Volume 13
Chapter 8: The Return
Time passed quickly in Lu Li’s dazed eyes. The colorful spots of light slipped through his fingertips; that was the history he and Zhu Xi had rewritten. Although Zhu Qiao had still abused her ability and run away from home, this time she had not harbored any evil thoughts. So when she was sent to the ancestral hall, Grandma Zhu still had time to intervene and save her.
What did Zhu Zhengyuan’s last sentence mean? Was he, Lu Li, Zhu Zhengyuan’s child? Or had Zhu Zhengyuan taken the infant Lu Li from his parents’ hands? With Zhu Zhengyuan’s disappearance, this question might never have an answer.
Lu Li felt that the greatest evil a dying person could do was to speak only half a sentence, leaving the living with a permanent question. He knew why Zhu Zhengyuan had done this. He wanted to leave Lu Li with a reason to live on, perhaps as a warning to Lu Li not to sacrifice himself so rashly again. He wanted Lu Li to spend his entire life searching for the answer to this question.
None of the people with the surname Zhu are good, Lu Li thought.
He no longer looked back at the past, but faced the future. He had told Baili before that the past could not be changed, and the future had not yet arrived. What a person truly possessed was only the present. Since Zhu Zhengyuan had given him a chance to live, he had to cherish it. There were still many people waiting for him: An Baili, who had finally found a home; Wen Hupo, with whom he had a three-life connection; Zou Yameng, who no longer had any regrets; Chen Jianing, who had always silently followed behind him; Chu Jingyi, who was waiting for him to propose marriage; and the two sisters, Zhu Xi and Zhu Qiao.
Their regrets from their past lives had all been remedied. Now it was Lu Li’s turn.
…
In the ancestral hall, surrounded by assassins, Zhu Xi abruptly woke up from the backtracking. After she woke up, she crawled to Lu Li’s side on her hands and knees, shaking his body. “You with the surname Lu, you scumbag man! Wake up! You scumbag man, wake up! Who allowed you to do this! Wake up! Without my order! How dare you!” Towards the end, she was already sobbing uncontrollably.
Grandma Zhu silently watched Zhu Xi’s crazed actions. “Without the red thread, he can’t come back.”
Zhu Xi turned to face her, agitated. “You knew all along! You knew all along he couldn’t come back, didn’t you!”
“…I didn’t know. Xi’er, it’s my fault.”
Zhu Xi took a deep breath and gently put down the unresponsive Lu Li. She walked to Zhu Qiao’s side and checked her breathing. Fortunately, Little Qiao’s breathing was stable. “Is Little Qiao alright now?”
“She just abused the Miko’s power,” Grandma Zhu said. “Although she survived, she is no longer qualified to be a Miko.”
Zhu Xi gritted her teeth. “It’s for the best. This isn’t a mission, it’s a curse.”
Just then, the unconscious Wen Hupo also slowly woke up. Her body was still a little numb, her head groggy. Her hand reached out to the motionless Lu Li on the recliner. “Outstanding Representative… Lu Li…”
Zhu Xi ignored her and squatted by Lu Li’s “corpse.” “I’ll take him to the imperial mausoleum. I should bury him there.”
“This is against the rites.”
“He is the imperial son-in-law!” Zhu Xi shouted sharply, cutting off Grandma Zhu’s dissuasion.
Wen Hupo heard the word “bury” and her delicate body trembled abruptly. She forced herself to stand up and staggered toward Lu Li. “You… what are you going to do to him?”
“He’s dead.” Zhu Xi could feel Lu Li’s body temperature turning cold bit by bit. He had no breath, no heartbeat. When she said this, she had already stopped her tears, her face becoming expressionless again, as if she had put on a mask. She had always lived with a mask. From now on, she would never take it off again. Those who had hurt Zhu Qiao, hurt Lu Li—she would make them pay in blood, even if it meant making the aristocratic families bleed rivers.
Wen Hupo’s pupils trembled. “He won’t die… let me see him…”
“He is my imperial son-in-law.” Zhu Xi blocked Wen Hupo’s path.
Wen Hupo shrieked, losing her composure. “Let me see him!” Her long golden hair trembled in the air, as if shaking off a shower of golden starlight. This was the first time Hupo had lost her composure like this.
“You are not qualified to see him.” Zhu Xi did not yield in the slightest.
“He’s not dead!” Wen Hupo roared at her. “Stay away from him! To what extent are you going to harm him?”
Zhu Xi’s red lips parted slightly, then quickly closed again. She ultimately said nothing, but she also didn’t back down.
Just as the atmosphere at the scene was becoming more and more tense, a certain man who should have been long cold suddenly took a sharp breath, and then began to breathe rapidly, instantly attracting the attention of everyone present except for Zhu Qiao. Lu Li rolled over and fell off the recliner. “Cough, cough… quick, quick, help me up. My legs, my legs are numb!”
Zhu Xi and Wen Hupo walked toward him almost at the same time. They grabbed one of Lu Li’s arms from each side and helped him up. Zhu Xi’s icy mask melted. A flame was rekindled in her eyes. She wanted to say something, but if Lu Li had really died, she could have said it without any inhibitions. But now that Lu Li was alive, with her personality, she couldn’t say it.
So only Wen Hupo cried with joy. “It’s good that you’re okay… it’s good that you’re okay…”
Lu Li took several deep breaths before his breathing finally stabilized. “Of course I’m okay, of course I’m okay.” He had many things he wanted to say to Hupo, such as he had already remembered the story of him and Hupo from his first life, but not now. His gaze fell on the hesitant Zhu Xi, and he revealed a mouthful of big white teeth. “Sorry, I’m a little late coming back.”
This guileless smile of his broke through a certain line of defense in Zhu Xi’s heart. Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes, and she grabbed his collar tightly with both hands. “Scumbag man… scumbag man, scumbag man, you really are a scumbag man!”
Grandma Zhu walked up to him, relieved. “Welcome back, Lu Li.”
Lu Li looked at Grandma Zhu, as if he had understood something. “Grandma Zhu, you knew all along, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t know. It was just a guess.” Grandma Zhu’s eyes were piercingly bright. She slowly closed them. “If you hadn’t come back, I would have been hated by everyone for a lifetime.”
“Little Qiao, how’s Little Qiao?” Lu Li remembered his and Zhu Xi’s original purpose and made a move to get up and check on Little Qiao.
Zhu Xi pressed him down, making him lie down properly. “Little Qiao is out of danger now. You just get some good rest.”
Lu Li let out a long sigh of relief. The efforts he and Zhu Xi had made were not in vain after all. He stroked Hupo’s fine hair. “Don’t cry. I’m fine.” He turned his head, his hand subconsciously wanting to pat Zhu Xi’s head, but he stopped halfway. Who would have thought that Zhu Xi would huff and say, “Just this once.” Lu Li was stunned for a moment, then reached out and placed his hand on top of this poison princess’s head, stroking it gently. “Don’t be nervous either.”
Both girls let Lu Li stroke them, and his thoughts gradually drifted far away. After experiencing so much, he understood more and more what he wanted.
Perhaps, for him now, all the conditions were already sufficient.
Just as a certain thought in Lu Li’s mind was becoming clearer and clearer, his phone suddenly vibrated. The screen lit up, and it was a call from Zou Yameng. Lu Li looked up at the time and only then realized that the scheduled time for the automatic message to be sent had already passed. That is to say, Yameng had already received his previous recording
