Gong Xiangru chuckled softly at this thought, but a few light tears welled up in the corners of her closed eyes...

She led herself down a path of no return.

**

In the days that followed, Gong Ning was like someone who had found a job at the World Literature Association, clocking in on time every day until the end of the one-month restart season. The official evaluators went from being stunned to having a perfect conclusion.

She visited almost every category of the competition venues, and even though the results haven't been announced yet, she has already become a sensation within the World Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

No one knows where the news leaked from, but everyone knew that she was participating in the competition. After the last match, Gong Ning walked out of the arena with a somewhat dazed expression. Before she could react, she was surrounded by a group of reporters who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Flashbulbs were going off and countless microphones were being shoved at her.

This sudden turn of events caught even the bodyguards assigned to Gong Ning by the Gong family, who were waiting nearby, off guard.

A rare look of confusion appeared in her eyes. She subconsciously took a few steps back, but her legs, which had been weak since she came out of the examination room, tripped because of this movement, and she suddenly fell to the ground as if she had no support.

Her mind was in complete turmoil. Her last competition was the restoration and copying of an ancient painting, and she didn't know why the organizers had given her such a painting.

The scene she recreated on the drawing paper seemed to reappear before my eyes...

The young emperor's longsword was stained with blood; his figure was tall and imposing, but his slightly raised black eyes were filled with a bloodthirsty and crazed mist. The scene was extremely desolate and tragic, as if the destroyed dynasty was mournfully wailing its last silent cries before its demise...

The scene was so realistic that it made her feel as if she were actually there, as if this almost devastating war had really happened. However, the background information of the painting showed that the events depicted in the painting never occurred at any point in the historical record, highlighting that it was a painting of unknown origin.

When I was sketching those eyes, I was startled by the emotion in them, and my fingers trembled, almost causing me to drop the paintbrush.

However, her emotions, which she had forcibly maintained, suddenly shattered when she drew that handsome and beautiful face. She even forgot that the painting was only half-repaired, hurriedly threw down her paintbrush, and stumbled out of the arena.

Because deep down she had a terrible suspicion that she couldn't help but believe...

The staff noticed her unusual behavior and rushed over to ask her what was going on, but for a moment she couldn't hear what they were saying as they opened and closed their mouths, and all she could hear was a buzzing sound in her head.

The figures in front of her moved more and more, and their reflections seemed to appear, like a dense net, crashing down on her, leaving her feeling shocked and horrified, unable to breathe.

The man rushed over, roughly pushing through the crowd. When he saw the little girl lying on the ground, helplessly hugging her knees, her usually bright eyes now dull and blank, his heart skipped a beat. He immediately bent down, picked her up, and pressed her fragile, pale face into his arms.

Turning coldly to the reporter who had been making the most noise, the chill in his eyes seemed to instantly transform into tangible ice blades, causing the reporter to instinctively take a step back, making way, and stammering, "Mr. Yan..."

After the man carried the girl into the car, the crowd erupted in chaos. What was the relationship between the young master of the Yan family and Gong Ning?

The entertainment reporters, sensing the juicy gossip, were instantly excited, like fish smelling fish. Before long, they found a photo of Yan Jingzhou holding Gong Ning in his arms and kissing her deeply at Old Master Yan's birthday banquet.

Even through the photos, one could see the handsome and noble man's deep affection and doting affection for the girl in his arms. The entire press seemed to go crazy trying to investigate further, but all their efforts came to nothing and there was no follow-up.

They couldn't find anything; it seemed that the remaining data had been artificially encrypted. Even the photos of Gong Ning that went viral online recently because of President Bei Yinshi and the Liangda University website link had been completely deleted.

Apart from the few occasional photos of her life that Gong Ning posts on her Weibo account, her information is completely clean to the outside world.

Even her current large fan base has not been able to become an exception.

In today's globalized information age, everyone's information may seem secure, but in reality, it is fraught with hidden dangers.

The entertainment reporters were filled with regret but had no choice but to back down. After so many years in the entertainment reporting circle, most of them had become cunning old foxes, and Gong Ning clearly had someone protecting her.

Neither the Gong clan nor the Yan clan are people they cannot afford to offend.

The man held the girl tightly in his arms and didn't put her down even after getting into the car. The partition between the car and the driver's seat had already been raised, and in an instant, the back of the car seemed to become a small world just for the two of them.

His large hand gently stroked her thin back, one stroke after another, tender and reassuring. The man placed a kiss on the top of her head. "Were you frightened?"

He remembered that two years ago, before she lost her sight, she was particularly afraid of crowds. Once, when Star Garden held a party, she was so frightened that she secretly ran to the wine cellar and carefully hid herself.

By the time he found her, the little girl had already fainted from the carbon dioxide in the wine cellar.

If it weren't for the oxygen alarm going off in the wine cellar...

She didn't speak, her whole body trembling, her small, fair hands gripping his hand tightly, her breathing erratic.

In the first month of the fortieth year of the Suiyuan era of the Great Yan Dynasty, the emperor died. In the same year, Crown Prince Jing ascended the throne and established the state of Jingyun.

In the first year of Jingyun's reign, the Yan emperor personally led an expedition. One year later, Gu You died, and Yan was able to unify the world.

Later, disregarding the advice of his ministers, the Emperor of Yan, in the following month of the same year, formally appointed the deceased Princess Gong Linyun as Empress, bestowing upon her the title of Zhenwan, granting her a jade ruyi, and performing the rites of marriage.

In the third year of Jingyun's reign, Emperor Yan died, and he and his deceased empress Zhenwan were buried together in the imperial mausoleum.

Emperor Jing of Yan died at the young age of twenty. He had no children, and the late emperor had no brothers or friends. Jing was the only son, and from then on, the direct line of the royal family of the Great Yan Dynasty was completely extinguished.

Gong Ning suddenly sobbed softly. All along, she had thought that her journey to the Gu You Dynasty was a lonely one, but she never expected that he would still be waiting for her and protecting her in different time and space.

Prince Jing of Yan is A-Zhou...

She and he missed each other for two lifetimes...

Gong Ning suddenly realized how foolish she had been without realizing it. In order to get rid of Gong Xiangru, she cruelly pushed him away in the name of protection.

"Yan Jingzhou!"

She suddenly looked up, her eyes filled with tears, and his face was reflected in the misty haze.

The man's dark eyes were filled with her, as if he wanted to keep her forever in his heart.

Gong Ning suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.