Chapter 161 Meeting is already a stroke of good fortune. If you know certain things in the future…
A night breeze swept by, and a few petals from the phoenix tree drifted down.
Her gaze fell on his palm, and she took a small step, gently placing her hand on his without hesitation.
His palms were warm and dry, with thin calluses at the base of his fingers, typical of martial artists, as he steadily enveloped her hand.
The warmth seeped into her skin, creeping up her arms, her neck, and her cheeks, impossible to ignore.
Huan Xun did not ask her why she had suddenly come to his side.
He simply led her to the phoenix tree, its branches laden with orange-red blossoms.
The two stood side by side, one tall and one short, their figures perfectly matched. Just looking at their backs, they seemed like a perfect couple, as if they were destined to be together by fate.
Looking up at the dazzling array of flowers overhead, Yu Nie sighed in admiration:
"The flame tree usually blooms from July to August, and at most it will wither in early October. It's almost November now, and I didn't expect that the flowers here still have some color left."
"This autumn in Gangneung is warmer than in previous years."
They gazed together at the still vibrant petals, enjoying this rare moment of tranquility.
"Moreover, since the beginning of autumn this year, there has been less rainfall than in previous years, with more sunny and warm days than usual. This continuous sunny, warm, and dry weather may also be the reason why its flowering period has been extended."
"Qiqi did say earlier that she is quite familiar with the habits of the phoenix tree." He turned his head to look at her: "But I remember that you have never left Huaiyuan before, and this tree only grows in the warm lands of the Jianghuai region. How do you know so much about it?"
Hearing him ask this question, Yu Nie lowered her eyelashes slightly and then opened her lips: "Does my lord still remember that I mentioned to you before that my homeland is in a very faraway country?"
Huan Xun: "I will not forget something so important."
She said, "To be precise, my hometown is currently located within the territory of Nanyin. Its specific location is within the area of the small town under the jurisdiction of Nanyin that you arrived at after crossing the Lingnan Pass."
Previously, she was unsure of the exact location of her hometown. When researching Li Xing's origins, she thought she had found out its location from a local gazetteer.
"Now its name should be Lushan, where there are phoenix trees."
Huan Xun sensed something unusual in her words.
"Since it is a distant country, a lush and verdant homeland, how could it be in Nan Yin?"
Now that things have come to this, there are many things she no longer needs to hide from him. She plans to explain in detail the things she didn't say last time.
She did not evade the question and answered it: "That's because when I was born, Nan Yin no longer existed, and more than a thousand years had passed. Moreover, both Nan Yin and Bei Ye were, to me at that time, countries recorded in history books thousands of years ago."
“It’s not just a little bit unfamiliar.”
To Huan Xun, her words were nothing short of a fairy tale, or a legendary story from a folk tale.
Now that the topic has come up, he finally asked the question that had been lingering in his mind for a long time: "How did Qiqi get here?"
The story of time travel is too bizarre to be believable.
She had no choice but to compromise and choose a version that he might be able to accept. As she moved slowly, she answered softly, "After I died in that world, when I opened my eyes again, I was already here, a child of the Rong family."
Huan Xun did not doubt her explanation. With her abilities, he had long sensed that she did not belong to Beiye.
She had previously told him about her background, and given the example of Dugu Loujun, he had no reason not to believe her.
He recalled her initial assessment of him when they first met, and all the strangeness was explained in that moment.
She stopped, her gaze once again falling on the crimson blossoms on the branches. Gazing at the scene before her, she seemed to see a distant, hazy past.
"Back then, in addition to the phoenix trees that could be seen everywhere in Lushan, there was also an extremely tall camphor tree that everyone called the 'Wishing Tree'."
When she mentioned this, her tone softened with nostalgia: "When I was a child, I heard from the local elders that the camphor tree was over a thousand years old. I don't know if it really lived that long, but I remember that its canopy was huge, and the shade it cast could cover a large area of land. The tree was covered with red ribbons with wishes written on them."
As she spoke, Huan Xun seemed to recall something important and replied, "There is indeed a towering camphor tree on Mount Lu. I saw it when I led my troops through it. The place is sparsely populated, and there is a dilapidated temple nearby. Some faded red silk ribbons are still hanging on the tree."
He said, "If Lushan is your hometown, I never expected that I would also pass by the place where Qiqi grew up."
She smiled sweetly, and then heard him say with a hint of regret, "But apart from that camphor tree, the scenery we see is probably not the same."
Then he walked towards her: "But on second thought, our meeting is already a blessing in disguise, why ask for anything more?"
She listened, smiled gently, and nodded slightly. Yes, meeting him was truly a stroke of good fortune.
Gazing at her smiling face, he asked, "Qiqi comes from a distant future, knowing that Beiye will eventually fall... Will my name appear in the history books of that future? How... will they write about me?"
"Is he vicious and violent? Or just tyrannical and unrestrained?" He said this with a nonchalant tone.
Huan Xun: "I think if there were any records, they would not simply say that I was a villain."
The thought that he didn't live past thirty, as recorded in history books, suddenly brought tears to her eyes, and her throat tightened slightly.
Not wanting him to notice anything amiss, she clenched her fists and smiled earnestly as she replied.
"In history books, you lived to be a hundred years old and were revered by the world."
"The historians wrote that you experienced turmoil in your youth, harbored the ambition to save the world, enforced strict laws to govern both internal and external affairs, and people feared your power. You were also kind to the people. You defended against powerful enemies and cultivated virtuous governance, unified the world for Beiye, and enabled the people to live in peace. Later generations praised you as resolute yet benevolent, insightful yet ultimately moving towards the light."
"Your life will be recorded in the Biographies of Famous Officials, and the world will know your achievements."
"Later emperors wrote their own comments on you, saying, 'Even after a thousand years, I still long to see your splendor.'"
She recounted a historical fact without omitting a single word.
Unbeknownst to him, the moment she uttered those words, she had already decided to make it all a reality.
After listening to her earnest explanation, Huan Xun smiled faintly, "Is that really how they wrote about me?"
Fearing he might doubt her, she nodded emphatically: "Not only that, they will write even more good things about you in the future."
Huan Xun replied, "That's really unexpected."
Yu Nie: "What's the surprise?"
He looked at her and replied, "They didn't even record that I would kill my father. It seems that the secret has been successfully kept in this matter."
Hearing him bring up the matter of killing his father again reminded her of the expression on his face when he saw Yan Yue's handwritten letter.
Remembering her purpose, she called out to him, "Huan Xun..."
"Um?"
Why do you dislike your godfather, or rather, why are you unhappy listening to him?
"Why..."
"Why did you kill him?" he asked, finishing her sentence.
Yu Nie did not deny it.
She nodded, and then told him about the conflict between him and Yan Yue that she had asked him when Qi Xun secretly came to her to tell her some things before she left Jian'an.
She said that Yan Yue seemed to treat him quite well.
Qi Xun disagreed with this and told her a story from the past.
It is said that when Huan Xun was ten years old, Yan Yue led him to a great victory over the Quanrong tribe, and afterwards a banquet was held to celebrate the victory. During the banquet, the generals were in high spirits and all advocated executing the captured Quanrong leader to establish their authority.
Amidst the uproar, Huan Xun calmly analyzed the drawbacks of killing the Quanrong leader for Yan Yue. But then, he offered a groundbreaking plan, suggesting that the leader's eldest son be chosen as a hostage, and then the leader and his followers be released and ordered to move to a designated border town pasture to graze horses and guard the border for our dynasty, pay tribute of horses annually, and participate in wars.
In this way, without losing a single soldier, an outer barrier can be obtained, and the supply of horses and auxiliary troops can be stabilized.
Upon hearing this, the generals were in an uproar, but Yan Yue alone remained outwardly calm, though inwardly a huge wave of emotions surged within him.
He recalled a highly accomplished monk's evaluation of Huan Xun, saying that his wisdom was almost supernatural, that he could assist a wise ruler, and that he could also restore the broken dragon vein and change the world.
At the time, Yan Yue dismissed it as mere mystical talk from a hermit and laughed it off.
However, similar evaluations have subsequently appeared on other eminent monks.
When he heard Huan Xun's plan again, he was shocked that this young man had such political acumen at such a young age. His thinking was far beyond the military scope of ordinary generals, and it vaguely revealed the plans of those in power.
In the end, although Yan Yue finally adopted the suggestion and publicly praised his adopted son for his exceptional strategy, he harbored a deep sense of unease in his heart.
From that day on, Yan Yue secretly became wary of Huan Xun and disciplined him even more strictly to prevent him from running wild.
From then on, Huan Xun was no longer a naive adopted son who only needed to be protected in Yan Yue's heart, but a dangerous existence whose thoughts were unpredictable and who needed to be constantly vigilant.
This incident was the source of all of Yan Yue's subsequent suspicions about Huan Xun.
Even though Huan Xun eventually gained control of the Xuan Ce Army through his own abilities, every year after Huan Xun had trained his troops, Yan Yue would withdraw half of them and then return a batch of new soldiers to him, ostensibly to give him experience.
Qi Xun then told her something that shocked her greatly: Xie Cheng was actually sent by Yan Yue to monitor Huan Xun.
It was only after Xie Cheng had gone through the case of He Renzhi in Huaiyuan that he was won over by Huan Xun.
After recounting the incident, she pondered and asked him, "So, you hate Governor Yan because he suspects you and is wary of you because of these things?"
Hearing her guess, he let out a low chuckle.
The moonlight flowed between his smiling brows and eyes, like a thin layer of mist.
"It seems that in Qiqi's mind, your future husband is such a petty person?" He deliberately dragged out his words, with a hint of mockery at the end.
"That's not what I meant," she hurriedly explained, waving her hands hastily.
Just kidding.
After saying that, he raised his hand to brush away the petals from her shoulder and led her to sit down at the stone table.
But Huan Xun didn't sit down; instead, he half-squatted in front of her, wrapping his hands around hers.
In the courtyard, only the two of them remained. Xie Cheng, the guards at the gate, and Cuiwei had all left sometime earlier.
After a moment, he calmly answered her question.
“I never hate him,” he said. “He gave me my identity, taught me martial arts, and taught me how to lead troops and fight battles. Without him, I would never have reached this position today.”
"He... just deserves to die."
"People have to pay the price for what they do, and he is no exception."
"And I am no exception."
“Even if killing him makes me infamous in history books, I don’t care.” His gaze was as calm as a deep pool as he looked up to meet her pained eyes: “This is the price I have to pay.”
“I didn’t kill him because he suspected me or was wary of me.” After a pause, he calmly revealed the truth: “He shouldn’t have killed the entire Cheng family, and he shouldn’t have colluded with Zhao Yunfu for his own selfish desires.”
Listening to his narration, Yu Nie was stunned. She never expected that Yan Yue would be involved in the massacre of the Cheng family.
“Qiqi…” He held her hand and placed it on his cheek: “If you find out anything in the future, you can choose not to forgive me. But I will definitely keep my promise to you.”
She didn't understand why he suddenly said such a thing, but when she realized that he might be referring to his plan to kill Yan Yue, she understood.
In ancient times, the country was governed by the principle of filial piety, and killing one's father was a serious crime.
Even if no one knew, how could he possibly be psychologically at peace with such an environment he had been immersed in since childhood?
What makes us human is our sense of shame and honor. Humans are not birds or beasts; they have complex emotions.
Yan Yue could have killed him before he was fully grown, but he didn't. Instead, he chose to discipline him strictly.
To the outside world, he was Yan Yue's only acknowledged successor. Even though he harbored fear and worry, Yan Yue never appointed anyone else.
Anyone who knows the inside story would find it strange.
Including Huan Xun himself, when he became who he is today, his adoptive father had too many opportunities to end his life, but the other party never made a move.
Looking into his eyes, she realized that he carried not only the blood debt of the Red Falcon Clan, but also the wronged souls of the entire Cheng family.
She suddenly understood why he was so determined to elevate the orphan of the Cheng family to power.
She could understand the weight of his decision, but she couldn't agree with it.
The historical ending must not be repeated. She must protect him to prevent future betrayals and turmoil in the world.
Her fingers trembled as she stroked his face.
“Zijing…” she said softly, “I understand that you prefer the son of the Cheng family to inherit the throne. But I beg you to promise me that you will not do so.”
"Why?" Huan Xun was slightly taken aback, not expecting her to say such a thing.
She placed her thumb on the corner of his eye, and in order to get him to agree to her request, she had no choice but to make up a reason.
"You don't know that in his later years, Zhao Yong will favor treacherous officials, causing turmoil in the country and making the people suffer greatly. If we help him ascend the throne, although we will fulfill the Cheng family's kindness, we will make the people of the world suffer the pain of a chaotic world."
She earnestly said, "Choosing him as emperor is not a wise move. The people and the world cannot afford such a price."
Huan Xun remained silent, torn between guilt for failing the Cheng family's past kindness and the vision of a future filled with corpses and endless war that she had described.
What should he choose?
Just as he was about to speak, an unnatural crimson hue appeared faintly in the distant night sky.
Suddenly, a guard rushed into the general's mansion, shouting, "General! Something terrible has happened! The Leiyao pharmacy is on fire!"
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The author's note: There was an information change at the end of the last scene, where the green locust tree was replaced with a phoenix tree. I feel that the scene looks better that way. Also, I changed the male lead's lines.
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