When was it... that my fate had changed?
Liu Yu’s mory felt sowhat blurred.
I rember when I was very young, I was really quite ordinary, skinny and weak, poor at schooling, lazy with tasks. My father would chase after , scolding and hitting, while my mother doted and protected . If things had gone as expected, I would have turned into a spoiled youth who by middle age, had squandered the family savings and beco destitute, right?
But tragedy struck swiftly. My capable businessman of a father suddenly died while abroad. His death was shrouded in secrecy among the locals, but I still managed to glean so information. I heard he had been killed by the Water Ghosts, his skin flayed from his body.
As a sea rchant, life was always a gamble with death, seldom ending in peaceful old age. My short-lived father used to say each voyage would be his last, yet he could never restrain himself from the next. Many of the village elders used to say he’d sooner or later die at sea, and it hadn’t taken long for that to co true.
There’s a saying in the Central Plains, "Misfortunes never co singly." It aptly described my situation back then. With my father having invested all our capital into cargo for a slow ship that never returned, our household was almost entirely ruined, and to make matters worse, my mother fell ill at that ti.
The illness was rare, requiring costly dicines to keep her alive.
Without my father, the breadwinner, and relying solely on our modest assets, how could we cope?
Thus, the furniture was sold, the house was sold, everything was sold. In the end, we were even forced to move to a farmhouse.
Fortunately, our family still owned so ager property back in our hotown, just enough to scrape by.
My mother didn’t want to continue treatnt. She believed from the beginning that we shouldn’t have sought it, that at least she could leave sothing for her children. She blad her own desires to see her child married and having offspring, her own greed for life.
I couldn’t understand why my mother would say such a thing. Isn’t it normal for people to cling to life? What was wrong with that?
So, behind my mother’s back, I continued to sell off belongings to buy dicine for her. While sorting out the inherited estate, I found an old journal, thinking it was an antique, I decided to take it to so learned Scholar to exchange it for money.
That was the first ti I regretted not having studied properly. If only I had understood so of it, I wouldn’t have sold my father’s collection of good calligraphy and paintings for next to nothing...
I beca a bit savvier later on, but I couldn’t sell that ancient book because many Scholars believed the text was nonsensical scribbling, not real writing, and didn’t see it as a valuable antique.
I rember that in order to sell the book, I made a special trip back to the county, went without food for a whole day, and due to heavy rainfall that night, couldn’t make it ho. The following day, I returned ho famished only to discover... that my mother had already died...
Her corpse was rotting!
Relatives, anxious to seize our house and land, paid no heed. I was so distraught at that mont. After my mother’s death, I didn’t even know what to do for a while.
But it was during that ti that I t a girl.
A very beautiful girl, so they say, born to Widow Wang next door — as pretty as a sculptured doll. Many believed Widow Wang would sell the girl, whispers even suggested that so major brothels had already taken notice of this village sweetheart.
The little girl called herself Ali, a na she chose for herself, disliking the one her mother had given her. She said she just felt she should have this na.
She was very special, not just beautiful but also able to understand the text in my ancient book.
Back then, I had already lost interest in everything, but her reading of the book’s text enthralled .
The content of the book was strange, like stories from a storytelling session but far more fascinating than those tedious tales invented by Scholars.
It told of a person from another world and his encounters in this world!
The story was bizarre, absurd, but intriguing. The more one listened, the more captivating it beca. An Underwater Dragon Palace, Nine Heavens Mirror, Celestial Serpent Palace, Ghost Domain — this world concealed many terrifying things, all quietly waiting in the darkness for their return.
As we listened, the girl and I began to feel as if it were all real, which led to a bold decision.
We planned to follow the book’s guidance to seek out certain items, starting with the one closest to us.
That item lay deep within the mountains behind our village, in a spot where odd noises were sotis heard, a place the villagers dared not approach, proclaiming it was haunted by specters. The book claid it was called Twilight Mountain, and hidden within was an ancient object capable of traversing realms. If one could possess it, a lot of effort could be saved.
The book’s protagonist had discovered this place but then stumbled upon an even more terrifying truth, which prevented him from touching it. In the end, he decided to lead an unambitious life in these last peaceful days; he wanted to amass wealth, marry a handful of beautiful wives, and live the life of a rich landowner.
He always chose to live near here, for the convenience, so that once he grew tired of this mundane life and longed for one last splendid adventure, he could head to Twilight Mountain. However, in the end, he never did — perhaps, in this life, he never grew bored.
Liu Yu was skeptical about the book’s protagonist’s words, figuring him for a fanciful liar. But that man... was his ancestor. After so thought, he decided to give it a try and see if this unreliable forebearer was truly mad.
That decision... changed his entire life!
Listening to Liu Yu slowly recount a childhood story, Chen Qing’s eyes widened and he was completely stunned.
There were many things in this world that could not surprise him, after all, he had created them himself; how surprised could he really be?
But the matter at hand ... he just couldn’t hold it in anymore...
"Your ancestor ... is ..."
"Ah ...," Liu Yu said with a smile, "He should be the sa as you, from that so-called ... another world, right?"
Chen Qing: " ..."
Is that so ...
That guy ... he’s already dead, huh ...
Chen Qing suddenly burst out laughing, sighing to himself: This little brat!
To think that he had been so worried for him, only for the guy to end up doing quite well for himself, marrying a dozen wives and becoming a landowner. What a good-for-nothing ...
But it was just like before. He rembered asking that kid in the previous life, what was his biggest dream after making money?
He said it was to marry Liu Yifei.
This kind of loser ... what big things could he possibly achieve here?
"You seem happy?" Liu Yu looked at Chen Qing and said.
"Pretty happy ..." Chen Qing looked at Liu Yu, his expression sowhat different: "Your ancestor ... had a good life."
"Is that so?" Liu Yu said with a smile, "Actually, I also thought about following in his footsteps. After traveling around the world I too felt tired. Seeing so many terrifying things, the terrifying truth, I’ve always felt too insignificant. So, I was planning to beco a rich landowner like my old ancestor. I even had the land purchased."
"Oh?"
"Don’t you doubt it ... I really planned that because it seed so far away anyway. Plus, with my abilities, as long as I don’t get married or have children, without any concerns, the chaos of this world could hardly threaten . I could live more carefree than anyone. Life is short, just a few hundred years, how is not the sa as how?"
"What changed your mind?" Chen Qing asked curiously.
"The King of Qin!"
Chen Qing: " ..."
Liu Yu said with a smile, "I always thought that my ancestor was unique, but I was wrong. People like you always erge in this world, always changing it because of you. The mont I saw what the King of Qin did, I knew he was just like my ancestor!"
"I was very curious at that ti because I wanted to know, if a person like my ancestor chose not to settle for the ordinary, what could he achieve?"
"After all, he once said in his autobiography, that if he ever got tired of an ordinary life, he would stir things up fiercely. But by the end of the book, he never tried to do that ..."
"So, I really wanted to know the other outco, which is why ... I chose to follow the King of Qin!"
Chen Qing listened, puzzled: "But I heard that the King of Qin didn’t end up too well?"
"The process was great!" Liu Yu said excitedly, "He showed once how a mortal man could suppress the ancients, how a mortal man’s power could change the world!"
"After that, I knew ... I would never choose the sa path as my ancestor!!!"
-------------------------------
West Sea:
Zi Yue, who had been tracking the traces of the Heavenly Ghost Octopus all the way, arrived at the spot where Chen Qing disappeared. Looking at the remnants left behind, Zi Yue’s eyes flashed with extrely complex emotions.
"I knew it ... You didn’t die, and Ali still didn’t believe it!"
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