Mu Anxiao's eyes sank: "Who says I'm guilty? I just didn't expect you to curse me even before closing your eyes. It's been fifty years, you're an old man, and you still want to dwell on the past. I'm truly impressed."
"Am I an old man now?" Shen Yan suddenly asked.
Mu Anxiao looked at Shen Yan's youthful face and was stunned: "No."
"Do you know why not?" Shen Yan asked again.
Mu Anxiao's gaze seemed to dart away as she casually said, "How should I know?"
"Because of you, that period of my life forever became my shadow. Even in death, I can't forget what I looked like during my most tragic times. Because of you, I dared not interact with women. Because of you, I became an object of ridicule. Do you think you have today because of that bottle of immortal medicine? You are wrong. That was not immortal medicine; it was my blood."
"What?" Mu Anxiao was shocked.
"I was originally a great deity. For my divine post, I had to find a divine companion. So, before descending to the mortal realm, I went to the 'Immortal Affairs Bureau' to collect a bottle containing my blood and immortal age and then descended, only to meet you, a deeply hidden scammer."
Listening to Shen Yan's words, Mu Anxiao's thoughts involuntarily returned to fifty years ago, the time when their grievances began.
That year, Mu Anxiao was just a mortal, a mortal who, despite enduring humiliation, still believed she could achieve greatness. A mortal who lived by begging every day.
At the foot of the city wall that day, Mu Anxiao, a mere beggar girl, sat in her usual spot. She lowered her eyes to stare at the broken silver in her tattered bowl, her mind filled with worries, when a fat man accompanied by a few thugs appeared before her.
"Mu Anxiao, how much did you earn today?"
Mu Anxiao looked up at the fat man as usual and said with a smile, "Big brother, you know people are less willing to give alms these days. My income is just this much. If you want it, please take it." She pointed carefully at the broken silver in her tattered bowl.
The fat man crouched down with difficulty, peered at Mu Anxiao's face, and said, "I've always had doubts about your gender. You..." He scanned Mu Anxiao from head to toe with a scrutinizing gaze, took a sharp breath, and asked, "Are you a man or a woman?"
"I am definitely a man," Mu Anxiao said, bowing.
"You are a man," the fat man said in an unbelievable tone.
Mu Anxiao glanced uncomfortably at the men standing behind the fat man, then looked back at him and said, "Big brother, you should know what kind of person I am. Asking me like this," she rubbed the back of her head, "makes me feel quite embarrassed."
"A few days ago, I found a woman among you beggars. Do you know what happened to that woman?" The fat man sneered.
Mu Anxiao looked embarrassed: "There's a woman among us? How come I don't know?"
The fat man ignored Mu Anxiao's question and continued, "That woman was sold by me to a brothel. Now, the money she earns for me," he reached out and scooped up the broken silver from the tattered bowl, tossing it in his hand twice, and said, "is much more than yours."
"Is that so? Too bad... I'm not a woman," Mu Anxiao said, baring her teeth.
"Look at your delicate skin. If only you were a woman," the fat man said, shoving the broken silver into his pocket and ordering without looking back, "Help me up."