ending
Yan Shu, no, at this moment Su Nian suddenly opened her eyes, the sharp pain in her chest making it almost impossible for her to breathe.
She woke up in a museum, still confused about what was happening.
She was shot with an arrow, so was all of this just a dream?
No, no, the pain in my heart felt so real.
"This is impossible!" she thought, when she suddenly saw the half of the dragon-patterned jade pendant in her hand, while the other half was on the waist of the ancient corpse in front of her.
So this isn't a dream, it's real.
The pain in her chest made it impossible for her to tell whether she had been shot with an arrow or something else. Looking at her former lover, now lying in front of her as an ancient corpse that had been sleeping for thousands of years, she realized that she had just been talking to him, and that he had just been holding her hand and telling her to stay away from trouble.
She tried to touch her lover through the glass, not understanding why, in the end, she hadn't changed anything; everything was still proceeding according to history. She was powerless. At this moment, she unleashed all her emotions, crying out, "Your Highness!" Su Nian didn't know how long she cried, only that when she woke up, she was back in her rented room.
"Niannian! You're finally awake!" Zhou Yu, her best friend, pushed open the door and came in carrying breakfast. "You actually fell asleep in the museum's storeroom yesterday! We couldn't wake you up, so we had to carry you back."
Su Nian looked at her.
"By the way, your thesis is saved!" Zhou Yu excitedly opened her phone. "Professor Chen and his team have discovered a new ancient tomb, the tomb of Deputy General Qingfeng. Guess what? There was a notebook in his tomb, detailing how he did those things for Prime Minister Cui back then!"
"Qingfeng?" Su Nian suddenly grabbed Zhou Yu's hand. "Who are you talking about?"
"Qingfeng, the one who later became a deputy general. His notes are full of things. My God, Cui Chong actually poisoned his own daughter, making her unable to have children! Isn't that strange? Logically, he should have made his daughter pregnant with Prince Duan's child..."
“Because…” Su Nian said, “If she didn’t have a child, she could only rely on her maternal family. But if she had a child, her heart would be entirely with the prince.”
Zhou Yu looked at her in surprise: "How did you know? That's what it says in the notes! And Qingfeng's parents are actually Cui Chongyang's henchmen. I've sent you the scanned copy to your email, take a look yourself. I have something to do in the lab, I'll be going now."
The door slammed shut, leaving Su Nian alone in the room.
With trembling hands, she turned on her computer, and sure enough, there were files sent by Zhou Yu in her email. As she flipped through the pages, her face grew paler and paler.
It turns out that Qingfeng was Cui Chong's man from the very beginning. His "chance encounter" with Xuan Gui was a carefully orchestrated scheme. After Cui Chong murdered Lingyuan's mother, fearing Xuan Gui's investigation after ascending the throne, he had already planted this pawn, bringing twelve-year-old Qingfeng to Xuan Gui's side.
It turns out that Xie Mingde was killed by Qingfeng, and even the mute servant that Lingyuan had planted in the Cui family was dealt with by Qingfeng. When they went to the northern border, Cui Chong, in order to keep an eye on them, specially arranged for Xuan Gui to go along, so that Qingfeng could follow them legitimately.
Su Nian's hands trembled so much she could barely hold the mouse. She continued reading, her breath suddenly stopping—
It turns out... A-Yun... was also killed by Qingfeng. Because A-Yun accidentally saw Qingfeng let Qiao Ling go. To silence her, he killed her with his own hands, and then put on a show of heartbreaking grief in front of them.
And she even sent Qingfeng and Lingying to the Northern Border to deliver a secret letter to Lin Kong!
"puff--"
Ling Ying stared at the sword piercing his heart. Before he could even feel the pain, he collapsed to the ground. He seemed to see A Yun walking towards him, smiling, in her wedding dress. He tried to reach out and touch her, but why could he never reach her? He wondered if A Yun's final moments were like this.
Qingfeng buried Lingying and Ayun together and changed the tombstone to: Tomb of Lingying Yun of the Ling Clan.
Qingfeng led a group of men to the Lin residence in the Northern Border. Lin Kong remembered Yan Shu's instructions and only opened the military camp to these few people. Upon seeing Qingfeng, he said, "General Lin, the Prince has sent us with a secret letter." Hearing this, Lin Kong welcomed him into the study without any suspicion.
The moment the door closed, several longswords pointed at Lin Kong. Qingfeng's sword was at his neck:
"General Lin, please forgive me. The area outside the General's mansion is full of our people. If you don't want your whole family to be buried with you, write it as I say."
“Qingfeng,” Lin Kong looked at him in disbelief, “So you were the one who was hiding the truth the most.”
Lin Kong never knew until his death that while he was writing his confession, everyone in the General's Mansion had already fallen into a pool of blood.
Su Nian felt as if her heart was being torn apart. That cheerful and loving uncle, that Lin Guifei's father who brought her warmth during her most difficult time…
The notes continued to turn the pages, revealing Yu Xue'er's final moments.
"Da da da—"
Because of severe morning sickness, she stayed in bed all day. Until soldiers broke into her bedroom.
"How dare you trespass into the Prince Chen's residence!"
“Princess Consort Chen, Prince Chen has been captured for his rebellion, and his entire maternal clan has been executed. If you do not wish to implicate your family, then take your own life.”
Yu Xue'er listened, unable to believe it was true. The men left a jug of wine and departed. Yu Xue'er touched her stomach, looked out the window, took a deep breath, walked to the table, and drank the wine. "Your Highness," she said, "my child and I will wait for you upstairs."
Su Nian seemed to have run out of tears. She numbly continued reading—
When Xuan Gui heard Yu Xue'er drink a cup of poisoned wine in the prison cell, he collapsed to the ground. The person who came also put down a pot of wine and turned to leave.
Xuan Shuo originally wanted to kill Ling Yuan, but Ling Yuan's prestige in the army was too high, and no one in the court or the public believed that he would rebel. The new emperor ascended the throne, but his power was not yet stable, so he could only imprison him.
The cause of death of Princess Duan could not be written as dying from an arrow wound, so the historian was ordered to change it to "dying from a heart ailment that was difficult to cure after a miscarriage."
The last paragraph of the notes reads, "Prince Chen and Prince Duan treated me like family, but I betrayed them. I have spent the rest of my life in pain and self-reproach. I leave this evidence so that future generations may know."
Qingfeng left this notebook perhaps because he still felt a trace of guilt.
Su Nian slumped in her chair, her whole body cold. This truth made her feel like a colossal joke. Qingfeng had wielded the knife, the knife that led them all to tragedy, and she herself was the one who handed it to them.
Then she saw the bamboo pen—the one Lingyuan had made for her after she woke up in the modern world. And the half-jade pendant, both reminded her that none of this was a dream.
Suddenly remembering something, she grabbed her phone and called Zhou Yu:
"Has the ancient corpse of Prince Duan in the museum ever disappeared?"
"Sister, are you hallucinating? That's an ancient corpse, how could it possibly run away? Even moving the glass cover would trigger the alarm!"
The call ended, and Su Nian's last hope was shattered.
She felt she could wake him up once, and she could wake him up a second time.
It turns out that Lingyuan didn't actually wake up; it was just his obsession spanning a thousand years, which led him to bring her back so that she could witness everything firsthand.
She gripped the jade pendant and bamboo pen tightly, the pain in her heart preventing her from making a sound or shedding a tear.
Meanwhile, her lover lies in a cold museum, receiving visits from every tourist.
Su Nian no longer dared to go to the museum.
She couldn't face the fact that her once vibrant lover was now just a thousand-year-old corpse being photographed and observed by crowds.
She locked herself in the rented room, but Ling Yuan's shadow was everywhere in the room—his bewilderment when he couldn't open the mineral water bottle for the first time, his helplessness in front of the toilet, the way he knelt on the sofa and stared warily at the TV, and the bamboo pen he made for her by hand...
Finally, there was the pained expression on his face when he recounted the past.
Su Nian felt a tight pain in her chest, but not a single tear could be shed.
"Your Highness, please have something to eat." Chun Tao walked into Lingxiao Pavilion, her voice slightly choked.
Since the princess left, Lingyuan has barely eaten or drunk anything. He sat by the window, gazing at every corner of the room—the table where she had once sat, the windowsill where she had leaned against, the chair she loved to sit in… the little fish pendant hanging on the bed, and her crabapple tree.
His heart ached so much that he forgot to breathe. He raised his hand to wipe away his tears, only to find nothing in the corner of his eye.
"Chuntao," he finally spoke.
"Your Highness!" Chun Tao stepped forward, fighting back tears.
Prepare paper and inkstone.
Chun Tao hurriedly prepared. Ling Yuan picked up his brush and began to paint Yan Shu's portrait. This was the only thought that kept him going.
To distract herself from her pain, Su Nian began writing a paper about the wrongful conviction of Ling Yuan's maternal clan. This was the only thing she could do for him.
“Niannian, why haven’t you come to the museum in so long? I sent you some newly discovered portraits from the Duan Prince’s tomb. They’re all portraits of his consorts. You know what, you do look a bit like that Duan Prince’s consort! There’s also one that’s a portrait of two hands, each with a pendant on its ring finger. It’s really interesting. Take a look.”
Su Nian hung up the phone and looked at the portrait Zhou Yu had sent—the person in the painting did indeed resemble her perfectly. The last one was the small fish-shaped jade pendant they wore on their ring fingers on the night of the Qixi Festival in the Northern Territory.
Ling Yuan flipped through the books Yan Shu had left behind, trying to find traces of her between the lines. But he couldn't concentrate on reading a single word; his mind was filled with her every smile and gesture.
Su Nian didn't want to go out, but she had to attend Zhou Yu's wedding. Looking at her best friend's happy smile, she thought of her own grand wedding with Ling Yuan.
On her way home, she saw a crabapple tree. A gentle breeze blew by, and she seemed to smell Lingyuan's unique scent. Petals fell, and she closed her eyes, as if he were gently embracing her again.
Inside Lingxiao Pavilion, Lingyuan suddenly looked at the crabapple tree in the courtyard and ran barefoot to the tree like a madman. He could clearly smell Yan Shu's scent in the wind, and when he closed his eyes to feel it, she seemed to be right beside him.
That night, the two people, separated by a thousand years, had the same dream.
"Huaiyu, slow down, wait for your sister!" Yan Shu chased after her.
The mischievous little boy turned around, made a face, and continued running forward. Yan Shu sighed and looked back at Ling Yuan, who was holding his daughter. Xing Wan was babbling in her father's arms as the family of three strolled along leisurely.
"Auntie Ayun!" Huaiyu rushed into Ayun's arms as she walked towards them. Lingying smiled, picked up the child, and waited for Yan Shu and the others to approach.
"Royal Uncle! Royal Aunt!" Xuan Gui's voice came from afar. Yu Xue'er, with her pregnant belly, stood smiling beside him.
Yan Shu and Ling Yuan exchanged a smile and embraced tightly.
"By the Mandate of Heaven, the Emperor decrees: Prince Duan, Lingyuan, a close relative of the imperial clan, whose merits surpass all others, was loyal and devoted to the stability of the state, and wielded the imperial axe to pacify the borders. Now that he has passed away, I am deeply grieved. I hereby grant that all his funeral rites be conducted in accordance with half the rites for the late Emperor, as a sign of special grace. He shall be enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple."
All duties of the Prince Duan's residence shall cease upon the Prince. The entire household shall be prepared to die alongside him, to serve him in the afterlife. The relevant officials are hereby ordered to diligently assist in these matters, ensuring nothing is neglected.
Alas! Master and servant rest in peace, forever accompanying the king. The mourning and honors are complete, their glory will be proclaimed for eternity.
The proclamation was issued both domestically and internationally, so that everyone would be informed.
Su Nian woke up with a start, noticing tears welling in her eyes. Just as she was about to wipe them away, she saw that half of the jade pendant on the table had shattered.
She hurriedly got up and rummaged through all the glue she had, trying to fix it. But no matter how hard she tried, the pieces could never be put back together.
"Please...please..." she cried, collapsing to her knees, her hands trembling. "Why won't you even leave me with the last shred of hope?"
She finally gave up, clutching the shattered jade and weeping uncontrollably. She wept for Ling Yuan, who had always believed in her; she wept for Ling Yuan, who had been imprisoned for five years and died in despair; she wept for their fate, which they could never change.
As the sun set, her tears dried once more. She seemed to have made a firm decision, walked to her computer, and sent out the paper proving the innocence of Lingyuan's maternal clan.
A month later, Su Nian arrived at the place where they had once lived—Dunhuang.
She looked at the desert before her, her feet on the sand, and closed her eyes, as if she had returned to the day when they rode horses together and watched the sunset.
She felt the jade pendant on her neck was slightly warm, but before she could think about it further...
"Hello, can we come together?" Su Nian suddenly opened her eyes, and the familiar voice instantly struck her heart.
Turning around, Su Nian was already in tears. What she saw was that familiar figure and the face of the person she had loved for a thousand years. The tears on that person's face shone brightly in the setting sun.
"Hello, my name is Cui Yanshu."
"My name is Ling Yuan."
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