No, I’m Not. You Saw It Wrong
Mu Ronghua, the eldest grandson of Manor Master Mu Jin of Wangyue.
Mu Ronghua, Rong Hua…
Thinking back on Ming Jiasheng’s series of strange actions toward Rong Hua, Rong Ci’s pupils suddenly constricted. After a moment of silence, though he already had some guesses in his heart, he said, “Mu Jin’s son is only a few months old. The person you’re looking for hasn’t even been born.”
“Yes.” Ming Jiasheng looked at him and said in a low voice, “I can’t return to my own body from when I was young and meet Rong Hua again. I can only come back to life through this body I have now. Because you said that the soul-returning technique can only attach to the body of someone who has just died, and finding a person who meets all those harsh conditions is extremely difficult. Besides, if there’s the slightest mistake in the process, time can skew massively. I might even be thrown back hundreds of years, or even a thousand years, for all I know.”
The soul-returning technique was a forbidden art of the Wu Clan, known only to the Rong clan’s Sect Leader, and only the Sect Leader had the ability to do it. Everything Ming Jiasheng said was correct. Rong Ci couldn’t find even the smallest flaw in his words.
“When I first arrived here and realized I had actually returned to sixty years earlier, I thought something had gone wrong, so I didn’t hold out any hope. I planned to settle down in Liyang, keep watch over Wangyue Manor, wait for Rong Hua to be born, and watch him grow up safe and sound. But…”
As Ming Jiasheng reached this point, his eyes grew wet. He paused to steady himself before he said in a trembling voice, “I actually saw Rong Hua in the streets. His appearance has changed, but I recognized him at a glance. His manner, the cadence of how he speaks, the way he walks, the way he loves to wear red. Every last bit of it, I know too well. He is Rong Hua. He is Rong Hua. Even though I don’t know what happened, he really did come back too, just like me, only… he has no memory of me at all.”
Rong Ci’s breathing sank. “You’re certain Rong Hua is Mu Ronghua?”
“I won’t mistake him. How could I possibly mistake him? It has to be him!”
Rong Ci folded his arms. “But Rong Hua has been in Rongcheng since birth. Nothing happened to him midway. He can’t be a soul-return either.”
In truth, the Grand Shaman had always felt Rong Hua’s birth was suspicious back then. By the calculations of time, Rong Hua should have been the Wu Clan’s holy maiden, but there were also faint signs of an early death in his fate.
However, once he was born, he wasn’t a girl at all, and he had always lived perfectly fine.
Rong Ci could more or less guess it now. This should be the work of himself sixty years later, bringing Rong Hua back and keeping him in Rongcheng. He simply hadn’t told Ming Jiasheng on purpose, for some reason.
Ming Jiasheng’s lips trembled. He stared at Rong Ci, his tone unusually firm. “It’s Rong Hua. It’s absolutely him. I’m not wrong.”
Rong Ci held his gaze for a moment, then said flatly, “So what if it is? Even if you exhausted every effort to come back, you should understand that not everything in this world can be undone. Someone as decisive as Rong Hua least of all. You wronged him. In your last life, he was willing to die for you, which means he’d already completely severed his feelings for you.”
“Yes. Rong Hua has always been that kind of person.” Ming Jiasheng couldn’t help but smile bitterly. “You’ve said that to me once before.”
Rong Ci paused. “Have I?”
“You said you were only giving me a chance to settle a lingering wish. It didn’t mean that just because I could come back, I would definitely gain Rong Hua’s forgiveness. I know all of that. After all, I once…” Ming Jiasheng’s eyes dimmed with bleakness. He said, “But I still want to try. Even if, even if he refuses to forgive me, as long as I can see him living well, as long as I can keep watch over him… that will be enough.”
Rong Ci’s gaze was deep. After a long silence, he spoke again. “I can take you back to Rongcheng and help you anchor your soul, but as for Rong Hua, you’d better know when to stop. Don’t pester him too far.”
Ming Jiasheng said nothing.
Rong Ci didn’t say more either. He stood. Ming Jiasheng stood as well and said, “Many thanks, City Lord Rong.”
Rong Ci left without turning his head back.
When he returned to the room, Su Jingyang was by the bed playing with the two children. The children were babbling “wuwa wuwa,” and Su Jingyang was copying them right there beside them. They would make a sound, then he would make a sound, as if they were having a conversation.
Rong Ci quietly watched that warm scene. His steps unconsciously slowed.
Su Jingyang turned and saw Rong Ci was back. He hurriedly stood and went to greet him.
Su Jingyang had the maids in the room withdraw. He led Rong Ci to sit by the bed, then immediately asked impatiently, “How did your talk go? What did that Hao Jiasheng say? Is he really Ah Xuan’s son? Did he say anything about Ah Li?”
“Your real focus is that last sentence, isn’t it?” Rong Ci was helpless. He told Su Jingyang what he had heard about Ling Li. Su Jingyang was stunned with joy and so happy he could barely contain himself, but that happiness only lasted a moment. The smile on his face gradually faded.
Su Jingyang sighed, eyes full of sorrow. “In the end, it’s still a whole generation apart. All you see is the glory on the surface. Who knows how many thorns they had to step through to get there.”
When he heard that Ming Zhan cleared the harem for Ah Li, he didn’t dare believe it. Since ancient times, which emperor didn’t have a harem full of concubines? He had never imagined Ming Zhan could do that for Ah Li.
Rong Ci patted his head. “Don’t think of Ah Li as too fragile. He’s tougher and smarter than you think. Besides, the identity Ming Zhan will arrange for Ling Li in the future is as Grand Preceptor Lin's son. The Lin family’s strength can’t be underestimated. In the future, their honor and ruin will be tied to Ah Li’s, one prospers and all prosper, one falls and all fall. They’ll do everything they can to pave the way for him. After he enters the palace, he won’t be alone and without support.”
Su Jingyang felt a little comforted, yet he still doubted, “Can Ming Zhan really do that for Ah Li? He has no other children?”
Ah Yu was kicking around beside them and kicked Rong Ci’s leg. Rong Ci caught the baby’s little foot and leaned down to lift him into his arms. At once, his nose filled with the warm, milky scent.
Holding him, Rong Ci gave a faint, self-mocking smile before he said to Su Jingyang, “You probably don’t know this. The late emperor’s favoritism toward Consort Yang, the second prince’s birth mother, reached the point of losing all reason, doing whatever she said without question.
Consort Yang worked tirelessly, bent on making the emperor establish the second prince as crown prince. If the late emperor hadn’t been wary of the empress’s maternal family holding military power, he likely would’ve abolished Ming Zhan’s position as crown prince long ago.”
“And many years ago, he even had the National Diviner cast a fortune for Ming Zhan, saying Ming Zhan shouldn’t marry and shouldn’t have children before the age of twenty-five, or it would affect the nation’s fate. He even proclaimed it to the realm.”
“Ming Zhan had his maternal family backing him, but he had no imperial favor at all. For a time, he didn’t dare act rashly either. Otherwise, if some disaster suddenly occurred, the blame would be dumped on his head.”
Su Jingyang couldn’t help going blank for a moment. This emperor really was ridiculously reckless.
Rong Ci continued, “My guess is Ming Zhan left the harem empty for two reasons. One is likely Ah Li. Two is that, because of what he personally experienced, he deeply detests how harem members create chaos in court and threaten the crown prince’s authority. So he simply cut it off at the source. It sounds unconventional, but it really is something he would do.”
Ah Yu blinked his big eyes in Rong Ci's arms, looking at Rong Ci one moment and Su Jingyang the next, listening very attentively, as if he could understand.
Su Jingyang couldn’t resist leaning in to kiss the baby’s cheek, then he picked up the other one.
Su Jingyang tilted his head and thought for a moment, then said, “If that’s truly the case, then Ah Li going into the palace is actually not a bad thing…”
With Ming Zhan treating him this way and the Lin family backing him, no matter what, this was good for Ling Li.
Su Jingyang quietly did a bit of math in his head, then asked Rong Ci in confusion, “You just said Ming Jiasheng’s reign ended sixty years later. Ming Zhan has only just ascended the throne now. If you average it out, their grandfather, father, and grandson line, each one only ruled about twenty years?”
Rong Ci held Ah Yu’s warm little paw and replied as if casually, “He might abdicate early and become Taishang Huang. There are precedents.”
Rong Ci said that only to comfort Su Jingyang. He didn’t dare tell him that among the Ming family’s generations of princes and emperors, nine out of ten didn’t live long. Ah Xuan… would likely be the same.
Su Jingyang seemed to accept it and didn’t ask further. He thought nothing more shocking could appear. He hugged the drowsy Ah Xi and started coaxing him to sleep. Yet Rong Ci, as if he thought Su Jingyang still wasn’t shocked enough, didn’t give him any chance to brace himself and directly told him about Rong Hua.
Su Jingyang stared blankly for a while, eyes full of disbelief as he looked at Rong Ci. “You’re serious? Rong Hua, he… he’s Xu Mei’s great-grandson, and Ah Li’s grandson-in-law?!”
Rong Ci nodded. “Yes.”
Holding the already-asleep Ah Xi, Su Jingyang couldn’t help widening his eyes and sucking in a sharp breath.
Day after day… this was giving him nonstop goosebumps!
Su Jingyang’s eyes went unfocused. His thoughts floated and drifted for a long time. Gradually, he began to understand it.
No wonder Rong Hua had been so close to Ah Li the moment he saw him, and said Ah Li felt like family. No wonder he ate Ah Li’s cooking and said the taste felt familiar. No wonder his attitude toward Ah Xuan had been faintly strange, like he was a little afraid, a little unwilling to get close. No wonder he and Xu Mei were so close and got along so well, always thinking about each other. No wonder Rong Hua refused to hold Mu Yun, because Mu Yun… was his father.
When Rong Hua returned from Wangyue Manor last time, he kept saying something felt off. It seemed that even though he didn’t remember the past life, he still carried a kind of psychological memory of these relatives.
Su Jingyang muttered softly, “Xu Mei kept saying Rong Hua’s name sounded nice and he wanted to give his grandson that name. He actually did it…”
Could it be that everything, in the dark, was already destined?
Besides, Xu Mei really had once arranged a betrothal with Ah Li. Su Jingyang had always treated it as a joke, yet it turned out that this would actually become real in the end?!
Su Jingyang felt like he was dreaming, but maybe because Ming Jiasheng’s matter had laid the groundwork, he digested it quickly this time.
When he finally came back to himself, he realized both children were lying on the bed asleep. He didn’t even remember when Rong Ci had taken the child from his arms.
Su Jingyang suddenly remembered something. He grabbed Rong Ci’s wrist and asked again, “Then what did Ming Jiasheng do that was so unforgivable to Rong Hua? I can tell Rong Hua still hates him, even though he lost his memories…”
Rong Ci answered concisely, “He betrayed Rong Hua’s feelings.”
Su Jingyang froze, let out an “oh,” and didn’t say much. In his current state… he didn’t really have any standing to criticize Ming Jiasheng.
Su Jingyang’s mind ran wild again. Then he grew curious. Ah Xuan calls him “Uncle,” so wouldn’t Ming Jiasheng and Rong Hua both have to call him “Grand-Uncle”?
And if both Ming Jiasheng and Rong Hua had returned by soul, then would the real Rong Hua and Ming Jiasheng be born later? If they were born, how would the same soul coexist? Wouldn’t it all fall into chaos?
Thinking deeper, he suddenly realized something even more ridiculous. So it turned out there had been two emperors and two empresses around him this whole time…
This world really was too surreal.
Su Jingyang suddenly asked Rong Ci with bright curiosity, “Since you’re the one who helped Ming Jiasheng, that means he’s met you, right? Then did he say what you were like sixty years later?”
Sixty years later, Rong Ci would be eighty. Knowing he could live safely to that age, Su Jingyang felt a faint happiness in his heart.
This guy when old would probably still be a cool, handsome old man.
Rong Ci’s dark eyes were calm like still water as he looked at Su Jingyang. He suddenly fell back and lay down on the bed, one arm behind his head, and said, “I didn’t ask. What’s the point of knowing that?”
Su Jingyang had been close to him to begin with. He simply leaned in and flopped onto him, pressing an elbow into his chest. Resting his cheek on his hand, he watched him with suspicion for a moment, then his expression turned shocked. “Wait… why are your eyes suddenly red? What happened?”
Rong Ci’s face was calm as he met his gaze. “No, I’m not. You saw it wrong.”
Su Jingyang wasn’t blind. “They are! Tell me, what’s going on?”
Rong Ci abruptly flipped him over and pinned him beneath, lifting a hand to cover Su Jingyang’s eyes, then he pressed a heavy kiss to his lips.
Su Jingyang was kissed until he couldn’t breathe. He felt Rong Ci’s breathing was a little hot and damp, and the strangeness only deepened. When Rong Ci finally let him go, Su Jingyang panted lightly and asked, “Rong Ci… did you cry?”
Rong Ci’s voice sounded perfectly normal. “I didn’t cry. How could I cry?”
“My nose is all wet.” This guy really cared about saving face.
“That’s water leaking out of your brain.”
“…Get lost, get lost!”
Su Jingyang angrily tried to push him away, but Rong Ci leaned down, burying his head in his chest and nuzzling. He released the hand covering Su Jingyang’s eyes and held him tightly, his arms using so much force it seemed he wanted to break his bones.
“Su Jingyang.”
Su Jingyang lowered his eyes to look at the head tucked against him. He gritted his teeth, his tone harsh. “What?!”
Su Jingyang was irritated, thinking Rong Ci wouldn’t be able to say anything nice anyway. Yet after a long pause, he heard Rong Ci’s muffled voice reach his ear.
“Thank you. Truly… thank you for showing up.”
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