A man came out of the rockery not far away. He was very young, about seventeen or eighteen years old, wearing a light purple costume robe with the same color as her dress. He got wide shoulders and narrow waist, around which was a belt decorated with jade. Besides, his skin was fair while features were delicate. Especially his pair of phoenix eyes, their pupils were dark and deep like gems of ink-color, emitting a fine l.u.s.ter. Holding a superior fan with Chinese landscape wash painting, he walked leisurely to her with a brilliant smile, looking so handsome and elegant.

A handsome man in a light purple costume robe

Li Yun looked at the man who suddenly appeared. She just felt spookier and wasn’t interested in appreciating such a beautiful man.

The distance from the rockery to the pavilion where she stayed was about ten zhang (a unit of length, 1 zhang equals to 10/3 meters). Had this person just arrived, or had he been hiding behind the rockery? Her pupils constricted slightly when she was reflecting upon the things happened since she woke up. Thinking that she had done nothing out of the line, Li Yun gave a slight sigh of relief secretly and still sat quietly, calmly looking at the man coming along.

This was her habit for many years – never took bold action before figuring out the situation. Moreover, the present situation was so strange, but since it was not a dream and there would be no ghosts in the daytime, so he was a real person. As her mind became clearer, the memory now clearly emerged as well.

She remembered that she ordered all the staff in the NSA to retreat, while she stayed alone to dismantle the time bomb. Dealing with the latest bomb device almost exhausted what she had learned in her life, and she stopped it at the last seconds, but she didn’t expect that there was one more hidden time bomb. It was too late, therefore, she jumped down the 12-story building with the bomb. In any case, she couldn’t let it ruin the whole building, otherwise, the secrets that countless people died for would be destroyed, and the consequences would be unimaginable…

Why was she still alive after jumping down the 12-story building? She was not able to fly. Even if she could fly, she must have been killed by the bomb. What’s more, she remembered that it was dusk when she jumped down, but now… She looked up at the sky for the third time. The sun was hot, the sky was blue, and the cloud was clear…

An incredible idea suddenly came to her mind.

The ridiculous transmitting theory that Li Yun originally believed would never be realized was overthrown by this strange situation. Her previous concept collapsed. Was there really such a magical thing in the world? She was not dead, but reborn again? Moreover, she was reborn in ancient times?

Even though it was unbelievable, Li Yun still didn’t show a hint of panic. As the man approached, her eyes became calmer.

“We haven’t seen each other just for a few days. Younger sister Yue seems to have forgotten me?” The man gazed at Li Yun’s face with his deep eyes.

Li Yun ignored his words and looked at the man with a blank expression.

“Hey, you really forget me!” The man looked at Li Yun’s expressionless look and seemed to be quite interested in it. His eye expression changed for a second and didn’t stop his steps, walking closer to the pavilion and then straight to Li Yun. He stared at Li Yun as if he wanted to see through her.

Li Yun was a little nervous and tried not to give herself away. Now that she didn’t understand the situation, she couldn’t take action carelessly.

“Oh… I haven’t seen you with such an expression for a long time. Who dared to bully my sister Yue?” Not observing any emotion from Li Yun’s face, the man was a little surprised. He chuckled, but in a serious way.

Li Yun gave him a faint look but said nothing.

“Really get angry? Oh… it’s rare!” The man stared at Li Yun and chuckled suddenly. He turned around, sat down on the stone bench beside him, unfolded his fan leisurely and then said, “Tell me who bullied you, I help you fight back!”

Li Yun glanced at the man and saw that though, with curved eyebrows, his smile didn’t reach to the bottom of his eyes. She looked down at the motionless girl who was kneeling on the ground and said, “Tell him who bullied me.” It was hard to recognize her real emotion from her calm voice.

After hearing her words, the man was stunned. It seemed that he didn’t notice the girl kneeling on the ground until now. His sight fell upon the cloud of bright red blood on the ground, but he remained calm as if he had been accustomed to such a scene.

“…Yes, Miss!” The girl repeated what had just happened, looking down and trembling.

“That explains it. No wonder sister Yue is angry. Even if His Highness doesn’t care for you, considering of Her Majesty and the Yun Royal family, he should have also stopped others. How could he ignore that?! It’s really…” The man suddenly realized something and stopped speaking halfway. A trace of anger showed on his smiley face. But what he didn’t say was self-evident.

Why talk about His Highness again? These two words were that she had heard most since she woke up. Li Yun kept her calm countenance.

“Let’s go to the viewing garden. Now the gathering of appreciating poems has begun, it must be very interesting. Having Her Majesty’s favor, it’s very easy for you to fight back. No one dares to misbehave in front of Her Majesty, even if the one is Princess Qingwan. Then you could teach any woman a lesson there at your will.” The man stood up not long after he sat down. He reached out his hand to grab Li Yun’s wrist and pulled her towards the viewing garden.

Li Yun was shocked: how could anyone catch her wrist so easily? As in her previous life, her ident.i.ty had kept others from her for many years. With pupils darkened, she was about to withdraw the hand that held by the man.

“You don’t want to go?” The man grabbed Li Yun’s wrist tightly and turned to look at her. He seemed to have not much strength, but Li Yun was still pulled up by him. Her hand was caught firmly and couldn’t move.

Li Yun stopped struggling in an instant. Suppressing the overwhelming feelings, she decisively said, “I don’t want to go!”

“Are you scared? Because His Highness is also there? So you’re willing to be bullied?” The man raised his eyebrows.

“Can you stop talking about him? It’s driving me crazy!” Li Yun was irritated by this address (His Highness). As she kept hearing it since she woke up, she already felt extremely disgusted with that. Then she raised another hand and slapped the man without hesitation.

As she moved, a warm stream suddenly pa.s.sed from her lower abdomen to her palm through the blood, gathering an invisible power. She felt that she could even kill a cow with a slap. She was slightly shocked but didn’t stop.

The man saw Li Yun’s movements, not being angry but laughing, his handsome face was suddenly full of dazzling glow. He didn’t release Li Yun’s wrist and reached out the other hand gently to stop Li Yun’s waving hand, then a smile appeared on his face again, “This is your style! Those women are just hothouse flowers who are even unable to catch a b.u.t.terfly, you can crush them like killing an ant. Why endure their bullying? Come, I’ll give them a lesson for you.”

After saying that, the man pulled Li Yun to go.

“I said I won’t go!” Li Yun suppressed the surprise in her heart. Was this qigong*? She knew a strange person before who was very good at qigong and could kill a cow and crush stones with an unarmed attack without being hurt. Was she also able to do that?

“Are you really afraid of him?” The man stopped smiling and his eye expression became serious. “You are always afraid of nothing. Why are you afraid of him? Is it because you’ll marry him in the future? You haven’t married him yet, and you’ve regarded him as your husband now?”

“I’m not afraid of him. It’s just because I don’t wanna go,” said Li Yun, trying to withdraw her hand caught by the man. She thought that if she had qigong, the man in front of her who could easily stop her also definitely had it. No, maybe they called it martial arts (Wugong) here.

Li Yun considered a lot at that moment. She just came to the new world and hadn’t figured out the situation yet. She was unclear about why she came here and what had happened, so she had to be very careful. From what the girl and the man said, there must be a lot of people in that garden. She couldn’t meet too many people now. If she exposed her ident.i.ty accidentally, she would definitely be regarded as a demon and then be sentenced to death. What’s more, she didn’t even know who this man was. How could she follow him?

“Since you are not afraid of him, why don’t you want to go? Don’t you like this kind of activity?” The man looked at Li Yun, showing his doubts about her.

“I’m not feeling well.” Li Yun’s hand was caught by the man. His hands were warm, while hers were cold.

“I just heard that you hit your head. Do you want to see a doctor?” The man touched Li Yun’s forehead and showed care in his eyes. Before Li Yun opened her mouth, he shouted at the girl kneeling on the ground, “How did you serve Miss? Since she is not feeling well, why not take her to see an imperial doctor? Aren’t you afraid that I, the Fourth Prince, will sentence you to death?”

Prince? Li Yun looked at the man and opened her eyes a little wider.

“The Fourth Prince, it’s all my fault. Your servant immediately calls an imperial physician for Miss…” The girl s.h.i.+vered violently as she constantly kowtowed to him. The congealed wound on her forehead started bleeding again.

“Call a physician here, right now!” The man didn’t look at the girl and shouted angrily.

“Yes, I’m going to the Imperial Academy of Medicine now!” The girl got up from the ground and ran down the jade stairs in a hurry, who dared not to delay for a moment.

“Wait!” How could Li Yun allow her to send for a doctor? If the doctor came and diagnosed something wrong with her, she must be considered as a demon and destined to death. She knew that in feudal society, it was easier to kill a person than to kill an ant.

Hearing Li Yun’s words, the girl stopped at once, looked at Li Yun with a small pale face and then turned toward the Fourth Prince.

“What’s wrong? Now that you’re not comfortable, why not ask for a physician?” The Fourth Prince treated Li Yun much more gently than that girl.

Looking at her wrist which was grabbed so tightly by the man, she felt very upset, because she had to partic.i.p.ate in the gathering as long as the man stuck with her. Then she thought, in such condition, she would definitely meet other people sooner or later. So she closed her eyes and said roughly, “Loosen your hand, I’ll go with you!”

The Four Prince didn’t entangle in the matter of the physician anymore. He smiled and said, “That’s right! Don’t you want to see that ‘Frail Beauty’ of the Rong Royal family? Rong Jing has not stepped out of the Rong Royal family for ten years! Qingran is also back after seven years of studying. Now the imperial city becomes busier. It will be a pity if you miss the gathering!”

After finished, he still grabbed Li Yun by the wrist and stepped out of the pavilion.

Translator’s notes:

qigong*: Qigong, qi gong, chi kung, or chi gung (simplified Chinese: 氣功; traditional Chinese: 氣功; pinyin: qìgōng; Wade–Giles: ch‘i kung; literally: ‘Life Energy Cultivation’) is a holistic system of coordinated body posture and movement, breathing, and meditation used for the purposes of health, spirituality, and martial arts training. With roots in Chinese medicine, philosophy, and martial arts, qigong is traditionally viewed as a practice to cultivate and balance qi (chi), translated as “life energy”.

Qigong practice typically involves moving meditation, coordinating slow flowing movement, deep rhythmic breathing, and calm meditative state of mind. Qigong is now practiced throughout China and worldwide for recreation, exercise and relaxation, preventive medicine and self-healing, alternative medicine, meditation and self-cultivation, and training for martial arts.

 .

A man came out of the rockery not far away. He was very young, about seventeen or eighteen years old, wearing a light purple costume robe with the same color as her dress. He got wide shoulders and narrow waist, around which was a belt decorated with jade. Besides, his skin was fair while features were delicate. Especially his pair of phoenix eyes, their pupils were dark and deep like gems of ink-color, emitting a fine l.u.s.ter. Holding a superior fan with Chinese landscape wash painting, he walked leisurely to her with a brilliant smile, looking so handsome and elegant..

 .

.

A handsome man in a light purple costume robe.

Li Yun looked at the man who suddenly appeared. She just felt spookier and wasn’t interested in appreciating such a beautiful man..

The distance from the rockery to the pavilion where she stayed was about ten zhang (a unit of length, 1 zhang equals to 10/3 meters). Had this person just arrived, or had he been hiding behind the rockery? Her pupils constricted slightly when she was reflecting upon the things happened since she woke up. Thinking that she had done nothing out of the line, Li Yun gave a slight sigh of relief secretly and still sat quietly, calmly looking at the man coming along..

This was her habit for many years – never took bold action before figuring out the situation. Moreover, the present situation was so strange, but since it was not a dream and there would be no ghosts in the daytime, so he was a real person. As her mind became clearer, the memory now clearly emerged as well..

She remembered that she ordered all the staff in the NSA to retreat, while she stayed alone to dismantle the time bomb. Dealing with the latest bomb device almost exhausted what she had learned in her life, and she stopped it at the last seconds, but she didn’t expect that there was one more hidden time bomb. It was too late, therefore, she jumped down the 12-story building with the bomb. In any case, she couldn’t let it ruin the whole building, otherwise, the secrets that countless people died for would be destroyed, and the consequences would be unimaginable….

Why was she still alive after jumping down the 12-story building? She was not able to fly. Even if she could fly, she must have been killed by the bomb. What’s more, she remembered that it was dusk when she jumped down, but now… She looked up at the sky for the third time. The sun was hot, the sky was blue, and the cloud was clear….

An incredible idea suddenly came to her mind..

The ridiculous transmitting theory that Li Yun originally believed would never be realized was overthrown by this strange situation. Her previous concept collapsed. Was there really such a magical thing in the world? She was not dead, but reborn again? Moreover, she was reborn in ancient times?.

Even though it was unbelievable, Li Yun still didn’t show a hint of panic. As the man approached, her eyes became calmer..

“We haven’t seen each other just for a few days. Younger sister Yue seems to have forgotten me?” The man gazed at Li Yun’s face with his deep eyes..

Li Yun ignored his words and looked at the man with a blank expression..

“Hey, you really forget me!” The man looked at Li Yun’s expressionless look and seemed to be quite interested in it. His eye expression changed for a second and didn’t stop his steps, walking closer to the pavilion and then straight to Li Yun. He stared at Li Yun as if he wanted to see through her..

Li Yun was a little nervous and tried not to give herself away. Now that she didn’t understand the situation, she couldn’t take action carelessly..

“Oh… I haven’t seen you with such an expression for a long time. Who dared to bully my sister Yue?” Not observing any emotion from Li Yun’s face, the man was a little surprised. He chuckled, but in a serious way..

Li Yun gave him a faint look but said nothing..

“Really get angry? Oh… it’s rare!” The man stared at Li Yun and chuckled suddenly. He turned around, sat down on the stone bench beside him, unfolded his fan leisurely and then said, “Tell me who bullied you, I help you fight back!”.

Li Yun glanced at the man and saw that though, with curved eyebrows, his smile didn’t reach to the bottom of his eyes. She looked down at the motionless girl who was kneeling on the ground and said, “Tell him who bullied me.” It was hard to recognize her real emotion from her calm voice..

After hearing her words, the man was stunned. It seemed that he didn’t notice the girl kneeling on the ground until now. His sight fell upon the cloud of bright red blood on the ground, but he remained calm as if he had been accustomed to such a scene..

“…Yes, Miss!” The girl repeated what had just happened, looking down and trembling..

“That explains it. No wonder sister Yue is angry. Even if His Highness doesn’t care for you, considering of Her Majesty and the Yun Royal family, he should have also stopped others. How could he ignore that?! It’s really…” The man suddenly realized something and stopped speaking halfway. A trace of anger showed on his smiley face. But what he didn’t say was self-evident..

Why talk about His Highness again? These two words were that she had heard most since she woke up. Li Yun kept her calm countenance..

“Let’s go to the viewing garden. Now the gathering of appreciating poems has begun, it must be very interesting. Having Her Majesty’s favor, it’s very easy for you to fight back. No one dares to misbehave in front of Her Majesty, even if the one is Princess Qingwan. Then you could teach any woman a lesson there at your will.” The man stood up not long after he sat down. He reached out his hand to grab Li Yun’s wrist and pulled her towards the viewing garden.  .

Li Yun was shocked: how could anyone catch her wrist so easily? As in her previous life, her ident.i.ty had kept others from her for many years. With pupils darkened, she was about to withdraw the hand that held by the man..

“You don’t want to go?” The man grabbed Li Yun’s wrist tightly and turned to look at her. He seemed to have not much strength, but Li Yun was still pulled up by him. Her hand was caught firmly and couldn’t move..

Li Yun stopped struggling in an instant. Suppressing the overwhelming feelings, she decisively said, “I don’t want to go!”.

“Are you scared? Because His Highness is also there? So you’re willing to be bullied?” The man raised his eyebrows..

“Can you stop talking about him? It’s driving me crazy!” Li Yun was irritated by this address (His Highness). As she kept hearing it since she woke up, she already felt extremely disgusted with that. Then she raised another hand and slapped the man without hesitation..

As she moved, a warm stream suddenly pa.s.sed from her lower abdomen to her palm through the blood, gathering an invisible power. She felt that she could even kill a cow with a slap. She was slightly shocked but didn’t stop..

The man saw Li Yun’s movements, not being angry but laughing, his handsome face was suddenly full of dazzling glow. He didn’t release Li Yun’s wrist and reached out the other hand gently to stop Li Yun’s waving hand, then a smile appeared on his face again, “This is your style! Those women are just hothouse flowers who are even unable to catch a b.u.t.terfly, you can crush them like killing an ant. Why endure their bullying? Come, I’ll give them a lesson for you.”.

After saying that, the man pulled Li Yun to go..

“I said I won’t go!” Li Yun suppressed the surprise in her heart. Was this qigong*? She knew a strange person before who was very good at qigong and could kill a cow and crush stones with an unarmed attack without being hurt. Was she also able to do that?.

“Are you really afraid of him?” The man stopped smiling and his eye expression became serious. “You are always afraid of nothing. Why are you afraid of him? Is it because you’ll marry him in the future? You haven’t married him yet, and you’ve regarded him as your husband now?”.

“I’m not afraid of him. It’s just because I don’t wanna go,” said Li Yun, trying to withdraw her hand caught by the man. She thought that if she had qigong, the man in front of her who could easily stop her also definitely had it. No, maybe they called it martial arts (Wugong) here..

Li Yun considered a lot at that moment. She just came to the new world and hadn’t figured out the situation yet. She was unclear about why she came here and what had happened, so she had to be very careful. From what the girl and the man said, there must be a lot of people in that garden. She couldn’t meet too many people now. If she exposed her ident.i.ty accidentally, she would definitely be regarded as a demon and then be sentenced to death. What’s more, she didn’t even know who this man was. How could she follow him?.

“Since you are not afraid of him, why don’t you want to go? Don’t you like this kind of activity?” The man looked at Li Yun, showing his doubts about her..

“I’m not feeling well.” Li Yun’s hand was caught by the man. His hands were warm, while hers were cold..

“I just heard that you hit your head. Do you want to see a doctor?” The man touched Li Yun’s forehead and showed care in his eyes. Before Li Yun opened her mouth, he shouted at the girl kneeling on the ground, “How did you serve Miss? Since she is not feeling well, why not take her to see an imperial doctor? Aren’t you afraid that I, the Fourth Prince, will sentence you to death?”.

Prince? Li Yun looked at the man and opened her eyes a little wider..

“The Fourth Prince, it’s all my fault. Your servant immediately calls an imperial physician for Miss…” The girl s.h.i.+vered violently as she constantly kowtowed to him. The congealed wound on her forehead started bleeding again..

“Call a physician here, right now!” The man didn’t look at the girl and shouted angrily..

“Yes, I’m going to the Imperial Academy of Medicine now!” The girl got up from the ground and ran down the jade stairs in a hurry, who dared not to delay for a moment..

“Wait!” How could Li Yun allow her to send for a doctor? If the doctor came and diagnosed something wrong with her, she must be considered as a demon and destined to death. She knew that in feudal society, it was easier to kill a person than to kill an ant..

Hearing Li Yun’s words, the girl stopped at once, looked at Li Yun with a small pale face and then turned toward the Fourth Prince..

“What’s wrong? Now that you’re not comfortable, why not ask for a physician?” The Fourth Prince treated Li Yun much more gently than that girl..

Looking at her wrist which was grabbed so tightly by the man, she felt very upset, because she had to partic.i.p.ate in the gathering as long as the man stuck with her. Then she thought, in such condition, she would definitely meet other people sooner or later. So she closed her eyes and said roughly, “Loosen your hand, I’ll go with you!”.

The Four Prince didn’t entangle in the matter of the physician anymore. He smiled and said, “That’s right! Don’t you want to see that ‘Frail Beauty’ of the Rong Royal family? Rong Jing has not stepped out of the Rong Royal family for ten years! Qingran is also back after seven years of studying. Now the imperial city becomes busier. It will be a pity if you miss the gathering!”.

After finished, he still grabbed Li Yun by the wrist and stepped out of the pavilion..

Translator’s notes:.

qigong*: Qigong, qi gong, chi kung, or chi gung (simplified Chinese: 氣功; traditional Chinese: 氣功; pinyin: qìgōng; Wade–Giles: ch‘i kung; literally: ‘Life Energy Cultivation’) is a holistic system of coordinated body posture and movement, breathing, and meditation used for the purposes of health, spirituality, and martial arts training. With roots in Chinese medicine, philosophy, and martial arts, qigong is traditionally viewed as a practice to cultivate and balance qi (chi), translated as “life energy”..

Qigong practice typically involves moving meditation, coordinating slow flowing movement, deep rhythmic breathing, and calm meditative state of mind. Qigong is now practiced throughout China and worldwide for recreation, exercise and relaxation, preventive medicine and self-healing, alternative medicine, meditation and self-cultivation, and training for martial arts..