Read Novel Full Chapter 1003.3: Epilogue
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S T E L L A R C L O U D
[Galetron]
O R A N G E S T A R
[Alma S.] [Azurixa] [Christine G.-L.] [K.Rom]
[Lily J.] [Michelle N.] [Ziana K.-P.]
Y E L L O W S T A R
[Anasi] [Jwyla C.] [Passerby] [Xena]
G O L D S T A R
[Anne C.] [Rose Ky]
R A I N B O W S T A R
[Debra W] [Smurfinbatik]
T H E S U N
[Kiiayame]
C E L E S T I A L C O N Q U E R O R
[Ava C.] [kuroneko_chan] [Leeyue] [Manon]
[Raquel G.] [Sophia W.] [Val Nes] [Woon Li Ying]
Also, many thanks to everyone who bought me coffee (*≧∀≦*)
The couple had been married for three years, and this was their first child.
The joy surging in Gu Xiaoshun’s heart was impossible to put into words.
When Chen Yun woke up and learned that she was finally pregnant, she was so overwhelmed that she nearly burst into tears.
After three years of marriage without a child, she herself did not know how despairing she had felt, and although no one in the family had ever pressured her, she had always hoped, deep down, to bear a child for her husband.
The group boarded the carriage.
Gu Changqing rode alone on horseback alongside the carriage, silently guarding his sister inside, as well as the family that belonged to both him and his sister.
It was an utterly ordinary afternoon, even the late-spring weather being as monotonous and unremarkable as ever.
It was destined to be a plain and uneventful day.
And yet, all of a sudden, the curtain of the carriage was lifted.
Gu Changqing turned his head toward his sister who had raised the curtain and asked, “Do you need something?”
Gu Jiao looked at him in the sunlight and smiled gently as she said, “Elder brother.”
Gu Changqing felt as though his heart had been struck head-on, that single shaft of afternoon sunlight piercing straight into the depths of his heart.
……
On the other side, this year’s special imperial examination had also concluded.
Zhuang Yuheng had actually been stripped of his scholarly rank when he was exiled back then, but the Emperor had never said that he was forbidden from sitting the examinations again, only that Zhuang Yuheng himself had never appeared at the examination hall.
It was precisely because of this that Empress Dowager Zhuang understood that he had been unwilling to return to the capital.
Yet this year, he came to the examination hall in the capital, and in the palace examination held in the third month, he claimed first place in one decisive stroke.
He became the first person in the history of the State of Zhao to twice pass through the main gate of the imperial palace and ride through the streets in celebration as one of the top three scholars.
He went to Renshou Palace, knelt on the ground, and kowtowed heavily to Empress Dowager Zhuang, lowering his eyes as tears streamed down his face while he choked out, “Grandaunt…”
Empress Dowager Zhuang looked at Zhuang Yuheng, now past thirty, haggard and emaciated, and beckoned him to come forward.
Zhuang Yuheng suppressed his sobs and moved forward on his knees.
Clutching her handkerchief, Empress Dowager Zhuang punched his shoulder with her fist.
She struck him again and again, her eyes reddening and her throat swelling painfully as she said, “You only just came back… you only just came back…”
……
In the fifth month, Xiao Heng personally handled a bribery case of an extremely egregious nature, one that implicated more than half of the Hanlin Academy.
Although it was said that water too pure held no fish, everything had to have its limits, and when over half of the officials within the Hanlin Academy were involved, it became something truly terrifying.
When all the investigation results were finally laid out, Xiao Heng had never imagined that the mastermind behind it would be the current Hanlin Academy scholar.
Inside the prison.
The Hanlin Academy scholar confessed to his crimes without resistance.
He had accepted bribes, manipulated the examinations for the junior scholars, admitted low-scoring jinshi into the Hanlin Academy, and fabricated qualifications and political achievements for them so they could later squeeze into the Six Ministries.
In the interrogation room, Xiao Heng, dressed in a purple official robe, sat in his chair and looked at the Hanlin Academy scholar across from him with a complicated expression as he asked, “Why?”
Ning Zhiyuan gave a bitter smile and said, “Liulang, not everyone is born standing among the clouds; for an ant from a humble background like me, I don’t even know how much painstaking effort it takes to climb step by step to where I am now. I’m not afraid of hardship, but sometimes hardship is useless. I know what you want to say. You’ll say that you also reached this point by relying on yourself. On that point I acknowledge it, and no matter how the world misunderstands you, I have always believed that you achieved everything through your own ability, but Liulang, I don’t have talent like yours.”
“I was born with ambitions that didn’t match my abilities.”
“I… failed to hold on to my original heart.”
Xiao Heng walked calmly out of the Ministry of Justice prison.
Many years ago, in one of the duty rooms of the Hanlin Academy, Ning Zhiyuan had patted his shoulder and said with lofty aspirations, “Don’t look at how humble my background is, with no backing and no connections, but sometimes I still dare to dream a little, thinking that if one day I manage to climb up… I wouldn’t even need to climb that high, becoming a fifth-rank Hanlin Academician would already be my life’s greatest wish!”
He had clenched his fists tightly, as if trying to force all the contempt he had endured along the way out of his very bones as he declared, “I was thinking that when that day comes, when I take charge of the Hanlin Academy, I will never select people based on money, never based on kinship, never based on cliques, never based on obedience, and never based on noise!”
A bolt of thunder tore across the sky, as though it split the heavens open, and torrential rain came pouring down.
He stared fixedly at the boundless curtain of rain, a trace of confusion flashing through his eyes.
After a long while, his gaze once again regained its firmness.
He opened his umbrella and stepped into the rain with resolute strides.
……
This year, Empress Dowager Zhuang’s health had been fluctuating repeatedly, sometimes better and sometimes worse.
Even the candied fruits and little milk dates personally made for her by Gu Jiao and Old Chief were things she could no longer bring herself to eat.
In no time at all, quite a number of them had piled up.
Xuanyuan Xi sat by her bedside and said softly, “Grandaunt, have some candied fruit, just eat it freely, I won’t tell JiaoJiao.”
Empress Dowager Zhuang smiled faintly and asked, “Where’s my little granddaughter-in-law?”
Xuanyuan Xi’s ears flushed slightly red.
Empress Dowager Zhuang clicked her tongue and snorted, “Just like your brother-in-law, the same temper! Don’t you go learning from him, married for so many years before finally getting a taste!”
Xuanyuan Xi thought to himself, I definitely won’t.
……
In the eighth month, Gu Jiao brought Xue Ningxiang and Gouwa in from the countryside.
Gouwa was a year and a half younger than Jing Kong and fourteen this year, already grown into a handsome young lad.
Empress Dowager Zhuang lay on the soft phoenix bed and looked toward the figure walking toward her through the shifting light and shadows, asking weakly, “Is that Xiangxiang?”
Xue Ningxiang dropped to her knees with a thud, grasped Grandaunt’s hand, and choked out through sobs, “It’s me, Grandaunt, it’s me…”
“And where’s Gouwa?” Empress Dowager Zhuang asked.
Gouwa was standing right beside Xue Ningxiang, but her eyesight had already deteriorated.
Xue Ningxiang felt as though her heart were being cut by a knife, and she pulled her son over. “Gouwa! Hurry and kowtow to the Empress Dowager!”
Gouwa knelt down and kowtowed heavily three times to Empress Dowager Zhuang.
“Why keep kowtowing like that? You’ll hurt the child.” Empress Dowager Zhuang said as she fumbled beneath her pillow and took out a piece of malt candy she had hidden away, handing it to him, “Gouwa, eat.”
When Gouwa was little, malt candy had been his favorite.
Xue Ningxiang covered her mouth and cried until she could no longer restrain herself.
……
Gu Jiao brought the three little ones to live in Renshou Palace.
“You’re not noisy.” Empress Dowager Zhuang would occasionally say to the three little ones, “Your Uncle Jing Kong, when he was little, was so noisy he could drive people mad.”
It wasn’t that the three little ones weren’t noisy, it was just that they were very quiet in front of her.
Even Xiao Yan, that little trumpet spirit, had sensibly restrained her natural instincts and boundless energy.
Xiao Heng, Xuanyuan Xi, Gu Xiaoshun, Gu Yan, and Gu Xiaobao all entered the palace daily to visit her, while Gu Changqing and Gu Chengfeng also came by often.
Worth mentioning was that Gu Changqing and Yuan Baolin had been blessed with a daughter, yet Gu Changqing still firmly believed that he was merely carrying out an agreement.
Yuan Baolin told him, “A woman needs a son to rely on in order to live out the second half of her life in peace.”
Single-minded Gu Changqing thus once again began carrying out the agreement of giving Yuan Baolin a son.
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Summary:
Xuan Zhi transmigrated into a world where the cultivation of “Supernatural Talismans” was a central practice. In this world, Talisman Masters could use talismans to summon gods, exorcise ghosts, command demons, and control the five elements, making this profession universally acknowledged as the No.1 most promising career in the cultivation world.
When she arrived, she was dressed in red bridal clothes, sitting in a bridal carriage, holding her ancestral “Celestial Talisman,” and preparing to form a marriage alliance with the Yun Clan of Eastern Zhou.
According to the original plot, after marrying into the Yun family, she would be restrained and effectively placed under house arrest in the name of the “three obediences and four virtues,” her husband would change from the Second Young Master Yun on the marriage contract to the abusive Third Young Master Yun, and she would eventually be tormented to death.
Meanwhile, the Yun family would seize her “Celestial Talisman,” summon wind and rain with it, and leap to become the number one great clan in Eastern Zhou.
Xuan Zhi: “Wouldn’t it be better for me to summon gods myself? Why should I give good things to others?”
***
Xuan Zhi: “Great Sage, I’ve been your fan since I was little!”
The “Celestial Talisman” rumbled, releasing a swirling cloud that carried her one hundred and eight thousand li before she plummeted headfirst straight into the main villain's bath.
Xuan Zhi: “I beseech True Lord Erlang to save my life!!”
The next moment, a dog paw suddenly struck her face, barking fiercely as it tore apart every malevolent spirit and sinister creature that surrounded her.
Xuan Zhi: “I may not be able to summon the great gods themselves, but I can summon their little pets and treasures.” (Forced smile.jpg)
Other characters in the book: “Just what kind of gods is she summoning?!!”
Xuan Zhi: “Sorry, my mythology runs on different lore.”
***
One day, Xuan Zhi finally summoned a god everyone recognized.
The Northern Abyss Ghost Emperor emerged amid countless evil spirit followers, clad in a black flame-edged robe with dancing sashes, his dark red eyes radiating a commanding, kingly aura, so imposing it seemed he was a different person from the one chased and bitten by a dog naked that day.
He held a divorce letter in his hand and sneered. “Part ways amicably, and live our own lives in peace?”
His sinister gaze locked onto Xuan Zhi. She snatched the letter, tore it to pieces, then shyly threw herself into his arms and squeezed out tears. “Boohoo, you devil, why did you come so late? Look, they all bullied me!”
Shentu Tao: “……”
Everyone she pointed at backed away in panic. “Good heavens, who is bullying who?!”
==============================================================
Summary:
In the suspenseful supernatural novel “Records of Mortals,” Jiang Baiyan, once a solitary and impoverished youth, finds refuge in the Shi family of Chang’an due to his extraordinary bloodline. With his clear and captivating peach blossom eyes, this seemingly innocent young man conceals a fanatical and malevolent lunatic within. Destined to succumb to darkness amidst hardship and degradation, he becomes a harbinger of chaos.
When Shi Dai suddenly transmigrates, she takes on the role of the Shi family’s young lady, the one who subjects him to countless trials, eventually leading to her demise.
The twist? She never got to finish reading the novel.
From what she knew of the plot, Jiang Baiyan was just a silent, timid, and often bullied pitiable character.
***
Jiang Baiyan had never encountered someone like Shi Dai.
After he had slaughtered all the evil creatures in the garden, the blood-stained young man, exuding a murderous aura, approached her step by step, his lips curling into a malicious smile, "Scared?"
Shi Dai responded, “You’re really amazing! I applaud you until I spin like a spiral and fly around the moon three hundred times! And also——you have dimples when you smile!"
Jiang Baiyan: ...?
—
After seeing her at a lantern festival with another man, Jiang Baiyan lowered his eyes, his fingers twirling her hair. He said in a mocking and sinister tone, "The mansion in the western suburbs...if I hide you there, no one will find you, right?"
Shi Dai replied, "Does it come with meals and lodging? Can I sleep in everyday? Oh, and your cooking is the best!"
Jiang Baiyan: ...?
—
Jiang Baiyan was supposed to dislike her, even hate her, but as their separation drew near, his eyes turned red and he grabbed her sleeve, pleading, "Don't abandon me, alri—”
Shi Dai responded, "Alright, alright, I’ll only have you. Mwah."
Jiang Baiyan: ...?
He hasn't finished his lines yet though…