Chapter 100

In the quiet mansion, Qin Cheng stayed in the room he was put in when drugged. As he sat at the desk, he thought all night.

Su Weiran said a lot, and although Qin Cheng didn’t believe it all, there were some things that he could believe in.

Such as Su Jingmo telling him a lot of lies, or that Su Jingmo’s real intention was to let Qin Cheng become the second master of the tomb.

When Qin Cheng thought of that day, when Su Jingmo took the initiative to get close to him, Qin Cheng couldn’t help but think: ‘ Maybe the sweet affection Jingmo gave me back then was to compensate me for a couple of things. Perhaps, he doesn’t really love me…. ’

‘ Was it worth it? ’ Qin Cheng asked himself.

For some reason, Qin Cheng remembered the moment he met Su Jingmo for the first time. It was clear that Qin Cheng should’ve died, but in the end, Su Jingmo saved his life. Qin Cheng still remembered what Su Jingmo said to him….

“Let’s make a deal,” he said, asking Qin Cheng to help him figure out what had happened to the Xu Dynasty. If Qin Cheng agreed, then Su Jingmo would give Qin Cheng whatever he wished for.

Now, it seemed that Su Jingmo had already guessed the Xu Dynasty’s outcome long ago. In fact, Su Jingmo’s real intention must have been for Qin Cheng to expose the existence of the Xu Dynasty to the public, so everyone would know that such a Dynasty existed once. However, given that the tomb was about to collapse at any given time, Su Jingmo was forced to turn Qin Cheng into his replacement as the owner of the tomb, so that the tomb wouldn’t be destroyed and those future generations could gradually reveal the truth….

‘ Will you be willing? ’ Qin Cheng asked himself.

‘ I can’t let go of my beloved career, but I also can’t let him go. I used to have the intention to study for more than 20 years, and after filial piety to my parents came to an end, I would’ve accompanied Su Jingmo in that tomb for eternity. ’

‘ But now, I’m finding out that he’s running out of time…. ’

Although Qin Cheng doesn’t believe in everything Su Weiran had said, at this point, he knows this is true from the bottom of his heart…. As if there’s a natural feeling within him that can tell what Su Jingmo’s current situation is.

However, Qin Cheng was still very confused….

In the end, Qin Cheng feels that nothing is more important than Su Jingmo….

…

After staying awake all night, thinking, someone knocked at the door at dawn, pulling Qin Cheng out of his thoughts.

Even if he hadn’t come up with a specific answer, Qin Cheng was sure of one thing. Su Weiran isn’t someone he can trust.

At the very least, everything Su Weiran did until now was to separate Qin Cheng from Su Jingmo, so that Su Jingmo’s plan couldn’t be realized.

‘ But what’s the point of doing such a thing? When I think about it, some of Su Weiran’s words cannot withstand criticism. ’

If, according to what Su Weiran said, he’s the current incarnation of Su Jingyan, who in his past life promised Su Jingmo to bury him in Xi’an instead of the Xu Dyasty’s Imperial Mausoleum placed in the Capital, then this ‘Su Jingyan’ should be concerned about the legacy of the Xu Dynasty.

However, that didn’t seem to be the case at all. If Su Jingmo’s plan fails, and the tomb is destroyed, what will happen to Su Jingyan’s original intention of keeping the Xu Dynasty’s history alive? What is Su Weiran doing all this for? Could it be that he wants something else?

‘ Could it be that because he has reincarnated many times, the things from his past don’t matter anymore? Is he with the group of people that covet the Taowu bones? ’

Qin Cheng wasn’t Su Weiran, so it’s naturally impossible for him to know what this person is thinking about.

‘ Su Weiran is rather complicated….but maybe I can take advantage of it…. ’

Someone knocked on the door twice more, and when no one answered, the person outside the room spoke: “Mr. Qin, are you awake? I brought you breakfast.”

The person who spoke was a middle-aged woman, who should be a maid in this mansion. When Qin Cheng finally answered the door, the woman brought in the breakfast and put it on the table for Qin Cheng. When she saw that the bed looked neat, she asked with some doubts: “Mr. Qin, you didn’t rest?”

“Hmm, I’ve been thinking about something and couldn’t sleep…. Right, you don’t need to call me ‘Mr.’ Qin Cheng is fine.”

The middle-aged woman smiled and nodded: “Alright, you should eat your breakfast. If you feel sleepy later, just go to sleep. I’ll come to collect the dishes later.”

“Alright, thank you.” Qin Cheng said. When he saw that the middle-aged woman was about to leave, Qin Cheng remembered something and hurried to ask: “By the way, aunty, I would like to ask you something.”

“Go ahead.”

“I just wanted to ask you, is Mr. Su the owner of this mansion? Is he here today? I wanted to talk to him about something important.”

“This is indeed Mr. Su’s mansion. Mr. Su told us earlier that if you were looking for him, we could take you with him directly. Mr. Su isn’t at work today, I’ll ask young Chen to take you there after you’ve eaten breakfast.”

“Chen?”

“Yes, he’s a young man who works for Mr. Su. He should be the same age as you and his surname is Chen. Wasn’t he the one who took you to see Mr. Su yesterday?”

“Ah, I didn’t notice.” Qin Cheng disguised his smile and didn’t ask more questions.

When the middle-aged woman mentioned ‘Chen’ just now, Qin Cheng first thought of what Jiang Ping said. Jiang Bo mentioned a man surnamed Chen in his diary before he died. Since there are thousands of people surnamed Chen in the country, Jiang Ping simply assumed that ‘Chen’ could’ve been used as a fake alias….

However, now that Su Weiran was thrown into the mix, Qin Cheng began to think that the situation wasn’t as simple as it seemed….

From what Qin Cheng has seen from Su Weiran’s attitude, he can either see ghosts like Qu Zhiwen or has someone around him who can. Otherwise, how could he know that Qin Cheng cannot see Su Jingmo without the jade pendant?

Qin Cheng also remembered that Jiang Ping had said that Jiang Bo mentioned that the mysterious ‘Chen’ knew about ghosts….

After eating breakfast, someone came to take Qin Cheng to the garden atrium, where Su Weiran was waiting for him.

From a distance, Qin Cheng saw that Su Weiran was standing alone in the courtyard, with his hands behind his back. Indeed, this man looked a lot like Su Jingmo, and from a distance, the differences in their appearances were almost imperceptible. For a moment, Qin Cheng felt like he was looking at Su Jingmo, dressed in modern clothes and standing under a golden ginkgo biloba ¹ tree in late autumn, glancing silently at the leaves dancing with the wind….

‘ Instead of being in that dark, lonely tomb…. ’

Soon, Qin Cheng shook his head. Although they looked similar, this man wasn’t Su Jingmo. Without that long dark hair, his curved eyebrows, or his peach blossom eyes, that man couldn’t provoke a single thing in Qin Cheng’s heart….

It’s just that at that moment, Qin Cheng thought how good it would be if Su Jingmo was alive so that he could leave the darkness of the tomb, and do whatever he liked….

Just like this late autumn, Qin Cheng would take Su Jingmo to see the leaves of ginkgo biloba trees and the red maple ² fall. Su Jingmo would walk in front, while Qin Cheng would follow behind him, but only two or three steps away.

When the autumn breeze passed, Su Jingmo would squint his eyes, turn around and smile at him: “Aren’t the autumn days the most beautiful thing in the world?”

While Su Jingmo’s long hair moved slightly with the wind, Qin Cheng would stare at him with a warm smile on his face….

“Indeed, the most beautiful….”

Su Jingmo must’ve been able to see the light in Qin Cheng’s eyes, understanding the real meaning behind those words, but he wouldn’t point it out. He would simply chuckle, look away and move forward. However, Su Jingmo’s steps would deliberately slow down his pace, but not enough to be noticeable, and say some teasing words….

However, the man in front of him wasn’t Su Jingmo. This was a man who nodded coldly at him, with eyes full of calculations.

“I noticed you stood over there looking at me for a while. Why? Do I really look that similar to Su Jingmo?”

Although Qin Cheng replied ‘no’ in his mind, when he thought of his purpose today, Qin Cheng chose to not reply. In Su Weiran’s eyes, Qin Cheng’s unwillingness to reply would be like him agreeing with his words.

Sure enough, Su Weiran smiled and said: “There are thousands of people who look alike in this world. I think people who look much more like Su Jingmo than I do should exist….”

Although Su Weiran left his words unfinished, the meaning behind them was clear. He was telling Qin Cheng that he didn’t need to get stuck with Su Jingmo when there were more people out there. To be honest, Qin Cheng felt utterly disgusted with this implication.

“….Maybe….” Qin Cheng pretended to struggle as he said ‘hesitantly’: “What you said yesterday….is it true?”

“Whether what’s true or false, you should ask Su Jingmo yourself. I believe you will get an answer by then.”

After seeing that Qin Cheng didn’t reply and that his eyes were wandering around, Su Weiran smiled: “Let’s sit down and talk. It rained all night last night, but the sky has cleared up this morning. The flowers and the plants look very beautiful under the sun.”

Qin Cheng nodded and followed Su Weiran to the pavilion to sit down.

“I wonder, why are you telling me all of this? I thought about it all night without being able to fall asleep, but in the end, I couldn’t find a single reason why telling me this would benefit you.” Qin Cheng knew that he couldn’t pretend he hadn’t found anything wrong, and he didn’t believe it would be easy to lie to this man, so he decided to tell him half-truths. “I can’t figure it out. You clearly should want to preserve the history of the Xu Dynasty, but when I think about it, that doesn’t seem to be the case at all.”

Su Weiran laughed lightly and looked at Qin Cheng for a while before saying: “Then why do you think I did this?”

“I can only think that you want the Taowu bones, after all….” Qin Cheng looked around the huge courtyard and continued: “You seem to be in a good position now. Perhaps, you want something else….”

Su Weiran nodded but then shook his head: “Yes and no. I just remember some things from my past life, so I don’t bear many feelings about it. It’s like watching a movie. Although I know I’m Su Jingyan, my identity as Su Weiran is more important to me. Why should I ruin this life for the sake of a past life that disappeared a long time ago? After all….”

Su Weiran gazed at Qin Cheng and said faintly: “After all, I’m the one who’s alive now.”

Qin Cheng lowered his head and frowned slightly: “Maybe you’re right….”

“However, there’s indeed something I need you to do for me. If you still want to live.”

Qin Cheng raised his head, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath: “What is it?”

“I want you to take Su Jingmo out of that tomb.”

…

The rain fell eagerly all night, and when the dawn finally arrived, the weather seemed more lively.

When it first cleared up after the rain, everything was supposed to look livelier than before, but for some reason, Ninghua Village looked even more decadent. The trees in the mountains seemed to have lost their lives, while the insects and birds seemed to have moved away from the village overnight, leaving the village without the vitality of nature.

Qin Cheng hadn’t been here for almost a week. Since it had rained, the mud in the forest was slippery, so it took Qin Cheng twice as long to climb the mountain. At first glance, Qin Cheng noticed that one of the wooden poles had been damaged in the storm, so the cables ended up torn and swaying in the wind.

Qin Cheng’s heart tightened, wanting to run to the tomb as fast as he could. However, Qin Cheng was 80% sure that Su Weiran had sent people to follow him. After taking a deep breath, Qin Cheng pretended to be calm and walked to the tomb as if it was nothing.

The tomb was so dark without light that Qin Cheng had to take out a flashlight from his bag, one he hadn’t had to use in a long time.

After walking through the tunnel, Qin Cheng finally arrived at the gates of the Underground Palace. The gates opened slowly as usual, but this time, the coffin chamber was so dark he couldn’t even see his own hands. Since the light of the flashlight was weak, Qin Cheng wasn’t able to find Su Jingmo at first.

‘ The pain in my heart is much worse now. I clearly said that I didn’t want to leave him alone in the dark…but in the end, what did I do?! ’

“Did you meet someone you can truly love while you were away?”

A familiar voice came behind him, and Qin Cheng hurried to turn around. Although the owner of that voice was smiling, his eyes were void of emotion.

Qin Cheng opened his mouth to reply. However, he couldn’t say what he wanted to say, or ask the things he wanted to ask….because, at the moment, he could vaguely see the white marble gates through Su Jingmo’s semi-transparent body….

As for why this happened, Qin Cheng knew it very well….

In an instant, Qin Cheng’s eyes turned red, and he could barely contain the overwhelming pain surging in his heart.

As he trembled uncontrollably, Qin Cheng said with a hoarse voice: “….The red maple and the ginkgo biloba trees in the south of the city of Xi’an are very beautiful…. I really wanted to take you there to see it….”

“….Jingmo….”

⭐🌟💫✨Extra Chapter from the Ko-fi Goal✨💫🌟⭐

Sorry for the delay!!! (づ◡﹏◡)づ💞💞

Ahhhhh we have finally reached ch 100th!!! We only have 44 chapters till the end! (including the extras ch) °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

Prepare your hearts, because the story will get really angsty from now on (っ´ω`)ﾉ(╥ω╥)

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(´,,•ω•,,) ♡

Footnotes

<ol>Something like <b>THIS</b> . Something like <b>THIS</b> .</ol>