After the confrontation at Devil Subduing Peak, Li Susu had to be brought back to Mount Changze immediately.
"Sister Li will be fine," Senior Sister Yao Guang said as she finished casting her healing spell on Li Susu's unconscious body. "She overexerted herself in coming over to Devil Subduing Peak when she hadn't yet fully recovered from the effects of the evil energy in her body." She glanced over at Cang Jiumin, who wasn't looking better than the sleeping girl in front of her. She shook her head. "You didn't have to rush over here, you know. She's in good hands with me."
Cang Jiumin bowed slightly towards Yao Guang. "Thank you Sister, for taking care of Li Susu," he said, without taking his eyes off Li Susu.
Yao Guang shook her head at him again, and stood to leave. "She'll wake up soon," she said reassuringly, watching the slight lines of worry on Cang Jiumin's forehead ease a little. She left him sitting beside Li Susu's bed, smiling a little to herself about his obvious feelings for her.
Oblivious to Yao Guang's thoughts about him, Cang Jiumin continued to watch Li Susu sleep. He felt comforted at the serenity of her face, finally seeing her have peaceful dreams. All the pain of 500 years ago seem to have been washed away from her soul, so now she looks at ease in her sleep.
Cang Jiumin gently tucked a lock of Li Susu's hair behind her ear. All this time, it has been you I've been seeing all along. The truth that had been revealed at Devil Subduing Peak put everything she did for him in perspective.
His memories of her as Ye Xiwu resurfaced once again. Strangely, he couldn't remember much about their first months together, because she was just cruel and vindictive after being forced to marry him. But what he did remember, and vividly at that, was the first day that he knelt on the frozen lake, on her orders.
"Raise your head." Ye Xiwu ordered Tantai Jin. She knelt in front of him, turning his head this way and that, with her fingertips lightly touching his chin. Then she took his hand and placed it near her throat.
"Miss Ye!" Tantai Jin cried out, pulling back his hand from her.
"Try strangling me," Ye Xiwu said. "Give me your fierce look… as if you're going to kill me."
She had run away in terror from him after doing what she asked, which had then baffled him for a while, before simply stacking it up against Ye Xiwu's many idiosyncrasies. 500 years later, Cang Jiumin now realized that the Ye Xiwu he had seen then must be Li Susu who had just come from that bleak future where everyone she loved had died.
But she had not hesitated to nurse him back to health when he almost froze to death on that cold night. She had placed him in a warm bath, gave him fever medication when he started to burn up, and even gave him her thick, warm blanket in the middle of winter.
"Tantai Jin…" Ye Xiwu mumbled in her sleep. "Stay alive."
Cang Jiumin remembered the taste of the first decent meal he'd ever had in his first twenty years of life.
"Don't you dare eat another bowl of that nasty disgusting swill again," Ye Xiwu said through the mouthful of food that she ate in front of him to prove that his food is not poisoned. "You are not allowed to starve yourself to death under my watch."
That New Year's Eve, the green robes she bought him fit him so well, and was warm enough to keep away the chill of winter.
Cang Jiumin gently tucked a stray lock of hair away from her face, behind her ear. You have given me so much to want to live again. He realized that the Tantai Jin before Li Susu came into his life was cold, friendless, and alone, so much that he had never thought things like eating warm food, wearing suitable clothing, and having a healthy body should matter. That Tantai Jin was only interested in surviving, but Li Susu taught him to have dignity.
But there were other things besides that she gave him.
Ye Xiwu cast a lighting charm on the dream demon which had Tantai Jin in its grasp, weakening its hold on him.
"Ye Xiwu, are you a fool?" he cried out.
Ye Xiwu held on to his hand and tried to pull him back down. "I can't let you die!" she cried out.
Li Susu had accompanied him throughout his nightmare brought about by the demon's blossoms. He would have died by his own hand had she not held back the knife he held against his neck.
That day when he interrupted Xiao Lin's wedding with the murderous crows, intent on hurting everybody who had ever hurt him, Li Susu as Ye Xiwu stood by his side to defend him from the crows.
Tantai Jin stood rooted on the spot as Ye Xiwu picked up a nearby sword and pointed it straight at him.
I've spared you, but you won't spare me? Tantai Jin gathered power with his hands at the back, and willed the crows to come to him. Very well, let's see who ends today.
Tantai Jin waited for the tip of the sword to pierce his chest, but the sword went past his ear and struck a crow flying near his head.
She… protected me?
Tantai Jin watched as Ye Xiwu stood in front of him, then pulling him down to the ground, her body covering his from the onslaught of the crows. He raised his hand to disperse the crows before they could touch them.
He didn't understand what she did.
"Why did you protect me from the crows?" Tantai Jin asked Ye Xiwu after they got back to the Ye Mansion.
Ye Xiwu shrugged. "Because I love you."
Tantai Jin was puzzled. "What is love?"
Ye Xiwu thought for a while before answering. "Love is… when you don't want the person you love to die."
She protected him, even if he had betrayed her, and took her away from her loved ones to Jing Kingdom.
"Ye Xiwu, I wonder why you don't want me to die?" Tantai Jin asked as he watched Ye Xiwu roast a fish for him.
Ye Xiwu sighed. "Someday, I intend to tell you," she answered. "You'd better stay alive before that happens."
Cang Jiumin's heart throbbed at the memory of that day. When they were confronted by Tantai Minglang's demon cultivator, she blocked with her own body the killing curse that was meant for him. He thought he saved her from the spell, but it was only later that he realized she saved him again from the curse of the World-Overturning Jade.
Cang Jiumin touched his eye. He remembered the pain that she went through after using the power of the jade. He had even raised his own power against her, and left her alone in a dark cell. At the end of Ye Xiwu's life, she gave up her mortal life to give him a divine essence in exchange for the evil bone in him.
And even now, as Li Susu, she risked her life to defend him against all the immortal sects that wished to destroy the evil fetus.
Our story started 500 years ago, and here we are now. You wanted me dead the most, but kept me alive far longer than I should have.
But you have changed my fate completely.
It has always been you who broke through the darkness in me time and time again, saving me from all the distresses at the risk of your own life.
"Why are you so silly?" Cang Jiumin softly whispered. He reached out and took Li Susu's hand, holding it between his palms. He smiled at her. "Thank you, for doing so much for me."
It's my turn to protect you now, from the darkness of the evil bone in your body, and from everything else that comes our way.
Because I love you.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
At Heaven Lake, atop a flat rock, Li Susu played a melody on Chongyu that perfectly complemented the brilliance of the moonlight reflected on the water, the twinkling of the stars in the sky, and the warmth of the gaze she was bestowing on Cang Jiumin, who sat on the side, looking up at her, entranced by the melody and the way that her fingers run through the strings of the harp.
"I tried playing this melody on the harp humans use, but that harp was so different from Chongyu that the melody sounded so weird," Li Susu said.
Cang Jiumin smiled. "I remember."
Li Susu laughed. "Do you also remember sending Nian Baiyu to chase me out of the pavilion, and even threatening to send me out into the city streets?"
"To be fair, I didn't know the melody was supposed to sound like this," Cang Jiumin grinned at her.
Li Susu ended the song with a flourish of her hand. The last note reverberated in the air. She looked down on Chongyu fondly. "I missed playing the harp," she remarked.
"You never got enough of it before," Cang Jiumin said, remembering all the nights she had played the harp back at the Jing Palace.
Li Susu looked at him. "I used to play the harp to help keep my mind calm before going to sleep," she said, looking pensive as she turned her gaze again to Chongyu. Cang Jiumin noticed her melancholy and understood the reason for it. He placed his hand on top of hers, squeezing her fingers in a comforting way.
"When I was at the Nether River," he said, tracing his fingers over hers, "looking for your soul, I only had one wish." He looked up at Li Susu with warmth and sincerity in his gaze. "I promised that if the gods grant me another chance to see you again, I will do everything in my power to make you happy, even if I have to give my own life to do so. That is what I owe you." He held her hands in his. "From now on, I will help you chase away the nightmares in your dreams, and promise to make sure that your nightmares won't happen anymore."
He basked in the warmth of the smile on Li Susu's lips.