We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real?-Chapter 380: Big Brother, This Time… Did I Win?

In the Qin Imperial Palace, inside the Imperial Study.

The ruler of Qin sat behind the desk, focused on handling the government affairs that had piled up over days.

These past few days, his thoughts had been tangled without end—his mind firmly bound to the Huai Mountain Pass battlefield a thousand li away. He could scarcely rest day or night, waiting only for war reports from the front.

Just as he lifted the vermilion brush, about to approve a memorial, a crisp sound rang out—

PA!

The vermilion brush clenched in his hand snapped into two pieces without warning.

Before he could even process it, a flurry of panicked footsteps came from outside the Imperial Study.

A moment later, Eunuch Li burst into the hall, his face deathly pale. He tumbled forward, almost crawling, his voice shaking beyond control.

“Your Majesty... this is bad... something terrible has happened...”

“What is it that has you so terrified?”

The ruler of Qin raised his eyes. His brows knit tight, his tone carrying clear displeasure.

In his heart, a vague, ominous premonition rose.

“Your Majesty...” Eunuch Li seemed on the verge of sobbing. He threw himself to the ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) floor and began kowtowing repeatedly. “The ancestral temple just reported... the Second Prince’s life-lamp... it suddenly... suddenly went out...”

As his words fell, Eunuch Li knocked his head to the ground several more times. In the silent study, only suppressed weeping and the dull sound of kowtows echoed.

The ruler of Qin froze.

The broken brush slid slowly from between his fingers, landing with a soft tap on the memorial spread open before him.

The deep red vermilion bled outward like blood, staining the paper bit by bit.

*****

Inside the Tranquil Heart Hall, incense smoke curled in layers.

Empress Shi was kneeling on a prayer cushion before a Buddha statue. In her hands, she slowly turned a string of prayer beads, chanting scriptures in a low voice.

Empress Shi did not believe in Buddhism on ordinary days. Yet in these recent days, she had been praying with sincerity for her two sons far away at the border.

But just as she closed her eyes to steady her mind, reaching the middle of her recitation, a crisp sound suddenly rang out—

PA.

The prayer beads that had remained in her grasp snapped apart without warning.

Dozens of sandalwood beads scattered in an instant, clattering and rolling across the floor. In the still hall, they struck the ground in chaotic, abrupt taps.

The chanting stopped dead.

Empress Shi stared blankly at the beads strewn everywhere.

Her heart began to pound uncontrollably. A powerful unease spread from the depths of her chest like an icy tide, surging up to drown every prayer she had made.

She remained kneeling there, unmoving, her hollow gaze fixed on the beads scattered across the floor.

After a long while, as her awareness slowly gathered back, a stabbing pain suddenly clenched her chest.

Tears welled without warning and slid down her cheeks, soundless, ceaseless—no matter what she did, she could not stop them.

*****

In the courtyard of the Frost King’s residence, the sunlight was gentle.

Qin Siyao sat quietly beside a stone stool, head lowered, concentrating on her embroidery.

She was not very good at making shoes, but her needlework was passable. These past few days, she had already embroidered quite a few handkerchiefs.

She was thinking that when Xiao Mo returned from the front, she would give all of them to him to use.

As she drifted in thought, a sharp pain suddenly flared at her fingertip—

“Hiss...”

Qin Siyao inhaled lightly, lowering her lashes. Fresh red blood seeped slowly from her fingertip, gathering into a full bead.

But she didn’t care about the wound at all.

A hollow emptiness—without cause or warning—filled her chest.

Stifling. Cold.

“Second Brother...”

Qin Siyao unconsciously lifted a hand to press her heart. As if sensing something, she raised her head and stared blankly toward the distant horizon.

*****

Thirty li outside Huai Mountain City, inside the Jin encampment.

Ji Yue slowly opened her eyes.

She braced herself and sat up, only to feel her head heavy and faintly aching, as though she had slept for days and nights.

“Husband...”

As her mind cleared, she instinctively lifted her head and looked around the tent—

But she did not see her husband.

The tent was silent. Only her own breathing remained.

Then, in that moment, she saw something placed by the pillow.

It was a jade pendant.

Ji Yue knew it all too well—this was the jade pendant her husband never let leave his side, the one he wore close to his body.

Beneath the pendant, a letter was pinned down.

A powerful unease surged up in an instant.

Ji Yue hurriedly pulled the letter free. Her fingers trembled as she opened it.

The more she read, the more violently her eyes shook—until something deep in her pupils began to crack, inch by inch.

“Husband—!”

She snatched up the letter and the jade pendant and staggered out of the tent.

Outside, the daylight was blinding.

What met her eyes were the bodies of Jin and Qin soldiers layered over one another, strewn across the ground.

A faint wind passed, rolling up a thick stench of blood that would not disperse—so heavy it nearly suffocated her.

Ji Yue clenched her lower lip, forcing down the sour surge in her chest and the dizziness rising in her head. Without sparing another glance, she ran—reckless, desperate—straight toward Black Beast Forest.

Inside Black Beast Forest, the sounds of slaughter gradually fell away.

The Jin army—some died, some surrendered, some fled.

Qin Jingsu searched through corpses without pause.

His expression was urgent, even a little crazed, but as commander-in-chief, he forced himself to remain calm.

And just as Qin Jingsu was close to despair—

A soldier ran up before him, frantic.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince, we found him! We found the Second Prince!”

“Where?”

Qin Jingsu’s eyes were bloodshot. He seized the soldier by the shoulders.

The soldier jolted, quickly pointing in a direction.

“Reporting to Your Highness—he’s under a tree about twenty zhang that way. The physician-cultivators have already gone ahead.”

Before the soldier could finish, Qin Jingsu was already running in the direction he indicated.

Very soon, Qin Jingsu saw his second brother.

Qin Jingyuan was slumped beneath the tree, while the army’s physician-cultivators were treating him.

When Qin Jingsu arrived, the physician-cultivators all rose, then let out a sigh and shook their heads at Qin Jingsu.

Qin Jingsu clenched his fists hard. His lips trembled over and over, as though a stone had been jammed into his chest, crushing his breath until he could not inhale.

“I understand.”

Qin Jingsu’s voice was trembling, yet it carried an extraordinary calm.

“Go treat the other wounded soldiers.”

“Yes, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

The physician-cultivators cupped their hands in salute. Each cast one last glance at the Second Prince, their emotions complicated, before leaving.

Around Qin Jingyuan, only his brother remained.

Qin Jingsu stepped forward, walking toward his younger brother one step at a time. Finally, he sat down beside him, leaning against the same tree—just like they had when they were young.

“How is the battle situation?”

Qin Jingyuan turned his head to look at his big brother.

His face had no color at all. The fire of his life was weaker and weaker, as if it might go out the very next moment.

“Yan Liuyun is dead. Of the seven hundred thousand Jin troops in Black Beast Forest, more than half are dead or wounded. Of the remaining three hundred fifty thousand, around one hundred thirty thousand surrendered, and the rest fled.

As for outside Black Beast Forest, the two hundred thousand troops Yan Liuyun left behind—about half of them ran too.

But I had General Yang lead the Qin army in pursuit. We should still be able to expand the results.”

“Mm. I see. That’s good—about what I expected.”

Qin Jingyuan nodded, as if he were simply chatting normally with his big brother.

“This million troops were the backbone of the Jin army. After this battle, Jin has suffered a severe loss of vitality.

Once they learn Jin has been defeated, the morale of Chu and Yanhuo will be affected as well.

If things go smoothly, our brother-in-law can take Chu.

The Northern Pacification King has already dealt with the Wei Kingdom remnants. Once he joins up with the Western Suppression King, he can take Yanhuo as well.

As for Jin... that will be up to Big Brother.

If Chu, Yanhuo, and Jin are taken—

Then Qin...

Qin’s hegemonic enterprise can be achieved!”

COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH—

At the last line, Qin Jingyuan began coughing nonstop, but now, he could not cough up even a drop of blood.

Qin Jingsu stared at his second brother, his fists clenched.

“Why did you hide it from me!”

From beginning to end, Qin Jingsu had not known his second brother’s plan.

But Qin Jingsu believed his brother could not possibly betray the country—there had to be a reason.

Then, five days ago, a letter from the ruler of Qin arrived in the imperial city, telling Qin Jingsu everything.

After learning everything, Qin Jingsu’s rage became strange in its intensity.

Because Qin Jingsu knew this plan was a nine-deaths-one-life gamble—his younger brother was very likely to die here.

Yet Qin Jingsu had no choice.

Their father and his second brother had already stripped away every option he had.

He had to do exactly what his second brother told him to do.

Otherwise, everything his second brother had arranged would collapse into nothing.

And if Huai Mountain Pass fell, Qin truly would be driven to the brink of life and death.

“Of course I had to hide it from Big Brother.”

Qin Jingyuan smiled.

“If I didn’t hide it from Big Brother, how would Big Brother let me do it? Big Brother wouldn’t just come to persuade me—you’d even have Third Sister come persuade me.

Big Brother, you understand.

The one person neither of us brothers can refuse... is Third Sister.

If it came to that, I might really soften my heart.”

“There were other ways!”

Qin Jingsu’s fingers were dug so deep into his clenched fist that they sank into flesh.

“We could have taken it slowly! We brothers had time, and we still had our brother-in-law! The three of us could have achieved Qin’s hegemonic enterprise in the future!”

“Can we really take it slowly?”

Qin Jingyuan smiled again.

“Big Brother, don’t lie to yourself. This chaotic age has lasted for thousands of years. Big Brother knows that. If we could really take it slowly, this chaos would have ended long ago.

Some opportunities—if you don’t seize them, they’re gone. And there may never be another one.

And I... will seize this opportunity for Qin.”

As he spoke, Qin Jingyuan’s breathing grew more and more rapid. But very quickly, his breath eased back into calm.

“Big Brother... do you know?”

Qin Jingyuan lifted his head, looking through the mottled shadows of leaves at the blue sky.

“From the day I was little until now, I’ve never beaten you even once.

I really, really...

Wanted to beat you once.”

The more he spoke, the weaker his voice became.

His pupils gradually loosened, his vision growing hazier and hazier, while a faint smile curled at the corner of his lips.

“Big Brother...

Tell me.

This time...

Did I win?”

As Qin Jingyuan’s final words fell, his eyes no longer moved—only fixed on the sky above.

The smile at his lips seemed to remain there forever, frozen in that moment.

“You won.”

Qin Jingsu also lifted his head, looking toward the distant sky. Tears slid down his cheeks in silence.

“Jingyuan... this time, Big Brother truly lost.”

*****

Two sticks of incense later, Qin Jingsu carried his brother on his back and walked out of Black Beast Forest.

The moment Qin Jingsu emerged, a woman ran over at just that instant.

She looked at her husband’s closed eyes.

From his body, she could feel no fire of life at all.

A crystalline mist of tears veiled her eyes. She clenched her skirt tightly, taking one step forward after another.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince... my husband, he...” Ji Yue’s voice trembled.

“Second Brother is tired,” Qin Jingsu said, his eyes bloodshot. “He fell asleep before us.”

Ji Yue reached out and gently touched her husband’s lips, growing colder by the moment.

“When my husband is asleep... he must be very happy, right?”

Qin Jingsu nodded.

“When he fell asleep, he should not have felt even a little pain.”

“Before leaving, my husband left a letter for his wife.” Ji Yue raised her head. “Your Highness the Crown Prince—can you give my husband to me? I want to handle his final affairs myself.”

“Mm.”

Qin Jingsu slowly lowered Qin Jingyuan down, as if afraid of waking him.

“Husband...”

Ji Yue gently stroked her husband’s cheek and smiled softly. Her voice trembled beyond control, and tears dripped down her face without end.

“We’re... going home.”

She lifted her husband onto her back. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Step by step, Ji Yue walked in the direction of Luzhou.

[To my wife Ji Yue, written at my dressing table:

The Qin–Jin alliance had nothing to do with you.

At the start of the marriage between the two states, each side harbored its own intentions. The court calculated every mechanism to its end.

At first, I regarded you as nothing more than Jin’s eyes and ears. Thus I treated you with false openness, neither warm in words nor gentle in expression.

Only after several years under the same roof did I understand that you too were trapped upon the board, a pearl covered in dust.

What you sought was only the peace of an ordinary alleyway—a quiet life in mutual respect.

Yet fate toys with people. Entering Qin, you were dragged into the game.

I, with a nature like cold iron, meant to use distance as my shield.

And yet three years of living together, morning and night facing one another—I watched you mend clothes by lamplight, brew tea, ask after meals, never once slackening through spring dew and autumn frost.

I do not know when it began, but the threads of feeling silently tied themselves. I... did not even realize it.

Whenever I recall that summer by the creek in Luzhou—your skirt lifted as you waded through water, laughter rippling across clear waves, your jade hairpin slipping askew as dew dampened your hair—

That scene is carved into bone. Waking or sleeping, I cannot forget.

Yet Qin’s great enterprise rests upon me. How could the private feelings of men and women be allowed to obstruct it?

As a descendant of Qin’s royal house, bearing the trust of the state, with a sword hanging over the dangerous frontier—how could I dare indulge private feeling and forget the greater cause?

Those cold words of the past, the closed door, refusing to see you—every disgraceful thing—was all done deliberately by me.

It was not that I despised you.

It was because I feared the roots of feeling would grow too deep, and in the end ruin half your youth.

Now I lead my death-sworn men to strike a vicious array. Life and death are in Heaven’s hands.

Thus I write this letter: first, as farewell; second, to return you to your freedom.

Outside the western suburbs of Luzhou, by the creek, deep in the mountains—I have already built several rooms of a thatched hut behind a bamboo fence. Red peonies are planted in the courtyard; the window faces misty ridgelines.

If I return with my body intact, I wish to be buried there.

In this life, I have wronged deep feeling. In the next, I will repay it—tying grass and holding a ring in gratitude. Even if I drink the waters of Forgetting River until I forget all else, I will still remember your smiling face by the creek.

If reincarnation is true, I wish to become twined roots and paired wings, repaying the vows left unfinished in this life.

Husband, Jingyuan.]

The month after the battle at Black Beast Forest by Huai Mountain Pass ended.

The First Prince, Qin Jingsu, had already recovered Jinzhou and Luzhou.

And outside the western suburbs of the Luzhou prefectural seat, by a small creek—

A gravestone was erected.

Its style was simple, like that of an ordinary household.

Not far from the gravestone, there was a small farmhouse courtyard.

In that courtyard lived a woman.

The woman was beautiful, famous near and far, yet every successive governor of Luzhou forbade anyone from disturbing her.

Years passed, spring and autumn flowing on.

The woman guarded the window alone, never marrying in this life.

Until her hair turned white.

Sleeping beside the stone.