Inside the Hall of Mental Cultivation, Yu Shan continued searching for the ring. After a long time, she finally found a box. Strangely, this black lacquered box inlaid with mother-of-pearl couldn't be opened. Her intuition told her that the ring should be inside!
Unfortunately, the box doesn't have a regular lock; instead, it has a rotating gear, similar in structure to a modern combination lock, requiring the input of the corresponding numbers to open.
What could these three numbers be? Most people would set them to their birth date. Yu Shan tried Hongli's birth date, August 13th, but it wasn't right. She then tried her own birth date, November 5th, but that wasn't right either. What could it be?
She tried combining their birth dates again, eleven and thirteen, but it still didn't work.
Just as she was feeling anxious, the palace door suddenly opened, and Hongli's figure appeared in the doorway!
When he saw the box in Yu Shan's hands, Hongli's heart tightened instantly. "What are you looking for?"
Oh no! He's actually back! Too nervous to reply, Yu Shan tried another birth date combination—August 15.
Surprisingly, this time, the rotary lock actually opened!
She quickly opened the box and, sure enough, found the opal ring inside, radiating fire!
When she picked up the ring, Hongli was shocked and raised his voice to stop her, "Yushan---don't move! Put down the ring, don't touch it! I have something very important to tell you, let me finish speaking first!"
She had finally found the ring, and at this moment, nothing was more important than it. "It doesn't matter anymore, nothing here matters to me!"
Her eyes had lost all light, like a withered flower about to fade away.
Seeing this, Hongli felt an even stronger sense of foreboding. He felt that what was about to happen was something he might not be able to bear!
He dared not disturb her, and slowly approached, trying to soothe her emotions, "Don't do anything rash, Yushan, even if you don't care about me, you should think about our child!"
When the children were mentioned, Su Yushan's eyes softened slightly, but only for a moment before she regained her composure. "The children have all grown up and have their own paths to follow. As for me, their mother, I am dispensable."
"You still have me! I have something to tell you, it's really important! Put the ring down first!"
He's there? But what is he anyway? There were some things she'd kept hidden in her heart for decades, and now, she could finally say them.
“I don’t belong to this world, but I thought that home was wherever you were. Later I realized that the emperor had no concept of home at all. I am not your family, but just your woman, an object that belongs exclusively to you. You do not allow this object to have any flaws. You stubbornly believed that I was distracted, so you cruelly abandoned me.”
I've been fooled by you for over twenty years, and only now do I realize that I have no home at all, that I can't put down roots here, and that my soul is always adrift and without a home!
What's the point of staying here? I can't find the meaning anymore! So leaving is my only option.
What does it mean that she doesn't belong to this world? Where did she come from? Hongli didn't understand the meaning of those words, nor did he have time to explore them, because what he cared about most was the last sentence: she said she wanted to leave! How could she leave?
"You can't leave! Yu Shan, I've never changed my mind, never!" Hongli wanted to explain further, but she had no intention of listening and resolutely slipped the opal ring onto her middle finger!
In that instant, Hongli felt as if the sky had collapsed and the earth had split open, as if something had shattered!
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