Yes, I Have You, I Have All of You
It was another sleepless night.
Su Jingyang tossed and turned in bed. He threw off the covers, got up, switched on the lamp, and sat at his computer desk to play games. His gaze was unfocused as he stared at the glowing monitor, his hands moving mechanically. It had been more than half a month since he came back, and he spent almost every night like this.
His body was incredibly exhausted, but he just couldn’t sleep. When night fell, he either got up to watch TV, played games, or wandered aimlessly back and forth in his cramped living room. It felt like his heart had been dug out. Only when dawn was close did he force himself to doze off for a bit, then simply tidy up before going to work.
Su Jingyang was listless and dispirited. The dark circles under his eyes were quickly noticed by his coworkers, and they all came over to show concern. He had no way to say it out loud. He could only force a smile and shake his head, saying he was fine. If he spoke, no one would believe him, and no one could help him. Only the scratch on his neck, left by his youngest son’s nails, reminded him that those nearly seven years the system threw him into another world, living with Rong Ci, had truly happened. It wasn’t a dream he had after fainting in the break room.
Time in this world moved forward normally and steadily. Those female coworkers sometimes still talked about the pregnant woman who jumped to her death, sighing over it. Su Jingyang listened in silence, and suddenly it felt like a fishbone stuck in his throat, his chest so blocked it ached. Somehow, hearing topics like that now, he could actually understand the feeling.
He dragged himself through several more days like a walking corpse. When the weekend came, he drifted around his apartment like a wandering soul for half the day, then finally grabbed a jacket and went to the nearby plaza. Warm sunlight fell over him. Su Jingyang found a bench and sat down. He stared blankly at the people coming and going until, after a while, his gaze lost focus.
There were children’s laughing shouts around him, the slow, soothing music of people practicing tai chi, and the crying of infants. Everything was vibrant and full of life. Only he sat here alone, like a dead, withered tree, his heart a wasteland.
Just then, a young mother pushed a twin stroller over and sat in the empty spot beside him. She hurriedly took off her bulging backpack and started changing diapers.
Su Jingyang’s lips moved. He sat up a little straighter, his eyes fixed on the two babies in the stroller. They were probably both boys, only five or six months old.
Su Jingyang thought of his own twins. After he returned to Rongcheng, he was clearly unhappy. Those two children had finished their lessons and came to keep him company, cheering him up and making him laugh. They were so obedient, so considerate. A sharp pain seized Su Jingyang’s heart until he couldn’t breathe.
It wasn’t pee. It was poop, and there was a stinky smell. The young mother kept organizing things as she worked, her face turning red as she apologized to Su Jingyang, who was looking in her direction. “Sorry, sorry. I’ll be done soon.”
Su Jingyang smiled faintly. “It’s fine.”
She still seemed embarrassed, apologizing several more times. Su Jingyang said, “Really, it’s fine. Go ahead.”
After she changed the first baby’s diaper, the other one suddenly started pouting and crying. He hadn’t peed or pooped, and he probably wasn’t hungry either. She had no choice but to pick him up and comfort him, but nothing worked. The louder he cried, the more the other one started wailing too.
Afraid she was disturbing Su Jingyang, she slung the backpack on with one hand, held the baby with the other, and tried to push the stroller as she prepared to leave. Su Jingyang said, “There isn’t anywhere else to sit. Stay. I have kids too. When they cry, they’re worse than this.”
She sat back down, praising him for being such a good person, then kept coaxing the baby. She wanted to pick up the other one in the stroller too, and Su Jingyang’s mind stirred. “How about… I try?”
Her eyes immediately filled with wariness. She glanced at Su Jingyang. After hesitating, she still let him hold the other baby.
And the baby in Su Jingyang’s arms actually stopped crying first.
She was stunned. She never would’ve thought he’d be better at soothing babies than she was.
“Um… what’s wrong with you?”
Hearing her ask this, Su Jingyang turned his head in confusion. She asked with some worry, “Why are you crying?”
Su Jingyang lifted the back of his hand to touch his cheek, only then realizing it was wet. He quickly wiped his face, handed the baby back, and smiled. “It’s nothing. I just miss my family and my kids. We’re… long-distance. It’s hard to see them.”
After wiping his tears clean, he sat a little longer. The young mother thanked him and left.
That night, Su Jingyang sat in his rented apartment, expressionless, playing games. Then, from next door, there was suddenly an earth-shaking argument, along with a child’s piercing cries. He’d lived here for over a year, so he knew the unit directly across from him belonged to a young couple.
During the pregnancy, the wife had to stay in bed a long time to protect the pregnancy, so she couldn’t help it and quit her job. Later, because she gave birth to a daughter, her mother-in-law was full of complaints. After helping for half the confinement month, the mother-in-law ran back to her hometown. The wife’s own mother was in poor health and couldn’t come to help. She had forced herself to hold on alone until now. The baby was almost half a year old.
The young woman who used to step out every day with bright makeup and high spirits later became disheveled, stuck at home spinning in circles by herself. Sometimes, Su Jingyang could even hear her comforting the baby out in the hallway in the middle of the night.
Su Jingyang had only felt faint sympathy before. Every family had its own hardships after all. However, his mindset was different now. That day, hearing the commotion felt more serious than usual, so he got up and went across the hall to check.
The room was a mess. Clothes, shoes, and toys were strewn everywhere. Both husband and wife were simmering with anger. The baby had only a bath towel wrapped around their body, crying themselves hoarse on the sofa, their little face red and swollen. Yet the two adults, as if out of spite, ignored the child completely.
Su Jingyang quickly stepped forward to pick up and comfort that poor little thing. Probably because Su Jingyang was an outsider, the couple didn’t keep yelling. They each sat at opposite ends of the sofa, faces dark, and silent.
Since Su Jingyang was already meddling, he comforted the baby while nosily asking what happened. The two of them immediately started bickering again, talking over each other. Su Jingyang caught the gist. It was pretty much what he expected.
The husband worked every day and felt he suffered to earn money and support the household. When he came home, he refused to do chores and refused to take care of the baby. He only wanted to play games.
The wife took care of the baby day and night until her back ached and her waist was sore. During the baby’s bath, she forgot to bring clean clothes, so she called for her husband to help fetch some. However, he was in the middle of an intense match and acted like he couldn’t hear a thing.
The conflict that had piled up for a long time finally exploded.
That man accused her. “I think you’re just lazy! At home, you do nothing except watch the kid. You don’t cook, you don’t clean, you let the whole place become a dump. You’re doing this on purpose to spite me!”
Su Jingyang finally couldn’t listen anymore. He handed the baby, who had cried themself tired and fallen asleep, back to the wife. The man stood there with his neck stiff, not moving. The woman cried as she took the baby, choking as she kept thanking Su Jingyang and saying she made him see a joke.
Su Jingyang didn’t try to lecture them. Once he saw the flames die down, he returned to his own place.
On Monday, Su Jingyang heard the sound of that man leaving. Only then did he put on his shoes, go out, and knock on the couple’s door.
Facing the wife’s slightly surprised expression, Su Jingyang said, “If he thinks taking care of a child at home is easy, then you can switch positions and try it. Let him do this ‘simple job’ for a while.”
Su Jingyang knew he was being abrupt, but he couldn’t just sigh and let it pass like before.
That man was just a regular office worker. Even if you wrung him dry, his monthly wage was still nothing. This woman, whether in ability or salary, was clearly much higher. No matter what, Su Jingyang felt she should at least fight back a little. She shouldn’t be forced to swallow this kind of grievance.
At first, Su Jingyang worried he might get cursed out and become the villain who tried to drive a wedge between a couple. No matter how righteous he felt, it was still their marriage. Maybe they fought one day and were lovey-dovey the next.
Yet the woman didn’t disappoint him. He didn’t know how she negotiated, but soon she found a new job. She dressed herself up, rushed out the door full of energy, regaining some of her old confidence and shine. Meanwhile, the man quit and stayed home to take care of the baby.
Su Jingyang worked during the day and didn’t know what things were like over there. It wasn’t until he heard them arguing again one day that he learned the baby had a fever, and the husband was still playing on the computer, completely unaware. The wife came home and only then discovered it.
Su Jingyang thought, it’s over, it’s over. That woman is probably going to compromise out of worry for the baby…
Later, Su Jingyang realized his worry was unnecessary. After the baby stayed in the hospital for a while, the wife still went to work every day. The husband continued staying home, irritated and frantic, fumbling through childcare. Yet because of that illness, he didn’t dare be careless again, and he actually became much more serious than before.
The weather was hot, and both households often kept their doors open for airflow. One day, Su Jingyang was in his living room pouring water to drink when he heard the wife come home and ask why the husband still hadn’t cooked. The husband, holding the baby who had just fallen asleep, panted heavily, but he couldn’t squeeze out a single word.
The wife didn’t say much either. She rolled up her sleeves. “Forget it. I’ll do it.”
“…I’ll do it, honey. You take the baby into the room to sleep.” The man’s voice was sullen.
Not long after, the sounds of fire and stir-frying came from their kitchen.
For the first time since returning to this world, Su Jingyang truly let a faint, genuine smile appear. He set his cup down and gently closed his own door.
Whether it was warmth or quarrels, none of it belonged to him. In the world that was supposed to be his, he had become a passerby.
The life across the hall grew calmer and more harmonious. The constant fights disappeared. Yet Su Jingyang only lived increasingly muddled, drifting through days. Sometimes he couldn’t even remember the year or the month. He didn’t know whether weeks had passed or months. It was like his soul had been left behind somewhere, on someone, and the him here now was only an empty shell.
Then one day, he held the remote and randomly switched to a historical drama he didn’t understand at all. There wasn’t anything special happening. The male lead wore black robes. His figure and features were strikingly handsome. With a doting smile in his brows and eyes, he spoke some lines.
Su Jingyang didn’t hear a single word.
His heart was slashed open in an instant, as if a knife had cut straight into it, blood pouring out.
The breath he had been forcing himself to hold onto finally leaked away completely. He didn’t even have the strength to sit upright. At first he simply cried in silence, tears falling, then he started making sound. The tightly suppressed sobbing only became harder and harder to stop until he fully broke down, wailing, hysterical, his mind collapsing into ashes.
He missed Rong Ci. He missed the children. He missed Ah Li… He didn’t want to be here alone. He couldn’t hold on anymore. He wanted to go back.
Rong Ci and the children definitely missed him too. He wanted to go back, but who could send him back?
The young couple across the hall heard the commotion. They came over holding their baby, trying to comfort him. Su Jingyang kept crying and crying until his throat went hoarse. In the end, he slumped on the sofa and passed out.
When Su Jingyang became aware again, he found he was standing on a high rooftop. There were still cold tear tracks on his cheeks. Night wind roared at his ears. He stared down at the darkness below like an abyss, blank for a moment, then suddenly whipped his head around.
The woman from across the hall was standing behind him, smiling at him gently.
A chill prickled across Su Jingyang’s scalp. That woman said, “You helped me, so I’ll help you too.”
Then she reached out and shoved him hard.
Su Jingyang’s body began to fall. He didn’t panic. He wasn’t afraid. He only closed his eyes quietly.
And then…
He landed steadily. It was his feet that hit the ground, not his body.
There were shouts in his ears, children chasing and playing, and the crisp, synchronized sound of marching footsteps. Su Jingyang’s heart hammered violently as he snapped his eyes open, uncertain and alarmed.
It was like a suddenly moving painting rushed into his vision. People dressed in ancient clothing walked back and forth through a wide, bustling street. There were inns, taverns, rouge shops, vegetable stalls. In the distance, a patrol of Yulin guards passed by, and children just out of school ran in noisy groups.
In an instant, it felt like a brilliant firework exploded inside Su Jingyang’s mind. His expression came alive.
This was Rongcheng. It was Rongcheng!!!
This street was close to the main hall. He had walked it who knew how many times before. There was no way he could be wrong.
He was back. He was actually back!!!
Su Jingyang touched his hair, which had returned to length, looked at the red mole in his palm, and looked at the pale blue wide-sleeved robe he wore. The light that had been dead in his eyes for so long finally began burning again.
He held back the crazed joy that was about to burst out of his throat in a scream and bolted toward the main hall like he’d gone insane. The guards at the hall entrance looked unfamiliar to him. He charged straight in without thinking, but he was stopped without mercy.
“Who dares barge in!”
Su Jingyang was dumbfounded for a moment. Where did this bunch of people come from, so blind they couldn’t recognize him? He was frantic to see Rong Ci and the children. He pointed at his own face. “Me, me! It’s me! I’m your City Lord’s wife, let me in!”
Hearing his words, the guards exchanged looks. One of them gave a cold snort. “Where did this lunatic come from? City Lord’s wife? Our City Lord is over eighty years old, unmarried his whole life. How could he possibly have a wife?”
Su Jingyang froze, his eyes going vacant. “…What did you say?”
Su Jingyang was driven away. The heart he had just patched together shattered into mud again. He stood there in shock for a long time.
Rong Ci was eighty now.
So he had come back, but he came back to the wrong time.
Just like in the original story, Rong Ci had remained unmarried his whole life, with no children. He didn’t know Su Jingyang at all, and Su Jingyang’s four children…
It felt like all the strength had been ripped out of Su Jingyang’s body. He collapsed onto the ground.
He was devastated, but he still forced himself to run to the main hall area every day, trying to sneak in by mixing with crowds. Yet he didn’t know that the place he once entered and exited freely had now become an unbridgeable chasm for him. For the first time, Su Jingyang truly realized how strict the main hall’s guards were.
He lingered for more than ten days, and in the end, he still never even saw Rong Ci’s face. In despair, he slumped into a corner by a wall and fell asleep from exhaustion. When he opened his eyes again, he realized something was off. The walls around him were different. He was now in a wide, elegant room, with pale gauze curtains that drifted lightly in the breeze.
With only one glance, Su Jingyang sucked in a breath.
This was Shui Tian Yi Se. This was where he and Rong Ci lived.
How had he suddenly come here?
He didn’t understand, but it was a good thing. As long as he stayed here, he could see Rong Ci. All other questions and doubts were shoved aside.
Su Jingyang suddenly heard clear birdsong outside, along with people talking. He was close to the window, so he moved over quietly and carefully. Then he saw an elderly man in a dark, wide-sleeved robe feeding birds beneath a tree outside. His hair was white, yet his posture was still upright and lean. Even with the marks of time carved into him, you could still see the dazzling elegance he must have had when he was young. He looked relaxed and detached, speaking with a handsome youth beside him.
Su Jingyang recognized him with a single glance.
Both hands clenched on the window frame. Tears nearly burst from his eyes.
Rong Ci. Rong Ci…
The youth said, “Great-Grandfather worries about you. It’s just that he can’t move around much now either, so he can’t come back. That’s why he told us juniors to come back to Rongcheng more often.”
Rong Ci gave a low chuckle. Though his voice wasn’t quite the same as when he was young, it didn’t sound aged. Instead, it was steady and pleasant. “He can enjoy his blessings in his Yishui Ning family. Why does he keep thinking about me?”
The youth sighed. “Because you never married, and there’s no one at your side to look after you. How can people not worry? I don’t even know whether we should blame this world for having no immortals. Not a single one ever entered your eyes.”
Rong Ci glanced back at the youth and shook his head with a smile. After a moment, he had someone take the birdcage away. Then, with faint wistfulness, he said slowly, “Maybe… in this life, I never met the one in my heart.”
When he turned slightly, Su Jingyang saw the jade pendant at his waist.
A pixiu jade pendant, clearly mismatched with Rong Ci’s status and elegance.
Su Jingyang crouched down, wiping at the tears that only poured harder. His heart hurt so badly it was a complete mess.
“What are you crying for?”
Su Jingyang jolted. He snapped his tear-smeared eyes upward and realized Rong Ci had come in at some point. Rong Ci was standing in front of him now, tilting his head slightly as he studied Su Jingyang crouched on the floor.
Rong Ci didn’t show the slightest surprise that there was suddenly someone extra in the room.
Su Jingyang’s heart pounded wildly. He surged up and threw himself into this white-haired old man’s arms, still so handsome it made his chest tremble. Su Jingyang rubbed at his tears with the back of his hand, pressed his face into Rong Ci’s shoulder, and sobbed, “Rong Ci, I want to marry you. Will you marry me? I want to have your kids, four of them. Marry me.”
Rong Ci felt the fresh warmth and scent of the young man in his arms, and the hot tears falling against his neck. He froze, trying to push him away, but his hands seemed controlled by something and wouldn’t move at all.
Rong Ci let out a quiet laugh. “Sorry, but you might’ve come a bit late.”
The moment Su Jingyang heard that, he released him and glared with round, tear-filled eyes. “W-what do you mean?!” Didn’t you just say you never married? Didn’t you just say you never met that person? How is it late? How is it late!
Rong Ci flicked his gaze at him, then turned and walked toward the outer room. His steps were slow and steady, robes drifting. He had less of the cold sharpness of his youth, and more of an aloof calm that came from seeing through life.
Su Jingyang chased him, refusing to let it go. “Why is it late?”
Rong Ci sat at the table, gestured for him to sit too, and slowly poured a cup of hot tea in front of him. Su Jingyang didn’t drink. He only stared at Rong Ci with stubborn, wide eyes and asked again, “Why? Do you have someone else in your heart?”
Rong Ci asked, “How old are you?”
Su Jingyang said, “I’m thirty now.”
Rong Ci lifted his brow. “I’m eighty.”
Su Jingyang immediately relaxed. “o when you said too late, you meant age.”
Rong Ci couldn’t help smiling, his gaze gentle. “What else would it be?”
Su Jingyang dragged his stool closer, sat right beside him, hooked an arm around his, and leaned his head against Rong Ci’s shoulder. His persistence was absurdly stubborn. “It’s fine, it’s fine. I don’t care. I’m marrying you. Give the order now. Prepare everything. We’ll do the ceremony.”
Rong Ci’s eyes widened slightly. Su Jingyang lifted his head and looked at him. “Best if it’s today.” Then Su Jingyang pointed at the pendant on Rong Ci’s waist, speaking with absolute certainty. “Look, this is our love token! I gave it to you. Since you accepted it, you have to marry me.”
Rong Ci lowered his eyes to look at the pendant, then met Su Jingyang’s gaze for a long moment. His pupils tightened slightly, as if something surged beneath them, along with a faint, baffled confusion. Only after a long time did he gently but firmly push Su Jingyang away, letting out a deep sigh. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
No matter how Su Jingyang clung to him afterward, no matter how he explained that they were husband and husband in a past life and had four children together, Rong Ci still refused to marry him and refused to believe his words.
Su Jingyang was full of grievance. He followed Rong Ci everywhere. Wherever Rong Ci went, Su Jingyang went too. Every time he tried to get close and hug him, Rong Ci easily dodged and gave him an expression of helpless disapproval as a bonus.
Still, Rong Ci didn’t drive him away. He arranged for Su Jingyang to stay in a side hall. So the entire main hall and all of Rongcheng came to know that someone was at the old City Lord’s side, and that the old City Lord indulged him terribly.
Time flew by in the blink of an eye. Without realizing it, Su Jingyang had stayed at Rong Ci’s side for five years. Along with Rong Ci, he walked Rongcheng again, traveling and playing everywhere.
They walked the same roads and saw the same scenery. The person at his side was the same person too. Only now, one was in the prime of youth, while the other had white hair.
A few times, Su Jingyang lifted his eyes and faintly sensed that Rong Ci’s gaze on him was like someone forcefully restraining something. Yet when Su Jingyang tried to look more closely, Rong Ci only smiled faintly, his eyes peaceful, and turned away.
It was as if that flash of affection had only been Su Jingyang’s illusion.
No matter how hard Su Jingyang tried to seduce him over the years, Rong Ci always kept a very clear distance, never allowing Su Jingyang to approach. The most intimate thing Rong Ci ever did of his own accord was pat Su Jingyang’s head.
That happened because Su Jingyang ran to Rong Ci’s bedside and bawled. “Have kids with me! Have kids with me! You’re another year older. If you don’t have them now, you won’t be able to!”
Rong Ci didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Seeing Su Jingyang’s tear-blurred, pitiful face, he couldn’t help patting his head and sighed as he sent him away.
Su Jingyang always thought that since Rong Ci could live to eighty and still be this healthy, he would surely live on to a hundred, to a hundred and twenty, becoming a long-lived elder.
Yet acute illness arrived with terrifying suddenness. Rong Ci’s body seemed to collapse all at once. He lay in bed, pale and lifeless, even breathing a struggle. Only then did Su Jingyang realize that Rong Ci truly was old.
Su Jingyang kept watch at the bedside, crying until his head spun. He couldn’t even speak through his sobs. His heart hurt so badly it felt like it was dying.
Rong Ci’s trembling hand seized the jade pendant at the pillow. With solemn care, he placed it into Su Jingyang’s hand. He smiled, pale and weak, his words broken and unsteady. “Go… leave… You’re only a lost traveler… but I was still selfish, selfish enough to keep you for more than five years. Go back… go back… to where you should be…”
Su Jingyang couldn’t hear what he was saying anymore. One hand clutched the pendant tight, while the other gripped Rong Ci’s icy hand. He sobbed so hard he couldn’t catch his breath.
The hand he was holding suddenly dropped heavily, thudding against the bed. It was as if someone had clamped Su Jingyang’s throat. His crying stopped in an instant. Tears still dripped down, but he stared at his suddenly empty hand, his whole body trembling. It felt like a hole had been punched through his chest, an icy cold flooding every corner, despair crashing over him like a drowning wave.
Rong Ci. Rong Ci…
After a soft ding, a gentle, familiar voice called quietly, “Jingyang, Jingyang, wake up…”
It felt like something washed through Su Jingyang’s mind. His whole body was heavy as a thousand pounds. He slowly opened his wet eyes. In his palm, it felt like he was still holding something. Su Jingyang raised his hand slowly.
It was that pixiu jade pendant.
The pain in his chest was so intense he couldn’t breathe, and his tears came even more fiercely. Rong Ci, Rong Ci, my Rong Ci.
“Jingyang, Jingyang? I’m here. Stop crying.”
Su Jingyang froze.
That voice just now…?!
He snapped his eyes toward his side, then went utterly still.
Black robes, hair bound up, a young and handsome face. Eyes full of apology as he looked at Su Jingyang.
This was a face Su Jingyang would never forget even in death.
It was Rong Ci.
Su Jingyang, face streaked with tears, shot up. Whether it was illusion or not, he flung his arms open and dove into Rong Ci’s embrace. Rong Ci caught him, patted his head, and let out a long breath.
Su Jingyang wailed, crying his lungs out. That hopeless, dead-inside despair had been too terrifying. Thank god Rong Ci was still alive. Thank god he—
Su Jingyang’s sobbing abruptly stopped. His numb mind finally regained a shred of clarity. He pushed Rong Ci back a little, frantic, and started feeling all over Rong Ci’s body, then his face. Warm. Real.
Not an illusion.
It was Rong Ci.
Su Jingyang was immediately dumbfounded. What is happening? What exactly is happening?
Su Jingyang drew a sharp breath. He stood frozen for a long time, then suddenly realized something and swept his surroundings with a rapid glance.
They were in a cave. Beneath him were vermillion characters covered in talismans with traces of blood. It looked like a formation array.
Su Jingyang sat there with tears still on his face, dazed. His mind spun rapidly.
“Jingyang, it’s me…” Rong Ci began to explain, but Su Jingyang, who had suddenly pieced it together, exploded. He whirled around and glared at Rong Ci, pointing at the formation beneath him. With gritted teeth, he demanded, “So all of this was your doing?! Everything I just went through… it was because of this formation?!”
Rong Ci nodded, voice soft. “Yes… This formation is called an Illusion Realm.”
Su Jingyang shook all over, staring at him in disbelief. “How long have you been preparing this?”
Rong Ci’s dark eyes held him. “Since my hands had scars. This formation is difficult even for me to control. I could only continuously nourish it with my blood, afraid it would hurt you.”
Su Jingyang couldn’t catch his breath and nearly fainted!
So he hadn’t guessed wrong. Rong Ci’s daily trips out, the constant wounds on his hands, it really was suspicious. No wonder Rong Ci had looked so calm and detached. It wasn’t because he didn’t care, but it was because he already prepared a countermeasure! No wonder he kept insisting that if Su Jingyang wanted to leave, he needed to say it ahead of time. It was for this.
This man’s mind was too deep.
This man was consistent as always, easily playing him in circles!
“Rong Ci— you sinister, scheming man!!!” Su Jingyang cursed through the pain. Rong Ci was about to speak, but Su Jingyang suddenly shoved him down and found his lips, kissing him hard. Rong Ci’s gaze shifted. He wrapped Su Jingyang in his arms, and the two of them kissed until they couldn’t bear to part.
When their lips finally separated, Su Jingyang, eyes red, cursed again. “I knew I wasn’t wrong about you. You just want to crush me for life as entertainment, don’t you?”
Rong Ci’s voice was hoarse. “No. I was giving myself a chance, also giving you a chance… I only wanted you to stay of your own will.”
Su Jingyang lay on top of him and started crying again, glaring viciously. “You’re so cruel. You knew I couldn’t leave anymore, and you still made me go back once. You wanted to cut off my longing for that place completely, didn’t you?”
Rong Ci touched his face. “Not exactly. I didn’t have that much certainty… Before I brought you into the formation today, I was still worried you wouldn’t have much of a reaction. That you’d get used to a life without me. If that happened, then I truly couldn’t stop you. Not until I saw you cry, calling my name…”
Su Jingyang gave a cold snort. “Seeing me cry for you made you happy?”
“It hurt.”
Su Jingyang glared again, but Rong Ci let out a long sigh and pressed Su Jingyang’s head against his chest. “I’ve been on edge for so many years. Can I finally relax now, Jingyang?”
Su Jingyang asked back with a sobbing voice, “What do you think, you bastard…”
They clung to each other tightly. Su Jingyang held him even harder, like he wanted to make up for everything he’d missed in that illusion.
After a long while, Su Jingyang propped himself up a bit and asked, “Illusion… so you mean everything I experienced was something I made up myself?” He hadn’t sensed anything wrong at all. It had been too real, exactly like his days and nights before.
Rong Ci explained gently, “Not really. It links with the world in your mind. It’s illusory, but it also counts as real. That’s why you couldn’t tell. When the timing is about right, I arrange a medium to pull you back.”
That half-true explanation made Su Jingyang’s head ache. “I don’t get it, I don’t get it, I don’t get it. Forget it, I won’t ask.” Big-shot witchcraft clans were not to be messed with.
Su Jingyang looked down at the pendant in his hand. Rong Ci noticed and said, “Letting you hold something close to me and stained with my aura, is safer.”
But Su Jingyang thought of the final part and his eyes turned vicious again. He gritted his teeth. “Letting me go back and suffer through that once is one thing. Why did you throw me onto another timeline too? I almost died of heartbreak!”
Rong Ci’s eyes showed a flicker of confusion, then he pressed, “What timeline? This kind of formation is already easy to go wrong. How would I dare send you somewhere else? Where did you go?”
“I…” Su Jingyang clutched the pendant, stunned for a long while before pressing his face back into Rong Ci’s chest, breathing him in, and muttered, “Nowhere.”
“You don’t want to tell me?”
“Rong Ci, this time, I didn’t come too late.”
“What?”
“I said you married me, and you’re really blessed across three lifetimes.”
Rong Ci laughed softly. “Of course.”
Su Jingyang hugged his arm tight, his voice stubbornly firm. “From now on, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stay with you. I’ll stay until we’re old, until we die.”
Rong Ci patted his head, and Su Jingyang leaned in and kissed him.
The two of them helped each other sit up. They were both a mess. Su Jingyang had just gone through a dream of life and death. He cried until his mind went numb, yet right now he felt incredibly light, like a miracle of something lost and found again.
Su Jingyang stood first and reached out to pull Rong Ci up, but Rong Ci’s face was faintly pale. He smiled helplessly. His body was so heavy he couldn’t rise, and his breathing was a little rough. “I probably can’t walk since I used too much energy. Let me rest first.”
Su Jingyang’s heart ached. The last bit of anger at being schemed against completely dissipated. He sat beside Rong Ci. The two of them leaned their heads together, resting against each other. Su Jingyang felt the warmth of the person beside him, and his heart was filled with a satisfaction and calm he never had before.
After a while, Su Jingyang still couldn’t help asking, “Rong Ci, if… I mean if you were eighty before you met the me right now… what would you do?”
Rong Ci answered in a low voice, “Of course I’d marry you and make you my City Lord’s wife, and have you attend to me at bedside every day.”
Su Jingyang’s hand clutching the jade pendant tightened, eyes stinging, thick nasal voice saying, “Liar.”
No matter what, returning to this man’s side brought him back to life. From now on, he must strive to live. He had to, like in that illusion, accompany Rong Ci to the end of his life, and never leave any regrets behind for either of them.
The system’s self-destruction came a bit sooner than expected. About a year later, System #1 came to say goodbye.
“You… have you really decided to stay?”
Su Jingyang no longer had anything to hesitate about. “Yes. I love him.”
The system sighed. “Since you’ve decided, I respect your choice. Although… even if you found your happiness here, giving you such an extremely wrong beginning, I still have to tell you I’m sorry.”
Su Jingyang said, “Mm.”
Even if it was illegal, even if it was morally wrong, those people should be punished by the law and condemned by morality. It should never have been left to this kind of extreme ideology to control.
Even if he and Rong Ci loved each other and ended up together, it couldn’t erase the scars in his heart from back then.
He was simply lucky enough to meet Rong Ci.
That apology was warranted, but to him, it also didn’t mean much.
He could sympathize with System #1, but something like this had to be destroyed.
System #1 hesitated, then said, “Oh right, I can also restore your body structure, but…”
Su Jingyang raised a hand to his swollen belly. He froze, already guessing. “But this child would disappear too, right?”
The system tacitly acknowledged it.
Su Jingyang closed his eyes and let out a silent breath. “Forget it. Leave it.” In the end, he still couldn’t bear it.
“These years were hard on you.” The system said, “Then I’ll take it and go. You… take care.”
Su Jingyang had thought the system self-destructing would come with some kind of explosive sound effect, but it vanished silently, along with the visible progress bar. For an instant, it even felt unreal.
The damn dog System #2, which had shackled him for so many years, didn’t even get a chance to spit out a single cruel line before it was completely annihilated.
From now on, he truly had to live out his whole life in this world.
On the ceremonial platform, Su Jingyang watched dense clusters of warm-yellow sky lanterns drift into the night. One of them was the one he had just released. It was a lantern Ling Li had specifically had sent to him from Jincheng.
Facing that direction, Su Jingyang murmured, “My air conditioner, my Wi-Fi, my online games, my phone, my China… goodbye.”
Rong Ci held him. Hearing him mutter like that, Rong Ci smiled and asked, “Are you chanting scriptures?”
Su Jingyang rolled his eyes. What the hell. This was him bidding farewell to his past.
A complete farewell.
He didn’t answer. Rong Ci’s deep, bright eyes looked at him, then gazed away. The arm around his waist slightly tightened, mouth seemingly casually saying, “You still have me, and you have them.”
Rong Yu had brought his younger brothers to write wishes on the sky lantern cover. Rong Yu had only written a few strokes when the youngest, Rong Chu, couldn’t write at all and came prancing over to cause mischief. He grabbed the brush and smeared a blob of ink over the line of blessing poetry Rong Yu was writing, turning it into a complete mess.
Rong Yu instantly went berserk, roaring, “My poem!”
Rong Xi pretended to scold Rong Chu. “You’re the most mischievous. Careful Big Brother spanks you. Ah Fei, hold him!”
Rong Chu was held by Rong Fei. Unable to draw anymore, he flailed the brush around and wriggled, calling in a milky childish voice, “Flowers, flowers, I want flowers!”
In the end, his older brothers still indulged him. They drew seven flowers on the lantern cover, two big ones and five small ones. Then together, they lit the lantern and released it.
Under lantern fire and moonlight, the four brothers stood in a line, tall and short, all lifting their little heads to gaze into the night sky.
Feeling everything he had now, Su Jingyang’s heart swelled and ached. He let out a soft laugh, then tilted his head to lean against Rong Ci’s shoulder.
Yes.
I have you.
I have all of you.
(End)
Author’s Note:
That’s it. The main story is over.
IsitRo: 1 more chapter for the extra compilations. See you there!
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