For a full hour, Chen Qing and Shen Qi carefully searched for Murong Yunji.
They could sense the presence of other living people along the way, but no one dared to get close. Clearly, Murong Yunji's actions had made many people more vigilant, avoiding contact whenever possible.
In this situation, it's impossible to even find someone to gather information.
They initially thought they would only find out what had happened after finding Murong or Ziyue, but an unexpected event soon occurred.
"It's nice to meet you again, Your Highness, King of Qin."
A very familiar voice made Chen Qing look over, and he frowned slightly.
At this moment, the last people he wanted to encounter were his compatriots who possessed more information than he did.
"What a coincidence," Chen Qing said, smiling at the other person, but becoming wary inwardly.
Unbeknownst to him, there were actually very few people in this world who could make him wary, but the person in front of him was definitely one of them.
" Third Young Master Wang."
The other person smiled and said, "That's too formal. Just call me Shiyu, like before."
The person who arrived was Wang Shiyu.
Looking at the other person's smile, Chen Qing felt a complex mix of emotions.
Like himself, the other person had been studying in the capital, crammed together in the Confucius Temple. Among a group of ordinary scholars, they were quite ordinary. Chen Qing still remembered that the two of them saved money together, getting up early in the morning to go to the mountains to cut wild vegetables and cook noodles.
Steaming hot noodles, sitting at the doorway, discussing the wonderful life of becoming a county magistrate after passing the imperial examination.
They've hidden themselves really well, those little devils.
"Things are different now," Chen Qing said with a smile. "If I had known your identity back then, Third Young Master, I would never have troubled you to eat wild vegetable noodles with me."
"You really could only afford wild vegetable noodles?" the other person said with a wry smile. "Back then, my status was awkward, and I was scolded by my stepmother. I didn't have much money to squander. Those unscrupulous vendors in the capital dared to sell a bowl of plain noodles for eighty coins. If I hadn't gone to the mountains with you to dig for wild vegetables, I would have starved to death long ago."
"Is that so?" Chen Qing chuckled. "With such a noble status, how can you manage to live such a dependent life?"
"Is there anything you can't adjust to?" Wang Shiyu looked at Chen Qing and said quietly, "When we first came here, we lived a life of dependence on others, and we lived that life for many years."
"There's a story behind it?"
"Having lived so many years, who doesn't have a story to tell?" Wang Shiyu led Chen Qing towards a back garden of the palace. "Want to hear one?"
"Tell me about it," Chen Qing said, seemingly unconcerned about falling into any trap.
"Let me think... When I first arrived, it seemed like the times were pretty good. We hadn't yet entered the chaotic high-magic era. Although some old people liked to tell stories about demons and monsters, they always felt very distant from me."
"Back then, I was quite lucky compared to my fellow countrymen. There were five children in my family, and because I was smart, my family saved money to support my education. I became a student at the age of ten, and I was a child prodigy that everyone in the surrounding villages talked about. My parents were very proud of me, and everyone in the village was incredibly kind to me. When my family couldn't afford to support me anymore, I remember that it was the old village chief who took the lead in getting everyone in the village to chip in to send me to the county school."
"I remember the harvest wasn't good back then, and some families didn't even have a single egg to eat during the Lunar New Year, but they were willing to sell hundreds of eggs for me."
"To be honest, for a long time I couldn't understand it. Was this kind of investment serious? What if I didn't pass the exam? What if I passed and then turned my back on me?"
"Did you pass the exam?" Chen Qing asked with a smile.
"How stupid would a modern person be if they had memories of their past life, years of basic education, and still couldn't beat kids their own age in ancient times?"
"That's true." Chen Qing nodded. He was a science student, and he was particularly bad at memorizing texts and writing essays in his previous life. But he had lived for so many years, had the mind of an adult, and had many years of basic education. So, if he couldn't even pass the imperial examination in ancient times, it would indeed be a disgrace to a time traveler.
"And then?" Chen Qing looked at him; surely his story couldn't be that mundane?
"Then I passed the exam and got into the second-class level. Because I didn't have any connections, I couldn't stay in Beijing. But fortunately, I was a good person and made some good classmates. With the help of my teachers, I got a good county magistrate position, which happened to be in my hometown. So the people in my hometown got the reward they wanted. Everyone in the village received tax-free land, and many people started businesses through me and lived a relatively prosperous life."
"Every time I go back, I'm praised by the villagers, and every household tells me how I've changed them."
"That sounds like a good start."
"A good beginning often doesn't end well." The other person's voice turned sinister. "More than ten years of nurturing kindness, the feelings we shared, my subsequent repayment—I originally thought that after so many years of contact, even if they knew my identity one day, things wouldn't change much. After all, they treated me sincerely, and I treated them sincerely in return."
"Then it seems like a tragedy." Chen Qing had almost already foreseen the ending.
"Otherwise what?" the other person laughed. "After my identity was exposed, my father was the first to be beaten to death. My two unmarried sisters, so young, were tortured into such terrible condition, just because the villagers wanted to know if they were like me. You see, the human heart is terrifying, isn't it?"
"At least your family has treated you fairly," Chen Qing said.
"That's what I thought at first too." The other person scoffed, "Until I exhausted every possible means, risking my life to rescue my mother and one of my sisters, but in the end, I died at their hands."
Chen Qing: "."
"They hated me so much that they beat me to a pulp. No matter how much I begged or explained, they wouldn't listen."
As Wang Shiyu spoke, he looked up at Chen Qing and said, "I've lived for so long, and even now, I still remember their hideous faces and their vicious curses when they tortured and killed me."
Both Chen Qing and Shen Qi fell silent after hearing the other's story.
"So what are you trying to say?" Chen Qing asked, frowning.
"I didn't mean to say anything," the other person laughed. "I'm just sharing an experience I had. I know someone like you won't change easily, and I don't expect to change you with my own experience. I'm just telling you that you might think you were right, but we weren't wrong either!"
"You," Chen Qing looked into the distance, "Does that include them?"
In the garden, a group of people were clearly waiting. They were dressed in various styles; some wore black robes embroidered with the moon, like Wang Shiyu, while others wore white robes embroidered with the Radiant Sun.
There were also a few people who didn't have any specific uniforms, but they shared a common feature: they all had scales on their bodies and a pair of clearly snake-like eyes.
Shen Qi immediately became alert. This group of people did not release any aura, but his intuition told him that this group was dangerous enough to be even more dangerous than Ziyue!
Chen Qing was also wary, but unlike Shen Qi's intuition, he truly understood why this group of people were dangerous.
I was also puzzled as to why this group of people could get together.
Shouldn't they be competitors? Is the group going to turn against them?
He wasn't too afraid. Even if the other party was a reincarnation of a powerful player, the power they could use now wouldn't exceed the Dragon King Level, not to mention that in the current situation, no one could use Transcendent power.
"His Highness the King of Qin has finally arrived." A woman's voice came from the crowd. "We've been waiting for you for a long time."
"You waited specifically for me?" Chen Qing laughed. "So this was a trap set specifically for me?"
" Your King of Qin is overthinking this," a somber-looking young man said calmly. "We're waiting for you to come so that we can unite against a common enemy. Whatever you may want to do, you should stand on our side now."
"Oh?" Chen Qing asked curiously, "What is it that makes you so certain I'll be on your side?"
" The Black Queen is dead," Wang Shiyu said.
" The Black Queen?" Chen Qing was taken aback. "Who?"
"That one in the Great Jin Imperial Palace!"
Chen Qing: "!!"