Chapter 440 – I dare not love for I fear this is only a dream (1)
The cloak was unfolded. The embroidered cedar trees still looked lifelike. This warm cloak contained a woman’s cherished desire.
Ning Yuxuan softly assented. He let go of the reins and walked to her side.
The civil and military officials were all here. The emperor was also standing at the top. Ji Man thought that her hands were trembling because there were too many people watching.
As she draped the cloak over him, Ning Yuxuan whispered into her ear, “You told me that Sangyu’s wish was to hear me say, “I love you. If I say that now, will you be able to leave here?
“En.” Ji Man lowered her eyes. She slowly moved her hands around his neck and pulled the cloak’s strings to the front of his lapel.
“Will Nie Sangyu become an empty corpse?”
“Maybe yes, or perhaps not.”Ji Man slowly tied the strings into a bow. “Sangyu’s spirit seems very weak. She might not be able to hold onto this body.”
Ning Yuxuan’s eyes suddenly sharpened a bit. He reached out and brought her into his arms. His voice sounded somewhat anxious, “That’s not important. You’ll still be able to leave here, right?”
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“Of course.” Ji Man didn’t know why he was acting this way. He was holding her so tightly by the waist that she felt as if her waist was going to snap. He kept a tight grip on her head, so she wasn’t able to turn around and see his expression.
“That’s good then.” Ning Yuxuan’s voice sounded as if he was relieved from a heavy burden. “I love you.”
Shocked, Ji Man suddenly felt an indescribable feeling in her heart.
A gust of wind blew by, and the cloak slightly turned over. It looked as if the embroidered trees had come alive. They seem to glow. He doggedly held onto her and wouldn’t let her turn her head, but he continued to softly say, “I love you, Ji Man.”
She could hear the sound of her heart beating. Thump. Thump. Thump. It sounded as if something had broken. It was beating very quickly. The light in front of her seemed to be increasingly bright. Her consciousness became blurry. It felt as if her spirit had floated into the sky, and she suddenly saw the scene behind her body.
The departing troops had taken out their hooked spears. Step by step, they approached Marquis Moyu, who was still tenaciously hugging Nie Sangyu’s body. He was murmuring something into her ear, but his eyes were looking at the group of soldiers.
Startled, Ji Man finally realized what was wrong about this scene.
Ning Mingjie and Nie Qingyun were missing from the crowd of civil and military officials that were assembled today. There were no familiar faces from the Six Ministries. Xiao Tianyi was standing by the emperor’s side, and they were surround by Xiao Clan’s members.
It was only Ning Yuxuan that was hemmed in by the numerous soldiers.
“No…” Ji Man really wanted to say something, but no one could hear her voice. The woman in Marquis Moyu’s arms slumped over as if she was dead.
“Thank you,” a tired voice lightly said these last two words before finally disappearing from her mind completely.
Ji Man widened her eyes. She called out in panic, “No!”
She didn’t want to leave. At the very least, she shouldn’t leave at this time. What would happen to Ning Yuxuan? How could he have stepped into such a horrifying trap?!
There was a clap of thunder, but Ji Man seemed to be floating farther and farther away. She tried to grab onto something. She wanted to stay here, but her attempt was futile.
A sense of weightlessness came over her. Ji Man abruptly opened her eyes. To her surprise, she saw the ceiling of her apartment. Her alarm was going off next to her. Next to it, the calendar showed that today was August 27, 2014. There was also a large stack of reports that she had brought home to work on yesterday and was going to bring back to work today.
No complicated embroidery patterns, no bloody scenes of mutual attempts at deception, no Errong, no Yurun, no Wen Wan, or Ning Yuxuan.
At a loss, she stood up and looked around. Several years had passed in that world, but now, it was just one night’s dream?
She blankly sat there, then pinched her thigh. Ji Man couldn’t help laughing.
Ah, so it was just a dream. There wasn’t a female lead or a secondary female character. There wasn’t a Marquis Moyu. All those years of struggling and cautiously living, it was all in vain. It had all just been a dream.
She opened her eyes again. She was still in the peaceful modern era where there was gender equality and monogamy.
Wasn’t this wonderful? Ji Man wryly laughed. Her face felt a bit itchy. It was only when she touched her face that she realized she had been crying. Not only that, enough time had passed for the tears to dry.
Why did she cry? She tilted her head but couldn’t figure it out. It was only a dream, and the people in the dream were just imaginary characters. Why would she cry over them?
She dazedly washed up, picked up the reports, put on her heels, and headed out for work. As always, the air in the city was irritating, and the crowded subway was enough to make a person feel nauseous. The air in the subway was filled with the smell of breakfast steamed buns, but taking the subway was much smoother than riding inside a bumpy carriage. It only took a short time before the subway had traveled halfway through the city.
When Ji Man left the subway, she was thinking that if Ning Yuxuan was here and took a trip on the subway, his face would end up ghastly pale after being smushed by the crowding people, even if his expression was usually calm.
“Morning.” After greeting her cubicle neighbors, Ji Man sat down as usual and swiftly prepared to start her work. Her nearby coworker was scrolling threw a webpage and suddenly exclaimed, “What a well-written poem.”
Ji Man didn’t listen to her. She had always cared about efficiency at work. Although she was already holding a report in her hand, she was only blankly looking at it. She needed to quickly adapt to the present.