After that, I don't know what happened. Three days after the calm before the storm, I suddenly found that the ice-sealed courtyard had warmed up, and the servants were spreading the word that the eldest miss had returned.
Hearing those three words, I was bewildered. The only one among the younger generation of the Ling family who could be called the eldest miss was my sister. Even after ten years, it hadn't changed. But wasn't she already dead? Or was the dream I had just a dream?
I didn't see her until the evening. Just as I was lost in thought, just as I doubted that dream had any meaning, I saw her. The moment I saw her, I knew those two dreams were my sister bidding me farewell, because the one I saw now was not my sister. Even though she had the same appearance as my sister, she was not my sister.
The first thought that popped into my mind was transmigration. Before I could delve deeper, I suddenly remembered the first dream. My sister said she had prepared a gift for me. Was it the one before me?
I didn't know her purpose for coming, but I found she was helping my family. First, she healed my leg and my dantian. After my legs were broken by the patriarch of the Yuan family, my dantian also lost its ability to gather spiritual energy, and I was gradually becoming a cripple. She gave me a pill. At first, I didn't dare to eat it, but thinking that I had nothing worth her attention now, I took a gamble. I won the gamble, and the next day my dantian was fine.
Later, I discovered more. Connecting these, I realized she was helping the Ling family become stronger, but what was her purpose? I didn't understand.
Later, I noticed her emotions were a bit off. Before going to the Long Qing Kingdom, she asked me a question: "Have you ever hated yourself?" I took this opportunity to clear things up with her. It turned out that she became my sister because she made a deal with my sister. But from her eyes, I could see that she was doing this not just because of the deal. I began to treat her like my own sister, trying to convince myself.
Afterward, her friends came to find her. While she was in seclusion, I gradually fell in love with her friend. Our relationship didn't encounter any major storms; it was very ordinary.
We had mutual feelings, but neither of us broke the silence. It wasn't until she came out of seclusion and discovered it, telling me that her friend had a fiancé. Just as I was thinking of keeping my distance from her friend, her friend took the initiative to break the silence. We made an agreement: she would go and break off her engagement, and I would go and propose to her.
Not long after, they were about to leave. I saw from her eyes that she would not return. She was a very kind person, as evidenced by the fact that she hadn't changed anything in the Qing Yin Pavilion. She wouldn't return as my sister.
After they left, I began to cultivate even more desperately. Nearly sixty years later, my grandfather passed away. I could roughly guess the source of his heartache. He also guessed that the one who returned was not my sister, yet he still treated her as my sister, feeling it was unfair to my sister, so he wanted to go and apologize to my sister.
I understood my grandfather's thoughts, because after I died, I would also have to go and apologize to my sister. We held my grandfather's funeral and buried him in the Ling family's ancestral grave, next to my parents' graves. There was no grave for my sister in the Ling family's ancestral grave, but between my parents' graves, there was a small cenotaph.
After holding my grandfather's funeral, I waited in my grandfather's mourning hall in the small world. The mourning hall had not been dismantled because she had not yet returned to offer incense to my grandfather. I waited for ten days, but still, she did not return. I didn't even receive a reply from the sound-transmitting jade slip she left for us. I was very angry. We treated her like our own sister, yet she was so heartless that she didn't even attend my grandfather's funeral.
Ten years later, I finally broke through to reach the Cang Lan Continent. I didn't know where she was, but I knew that to find her, I had to find Miss Qiu first. I went to Qiu City and met Miss Qiu. I knew it was my fault because I wasn't here to propose, but to inquire about her whereabouts.
I had anticipated other answers, including her high status and no longer wanting to deal with us. But I never expected that her absence from my grandfather's funeral was because she had died long ago!
I couldn't believe it, so I went to ask strangers. The answers were all the same: the former Saintess of War had died in the outer realms more than sixty years ago. From Miss Qiu, I learned her identity, and also that the former Saintess of War they spoke of was the one I was looking for. More than sixty years ago, less than five years after leaving the Gu Ling Continent, she had died.
I was devastated by this answer, in a daze, not knowing how to face the others in the small world. Outside Qiu City, in an unnamed small forest, I ran into a rock, and then my vision blurred, and I was teleported away.
I arrived in a strange place. After waiting for more than a hundred and twenty years, I wanted to return to the Cang Lan Continent through the teleportation array, but due to an accident, I fell into the Demon Realm. Fortunately, the Demon Princess saved me, and I was able to survive.
I stayed in the Demon Realm for another ten years. So many years had passed, and my state of mind was no longer the same. But just as I was accepting the news of her death, I suddenly heard a demon guard say to the Demon Princess that the Demon Emperor was going to get married, and the bride was her! I was confused again.
I wrote a letter and had a demon guard deliver it to Miss Qiu, and then waited in the Demon Realm. I had many things to ask her, and she was now in the Human Realm. I waited for three more days in the Demon Realm before I saw her. She no longer looked like my sister; I presumed it was her original appearance, even more beautiful than my sister.
She didn't go to see them again. She had made up her mind to cut ties with us. I knew she didn't dislike us, but she didn't want us to forget my sister. She also didn't want to live under someone else's identity. However, she was still using my sister's name, which was probably out of reluctance to leave us.
I respected her wishes and agreed to her continuing to use my sister's name. I returned to the small world and met Yuan Xi. She was still the same as before, unchanged. We went together to attend her wedding, but Yuan Xi attended as her friend, and I attended as an ordinary guest. In the small world, I told Yuan Xi about her identity. Yuan Xi didn't want me to be without family, so she wanted her to return to the Ling family, but she refused again.
Yuan Xi also told me the origin of the small world. This was originally her property, but when she came to the small world again, she attended my wedding banquet with Yuan Xi as a guest. By this time, several of my cousins had been married for many years and even had children. I asked their children to call her little aunt and little aunt, and they didn't refuse. I think they must have known by now.
Hearing this appellation, she was also very happy and gave gifts to the children. Each one was carefully prepared, and every child received one, not one more or one less, even those not yet born. Although she said she didn't want to appear before us anymore, she still paid attention to us.
Later, I asked her why she insisted on drawing a line with the Ling family. Her answer was the same as my guess: she didn't want to replace someone else, nor did she want to live under someone else's identity. So, this way was good. She was no longer the eldest miss of the Ling family, but she had become a relative without blood ties to the Ling family.
My only regret in this life is that my sister and I only had eight years of sibling affection. Fortunately, she promised that she would let my sister and me be siblings again in the next life. It's so good. I hope I can protect her well in the next life and not let her suffer such a short life again.