Her dog of a man was getting more and more nitpicky.
“Today you must call her auntie,” Xiao Zhi said in a stern voice, lecturing the little one. “Uncle and auntie are the perfect pair… you brat, raising your eyebrow like your dad again…”
Yun Yi pulled him away.
In the main exhibition hall, Yun Guoqiang, as a special guest, was introducing the excavation process of the Yan dynasty retreat palace.
“This side is historical materials. These alone aren’t enough academically. To prove that a Yan dynasty was added to history, we need harder evidence.”
“Our research institute is still working. If we could excavate the Yan emperor’s tomb…”
Yun Yi tugged Xiao Zhi’s sleeve: “Don’t you know the location of the imperial tomb?”
Xiao Zhi tapped her nose: “Let my brother have some privacy. Let him rest well.”
“True. If they open the coffin and the corpse’s eyebrows have arched up to the scalp, your brother’s lifetime reputation would be ruined.”
“Right? I’ve always found his eyebrows irritating.”
“Exactly, ugly.” Yun Yi followed his lead.
Looking up at Xiao Zhi again, his face was even uglier than before.
“My brother and I are twins. Are you saying I’m hideous?”
Yun Yi: “…” Her mouth!
Her gaze slid from Xiao Zhi’s clean, deep features to the solitary peak of his nose, then to his lips…
Like a person stepped out of an ancient painting.
Every stroke was necessary, depicting his likeness to perfection.
“No, no, no. You’re like the moon and stars, a jewel among men…”
Yun Yi hated that she hadn’t studied Chinese well and switched to modern language.
“Your face is very authoritative, very high-end, better looking than celebrities, really.”
The corners of Xiao Zhi’s mouth curved imperceptibly.
“Mr. Xiao, satisfied?”
“If you went to Yan as an official, you’d surely be a sycophantic courtier.”
Yun Yi crossed her arms, eyes fierce: “If I’m a sycophant, then you’re a fatuous emperor.”
Xiao Zhi quickly said: “Then I abdicate and pass the throne to you.”
Yun Yi put on airs: “I can’t get up. Don’t want morning court.”
Xiao Zhi had learned his lesson—whatever his girlfriend said was right: “Then be a fatuous emperor who neglects state affairs.”
That was more like it.
Yun Yi seriously considered the pros and cons of being emperor and added: “I’ll keep a bunch of male concubines and revel every night.”
“When I was emperor, I didn’t even have a consort selection. How come when it’s your turn, there are so many tricks?”
“What are you muttering?” Yun Yi poked his lips with her fingertip, and he caught her hand.
Her hand slid downward and was tucked into his windbreaker pocket.
This scene was fully captured by Yun Guoqiang.
His gaze, tangible, circled on their intertwined arms.
Xiao Zhi looked up and met Yun Guoqiang’s eyes.
Yun Guoqiang’s look: In public, pulling and tugging—what improper behavior.
Xiao Zhi’s look, arrogant: Freedom to love.
“…The retreat palace once suffered a great fire. The bronze bells unearthed from the main hall gate site—each one has a different pattern.” Yun Guoqiang continued.
That bamboo-joint-patterned bronze bell, after a thousand years of wind, frost, rain, and snow, reappeared before Yun Yi.
“I know it.” Her tone suddenly softened. “This is the bronze bell your father custom-made after your sister’s name.”
Xiao Zhi stared at it fixedly.
The bronze bell transformed into a boisterous figure.
His imperial sister, Xiao Qingzhu.
Yun Guoqiang: “After our discussion, the retreat palace is located at Emperor Ridge, and the mountain has many green bamboos. Therefore, this bronze bell is carved with a bamboo pattern.”
Xiao Zhi whispered: “This Yun expert isn’t reliable.”
Yun Yi stuck out her tongue: “He’s not like us. He can’t transmigrate.”
The two walked along the display cases, appreciating one by one.
The bronze bells were well preserved.
Not only green bamboo, but also a bronze bell carved with twin dragons.
Yun Yi had once held a palace lantern high and walked around the main hall of the retreat palace, just to find the one representing Xiao Zhi.
Later she learned Xiao Zhi had been placed under house arrest by his imperial father. The dead old man hadn’t prepared one for him.
Obviously, the twin-dragon one was prepared by Xiao Qian, representing himself and his brother.
Xiao Zhi’s eyes reddened slightly. Certain emotions he couldn’t hide surged forth.
He missed that unreliable fellow a little.
Forcing down his emotions, he pointed to the side.
A tiger bronze bell leaped into Yun Yi’s view.
That little tiger was small, fur not yet fully grown, revealing shallow baby fangs—cute and fierce.
“The tiger is you.”
Yun Yi nearly broke down: “Your brother called me a ‘tigress’?”
“It’s a little tiger.”
“May I ask, when a little tiger grows up, isn’t it a tigress?”
“It is…” Xiao Zhi nearly got tangled up by this sharp-tongued modern person.
“I now reasonably suspect you’ve been badmouthing me behind my back. And your brother, Xiao Qian. After my dad finds the imperial tomb, I’ll set up a megaphone on loop, playing curses at him.”
Yun Yi took his hand and strode forward.
Her palm was scorching, endlessly transmitting strength to him.
The surging longing in Xiao Zhi’s heart was gently smoothed by her.
He stopped. The girl ahead turned around.
“Really want to know?” He looked at her with a smile.
“You really know?”
“Naturally.”
Ever since Yun Yi transmigrated back to the modern era, Xiao Zhi understood he would never see her again in this life. Overriding all the ministers’ objections, he grandly built the imperial tomb.
Inside the tomb was an inner chamber filled with things Yun Yi liked.
A thousand years later, if Yun’s father discovered the imperial tomb and saw the words left in the inner chamber—would he understand that this room of gold, silver, and jewels was all prepared for his precious daughter?
Unfortunately, Xiao Zhi didn’t understand the modern era’s Cultural Relics Protection Law.
These treasures couldn’t reach Yun Yi’s hands.
Southeast of Emperor Ridge.
This place had already strayed from the mountain path. No road, no people. The car couldn’t reach here. The two had to hike up.
Yun Yi panted, wiping sweat from her forehead: “Are we there yet?”
Xiao Zhi casually pointed ahead: “We’re here.”
A small earthen mound with withered trees, wild grass, and rocks.
Yun Yi was amazed: “The imperial tomb is this slapdash?”
Xiao Zhi stomped his foot: “Underground!”
The wild mountain was vast and empty.
Mist coiled among the mountains. Yun Yi cupped her hands and shouted toward there: “Xiao Qian, your brother’s come to see you~”
The echo startled a flock of birds into flight.
Seeing the man beside her unusually silent, Yun Yi asked: “Not going to say a few words to your brother?”
Xiao Zhi: “Nothing to say to him. He always bullied me.”
Yun Yi arranged the incense and candles one by one, then tossed Xiao Zhi a bag of Heaven-and-Earth Bank hell money.
“Then bully your nephew. Take fierce revenge.”
Xiao Zhi was speechless.
Yun Yi: “Oh, someone even bought your brother euros and dollars.”
Butler, plane, luxury car, yacht.
The latest phone and computer, even a robot dog and robot.
Xiao Zhi had practically emptied the funeral supply shop. Before leaving, the owner repeatedly warned: “Young man, watch out for mountain fires. Don’t set the mountain ablaze.”
After a long while, Xiao Zhi said: “Brother, rest assured. I’ll take good care of your baby. Also, I agree to let sister-in-law remarry. Curse me in your dreams.”
It was supposed to be a tender scene.
He tilted his head and saw thick smoke billowing nearby.
Yun Yi’s face was smoked black, but her hands didn’t stop. She tossed dozens of paper figures into the fire.
“Big Brother, harass fewer girls down there. If you get lonely, just order some male models.”
Xiao Zhi: “…”
“Why are you standing there? Hurry and burn the gold ingots.”
After burning, she poked the ashes with a branch and twisted open several bottles of water to pour over them.
Finally she opened a bottle of water and washed her face.
The mountain wind brought a trace of coolness.
Xiao Zhi looked at her clean, fair face and laughed out loud: “Not cursing my brother anymore?”
“The little tiger is kind of cute too. Let’s leave it at that.” Yun Yi accepted it. What was there to quibble about with someone underground?
Xiao Zhi: “Your face isn’t clean. Let me wipe it.”
He raised his hand and rubbed her soft, bouncy cheek a few times.
Yun Yi saw a crystalline light flash in his pupils. Her heart cavity went both numb and soft.
The valley was deep and echoing.
The fresh scent of plants drifted by from time to time.
Yun Yi held his hand, happily swinging it from front to back. In her peripheral vision was always Xiao Zhi’s face suppressing a smile.
“What are you laughing at?” She asked suspiciously.
“You’re so cute.” Xiao Zhi applied force, and their clasped hands swung higher.
A rare sweet nothing.
Her heart suddenly pounded twice. Her forehead and cheeks heated, a warmth even the mountain wind couldn’t disperse.
On the way home.
They hit a red light. Yun Yi casually glanced at the rearview mirror.
Her reflection—a “王” character on her forehead, like a dumb tiger.
“Xiao Zhi, you—” She turned her face, about to erupt.
Her right cheek was suddenly poked by a fingertip. Her head followed the force and turned back, forced to look straight ahead.
The red light turned green.
“I’ll deal with you when we get home.” She said viciously.
The man in the passenger seat answered with a smile: “As you command, Great King.”
She gently pressed the gas. The car smoothly merged into the evening rush hour traffic.
The street scene receded continuously. Memories, like reversed frames, instantly rewound to when she first transmigrated to Yan.
The imperial study.
Warm sunlight slanted in. The young emperor’s robe hem swayed lightly, turning into golden waves. The embroidered dragon seemed to swim through a sea of clouds, vividly lifelike.
He gazed at the imperial seal on the desk.
In that glance, the wind happened to pass through the hall—
Looking back again,
A thousand years had passed in the mortal world.
[The End]
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