Chapter 39 Lu Zhanting: Whether you are human or ghost, you are mine!
When I came out of the study in Songhetang, the night was already deep.
The cool moonlight shone down on the bluestone path beneath their feet, casting their shadows long and thin.
Lu Zhanting held Su Wanqing's hand tightly; her palm was icy cold, and the chill seeped into his skin.
He could sense her silence.
After leaving the study, she didn't say another word.
She clutched the heavy pear wood box tightly to her chest with her other hand, her knuckles turning white from the force.
The two walked back to the east wing in silence.
In the room, Lu Yao was already fast asleep, the light from the wall lamp was dim and quiet.
Lu Zhanting closed the door, shutting out the night and the cold air outside.
He didn't ask anything, but simply took off his coat and draped it over Su Wanqing's thin shoulders, then turned around to pour a cup of boiling water.
"Drink some water to warm up."
Su Wanqing took the water glass; the warm glass soothed her fingertips, but the warmth couldn't reach her heart.
She walked to the table, put the pear wood box down, and it made a soft sound.
Then she just sat there in the chair, her eyes fixed on the box, without moving.
Lu Zhanting sat down beside her without saying a word, simply keeping her company quietly.
He knew that what was inside the box was his grandfather's decades-long heartache, and also a new mountain weighing on his heart.
"Grandpa...he already said it?" Lu Zhanting's voice was very low.
He knew bits and pieces about the Lin family's affairs, but they were far less serious than what Lu Zhenguo knew.
Su Wanqing nodded, but still didn't say anything.
She reached out and ran her fingertips over the rustic grain of the pear wood box again and again.
After a long while, she finally spoke.
"Zhan Ting..."
Her voice trembled slightly, without her even noticing.
"What's wrong?" Lu Zhan-Ting immediately reached out and grasped her icy fingertips.
Su Wanqing looked up and met his concerned gaze.
Those deep eyes were filled with undisguised worry and trust.
This man was her only anchor in this world.
Some secrets are too heavy to carry alone.
She didn't want to carry on anymore.
She took a breath, as if using all her strength, and lifted the lid of the pear wood box again.
"Zhan Ting, look."
She pushed that yellowed black-and-white family photo in front of Lu Zhanting.
Lu Zhanting picked up the photo.
The photo shows a refined man, a gentle and beautiful woman, and two innocent and carefree children.
A family that should have been filled with happiness.
“This is Uncle Lin Huaisheng’s family,” Lu Zhanting said in a low voice, his tone regretful.
“Look at this girl.” Su Wanqing’s fingertips landed on the face of the little girl with pigtails.
Lu Zhanting's gaze followed.
The girl had a very sweet smile, with two shallow dimples at the corners of her mouth and her eyebrows curved.
At first, he just felt that she looked familiar, but when he subconsciously looked up and saw Su Wanqing next to him, his breath suddenly stopped.
picture.
They look so alike.
Even though the years have passed and her appearance has matured, the charm in her eyes and the curve of her lips when she smiles are seven or eight parts similar to Su Wanqing's.
A thought suddenly popped into his mind, so absurd that even he found it unbelievable.
“Wanqing, you…” His throat was dry, and his voice was hoarse.
Su Wanqing did not answer.
She then took out a letter from the box.
"This is a letter that Uncle Lin Huaisheng wrote to his wife. Look at the sender's name."
Lu Zhanting took the envelope.
When those three elegant yet incredibly familiar pen characters—"Su Xinzhe"—came into view, his body suddenly stiffened, blood rushed to his head, and a buzzing sound filled his ears.
Su Xinzhe.
It is the name of the father in the original owner's memories.
The name, and the strikingly similar face in the photo, were now definitively confirmed.
The truth has already been revealed.
“I… am the person Grandpa is looking for.” Su Wanqing looked at his shocked face and spoke each word clearly, “Or rather, the original owner of this body of mine was Uncle Lin Huaisheng’s long-lost daughter, and a descendant of Grandpa’s benefactor.”
Lu Zhanting froze completely.
He stared intently at the photo, then abruptly turned to look at Su Wanqing, his mind blank.
The wife he married.
The girl whom everyone regarded as an orphan from the countryside.
It turns out that he was the descendant of the benefactor whom his grandfather had been searching for for decades, exhausting all his efforts but could not find.
How could there be such a coincidence in this world?
No.
This is no coincidence.
This is fate.
It was a destiny that had been preordained by an invisible thread long ago.
He finally understood.
Why did I feel an inexplicable sense of familiarity when I first saw her at the alley entrance?
Why did Grandpa say "like an old friend" after seeing her?
The root of the problem lies here.
After the immense shock came an even more overwhelming surge of elation and lingering fear, which instantly gripped Lu Zhanting's heart.
He suddenly stretched out his arm and pulled Su Wanqing tightly into his embrace with all his might.
"So that's how it is... So that's how it is..."
He murmured repeatedly, his arms tightening around her, as if he wanted to meld her into his very bones, afraid that if he let go, this precious treasure he had regained would disappear from his life again.
He was afraid.
If only he hadn't gone to that alleyway.
If he hadn't insisted on marrying her back then.
If she encounters any misfortune somewhere he doesn't know about...
Then he will become the biggest sinner in the Lu family.
He will personally extinguish his grandfather's lifelong dream and the debt of gratitude that generations of the Lu family have borne.
"Wanqing..." He buried his face in the crook of her neck, his voice muffled and trembling, hoarse with the sound of someone who had just survived a disaster, "Thank goodness... thank goodness I found you."
Su Wanqing could feel his body trembling and the preciousness of regaining what he had lost.
She reached out and gently hugged him back.
"Yes, you've found me."
In that embrace, the mountain weighing on her heart instantly crumbled by more than half.
She no longer has to face this secret alone.
From now on, she has him.
The two embraced for a long time until their violent heartbeats gradually subsided.
Lu Zhanting released her, cupped her face, and examined her closely, as if he wanted to re-etch her features into the depths of his soul.
"So you... have an older brother?" He remembered the boy in the photo.
Su Wanqing nodded, her expression darkening: "Yes. But in the original owner's memories, there was only her since childhood. I don't know where he is now, whether he is alive or dead."
“I’ll help you find him.” Lu Zhanting’s eyes sharpened. “No matter where he is, I will find him. Our family will definitely be reunited.”
"Yes." Su Wanqing nodded heavily.
With his promise, the future seemed to have light.
The room fell silent again, but the atmosphere was completely different.
A deeper, more visceral bond silently grew between the two.
Looking into Lu Zhanting's eyes, which were filled with trust and love, Su Wanqing's last line of defense completely crumbled.
This man is worth her complete devotion.
“Zhan Ting,” she spoke again, her tone more solemn than ever before, “about my secret, there is actually another one. A secret even more incredible than my origins.”
Upon hearing this, Lu Zhanting's body tensed slightly.
Looking at Su Wanqing's serious expression, he realized that what she was about to say might be the deepest and most core thing in her heart.
He didn't urge her, but simply held her hand tighter, showing her through his actions that he would listen to whatever she said.
"Do you remember when I told you that my dowry would come from the space?" Su Wanqing asked.
"Remember."
“This space wasn’t something I was born with.” Su Wan-qing’s gaze became distant, as if piercing through time and space. “It… came into this world with my soul.”
Lu Zhanting's pupils suddenly contracted.
“What I mean is…” Su Wanqing’s voice was soft, but every word was like a hammer blow, “The Su Wanqing sitting in front of you now, her body belongs here, but her soul comes from a completely different place, a world… decades in the future.”
"The real Su Wanqing died on the day you went to annul the engagement, due to a high fever and heartbreak. And I, a soul from the future, entered her body at that moment."
These words struck Lu Zhanting like a thunderbolt, exploding in his mind.
He lived for thirty years and received the most rigorous materialist education; his world consisted only of guns, strategies, and missions.
The idea of soul travel only exists in rural folklore.
However, the one who said these words was the woman he loved most.
He looked into her open, vulnerable, yet slightly uneasy eyes, into the eyes of this woman who had single-handedly created countless miracles.
Her medical skills were miraculous.
Her insights were far ahead of their time.
Her culinary skills are so amazing that they can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.
And that mysterious space that can conjure up three truckloads of dowry out of thin air...
All the mysteries he had never been able to understand before now connected together, pointing to an absurd yet uniquely reasonable answer.
He didn't speak, but just stared intently at her, his brain racing, trying to process this information that was enough to overturn his entire understanding.
Su Wanqing's heart was in her throat.
This was the moment she feared most.
Will he believe it?
Will he mistake her for a monster who has been resurrected?
Will he loathe her, fear her, and then... push her away?
The long silence made the air in the room feel thick and sticky.
Just when Su Wanqing was about to give up, Lu Zhanting finally moved.
He did not back down, and there was no fear or disgust on his face.
He simply reached out his other hand and tenderly, gently, stroked her cheek.
The rough fingertips, calloused from years of holding guns, brushed against her skin, yet strangely, they gave her a sense of peace.
"so……"
He finally spoke, his voice terribly hoarse.
That's why you've always worked so hard and persevered so much. Because you're all alone in this world.
He didn't ask her where she came from, nor why she came.
He was asking her.
Su Wanqing's eyes reddened instantly.
She imagined ten thousand possibilities: shock, doubt, and fear.
But what I didn't expect was that his first reaction was to feel sorry for him.
I feel sorry for her, all alone in this unfamiliar place, isolated and helpless.
"You must have been very scared when you first arrived, right?" Lu Zhanting looked at her reddened eyes, his heart was clenched tightly, and a sharp pain instantly spread through him.
He remembered how thin and stubborn she looked when she first married into the family.
Everyone thought she was weak and easily bullied, but only he knew what a tenacious soul lay hidden beneath that calm exterior.
It turns out that she had been bearing so much all by herself.
"Why...why didn't you tell me sooner?" he asked, his voice filled with self-reproach. "I am your husband, yet I let you carry such a heavy secret alone for so long."
Su Wanqing could no longer hold back, and tears streamed down her face.
She suddenly threw herself into his arms, buried her face in his chest, and burst into tears.
In those cries, there was grievance, unease, loneliness, and fear.
Since coming into this world, she has been like a traveler wearing a mask, carefully playing the role of another person, afraid to make any mistakes.
She was afraid of being discovered, afraid of being treated as an outsider.
Until I met him.
He was like a ray of fierce light, bursting into her dark world, giving her a home, and all her love and protection.
Even so, she still kept the last secret and dared not reveal it completely.
Now, she can finally shed all her pretenses.
"I'm afraid... I'm afraid you'll think I'm a monster..." She sobbed uncontrollably in his arms, "I'm afraid you'll abandon me..."
"fool."
Lu Zhanting held her tightly, letting her tears soak his military uniform. He kissed the top of her head again and again, his voice firm and passionate.
"How could I not want you?"
“I don’t care who you are or where you come from. I only know that the person I, Lu Zhanting, love is you. You are the one who stood tall and proud at the alley entrance, the one who argued with reason at the dinner table, the one who dared to challenge Grandpa for my sake.”
"What I love is your soul. It doesn't matter which body this soul lives in, or whether it comes from the past or the future."
"The important thing is that it is here now, in my arms."
“Su Wanqing, listen to me,” he cupped her tear-streaked face, forehead to forehead, and said, word by word, as if branding her, “I, Lu Zhanting, have only ever recognized you as my wife in this life. Whether you are human or ghost, immortal or demon, you are mine. If the sky falls, I will hold it up for you.”
These words were the most reassuring thing in the world, instantly calming all of Su Wanqing's unease and fear.
Looking into his deep, resolute eyes so close to hers, she took the initiative and kissed his lips.
This kiss was unlike any other before.
It is no longer just a tender embrace, but the most complete fusion of two souls, transcending time, space, life, and death.
From that moment on, there were no more secrets between them.
She was completely open to him.
He gave her everything without reservation.
Outside the window, the night deepened, and the moonlight was like frost.
Inside the room, a single lamp cast a dim light, and the feeling of spring was growing stronger.
After the storm subsided, Su Wanqing nestled in Lu Zhanting's arms, feeling his steady and powerful heartbeat, and a sense of peace she had never felt before filled her heart.
Finally, in this unfamiliar time and space, she found a harbor where she could completely find refuge.
She pressed her face against his chest and whispered, "Zhan Ting, when will we tell Grandpa about my background?"
Lu Zhanting stroked her smooth back and pondered for a moment.
“It’s not the right time yet,” he said in a low voice. “Grandpa is too old to handle this kind of shock. This is too unbelievable, and besides, we haven’t found your brother yet.”
"Telling Grandpa before we have solid evidence and find your brother will only give him false hope. The huge gap between hope and disappointment will wear down his health."
His thoughts coincided with hers.
“We’ll investigate secretly first.” A sharp glint flashed in Lu Zhanting’s eyes. “I will use all my resources to find clues about your brother. When the time is right, we will return a complete family to Grandpa.”
"Okay." Su Wanqing closed her eyes with relief.
Once she revealed the secret, she discovered that sharing was such an easy thing.
She is no longer fighting alone.
She now has the strongest and most reliable ally by her side.
And this ally was the love of her life.
That night, Su Wanqing slept exceptionally well.
She had a very long dream.
In her dream, she found her long-lost brother, and they returned to the Lu family together. Lu Zhenguo and the old lady embraced them, tears streaming down their faces.
Lu Zhanting stood beside her, holding her hand tightly.
The sun shines brightly, and life is peaceful.
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