I Want to Come Back and Win My Wife Back
With reinforcements at his side, and with everyone’s martial arts far from weak, Rong Ci quickly joined forces with them and finished off the remaining men.
Ah Xuan and Hao Jiasheng were both sent to a clinic. Thankfully, Ah Xuan’s wound wasn’t severe, but the injury triggered a high fever, and he kept sleeping without waking.
After they returned to Wangyue Manor, Ling Li stayed by Ah Xuan’s bedside the entire time. Rong Hua silently remained beside him as well, though his expression was dazed. He didn’t speak, and no one knew what he was thinking.
Xu Mei was there too. Looking at Ah Xuan’s small face, drained of all color, he was so upset he could hardly breathe.
Su Jingyang accompanied Rong Ci to get a cut on his arm bandaged. When he came back in and saw Ah Li’s pale, lost expression, he felt both heartache and guilt. He walked to Ah Li’s side, just about to say something, when Xu Mei spoke up first and apologized. “Ah Li, I’m truly sorry.”
It had been his suggestion to go out and have fun. They had not only been separated by the crowd, but it had also led to Ah Xuan getting hurt. Xu Mei truly felt he couldn’t escape the blame.
Ah Li turned his head, looked at him, then looked at Su Jingyang, whose face was full of self-reproach. He sighed softly and said, “None of you should overthink it. This has nothing to do with any of you. They were coming for me and the child. Even if it wasn’t this time, there would be a next time. What’s meant to come will come. No one can hide from it.”
Xu Mei said, “No matter what, I still bear responsibility… In any case, the child should stay at Wangyue Manor and recuperate properly. If you need anything, just give the word. You must nurse him back to health, otherwise I truly won’t be able to forgive myself.”
Ling Li feared he would grow even more distressed, so he answered, “Alright.”
Xu Mei looked at Ah Li, and in truth he was puzzled. What identity did Ah Li and Ah Xuan have that could draw such fierce killers? Yet he also knew that some things were not meant to be asked too much.
He sensed that Su Jingyang seemed to have something to say to Ah Li in private, so he tugged Rong Hua up as well and said, “Rong Hua and I will go see if the medicine’s finished brewing.”
Once they left, Rong Ci also very naturally strolled to the doorway and waited outside for Su Jingyang.
Su Jingyang’s eyes were red. His lips moved, and he was about to speak, but Ah Li met his gaze and said with hoarse restraint, “You’ve already protected Ah Xuan very well, Jingyang. I’m truly grateful to you. Ah Xuan is my son. The one who should be protecting him most is me. I chose this road and placed him in danger. The one who deserves blame most is also me. This incident is a lesson for me. It also warns me at every moment that every step I take from now on must be even more careful and cautious.”
Su Jingyang looked into Ah Li’s eyes, faintly wet with tears yet still calm, and he couldn’t help drawing in a slow breath. A sudden sadness rose in him. He always felt Ah Li shouldn’t be like this now.
He began to miss the days at the small Lin’s Small Eatery. Every day had been busy and exhausting, but the few of them together had been full, happy, and simple.
Once Ah Li stepped into the imperial palace in the future, no, once it began from this moment, there would only be more and more things to shoulder and endure. Forget happiness, would there even be time to breathe?
Su Jingyang crouched on one knee beside Ah Li. He tilted his face slightly upward, his dark eyes fixed on him, and said slowly, “Ah Li, how about you don’t…”
Ah Li seemed to already know what he wanted to say. He patted his head and said softly, yet firmly, “There’s no turning back, Jingyang.”
Su Jingyang fell silent for a long time. Then he suddenly thought of something, and he froze, no longer speaking.
That was right. If Hao Jiasheng wasn’t a madman, then that cry of “Father-Emperor” meant Ah Xuan would become emperor in the future… Then what about Ah Li? What would Ah Li’s road be like later?
If Ah Li truly was one of the protagonists, and Ah Xuan truly could become emperor, then Ah Li should live well too, right?
Su Jingyang could only comfort himself like that.
After a while, Ah Li told Su Jingyang and Rong Ci to go back first. Su Jingyang wanted to stay and keep him company, but Ah Li said, “It’s fine. I’m here, that’s enough. The physician said he should wake tomorrow. Come see him in the morning. Besides, you haven’t held the children all day. If they don’t see you, they’ll start crying again.”
Ah Li was unusually insistent. Su Jingyang couldn’t out-stubborn him. After lingering a little, he finally stood and went out.
Just as he stepped out and walked into the courtyard with Rong Ci, he found that Hao Jiasheng had arrived at the same moment. He had been injured too, and he had also been unconscious when he was taken to the clinic. Seeing him walk over, face pale and steps unsteady, Su Jingyang guessed he came the moment he woke.
In the past, Su Jingyang would’ve thought this man was strange again. How could he care this much about an Ah Xuan he had only met for a few days?
However now…
Su Jingyang stood there stiffly, eyes wide. When Hao Jiasheng’s figure passed in front of him, that scalp-numbing, eerie sensation surged back through his whole body again!
Su Jingyang heard Hao Jiasheng ask Ah Li about Ah Xuan’s condition inside. Ah Li gave a brief explanation, then thanked him, saying thank you for saving Ah Xuan. Hao Jiasheng gave a bitter smile and said, “There’s no need to thank me. My martial arts are lacking now, and I couldn’t protect him well. He still ended up hurt.”
Rong Ci turned back and looked at Su Jingyang, who had suddenly frozen in place like a wooden post. “Why aren’t you leaving?”
Su Jingyang grabbed his wrist and ran outward, only stopping once they reached a more secluded spot. Then, with a grave face, he lowered his voice and said, “Rong Ci, I’m telling you a secret. Hao Jiasheng, he isn’t Hao Jiasheng anymore!”
Rong Ci paused for a moment, then smiled. “You actually noticed?”
“What do you mean, actually…” Su Jingyang abruptly reacted. Shocked, he blurted out, “You knew already?!”
Rong Ci nodded. “He truly is somewhat strange. But so far, I still don’t know his real identity, nor what his purpose is in coming here.” Rong Ci folded his arms and looked at him with leisurely composure. “So how did you figure it out? Did he reveal a flaw?”
Su Jingyang glanced around first, then leaned in and spoke in a secretive whisper. “I heard Hao Jiasheng actually call Ah Xuan, Father-Emperor! Father-Emperor, okay? What does that mean? Damn, I was shocked on the spot!”
Su Jingyang had always believed that in this world, aside from himself, the oddball who had been tossed in by the system, everything else ran normally. Even with a special place like Rongcheng, he had never imagined there could be this kind of eerie, ghostly incident!
“Father-Emperor?” Even Rong Ci was startled for a moment. He looked at Su Jingyang again. “You didn’t hear wrong?”
Su Jingyang answered decisively, “Absolutely not!”
Rong Ci fell silent for a moment, then instructed Su Jingyang, “Remember this. You absolutely cannot tell this matter to anyone else again. Not even Ah Li.”
Su Jingyang asked, “Why not?”
He had actually wanted to say it just now. That way Ah Li could go into the palace with peace of mind. Yet in the end, he forcibly swallowed it back. He was afraid blurting it out would scare Ah Li, and this kind of thing still didn’t have proof. He had planned to confirm it with Rong Ci first before deciding what to do.
Rong Ci cupped his face and looked into those big eyes of his, blinking and full of confusion. He said solemnly, “Even if you’re worried about Ah Li, you still can’t say it. Because he is an ordinary person. If he knows something he shouldn’t know, it will instead affect his future fortune, understood?”
That serious?!
The moment Su Jingyang heard it, he hurriedly nodded and covered his mouth with his hand, signaling that he absolutely wouldn’t speak of it. Rong Ci would never joke with him about this. If he said it, then Su Jingyang would listen.
Seeing that, Rong Ci smiled slightly, then kissed his forehead once in satisfaction. “So good. You go back first and check on the children. I’ll… go find him and speak with him.”
…
Rong Ci sat in the pavilion in the garden for only a short while before Hao Jiasheng arrived. Though his face was pale and his steps slightly unsteady, he carried an unhurried, composed presence. He entered the pavilion, sat opposite Rong Ci, and met his gaze with dark, heavy eyes.
“Ctiy Lord Rong.”
Rong Ci went straight to the point. “Who exactly are you?”
Hao Jiasheng said, “I am the thirteenth emperor of the Great Lin Dynasty, Ming Jiasheng.”
Rong Ci fell silent for a moment. The newly enthroned emperor, Ming Zhan, was the eleventh.
Rong Ci asked, “You said you have something you want me to help with?”
Ming Jiasheng was just about to speak when Rong Ci continued, “I can roughly guess what you want my help with. A soul-anchoring technique? But you’d best explain truthfully why you returned. If you lie by even a single sentence, you’ll lose this only chance.”
Meeting his sharp gaze, Ming Jiasheng froze for a moment, but he quickly turned his head aside and smiled.
Rong Ci narrowed his eyes slightly, not understanding what there was to laugh about. Ming Jiasheng turned back to him and said, “As expected of City Lord Rong. Sixty years later, you told me the exact same words.”
“…I?”
Ming Jiasheng nodded. “You told me that if I ever needed to ask you for help with anchoring my soul, then I must speak truthfully, and I mustn’t hide a single word. Otherwise, I would lose my only chance.”
Rong Ci’s expression shifted faintly. After a pause, a sudden curiosity rose in him. “What was I like sixty years later?”
“Sixty years from now, City Lord Rong was still in good health, outstanding in every way, only…” Ming Jiasheng looked at Rong Ci deeply before he continued, “you never married for your entire life. No wife, no children, no ties, no burdens, all alone. You looked rather cold and lonely. It’s not as good as now, with your wife and children in your arms, harmonious and happy.”
Never married for his entire life. No wife, no children.
Hearing this, Rong Ci stared at Ming Jiasheng for a long time before slowly drawing his gaze back. His red lips moved. His red lips moved as he forcibly suppressed the sorrow suddenly welling up in his heart, laughing bitterly, “Indeed… indeed it’s somewhat hard to imagine a future without him.”
He had long prepared himself for having no children.
However, if even Su Jingyang had never appeared…
Then he truly would have been exactly as Ming Jiasheng described, without ties or burdens for an entire lifetime, utterly alone.
Now that he possessed everything, he couldn’t imagine how that version of himself sixty years in the future had endured it. He didn’t even dare imagine it.
For the first time, Rong Ci acutely realized he was such a cowardly person.
Ming Jiasheng said in thought, “Actually, it isn’t only your circumstances that changed, City Lord Rong. After I returned, I also discovered that one former…” Ming Jiasheng stopped in an unusually strange way for a long time, as if searching for the right wording. “One former acquaintance no longer exists in this world either. It seems there are differences from the world I once experienced.”
Rong Ci gathered himself and returned to the point. “Sixty years from now, was it I who helped you return?”
Ming Jiasheng answered, “Yes. City Lord Rong has always done my Ming family great kindness. You cured my imperial grandfather’s gu poison and my father-emperor’s hysteria. The Grand Empress Dowager also always taught me that I should, like my imperial grandfather and father-emperor, remain on good terms with Rongcheng. I remembered his teachings, and I had always held some acquaintance with you. So in the end when I sought help, only you could help me.”
Rong Ci seized on one detail and raised his voice slightly. “Grand Empress Dowager?”
Ming Jiasheng smiled with reddened eyes and gestured in the direction he had come from. “It’s the one inside. My imperial grandmother. Back then, I only knew my imperial grandmother’s identity was rather hidden, not the lost child of Grand Preceptor Lin that people spoke of. Yet I never expected that after I returned, I would see what he looked like when he lived among common folk, and also my father-emperor…”
Ming Jiasheng truly couldn’t imagine it. In the future, his father-emperor only needed to furrow his brows and Ming Jiasheng would be so frightened he wouldn’t even dare breathe. Yet right now, he was a tiny, adorable, and childish little lump. Even so, the lingering authority was carved into his bones, and Ming Jiasheng didn’t dare act rashly.
Rong Ci knew Su Jingyang was worried about Ling Li, so he couldn’t help asking more carefully, “What happens to Ling Li in the future?”
Speaking of Ah Li, there was always a warmth in Ming Jiasheng’s eyes that could comfort people, and his voice was very gentle as well. “Good. Imperial Grandmother is very well. Imperial Grandfather kept the harem empty for him and loved and cherished him for an entire lifetime.
He is virtuous and gentle, warm as spring and mild as a breeze, respected and admired by others. With the Lin father and son always sheltering him, even when he encountered some hardships and obstacles, he could resolve them one by one. How many people envied it, and how it was passed down as a celebrated tale.”
Rong Ci knew that if he told Su Jingyang these things, it would be enough to make him happy. He asked, “Then what exactly is your purpose in coming back?”
Ming Jiasheng’s eyes turned murky at once, and his face filled with deep sorrow.
“I want to come back and win my wife back.” Ming Jiasheng said in a hoarse voice. “It was I who with my cold feelings and cold nature wronged him, broke my promises to him. In the end he died for me. I truly… I’m so sorry to him…”
Rong Ci asked, “Your wife?”
“Yes. My wife, my empress.” Ming Jiasheng looked at Rong Ci, and tears finally rose beyond his control. “Mu Ronghua, the eldest grandson of Manor Master Mu Jin of Wangyue.”
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