The Villain Went Mad After the Hairpin Broke

Outline:

Ning Qiao transmigrates into a hairpin spirit and, by a twist of fate, saves a young boy named Jiang Lianzhi.

From then on, the two depend on each other for survival. They live in narrow, gloomy alleys, wade through icy winter rivers, compete with wild dogs for food, and fight the King of Hell for their lives.

That is, until Jiang Lianzhi enters the immortal sect everyone dreams of joining and becomes one of its envied disciples. From then on, he spends longer and longer away from Ning Qiao, and speaks less and less.

Before Ning Qiao dies, the two meet one last time. They sit opposite each other, yet have nothing to say. After a short while, the clear chime of the bell at the door rings. He listens intently, then says, "I'm leaving." He pauses, speaking as if casually, yet almost as though making a promise: "Your birthday is the day after tomorrow. I'll come back."

But she never sees Jiang Lianzhi, not even before she dies.

Blue-black flames devour her soul, and Ning Qiao finally turns her gaze away from the doorway. Looking down, she suddenly recalls how the book described Jiang Lianzhi: cold and heartless, cruel and murderous, the apocalyptic villain who would eventually turn all of Dongzhou into a dusty wasteland.

So she'd been fooling herself all along.

And so, when Ning Qiao wakes again, she spends the whole night drinking at the bow of a covered boat, then throws the identical hairpin from her head into the sea.

Jiang Lianzhi always thought his wish was to reclaim the throne that belonged to him and once again become the noble royal descendant everyone admired.

It wasn't until the hairpin shattered and he could no longer see Ning Qiao that he understood what it meant to be torn apart by grief, to feel that life was no longer worth living.

From then on, he searches everywhere, from the highest heavens to the deepest underworld, and finally finds her. But their affection and the time they once shared can never be brought back.

Legend has it that there are no immortals left in Dongzhou. There is only one fallen immortal, wearing a crimson flower hairpin, with deep-red eyes and a desolate expression. She wandered the world alone for nine hundred years, then vanished without a trace.

Records of Dongzhou Anecdotes: The Flower-Hairpin Immortal

Theme: Cherish what you have as you journey through life.