"Her name is Ning Xiu, a beautiful name."

"Later, I started writing cheesy love letters to her, raiding snippets from the internet here and there," Shadow smiled, "That period was incredibly busy. I had to carry things at the construction site during the day, and sneak into her locker room at night, write love letters on her desk, and leave them there before dawn."

"During that time, I didn't even dare to see her. I would only sneak into the locker room after she got off work and went home, because I was afraid of rejection. As a child, I didn't understand, but later I realized that personality and status are not equivalent. Although my status was higher than hers, her character was nobler than mine. It was precisely this that made me afraid to look her in the eye. I was afraid that after seeing the love letters, she would be disappointed in me, and then we wouldn't even be friends."

"I wrote love letters like this for three months, and we didn't see each other once during those three months. Finally, one night, when I sneaked into the locker room, I found her waiting for me in the dark. She turned on the light only after I arrived. I was terrified at that moment, what if she couldn't take it anymore and wanted to reject me? I was like a child who had done something wrong. She looked at me with a stern Face[-] and asked why I was avoiding her. It turned out that even her angry expression was so beautiful."

Shadow laughed: "Then she asked me how much money I had saved. I was very flustered at the time because I only had eight hundred dollars. You wouldn't believe how messed up this world is. From the Conglomerate, layer after layer of exploitation, my monthly salary as a porter was barely enough to feed myself. If I hadn't lived in the locker room to save on rent, I might not have even saved eight hundred dollars. I thought she would think it was too little, but she said that I used to be a playboy, and being able to save some money means I've really changed."

"And then?" Yang Yang eagerly asked.

Shadow said, "Then she actually took me directly to get our marriage certificate, used my eight hundred dollars to take wedding photos, and then treated a few of my coworkers to a meal. That's how we got married. She gave up her job, sold her house, moved to a small house in District 5, and started to settle down with me. She later found a low-paying clerical job and saved money with me. She's different from other women. Others buy the most flamboyant flowers, but she always buys a whole bunch of sunflowers. She said sunflowers are also flowers, and when she's bored, she can pick out the seeds to eat. When I said I would buy her flowers, she said not to waste money; we still need to save money to raise a baby. Sunflowers are pretty too, and she loves sunflowers the most...We spent half a year like this. That was the most ordinary yet most beautiful period of my life, and then the Shadow Succession began."

Qing Chen's heart tightened.

He knew how cruel the Shadow Succession was to each candidate, and Qing Zhun, as the Family Head's son, would become the target of everyone's attacks.

Once involved, life could never be so peaceful again.

Qing Zhun's life, from the moment he was born, was destined not to be ordinary. He was the most dazzling person in this Federation; the dust on the construction site could not bury the brilliance on him.

Shadow said: "I was one of the candidates. On the second day after the Shadow Succession began, she started vomiting, fainting, and becoming sluggish. I took her to the hospital for a checkup, and the doctor said that her body was mixed with hundreds of neurotoxins; there was no cure. This is the most vicious kind of poison used for assassination; if you don't know what these hundreds of neurotoxins are, even one missing, she can't be saved. But time was running out; she only had an hour left."

Shadow calmly said, "That day I awakened. Awakening means S-class."

Shadow's voice was calm at this time, but Qing Chen could feel the surging murderous intent beneath the calm surface.

When he said this sentence, it was as if he was talking about a trivial matter.

Qing Chen also understood that Shadow needed time to stop for his beloved, so he awakened the ability to control time.

Shadow: "I saw time stop before me, and the world was conquered by me. I saw that the sea would not turn into mulberry fields, and that the world would no longer change."

"In the stillness of time, I began to investigate all the Neurotoxin Experts within the Federation, visiting them one by one. At that time, I thought these people were specifically serving the Conglomerate for assassination and infiltration; they all deserved to die, so in the long years, I pulled them out of the dark corners one by one, searching for all clues."

"If it was proven that they were not involved in this poisoning case, but had participated in other poisoning cases, I would also kill them one by one and bury them in this tea garden."

Listening to Shadow's tone, Qing Chen knew that this brother had already gone berserk at that time; the thought of losing his beloved had almost pushed him to the brink of emotional collapse.

Shadow continued, "I spent 39 years finding 371 Neurotoxin Experts and practitioners, and then I discovered...a very famous Neurotoxin Expert had disappeared. At that moment, I understood that the neurotoxins in her body must have been developed by this person, and he was probably already silenced."

"I spent another eight years looking for this Neurotoxin Expert's whereabouts, but to no avail. It seemed that no one in the world knew where he had gone. At that moment, I was desperate, but I remembered what she had said to me: even if no one in this world is willing to help you, you must rely on yourself to live a clean life. So, I started to teach myself neurotoxicology."

Shadow: "I spent another 40 years teaching myself neurotoxicology from scratch, because only I could move freely in time, so I could only teach myself. But when I reached the end of my studies, I suddenly discovered something: even if I became an expert in neurotoxicology, even if I became the top talent in this field, if I didn't know what those hundreds of neurotoxins were, I wouldn't be able to save her. Those neurotoxins intertwined to become the most terrifying and potent poison in the world; even if I were the one poisoned, I would surely die."

"So, for the last 13 years, I spent it with her. I sat by her bed, watching her Face[-] not age a single second each day. But I knew that the moment of parting would eventually come. Even if I slowed down time, even if my one year was equal to her one minute, she would eventually die."

"From the time she was poisoned, I spent a whole hundred years watching the catastrophe of fate mercilessly run over her and me, but I was powerless."

Shadow experienced a century of despair.

Others didn't even feel that time had ever been stagnant.

Time only flowed violently on him alone.

Shadow rose and fell in the sea of time, but as a time-controlling Demi-God, he couldn't save his beloved.

He finally watched his lover die.

Yang Yang crouched on the ground crying, and Xiao Mengqian, who had finished picking the Jingshan Tea, kept handing her tissues.

At this time, Zard was holding a plate of sunflowers, freshly picked from somewhere, and picking out the seeds.

He ate seeds while listening to the story.

Qing Chen wanted to stop him, but Shadow smiled and said, "It's okay, she said that sunflowers are for eating seeds. Every time Qing Ye and Qing Qu come, I will let them pick a plate to take away. I think this should be her wish, she is very kind and won't blame this lunatic."

Shadow looked at Qing Chen and said, "Actually, if it weren't for waiting for you, I might have already started a massacre."

Qing Chen whispered, "Why are you so good to me? Even if I'm your younger brother, we haven't seen each other for more than ten years. I've always distrusted family ties and blood relations because the family affection I've experienced is not worthy of trust. My father stole my money, and after my mother's place exploded, she didn't even come to see me once."

Shadow said, "It's precisely because of this that I feel I owe you. When I was a child, someone asked me who my hero was, and I would say it was my father. Just like all children, everyone has a hero in their hearts, and he is most likely their father. He watches you grow up, becomes your goal, lets you know how to deal with the world, and protects you from the wind and rain."

Shadow: "But Xiaocheng, you didn't have that opportunity and power, and that's what I regret the most."

Qing Chen lowered his head and gently wiped his eyes: "Actually, it's pretty good now, nothing to worry about, no need to look back."

Shadow smiled and said, "When you were a child, you were quite cute, but when you grew up, you became unlovable, stubborn, and hard as a rock; even Shendai Yunhe, such a tough expert, was defeated by you. Back then, you were a crystal, but now you're more like a kidney stone."

Qing Chen was stunned, why tell such a bad joke at such a serious time!

Qing Chen asked, "Do you know who poisoned her?"

"I don't know," Shadow shook his head, "I can't find out; the other party did it extremely secretly. What makes me most self-blame is that the neurotoxin might have been intended for me, but she died for me."

"But it must be someone within the Qing Family," Qing Chen said, "The families behind the other candidates will all benefit from this incident, won't they?"

"It's not that simple," Shadow smiled, "Letting the Qing Family fight internally is also in the interest of other Conglomerates. So, blind guesses are useless; I can't possibly kill everyone in the world. Killing all those Neurotoxin Experts made me regret it, and I even blamed myself for it for a long time. Xiaocheng, I'm not a good person, but I'm not a bad person either."

Qing Chen nodded: "Understood."

Shadow looked at the delicate tombstone in the sunflower garden and gently said, "I should go and keep her company, but I have to let some people go down to accompany me, that will be more fun."

At midnight, Qing Chen asked Zard to pack up all the plants to be transplanted.

This journey allowed him to know too many secrets and some hatred.

If he had the chance, if he found the culprit of this poisoning case, he would definitely make them pay the price.

Time returns to Ling.

Return.

The world falls into darkness.