Peach Blossom.

Li You was packing up the utensils he used for his stall. When he heard Tao Ye's question, he seemed to hesitate for a moment and did not answer immediately.

Tao Ye looked at his embarrassment and suddenly became suspicious, thinking the worst: "I'm already dead, right? Or... my mother thought I was dead?"

"No! The direction of things has changed a long time ago! I'm the one who will be socially ruined!" Li You's face was tense and he sighed deeply.

Tao Ye felt that there were a lot of question marks in her head.

Li You put down his work, sat down and started to talk to Tao Ye: "During the days when you were unconscious, the Internet was full of negative news about you, all about..."

Having said this, Li You paused.

Tao Ye knew that the word he was about to say was "pervert". Because in the days when she was in a coma, Tao Ye's soul was stranded in the modern world, and she witnessed the various scenes of people discussing her "perversion".

Li You avoided that word and continued, "Later, your mother saw the news and came to the hospital. Seeing you in a coma, she cried and talked about the difficult life you and your mother had in the past! Those things were soon reported in the news and aroused a lot of sympathy from netizens. Then... I don't know why, it was as if we had swapped roles on the Internet, and I suddenly became the target of cyberbullying!"

Tao Ye was shocked, and she didn't quite understand why.

"I swear, I really didn't mean to hurt you! I was timid, and I was so nervous that I didn't even notice your position. I just wanted to find something to scare you away! Who knew... you scared me half to death, I immediately called an ambulance to rescue you, but you lay in a coma in the hospital every day, and I dreamed every day that you came to take my life..."

Hearing this, Tao Ye couldn't help but smile.

"Really!" Li You said seriously: "Besides, I thought about it carefully later. With my conditions, you can't have any intentions towards me! You may just be joking with me, but I..."

Tao Ye smiled again. She felt that Li You was actually a good person, but he himself was very unconfident.

Li You continued to narrate: "When I first saw people talking about you online, I was very angry. I felt sorry for you and publicly posted a lot of my opinions about you online, hoping to reduce their misunderstandings about you. At that time, many people praised me, saying that I was open-minded and returned evil with kindness... In a blink of an eye, the wind changed. They said that I made those remarks just to create my own perfect persona, and then my persona collapsed online! Then, there were all kinds of opinions! Some said that I deliberately hurt you because it happened in the men's restroom, so it would be easy to make headlines and become famous; others said that I had an emotional dispute with you and it was a typical revenge after breaking up! Even the honorary titles such as "Best Employee" and "Hardworking Model" that my supervisor had rated me before have all become pretentious in the mouths of keyboard warriors! Someone even openly asked me if I wanted to live broadcast and sell goods?"

Tao Ye smiled and said, "It seems that you are even worse off than me!"

"That's for sure! Before you were scolded, you were an unknown person! And because of you, I was first praised for my "perfect" reputation, and my fame almost caught up with that of an internet celebrity. As the saying goes, 'If you climb high, you will fall hard'. I didn't intend to climb high, but I fell hard! Every day someone leaves me a message, asking me to die with you! As a result, I really died. I was distracted while riding a tram, and I didn't even see the huge pothole on the road, and I fell into it all of a sudden! Now, I wonder if someone will leave me a message saying "It's a good thing you fell into the pothole"!"

Tao Ye smiled faintly and sighed, "I can see that some netizens are just like that. They either suppress or praise others! They won't be satisfied unless someone dies!"

Li You also smiled helplessly: "You think too little. Even if someone dies, they won't be willing to accept it! There is no shortage of people who are eager to do good things in the world, and they just want the world to be in chaos!"

"It's okay, we just don't go online, don't watch, don't think, and don't be affected by them!" Tao Ye smiled again. After coming to the ancient times, she hovered between life and death several times. She had long been immune to those rumors.

Li You nodded, looked at Tao Ye again, and sighed deeply: "But I really should apologize to you! I didn't expect that you were from a single-parent family. Your mother raised you alone, and it was already very hard. I am so clumsy, but I made her shed more tears. I feel so guilty!"

Tao Ye did not answer, but just smiled.

However, Li You's words reminded her of many childhood memories at night, causing her to suffer from insomnia for a long time.

She doesn't remember what her father looked like because he died too early and she didn't have the ability to remember at that time.

As far as she could remember, she had already gotten used to her mother running around.

Her mother was not well educated, and in order to take on the responsibility of supporting the family, she would go to work wherever she heard that the salary was higher.

Because her mother had to take care of her young self while working, she would always move with her mother.

This was really not a pleasant thing. Once she got familiar with a place and had a few good playmates, it was time to leave.

She cried every time they parted, so much so that she didn't want to make friends anymore, because without friendship, there would be no sadness of separation.

As a result, she became very lonely and increasingly unsure of how to get along with others.

She knew that she might go to the next strange place at any time... The next place might be local or somewhere else, it might be a factory, a farm, a restaurant, or the home of an employer.

In order to save money, her mother would live near her workplace as much as possible, so that she and her mother would squeeze into the narrow bed in the dormitory; if the unit really did not provide accommodation, they would find a place nearby with the lowest rent, which might be drafty, leaky, dirty, or they might have to share the rent with a large group of people.

Over the years, she has always worked very hard and her academic performance is excellent. She understands her mother's hard work and hopes to give her mother a better life in the future.

However, she gradually discovered that although her mother lived in poverty, she was strong-willed and her expectations of her became higher and higher.

In other words, it is because life is not going well and she is often looked down upon that the mother becomes stronger.

In her memory, her mother would often tell her about the awards won by so-and-so’s children, how smart so-and-so’s children were, how diligent and sensible so-and-so’s children were, as if all the children in the world were better than her! Her mother would always compare her own shortcomings with the advantages of others, which made her less and less confident!

Her mother required her not to sleep in, not even once; her mother required her to be in the top three in the class in every exam; her mother required her not to buy items that were not related to study, not to read books that were not related to study, not to associate with classmates who did not like to study, not to associate with male classmates, and not to go to any entertainment venues!

In addition, her mother also restricted her living expenses while she was living on campus, and her monthly expenses were definitely the lowest among her roommates.

At her mother's request, she was admitted to a pretty good university. However, she became more and more lazy to use her brain and hands. She wished she could sleep until she wakes up naturally every day and just wanted to be a salted fish... Her personal signature on her space used to be: a salted fish that can't turn over, a piece of mud that can't climb up the wall!

She felt like a person with seals all over her body. The best she could do was struggle to tear the seals apart, but she was powerless to remove them.

During her four years at university, she worked part-time almost every weekend, including riding a shared electric bike to deliver food. Otherwise, even if her classmates invited her to dinner parties, she would not have the money to join them.

After graduation, she was afraid to live with her mother, so she left her mother in the name of "going to the big city to make a living". However, she would receive calls from her mother from time to time: so-and-so's child is studying for a master's degree, so-and-so's child has found an excellent partner, so-and-so's child has passed the civil service exam...

When she went home for the Chinese New Year, her older relatives taught her earnestly, "Xiaoye, your mother didn't have an easy time raising you, you must be filial to her..."

Last year, under the pretext of "the COVID-19 pandemic made it inconvenient to go home", she skipped the opportunity to meet relatives during the Chinese New Year!

She would transfer money to her mother every month to show that she was doing well outside... Her mother would also use this as a topic of conversation and brag about it in front of relatives, friends and neighbors...

When the mother sees the news and finds out that the job she "got" is just a food delivery job, and she's not doing a very good job at it, she must be very surprised, right? Have friends and family already laughed at her many times?

After thinking about so many things, Tao Ye felt really tired!

Life is already tiring enough, why put more shackles on yourself?

Because she suffered from insomnia for too long at night, Tao Ye felt very sleepy after daybreak. However, she did not dare to sleep in. She knew that she was staying in the meditation room of the temple and the monks must have started chanting scriptures early. How could she continue to sleep!

She went to fetch water with Li You. Although Li You said he didn't need her help, she felt that she should not continue to be a parasite. She insisted on working like Li You and filled all the water tanks in the temple.

Then, she and Li You loaded the equipment for setting up the stall onto a handcart and went to the ancient tree to continue setting up the stall and giving out meals.

Since Li You's mission was nearing its end, but Tao Ye still had a lot of tasks left, Li You still asked Tao Ye to pick up meals from the tree every time, hoping that they could complete their tasks and return to the modern era at the same time.

For the whole morning, Tao Ye kept calculating the number of completed and remaining tasks in her mind, estimating that the day after tomorrow... or even tomorrow, she would probably be able to go to the Ghost King with Li You to apply for a smooth resignation...

It was afternoon, the sun was a bit dazzling, Tao Ye was drowsy sitting on a small stool, she just nodded her head, Li You pushed her quickly: "Someone is looking for you."

Tao Ye thought that someone came to ask for food again, but when she looked up and opened her eyes, she saw that it was Wang Jing standing in front of the stall!

Wang Jing was still leaning on his cane, looking at Tao Ye with a smile: "I have two questions to ask you, can I have a word with you?"

Tao Ye thought that what Wang Jing wanted to ask was nothing more than the murder of Mantang Jiao, so she pointed at Li You with a cold attitude and said, "This is my brother. If you want to ask anything, just ask it here! There is no need for us to talk alone!"

"Okay then." Wang Jing hesitated for a moment, but still asked, "I just want to ask you, the night you slept in my room...was it your virginity?"