A voice called out her name from below but An Ning ignored it, her eyes focused on the blue water that s.h.i.+mmered under the sun. It was the bluest water she had ever seen. Even the waters in Yuqui weren't this clear and blue. She wondered if one would be able to see the sand underneath if one were to swim above it. Not only the sand perhaps but a lost city, even a lost underwater treasure overlooked by time and memory.

"I've been looking all over for you," Nian Zhen's voice was a little breathless from climbing the stairs. He walked to where An Ning was standing and enclosed her warm body in his arms. "I woke up and you weren't there beside me."

"I was curious," An Ning explained. "I saw the tower from my room and I wanted to climb it and see the view."

"Gu Sheng is not here," Nian Zhen said, nuzzling her neck. "He's in another house close to the palace."

"Is he alright?"

"You know I wouldn't hurt him," there was a hurt tone in his voice which An Ning ignored.

"I want to see him."

"Later," he said, nibbling on her collarbone. "Much, much later."

An Ning brushed his hands away and took a step back.

"Now, Richard," she said, her eyes cold.

Nian Zhen suddenly trapped her body against the wall and leaned down to kiss her lips. He didn't let her off until she was breathless and squirming in his arms.

"I'd like nothing better than to take you here standing up," he whispered against her neck, rubbing his aroused body against hers. "f.u.c.k you until you screamed for mercy but I want you thinking of me and not another man while I'm doing it to you."

He kissed the confusion in her eyes and finally let her go. But even then his arms reached out to clasp her hand in his, their fingers tightly entwined as they went down the stairs and out into the courtyard.

They walked for some time before Richard turned into a house that lay hidden behind a giant willow tree. The tree was standing on the edge of a large pool of water, the green abundant leaves touching the clear surface as if it was quenching its thirst.

Behind the willow tree was a small house with a porch. And on that porch was Gu Sheng, reeling in a fish from a net with a serious expression on his face.

An Ning walked around the tree until she reached the stairs. Gu Sheng looked up, hearing the footsteps and seemed to freeze when he saw her. He dropped the net and in one effortless bound reached her side then his arms opened as he tightly embraced her.

An Ning closed her eyes, her lips trembling with emotion as she held him back. She had missed him. But he was here now and they were together again.

Gu Sheng finally let her go and looked deeply into her eyes. His eyes were swimming with unshed tears, looking like an abandoned little boy who had just lost his mother. It was the first time she remembered him not hiding his emotions from her. Most of the time, he was always embarra.s.sed to let her see him upset or worried. As if he was trying so hard to grow up so she would stop worrying about him.

An Ning caressed his cheek with her knuckle then said, smiling, "I never thought you'd fall for their tricks. Did they bribe you with candy so you'd walk to the portal?"

"I'm not as dim as that," he said, turning his nose up at her. "It was Kang Jun."

"Kang Jun?" she asked, surprised.

"He said he wanted to talk to me about something and the next thing I knew he pushed me and I fell and when I woke up I was already here," Gu Sheng said, still feeling resentment at being tricked by somebody he thought was harmless.

"Kang Jun," An Ning said with a frown.

"He said that Nian Zhen promised to cure his mother. There's a doctor here that knows a lot about depression and mental illness. He came over just after I did."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Just very bored."

"He said he's fine. So, don't worry about him anymore," Nian Zhen's voice was cold as he grabbed An Ning's hand and pulled her to his side. "You've seen how he is. He can leave anytime he wants now that you're here."

An Ning looked at him.

"Then I'm leaving with him," she said, her voice hard. "Wherever Gu Sheng goes I go and vice versa."

"Like a married couple," Nian Zhen mocked, his eyes simmering with anger as he squeezed An Ning's hand painfully in his. "Like the Ranger and Toto, huh?"

"I don't care what you think. Doesn't concern me. But if Gu Sheng goes, I go. That's it. No arguments."

Nian Zhen exhaled sharply.

"Then he's not going," he said crisply, eyes stormy. "He's staying here until his brain rots and he learns to live without you."

An Ning didn't answer just looked at him, her smile mocking.

"You're my wife, An Ning," Nian Zhen said as if he couldn't help himself. "Your days as a free woman are over. You're staying here with me and not with that boy."

"Do you have something to eat? I haven't had breakfast yet and I'm hungry," An Ning said, turning to Gu Sheng, totally ignoring Nian Zhen's comments as garbage talk.

"We have the fish and I have some eggs inside. We could start with that."

"That's good enough for me. Come on, show me around," she said, following behind Gu Sheng who picked up the net before going inside.

Nian Zhen cursed mightily behind them before giving up and following them resentfully inside.

The house was small but very airy. It was designed around the pond and the willow tree so the windows were large and open, the ceiling high, and the furniture simple yet elegant.

An Ning and Gu Sheng worked companionably in the kitchen. Gu Sheng cleaned the fish while An Ning started cooking rice and the eggs. She also chopped some vegetables and sauteed them in fat. When the fish was done and the tea was boiled, Nian Zhen took out the bowls and chopsticks and the three of them sat down to eat in silence.

An Ning rolled her eyes when Nian Zhen insisted on serving her like a maid. He chose the tenderest part of the fish and put it on her bowl; the boiled eggs he cracked and peeled then chopped before laying it on top of her bowl of vegetable.

Gu Sheng stared at them, his eyes troubled.

"You are the Richard that used to be An Ning's husband," he said after a while. "But you are in this body now just like An Ning. And you are both away from your world. This An Ning was married to my father. I do not remember her marrying you though."

Nian Zhen looked at him, surprised.

"He knows?" he asked An Ning.

"Obviously," she shrugged.

Nian Zhen curled his lips as he met Gu Sheng's eyes.

"She may have been married to your father but she was mine first. And we have kids together!"

"You're such an a.s.s," An Ning shook her head.

"Why? It's the truth."

"It was another lifetime ago, Nian Zhen," she mocked. "Even your name has changed."

"I'm still the same inside. The same man you married. The same man you grew up with since you were three."

"The same man who left me for another woman on our wedding day," An Ning smiled. "Yup, the same man. How could have I forgotten?"

Nian Zhen had the grace to blush.

"You left her on your wedding day?" Gu Sheng was shocked, staring at Nian Zhen like he was the worst louse in the entire world.

"Yup, on our wedding day. He met another woman and fell in love. Or so I'm told."

"You've forgotten?" Nian Zhen was surprised. "And it was not love by the way. It was just simple old l.u.s.t."

"Whatever," An Ning shrugged. "Anyway, he wanted to marry the woman and we separated. End of story."

"You forgot about me defying time and gravity to be with you again. I've lost you before, An Ning. Never again."

"This is such a weird story," Gu Sheng complained. "I know you've tried to explain it to me once before but meeting him now...it's just getting bizarre and more bizarre."

"The story of our lives," An Ning agreed.

"So, you're not going back since he won't let me back?" Gu Sheng asked, a bit too casually. Nian Zhen heard the different tone in his voice and he glowered menacingly at the young emperor.

"Seems like it. Yuqui will be okay. I left Yi Hai as regent."

"He learned from you so he'll be quite a taskmaster," Gu Sheng smiled, meeting Nian Zhen's glare with a bland look.

"Why don't you just go home and leave?" Nian Zhen asked, his lips curved in malice. "If you're that worried about Yuqui..."

"Who says I'm worried?" Gu Sheng asked. "Yi Hai will be an excellent regent. Even if he takes over the crown and becomes emperor he'll still be a good choice."

"Are you serious?" asked An Ning, spearing him with a glance. "You really want your father to hate me, don't you? You are going back, Little Gu, and that's that."

"But he says not yet so I'm staying," Gu said was unconcerned.

"Who says I want you here? Didn't you just hear me say you can leave?" Nian Zhen raised his voice, still glowering at Gu Sheng.

"I want to see the town," Gu Sheng told An Ning, not even deigning to look at Nian Zhen. "Finish your tea so we can leave."

"Later, I have to talk something with Nian Zhen first."

"What about?" Nian Zhen asked.

"This," she said, showing him the cellphone.

Nian Zhen took the phone and turned it on. He clicked on the messaging app and frowned when he read the message.

"They lost their way? It's not even possible. It's a straight road. It doesn't even have curves but only edges. I don't get how it's even possible," Nian Zhen asked, frowning.

"The opening is back home in Yuqui. If you let me go I can still reach them. I can show them the way. Nian Zhen, my mom might have brought the twins with them. They need my help. If I return to Yuqui....," An Ning was not even ashamed of pleading. "I'll come back. I promise I will."

Nian Zhen stretched out a hand to wipe the single tear that rolled down An Ning's cheek with his fingertip.

"I know, darling. I know," he said softly. "But even if you go back, it might not be possible for you to see them again. I don't fully understand how this portal works but if you saw what you said you saw, it might not be them per se but a mirror image."

"Mirror image? What do you mean?" An Ning frowned.

"Your grandmother's time machine created some sort of a link with the outside world. I don't know how she did it but it works rather like a video conference app for other worlds. The only problem is that the machine may get in touch with these worlds but it doesn't exactly know how to get there or even know where it is."

"Don't they just input the date of the era or time they want to visit and that's it? That's how it works in the movies."

Nian Zhen smiled and shook his head.

"It should work that way but your grandmother, for some reason, didn't build it that way. She built it to work like a looking gla.s.s except that she did something and the machine instead acquired a life of its own and started beeping h.e.l.los to other worlds. I think she infused it with some sort of magic which, as most unknown energy source tend to do, it went crazy and did something else."

"How did you know about this? About my grandmother and the time machine?"

"Obviously because I used it," Nian Zhen said.

"What?"

"I was a spirit, An Ning. I wasn't actually tethered to anything, especially a body, so when I was following you and saw what your grandmother was up to, I thought why not."

"You didn't have a body...." said An Ning, thinking of Han.

"My brother took over my physical body for some reason. He didn't want to die so his soul pushed mine out." Nian Zhen stopped, his hands fisting in unconscious rage.

"I hated him for that," he continued. "I still hate him. It was him who died but it was I who became stuck in limbo," he said, the resentment evident in his voice. "He took my life, An Ning. He took you and he took the life I could have with you and the twins."

"So, you messed his head up and the reason why he's now with Valerie."

"Why not?" Nian Zhen jeered. "He didn't deserve you. Why should I make it easy for him? Do you know what I did to come back like this? I went through h.e.l.l. No, scratch that. h.e.l.l is not the word I would have used to describe it. I climbed the pit of the abyss just to come back so don't expect me to feel sorry for my brother."

Nian Zhen's body was shaking with rage when he finally stopped. His handsome face was covered in sweat, his cheeks flushed and his eyes flas.h.i.+ng red lights. An Ning took a step back in alarm when she saw his expression. Nian Zhen looked like he was about to explode. Even his ponytail was shaking with his fury, the ends emitting a current that was starting to filter the air with a bite.

"Richard!" An Ning screamed, pus.h.i.+ng Gu Sheng out of the way before attacking Nian Zhen, who was now standing in the middle of the kitchen transformed into a snarling demon. Her fists were about to fly to his face when the door was flung open and five men rushed in armed with tasers.

The men surrounded Nian Zhen who was growling at them with fury. The men simultaneously attacked, the tasers in their hands filling the room with their loud buzzing sound.

Nian Zhen, however, deflected the attack by jumping and crawling on the ceiling. He was about to jump out the window but An Ning was already there, blocking his path with her body. Nian Zhen charged at her but An Ning was faster. She lunged and her fist connected with his jaw, the force of it sending him reeling backwards across three rooms, the study, the porch, and the willow tree where his body crashed and finally stopped his momentum.

Nian Zhen's body fell on the ground, still and unmoving. In the sudden silence that followed, An Ning's voice was heard: "What the f.u.c.k just happened? Somebody better give me an explanation or I'm going to tear this place apart to get the answers I want."