Crush's Cold Senior Sister is Actually Childhood Sweetheart - Chapter 29

Chapter 29: “Wait For Me Here, Okay?” “What’s …… You?”

“Why is it you…”

The color instantly drained from An Jin’s face. Her lips trembled twice, and her voice was so low it was almost inaudible. Her body involuntarily retreated backward, stumbling two steps before she finally managed to stand firm.

She wanted to find an excuse for the woman in red in front of her, but there was no one for hundreds of miles who could hold a sword to her neck and force her to do this.

The hoarse cries in her ears continued. If she was out of her mind and being controlled by someone, it was clearly illogical.

But if you did this willingly… why are you in so much pain?

The smell of bl00d uncontrollably drilled into her nose, and the metallic scent made An Jin’s stomach cramp. Whether it was the shocking scene in front of her or the sticky bl00d that made her feel a subconscious fear, the burning sensation in An Jin’s stomach grew stronger. She bent over, but was knocked to the ground by a sharp pain the moment she wanted to gag.

…Why could she also feel the pain?

An Jin instinctively clenched her fists, her fingernails digging deep into the flesh of her palms, as if this could stop the tearing pain in her chest.

She was in so much pain that her vision went black. She could only desperately grab the floating clouds beneath her, trying to alleviate some of it. The moment her vision completely blurred, only one thought remained in her mind—

Please let me leave this place.

I don’t want to be in pain anymore.

Please let me leave this place.

Just then, the transparent mirror from before appeared out of thin air in front of her. The mirror surface flickered on and off a few steps in front of her.

It seemed to be asking: Are you really sure?

“I’m sure.”

As soon as the words fell, An Jin was lifted by an invisible force. She stumbled and lunged toward the mirror surface, and the next second, her entire body was pulled back into the mirror.

When she returned to her senior sister’s bedchamber, all the pain in her body receded like a tide. An Jin felt light all over, and only then did she realize that she was soaked in cold sweat.

In a daze, someone carefully picked her up. An Jin instinctively wrapped her arms around the other person’s neck, and the familiar scent and touch instantly made her feel incredibly at ease.

“What did you see to get yourself into this state…”

A sigh of heartache sounded in her ears. She felt herself being gently placed on the soft couch.

Feeling that Ling Qi seemed to be about to leave, An Jin immediately tightened her arms around her neck and buried her head in her chest, not saying a word.

“I’m just going to get a handkerchief… Look at all the sweat on your head.” Ling Qi’s voice was very gentle, as if she were哄 a child. “Wait for me here for just a moment, okay?”

“No.”

It felt a little strange. She didn’t feel wronged, and she knew she would be fine after she calmed down, but when someone coaxed her so carefully with such a slow, gentle, and soft voice, she suddenly felt like crying again.

The person in front of her chuckled, with a helpless indulgence in her eyes, and finally sat on the soft couch with her. An Jin saw that she had won and immediately began to push her luck, holding onto her senior sister’s clothes.

Seeing her senior sister’s gaze fall on her hand tightly clutching her clothes, An Jin thought she was going to refuse and subconsciously wanted to let go. But before she could pull her hand back, a slightly cold palm covered it.

The two of them sat together like that, and the room was quiet for a long time.

“Senior Sister, do you know?”

An Jin was the type of person who forgot the pain once the wound healed. As soon as she calmed down, she couldn’t help but want to share: “I saw who killed Emperor Qing Yuan!”

“Who?”

“Yuan Shunhua.”

Seeing her senior sister’s pupils contract suddenly, An Jin was a little proud, having long forgotten how shocked she had been just now: “The Puppet Formation is real, but I couldn’t see if there were any markings from High God Tian Mo on it. But one thing is for sure—”

“It was the Vermilion Bird Dao Master who personally destroyed the Puppet Formation, causing Emperor Qing Yuan’s soul to be scattered.”

Speaking of this, An Jin couldn’t help but continue her analysis: “Senior Sister, do you think the Vermilion Bird Dao Master was lying to us from the very beginning? In fact, she was the one who set up the Puppet Formation, and showing us those photos with High God Tian Mo’s markings was also premeditated, to make us investigate in the wrong direction… But I still don’t think she’s that kind of person.”

“Could it be that she’s High God Tian Mo’s daughter?!” An Jin suddenly thought of another possibility. “Then she would be the daughter of both the Emperor and High God Tian Mo… No, if they were a happy family of three, where would the Puppet Formation come from?”

“Besides, when we were studying those photos, she looked just as confused as we were…”

An Jin was frowning and thinking, going through all the possibilities she could think of. She had been analyzing for a long time before she realized that her senior sister had been silent for a long time.

She turned her head in confusion, but was stunned the moment she saw her senior sister’s face.

Her senior sister was crying.

Large tears fell silently down her cheeks. But Ling Qi was completely unaware. She let the tears soak her clothes, her gaze still fixed on An Jin, as if she wanted to knead her entire being into her own flesh and bl00d.

What kind of gaze was that?

An Jin’s breathing hitched. The heavy pain in Ling Qi’s eyes made it almost impossible for her to breathe. Her gaze was terrifyingly complex, with a sorrow and anger that she could no longer suppress.

She was crying so miserably, but there was no sound at all. If An Jin hadn’t happened to turn her head, she wouldn’t have known for who knows how long.

An Jin started to panic.

She had never seen her senior sister cry like this before. Even the last time they talked about the past and High God Chong Guang after getting drunk, her eyes were only slightly red. She had never seen such a torrent of emotions and such naked heartache in her senior sister’s eyes.

An Jin instinctively moved forward, reaching out to wipe the tears from Ling Qi’s cheeks, and awkwardly comforted her: “If you think about it again, it’s very possible that I saw it wrong. How can you be sure that the person in the formation was Emperor Qing Yuan just based on a Puppet Formation, right?”

The more she spoke, the more she felt she was making sense, and her voice couldn’t help but rise a bit: “Besides, the art of disguise in the upper realm is so advanced now that it’s easy to impersonate someone. Maybe this person deliberately disguised herself as the Vermilion Bird Dao Master to frame her!”

An Jin leaned in to try and get a clearer look at her senior sister’s expression, but Ling Qi grabbed her wrist, and she couldn’t move. Ling Qi finally spoke, but her voice was very hoarse, and she only managed to squeeze out: “…Don’t get close to Shen Tianmo.”

“Huh?!”

Ling Qi slowly closed her eyes.

At this point, all the clues connected in her mind:

Thousands of years ago, Emperor Qing Yuan and Shen Tianmo kissed by the hot springs in the mortal realm.

Eight hundred years ago, Emperor Qing Yuan mysteriously disappeared, and Yuan Shunhua pursued her despite everyone’s objections. Then, red clouds descended from the heavens, the Emperor died mysteriously, and Yuan Shunhua’s whereabouts were unknown.

Eight hundred years later, Ying Huai Xu accidentally discovered the portraits hidden in Tian Mo Palace and found the hot springs. And the Puppet Formation by the hot springs clearly had Shen Tianmo’s markings on it.

In other words…

The woman in red that An Jin saw with the Reverse Flow Flower was never Ying Huai Xu.

That was her own memory.

An Jin beside her was still tightly holding her arm, chattering non-stop. But Ling Qi’s fingers in her sleeve were trembling uncontrollably, and she didn’t hear a single word.

She didn’t know why Emperor Qing Yuan was trapped in Shen Tianmo’s Puppet Formation eight hundred years ago, why Yuan Shunhua could break the formation, and she didn’t know what kind of emotions she felt when she watched her mother’s soul scatter in front of her.

Ling Qi once thought that the truth was the most important thing. For eight hundred years, she stayed in Chong Guang Palace to find the Reverse Flow Flower, to investigate Yang Chongguang’s background, all to give everyone an explanation and to give herself one.

She was so obsessed with getting everything back on track. She hoped that Xiao Jin would return to her side, that they could leave Chong Guang Palace soon, and at the same time, she hoped to find out the truth and avenge Emperor Qing Yuan.

She hoped to return the Emperor’s position to Xiao Jin soon and also bring peace to the world for Yuan Xihe.

But at this moment, listening to the person in front of her continuously rambling about the various details in the illusion, describing how the woman in red split the evil formation, and how Emperor Qing Yuan’s soul was scattered, Ling Qi was suddenly filled with endless regret.

What was she doing?

Why did she have to make an amnesiac Xiao Jin relive the scene of killing her mother again? She was in so much pain that she had to abandon her own sword and seal her memories for eight hundred years. Was she trying to escape all of this?

The so-called “getting everything back to normal” was just her own wishful thinking from beginning to end.

The chatter stopped at some point. Ling Qi met An Jin’s upward gaze, her lips moved slightly, and she finally said in a very soft voice: “I’m sorry…”

“It’s all my fault for letting you see this… It won’t happen again, really. I promise.”

An Jin’s hands instantly stopped moving. She stood motionless, her eyes looking directly into Ling Qi’s. She clearly hadn’t expected this: “Senior Sister… are you sad for me?”

“I thought…” An Jin paused and finally shook her head and said, “Did my senior sister get scared by my reaction just now? But it was my own choice to enter the illusion. I’m not that sad, just a little shocked.”

“I know.” Ling Qi’s voice was still very soft. “But still… I’m sorry.”

…

At that time, An Jin naively thought that her senior sister was overreacting. She herself was in good condition after coming out of the illusion and there was nothing wrong with her.

Until she woke up and found herself with a high fever and a dizzy head, not wanting to move at all.

So she lay in bed for several days.

This was the first time An Jin had gotten sick after coming to the upper realm, and it was also the first time she learned that immortals could get a fever.

“This is indeed rare.” Senior Sister Fu Xin, who had come to visit, sat on a stool by the bed, clearly also confused. “I’ve been in the upper realm for so many years, and this is the first time I’ve seen an immortal with a fever and a headache.”

An Jin’s head felt very heavy. She heard every word Fu Xin said, but she couldn’t form a sentence in her mind. Finally, she didn’t have the energy to think and barely managed to ask: “Where is Senior Sister Ling?”

In the past few days, Liao Huan had come many times, and Senior Sister Fu Xin had stayed by her bed the entire time. Even Senior Sister Cen and her classmates from the academy had come to visit, she didn’t know if it was out of concern for her or if they were just curious about an immortal getting sick.

But she hadn’t seen Ling Qi.