Chapter 186 The Powerful Minister Returns to His Youth (40)

The guards acted swiftly; upon receiving the order, they soon brought Master Dingyi over.

Master Dingyi was in his thirties or forties. Unlike the round and chubby Abbot Shouxin, who smiled like Maitreya Buddha, he was much thinner, with thick eyebrows and lips. He was quite taciturn. Upon entering the hall, without waiting for anyone to speak, he took out a cloth bag.

"Your Highness, Sixth Prince, please take it."

Princess Yong was taken aback, not understanding what it was. Ye Zangxing immediately asked, "Master, what is this?"

Master Dingyi put his hands together in prayer: "I can resolve the urgent matters in the hearts of you benefactors."

Princess Yong looked surprised: "Does the Master know why we invited you here?"

“I don’t know,” Master Dingyi shook his head, “but this was left by my master before his death. My master said that if the Sixth Prince urgently seeks me out when I travel in the future, I should not ask any questions, but just give him this cloth bag.”

This statement is strange, as if the abbot who guards the heart is also a prophet.

Princess Yong was overjoyed, thinking that this might truly be a treasure that could save Prince Yong. She quickly took it and carefully opened it, but her expression froze, her gaze fixed: "This..."

Princess Yong's finger trembled, and most of the cloth bag fell down, revealing its contents. Yu Shiqing looked closely and saw that it was a walnut-sized, grayish stone, no different from most of the stones on the roadside.

"Could this be some kind of medicine, or... a blessed magical artifact?" Princess Yong asked.

“This humble monk does not know,” said Master Dingyi, “but this item has not been consecrated.”

Princess Yong paused for a moment, then turned to look at Yu Shiqing and Ye Zangxing.

"Why not give it a try?" Yu Shiqing said.

His experience of rebirth, coupled with the two strange dreams he had on the day he fell off the cliff, gave him a vague glimpse into something beyond the ordinary. Someone was binding this world with layers of intractable knots, while someone was slowly setting things right.

Everything has its own cause and effect, but it also originates from the human heart.

Ye Zangxing frowned and nodded silently. Of the group, he had the most contact with Abbot Shouxin. The old Maitreya should be just an ordinary person, but there was something strange about him that he couldn't quite explain.

Princess Yong pondered for a moment, then rose and bowed to Master Dingyi, "Master, do you know how this item should be used?"

“Master said to place it between the eyebrows,” said Master Dingyi.

Princess Consort Yong bowed again, then briefly explained Prince Yong's current condition to Master Dingyi, inviting him to accompany her to the warm pavilion where Prince Yong was recuperating. Master Dingyi did not refuse, and Ye Zangxing and Yu Shiqing also went along.

The group soon arrived at the warm pavilion.

Prince Yong, protected by his secret guards, lay in the inner room, his face pale, still unconscious.

Princess Yong held the cloth bag and gently placed it on Prince Yong's forehead. The moment the bag left her hand, Princess Yong's fingers inexplicably felt heavy, as if she had accidentally dropped something.

Princess Yong looked slightly startled and quickly leaned closer to look, but when she looked down, she met Prince Yong's eyes, which he had opened with difficulty.

"Boyang!"

After a few breaths of silence, a joyful shout rang out from the warm pavilion.

Ye Zangxing was also startled and hurriedly went forward to see.

Yu Shiqing followed closely behind, his gaze sharp and cold, fixing on Prince Yong's eyes. After a moment, he let out a slight sigh of relief.

The one who woke up was Prince Yong, Ye Boyang.

Around the same time.

Ninghai City, China, several hundred years later.

In a university classroom, a sharp slap landed on the forehead of a male student who was fast asleep in his seat, snoring loudly.

"Holy crap! Who the hell is this...?"

The boy cried out in pain and jumped up with a start. Before he could utter a curse, he saw a familiar yet unfamiliar face.

"Teacher Zhang?" The boy looked dazed and incredulous.

"Do you still recognize me?" the old professor said coldly, pushing up his glasses. "I know the end of the semester is coming soon, and many of you are busy reviewing for your courses and rushing to finish your papers and assignments. You are very tired. In my class, if you think there is nothing to learn and want to sleep, that's fine, but you absolutely cannot disturb other students or disrupt the order of the class."

"Long Ran, do you want me to take out my phone and play a recording of how loud your snoring was just now?"

The boy, or rather Long Ran, maintained a bewildered expression while the old professor spoke, glancing around at the table, at himself, and at his phone.

I'm back?

Long Ran stared blankly at the time and date on his phone, then at the somewhat unfamiliar yet familiar faces around him, and at the Qi history courseware playing on the screen.

The old professor looked at him, frowned slightly, sighed silently, and said, "...Alright, sit down."

Long Ran was still in a daze and didn't react much when he heard this. He simply sat down.

The old professor shook his head, returned to the podium, flipped to the roster, and crossed out all twenty points of class time that had already been deducted from Long Ran's name.

"Alright, students, let's continue..."

The little incident in class was thus moved on, and the old professor continued his lecture.

Long Ran sat in the back row, staring blankly at the flashing slides, his mind a complete mess.

It seems he really is back... But, how did he come back?

No, it's not that he didn't want to come back, it's just... how did he end up back? He remembered that just a moment ago he was in a strange lake, where he heard someone claiming to be his past self confronting Prince Yong and Yu Shiqing, saying a lot of information that made him dizzy and unable to believe it at all.

And then...and then it seems like there was an earthquake at that lake?

The older version of myself and Prince Yong both fell into the lake, and they started fighting... In a daze, I went to break up the fight, but before I knew it, I had joined in, punching Prince Yong one minute and kicking my other self the next...

He didn't know how long they fought. His other self was a bit weak and suggested merging with him to join forces and kill the Prince of Yong. He didn't agree, and then...

Then, a meteorite the size of a mountain suddenly crashed down onto the lake!

The other version of myself was crushed to death, and everything went black. Then... I came back?

Long Ran couldn't explain it either.

It seems that in those few minutes after I opened my eyes and woke up, the struggles in the lake and the memories of the journey began to fade and blur like old photographs.

"No, no, I can't forget..."

Long Ran was jolted awake and quickly grabbed the pen in his hand.

"Can't forget? Can't forget what?" His roommate quietly leaned over and nudged him in a low voice, "The important points won't be highlighted until the next class, what's the rush, kid? Are you still half asleep? Oh well, it's no use pretending to be a diligent student now, you've already lost all your class points!"

"I almost stomped your foot off just now, and you still didn't wake up! What time did you stay up playing games until last night?! Old Zhang is usually a nice guy, but he can't stand your blatant behavior in his class! You're already terrible at Qi history, you're probably going to fail the final exam..."

"Hey, wait a minute, Long Ran, you...you didn't stay up all night last night, did you? You look terrible, and you seem...you've aged ten years? You don't look like you're in your twenties, you look like you're in your thirties or forties..."

My roommate seemed to have suddenly discovered something, and his chattering voice carried a hint of surprise.

Long Ran paused in his rapid writing. "Old...old? What does that mean?"

Seeing his expression, his roommate glanced at the podium while frantically grabbing his phone, turning on the camera's selfie mode, and shoving it in his face. "Look!"

Through the slightly shaky camera lens, Long Ran saw a chubby, oily, wrinkled, lifeless face—unfamiliar, utterly unfamiliar. But he knew it was him…this was who he truly was.

The chaotic sounds in my mind vanished instantly.

Long Ran stared at himself on the phone screen, stunned.

The next moment, his own phone suddenly vibrated.

Long Ran stared blankly at his phone.

The phone screen was locked but a group chat popped up.

【Great Qi Emperor's Rant Group ①】

[@RanranjunLaoran, there's a new archaeological discovery in the history of the Qi Dynasty, it's even trending on social media, have you seen it? A secret letter between Prince Yong and Emperor Tianxi says that Prince Yong is in poor health and is being disturbed by evil spirits, and that he was never a candidate for crown prince and had no intention of vying for the throne!]

[This is utter nonsense! These so-called "experts" will fabricate anything to promote their own projects. I wonder where they got these fake artifacts from. Didn't they report on that professor's scandals before? Tsk tsk.]

There's no need to fabricate this, is there? While the secret correspondence is incomplete, the general content is there. Even if there are differences in interpretation, they couldn't be too far off, right? Gan Ding was likely always being groomed by Emperor Tianxi as the proper crown prince.

【？】

[@Administrator, get to work!]

[Where did this dry leg hair come from? Kick it!]

This is a venting group, not a group for praising anyone. That would be bad luck!

[I got betrayed by a fellow group member again. There are so many hidden leg hairs in our group.]

[Thank goodness Ranran wasn't there and didn't see it, otherwise she would have had a fierce battle with that leg hair, hahaha...]

The emergence of a so-called "leg hair" person stirred up the quiet group, with messages constantly flooding in, all cursing "leg hair," cursing "experts," cursing Gan Ding, Tian Xi, and even Yu Shiqing.

Long Ran stared blankly. In a moment, the words seemed to suddenly twist into countless terrifying black insects, making him feel extremely frightened and unfamiliar.

What kind of people are celebrating like this? Just because of a few lines of unofficial history or a couple of misinterpretations of official history, they're making such malicious speculations and attacks...

Am I that kind of person?

Long Ran suddenly felt dazed.

"...After that, I only saw a little bit. It seems that he was trapped by the so-called 'graduation' and 'failing' for two years, until his temples were gray, before he finally left that academy-like place and went out to work."

"But perhaps his soul was damaged, or something else, he was in poor health and could not work for long. After a few years, he fell ill and could not get up. When his friend came to see him, his hair was still completely black, but he was already white-haired."

"Later, probably when he was in his forties, he succumbed to his illness and passed away."

Inside the warm pavilion, several people sat around. Prince Yong leaned against a cushion, slowly drinking a nourishing and restorative soup while recounting what he had seen in a daze, whether he was unconscious or had just woken up.

“That person must be Long Ran,” Ye Zangxing said, “the Long Ran who resides in your body in this life, Fourth Brother.”

"That should be it," Prince Yong nodded.

Princess Yong said, "Letting him live another life is really letting him off too easily!"

Prince Yong said, “He was neither a good person nor a bad person. He was just a mediocre person who followed the crowd and a fool who couldn’t distinguish truth from falsehood. Besides, good and evil will eventually be rewarded, but how easy is that? He aged prematurely, suffered from illness for more than ten years, and died young at the age of forty... So be it, Heaven has the virtue of cherishing life.”

The warm room fell silent for a moment, and no one spoke again.

Prince Yong had been awake for a couple of hours, and after talking for so long, he was already showing signs of fatigue. Yu Shiqing took the opportunity to get up and say goodbye.

Ye Zangxing was concerned about Prince Yong's health, but he still got up and said he would first see Mr. Yu off to the small courtyard prepared for the Prince's calligraphy and painting teachers, where Yu Shiqing had been staying recently.

"Thank you for your trouble, Sixth Prince," Yu Shiqing said.

"It was nothing," Ye Zangxing said. "I was just worried about Mr. Yu's safety..."

The two young people, neither of them teenagers, chatted and smiled as they left the warm pavilion and walked away into the distance, their sleeves gently brushing against each other in the wind.

"Rong'er, don't you think Xuan Shu and Mr. Yu..."

Looking at that scene through the window, Prince Yong suddenly frowned and spoke in a low voice.

“Your Highness,” Princess Yong interrupted Prince Yong, “the two of them are actually no younger than you. If you are really worried, it’s not too late to talk to Xuan Shu when you are feeling better.”

Prince Yong remained silent.

Princess Yong looked at the melting snow under the eaves, her voice gentle, and she smiled, "The winter solstice has passed, and the twelfth lunar month is approaching. Then comes the beginning of spring, New Year's Eve, and another year has passed..."

"Yes, another year has passed."

Prince Yong also smiled, "A new year."

Author's Note:

The countdown to the end has begun; the final chapter will be released tomorrow or the day after.

The ending of this world was already decided, but as I wrote, I felt that there was still something left to say, so I added an extra chapter, making a total of two extra chapters for this world.

After finishing the side stories of this world, the main text will be completed, and I will enter the stage of writing side stories throughout the entire text. There will be one or two side stories for each world, depending on the specific inspiration. During this stage, I will not update daily, but will update according to the ranking.