The Villain I Loved Has Broken Free and Transmigrated Out of the Story - Chapter 43

As her vision cleared, Yin Ya unconsciously blinked, meeting Cang Lanyan’s gaze.

The merfolk’s eyes remained calm, revealing no discernible emotion. For a moment, Yin Ya couldn’t tell if the other was curious, puzzled, or… offering comfort.

“Just thinking about you being alone in that world for so many years makes me want to cry,” she replied, her voice still thick with tears. “Before, I was the one telling you not to seek death, but now… now I finally understand why you wanted to die!”

Her words tumbled out incoherently as her vision blurred again.

A sudden chill at the corner of her eye made Yin Ya assume Cang Lanyan was using her spiritual power to collect her tears. Embarrassed, she reached for a tissue, but the coolness against her skin suddenly turned warm. A familiar softness gently brushed against her cheek.

Realizing what Cang Lanyan was using to wipe her tears, Yin Ya froze.

“Tears are dirty! Don’t do that!” She snapped back to her senses, her voice cracking as she shoved the overly close Cang Lanyan away.

“Me? I don’t feel that way at all,” Cang Lanyan said, rolling the salty bitterness in her mouth and swallowing it with her saliva.

“You…” Yin Ya began, but before she could finish, Cang Lanyan reached out a hand toward her.

This time, Yin Ya didn’t pull away, allowing Cang Lanyan to gently pat her hair.

Cang Lanyan’s touch was light, her fingers slowly combing through Yin Ya’s hair, stroke by stroke, like soothing a frightened little animal. Somehow, Yin Ya’s racing heart began to calm.

“Don’t cry anymore,” Cang Lanyan said calmly. “Go wash your face. Your tears are too salty.”

Yin Ya’s face flushed. Muttering a stiff agreement, she hurried toward the bathroom.

After Yin Ya left, Cang Lanyan raised her other hand, examining her palm.

A murky droplet of water had coalesced, slowly forming into a bead.

A God’s tears are ordinary, incapable of spontaneously turning into pearls. Yet Cang Lanyan seemed to taste traces of long-lost emotions within these tears.

Letting these emotions surge freely within her, Cang Lanyan picked up the excerpted text again and flipped back to the beginning.

If the God’s earlier speculation was true, then even God-slaying likely couldn’t break the curse of immortality.

Firstly, this involved the laws of life and death, which only great cultivators could control. Yet the God who bestowed this fate upon her was merely a mortal, naturally lacking the power to master such laws.

Secondly, if God-slaying could have broken the curse, Yin Ya should have disappeared along with the other characters when the Book World collapsed. Yet she was the only one who survived.

This proved that her immortality had nothing to do with the God’s death.

With this realization, Yin Ya instinctively glanced at the tightly closed bathroom door.

Cold water soaked the washcloth. As Yin Ya wiped her eyes, her heart raced wildly, pounding as fast as Cang Lanyan’s heartbeat had sounded last night.

That Old Spirit… she really knows how to ruin the mood!

Thanks to her, Yin Ya’s mind was now a tangled mess. The bittersweet mix of sorrow and guilt she’d been feeling moments ago had been completely overwhelmed by a stronger emotion!

Yet she had to admit, Cang Lanyan was remarkably good at comforting people.

At least she still felt a lingering attachment to the sensation of being “petted to death” by Cang Lanyan, a moment when her entire being would relax, as if no matter what mistakes she made, she could always find forgiveness in Cang Lanyan’s embrace.

Is this the side of the Major Antagonist as a Guardian God?

Splashing cold water on her face to calm down, Yin Ya tried to guess Cang Lanyan’s current mood.

Before, when she was separated from her Seven Emotions and Six Desires, Cang Lanyan had hated the Creator God so bitterly. Now that she had regained them, after reminiscing about past events, what would she be thinking?

Would she try to kill the Creator God who had granted her eternal life?

Yin Ya pondered this for a long time, still unable to understand.

Although she was the author who had created Cang Lanyan, she wasn’t Cang Lanyan herself and couldn’t truly grasp the emotions of someone in such extreme circumstances.

Moreover, to be blunt, what could an ordinary person like her possibly do for Cang Lanyan?

She couldn’t even write a rule to send Cang Lanyan back or end her life!

Sighing heavily, Yin Ya wiped the water from her face, tossed the washcloth aside, and turned around, meeting Cang Lanyan’s gaze.

“You took so long to come out. I thought you were still crying,” Cang Lanyan said first.

“I’m not,” Yin Ya said, caught between laughter and tears. “You said not to cry, so of course I can’t cry anymore, or you might…”

“Those are all my past,” Cang Lanyan cut her off. “Why do you feel pain?”

“That… we humans call it ’empathy’,” Yin Ya explained, sensing her genuine desire to understand. “I can roughly imagine what emotions you would have been feeling in that state. If I’m easily affected by emotions, I’ll cry like I did earlier because of your situation.”

“Is that so?” Cang Lanyan said thoughtfully. “In that situation, should I have cried?”

“Not necessarily,” Yin Ya shook her head. “Everyone reacts to loneliness differently. Like me, I might cry for a while, then write a novel. But someone like Cen Xiang would just whine, ‘This is so boring!’ then find someone to chat with and feel better after talking.”

Her? She paused. “My reaction after empathy depends only on me. It can’t represent how you would react, nor can it define what’s normal.”

Despite her words, she still felt that Cang Lanyan’s current calmness was excessive. Giving her the illusion of the calm before a storm.

Though she didn’t believe there was anything wrong with Cang Lanyan maintaining her composure.

After all, a piece of wood that had been emotionless for thousands of years, even if suddenly endowed with the Seven Emotions and Six Desires, would surely need a period of adjustment.

If she were Cang Lanyan, she would first be bewildered by the sudden surge of emotions, perhaps even detaching her rational self from those feelings to analyze and try to understand them, rather than being instantly overwhelmed.

Just as Yin Ya thought about this, she felt the tall spirit before her step closer and envelop her, in her shadow.

“Then, is it reasonable for me to react that way upon seeing you shed tears?”

The thin lips parted, and the words made Yin Ya instinctively shrink. 

Though this gesture was puzzling, it was a perfectly reasonable reaction for Cang Lanyan.

As for whether she was genuinely curious about the taste of tears or truly wanted to comfort Yin Ya, she couldn’t be sure.

“Is that so?” Cang Lanyan spoke, her minty scent gradually wafting closer to Yin Ya. “Then, would it be reasonable for me to want to embrace you, to let you rest against my chest?”

“I… I don’t think there’s a problem with that,” Yin Ya murmured, looking into her eyes.

“Why not?” Cang Lanyan pressed.

“Because… because embracing is indeed a way to comfort someone,” Yin Ya explained. “It’s just that some people like that kind of comfort, while others don’t. Before choosing this way to comfort someone…”

Before she could finish, she felt hands gently support her back. One hand moved to her right shoulder, exerting slight pressure that guided her into Cang Lanyan’s embrace.

Yin Ya’s head buzzed again. This felt like the first time she hadn’t resisted Cang Lanyan’s embrace.

That old spirit, she thought, uses her spiritual power to ignore the cold, so she always wears so little at home. Now the sensation of her touch is even more pronounced.

Her mind went blank for a few seconds before she regained her composure and finished her sentence: “You have to ask first if they like it.”

“Do I really need to ask?” Cang Lanyan replied.

“Of course you do!” Yin Ya lifted her head from Cang Lanyan’s embrace.

“I just know you’d like it,” Cang Lanyan said softly, averting her gaze to look down at Yin Ya before she could start lecturing. “No need to ask.”

Yin Ya swallowed her retort, her face flushing embarrassingly. This Old Spirit had her completely figured out!

But Yin Ya had to admit she was utterly susceptible to the Old Spirit’s charms, especially when the Old Spirit deliberately softened her voice. She was completely bewitched.

“Don’t you have any thoughts about this situation?” Yin Ya asked after they parted. “Like… do you want to end all this by killing me?”

Even knowing it was a dangerous question, she had to ask for clarity. Otherwise, she’d never be at peace.

“You asked that last night,” Cang Lanyan said, looking displeased.

“But you didn’t know the truth about the Book World’s collapse last night,” Yin Ya countered.

“I don’t know? Before, I… I truly believed that God-slaying could end the curse of immortality,” Cang Lanyan said. “But after hearing your words, I… I feel even more that I should let you live longer.”

“…Because I… I might be the only one who can help you find a way to break the curse?” Yin Ya blurted out in one breath.

“Fine,” Cang Lanyan nodded, teleporting to the table without elaborating further.

Yin Ya tactfully dismissed the urge to press for answers and hurried over. Seeing Cang Lanyan rummaging through plastic bags, she quickly grabbed the bag of mint, which was already starting to wilt. “I’ll take care of the mint first!”

She retrieved the plastic box she’d used earlier to hold the mint. While rinsing the leaves, she asked, “Do you really hate mint, or are you just afraid of spicy food?”

“What do you think, Your Excellency the Author?” Cang Lanyan retorted deliberately.

Yin Ya felt an inexplicable awkwardness at this new address, but she didn’t press Cang Lanyan to change it. Instead, she replied earnestly, “Then I’ll make a mild, spicy-free mint salad today. Try it and see if you like it.”

“Why don’t you know my tastes?” Cang Lanyan countered. “Because I’m not the protagonist, right?”

Yin Ya? She wondered why this old spirit was still holding a grudge. She said aloud, “It’s not a permanent decision.” It depends on whether the character’s preferences are relevant to the story. If they’re not, I won’t bother developing them.”

“Then why did you write about me soaking in a mint bath?” Cang Lanyan asked.

Yin Ya froze, momentarily at a loss for words.

“I’m not the protagonist, soaking in a mint bath isn’t crucial to the plot, and no characters who admire me appear in that scene,” Cang Lanyan said, pacing behind her and analyzing the situation leisurely. “Therefore, it can only be because you wanted to see it.”

“No! When I want to develop a character’s certain trait, I’ll write related content,” Yin Ya retorted defensively, her inner thoughts exposed. “Writing about your bath was to… emphasize your beauty and elegance.”

“If that’s the case, why is Your Excellency the Author blushing?” Cang Lanyan asked, tilting her head.

Startled, Yin Ya instinctively turned, meeting Cang Lanyan’s amused smile. Unable to resist, she playfully smacked a mint leaf onto Cang Lanyan’s face.

“You already knew exactly what I was thinking! Why did you have to ask?!” she grumbled indignantly.

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