Chapter 1272: I Want to Make You Stay (150)
“You definitely wouldn’t have agreed to it,” said Jin Qingyan, who felt that there was no need for her to focus on creative productions since she did not lack money or a sense of accomplishment. In fact, what she needed most was more time.
“No, I didn’t turn him down nor accept his offer. I just told him to let me consider it.”
Jin Qingyan sat on the couch and pulled her onto his lap. “Do you really want to consider it?”
“I just found it to be not too bad of an idea. When we’re old and gray, we’ll have something to look back on and we can reminiscence about our past in our free time.”
“Let’s document our everyday life by filming videos of ourselves. We can look back on those too.”
“The point is, we can’t share our personal videos with everyone.”
“You wavered, didn’t you?” he asked, pinching her nose.
“I already said I’m going to consider it. There are pros and cons to this, however. Although the television series can be shared with strangers, it kinda feels as if we’re exposing our private lives to the public eye. That’s my greatest concern. I don’t want us to be affected negatively. However, I’d like to seek your opinion. What are your thoughts on this?”
“I don’t approve of it, but I’ll have no objections if that’s what you want to do.”
“What’s your reason?”
“I don’t want to share about my private life with others. I want to keep most things between us two.”
Keeping her eyes fixed on his, An Xiaoning came to a decision and said, “Forget it, then. I don’t want to do something that you don’t approve of either.”
“Like I said, I’ll have no objections if it’s what you want to do.”
Shaking her head, she answered, “No… after hearing that you don’t like that idea, I suddenly lost my desire to do it. You’re right, this is our private life.”
She immediately called Jing Tian to inform him of her decision. After hearing her answer, he decided not to bring it up again, knowing that she had her own qualms and reasons.
While An Xiaoning was speaking to Jing Tian, Jin Qingyan’s mobile phone rang.
To his surprise, it was a call from He Yi, whom he had not contacted in a long time.
“What’s the matter?” Jin Qingyan asked calmly.
“…”
“Where did you find it?”
“…”
“You may come over right now. I’m at home.”
“…”
An Xiaoning ended the call at the same time as he did and asked, “Who called you?”
“He Yi. He claimed to have just returned from R Nation where he found a mural of you. He called me instead because he couldn’t reach you.”
“A mural of me?”
“Yeah, that’s what he said. I didn’t ask for the details. We’ll do that when he arrives later. I invited him over.”
An Xiaoning got off his lap and said, “Given how much he loves raiding tombs for valuables, could it be that he had found that mural in some tomb?”
“Maybe.”
In reality, their guesses were proven correct after hearing He Yi’s account.
Just as He Yi was about to sit down beside An Xiaoning, she shot him a dirty look and pointed at the couch opposite of her. “Sit there instead.”
He nodded and did so calmly.
“I didn’t plan to tell you guys about this at first, but after giving it some thought, I found it to be way too coincidental. Hence, I decided to tell you guys about it. However, you can’t betray me, okay? Don’t tell anyone about this.”
An Xiaoning crossed one leg over the other and placed her hand on her knee. “Which tomb is that?”
“A burial ground belonging to the elite Pei family in R Nation.”
“Pei?” An Xiaoning asked with raised brows. Although Pei Yi was in R Nation too, she found it largely impossible for there to be only one Pei family in the entire R Nation.
“Who does the tomb belong to?”
“No idea. I only know that it belongs to an elite family. I didn’t open the coffin either. Well, even if I did, the corpse would have already been reduced to just bones.”
Why would he return without opening the coffin? How was he so sure that all that’s left of the corpse were bones if he hadn’t opened it?
“If you don’t even know the gender of the corpse, how do you know that it belongs to the elite Pei family?”
“I could tell from the exterior of the coffin. There were some simple information about him engraved on the side of the mural. It only says that his surname is ‘Pei,’ and the rest of the information had been erased. Seems like someone had already gone to that place. When I took a look at the erased markings, it seems like they have been erased recently. The scratches don’t seem old. That mural of you was so surreal. Anyone can see the uncanny resemblance.”
“Didn’t you take any photos?”
“It was pitch dark inside and I couldn’t get a clear photo even if I tried. Besides, that mural was huge. It was about two meters high, how was I supposed to take a photo? I can show you the way if you’d like to take a look personally. I just find it really bizarre for there to be a painting of you. Are you related to the owner of the tomb? Or were your ancestors affiliated with them?”
An Xiaoning began to feel a little curious upon hearing his words. Anyone would, actually.
However, she found He Yi’s words to be incredibly suspicious. He was merely Jin Qingyan’s former classmate, and yet, not only did he inform them about his discovery, he even offered to show them the way.
Why would he do that? she wondered, though she was unsure if she was just reading too much into things.
She answered, “It’s just a mural. I don’t necessarily have to see it.”
He Yi was greatly taken aback by her answer. So was Jin Qingyan, who had gotten curious too. How is she so calm and collected?
Doesn’t seem like her.
Needless to say, she was definitely very curious. However, she did not wish to go to R Nation, perhaps because Pei Yi was there as well.
“There are plenty of people who look alike in this world. Perhaps the woman depicted in the mural just has a striking resemblance to me. It’s not worth my time at all.”
“She doesn’t just resemble you… she looks exactly like you. I’m being serious,” He Yi said firmly.
“Why did you come back without opening the coffin? Don’t you raid tombs for a living?” asked a puzzled An Xiaoning.
She was extremely slow in her speech, and He Yi seemed to have sensed her disdain toward him.
“What’s the difference between tomb raiders and archeologists? The only difference is that I’m doing it for personal gains while the archeologists are doing it for the nation. Besides, I find that archeological work is so much more detestable than what I do. Tomb raiders are only after money, and we leave the corpses alone once we get the valuables that we want. But archeologists disrupt the peace of the dead and often carry out checks and examine the corpses. Besides, not all archeologists are that morally upright, are they?”
“I used to think that way too, back when I knew little about archeologists and what they do. I just thought that they were glorifying a heinous act. However, I’ve completely changed my mind now.”