Shen Tanqi received his consent, gently releasing the original Yu Ce from his embrace. Just as he was about to say something, a voice came from behind.
“Ah Qi.”
Turning around, he smiled and greeted Yu Ce who had just come down from the trial platform, “Come here, I have something to tell you.”
Yu Ce originally felt a bit annoyed seeing them embrace, but seeing Shen Tanqi’s smile, he suppressed his dissatisfaction and walked over to his side, pulling Shen Tanqi to his side like asserting his dominance, “Why are you hugging him?”
Shen Tanqi glanced at him and said, “Are you jealous? You’re such a vinegar jar.”
Yu Ce pursed his lips and said, “Even if it’s me, it’s not okay.”
“Alright,” Shen Tanqi looked up at the points panel; Yu Ce had already leapt to the front row. He relaxed, smiling as he said, “Don’t be jealous; he was you in the past. The system said it wants to merge your codes.”
Afraid Yu Ce wouldn’t understand, Shen Tanqi carefully explained, “It means his memories will merge with yours.”
Hearing this, Yu Ce’s gaze passed over Shen Tanqi’s head and looked at the original Yu Ce, who was wearing a veil, and whispered, “What’s the use of having memories from my past?”
Shen Tanqi tugged at his sleeve and pulled him close, whispering softly, “But I really don’t want to see you leave, even if it’s your past.”
Every time he said goodbye to Yu Ce, it felt like a piece of his heart was being cut out. Even though he knew Yu Ce was still by his side, the pain of parting was so real.
Yu Ce reached out and rubbed Shen Tanqi’s cheek, softly coaxing, “How could I leave you? Have you just cried?”
Shen Tanqi shook his head and said, “Then do you want to merge? If you don’t want to, I can only let him go.”
Hearing his words, Yu Ce fell silent for a moment and whispered, “I want to.”
Accepting his past self was not a problem at all, as long as Ah Qi did it out of love for him, he would be willing to do anything he said.
He hadn’t expected Ah Qi to feel so deeply for him, coming up with the idea of merging their codes.
Original Yu Ce slowly raised his head to look at them. He murmured something to Yu Ce in a barely audible voice, a faint smile playing on his lips. ‘Thanks.’
The moment Yu Ce agreed, the system immediately began integrating their codes.
In less than half a minute, the system swiftly completed everything, happily saying, “Mission accomplished!”
Shen Tanqi turned back to see the crowd passing before his eyes, and in the blink of an eye, original Yu Ce’s figure had disappeared from where he stood. He heard Yu Ce’s voice, slightly pained,
“His memories…”
Shen Tanqi snapped back to reality, quickly looking at Yu Ce, anxiously asking, “What’s wrong? Do you feel anything?”
Yu Ce gently rubbed his forehead, silent for a moment, saying, “It hurts, Ah Qi, press it for me.”
Shen Tanqi widened his eyes, quickly reaching out to press Yu Ce’s forehead, anxiously blaming himself, “Is it better now? It’s all my fault, if only I had…”
Seeing his concern, Yu Ce chuckled lightly, saying, “I’m kidding. It’s fine, really, I don’t feel anything.”
After all, it was his own memory. What special feeling could there be?
Shen Tanqi gritted his teeth, punching him in the chest.
Yu Ce winced, gripping Shen Tanqi’s wrist. From the clear depths of Shen Tanqi’s eyes, he saw his own reflection, sighing helplessly, “But the only thing I do feel is a bit annoyed seeing my own face right now.”
Shen Tanqi: …
It turned out there was nothing at all.
Fang Wenxun happened to be returning with Taro Ball and Goldfish after buying candied haws, and was pleasantly surprised to see Yu Ce finishing his trial, quickly leading the two kids over to congratulate him.
“Congratulations, Junior Brother! It looks like the Rongyun Sect will depend on you for the next two matches!” Fang Wenxun said proudly, as if he had taken first place himself.
The two little ones happily shook the candied haws in their hands, eager to offer them to Yu Ce as a reward for his achievement.
Yu Ce lowered his eyes, his gaze falling on Taro Ball, staring at him for a while.
Taro Ball’s originally cheerful face gradually lost its smile as Yu Ce stared at him like this, replaying all the wrongs he had done recently in his mind.
What did he do recently? Why did his father look at him like that, with such deep and serious eyes? It’s so scary… Wuu wuu.
Could it be because of talking to that man who resembled his father last night, and his father found out?
But that man had already left, hadn’t he?
Taro Ball couldn’t figure it out, trembling, and was about to ask Yu Ce what he had done.
Suddenly, Yu Ce bent down, tightly hugging both little ones and gently rubbing their heads one by one.
Yu Ce rarely made such intimate gestures towards them, at most hugging them when they couldn’t walk as toddlers.
Taro Ball was stunned by the hug, hearing Yu Ce softly say in his ear, “Thank you Erdan.”
“Huh?” Taro Ball blinked in confusion. Why was father suddenly being polite? He pushed the candied haws into Yu Ce’s hand and whispered, “What are you thanking for, Father? You’re really strange.”
Yu Ce stood up, smiling without saying a word.
At this moment, he understood Shen Tanqi’s intentions—Ah Qi was giving his past self a chance.
Under the scorching sun, the carriages from Rongyun Sect sent to pick up disciples for the Wenqiu City had arrived. There were about twenty of them, all parked on the vast open space in the western outskirts of Shuoxia, waiting for all the disciples to finish their demon-slaying trials before heading together to the next alchemy trial.
Yu Ce had indeed prepared well for the alchemy trial.
But before that, he had something else to attend to.
The memories from the so-called ‘original book’ had revealed quite a bit to him, especially one segment that he couldn’t ignore.
About Shen Tanqi after his death in the original book…
In the memory, the original Yu Ce left alone after Shen Tanqi’s body fell off the cliff.
Shen Tanqi disappeared.
The Shen family searched everywhere for their young master’s whereabouts, but when he couldn’t be found, the head of the Shen family, in a fit of rage, paid a hefty sum to invite a saintly monk from Golden light Temple. Only monks from the Golden light Temple could calculate fortunes, understand yin and yang, and know one’s fate.
The monk performed a ritual to search for Shen Tanqi’s soul and received an answer that shocked everyone—
Shen Tanqi’s soul had vanished from this world when he was just ten years old.
Yu Ce was certain that this segment of memory was not fabricated. He vaguely felt there must be a reason behind it, but he would have to wait for a quieter moment to discuss it further with Ah Qi.
Amidst the bustling noise, the carriages from outside the city arrived. Xiao Qingyu, sent by Rongyun Sect to pick them up, waved from afar as soon as he got off the carriage, signaling to Shen Tanqi and the others.
“Senior Brother, come quickly.”
Xiao Qingyu had brought a lot of spirit herbs and fairy water for alchemy, all specially packed into the carriages by the sect leader and elders who were worried and paid for out of their own pockets.
Shen Tanqi approached him with curiosity, saying, “Why is our carriage so grand? It’s like we’re bullying everyone else.”
“Senior Brother, where did you get that idea?” Xiao Qingyu leaned in closer, covering his mouth with his hand, and whispered, “Do you think other sects didn’t bring their own stock? The Elder from Dan Feng said that in alchemy trials, it’s about showcasing the sect’s strength. As the saying goes, you need a diamond to cut glass, and without rice, even the cleverest wife can’t cook…”
Listening to his chatter, Shen Tanqi couldn’t help but smile. “When did you pick up this habit of talking like Senior Brother Fang?”
Xiao Qingyu pretended to be annoyed and glared at him, saying, “Don’t underestimate the competition. I checked the rankings. Although Senior Brother Yu is ranked high now, do you know who’s currently first on the leaderboard?”
Shen Tanqi hadn’t really paid attention to who was first. He casually glanced at the leaderboard, where three large characters shone brightly: “Lin Tanjiu?”
Well, that was unexpected.
Feeling proud, he said, “I know the first place—it’s my younger sister!”
Xiao Qingyu chuckled at his carefree demeanor, then sighed helplessly. “But Senior Brother, your cousin is from the Feiluan Sect, not our Rongyun Sect. If they take the top spot, the sect leader will be furious and lose sleep for seven days and seven nights. We won’t have an easy time then.”
That made sense.
Now that the threat of the plot collapsing was gone, Shen Tanqi was less concerned about winning or losing in the sect grand competition. He casually replied, “If someone else can win, it’s their skill. We just need to do our best.”
Upon hearing this, Xiao Qingyu was momentarily speechless. After a while, he managed to say, “Senior Brother, are you really doing your best?”
Shen Tanqi’s expression faltered slightly, and he lowered his head. “Do you think I could win even if I gave it my all?”
Yu Ce and Lin Tanjiu—both were protagonists, children of destiny.
He didn’t have the ability to surpass Yu Ce and Lin Tanjiu?
“What’s impossible?” Xiao Qingyu looked at him with apparent confusion. “Senior Brother, your talent is better than mine and Senior Brother Fang’s. You’ve been working hard lately. Why not?”
He often saw Shen Tanqi and Yu Ce studying alchemy texts together. While Shen Tanqi usually held the books and asked questions, Yu Ce intentionally gave wrong answers to tease him.
But Shen Tanqi wasn’t any less knowledgeable than Yu Ce, in his view. So, he didn’t necessarily think Shen Tanqi would lose to them.
Hearing this, Shen Tanqi slowly raised his eyes and glanced again at the points board. His ranking was far below Lin Tanjiu and Yu Ce, but next to the disciples who had won the trials, there was a symbol of a crimson lotus flower.
There was one next to his name.
It was from winning first place in the demon-slaying trial.
Shen Tanqi dared not think whether he could truly surpass Lin Tanjiu and Yu Ce. Although he knew he hadn’t really given his all.
He had always used the excuse of the plot collapsing, but he had never asked himself if he truly wanted to be first.
Perhaps he had thought about it. When Yu Ce had joked, ‘Maybe the person standing at the top is you?’ he had imagined himself wielding a sword and purging demons.
He had faced too many setbacks in the first half of his life, nearly losing the courage to act. His motto was that as long as he didn’t act, he wouldn’t fail.
Could he… perhaps take a chance in his own life?
Shen Tanqi withdrew his gaze from the points board, and when he looked back at Xiao Qingyu, his eyes were more determined. “Thanks, Junior Brother!”
Xiao Qingyu was puzzled as he watched Shen Tanqi happily run back to Yu Ce, seemingly to discuss something important with him.
He didn’t say anything else, right?
Shen Tanqi rushed back to Yu Ce’s side, his eyes still sparkling like a bunny that had found a carrot. He exclaimed excitedly, “Yu Ce, I’ve made up my mind about something.”
In truth, he rarely made decisions in his life, like a small boat being pushed by the wind and waves.
To actually decide on something, he felt unexpectedly happy.
Seeing Yu Ce’s serious expression as he listened attentively, Shen Tanqi suddenly felt inexplicably embarrassed, his confidence waning. He whispered softly, “In the upcoming competition, I… I want to come in first.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Yu Ce seemed to smile. He seemed to think of something, held back, then pulled Shen Tanqi close and said, “Alright, I support you.”
“Why are you smiling?” Shen Tanqi’s ears turned even redder, feeling like a grade schooler.
Usually idle, suddenly telling his top-student desk mate before an exam that he wanted to surpass him.
So embarrassing, so immature.
Damn it, he wouldn’t say such things in the future.
Yu Ce cupped his face, gazing deeply into his eyes. “I wasn’t laughing at you. I just think when you’re serious, you’re especially…”
Shen Tanqi felt a bit embarrassed, lifting his gaze to glare at him. “Especially what?”
Yu Ce took the veil from Shen Tanqi’s palm, gently placing it on his head, then leaned in and lightly kissed the corner of Shen Tanqi’s lips under the veil.
A fleeting touch, a gentle caress, with a deep, knowing smile.
“Especially adorable.”
Hello, everyone ヾ(＾∇＾). I hope you enjoyed the story! If you’re feeling generous, please buy me a coffee, share/comment on my translated works! Check out the link below for early chapters. (๑>ᴗ<๑)
