They’re finally meeting!!!!!
In today’s world, very few people are aware of the existence of the Valiant Cavalry Army, as it is destined to be a force that exists in the darkness.
And regarding the leader of the Valiant Cavalry Army, even the current Emperor Qi He is not aware of their identity.
Unable to solicit the Valiant Cavalry Army, Emperor Qi He could only start with Wei Yun, who holds the Valiant Cavalry Order.
Whether it was Emperor Qi He, the Crown Prince, Prince Xin, or others who knew of the Valiant Cavalry Army, none could have imagined that the rumored mysterious leader of the Valiant Cavalry Army was actually just a nineteen-year-old youth.
At this moment, the youth dressed in a dark green long shirt, his numerous braids tied up with gold thread and dark green cords, had a forehead band of crow black and dark green colors, with a shiny gem set in a jade base in the middle. His facial contours were deep, not resembling someone from the Great Zhou Dynasty. He stood in Wei Yun’s courtyard, a long sword lying at his feet, arms crossed, looking indifferently at Wei Yun with a smile, “Sir, your martial arts are exceptional, yet you always hide your skill. It’s quite a pity.”
“In Yingdu, martial arts are the most useless thing,” Wei Yun said as he stepped up the stairs and sat down again in the pavilion, pouring a cup of tea.
Sheng Yueqi, upon hearing this, raised his eyebrows as if pondering for a moment before agreeing, “Seems to make sense.”
“I heard you were looking for me?” Sheng Yueqi walked into the pavilion on his own and sat down opposite Wei Yun, not avoiding the matter.
Wei Yun could not deny it, “You appeared just in time.”
Sheng Yueqi, by nature, was unrestrained and unpredictable, rarely could anyone easily find him. Wei Yun had thought that seeking him out would require considerable effort, yet unexpectedly, he had come of his own accord.
“There’s something I need your help with,” Wei Yun said.
Hearing this, Sheng Yueqi’s eyebrows instantly showed surprise, then he curved his lips, “It’s usually me asking for your help, but this time you’re seeking me… how curious.”
“Perhaps you could first say what help you need?”
As Sheng Yueqi spoke, he reached for the teapot on the table to pour himself a cup of tea, but unexpectedly, the movement of the teapot allowed him to catch sight of an object beside Wei Yun’s hand.
It was a copper pendant.
He stiffened for a moment, as if in disbelief, then rubbed his eyes.
Before Wei Yun could speak, Sheng Yueqi suddenly stood up, pointing at the copper pendant, blurting out, “How do you have this?!”
Seeing his surprised look at the copper pendant, Wei Yun’s pupils also shrank as if realizing something, and he immediately asked, “You recognize this object?”
Realizing he might have said too much, Sheng Yueqi stood there stiffly, his eyebrows tightly furrowed, showing a tense demeanor.
“Sheng Yueqi.”
Noticing his expression, Wei Yun knew this was no simple matter and fixed his gaze on Sheng Yueqi, “You better not hide anything.”
“It was just a mistaken recognition, why make it sound so alarming? This doesn’t seem like you,” Sheng Yueqi’s expression momentarily froze, but quickly, he showed a smile again, as if the previous lapse was just an illusion.
He straightened the slight creases on his robe and sat down again.
“Was it a mistaken recognition, or,”
Wei Yun grabbed the tassel of the copper pendant and placed it in front of Sheng Yueqi, “you already know its origin?”
Sheng Yueqi’s gaze fell on the copper pendant, and gradually, the smile on his lips faded.
“Is the matter you want my help with related to this object?”
Instead of answering Wei Yun’s question, he asked his own.
Wei Yun looked at him steadily, not denying it.
“This is just an ordinary copper pendant.” Sheng Yueqi lifted his eyes to look at Wei Yun once again, his gaze fixed on Wei Yun as he spoke, as if unwilling to miss any hint of emotion from him.
He seemed to want to deduce something from this.
“Sheng Yueqi, what exactly do you know?” Wei Yun easily saw through his thoughts at the moment.
Upon hearing this, Sheng Yueqi’s expression indeed stiffened.
After a moment, he said, “Perhaps you should first tell me how you came into possession of this copper pendant.”
Wei Yun couldn’t say he absolutely trusted Sheng Yueqi. Instead of relying on unfounded trust, he valued having leverage over others more.
And Sheng Yueqi’s vulnerability was precisely in his hands.
With no better options available at the moment, he chose to reveal the origin of the copper pendant, as well as the general details of how he came to know Xie Tao to Sheng Yueqi.
After hearing what Wei Yun had to say, Sheng Yueqi was stunned, his brows furrowed tightly.
“Impossible…”
Sheng Yueqi murmured suddenly.
Saying so, he reached out to take the copper pendant from Wei Yun’s hand but was dodged by Wei Yun.
“If you don’t let me see it, how can I be sure?” Sheng Yueqi said.
Hearing this, Wei Yun paused, then handed over the copper pendant to him.
Sheng Yueqi eagerly took the copper pendant, and under the light of a lamp under the eaves, he examined it back and forth several times, even gently tracing the patterns on it with his fingertips.
Noticing that the engraved phoenix seemed to have a broken tail feather, he touched the obvious break and after a while, softly said, “Indeed…”
“It seems you really recognize this item,” Wei Yun confirmed, seeing his expression.
At that moment, the night was falling, with sparse stars dotting the sky, the courtyard was silent, with only the occasional rustling of tree shadows stirred by the night wind. Sheng Yueqi’s gaze towards Wei Yun became even more complex.
“I’ve been looking for this thing for a long time, but never thought it would end up in your hands.”
After a while, he suddenly curved his lips into a smile, sighing softly.
“Sir knows I’ve been avoiding someone, so for many years, I couldn’t walk openly under the sun…”
He suddenly brought up this past.
“Do you know who that person is?”
Wei Yun adjusted his wide sleeves and looked down, his expression unclear, “If you don’t tell me, how would I know?”
Sheng Yueqi smiled, as if a secret he’d kept in his heart for many years finally saw the light of day. He seemed somewhat relieved, “It’s a woman, a woman who has lived for who knows how many years… If she finds me, she might kill me.”
“A woman?”
Wei Yun’s brow furrowed, his mind suddenly flashing to the mysterious woman who appeared in the alley that night.
Could it be her?
“Why don’t you answer a question for me first?” Sheng Yueqi smiled at him.
“What?” Wei Yun asked.
Sheng Yueqi took a sip of tea, his eyes carrying a more meaningful tease as he looked at Wei Yun, “The person from another world you’ve come to know… Is it a man or a woman?”
Wei Yun stiffened, but only for a moment, then he looked at him with a slightly cold expression, “What does it have to do with you?”
“It seems… it’s a woman,” Sheng Yueqi smiled knowingly.
He shook his head and suddenly began to sigh, “I always thought you would live your life alone, but who would have thought, a person as cold and heartless as you, could also have moments of affection?”
Sheng Yueqi always thought that Wei Yun should belong to those who are emotionless, cold, and distant. But now it seems, he had been mistaken from the start.
He suddenly became curious, what does that woman look like?
“Why bother liking a woman from another world? In this city of Ying, in this world, there are plenty of beautiful women with infinite charm. Why seek afar when you have them near?”
As Sheng Yueqi spoke, he casually took a piece of pastry and bit into it. Seeing Wei Yun’s look turning colder towards him, he placed the bitten piece back on the plate and cleared his throat, saying, “Seeing this copper pendant here with you, honestly, gave me quite the shock.”
“All these years, I’ve almost truly considered myself a person from ancient times.”
He suddenly said.
Upon hearing his words, Wei Yun seemed to keenly sense something, and immediately looked at Sheng Yueqi sitting opposite him, his eyes filling with surprise in an instant.
A guess suddenly formed in his heart, like a stone hitting the water, creating ripples that moved in waves.
“I really didn’t expect that the first person to know this secret of mine would be you… my lord,” Sheng Yueqi said with a gentle laugh, “Well, this is great, you’ve caught another hold over me.”
His tone was like self-mockery.
“Just as you thought, I, like your little girlfriend, am originally from another world.”
Sheng Yueqi no longer avoided it, and naturally used modern vocabulary in his conversation.
He indeed was a modern person, a true transmigrator, and of the soul-transmigrating type at that.
Nineteen years ago, he transmigrated to the Great Zhou Dynasty, inexplicably becoming the son of the leader of the valiant cavalry, forced to learn martial arts from the age of five and even study the secret techniques of foreign tribes.
Martial arts was the last thing he wanted to engage in, but his father was always one of the most serious and strict people.
Due to the bloodline inheritance of the valiant cavalry, his destiny was determined from birth.
Though he disliked martial arts, Sheng Yueqi was very willing to delve into the study of foreign secret techniques. He never gave up the idea of returning to the modern world and attempted it many times, but, in the end, never succeeded.
Even so, he did not give up.
Later on, with his ability to perform miracles, he didn’t return to the modern world but instead, a woman mysteriously appeared.
She does not allow him to use all the modern technologies that could have a profound impact on society as it is now, including projects that benefit the public or any new inventions unique to the modern society… and so on. None of these can appear in this era.
The woman said, if he dares to act rashly, she would dare to end his life.
It was only because he was young at the time, Sheng Yueqi really did test the limits dangerously countless times, each time drawing the woman’s intervention.
Later, there was a coup in Yingdu, the imperial palace changed hands overnight, and his father took him and all the valiant cavalry to flee to the ends of the earth. During his last attempt to cause trouble, he once again attracted the attention of that woman, who seemed to have a tracker installed on him.
The woman warned him, if he tried to test the limits again, she would make him drop dead on the spot.
It was then that he found a copper pendant belonging to that woman.
“This copper pendant was originally something I found belonging to that woman, but later I discovered that it could break through the barriers of time and space, allowing me to return to the modern era…”
When Sheng Yueqi talked about these things, his expression suddenly became elusive, “But after I went back, I found that I had been dead for many years in the modern era, without any friends or family. Everything had changed, so my strong desire to return just became the least of my concerns.”
“It’s really meaningless…” Sheng Yueqi suddenly sighed.
He had once eagerly looked forward to returning, but when he actually did, it felt as if it was something from his previous life.
He felt empty inside, as if he had lost something, yet it seemed it was supposed to be this way.
Since then, Sheng Yueqi began to live as a person from ancient times, but one who had to hide to survive.
Born from darkness, the valiant cavalry and he, because of that copper pendant, had to live a life shrouded in secrecy.
To avoid being tracked by that woman, these years were not pleasant for him.
But there was nothing he could do.
“Later, I wanted to return this thing to that woman, it must have been hard for her to track me for so long. I was tired, and she was tired, but who knew… My habit of losing things carelessly got the better of me, and I lost it.”
Sheng Yueqi said, “Unexpectedly, today I saw this old object with you.”
Wei Yun had never imagined that Sheng Yueqi was a person from another world.
Even though he had felt that this person’s behavior and style were somewhat unusual, since Sheng Yueqi was a foreigner and naturally different from the people of Great Zhou, besides that point, there was nothing else unusual, so Wei Yun did not notice anything.
It seems this person usually hid it well enough.
“Do you want to meet her?” Sheng Yueqi arranged the cups and plates in front of him neatly, then picked up a piece of cake he had bitten into, stuffed it into his mouth, and said, “Is it a long-distance relationship for you guys, but this is unbelievable, a love across time and space?”
“…”
Wei Yun kind of wanted him to shut up.
“Actually, you’re looking for me, you’ve found the right person.”
Considering Wei Yun’s feelings, Sheng Yueqi finished the cake, still with a smile on his face, appearing lazy and casual.
He rummaged in a leather pouch he carried with him and actually took out a brocade bag, handing it over to Wei Yun.
Wei Yun took it, opened the brocade bag, and saw inside a bag of fine, sand-like golden granules.
“What is this?” he looked towards Sheng Yueqi.
Sheng Yueqi smiled slightly, “Incense.”
Wei Yun knitted his brows, glancing again at the contents of the bag, seemingly half-believing.
If it was spices, how could it be as fine as dust?
“If you don’t believe it, sir, try pouring some into the incense burner tonight and light it up.”
Sheng Yueqi tied his pouch back around his waist and smoothed out his slightly wrinkled sleeves, standing there with a confident air.
“This bag of stuff cost me a lot of effort to acquire, and now that I don’t need it anymore, I’ll gift it to you, sir… Consider it thanks for helping me out of a dire situation back then, and for later looking after the Xiaoqi Army for me.”
At this moment, Sheng Yueqi’s face was no longer carrying a frivolous smile; his expression was especially solemn, and he even bowed to Wei Yun.
Having said that, he turned to leave.
“You can’t leave yet.” Wei Yun’s voice came from behind him.
Sheng Yueqi paused, turned around, “I’ve given you the stuff, do you intend to keep me for supper?”
“There’s one more thing you need to do for me.”
Wei Yun stood up, in the dense black night, the dim light stretched his figure very long.
“What else does the sir require?”
“Catch that woman for me.”
Upon hearing this, Sheng Yueqi immediately knew who the woman he was referring to, and quickly shook his head, “I can’t do that, she’ll take my life.”
“If you were really afraid of her, you wouldn’t have held onto that copper pendant for so long.”
Wei Yun hit the nail on the head.
“…”
Sheng Yueqi was unable to refute.
He wasn’t really hiding from that woman out of fear; after all, the various dangerous actions from before were timely stopped by her, not reaching the conditions for death. He just felt guilty about taking someone’s belongings and refusing to return them, and then losing them.
But since he saw the copper pendant here today, he felt that he might as well see her again.
And, incidentally, apologize.
“So, the sir is leaving me to deal with the aftermath…” he sighed with a smile, “Well, it’s fine. I’ve almost forgotten the taste of Yingdu’s delicacies; I’ll treat this as a trip.”
After revealing his identity as a time-traveler to Wei Yun, he became a bit more casual than before.
“It’s just that she knows magic and has some high-tech gadgets. I can’t guarantee that I can help you subdue her…” he said.
Wei Yun’s expression remained unchanged, simply stating, “There will always be a way.”
Effort brings success.
Even if the mysterious woman possessed unique skills, he was determined to find a way to lure her out and uncover the truth.
After Sheng Yueqi left, Wei Yun’s gaze fell on the copper pendant on the stone table and remained there for a long time.
A cold wind suddenly rose in the courtyard, scattering the moonlight through the gaps in the branches and leaves, covering the ground. Wei Yun took the copper pendant and the bag of gold powder that Sheng Yueqi had given him, left the pavilion, and turned towards the bathhouse in the backyard.
After bathing, Wei Yun changed into a snow-white robe, his wet hair draped over his shoulders, and returned to his bedroom.
By the lamplight, Wei Yun sat on the bed, staring at the bag of gold powder for a long time before turning his head to look at the incense burner on the table.
Tonight, no incense was burning in the room.
He poured some of the gold powder from the brocade bag into his palm. The grains were crystal clear and hard, not seeming like incense that could be burned.
Wei Yun clenched his hand, and the fine gold powder flowed through his fingers, scattering onto the bed edge or the carpeted floor.
It seemed like nothing special.
But Wei Yun glanced at the incense burner on the table again.
Whether Sheng Yueqi’s words were credible, he would know with a try.
So, he stood up, barefoot, walked to the purple sandalwood table, opened the brocade bag, and when he lowered his wrist, the gold powder poured down, sparkling under the lamp light, gradually falling into the incense burner.
Taking a fire starter, he only probed its flaming end into the incense burner for a moment, and smoke gradually began to rise from the gaps of the incense burner.
After putting away the fire starter, Wei Yun saw the smoke swirling more intensely, like the perpetual mist that shrouds the mythical palaces in legends, quickly spreading throughout the room, bringing a faint fragrance that was particularly refreshing.
Wei Yun frowned.
He casually tossed the brocade bag onto the table, his expression as cold as frost and snow, and suddenly let out a sneer.
Sheng Yueqi’s audacity was growing, daring to deceive him?
But, at that moment,
Just as he was about to turn around, he saw the smoke from the incense burner, thick and thin, gradually gathering together, slowly forming a silhouette like soft clouds on the horizon, spreading and outlining a person’s figure from blurry to clear, in just a moment.
Wei Yun’s pupils shrank in astonishment.
He stood there, utterly disbelieving.
The smoke had unknowingly dissipated, and the girl’s figure was fully revealed before Wei Yun.
She was still wrapped in a barely-holding blanket, her figure emerging from the mist with her eyes still closed, as if still asleep, with no support for her body, about to fall to the ground.
In an instant, Wei Yun subconsciously reached out to support her waist.
That slender waist, with a grip full of sensation, through the thin fabric, his palm pressed against her waist, making Wei Yun’s entire being pause.
It was an absolutely real touch.
No longer through the light screen of the copper pendant.
But at this moment, he felt it was so unreal.
The quilt in front of him fell down, revealing the thin nightgown she wore inside, and he caught a glimpse of her neckline missing a button, unprepared.
Her fair neck, delicate collarbones, made his ears turn red immediately, even that cold, pale face inadvertently gained a light blush.
At a loss, he hurriedly reached out to pull the quilt up, wrapping her tightly.
His breathing became somewhat disordered.
Perhaps his frantic actions woke her, the girl frowned and suddenly opened her eyes.
Her gaze met his chin.
And he, stiff all over, looked down to meet her newly opened, blurry sleepy eyes.
The moonlight outside the window poured in, intertwining with the light of the lamp inside the room, creating shadows and brightness. The smoke from the incense burner became fainter, but that hidden fragrance still lingered.
Like a dream veiled in gauze, everything around seemed to blur, the moonlight reflected outside the window and the daylight shining through, inch by inch, landed on her shoulders, on his heart.
Such a bright and illuminating sprinkle, like a flurry of crystal snow, like the steam rising from a tea cup, dreamlike and illusory.
She with her blurry eyes,
He with his astonished gaze,
Facing each other,
As if, in a dream, not knowing oneself is a guest.
