Legend Management Bureau Chapter 381

[ … words ]

Xie Yujiao stared at the desolate figure’s back. She slowly stepped forward and asked softly, “Do you know me?”

Meng Po’s body stiffened, as if she had just snapped back to reality.

She lifted her sleeve to wipe her face a few times, then turned her head, trying hard to display a calm expression.

“You… have already forgotten everything, so there’s no need to remember,” Meng Po said slowly. “Just keep living your life like this.”

“No.” Xie Yujiao shook her head. “I don’t want to live the rest of my life in the dark like this. What exactly do you know? Can you tell me what I’ve forgotten?”

Meng Po furrowed her brows and let out a wry chuckle.

“Little You, aren’t humans such strange creatures?” she mused. “When they remember, they want to forget; when they forget, they want to remember. The cycle of karma never ceases.”

Xie Yujiao snapped, “Don’t call me ‘Little You’! I am Xie Yujiao!”

“It doesn’t matter anymore.” Meng Po shook her head. “Over the years, I’ve stood at the other end of the Naihe Bridge, watching souls drink my tea time and time again in their endless cycles of reincarnation, yet I often thought of you. You only drank it once, and then you never appeared again. The fact that you didn’t return proved that you kept living on, just as you said you would. I was happy for you.”

Meng Po reached into her robes, pulled out a bottle of emerald-green liquid, and handed it over.

“Little You, if you don’t want to lose the one you love and wish to maintain your current life, keep this bottle of tea by your side.”

“Is this… Meng Po’s Tea?” Xie Yujiao accepted the bottle, her face filled with bewilderment.

“Yes, it’s this year’s new formula,” Meng Po replied with a faint smile. “Unlike the bitter tea you drank back then, the current recipe takes effect quickly, lasts a long time, and never relapses.”

Xie Yujiao seemed to realize something. She raised her eyes to look at the young girl standing before her and asked, “You are Meng Po. I’ve drunk your tea before, haven’t I?”

“Of course.” Meng Po nodded. “However, it wasn’t ‘my’ tea, but ‘our’ tea.”

“Our?”

Meng Po realized she had said too much. Shaking her head, she cautioned, “Little You, stop thinking about it. Just be yourself. You must remember, do not try to recall the past. It will only bring you a hundred harms and not a single benefit. I will always have your back, and I will fulfill the promise I made to you.”

Xie Yujiao’s gaze drifted away.

For the longest time, she had never wanted to uncover her true identity.

But everything had changed because of that woman named You Si.

Ever since encountering her, Xie Yujiao suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to understand her own past.

She wanted to retrieve those forgotten memories.

From Du Yu’s fragmented words, Xie Yujiao knew that You Si’s identity was incredibly important.

“If recovering my memories can help Du Yu, then why shouldn’t I?”

Meng Po seemed to have missed her murmuring and turned to ask, “What did you say?”

“Everyone’s lives are hanging by a thread right now. With my meager cultivation, how can I possibly help?” Xie Yujiao continued muttering to herself. “You Si was able to brutalize Zhi Nv, so her cultivation must be astonishing… If…”

“Little You?” Sensing something was wrong, Meng Po gently nudged her.

Instead, Xie Yujiao grabbed Meng Po’s hand. “Meng Po, you have a way to help me recover my memories, don’t you?”

Meng Po frowned. “What?”

“I want to change back into You Si,” Xie Yujiao declared with utter seriousness. “If I remain Xie Yujiao, I will be completely useless in this war.”

“Little You, did you not hear my warning?” Meng Po asked, her brows knitting tighter. “If you want to protect your lover, you absolutely must not regain your memories!”

“But regaining my memories is exactly how I plan to protect my lover!” Xie Yujiao shouted. Her intense emotions slowly subsided, and as if a sudden realization struck her, her tone turned melancholic. “Even though… even though in his heart… I might not be that important, I… I still want to do this.”

Xie Yujiao looked at Meng Po, who remained resolutely silent. She pressed on, “Meng Po, I used to be someone very important to you too, right?”

Meng Po looked at her with a complicated expression and silently nodded. “Yes, very important.”

“Then you’ll help me, won’t you?”

“I…” Meng Po looked at Xie Yujiao with visible difficulty, knowing that this day had finally arrived.

To abandon all past memories and start a brand-new life—what a beautiful concept that had been.

Yet, reality was exceptionally cruel.

The things you forgot didn’t just vanish; they had always been there.

They would forcefully intrude upon your life in various forms, shattering an already fragile illusion into even smaller pieces.

“Little You, in truth, I had anticipated this day would come,” Meng Po admitted. “I’ve carried the tea to restore your memories with me for thousands of years.”

With that, Meng Po retrieved a bottle of blood-red liquid from her robes and offered it to Xie Yujiao. “Even though you’ve lost your memories, you are still you. No one can sway you once you’ve made up your mind. Therefore, I place both of these paths in your hands. The choice is yours to make.”

Holding the red and green bottles of tea in her hands, a torrent of conflicting emotions swirled within Xie Yujiao.

Meng Po added, “Little You, in this world, only that very first bowl of tea you drank had an antidote. I’ve improved all the subsequent formulas, rendering them irreversible. Once you forget, you forget for good, and you will never be able to remember. So, for this choice, you must be exceptionally careful.”

Hearing Meng Po’s solemn words, the green tea in Xie Yujiao’s hand felt significantly heavier.

If she drank this bottle of green tea, all hope of ever recalling her past in this lifetime would be extinguished.

If she drank the red tea, she would uncover the entire truth.

In the future, Xiao Qi stared at this scene on the monitor, cold sweat trailing down her cheeks.

“Saint… what will Xie Yujiao do?” she murmured.

Saint dragged his battered and aching body to the monitor, his brows involuntarily pulling into a frown.

He believed that whether Xie Yujiao drank the red tea or not, the final outcome wouldn’t change much.

After this battle, Xie Yujiao would gradually transform into You Si step by step. This was something Saint had experienced long ago.

However…

Saint still found the current situation somewhat delicate.

Across all timelines, this was the very first time You Si had ever crossed paths with Meng Po.

It was also the first time Du Yu had gathered all kinds of helpers from every direction. Because there were simply too many people present, their collective grudges, debts, and emotional ties were all tangled together on a single battlefield, sparking numerous subtle shifts.

These shifts would push Du Yu’s ending toward a direction that Saint could not possibly predict.

‘If every iteration of You Si awakened on her own from within Xie Yujiao… then perhaps a new method could be tested this time.’ Saint stared at the bottle of red tea in Xie Yujiao’s hands, sinking deep into thought.