AUBTN -Chapter 400 Revealing Their Identities

Night had fallen, and the inn in Wujiang Prefecture was eerily quiet.

The candlelight flickered gently in the carved bronze lampstand, stretching the shadows of the few figures inside the room to extraordinary lengths.

Lu Yan had half-removed his black combat attire. Several strips of conspicuous white gauze were wrapped around his sturdy chest, remnants of the injuries he had sustained from the formation at the Tianji Pavilion branch last night.

Shen Jue sat quietly to the side, a silver needle held between his fingertips as he carefully examined it by the candlelight. His handsome, godlike face revealed not the slightest trace of emotion.

The door was suddenly shoved open, only to be slammed shut and firmly locked again in an instant. A heavy bolt was even fastened across it.

The two men in the room simultaneously raised their eyes.

Su Hewan and Yu Qing stood side by side in front of the door, their expressions one more grave than the other.

Yu Qing in particular—the pretty face that usually loved putting on an act—was now filled with an unprecedented seriousness.

There was even a hint of fear in her eyes.

“What happened?” Lu Yan frowned, instinctively reaching for the saber at his side.

Su Hewan took a deep breath and slowly walked toward the table.

Her eyes, cool and clear as moonlight, stared straight at Shen Jue.

“Shen Jue, Lu Yan, what I’m about to tell you may overturn everything you’ve ever believed in your entire lives.” Su Hewan’s voice was soft, yet every word carried tremendous weight.

“But please listen until I’m finished. Don’t interrupt, and, more importantly, don’t think we’re crazy.”

Yu Qing frantically nodded beside her, pressing her palms together. Her entire body was taut like a string stretched to the point of snapping.

【Buddha, please protect us! God, please protect us! Please, please don’t mistake us for demons who have possessed other people’s corpses and burn us alive! I haven’t lived enough yet! I haven’t even gotten rich in ancient times!】

Hearing that thought, Lu Yan’s hand gripping his saber paused slightly, and the faintest trace of amusement flashed through his eyes.

Shen Jue merely raised an eyebrow, put away the silver needle, and leaned back leisurely. In a warm voice, he said, “Madam, please speak. I’m all ears.”

Su Hewan gave a self-mocking curl of her lips before slowly saying, “We… actually don’t belong to this world.”

The air seemed to freeze in that instant.

“To be precise, our souls do not belong to this Great Wei Dynasty.” Su Hewan’s cool voice echoed through the quiet room.

“Qingqing and I come from a world more than a thousand years into the future from here. We call it the ‘modern world.’”

“In that world, there are no emperors, no Eastern Depot, and no Embroidered Uniform Guards. Everyone is equal, and the law reigns supreme. We can fly through the sky, traveling ten thousand li in a single day—that’s called an airplane. We can also travel ten thousand li across the ground in an instant—that’s called a high-speed railway. We have mobile phones that allow us to talk to and see people tens of millions of li away…”

Su Hewan spoke slowly and clearly, trying to explain that world in the simplest possible terms—a world that, to people of ancient times, was practically a realm of miracles.

Yu Qing was so nervous that she kept swallowing, unable to resist interrupting.

“Yes, yes, exactly! The two of us were actually ‘university students’ in that world. Basically, we were scholars who hadn’t finished our studies yet! That day, we were simply looking at an exhibition in a museum. But the moment we opened our eyes, we had become expendable palace maids in your Great Wei Dynasty, destined to be dragged away and buried alive to accompany the late emperor in death!”

【Help! Why isn’t Shen Jue saying anything? His gaze is so deep it looks like he wants to kill someone!】

【And Lu Yan too! That icy face has gotten even colder! It’s over, it’s over! I told you we shouldn’t confess! What if they think we’re evil spirits? I can’t survive all eighteen forms of torture the Embroidered Uniform Guards have up their sleeves!】

Yu Qing was internally wailing and crying for mercy, and her noisy thoughts made Lu Yan’s temples throb.

Lu Yan silently looked at her, then turned and exchanged a glance with Shen Jue.

In truth, they had known for a long time.

Ever since they first met these two young women in the capital, they had been able to hear those strange, bizarre, and utterly absurd thoughts buried deep within the women’s minds.

Things like “flag,” “YYDS,” and so on…

These were terms that could not be found anywhere in the Great Wei Dynasty, and they had long since made the two men suspicious of the women’s origins.

Now, this seemingly earth-shattering “confession” was nothing more than bringing the truth they had already pieced together completely into the open.

However, they could not admit that they were able to hear their inner thoughts.

A nearly imperceptible smile flashed across Shen Jue’s dark eyes.

He lowered his eyelids, deliberately putting on an expression of contemplation and shock, followed by one of sudden realization.

“No wonder…”

Shen Jue slowly rose to his feet, his tall, slender figure appearing somewhat lonely beneath the candlelight.

He looked at Su Hewan and spoke in a low voice, carrying an inexplicable trace of a sigh.

“No wonder you know so many of the secrets of this dynasty, yet you often make mistakes even with the most basic rules of court etiquette.”

Lu Yan also stood up.

Although his face remained expressionless as ever, the eyes that were usually cold enough to freeze a person’s blood were now filled with tenderness.

He looked at Yu Qing, who was so anxious she was nearly on the verge of tears, and faintly tugged at the corner of his lips.

“I was wondering, how could there possibly be a woman in this world as… absurd and unconventional as you, yet so interesting at the same time?”

Lu Yan let out a cold snort, but his tone was filled with helpless indulgence.

“So you’re actually a student from a thousand years in the future. No wonder you don’t even know how to speak properly according to the rules.”

Su He Wan and Yu Qing were completely stunned.

They had imagined countless possible reactions.

They had even prepared themselves for the possibility that the men would become angry and refuse to understand them.

But instead, the two of them simply believed them so gently and effortlessly!

They had actually accepted everything with such a mild, “So that’s how it is,” attitude?

“Are you… not afraid? You actually believe us?” Yu Qing asked foolishly, a tear still hanging precariously from the corner of her eye.

“We’re lonely wandering souls! Monsters who have returned to life by taking over someone else’s body!”

“Monsters?”

Lu Yan stepped forward.

His tall, imposing figure carried an intense sense of oppression, yet he naturally reached out and lightly scraped his finger along the bridge of her pert little nose.

“Since when have you ever seen a monster as cowardly as you, or one who cries as much as you do?”

Yu Qing’s body instantly stiffened, and the tear finally fell with a soft plop.

On the other side, Shen Jue had already walked up to Su He Wan.

He reached out with both hands and gently yet firmly enclosed her cold hands within his warm palms.

His gaze was profoundly deep, as though he wanted to see through her young body and glimpse the rational, intelligent soul that had come from a thousand years in the future.

“No matter where you came from, whether you are human, an immortal, or a wandering soul from a thousand years in the future…”

Shen Jue’s voice was low and hoarse, filled with an unwavering determination that allowed no argument.

“In my eyes, you are simply Su He Wan. My wife.”

“Take my hand, and let us grow old together!”

Shen Jue lowered his head and gently pressed his forehead against hers, his warm breath brushing across her cheeks.

“Since you’ve come here, then for this lifetime and every lifetime after, don’t even think about going back.”

Su He Wan could not help but shed tears as well, bitterness and emotion surging through her heart like a tide.

In this foreign feudal world where they had no one to rely on, where danger lurked everywhere and the hierarchy was rigidly enforced,

they were like two rootless duckweeds drifting helplessly upon the water.

They had thought this secret would follow them to the grave, that it would rot away with them beneath the soil.

They had thought they were destined to carry this unspeakable loneliness for the rest of their lives.