhao. Calm down.”

Zhu Zhao turned a deaf ear. She peeled a few more shrimp, placed them in Song Yao's bowl, and only then wiped her hands. Unhurriedly, she said, “We can make peace.”

Song Yao: “And the condition?”

Zhu Zhao: “Eat a hundred meals with me.”

Song Yao: “?”

What kind of condition was that?

She hesitated for a moment and asked, “Do I have to pay?”

Zhu Zhao choked, inexplicably finding herself amused by the sheer absurdity. “I'll pay.”

Song Yao: “Deal, deal.”

That made it even less of an issue.

Three meals a day meant they could finish it in just over thirty days.

Though...

Was Zhu Zhao really that desperate for a dining companion?

Fearing that asking too many questions would cause Zhu Zhao to fly into another rage, she kept quiet and lowered her head to diligently focus on her food.

Zhu Zhao watched her for a moment, then suddenly spoke: “Song Yao.”

Song Yao: “Speak.”

Zhu Zhao: “Did you really die in the Earth Realm back then?”

Song Yao: “...”

Lately, her identity had been recognized by one person after another. Her encounter with Chen Qingqiu had been a fleeting one, and Fifth Junior Sister's mind was unstable, so no one had actually asked her about what happened back then.

Now that Zhu Zhao was the first to bring it up, she couldn't help but feel a bit dazed.

But it was only for a brief moment before she looked up with a beaming smile. “That's right, dead as a doornail. Didn't my soul lamp go out?”

Zhu Zhao couldn't understand how she could still laugh. Her brow furrowed deeper. “Why?”

Song Yao: “Why what?”

Zhu Zhao: “Before you left, Master placed a protective talisman on you. Ordinary demons couldn't get near you, and great demons would actively avoid you. Why... why did you die?”

Song Yao was slightly taken aback. “A protective talisman?”

No wonder when she first arrived in the Earth Realm, many of the demons she encountered turned and fled the moment they saw her.

It turned out Master had been protecting her.

She set her chopsticks down and stood up, slapping the table with a look of immense pride. “Even without a protective talisman, ordinary demons couldn't have killed me. I went to fight the Great Demon of Qianhuang. If I could have taken the Great Demon of Qianhuang down with me, wouldn't that have been an incredibly cool way to die?”

Zhu Zhao: “?”

What did she mean by taking the Great Demon of Qianhuang down with her?

What did she mean by an incredibly cool way to die?

Her knuckles turned white as she gripped her chopsticks, her fingertips digging so hard into the bamboo grain that they left deep indentations.

Song Yao didn't notice her unusual behavior at all, continuing to sigh with great regret. “It's just a pity that someone sneak-attacked me from behind. I died before I could finish it off.”

She spoke with absolute candor and matter-of-factness, her tone devoid of any fear or regret, carrying only the disappointment of failing to drag the Great Demon of Qianhuang to the grave with her.

Zhu Zhao's throat felt dry, her voice dropping to a low whisper. “Did you really not think of living at all?”

Song Yao took a sip of her wine and muttered vaguely, “Well, there was no other choice.”

Zhu Zhao: “...”

How could there be no other choice?

The Earth Realm was indeed perilous, but Master's protective talisman had been refined using the essence blood of a divine beast. As long as she had behaved herself, let alone dying, she wouldn't have suffered even a scratch.

She was the one who threw her life away.

She was the one who had never intended to live from the very beginning.

Zhu Zhao still couldn't understand her, still couldn't comprehend what she was thinking.

Her heart felt heavy, leaving her unable to catch her breath for a long time.

Song Yao seeing her in a daze, poured a cup of wine and stood up. She walked over and held the rim of the cup to Zhu Zhao's lips, a teasing glint flashing in her eyes. “In our past life, didn't Second Senior Sister always tell me to drop dead? What's wrong? Could it be that now that I actually died, you weren't used to it and actually missed me?”

Zhu Zhao's temper had been exceptionally good today, and Song Yao's mouth was simply itching too much to resist a bit of provocation.

Little did she expect that in the next second, her wrist would suddenly be seized with a vice-like grip. Zhu Zhao bolted upright, and Song Yao, caught off guard, was dragged forward by the force, slamming against the cold edge of the table with the small of her back pressed against the hard wood.

A few drops of wine spilled out, splashing onto her wrist and sending a cold shiver through her.

Zhu Zhao's presence completely enveloped her.

She looked up and collided with the other girl's dark, stormy eyes, which churned with a tempestuous wave she couldn't comprehend—as if emotions suppressed for far too long had finally breached a dam.

“Yes.”

Zhu Zhao's voice was extremely low, carrying a raspy tension as she hammered out each word right by her ear.

Song Yao: “?”

Zhu Zhao tightened her grip on Song Yao's wrist slightly, letting out a cold sneer as she threatened her mercilessly, “So you had better stay alive for me now and stop looking for death. Otherwise—”

“If you raise a chicken in the future, I'll kill it.”

Song Yao: “?”

Wait. Is she insane?