That night, the wind was blowing gently, making the branches in the garden tremble. The plum garden at night lacked the beautiful scenery during the day and seemed a bit eerie.
Several crows landed on the eaves of the Nianqu Tower. After night fell, this place became their habitat, and they occasionally made creepy calls.
A figure fell, startling the crows. The mute servant who was sleeping soundly in the attic of the tower suddenly opened his eyes, and after seeing that it was Cheng Ying, he stood up and saluted.
"Go and open the secret cell." Cheng Ying ordered expressionlessly.
The mute servant lit the oil lamp and nimbly opened the lock of the secret cell. Cheng Ying walked down the stairs. The secret cell hidden under the Nian Qu Tower was as dark and damp as ever. The mute servant lit the wall lamp, and the flames instantly ignited. The rustling sounds of rats and insects in the darkness instantly disappeared.
The lights flickered. Cheng Ying stood outside the iron prison, her handsome face half hidden in the shadows. She looked at Zhang Daoling, who was sitting in meditation as still as a mountain, and slowly asked, "Did you know that she was here?"
Zhang Daoling's tightly closed eyes suddenly opened.
Cheng Ying looked at his reaction and sneered, "Sure enough..."
He waved his sleeves, causing a breeze to blow across the armchair behind him, and then he took out a handkerchief from his sleeve and wiped the chair. He sat down lazily, leaning against the back of the chair, and said in a faint tone, "Zhang Daoling, I know you want to uphold justice and restore order. I promised that as long as I fulfill my wish, I will also help you fulfill your wish."
Cheng Ying paused for a moment, then smiled darkly. His voice was very light but carried a chilling chill. "But you insisted on scheming me like this. How do you think I should repay you for your great gift?"
Zhang Daoling stared at Cheng Ying without saying a word.
Cheng Ying seemed to be talking to herself and said, "I couldn't figure it out at first, but recently I came across a very interesting thing. Someone told me that she was reborn." Cheng Ying raised her eyelids to look at Zhang Daoling, and saw that his face changed drastically.
Cheng Ying smiled, "It's really interesting. No wonder you seemed to know everything about me when you found me. Are you like this person, reborn?"
Zhang Daoling closed his lips tightly, but the sound of the swaying iron chain revealed that he was not at peace at all.
Cheng Ying seemed surprised, "Oh, could it be that I guessed it right?" His unchanging expression formed a sharp contrast with his surprised tone, and there was an indescribable irony in his tone.
Cheng Ying tapped the armrest with his fingers, "Let me explain it to you. You are a cultivator who does not care about worldly matters and only seeks the great Dao. Unfortunately, the emperor is incompetent and the court is in chaos. It is even more than that. I am afraid that Emperor Mingzheng will commit more atrocities and perverse things in the future. So you could not bear to see the people suffer, so you came to me in your previous life and wanted me to save the people of Taiyan. In my previous life, I must have made the same offer to you and asked you to exchange her for her, and you must have agreed."
Glancing at the complicated expression on Zhang Daoling's face and the hands that had forgotten to make hand gestures because he was told to do so, Cheng Ying knew that he had guessed right. He tapped the armrest with his knuckles and continued, "I must not have gotten what I wanted in my previous life, otherwise everything would have had a good ending and this wouldn't have happened in this life."
According to Yang Jiyan, Meng Yujiao in her previous life had died of illness before Yu Qizhe came to Beijing to serve as an official. So it is very likely that Zhang Daoling did not succeed and his junior sister did not appear.
“But this doesn’t make sense… If you fulfilled my wish in this life and let her come to Taiyan, then there is no reason for you to hide from me the fact that she had already come to Taiyan.” Cheng Ying’s brows furrowed. He really couldn’t understand it, so he came to see Zhang Daoling late at night.
Cheng Ying said to Zhang Daoling in a heart-to-heart talk: "I already know everything I should and shouldn't know. Why don't you tell me why I do this?"
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