Chapter 100: Confessed: I Also Like You

"Hahahaha!" Ye Zhiqiu laughed, doubling over, she lifted her hand and peeled off a thin piece of skin from her face, "Xiao Li, look, how is this human-skin mask Mom researched?"

"Mom! You scared me to death!" Ning Jinli, still shaken, covered her chest, pouted and complained, "It's okay, just the skin tone is too white, like a ghost's face."

Ye Zhiqiu shook the human-skin mask, "Hmm... I also think, forget it, conditions here are limited, I can only do this much; if you need to use it later, you'd better buy a ready-made one from over there and bring it to me."

"Mom, why aren't you asleep yet?" Ning Jinli brought over a chair and sat beside Ye Zhiqiu.

Ye Zhiqiu poked Ning Jinli's nose tip, "It's not because I miss you."

"Hehe, I miss you too." Ning Jinli grabbed Ye Zhiqiu's hand, "Mom, um... how is Xiao Qidi's injury? Is he asleep now?"

"So you came over because you're worried about him?" Ye Zhiqiu stared at her daughter's eyes.

"Ah... Mom..." Ning Jinli looked away, her face quickly flushed.

Ye Zhiqiu's expression was complex, "You've fallen for him, right?"

Ning Jinli's face reddened further, "Mom, what are you talking about..."

Ye Zhiqiu fell into silence.

"Mom? What's wrong?" Ning Jinli sensed the atmosphere was off and asked softly.

Ye Zhiqiu pondered for a moment, looking at her daughter's eyes, and said, "Xiao Qidi has already left."

"What?!" Ning Jinli jumped up, "Why did he leave? When did he leave?"

Ye Zhiqiu said, "About half an hour ago, I guess."

Ning Jinli turned and was about to leave.

"Stop!" Ye Zhiqiu coldly shouted, "You're not going to chase after him, are you? No going!"

Ning Jinli's steps halted, "Mom, what's wrong with you?"

Ye Zhiqiu walked up to her, "Xiao Li, his injury has healed, you don't need to worry about him anymore; letting him leave was also my decision, I had a talk with him."

Ning Jinli froze, "What did you two talk about?"

"I made my stance clear to him," Ye Zhiqiu said solemnly, "I told him I don't want my daughter to have any involvement with him; now that mother and daughter are finally reunited, it fulfills my greatest wish, and from now on my only reason is that my daughter can be safe and sound."

"Mom..." Ning Jinli's eyes reddened.

Ye Zhiqiu continued, "I also told him he is a king, and not an ordinary one; those around him are destined to be unsettled, even facing mortal danger at any moment, I want him to cut ties with you from now on, and I won't allow you to see him anymore, so he left."

Ning Jinli's shoulders trembled slightly, she clenched her teeth and remained silent.

Seeing her distress, Ye Zhiqiu softened her tone, "Xiao Li, he's from ancient times, you're modern; you two aren't compatible."

Ning Jinli said with reddened eyes, "Whether I'm compatible with him or not, I know best. Although he's from ancient times, his thinking isn't feudal; he's still young, I can gradually teach him modern societal ideas."

Ye Zhiqiu didn't want to lecture her daughter with a bunch of big principles, so she brought up historical records, "Xiao Li, the history books say Xiao Qidi had no official wife."

"So what?" Ning Jinli's gaze was stubborn.

Ye Zhiqiu laughed through tears, "Think about it: if you and he had an outcome, would the history books not record it? Oh, but they recorded that he had two consorts, each bearing him a son. However, judging from the information about those two consorts, they have nothing to do with you. His future exists in our history; for us it's already predetermined, so, you and he——"

Before Ye Zhiqiu could finish, Ning Jinli held back tears and blurted out everything she had learned from Professor Zheng about the undisclosed secret history of Xiao Qidi.

After hearing it, Ye Zhiqiu was stunned for a while, furrowed her brows and said, "There's such a thing? Then he... really is quite pitiful."

"Mom..." Ning Jinli wiped her eyes, "I can't just watch him end up like that; if it were you, could you bear it? He should have been the eternal emperor, not that puppet! He could have laid a stronger foundation for Huaxia!"

Ye Zhiqiu seriously pondered, a hint of hesitation flickered in her eyes.

Ning Jinli waited patiently, hoping her mother would understand.

But the hesitation in Ye Zhiqiu's eyes turned to firmness after a few seconds; she shook her head and said, "That's his destined fate, it can't be changed. You should be well aware of the historical paradox, I won't go on about it. Even if a miracle occurred and you truly managed to turn things around, theoretically the final result could only be some unknown spatiotemporal force erasing you to offset the paradox. Simply put, you would surely die."

Ning Jinli gritted her teeth and said, "Mom, if you previously tried every means to return to the modern era, wouldn't that also affect and alter history? If you succeeded, wouldn't you also... surely die?"

"Yes," Ye Zhiqiu replied, "Perhaps after I successfully return to the modern era and see you just once, I would be erased by spatiotemporal forces, but... even if it's death, being able to look at you again in person, I would willingly die. Because you are my daughter...... I......"

"Wuu..." Ning Jinli burst into tears, "Mom, hear me out: actually we don't need to worry about any of this at all, you should know about parallel universes, right?"

"Parallel universe?" Ye Zhiqiu blinked slightly, "You mean... our world and this world are not in the same temporal dimension of the universe?"

Ning Jinli nodded while wiping her tears, "Exactly!"

Ye Zhiqiu frowned, "I've also considered that possibility, but I can't confirm it; if it were a parallel universe, that would be simple, but what if it isn't?"

Ning Jinli quickly recapped to Ye Zhiqiu the content related to parallel universes from what Shangguan Ying had said earlier.

After hearing it, Ye Zhiqiu fell into contemplation again.

Ning Jinli thought her mother didn't believe her, so she said, "Elder Sister Ying is a major general in our nation's military, and there's a dedicated national organization team researching the spacetime portal; she wouldn't be mistaken. Besides, I trust she wouldn't lie to me."

Ye Zhiqiu lightly sighed, "Ah... it's not that I don't believe what she said."

"Then what is this..."

"Xiao Li, even if it's a parallel universe, I still won't allow you to have any further contact with Xiao Qidi."

"Mom!"

Ning Jinli was completely stunned.

After all that talk, I still couldn't convince her?

Ye Zhiqiu wiped her daughter's tears and said earnestly:

"Even if we don't have to worry about the effects of historical spatiotemporal paradoxes anymore, in this parallel universe everything is exactly the same as our universe; Xiao Qidi is still a king, and for that reason alone I could never let you be with him. Just as I said at the start, those beside a king are destined to be unsettled, they could lose their lives at any moment, I absolutely cannot let my daughter bear that risk."

Ning Jinli quieted down.

Ye Zhiqiu gently took her hand, intending to comfort her further.

However, Ning Jinli broke free, her face full of determination, she said, "Mom, I'm already an adult; I have my own thoughts and choices."

Ye Zhiqiu stared, "Xiao Li, you......"

Ning Jinli's expression grew even more resolute, "I know what I'm doing, I'm willing to bear any risk, I also have confidence in protecting myself; Mom, I'm going to find him."

Having said that, Ning Jinli ran out the door without looking back.

Ye Zhiqiu watched her daughter's hastily retreating back, her feelings became extremely complicated.

She felt both relieved that her child had finally grown up, and worried that her child had chosen a path of no return.

Not long after, Ning Jinli herself found a horse and left the Tian Shu Sect gate, heading straight for the foot of Yuqi Peak, hoping to catch up with Xiao Qidi while he had just set out not long ago.

The clip-clop of horse hooves sped along the mountain path under the night curtain, then gradually faded into the distance.

Immediately after, another horse came galloping.

Ye Zhichiu

【87】 Ning Jinli

... (ellipsis)

... (no)

Xiao Qidi rode a tall, large horse and had already left the mountain path.

The shadow of the person and horse was stretched long by the moonlight.

The loud insect chirping in the surrounding grass made the environment seem even quieter, and also made this lone person-and-horse silhouette appear especially desolate.

Xiao Qidi slowed the horse's pace, slowly turned his head to look back at Yuqi Peak behind him, and let out a barely audible bitter sigh.

The words Ye Zhiqiu had spoken to him seemed to still be echoing in his ears at this moment.

He gazed up at the mountain peak for a moment, reluctantly withdrew his gaze, and prepared to spur the horse away.

... (no)

Urgent horse-hoof sounds came from behind.

"Xiao Qidi! Wait for me!" Ning Jinli's clear voice rang out in the night sky.

Xiao Qidi suddenly stiffened, thinking he had hallucinated; turning his head, he saw Ning Jinli's figure on horseback galloping ever closer.

He clenched his teeth secretly, suppressed the urge to respond, and gave the reins a hard flick, preparing to speed up and leave.

"Stop right there!" Ning Jinli shouted.

Xiao Qidi did not stop; the horse he rode began to fling its hooves and gallop wildly.

Ning Jinli grew anxious, made up her mind, and fell directly from the horse's back.

Ye Zhiqiu, who had been following secretly from afar, saw this scene and her heart leapt to her throat instantly, but then she thought that her daughter had now mastered the Tian Xuan Heart Method, her internal skill surpassing even that of the previous Sect Leader of the Tian Shu Sect, so she refrained from crying out.

Hearing the sound of a fall behind him, Xiao Qidi immediately tightened the reins and turned the horse's head, only to see Ning Jinli rolling several times on the ground, about to roll into the roadside mountain ditch.

He had no time to think, leapt down from the horse's back, rushed to Ning Jinli's side, and flung himself to the ground, tightly embracing her.

Seeing her dusty, disheveled appearance, he was full of worry: "How are you? Does it hurt? Are you injured?"

Ning Jinli

Fortunately, she had timely circulated her Internal Strength to protect her body; otherwise, falling from a galloping horse would have left her dead or crippled.

It was she who deliberately fell off; otherwise, there would truly be no way to keep Xiao Qidi.

"Hiss… it hurts… my whole body aches…" Ning Jinli feigned a pained expression: "It's all your fault… you told me to wait for you, yet you insisted on running."

Xiao Qidi's face showed guilt: "I will now send you back up the mountain."

Seeing him like that, Ning Jinli also felt a bit embarrassed, quickly saying: "I'm not injured, I just… fell and it hurts; don't believe me? Look, not even a scrap of skin is broken."

Xiao Qidi... Ning Jinli

Ning Jinli quickly rose to her feet, and in his presence did a little bout of radio calisthenics: "See? I'm fine, right?"

Xiao Qidi breathed a sigh of relief, patted the dirt off his clothes, clasped his fists, and said: "Then I won't see you off; farewell."

"Xiao Qidi!" Ning Jinli, flushed with anger, stepped in front of him, lifted her head, and fixed her gaze on his eyes, which were even darker than the night: "No matter how much my mother tells you, that's not my wish—do you really want from now on to have no contact with me at all?"

Xiao Qidi's stern cheeks tightened further, his thin lips moved, and he spat out two words: "Yes."

"You…" Ning Jinli's nose soured, "You… you can bear to do that?"

Xiao Qidi squeezed out two more words from between his teeth: "I can bear to."

Ning Jinli stared, "We have lived and died together for so many days in Zhuiyingjian; I thought… I thought you felt…"

As she spoke, all sorts of memories of those days spent together day and night surfaced in her mind.

Although this guy had never openly expressed his feelings, she could clearly sense the emotions he revealed.

Xiao Qidi...

Ning Jinli pulled out from her bosom a flower that had already dried in the wind.

Xiao Qidi's pupils trembled instantly, and he felt as if his chest were being pressed by a huge stone.

"This is what you gave me," Ning Jinli said softly, "Just because I muttered something in my sleep, you disregarded your injuries and dangers, climbing up the cliff at dawn to pick it for me. Could this not mean something?"

Xiao Qidi gritted his teeth, still stubborn: "It was only because the conditions were extremely harsh then… I… wanted to cheer you up, afraid you couldn't hold on. There was no other meaning."

"All right," Ning Jinli questioned, "Then when you held me and secretly kissed my forehead, was that also just to make me happy?!"

Xiao Qidi's whole body stiffened, his eyes widened: "How do you know?"

Ning Jinli... Xiao Qidi... Wild Boar King

"Miss Ning, I…" Xiao Qidi lowered his gaze, for a moment not knowing what to say.

Ning Jinli looked at his face and said, word by word: "I also like you."

In that instant, Xiao Qidi felt as if a boom had exploded in his head, his heart like a gas-canister bomb detonating, and even before his eyes it seemed as if fireworks rose across the sky; the maiden before him, illuminated by those splendid fireworks, appeared radiant, and even the pure moon in the heavens paled.

Ye Zhiqiu, hiding in the distance, circulated her Internal Strength to heighten her perception, hearing the two's conversation crystal clear; the more she listened, the more her heart thumped with unease.

Ye Zhichiu... Xiao Qidi...

Upon hearing her daughter confess to Xiao Qidi, she nearly blacked out and fainted.

... (no)

... (no)

Ye Zhichiu... Shotgun

... (no)

Since we've started, we might as well go all the way—destroy Xiao Qidi!