Chapter 183 The Powerful Minister Returns to His Youth 37.

Yu Shiqing had a dream.

Or, to be more precise, two dreams. Two similar, yet not entirely the same dream.

In the first dream, in the hazy mist, Yu Shiqing saw Long Ran.

He was in his early twenties, with a face that bore a slight resemblance to Prince Yong, but their overall demeanor was completely different. He lived carefree in a world entirely different from the Great Qi Dynasty. In this world, the Great Qi had become history hundreds of years ago, and Long Ran was a history student.

During a Qi history class, Long Ran was so tired from playing games all night that he fell asleep. When he woke up again, the world around him had changed.

He arrived in the Great Qi Dynasty and appeared inside the body of the sixteen-year-old Prince Yong, who had just established his own household and gotten married not long ago.

This dream seems to be a past life that everyone finds hard to let go of, but it is not told from the perspective of Yu Shiqing or Ye Zangxing, but from the perspective of a future person named Long Ran.

He left a message, exorcised evil spirits, and headed south to Huai'an.

The establishment of an heir apparent, headaches, and chaos in the capital.

Enfeoffment, intrigue, the rebellion of Prince Yong...

Yu Shiqing, like a wandering soul suspended in the air, witnessed the changes in Long Ran, the changes in Prince Yong, and the changes in Ye Zangxing and himself. They all seemed to be himself, and also puppets, being pulled by some invisible threads towards an inevitable end, powerless to struggle, and without even the consciousness to struggle.

Then, the second dream came.

The protagonist of this dream is no longer Long Ran, but A Fu.

Ten-year-old Afu, bewildered and confused, nestled in the arms of the poisoned Princess Yong. She pulled him down into the well, and his mud-covered clothes and mournful cries fell, forming a bloodstain on the edge of the well.

Yu Shiqing arrived a step too late. Local officials and generals, eager to claim credit, had raided the Prince Yong's residence without authorization. They knelt on the ground, dividing the spoils, and shouted, "The traitor deserves to be killed by everyone! We have done nothing wrong!"

It wasn't until the bodies of Princess Yong and Afu were recovered and the palace maids' wailing accusations erupted that they panicked, cried out, and begged for mercy, as if they had only just realized that they had done wrong.

Or perhaps, they finally understand that even though the emperor was betrayed in this way, he never intended to force his brother's family to their deaths.

Amidst the cries and pleas for mercy, Afu opened his eyes and returned to the age of three.

Three-year-old Afu has the memories of a ten-year-old, so he can no longer continue to be carefree.

She wanted to change her fate, but she didn't dare tell her parents and brothers directly about her rebirth. So she could only find various excuses to change herself and her parents and brothers.

She approached Yu Shiqing in advance to hire him as a calligraphy and painting teacher, posted notices far and wide, and sought out Dr. Rong, who had "cured" Prince Yong's headache in her previous life, as well as those people who had been personally praised as talented individuals by her "father"...

She died young and didn't understand much. She only knew that her uncle was a good person, Mr. Yu was a good person, and her father was a good person. But for some reason, good people couldn't tolerate each other living together.

Having been reborn, she didn't want to harm her young uncle or anyone else; she only hoped to have enough power to protect her parents and brothers.

But busy and hardworking Afu didn't know that although she didn't tell anyone about her rebirth, her innermost thoughts could be heard by her parents, brothers, and even Long Ran, who was unaware of her existence, from the moment she was reborn.

At first, Prince Yong and the others could not believe it. How could their previous lives have ended like that?

But Long Ran believed it.

In this dream, Yu Shiqing was not reborn. He watched himself standing under the list of successful candidates, feeling joy, sorrow, and sighs. He watched himself walk past the teahouse, never intersecting with the willow-green ribbon that drifted by. He watched himself stop at the village entrance, where he met Afu and Ye Hanzhang. When faced with the matter of the calligraphy and painting teacher, he chose to consider it between rejection and acceptance.

Later, everything seemed unchanged, yet everything also seemed to have changed.

From Afu's occasional glimpses of his future, Yu Shiqing saw his own future.

He still became a student of Qiu Jingsong, became a close friend of Ye Zangxing, and worked as a calligraphy and painting tutor at the Yongwang Mansion. Later, he passed the imperial examination, passed with flying colors, entered the Hanlin Academy, and lived in the capital. For a long time, he maintained an excellent relationship with Ye Zangxing and the Yongwang Mansion.

Even though he was just a minor sixth-rank compiler, no one in Zhili dared to look down on him.

But that's only the surface.

The day for Emperor Tianxi to establish his heir arrived. Despite Afu's constant flattery and ingratiation, Emperor Tianxi did not directly establish a crown prince. Instead, when the war in the northern desert broke out, he sent Ye Zangxing and Prince Yong to the army for training. He bluntly stated that the Great Qi did not need a stable and conservative ruler. If they could not win, they would not survive. Therefore, the position would be given to Prince Ding.

With a single word, the three brothers vying for the throne and fratricide became inevitable.

Ye Zangxing conferred the title of Prince Yu and went to the northern desert with Yu Shiqing. Prince Yong, along with a group of newly recruited confidants led by Grand Master Rong, also went along.

Afu was young and naturally did not accompany them. Therefore, from her perspective, this period of time passed very quickly. She ate a few pastries and drank a few cups of honey syrup at her grandfather's house and then heard the news that her father had won the battle and that her uncle and Mr. Yu had died unexpectedly.

Afu stayed there for a long time.

Later, she helped Emperor Tianxi avoid the chaos in the capital, captured a large number of the wicked empress and her followers, and her father returned in time to clean up the mess, read out Emperor Tianxi's last edict, and ascended the throne.

She became a princess of the Great Qi, her mother became the empress of the Great Qi, and her brother became the crown prince of the Great Qi. Everything seemed perfect.

Looking at his father's familiar yet strangely unfamiliar face, at his empty purse that would never again be filled with candy, and at the exquisite paintings in his study, Afu could not feel happy no matter what.

She sat on the high palace steps, dressed in a magnificent, gold-embroidered dress. She heard the nanny beside her saying that she was being improper. From inside the palace behind her, she could vaguely hear her parents arguing about expanding the harem.

The Emperor's voice was distant and indistinct: "I've already given you the title of Empress, made Ye Hanzhang the Crown Prince, and bestowed upon Afu the title of Princess Protector of the Nation. What more do you want?"

"before……"

"Don't mention the past to me! I am no longer the same person I used to be! You are Yong... my wife who shared my hardships. Although I will no longer come to your palace, I will not do anything to you. As for the selection of concubines, you don't need to say anything more. My mind is made up! I have worked so hard for the Yong Prince's family for so long. What's wrong with enjoying myself a bit?"

"Ye Boyang!"

"Don't call me that name, I am not your Ye Boyang!"

The sky was overcast and gloomy, and amidst the oppressive clamor, Afu's dream came to an end.

Yu Shiqing felt as if he had been kicked, and was suddenly sent flying backward from that area. The mist churned wildly, like a surging sea of ​​clouds. When he finally landed, he shuddered and felt a sudden chill in his palm.

Yu Shiqing looked down and found that he had two strange books in his hands.

The book covers have a few missing words on them: one is "Dominating the Great Qi Dynasty, I'm Afraid of Anyone After Transmigrating as Prince Yong!", and the other is "Princess Fubao: After Rebirth, My Whole Family Can Hear My Heart's Voice".

"This is……"

The moment Yu Shiqing saw the light of fame, a strange feeling welled up in his heart, and some things that still troubled him to this day suddenly had an answer.

I see.

So that's how it is...

In that instant of sudden enlightenment, Yu Shiqing felt a buzzing in his mind, his body jolted, and he opened his eyes.

The wonder and bewilderment of the dream left him momentarily stunned, but the towering cliffs, the drifting clouds, and the bone-chilling coldness all around him quickly brought him back to his senses.

He... fell off a cliff and into the water, but luckily survived?

Yu Shiqing was in pain all over, especially his shoulders, back, and the back of his head. He raised his hand to touch it; the back of his head was a little swollen, but there was no bleeding. Barely managing to hold on, he climbed up from the shallows and trudged away from the river.

However, after taking only a couple of steps, Yu Shiqing stopped.

Behind a rock not far away, a person lay prone, dressed in white with light armor, and with a willow-green hair ribbon floating in the water.

Yu Shiqing's expression froze, and his heart clenched instantly. He disregarded the pain, the mud, and his injuries, and rushed over like a madman, carefully helping the person up with trembling hands.

It really is Ye Zangxing!

But... how could it be Ye Zangxing?

Why did he fall down too? Was it because I didn't let go of him, or did he pull me back in order to save me?

Yu Shiqing's breathing trembled.

He touched Ye Zangxing's warm skin, paused for two breaths, and then stiffly raised his hand to check his breath and the side of his neck.

Even though Ye Zangxing's face and lips were pale, and his eyes were closed, just like in those dreamlike moments of his past life, as if he were dead, Yu Shiqing could still feel that the person in front of him was still alive, still breathing, and still warm.

He is different from the one in that dream, and different from the one in his past life...

This instantly relieved Yu Shiqing's nearly disheveled expression.

As if relieved, he closed his eyes tightly and lowered his head.

After a moment, he recovered and quickly looked up to check Ye Zangxing's injuries.

Fortunately, Ye Zangxing didn't have any serious injuries, only some abrasions and scratches, and some bruises on his calves and shoulders. Yu Shiqing had some medicine with him, so these were easy to treat.

Slightly relieved, Yu Shiqing didn't dare to delay and quickly carried Ye Cangxing away from the damp and cool riverbank.

Although the winters in Huai'an are not as cold as those in the capital, they still have their own chilling atmosphere, which is extremely harmful to the body. When Yu Shi woke up, it was already evening. It gets dark very quickly in the mountains, and if she went to find a way out now, it would be night soon. It was extremely dangerous, so finding a place to temporarily shelter from the wind and rain was the best option.

Yu Shiqing carried Ye Cangxing along the river for a while, and soon found a recessed rock wall at the bottom of the cliff that resembled half a cave. There were many dry branches nearby that could be used as firewood.

He tidied things up a bit, placed Ye Zangxing inside, gathered firewood, and started a fire.

The clothes were draped over the fire and slowly became warm and dry.

Yu Shiqing left a pair of pants for himself and Ye Zangxing, and hung the rest on the rack.

"Let's avoid the wind and dew for one night, and then we'll look for a way tomorrow."

Yu Shiqing glanced at the sky outside the rock wall, which was darkening in the blink of an eye, then looked at Ye Zangxing, who was still unconscious with his eyes closed. Ye Zangxing's injuries had been treated and he was fine, but, "He's been in the water for who knows how long, he must be careful not to catch a cold..."

In the deep mountains and forests, a sudden chill could very well be fatal.

Yu Shiqing carefully embraced Ye Zangxing, pressing his slightly cool skin against him, warming him intimately, while his heart was filled with hidden worries.

And the fact is, his concerns were not unfounded.

The fire burned slowly. It was nearly midnight, and Ye Cangxing remained asleep, his forehead and face drooping against Yu Shiqing's chest, slowly turning from slightly warm to scalding hot.