You kid! You don't have to be so low-key! !

Jie Xinyu pulled Changqing into the house, where a dozen or so delicacies were already laid out on the small table, the fragrant and strong liquor tantalizing the taste buds and making the mouth water.

I sat down awkwardly by the fire, which dispelled the chill. I sat on one side with the Han siblings, watching the four people from my memories change drastically. A sense of unfamiliar estrangement filled the space.

The fire brought some warmth, which relaxed Changqing, who was initially a little tense. He listened to the four of them chatting and joking, their close relationship making him feel a little envious, but more than that, he felt out of place. He rarely touched his chopsticks, keeping his hands hidden in his sleeves so they wouldn't see the calluses and the dark, dry, cracked wounds on his hands.

"You gentlemen must be very important people. I am sitting here and disturbing your enjoyment. I am not a good drinker, so I will just have one more drink!"

The strong liquor was incredibly mellow and delicious, a taste he had never experienced before. It was so enticing that he couldn't bear to overindulge, and once he finished, he was about to leave.

Humility is more about being humble.

"Young pharmacist, is this the life you've been pursuing? To be a doctor, to treat people, nothing more?" Boss Yun stretched out his leg to block the young man's path, picked up his wine glass, and drank it all in one gulp, looking quite puzzled.

Upon hearing this, the young man had no choice but to stop, his face showing apology and even more bewilderment. He was about to say something when Zhong Zhentang shoved a full glass of wine into his hand.

Six pairs of eyes came at him, which made the young man feel a little uncomfortable. Holding the warmed wine, he smiled lightly and said, "I am already very satisfied. At least I have hope for life. Once Sister Linglong finds Grandpa Zhao, I will buy a big house in town, a very big one, just like this, where we can eat around the stove. What more could I ask for?"

"But what if there's a better option?" Ling Wuzong, whose muscles had noticeably shrunk, asked reluctantly.

"Better? Isn't this good enough?"

The young man was slightly surprised, but then he understood what they meant:

"You mean immortals? Hehe, don't laugh at me, but I've been having dreams about immortals these past few days. But every time I get into the deepest part of the dream, I feel like I'm surrounded by complete darkness, and that oppressive sense of fear washes over me like a tidal wave. Maybe I'm not cut out to be an immortal!"

Bang-!

Yun Qinghan slapped the ground, her figure floated up, and the blue bricks beneath her feet shattered.

Changqing shuddered, spilling a lot of wine from his glass. He seemed to curl up into a ball, as if the person in front of him was just a cautious mortal.

He glared fiercely at Changqing, his expression full of indignation and disappointment, yet he couldn't bear to suppress his emotions. He took a deep breath, turned and went to the door, his eyes filled with disappointment.

The young man was confused, but he also felt a discomfort in his heart: "This..."

Zhong Baixuan wasn't in a hurry. He simply raised his glass to Changqing and said, "That was your choice, but was it really your choice? Your mind has been captured by the mundane, and you only want to indulge in the gentle embrace of life. But life is full of hardships, isn't it? How can you find true peace by being so detached from the world? Have you ever asked yourself what's in your heart?"

After saying this, Zhong Baixuan and Ling Yu left together, without listening to Changqing's reply.

The two little ones hadn't touched their chopsticks since the beginning. They felt a mix of relief and the pain of parting. Finally, Han Zijin stood up and patted Changqing on the shoulder: "Uncle Changqing, this place doesn't belong to you. Your future should be much brighter."

After the Han siblings left, only a bewildered Changqing and Jie Xinyu, who was closest to him, remained in the room.

Warm, soft hands pulled out her hand from her sleeve and gently caressed it, but upon touching it, she found it full of hardships and heartache.

Such intimate and outrageous behavior left Changqing at a loss. He had never seen Boss Xie act like this before. But soon, a stubborn little girl appeared before him, her eyes urging him not to fall. Back then, she was all that was stubbornness and childlike innocence. But the woman before him had lost all that childlike innocence.

A sense of guilt arose, and the words that suddenly came to mind were: I ultimately failed to take good care of that heartbreaking child.

A mix of illusion and reality—he had ultimately lost the child. Touching the woman's face, he involuntarily said, "It's my fault!"

The woman wept with joy, reluctantly stood up, wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, and smiled slightly: "Senior brother, wake up, a brand new you."

A surge of magnanimity welled up within him, and the young man clenched his thumb—the last vestige of that warmth. Did he truly deserve to be among these people? The thought stirred within him, and he began to envision what that scene would be like.

A burst of laughter and chatter came from outside the door. It wasn't at all old-fashioned, and Changqing couldn't help but lean in to listen. Perhaps becoming someone they knew wasn't so scary after all.

As he opened the door, several people in the courtyard turned their gazes toward him. Under the bright moonlight, he saw an uncle in an orange shirt sitting cross-legged on a snow-covered tree branch not far away, also looking in this direction.

They all looked forward to their own changes.

"I... don't know if I'm worthy of you, but I think I'll do my best, I just hope... that it will work out."

"Uh..." The young man revealed what he thought was his most perfect smile.

"See you tomorrow, everyone!"

The group smiled and said, "See you tomorrow, sweet dreams!"

Han Zijin said, "Uncle Changqing, I'll keep watch for you. I saw you off then, and now I'm welcoming you back."

"Okay~~"

……

In the dream, the scenery was still bizarre and unheard of. Darkness descended, but the intruder was no longer afraid. It spat out countless points of light that surrounded it. It fought in the darkness. More and more white points of light surrounded it. If you looked closely, they were acts of kindness and people that it had saved.

This time, the darkness was no longer boundless; the young man could sense that the answer lay beyond the darkness.

Despite the approaching danger, the young man did not flinch. He struggled to escape the quagmire. Time seemed to pass for a long time, but the light spots around him did not diminish. Instead, they grew brighter. In the dark, long, thin swamp, a light spot condensed into a white figure, like a beacon, illuminating his path as he was lost.

Suddenly, a piercing pain shot through the sole of his foot. He slowly lifted his foot, and a sharp black stone shard cut his sole. He gently picked it up and touched its dark surface, revealing only paleness. In the early snow of the first year, a sallow-faced, emaciated woman in tattered clothes knelt before the medicine hall, begging Changqing to help her look after her daughter.

The little girl was very light, as if a gust of wind could blow her away. Her cheeks were sunken, and the coarse linen clothes she wore were excellent for a refugee, but she was still very young. Before the medicine was finished being decocted, the little girl stopped breathing and seemed to become even lighter...

He tucked the stone into his pocket; a chill ran through him, just like that cold winter.

The light around them struggled to pave a path through the darkness, but the places the light painstakingly illuminated were nothing but stone fragments, a scene of utter regret.

The young man took a deep breath, lowered his posture, and knelt on the ground to carefully stroke and wipe each piece of stone stained with darkness.

Two brothers, barely twelve or thirteen years old, survived a landslide while playing. Looking at the unrecognizable mountain village, they wept bitterly. Having been hungry for a long time, they cooked some wild vegetable porridge and waved goodbye. But as they began their journey home, countless small mounds rose at the foot of the mountain, and two decaying corpses lay beside one of them. Their fingertips bore numerous abrasions, deep enough to expose bone, yet their faces bore satisfied smiles. They clung to the mound, continuing their journey home with their loved ones.

After erecting graves for the two brothers, the medicine seller left, his desolate figure leaving no regrets...