This villain has become a ghost

The surrounding stone walls were cold and damp, and a dim oil lamp flickered with a weak light, illuminating only a corner.

Nangong Wanqing's eyes were red. She raised her slender white fingers, and through the light coming through the small window, she trembled and said, "I have no power or influence. No one wants me to live. I don't understand the power struggle between them at all. I don't even know why they want to kill me..."

"I can't see my own ending, I can't see my own future. Only the shadow of death is with me. Fear lets me know that I am still alive."

Nangong Wanqing withdrew her hand and looked at Yue Liuyun, her eyes flashing with extreme pain. "Later, I realized that I was just a victim of power. In order to survive, I desperately studied political tactics, practiced martial arts, and tried my best to integrate with this era. My hands were stained with countless blood, and I became ruthless, cruel, and bloodthirsty..."

Day after day, she gradually forgot who she was and all the happiness and contentment she had in her own world. She only remembered... that she was the eldest princess Nangong Wanqing.

She often had dreams in which she saw bloody faces with hideous expressions, dragging her down to hell with withered hands.

Or, she would dream of her family, who had prepared a hot meal waiting for her when she returned home. The moment she pushed open the door, she would feign surprise, then exclaim that all the dishes were her favorites. She would first hug her mother, and then complain to them about how stingy her boss was...

But she didn't like that kind of dream at all.

Every time I wake up from a dream, the cold palace and indifferent human nature become particularly clear and particularly desperate.

Cold to the bone.

Qiu Shuangwan had a complicated expression, his eyes were sore, and his heart felt blocked after hearing what he said. He felt extremely uncomfortable and didn't know how to comfort her. He completely forgot that the people sent by Nangong Wanqing almost killed him. At this moment, his heart was full of sympathy for her.

As a fellow villager, she lived such a hard life, but in comparison, he was much luckier. Not only did he have an extremely smart teammate who protected him perfectly, he also fooled the entire harem into giving up palace fighting and transforming the palace into a great place for eating, drinking and having fun.

Yue Liuyun was silent and focused, as if he was thinking about something.

If Nangong Wanqing is like this, how close are she and Qiu Shuangwan to being assimilated? Will they, like her, gradually become monsters born from the decaying mud of this era?

She keenly grasped the message in her words, and a guess suddenly emerged in her mind. She asked softly, "Have you...ever read 'The Story of Ying Dynasty'?"

"What is that?" Nangong Wanqing asked with a frown.

As expected... Nangong Wanqing, as the first time traveler and the first experimental subject, had no idea about the existence of this book. No wonder she had such a hard time.

Yue Liuyun picked out the key points and told her the general content of the book.

Nangong Wanqing smiled bitterly and said, "With me as a failed experimental subject for comparison, the system must be extremely afraid that you will fail as well. Therefore, it compiled the story of this world into a book and revealed the future direction to you."

Yue Liuyun pondered for a moment, then looked at Nangong Mingzhu, who stood expressionless beside him, and said to him, "So, I actually told you the truth from the beginning. I know the general direction of the future, and this world...is not a world in a book, but an independent, real world."

Nangong Mingzhu raised an eyebrow, looked at her leisurely, curled his lips, and said logically: "But your purpose at that time was to conceal it from me, so you lied to me, you did it on purpose, so you didn't tell me what you thought was the truth."

Yue Liuyun: “…”

Okay, my mind is still clear.

Nangong Wanqing looked suspiciously at Yue Liuyun, who was talking to the air. After a moment of silence, she suddenly asked Qiu Shuangwan seriously, "How long has your Majesty's symptoms lasted?"

Qiu Shuangwan said seriously, "...It's been a while."

Yue Liuyun: “…”

Well, talking to myself in the air does seem a bit silly. But Qiu Shuangwan, you are talking nonsense seriously.

She then briefly explained to Nangong Wanqing how she and Qiu Shuangwan had traveled through time, as well as the current state of their dual souls. In other words, while there appeared to be three people in this cell, there were actually four.

After listening to it, Nangong Wanqing didn't understand what the system was doing and couldn't figure it out after thinking about it for a long time.

Qiu Shuangwan scratched her head in distress and said, "Let's put that aside for now. What I want to ask is... is the character of the eldest princess we see in the book the real eldest princess, or is it this friend in front of us?"

"Didn't I just tell you?" Yue Liuyun thought he would figure it out, but he still didn't understand. He said helplessly, "This is an independent world, and the original work we see is just the future direction woven together by the system and destiny."

"From a spatial perspective, it is different from our world, and from a temporal perspective, it spans the past and future of this world."

"In other words, when she traveled through time, what we saw was no longer the original Princess, but Nangong Wanqing, who had the soul of a modern person and was slowly assimilated."

Qiu Shuangwan nodded, not quite understanding, and said sheepishly, "Sorry, my reading comprehension skills aren't very good, but I roughly understand what you're saying."

That's good.

Yue Liuyun nodded with satisfaction.

Nangong Wanqing stared at Yue Liuyun, listening to their conversation. Suddenly, she smiled brightly and said softly, "...You are very smart."

"Thank you," Yue Liuyun accepted her compliment calmly, then said thoughtfully, "But I still have a lot of questions that I need you to answer for me one by one."

Nangong Wanqing seemed extremely exhausted and gestured for the two of them to sit at the small table. The candlelight illuminated the three people's extremely beautiful faces, but each of them had a solemn expression on their face.

She said, "I will tell you everything I know."

Yue Liuyun said solemnly, "Since the system only treats you as a 'preliminary experiment', why didn't it rescue you and bring you back to our world? What do you mean by 'failure'?"

"Initially, Destiny wouldn't allow the system to do this. Hiding it from Destiny, the system secretly... sent me to this world. After observing me for a while and confirming it wouldn't cause a collapse of time or space, it decided to send me back. It even apologized and said that if possible, it would reward me in the real world."

Qiu Shuangwan's heart skipped a beat.

At this time, if nothing unexpected happens, something unexpected will happen.

A trace of fear and sadness flashed across Nangong Wanqing's eyes, and she recalled in a trembling voice:

"But...it was discovered by destiny."