Given Yu Yi’s personality, he could stop her once but not forever. If he forcibly took her back, she would hate him. He understood her well enough to know she would find ways to return and change the course of events. If he repeatedly stopped her, she would become increasingly angry and eventually begin to hate him.
In the end, he couldn’t overcome her will, and he didn’t want their relationship to reach that point.
The sound of horse-drawn carriages approaching came from the distance.
Yu Yi took out her telescope and looked in the direction of the sound. There were two carriages. The first was not a common civilian carriage but a style reserved for third-rank officials and above – certainly Chen Gao’s. The second carriage was much more ordinary, likely for attendants and servants. Chen Gao, currently a deputy minister of justice, would not bring many escorts while traveling outside Longdu City.
Yu Yi turned to look at Meng Qing, unable to hold back her tears. She immediately turned back, took a deep breath, covered her face, and waited quietly for the carriages to approach.
As the carriages reached them, Yu Yi leaped out. The horses neighed in fright, the driver cried out in surprise, and the curtain lifted. A guard immediately pushed the driver aside and assumed a defensive posture.
Yu Yi quickly subdued him with two moves, then pulled down the curtain. Another guard inside immediately tried to protect the panicked Chen Gao.
Yu Yi threw a dagger at the guard, then immediately followed the dagger and lunged forward. The guard instinctively deflected the dagger, leaving his chest exposed and unable to block Yu Yi’s subsequent strike. The guard, struck heavily in the chest, could barely breathe and collapsed to one side, weakly swinging his knife at Yu Yi, but it was ineffective against Yu Yi’s bulletproof system.
Yu Yi drew another dagger from her waist and stabbed it into Chen Gao’s chest, piercing his heart. Chen Gao’s eyes widened, and he slumped softly on the carriage floor. Yu Yi didn’t spare him another glance, leaping out of the carriage and sprinting away.
She ran through reed bushes taller than a person, with Meng Qing closely following her. Sunlight filtered through the green reed leaves, creating quick circular light spots on their bodies.
After running for a while, she suddenly stopped. Everything was over, Chen Gao was dead, her father should no longer be harmed by Chen Gao, so why hadn’t she disappeared?
She suddenly turned to look at Meng Qing, her face bearing a joyful yet puzzled smile: “Qing, I… am still here.”
Meng Qing’s expression remained gloomy. He looked at her sadly: “The impact between different time and space is not immediately effective.”
Because you’ve crossed multiple time and space boundaries, there’s a progressive evolution of over three years, so you won’t disappear immediately…”
Yu Yi’s smile faded: “How much time do I have left?”
Meng Qing shook his head: “I don’t know, probably… not very long.”
Yu Yi looked at him and smiled: “Then I’ll give you all my remaining time.”
He embraced her, kissing her passionately. He had never been this aggressive before, but she loved it.
She kissed him back just as passionately, holding him tightly. Whispering in his ear: “I love you. Qing, I’m so glad I met you!”
If I could have only one moment in life, I wish it to be this moment, staying with you until my last second.
He cried. Holding her so tightly she could barely breathe, he buried his head in her neck: “I love you too. I don’t want to forget you.”
His tears flowed warmly. She kept calling his name: “Qing, Qing…” until her consciousness blurred.
—
She disappeared in an instant.
One moment Meng Qing was holding her tightly, the next his arms were empty, realizing she was gone completely. He knelt in the grass, looking around bewildered. She had vanished without a trace.
He trembled, calling Lin Bai: “Where’s Yu Yi? Can you still find her?”
“What happened? Weren’t you supposed to stop her?” Lin Bai had intended to monitor them, but an emergency with another executor had distracted him.
When he returned, Meng Qing was alone.
“She’s gone. Can you find her?”
“Strange, I can’t locate her, not in any time or space…”
Meng Qing closed his eyes, hot tears sliding down: “Then, she succeeded.”
Lin Bai was shocked: “What? You didn’t stop her?”
“I didn’t…” Meng Qing suddenly opened his eyes in surprise, “Why haven’t I forgotten her?”
“I haven’t forgotten her either. If, as you said, she successfully changed history, we should forget her. Maybe it’s just delayed. Memory is an impression of the past, so memory might disappear slightly later than her actual self,” Lin Bai pondered.
Meng Qing took out a jade dragonfly. They had found this piece of jade while playing in a stream at Xiye Manor. He had it carved into a dragonfly, intending to give it to her as a New Year’s gift, but never got the chance before she disappeared forever.
He stared at the jade dragonfly, hoping to preserve some trace of her existence while his memory of her remained.
Chapter 155: The Second First Encounter
“The spring morning sunlight was brilliant, a gentle breeze caressing branches with new buds. Paired birds chirped on the branches.”
Yu Yi looked up at the birds, feeling a slight resentment. This was the most beautiful season of the year, the most leisurely time of day. On such a lovely spring day, she could only walk in the rear garden of the marquis’s residence.
It was a day off.
Her father had invited colleagues to go boating, and Hong Rui had also gone out with classmates.
She envied the birds, able to fly beyond the wall and soar in the vast blue sky. Ah, but such thoughts were futile. She only had this brief moment of leisure before returning to practice painting.
Yu Yi sighed, walking into the garden pavilion. Moon Peach quickly wiped the dust from a bench and laid a thin cloth cushion. Yu Yi smoothed her skirt and sat down lightly. Spring Swallow handed her a travelogue.
Yu Yi flipped through a few pages but found herself unable to focus on the book. She looked up towards the pair of birds among the cherry trees, noticing they were still there, becoming more intimate. One bird was flying around the other, hopping back and forth on the branches, seeming to dance joyfully.
Yu Yi found it interesting and closed her book, watching them for a while. She said to her two maids, “Bring me my painting supplies. The sun is warm and pleasant, so I won’t go back to my room. I’ll paint these birds here in the pavilion today.”
Chun Yan and Yue Tao agreed and went to her room to fetch the supplies.
Yu Yi continued watching the birds when suddenly she heard someone call her name: “Yu Yi.”
Yu Yi slightly furrowed her brow. No one had ever called her by her full name before, not even her parents. She turned to look in the direction of the voice and saw a young man standing outside the pavilion, around twenty-six or seven years old. His features were delicate, with clear, deep black eyes. He was dressed ordinarily but stood with an upright posture and a confident, composed demeanor.
Seeing that he was not wearing servant’s clothing, she cautiously stood up and took a step back, asking, “Sir, who are you? Why are you here?”
“Meng Qing,” he said. “Meng from Confucius’s name, Qing from dragonfly.” He smiled slightly, but his eyes seemed to hold a hint of sadness.
Yu Yi tried to remain calm. Chun Yan and Yue Tao would be coming soon, so she couldn’t panic. She raised her chin and called out loudly towards another direction, “Big brother, Hong Zhi, is this Meng gentleman your friend?”
The man who called himself Meng Qing smiled: “There’s no one around, only you. Don’t pretend. And don’t be afraid. I’ll stand here and won’t come any closer. I just want to talk to you.”
