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Outside the Niujiazhuang Village ancestral hall, men in official uniforms held torches, and guards were stationed at intervals, keeping this rather large hall firmly under their watch. The few villagers who occasionally tried to approach were quickly driven away, leaving them to gaze anxiously at their village's ancestral hall.
The sound of horse hooves came from afar. Su Zirui, who was wearing a crimson official robe, stopped his horse. His cold and handsome face was solemn. His sharp cold eyes swept over the monks beside Beili, revealing a bit of surprise.
"Master Su, how are you?" The monk clasped his hands together and bowed slightly.
"Master Huiming, why are you here?" Su Zirui's eyes darkened.
The monk is Huiming, the abbot of Daqi Temple and the trusted imperial tutor of Emperor Huiqing.
Su Zirui's dislike for the monk stemmed from this person. Su Qing had known him for years. When he was a child, this person had criticized him for being naughty, prompting Su Qing to intensify his discipline, to the point where he grew extremely resentful of him. It was only after returning from the northwest, feeling guilty for his crimes, that he reentered the temple to listen to sutras, and with Su Qing's help, their relationship finally eased somewhat.
Master Huiming was already in his forties, with a kind and handsome face. He smiled kindly and said, "I have come here at the request of a friend to pave the way for you."
"Clear the way?" Su Zirui glanced towards Beili.
"Sir," Beili clasped his fists respectfully, a slightly puzzled expression on his face. "We've been guarding outside the entire time, but...after nightfall, we heard faint noises inside the ancestral hall, but no one showed up. We went inside and nothing unusual happened. And...Qi Qi said Qi Shaozhen has arrived in the capital."
Qi Shaozhen? Su Zirui's expression changed slightly. "When did it happen?"
"Earlier, he said he saw someone nearby...but now he's nowhere to be found." Things were indeed strange, and Kitasato didn't know how to report it.
Qi Qi felt something strange when he saw the person, but the person suddenly disappeared. He sent people to search the village for a long time but couldn't find him.
Su Zirui's expression grew colder, his eyes shimmering with frost. "Who is Master's friend?"
Master Huiming seemed not to hear their words. He simply smiled and replied, "My friend is none other than Master Yiyuan, the abbot of Dayin Temple, whom you have met several times in Yangzhou."
His heart skipped a beat as Su Zirui suddenly looked towards the gate of the ancestral hall. "Master, when you say 'open a road'... are you referring to the road here?"
Master Huiming looked up at the open door, a trace of pity flashing across his eyes. He sighed softly, "Benefactor, I can only open the door. As for what happens next... I can only leave it to fate."
God's will? Su Zirui sneered, "God's will? Master, isn't what they did an act against heaven's will?"
That woman was dead, so why should she stay in the world, in her heart? Why did those people let his girl give up herself in exchange for someone who had been dead for many years?
Master Huiming's eyes flickered slightly, and he didn't say anything. He just turned back and glanced at the three monks following behind him. The three nodded, quickly separated, and then sat down cross-legged on the ground.
"Please ask the donor to send away some irrelevant people." Master Huiming requested.
Su Zirui and Beili looked at each other, and the latter immediately understood and arranged the personnel.
Soon, they and four other monks were the only ones left at the main entrance of the ancestral hall. Master Huiming sat cross-legged on the ground, his hands clasped together, chanting scriptures.
Slowly, the air around them spread out like ripples on water, with them as the center.
Almost in an instant, the surrounding scenery changed abruptly. Scattered peach blossom petals floated down in the night sky for no reason. In the center of the ancestral hall right in front of them, a burst of flames suddenly rose into the sky, illuminating the entire night sky. At the same time, the sky suddenly changed color, and a purple light hovered in the thunder.
"Sir!" Beili stared in amazement at the center of the ancestral hall under the thunder, where someone could be vaguely heard moving.
Su Zirui's heart tightened, and the two of them quickly rushed over. Wherever they stepped, a white glowing spell suddenly spread, and complex patterns and text appeared under the entire ancestral hall square. A violent wind suddenly blew up within the formation.
Amidst the petals, two men in black responded by descending, Beili Pudao in hand, leading the way. "Sir, Qi Shaozhen is over there! Hey, is that... Marquis Dingbei?"
Su Zirui glanced over quickly. The two men in black weren't the same killers as before. Their faces were stiff and lifeless, and their movements were not as agile as those of the previous killers. He flew past them in an instant, his gaze settling on the center of the ancestral hall, a fierce look in his eyes.
Within sight, Qi Shaozhen was sitting on the ground with blood on the corner of his mouth. In front of him was Aruo, who was still unconscious and with a pale face. Above their heads was a red banner with strange pictures and texts, which was being torn in the purple light, like a person struggling in pain.
"Qi Shaozhen, what are you going to do!" What are you going to do to his girl? Su Zirui shouted.
The silver-white sword light attacked in an instant, forcing him to stop.
"Luo Ziran," Su Zirui looked coldly at the man holding the sword and unsheathed his long sword, "Get out of the way!"
"Sir Su, today's incident has nothing to do with you. Why are you so persistent?" Luo Ziran's gentleness was gone at this moment. He exuded a fierce murderous intent, and there was a hint of madness in the depths of his pupils.
"Who is so persistent?" Su Zirui narrowed his dark eyes and said in a calm voice, "Chen Nan has been dead for many years. What you did today is against the will of heaven... If she knew that you killed innocent people, I'm afraid she wouldn't want this to happen."
"Shut up!" As if the fear in his heart had been pierced, Luo Ziran suddenly opened his eyes, "Nan'er coming back is the right thing to do! She is just a lonely soul from another world. She appeared in this world just for Nan'er!"
"She's not!" His heart felt as if it were being ripped apart by invisible hands. The pain made his eyes pierce and bloodshot. "She is a living person in this world. She has her own life!"
Who says that we live only to die for others? Is Shen Nan truly that rich? Why should we sacrifice the girl who strives to live her life and experiences every day with all her heart?
That was the girl he had finally met, the one he cherished deeply in his heart...
"My own life? Hahaha..." Luo Ziran laughed sarcastically, looking at him as if he were an ignorant person. "Do you know who you care about? Even the name and identity of Qi Ruoyu were given by us... She is just a soul from another world, living in someone else's body. What kind of life does she have? She came here to give Nan'er a new life. This is her whole life!"
"Shut up!" Su Zirui's face was ashen, his eyes bloodshot, his gaze cold and fierce. His body tensed, every inch of muscle filled with strength and fury. "She took someone else's body? Didn't you cause all this? In order to bring Shen Nan back to life, you destroyed an innocent person, and now you want to destroy her again? You want to force this sin on her, Qi Shaozhen, don't you feel shameless?"
The swords touched each other, neither of them gave in. The swords rang clearly, the edges were sharp, and the swords reflected the paranoid eyes of the two men.
"So what if it's destroyed?" As long as his Nan'er could come back, he wouldn't care about Qi Ruoyu or even more people! Luo Ziran smiled and blocked the increasingly fierce sword moves.
Qi Shaozhen watched the people engaged in the melee with a cold eye, then looked up at the increasingly fiery red spirit-calling banner above his head. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his fingertips, and a wry smile played on his lips. Su Zirui's words were like sharp blades, piercing his chest, but he had no choice.
The formation left by the master has been broken, this is the only chance... He closed his eyes and suppressed a sigh.
"You guys... you always have to make me clean up this mess..."
His narrow, fox-like eyes were calm, yet his tone held a touch of fondness. His slender fingers slowly drew a strange pattern in the air with blood. A streak of red light descended from the swirling purple light overhead, enveloping the fluttering red banner and the person lying below.
Su Zirui was shocked when he saw this. At the critical moment, a fierce palm wind came at him. He faced the palm with his own, and both of them were knocked back at the same time.
Beili knocked down one of the men in black and quickly leaped behind Su Zirui to help cushion the impact. Using his sword to steady himself, Su Zirui hurriedly looked up, his expression suddenly changing.
A slender figure vaguely appeared on the soul-calling banner in the light column, slowly floating down headfirst, like a mirror image of the person lying below.
Luo Ziran fell to the ground and spat out a mouthful of blood, but a smile appeared on his lips.
"Sir, this..." Beili looked up at the strange scene, his pupils trembling slightly, "Is that... Aruo?"
A chill ran up his spine, making him feel desolate and his whole body trembled uncontrollably, as if invisible hands were constantly pulling something very important out of his body, trying to peel it away.
His pupils suddenly contracted, and an endless rage surged, devouring all his rationality. Su Zirui snatched the hidden arrow from the other black-clad man, lit the arrow with a tinder, and without hesitation aimed it at the red flag in the beam of light.
Catching a glimpse of his movements, Luo Ziran's joy suddenly turned into panic, and he shouted in shock, "Don't—"
Bend the bow and shoot as the string moves.
The flaming arrows broke through the light and the red flags quickly ignited.
"Nan'er!" Luo Ziran wanted to pounce on her.
Thunder suddenly sounded, lightning struck from the purple light, and the entire light column suddenly burst out with strong white light. The violent airflow blew down everything around it like a strong wind, and everyone outside the light column was blown away and fell to the ground.
Behind the light, pink and white petals along with the fine winter snow gently fell from the sky, one of which landed on the forehead of the person lying on the chaise longue, like a gentle kiss.
A tear fell from the corner of her eye, and her long eyelashes fluttered slightly. The girl opened her eyes slightly, and the pain in her body made her delicate brows frown uncomfortably. Blinking as if in uneasiness, she slowly struggled to sit up and looked forward.
Xiuya's face was pale and bloodless, her eyebrows that usually smiled were now as cold as the moon, and her dark eyes were clear and indifferent, as if nothing in the world could attract her attention.
Her blank gaze swept across the dazed Beili, the sharp-eyed Su Zirui, and then fell on the nervous Luo Ziran and the blank-faced Qi Shaozhen. A trace of trance passed through her eyes, and her pale lips moved, as if whispering.
"Brother...Brother Chu?"
Achu...brother.
Intense surprise suddenly burst out in his eyes. Luo Ziran half crawled and half ran to her side in ecstasy, as if waking up from a nightmare. His trembling hands reached out to her in disbelief, but stopped before touching her eyebrows, not daring to touch the skin that was unfamiliar to him.
Her black eyes were clear and innocent. Aruo slowly raised her hand to his face and wiped the blood from his cheek with her fingertips. "Why are you injured again... Ah Chu... Brother..."
Before she could finish her gentle murmur, she closed her eyes and fell into his stiff arms.
Luo Ziran held the person gently with trembling hands, his eyes red and tears falling silently.
It was her, his Nan'er.
In this world, only Nan'er would call him Brother Achu... During those days when they were together day and night, there was a war in Liangzhou. He often suffered minor injuries while leading troops outside, and she was the only one who would complain and feel sorry for him.
His Nan'er is really back.
Su Zirui looked at the girl with bloodshot eyes as she leaned peacefully in the man's arms. Her strange and indifferent gaze and the soft voice she had never called him before made him feel cold in his heart.
Fine snowflakes fell on him, and a piercing pain spread from his chest, like a sharp blade slicing every nerve in his body. He gasped for breath, but could find no hope of relief. He desperately wanted to find a shred of evidence to discredit this strange secret technique, but neither Luo Ziran's unconcealed ecstasy nor Qi Shaozhen's unconcealed pain made his strained mind unable to accept it.
What... had they done to her? Why wasn't she like herself anymore? They... had made her give up on him.
Watching Luo Ziran walking past with someone in his arms, Su Zirui moved his fingers slightly and stubbornly pulled at the hem of her hanging skirt, but he didn't have the strength to look up.
Luo Ziran walked straight past them without pausing. The hem of the skirt was pulled out from his fingertips, as if draining all his strength as well.
He fell to his knees, unable even to look back at her.
"Sir..." Beili didn't understand why, but he had a vague feeling that something had changed in Aruo that he wasn't aware of. And this change was enough to break his master's straight spine. He felt a rare sense of panic, but he didn't know how to help. The figure who had never moved like a mountain collapsed before his eyes.
Qi Shaozhen ignored all of this, holding his forehead with one hand and laughing softly, his laughter was particularly piercing in the cold air. After a long while, Qi Shaozhen finally stood up on his knees and slowly walked towards the door.
When passing by Su Zirui, he paused, lowered his eyes and whispered, "I'm sorry..."
A sudden blow landed on his face, and Qi Shaozhen stumbled twice, nearly falling to the ground. Before he could react, he was violently grabbed by someone.
Su Zirui clutched his collar, his dark pupils like a deep pool of despair, terribly cold. "Why? She treats you like a brother and trusts you so much, why are you giving up on her?"
The fox's eyes darkened instantly. Qi Shaozhen was silent for a moment, then fiercely waved his hand away. He looked at him for a long time, a hint of sarcasm on his cold face, and said in a low, hoarse voice, "But I am also Nan'er's brother."
One is his younger sister who lives a carefree life but whom he cares about, and the other is his younger sister who he watched being born and raised with his love.
Qi Shaozhen smiled, his eyes slightly red, and staggered past them towards the gate.
Outside the gate, Master Huiming sighed slightly, turned around and left quietly with the monks.
The peach blossom petals vanished without a trace, or perhaps they had never truly existed. The first snow of early winter slowly descended upon the imperial capital, and the ancestral hall, once quiet, silently melted into the night, leaving behind only two bewildered figures.
The first snow in the capital was heavy, and the entire city was covered in white during the morning court session.
The entire ancestral hall was utterly silent, without a sound or a hint of something unusual. The thunder and strange lights from earlier seemed nonexistent, the silence eerily normal. Though it was a familiar, small space, he felt as if he were in a boundless wilderness, enveloped by an endless frost. He closed his eyes, and the pair of eyes reflected in his mind were bright and moving, brimming with life.
She angrily called him a lunatic, got upset because he put her in jail, and was shocked and angry when he threw her into the pond... The next moment, with red eyes, she teased him about his poor swimming ability, and slowly, she looked at him with trust in her eyes... Finally, in a sea of red, her eyes seemed to be filled with spring water, and she spoke touching love words to him in a soft and obedient manner, blinking and jokingly saying that she would raise him as her wife.
fraud.
Qi Ruoyu is a brilliant liar.
He had been handling cases for many years and had dealt with countless criminals, but he still couldn't see through the liar.
He opened his eyes, only to see desolation. His black eyes, which had always been clear and calm, were now blank. Did she really have him in her heart?
If so, why did she abandon him so easily? Or was it all fake? In her heart, he could never compare to that soul that passed away so early.
A sharp regret spread from the depths of his heart. If he hadn't been overwhelmed by hatred back then, if he had gone looking for her, would there have been no follow-up on Mr. Shen finding her? She would have grown up under his protection, without encountering those who made her lose her will to live. She would have been like living water, soaking him in...
This thought seemed to take root in his heart, weighing on his chest. His pride was almost broken by this self-deprecating thought. His breathing suddenly became rapid, the red on his robe piercing his eyes, his throat felt red, and the bright red spots fell on the snow, extremely glaring.
The illusion of dizziness came quickly and suddenly, almost instantly pulling him into a deeper abyss, and he was powerless to resist.
Suddenly, a hand pressed hard on his shoulder.
The desolation in his heart was strangely suppressed. Su Zirui trembled all over and looked up in shock. The face he saw was elegant and calm, and a pair of black eyes similar to his own flashed with pain.
Su Qing saw the vulnerability that could not be hidden in her son's eyes and was shocked, but she quickly gathered all her thoughts. "Do you intend to exhaust yourself here before the situation becomes hopeless?"
"Daddy..." Su Zirui stared at him, unable to react. The regret and despair of loss had dragged him down into the abyss, his mind scattered, unable to carefully consider the meaning of his words.
"Of all things in this world, only life and death are irreversible." Su Qing pinched his son's shoulders and said in a deep voice, "Is she... dead now?"
Beili had already informed him of the strange events that had just occurred when he arrived. On the way, he conveniently kidnapped several monks, including the Grand Master of Qi, so he knew everything he needed to know without much effort. He had originally only lamented the Shen family's good intentions, but upon witnessing his son's vulnerability, that lament quickly turned to regret at the Shen family's cruelty.
Why did the Shen family's daughter go to such great lengths to revive herself, while the Su family's daughter was simply dismissed? What a joke! Su Qing had never suffered any loss in his life. Even when his clan bullied him, he could escape and turn things around. How could a mere Shen family actually want to destroy his son?
"That girl isn't helpless, so isn't there anyone who can stand up for her? You're just going to let her be bullied like this? No matter how cruel Luo Ziran is, he's still just a human being. The Luo family... has been in tatters for a long time, hasn't it?" Su Qing frowned. He had experienced despair and risen again, so he naturally knew that even if there was no way out, as long as one was capable and ruthless enough, a new path could be opened. How could he be worthy of being his son if he gave up at the first blow? No matter how powerful the Luo family was, they couldn't cover the sky with one hand. If he really hated them that much, he could just overthrow them.
The darkness and frost surrounding him slowly melted away, his dark eyes gradually cleared, and Su Zirui's blank mind began to work. She trusted very few people: him, Yiyuan, and... her favorite.
Hehe... a strange smile surged up, and Su Zirui held his forehead and trembled silently.
Yes, what kind of fate is there in this world? Even those who died young can try to resurrect through reincarnation, so why should he accept all this? She had personally promised not to give up on him. She had worn a red wedding dress and put a ring on his finger, saying she would trap him...
She was the one who provoked him!
If that ghost was more important than him, then destroy it, so that no one would be more important than him in her heart. She could no longer give up on him easily.
His half-lidded eyes opened instantly, revealing a fierce glint. His cold, pale face seemed frozen with frost, but the despair between his brows faded, revealing a sharp edge.
Beili didn't understand the secret code between the father and son, but he watched his master slowly stand up and look at Su Qing with shock and admiration.
Su Qing casually glanced at the famous monk he had kidnapped, met his disapproving gaze, and calmly turned his sleeves away. Did he need a monk's approval to teach his son?
unnecessary.
He snorted coldly, feeling his son was still too easygoing. By the time he was in his twenties, he had already made his mark among the Hanlin scholars. It seemed he still needed some training. It was perfect, then, to play with the Luo family.
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