When Pei Yan felt the searing pain in his eyes, as if they were being ripped apart, his only thought was—finally, release. Three hellish years, beginning when he was just five, had left his heart utterly desolate. How absurd, a mere eight-year-old child, yet as lifeless as one nearing death's door.

"Release…" he heard his mother’s crazed laughter beside him. She laughed so violently, it seemed as though her lungs would burst. Pei Yan simply sat, hot blood trickling from the corners of his eyes. He widened those eyes, once bright as stars, now dimming inch by inch, a serene smile gracing his lips.

It was this smile that pulled Pei Mingzhu, fluctuating between lucidity and madness, back from the brink.

"Impossible!" Upon hearing Pei Yan’s words, Ye Chonglou’s gaze, sharp as a hawk’s, fixed on the black carriage. "How can one survive White Pear Blossom?"

White Pear Blossom was even more potent than Jade Dew Frost. It was a poison concocted by Yun Guo, a poison with no known antidote, not even recorded in the Wen Du Jing.

"My mother… she cured me."

Perhaps, in the end, she couldn't bear it. She had intended to kill Pei Yan, but ultimately saved him. However, the poison had seeped into the meridians around his eyes, leaving him permanently blind.

For reasons unknown, Pei Mingzhu then wrote to Pei Yan’s grandfather, Pei Che, asking him to take the boy back to the Heavenly Capital Estate. That was the last time Pei Yan ever saw his mother.

When Pei Che retrieved his grandson, he learned of the three years of torment Pei Yan had endured at the hands of his own mother. Pei Mingzhu hated Pei Yan's father, and that hatred extended to the son who shared his blood. After killing Yun Guo, she began to exhibit signs of madness. In moments of clarity, she was indifferent to Pei Yan; in her madness, she tortured him relentlessly. The small child's body was covered in wounds.

Six months later, her madness worsened, and she began to exhibit symptoms of a split soul. This affliction manifested in either memory loss or the presence of two souls within one body. In Pei Mingzhu's case, it was the latter. She presented three distinct personalities to Pei Yan throughout the day: icy indifference and disgust, frenzied hatred, and a third persona that young Pei Yan longed for.

This third personality was a gentle woman. Though she didn't recognize Pei Yan as her son, claiming she had a son of her own, she would play with him, gazing at the wounds inflicted by Pei Mingzhu with silent tears. She possessed remarkable medical skills, and whenever Pei Yan was in agony, she would use her abilities to heal him. Thus, despite three years of torture, Pei Yan survived without lasting scars.

Young Pei Yan often wished that his mother could always remain like this. Even if she, in this state, didn't acknowledge him as her son, he wouldn't mind.

By now, Yao Ji had a growing suspicion. She glanced at Ye Chonglou and saw the disbelief and consuming hatred in the usually icy man's eyes.

"Are you telling me Pei Mingzhu imagined herself to be my mother?"

This secret came to light only after Pei Mingzhu's death, when Pei Yan, now involved in family affairs, began investigating his father. His mother had gone mad. After killing her closest friend, perhaps consumed by guilt, she had begun to live as Yun Guo.

As "Yun Guo," Pei Mingzhu possessed the same exceptional medical and poison skills. She was "Yun Guo," so she had to finish what "Yun Guo" had left undone: completing the Wen Du Jing, developing the antidote to White Pear Blossom … It all culminated when, in Pei Yan's eighth year, the mad Pei Mingzhu fed the deadliest poison in the world to her own son.

Pei Yan never wanted to dwell on who had saved him—the cold Pei Mingzhu or the gentle "Yun Guo."

He would never know the answer. Five years later, Pei Mingzhu quietly passed away. Since Yun Guo's death, she had left the Heavenly Capital Estate, living in seclusion with Pei Yan in a small courtyard. The night she died, a fire consumed the courtyard, leaving only a thin book delivered to Pei Yan's desk—the Wen Du Jing.

The Wen Du Jing that fell into the hands of the Evil Doctor, and later acquired by the Reaching Heaven Fortress, was written by Yun Guo. Perhaps the one hidden within the Heavenly Capital Estate, unknown even to Pei Che, was also written by Yun Guo.

It encapsulated the youth of two women, ten years of gentle warmth, and the slow passage of time.

"Senior Yun is still alive."

A slender hand reached out, lifting the carriage curtain to reveal the young man in blue robes seated within. His raven hair was like feathers, his temples sharp as a knife's edge. His eyes, like scattered stars, were gentle and serene.

They were eyes that could not see, yet Yao Ji saw her own reflection within them.