Han Li and Ruo moved into a bamboo forest. Using strength that he had cultivated through wars and bloodshed, he built a simple bamboo hut and, along with the sorrowful Ruo, who had just lost her mother-in-law, settled in.
Unlike Ruo, Han Li knew this was just an illusion and not real life. He knew his mother hadn't died. He knew nothing was real. Even this version of Ruo, who seemed life-like to the touch, was not real.
Yes, Ruo's touches, her caresses, her sobbing heart. Everything was what it would have been like if he had moved out of that sect after his mother died. She was alive, living a great life even through her sorrows.
But in his past life, Han Li hadn't moved out of the sect. He hadn't paid much heed to what he had. When he lost his mother, he had believed he had lost everything. He was the most narrow-minded, selfish prick.
When, in fact, he still had Ruo. He had still had this gentle soul of a woman who only had him in return.
When she was young, she was seen as a tool by her own family. When she grew up, she was sold as a slave. In all of this, Yue Li had been her first familial figure and Han Li had been her first and last love. She had no one now except for him.
He had become a maddened oxen after his mother died, and he had lost himself in blood and hatred towards the heavens. Even as he carved a simple flute made of bamboo, and even as Ruo slowly sobbed on his lap, Han Li reflected on it.
In the end, she was killed. To be exact, someone acted as HIM using some Magic Power and told her 'he' hated her. Of course, she had killed herself after seemingly losing everything she had.
Han Li still remembered the words she had left behind for him as clear as day.
Betrayed by the person I love, there is no longer a reason to live.
She had hung herself.
Han Li's hand paused and a single drop of tear fell on Ruo's cheek. The already sobbing woman bit her lips.
"Ruo," he called. Five hundred years of sorrow were refilling his heart with regrets. He liked that feeling. When he returned to real life once more, he would make sure he would live a life of no regrets.
He was now a True Demon. He would live with a heart free of regrets.
Ruo's saddened gaze moved towards him, and Han Li pinched her red cheeks. "I am a very narrow-minded person. I am quite dumb, to be fair. I am very, very emotion prone." He rubbed away her tears. "There is a story I want to tell you."
"...Story?"
"Story of a dumb boy who lost his mother and got blinded."
Once upon a time, long, long ago, there lived a young boy. He was very dumb, but he had an even dumber mother. She would get scammed, she would get her money robbed, she would easily get emotional, and she was a very pure woman.
But this young boy lost her at a certain point, and he became very disillusioned with life. Yet, he didn't notice that he not only had a mother so dear to him, but he also had a young angel who relied on him to live her life.
Only when he lost her did he realize she was just as precious as his mother. The little gem that he should have protected in his life at all times. Sadly enough, the realization came too late. The young angel had also left him.
"Of course you do. Recently, its all the more clear..." Ruo rubbed her eyes and smiled. "You are always looking at others as If you are looking at a tree or some other inconsequential thing, but when your eyes shift to me, I feel like I still want to live."
"You feel like dying otherwise?" Han Li gently rubbed Ruo's white hair.
"Of course, I feel like dying..." Ruo sniffed, and her body trembled. "Mom. I could never see her again. She is dead, after all. Her cooking, her stupid and annoyingly cute behavior, it is all in the past now."
"What if I tell you this is all but a dream?"
"I... wish."
"Would you mind losing all our memories together for another chance at life? A life where you can go back in time and save all of us?"
"I would, of course; as long as you fall in love with me, I can gain memories once again," Ruo sighed. "Memories are not impossible to create, but a person is. If I can, I will go back in time and save Mother first, somehow, then I will make you fall in love with me all over again."
Ruo looked at Han Li. "What would you do if you got the chance to go back in time?" she asked softly.
Han Li looked up at the sky. "I will find everyone and bring them all under me first. Then, I will find a way to attain eternal life for everyone I care about."
"Well..." Ruo took one of Han Li's hands and led it down into her pants. He smilingly complied while wondering how the current Ruo, without memories of her older self, would react if he did something like this.
She would freak out.
"It will be easy to make me fall for you. You just have to save me from my troubles."
"Ruo, tell me, what do you want me to do for you if I can go back in time?"
She hesitated for a second and just felt for the hand in her pants. Then, she beckoned him closer to her with her hand, and he closed his ear to her.
"If you go back in time, one day, come out of nowhere and hug me to sleep. I kinda love that the most in life now."
"Anything more?"
She shook her head, and Han Li kissed her forehead.
"Big Brother. I have a wish. You never handed it to mother. Will you give me children?"
"You want them?"
"Hmm. One or two—It's not like we have any more enemies or anything as long as we don't make much stir. Let us live the rest of our lives in this bamboo forest. With one or two little ones."
"Okay." Han Li sighed and went to the room with her in a princess carry. All week long, her moans echoed throughout the bamboo forest.