Chapter 118: May I Go See the Lanterns With You?

In the movie theater, Lin Chao sat in the last row.

He watched the movie quietly, his heart extremely calm.

The images flashed continuously, and hushed discussions could be heard within the theater.

Lin Chao remained calm, watching the movie the entire time.

Finally, the movie reached its end.

Beside a window, a woman was cutting a paper-cut, her expression sorrowful.

"Others cannot see you, but I will illuminate you."

"Heize, we will meet again, won't we?"

"I have waited for you for so long, I can barely wait any longer..."

Lin Chao's pupils constricted: "Xiangjun..."

In the scenes shown by the Gun Soul, and in the scenes of reincarnation, this moment did not exist.

"She... is still alive?"

Lin Chao understood in an instant.

"Longevity Pill, she took the Longevity Pill."

Lin Chao had a guess in his heart.

He looked at Jia Xiangjun in the scene; her face had subtle differences from how it was back then.

He also understood why "Heize" was being screened.

Just as she said before the window: Others cannot see you, but I will illuminate you.

Lin Chao said bitterly: "She is illuminating me."

The sea breeze of Qinghe, the soft moonlight.

Even though it was night, the bustling city was still filled with neon lights, like a city that never sleeps.

By the seaside, Jia Xiangjun had her face covered with a black veil, her entire body shrouded in a black dress, wrapped up tightly.

However, at this moment, Jia Xiangjun's expression was somewhat sorrowful.

"Are you afraid?" Beside her, Qin Yi's voice also became exceptionally hoarse, carrying a deep sense of old age.

"Yes." Jia Xiangjun nodded, her hands hugging her knees, "I didn't expect... it would be this soon."

The medicinal effect of the Longevity Pill had passed.

Their lifespans were also nearing their end.

Most importantly, her appearance had aged severely.

One day felt like a year.

At first, Jia Xiangjun still used the skincare products she originally resisted to fight against time.

Now, however, she had given up.

Those traces of time simply could not be hidden.

The current her was like a different person compared to the her from a while ago.

"Currently, the box office for 'Heize' has already reached 400 million, which is quite good." Qin Yi sighed, "You have done everything you should have."

Jia Xiangjun nodded; she reached out her hand and picked up the Water on the table.

The skin on the back of her hand was no longer like a young girl's bright, tender skin, but rather somewhat aged, even showing some withered yellow.

"Actually, it is better for some things to remain in memory.

Meeting, on the contrary, would not be beautiful."

Jia Xiangjun drank the Water, her body trembling slightly.

A woman adorns herself for the one who delights in her.

When she was covered in white hair, while the one she missed remained a dashing youth, how could she dare to meet him, let alone be recognized?

I fear that even if they bumped into each other on the street, she would dodge and hide.

"Sigh." Qin Yi gave a faint smile, "You are obsessed."

For one, she did not believe Heize was still alive.

For another, she could not understand Jia Xiangjun's current emotions.

Over the past thousand years, Qin Yi's heart had always been like a rock.

In this world, there were not many people left who could make her care.

Jia Xiangjun shook her head: "People are inherently cowardly."

The first manifestation of liking someone is self-abasement.

Now that her beauty was gone, how could she dare to appear before the one she loved?

It is better not to meet than to meet.

Therefore, it is better to just end it like this, carrying the most beautiful memories.

"For the last three months, what do you want to do?" Qin Yi looked at Jia Xiangjun.

"I... don't know." Jia Xiangjun shook her head.

Originally, she wanted to keep waiting for Heize.

But now, she only wanted to secretly catch a glimpse of Heize, and that would be enough.

In all likelihood, she would still stay in the Dahuang Mountain Range, waiting for the excavation of Heize's corpse.

If possible, to be buried in the same grave.

"I am old, I can't go on, I am going back to rest." After Qin Yi finished speaking, she left with a limp.

Not long after, Qin Yi looked just like an old woman of seventy or eighty.

"I'll blow in the sea breeze a while longer," Jia Xiangjun said slowly.

She looked at the scenery on the sea and suddenly revealed a smile.

Over these thousand years, she had experienced much.

After taking the Longevity Pill, she had fallen into a deep sleep.

Upon waking, she received the news of Heize's death.

She searched for a long time, but never found that person from the past.

Later, she fell into a deep sleep once more.

Waking again, things had changed and people were gone; a hundred years had already passed.

She was still searching for Heize; even knowing there would be no result, she searched, if only to find a grave.

Unfortunately, there was simply no result at all.

Only then did she set her sights on the Wolf Tribe.

At that time, relying on the special ability brought to her by the Longevity Pill, she created a peculiar poison.

It was precisely this poison that caused the Giant Wolf of the Wolf Tribe to fall gravely ill.

The once arrogant and domineering Wolf Tribe eventually declined.

With her great vengeance satisfied, she followed Qin Yi, traveling the world or falling into deep sleep.

Memories regarding Heize also slowly dissolved, becoming a pristine beauty from the beginning.

She had originally thought that the thousand years of time had long since made her forget that youth from back then.

At most, when thinking of him in the dead of night, she would toss and turn, letting out a sigh of regret.

However, the bones of Dahuang Mountain appeared, and news of Heize arrived.

The longing accumulated over those thousand years, the emotions suppressed for those thousand years, erupted like a mountain flood.

Always rational, she made many irrational decisions.

Only then did she understand that she had been wrong.

The thousand years of time had not made her memories like weathered bones that scatter with a gust of wind; instead, they had repeatedly settled, just waiting for a single eruption.

"People in the world say that no emotion can withstand the ravages of time.

But why is it that I still remember the feeling from back then so clearly now?"

Could it be that this is a side effect of the Longevity Pill?

"Heize..."

Jia Xiangjun's eyes grew hazy.

She thought of that youth who was always practicing with his Spear.

She had invited him with full joy to attend the lantern festival, only to receive his reply, which carried a hint of firmness and indifference.

"I must practice with my Spear."

It still felt like yesterday.

And that sentence she heard recently: "Little girl, no chest to speak of, no backside to speak of, you can't compare to Liu Guafu."

It left her heart feeling a complex mix of emotions.

And that line during their parting: "If the country is no longer a country, how can there be a home?"

At this moment, a gust of wind blew by, and Jia Xiangjun felt a bit cold.

Suddenly, Jia Xiangjun widened her eyes.

It seemed as if the ten-mile long street was brilliant with lights.

Ahead, hundreds of lanterns floated in the air.

Exquisite and translucent, just like the lantern festival from a thousand years ago.

"This..."

These hundreds of lanterns appeared abruptly, without any warning.

Shimmering with light, like trees of fire and flowers of silver.

Jia Xiangjun suddenly covered her mouth, her heartbeat also suddenly quickening at this moment.

A dream?

An illusion?

Just at this moment, beneath the lanterns, Jia Xiangjun seemed to see a blurred figure.

She could not see his face clearly.

But Jia Xiangjun recognized that person at a glance.

At this time, an ethereal voice came over.

"Miss, would you care to stroll through the lanterns with me?"

In the distance, that person reached out a hand.

Jia Xiangjun's tears flowed out uncontrollably all at once.

She covered her mouth, afraid of crying out loud.

She stared blankly at the blurred, unreal figure ahead, then recalled her own current appearance.

Aged, elderly, her face like the bark of a withered tree.

Why, why must she meet him at this time!

Why could it not have been a thousand years, a hundred years, ten years, or even a month earlier?

She looked at that figure, her voice trembling: "I don't know you... I... will not go..."

Up ahead, that figure stood still, finally letting out a long, drawn-out sigh.

"I will go watch the lanterns for you."

That figure, at this moment, vanished into the lanterns.

Jia Xiangjun struggled to stand, looking at the lanterns ahead, as if she were holding his arm.

However, her thin shoulders kept heaving.

Time flew by; the lanterns dissipated, and the figure dissipated.

Everything was like a faint dream, non-existent at all.

Jia Xiangjun suddenly woke up, tears still in her eyes, and she shouted, "Heize!"

At this moment, Qin Yi walked over from afar.

"Did you dream of Heize?"

Jia Xiangjun was silent; the cool sea breeze blew past, and even covered in black gauze, she still felt cold.

"Mm." She nodded, her heart filled with mixed emotions.

She looked ahead.

There were no lanterns, and no one there.

Was it really a dream?

"You have been dreaming of him more often lately.

I have seen many old people; before they pass away, they always dream of the people they once longed for in their souls.

Go back to your room and rest; our bodies now cannot withstand the strain," Qin Yi said.

"Okay." Jia Xiangjun nodded, looking lost and dejected.

She hated that this dream was so short.

She dragged her aged body back into her room.

Suddenly, her gaze fell upon the table.

On it, there was an extra folded piece of paper.

"This is..."

Jia Xiangjun was slightly stunned.

She opened the paper, her eyes went blank for an instant, and tears welled up and spilled over again.

On the paper, a few large characters were written.

"You have always been beautiful."

She looked at the paper, then took out the letter she had treasured, and placed them together.

"Heize..."

"Just now... it was not a dream."

Crying as she went, Jia Xiangjun revealed a smile.

He is still here.

He still remembers me.

He just, all this time, had not found me.

"Solidify Changchun Alchemy Art."

Above the seaside, Lin Chao solidified the only talent from his first life, the "Changchun Alchemy Art."

Instantly, countless pieces of information surged into his mind.

Lin Chao closed his eyes, digesting it carefully.

"This alchemy art has too great a flaw."

Having solidified this talent, he instantly perceived the great flaw in this alchemy art.

Back then, when he was Qin Kuan, he had refined two flawed Longevity Pills.

This kind of Longevity Pill was not true immortality.

Those who consumed it would only have their lifespans extended.

Moreover, every once in a while, they would have to fall into a deep sleep.

"Xiangjun's current state, I fear, can only be extended by half a year at most."

Lin Chao frowned.

The side effects of the Longevity Pill, even for him, who now had a status of 1, were beyond his power to fix.

"My alchemy art is still too weak," Lin Chao sighed.

A true Longevity Pill, a pill that could create an immortal existence, that is a true Immortal Pill.

The current him, naturally, could not refine it.

"It seems I can only seek a solution when I reincarnate."

Lin Chao sighed.

Regarding Jia Xiangjun's current state, he was indeed powerless.

"I never expected that she was the one who ate that pill."

These things, Lin Chao had truly never thought of.

Everything in the world has its own natural fate.

Jia Xiangjun's choice just now did not exceed Lin Chao's expectations.

She had always been a strong-willed and sensitive person.

She simply wanted to leave him with the best memories.

"There is only half a year of time left," Lin Chao sighed slightly.

Half a year is very short, but to him, it was very long.

"Once those few people are found, I will use the Reincarnation Point to reduce the reincarnation cooldown time and proceed to the next reincarnation."

Lin Chao looked at the house in the distance, where a light was shining.

At this moment, he saw a figure wearing black gauze sitting on the balcony.

That person was Jia Xiangjun.

She was looking at the sea, not knowing what she was thinking about.

Lin Chao's figure also dissipated at this moment.

(End of this chapter)