Zhou Moran suddenly opened his eyes. Dazzling sunlight shone through the window lattice onto his face. He subconsciously raised his hand to block it. A clear and pleasant call came to his ears:
"Young Master! Young Master! It's time to get up. Today is the big day of your engagement to Miss Xinyao!"
He turned his head blankly. He saw a familiar yet unfamiliar pretty face—it was his personal maid Xiaotao, who had served him since childhood. She was standing beside the bed with a smile. In her hands, she held a brand new brocade robe.
"I..." Zhou Moran opened his mouth. His voice was hoarse beyond recognition. He lowered his head to look at his hands—slender and fair, with distinct joints. Where was there any sign of withered old age?
Xiaotao saw him in a daze and giggled. "Has the Young Master gone silly with joy? Hurry up and wash up. The Master and Madam are waiting."
Zhou Moran got up in a trance. He let the maids dress and arrange his hair for him. In the bronze mirror reflected a young and handsome face. His features were like paintings. It was exactly his most high-spirited appearance in his memories.
Outside the window came waves of festive music. The manor was decorated with lanterns and colored banners. Servants came and went. Everything was so real. So vivid.
—Those betrayals. Those humiliations. Those days in the Void without light...
—Could it all have been just a nightmare?
He subconsciously touched his chest. There should have been a fatal sword wound there. Yet now it was completely intact. His fingertips touched something hard in his bosom. He pulled it out to take a look. It was a warm and lustrous jade pendant. The front was engraved with the character "Zhou." The back was carved with twin lotus flowers.
This was... the token from his engagement to Xinyao back then.
"Young Master?" Xiaotao saw him standing motionless and called out softly. "Are you feeling unwell?"
Zhou Moran slowly shook his head. He clenched the jade pendant tightly in his palm. The warm and cool touch was so real that it made his eyes burn.
"It's nothing." He took a deep breath. He raised a long-lost smile. "I just... had a very long nightmare."
Outside the window, the spring light was just right.
...
After writing with his brush, a mysterious rune appeared on the paper—this was a charm that the great figure had given him back when he was also willing to be a spy. It was claimed to be able to break all illusions in the world.
It was to prevent him from exposing his true heart in illusions.
He gathered spiritual power at his fingertips. He lightly tapped the paper with the charm and chanted an obscure incantation in a low voice.
"Heaven and earth bear witness. All methods shall be broken—"
The charm paper spontaneously ignited without wind. It turned into a wisp of green smoke that curled upward. The smoke threads intertwined in the air. They gradually condensed into a complex rune. Golden light flowed. An invisible wave spread out with him as the center.
Zhou Moran held his breath. He watched as the golden light swept over every inch of the room—the carved wooden bed, the tea set on the table, the peach tree outside the window... Everything was normal. There was no sign of distortion or collapse.
The rune finally dissipated. Yet the world remained stable as before.
In other words—
This was not an illusion.
It was also not false.
Zhou Moran's legs went weak. He fell to the ground.
The last trace of doubt in his heart dissipated.
He lowered his head to look at his trembling hands. He suddenly laughed. His laughter grew louder and louder. Finally, it turned into sobs.
"It's real... It's actually real..."
Tears fell onto the floor. They splashed into tiny droplets.
He couldn't tell whether he was crying or laughing. He only felt the pent-up anger that had been stuck in his chest for years finally venting completely at this moment.
Chapter 374: He Was Reborn (Part 2/2)
Memories of Childhood Sweethearts.
Zhou Moran stood before the window. His fingertips unconsciously caressed that twin lotus jade pendant. His heartbeat was actually a few beats faster than usual.
Xinyao...
At the same time... Xiaotao's words from just now also echoed in his mind.
He hadn't expected to return to this time.
Xinyao was the legitimate daughter of the Lin family.
The Lin family and Zhou family were both top families in Jade Script City.
And if he remembered correctly, at this point in time, the elders of both families were cooperating to develop a newly discovered spirit mine outside the city.
So both families had long intended to form a marriage alliance.
Today was the day of his engagement to Lin Xinyao.
Lin Xinyao—
That name flashed through his heart. It was like a spring breeze brushing across a lake surface. It stirred up layers of ripples.
He closed his eyes. In his mind immediately appeared the figure of a graceful woman—
She always wore a light pink long dress. A white magnolia hairpin was stuck in her hair. When she smiled, the corners of her eyes curved slightly. It was as if they were filled with starlight.
"I never thought... I could see her again in this lifetime..."
He murmured softly. A surge of uncontrollable excitement welled up in his chest.
In this lifetime, he actually still had the chance to become her husband. To grow old hand in hand with her.
And as his thoughts drifted away, another cold and clear figure also emerged—Liu Yunyao.
Different from Xinyao's brightness, Yunyao always wore a plain white long dress. Her features were like paintings, but she carried a few degrees of distance. She rarely smiled. But whenever she looked at him, those cold eyes would soften slightly.
Zhou Moran opened his eyes. He looked at the flying peach blossoms outside the window. The corner of his mouth unconsciously curved upward.
In this lifetime, he would never let anyone hurt them or deceive them again!
He himself would never fail to live up to their sincere hearts again.
...
But soon, another name also gradually emerged in his mind.
Zhou Moran's expression gradually turned cold—
Zhou Qingyang.
The adopted son of the Zhou family. His younger brother in name.
In his memories, it was at this engagement banquet that his parents brought Zhou Qingyang back from the old manor.
That youth who always kept his head down and eyes lowered. He seemed weak and delicate. Wearing a plain white outfit, he stood in the corner of the hall like an inconspicuous shadow.
Zhou Qingyang appeared to not compete or contend for anything on the surface. He was even respectful to him as an older brother. But behind the scenes—
Xinyao's favoritism. Yunyao's distance. The family's cold treatment...
It was all because of this person!
He could never forget. That night in the rain, Xinyao had personally dug out his spirit root to heal Zhou Qingyang.
And Zhou Qingyang just stood nearby. His face was pale. Yet a trace of triumphant satisfaction flashed in his eyes.
"In this lifetime..." Zhou Moran clenched the jade pendant tightly. His knuckles turned white. "I will definitely tear off your disguise!"
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