Time and Space Interwoven (3)
The surroundings instantly fell silent, with only a few people’s breathing audible. Shi Li looked at her own disciple and said, “Xiaoqing, you only fainted and weren’t injured, how could you not even remember the days?”
The woman opened her mouth but didn’t know how to respond. Just then, Ci Ke said, “Sister Shi Li, I want to stay with her for a while. You should go find Aunt, it might be necessary for you to stay here for a few days.”
Shi Li stared at Ci Ke for a long time, unable to see through what she was thinking, and could only confirm, “Really, no need to find a doctor to check on her?”
Ci Ke shook her head and smiled, “Her condition is not something a doctor can examine.”
Shi Li still wanted to ask about her disciple but, seeing Ci Ke’s expression, had to stop herself and slowly moved towards the door. “I will go back to pack up. Later, I will come with Ziqiu to look after you both. Xiaoqing’s current state doesn’t seem right no matter how I look at it.”
After giving a few more instructions, she hurriedly left, leaving only Ci Ke and “Ye Youqing” alone.
The woman looked at Ci Ke, her chest heaving, and said, “You haven’t answered yet, why am I with you?”
Ci Ke rubbed her wrist, which had been hurt from the collision, and gently said, “Why is there a need to answer you?”
The woman, feeling both angry and helpless, couldn’t help but flush red. Then she suddenly turned and ran towards the door, her figure quickly disappearing behind the flowers. A nearby maid tried to go after her but was stopped by Ci Ke.
“Let her go,” Ci Ke said coldly, “She will come back.”
After speaking, she turned around and closed the door, stumbling as she pulled a chair over and sat down, propping her chin up with her hand, slightly parting her lips, and breathing heavily.
It turned out her fear was real; Ye Youqing had disappeared.
What should she do?
Time passed slowly, and it was already dark outside. The room still had no lights on, darker than the night outside. Ci Ke sat in the same spot, her mind blank and unable to focus.
There was a rustling sound outside the door, and after a long time, the door was finally knocked.
Ci Ke looked towards the main door, got up, and opened it. A disheveled woman stood outside, her hair windblown and messy, without wearing her outer garment. Her eyes were red, her cheeks streaked with tears. She wiped her face and glared at Ci Ke.
This body had lain in bed for a long time, with not a single coin to its name.
Ci Ke said nothing, went back to her room, lit a lamp, and sat down, ignoring the person who kept scrutinizing her. At the same time, a rumbling sound broke the oppressive silence in the room.
Ci Ke did not look at the woman, whose face had instantly reddened, and called for a maid: “Yingying, cook a bowl of noodles.”
The steaming noodles were served on the table. The woman, disregarding her pride, sat down with a thick skin and began to eat, occasionally glancing at Ci Ke. For some reason, she now felt a bit afraid of the woman she had once deeply despised and bullied.
“Speak,” Ci Ke said after she finished eating.
“Speak about what?” the woman asked.
“You don’t need to play dumb with me. I know what happened to you in the past five years,” Ci Ke said flatly. Her tone was hollow, showing no emotion. “If you don’t want to speak, it’s fine. I have plenty of ways to control you. I wonder if, should this body lose its breath, she could return?”
The woman’s body trembled, and she immediately stood up, shouting, “I am the legitimate daughter of the Ye family. You…”
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“This is Jiangning Prefecture, not the capital,” Ci Ke said without moving, her tone eerie. “You know nothing about her. If I say you’re insane, then you are insane.”
Ci Ke raised her eyes to look at her, causing the woman to feel a chill all over her body.
Just five years—what could have happened? The woman couldn’t help but retreat, her breath faltering: “How did you know?”
Ci Ke shook her head. She reached out, brought the candlestick in front of the woman, placed it heavily, and said in a low voice, “First, tell me, who is she?”
The following time was the process in which the last trace of hope in Ci Ke’s heart slowly faded away. She had thought that Ye Youqing might be hidden in some corner of Qi State, or perhaps in a corner of Western Xia; at worst, she might be in the distant southwest sea, where with some effort, she could still swim to.
But the places mentioned by the woman were completely unheard of to her. Even those terms sounded like fantastical tales, completely incomprehensible.
She was actually separated by countless dynasties, with an unbridgeable expanse of time between them.
At first, Ci Ke thought the woman was babbling nonsense, but upon further reflection, she realized that the vast world described by the woman was something her own mind could never fabricate.
Under the flickering firelight, Ci Ke’s face gradually lost color and turned pale.
But she could not show weakness in front of Ye Youqing, so she had to force herself to hold back her collapse and said softly, “Even if what you’re saying is true, why did you suddenly return?”
The woman, somewhat impatiently rubbing her head, said, “I don’t know either. I just drank the night before. I only remember not being able to sleep at first, so I got out of bed for a while, then suddenly felt dizzy and collapsed on the bed.”
“By the way,” the woman remembered something, “my mother’s illness…”
“Very well. She has been taken care of well, and mother’s illness has long been cured.” Ci Ke’s mind was becoming increasingly chaotic. She propped herself up, opened the door, and said, “You should rest first. Don’t think about running away; you can’t escape.”
The woman did not notice the mention of “mother” in her words. She looked at the flickering candlelight, as if her resolve had been worn down, and curled up into the armchair behind her.
She suddenly called out to Ci Ke, lifting her eyes: “You just said that Qin Wang is dead?”
There was a sound outside the door. It was Shi Li returning with Zhou Ziqiu, and the two were approaching. Ci Ke curled her lips, abruptly turned her head to stare at the woman, making her shrink back.
“Yes,” Ci Ke pressed her lips and smiled, “I killed him.”
The woman’s eyes widened in shock, and then the chair beneath her emitted a sharp noise as she suddenly stood up, looking at Ci Ke with disbelief.
Ci Ke, in a cold tone, said word by word, “He falsely accused my entire family and harmed them. Not only did I want to kill him, but I also hate myself for not being able to personally carve him into a thousand pieces!”
“What are you saying…” the woman murmured.
Ci Ke was already very tired. Just then, Shi Li came in, and she grabbed Shi Li’s arm and said softly, “Sister Shi Li, please tell her about what happened back then.”
At first, she was afraid that she would reveal the matter due to her infatuation with Qin Wang, so she had always been afraid to speak and could only let her misunderstand. Now she could finally clarify things.
But she would rather never be able to clarify it.
Although Shi Li did not understand fully, she still nodded, reached out, and touched Ci Ke’s forehead: “You look very pale. Go back and sleep; I will stay here.”
“She is currently not in a clear state of mind. Be sure to keep her here and don’t let her go anywhere.”
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After Ci Ke finished speaking, she refused Zhou Ziqiu’s comfort and turned to walk towards the side room, feeling dazed all the way. The stone path under her feet seemed to turn into clouds, floating unpredictably. She threw herself onto the bed.
This must be a dream.
She needs to fall asleep quickly; tomorrow morning, when she opens her eyes, she will be able to see Ye Youqing.
This night was extremely long, and Ci Ke’s dream was also very long. In the dream, she was just sitting in an endless void, unable to reach the end no matter how much she ran.
Just as she was almost in despair, a light suddenly appeared before her. She opened her eyes, sat up drenched in sweat, and almost without any extra movement, she quickly got out of bed. With her clothes in disarray, she ran out the door, and through the crisp autumn wind and the fallen leaves hitting her everywhere, she ran to the front door of the main house.
The door opened, and inside was Ye Youqing, who had two dark circles under her eyes. When she saw Ci Ke, her dry, bloodshot eyes moved.
“I really didn’t know. You and Qin Wang…”
“So, I really will cause my mother’s death. I can’t do anything for her and even caused her to die so miserably. If it weren’t for that person replacing me, she would…”
“This place is already very strange to me.”
“That person, was she thousands and thousands of times better than I am?”
Ci Ke did not fully understand her long string of disjointed words. Her thoughts were only focused on the tone and manner of speaking. Her hands drooped weakly, and she suddenly felt dizzy, as if the world was mixed into a mushy mess.
Yes, she was thousands and thousands of times better, but she cannot come back.
“She can’t come back.” Ci Ke lowered her head and said, tears falling down in big drops.
“You, are you, crying?” Ji Han secretly pushed open the door, looked at the figure curled up at the foot of the bed, and carefully brought over a cup of coffee, placing it by her feet.
Ye Youqing turned her head away, rubbing her reddened eyes to wipe away the tears that had seeped out.
She had never felt so helpless. What lay before her was not the usual problems that could be resolved, but something she could not control, something like the heavens, fate, and time.
She was like a fish thrown into the desert, completely out of options.
“You used to cry a lot when you had amnesia, crying like an ocean, but seeing you like this with red eyes now is a bit strange.” Ji Han really didn’t know how to comfort her, so she could only squat to the side. “Just look at the fact that I’ve taken several days off, even using up my annual leave. Can you at least eat something?”
Ye Youqing had been researching on the computer all night and then pondering by the window all night. She hadn’t eaten anything and had not slept.
Ye Youqing picked up the coffee and drank a little, looking at the floor-to-ceiling window gradually illuminated by the morning sun, and murmured, “What would happen if I jumped from here and then woke up?”
“You would die,” Ji Han said firmly, then frowned, “I’m telling you, Ms. Ye, your home is on the fifteenth floor. Not only would you die, but you would also die in a very unpleasant way.”
Ye Youqing sighed, temporarily gave up on the window, sniffed, and got up, “Let’s have breakfast.”
Her body cannot collapse; there must still be a solution she hasn’t thought of.
After seeing that actor yesterday, she heard Ji Han talk about the original owner’s situation over the past few years. At first, she only cried on the hospital bed and screamed at anything she saw. The doctors and nurses taught her for a long time, and it only got better over time. After five years, she gradually adapted.
Of course, she couldn’t manage the company anymore, so for these five years, she mostly lived off her savings and enjoyed a leisurely lifestyle. Fortunately, Ye Youqing had enough savings, so her reserves were sufficient.
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Ji Han personally went out to buy breakfast. Ye Youqing sat at the dining table, just drinking a few tasteless spoonfuls of porridge, when she saw Ji Han frowning at her phone: “That little actor from yesterday sent me some strange stuff?”
Ye Youqing put down her spoon, reached over to take the phone from her hand, and saw a bunch of garbled characters on WeChat, as if a mischievous child had randomly pressed buttons.
While talking, two more strings of garbled characters were sent over.
“I just remembered that I haven’t properly thanked her, so I sent a message, but I didn’t expect…”
Ji Han hadn’t finished speaking when she saw Ye Youqing’s eyes widen. She immediately jumped off the chair: “Do you know where her home is?”
Ji Han was taken aback: “I don’t know that, we only added each other on WeChat. However, I have a screenwriter friend who seems to be quite familiar with her. Otherwise, I can ask her?”
“Quickly, quickly, thank you.” Ye Youqing, while anxiously putting on her shoes and yesterday’s trench coat, dragged Ji Han and rushed out the door.
Ji Han was reliable in handling things, and soon managed to get the address. The address was in a neighborhood called Haichuan Tianyuan in the eastern part of the city. There was some traffic, and Ye Youqing was so anxious that she nearly got out of the car to run.
Forty minutes later, they arrived at the location. Ye Youqing knocked on the door and called loudly: “Miss Ci?”
Inside, there was the sound of hurried footsteps. After fiddling with the door lock for a while, the door was finally opened. The woman, dressed in a white silk nightgown, was holding herself and looked terrified. However, the moment she saw Ye Youqing, tears suddenly burst from her eyes.