AUBTN -Chapter 345 Never Going Back

The night in Yuyuan was so quiet that only the rustling of wind through fallen leaves could be heard.

After two months apart, the two best friends were finally able to lie on the same bed again.

At this moment, Su Hewan and Yu Qing were lying side by side.

The heavy brocade bed curtains were half drawn up by silver hooks.

Neither of them felt sleepy.

“Wanwan…”

After a long silence, Yu Qing was the first to break it.

“Do you think… once all of this is over, will we still leave?”

At her words, Su Hewan’s long eyelashes trembled slightly.

Leave?

According to their original plan, after helping those two men get through their crisis, they would find an opportunity to take their gold ingots and head south—go to the Jiangnan region, go beyond the frontier, and live a carefree life where the sky was high enough for birds to fly freely.

After all, they were people from the modern world. Who would want to be trapped for a lifetime in these rigid, square courtyards, living under all those rules of obedience and propriety?

Su Hewan turned her head and, under the moonlight, looked at her best friend beside her.

Now, she also couldn’t answer that question anymore.

Yu Qing didn’t wait for her response. She placed her hands behind her head and stared at the canopy above, letting out a quiet sigh.

“Actually, I used to think that once I saved up enough money, I’d take you and find a beautiful, peaceful place to hide away. We’d buy a big house, hire a few maids, raise a couple of dogs, and when we were bored we’d go listen to music. How carefree that would be.”

As she spoke, a bitter smile appeared on her lips, and her voice gradually lowered.

“But now… I don’t think that’s possible anymore.”

“Why not?” Su Hewan asked softly, though her tone carried no surprise, as if she had already anticipated the answer.

“Because I can’t bear it anymore—and I finally understand.” Yu Qing took a deep breath and turned to meet Su Hewan’s eyes.

“Wanwan, look at Shen Jue and Lu Yan. They are eagles in the sky, dragons in the deep sea!”

“Lu Yan, that ice-cold block of a man—his bones are filled with loyalty to the throne and country. The blade in his hand is meant for the realm of Great Wei and its people. And your ‘Shen fox’ doesn’t need to be mentioned—he has already given so much, dancing on the edge of a blade, holding power in the darkness.”

She paused, and in her mind, she couldn’t help but recall how tonight Lu Yan had personally tightened her cloak against the wind, those eyes cold yet hiding the gentlest warmth.

“We can let them accompany us to see the scenery for a while,” Yu Qing said firmly.

“But we can’t, for the sake of our own desire for stability, break their wings and trap their vast seas.”

“If I forcibly drag Lu Yan into the mountains to chop wood and feed horses, he might agree—but the light in his eyes would be gone. That embroidered spring saber meant to cut down traitors should not be used to chop firewood.”

Looking at the moon outside the window, Yu Qing said word by word:

“Forcing someone to abandon their lifelong pursuit for another’s sake—that isn’t love. That’s selfishness.”

Su Hewan quietly looked at Yu Qing, and the emotions in her eyes gradually shifted from calmness to a soft, gentle stillness like spring water.

She never expected that her best friend—the one who used to shout that “men only slow down my sword swing”—could say something so firm and resolute.

She was no longer the girl who only thought about escaping and surviving.

She had truly entered this world, and truly understood the man who stood in front of her, protecting her.

Su Hewan smiled in relief.

She reached out and, beneath the quilt, tightly held Yu Qing’s slightly cold fingers.

“Qingqing, you’ve really grown so much.”

She sighed and followed Yu Qing’s gaze toward the bright, lonely moon outside the window.

As a top student of history, she understood far more clearly than Yu Qing the cruelty beneath feudal imperial power, and she had once been even more rational in planning their escape route.

“You’re right,” Su Hewan said softly in agreement.

That man who bore the infamy of the entire world, branded as a poisonous tumor of the eunuch faction—that man who, in countless sleepless nights, had licked his wounds of revenge alone—only in front of her did he ever lower all his defenses.

If she left, then in this world, Shen Jue would truly be left with nothing but endless solitude and slaughter.

“Before, I always felt that rationality was the only law of survival. I kept thinking that as long as I completed my mission, I could retreat without a trace.”

Su Hewan’s voice carried a faint sense of release. “But now I think… perhaps there are things in this world more important than retreating to the mountains and living in seclusion.”

“What things?” Yu Qing turned her head curiously, blinking.

Su Hewan shifted slightly and looked at her, a smile spreading across her face.

Her gaze was gentle, yet carried an unshakable resolve.

“For example… staying by his side to see this beautiful empire together, and having children with him.”

At that, a sharp light flashed in her eyes.

“And for example—turning this cannibalistic era, little by little, into the world we actually want!”

Yu Qing stared at her blankly.

After a full ten seconds, she suddenly burst out laughing.

She flipped over, grabbed Su Hewan’s soft cheek, and put on an exaggerated, heartbroken villain expression. “Oh, Su Hewan! I thought you were some cold, composed boss-level heroine, and it turns out you’re just a lovesick fool! Tell me the truth—you’re just after your ‘Mr. Shen Fox’s’ body, aren’t you?”

“Hey! Let go of me!” Su Hewan’s cheeks were pinched red. The dignified atmosphere was instantly shattered.

Laughing, she swatted at Yu Qing’s hand. “What do you mean lovesick fool! This is called using modern knowledge to push historical progress! And—w-who’s after his body?! Don’t talk nonsense!”

“Still denying it? Who just said she wanted children? Can you even have them alone? Of course you need the factory director to do the work!”

“Yu Qing! You hooligan!”

“Hahaha—help! The princess consort is silencing me!”

The two girls tumbled and wrestled playfully on the large bed.

They laughed, they joked, and faint tears of relief shimmered at the corners of their eyes.

After exhausting themselves, they lay side by side, breathing heavily, fingers tightly interlocked.

Not a single word about their modern world was spoken again.

Mainly because—they could not go back.

The prosperity of the modern world was indeed nostalgic, but the bonds of this place had already sunk deep into their bones and blood.

Here there was flesh and blood, blades and war, and the people they loved.

Since fate had brought them across a thousand years to this place, since they had fallen in love with the eagles and dragons of this era, then they might as well stay.

Not as climbing parasitic flowers, but as towering kapok trees standing side by side with them—stirring up earth-shaking storms in the Great Wei empire together.

Less than a month after that heartfelt night at Yu Garden, the Emperor’s Longevity Festival arrived.

During this time, the Honglu Temple and Ministry of Rites officials were running themselves ragged, overwhelmed with preparations.

The once orderly streets of the capital were now filled with foreign envoys in strange attire.

There were Southerners wearing colorful feathered ornaments, and northern barbarians wrapped in thick animal furs.

Foreign languages of all accents mixed with the cries of street vendors, creating a scene of bustling chaos and prosperity.

Inside the Tahe Hall, lights blazed brightly.

Red candles illuminated the vast hall as if it were daytime.

The young emperor sat high upon the dragon throne, his delicate features already showing a hint of imperial authority.

On both sides of the hall, the officials of Great Wei and foreign envoys were seated in their respective positions.