After tending to his wounds, Mo Chuan held Tang Jingjing, and they snuggled together in silence.
"Mo Chuan..."
"Yes?"
"Are we considered a couple now?"
"Of course."
"But that Eagle Girl..."
"You mean Ronnie..." Mo Chuan said helplessly. "I'm not sure about her situation, but it's likely my past life or something was related to her as a spouse. This karma has fallen upon me. Honestly, I don't refuse it, but I can't just be a replacement."
"..."
Tang Jingjing was clearly not satisfied with Mo Chuan's answer, but she didn't blame him. Instead, she shook her little fists and said with a serious expression, "Don't worry! I will definitely defeat her and let her know that I am the rightful one!"
"???"
Mo Chuan looked at Tang Jingjing with a face full of question marks. Wait, are you all defaulting to me having a harem? This makes me seem like an exceptionally scumbag!
Finally, after Mo Chuan's good-natured persuasion, Tang Jingjing agreed to return to her tent, citing the need for caution in the ruins and giving a reluctant reason. However, her resentful gaze made Mo Chuan very awkward.
But the relationship between the two was confirmed.
"Is this my first love... why do I feel a little scared?" Mo Chuan pondered for a moment, then shook his head helplessly and lay down to rest.
However, as Mo Chuan fell asleep, beside his sleeping bag, inside the open suitcase, the cracks on the slightly damaged bronze Buddha statue widened again.
...
"Where... is this again..."
Mo Chuan looked around helplessly, his brow furrowed.
I just want to sleep well, can you f**king understand me?
Wait a moment...
Mo Chuan looked at the familiar wet market in front of him and walked forward in disbelief.
Uncle Zheng's pork stall, Aunt Mei's tailor shop, Brother Ah Zhi's fish shop, Aunt Li's steamed bun stall...
Mo Chuan stopped at Grandpa Liu's security booth and saw his home.
A dilapidated residential area... but because it was close to the junior high school, they bought this small broken house as a school district property.
The small window on the fourth floor was emitting a warm orange light, the living room light.
As if driven by an unseen force, Mo Chuan walked into the neighborhood.
Mo Chuan looked up at the window and then at the big tree next to it, and climbed up the tree.
Since he often helped Mo Fei retrieve badminton and other strange things from the trees when he was young, climbing trees had become muscle memory, requiring no conscious effort.
Mo Chuan reached the treetop and saw his home.
Mo Fei, who seemed to be in her first year of high school, with silly pigtails, wearing her school uniform, was sitting on the sofa watching television; he himself was holding a mop and mopping the floor.
But a third figure made Mo Chuan's eyes tremble.
The biological father of this body – Mo Zihui – was sitting opposite Mo Fei, reading a newspaper.
"Could it be..." Mo Chuan immediately thought of a bad premonition: if the timing was right, the current year was likely the time of his parents' deaths.
As expected.
On the coffee table in front of Mo Zihui, a military telephone suddenly rang.
Mo Zihui answered the phone, and after a few words, his brow furrowed.
He nodded, said "yes, yes, yes" three times, then immediately hung up the phone, got up, and changed clothes.
Mo Chuan listened carefully and heard Mo Zihui say while changing clothes, "Xiaoxiao! Get dressed! The unit requires immediate assembly!"
Qin Xiao came out from the kitchen and said, "Mo Chuan, Mom and Dad are going out. Tomorrow morning, you'll fry the steamed bun slices and heat up the milk!"
Inside the house, Mo Chuan's response and Mo Fei's grumbling could be heard, while Mo Chuan outside the house fell into deep thought looking at Qin Xiao's retreating figure.
Why did this figure feel inexplicably familiar...
Mo Chuan could clearly feel that this familiarity was not from the memories ingrained in this body, but rather... he had definitely seen this back before after crossing over.
When had he seen it...
Mo Chuan desperately tried to see Qin Xiao's face, but from his angle, whether Qin Xiao was coming out of the kitchen or entering the bedroom, he could only see her back.
Just as Mo Chuan was about to climb down from the tree and wait for his parents to come downstairs to see their faces, his vision suddenly went black, and he lost consciousness.
...
Longjing, Forbidden City, Human Emperor's Hall.
Human Emperor Sui Ren was alone, pouring clear tea, and watching the dark clouds in the sky gradually obscure the bright moon.
As the moonlight gradually disappeared, everything in the courtyard lost its color, appearing dim and dilapidated.
"The moon in the water is not the moon in the sky after all..."
Sui Ren picked up a black chess piece from the box and placed it on the board.
At this moment, a servant holding a palace lantern bowed to Sui Ren and said, "Your Majesty, the Minister of Revenue, the Minister of Works, the Minister of War, and the Heavenly Stem Geng Metal seek an audience."
"Announce them."
"Yes."
Not long after, the Minister of Revenue, accompanied by Geng Metal (formerly the Golden Rooster), the Red Ape, and the Yellow Dog, entered the great hall and bowed in unison, "Greetings, Your Majesty."
"Elder Qian, come and have a game of chess. The three of you may sit as you please. I will brew a pot of good tea for you all."
As they were seated, the Minister of Revenue glanced at the chessboard, picked up a white piece from the box, and placed it on the board. At the same time, he said, "The Heavenly Emperor has summoned Xin Lei, Jia Huang, Ren Yin, and Bing Huo to the Heavenly Emperor's Hall." He then looked up at Sui Ren and added, "An urgent summons."
"Fu Xi, that old fellow, doesn't have much time left... at most a little over a year."
"Then..."
"Let's wait and see," Sui Ren said, placing a black piece on the board. "How many of the Earthly Branches are completely our people?"
"Purple Ox, Indigo Snake, Black Horse, Red Ape, Yellow Dog," the Minister of War said. "Although the Azure Dragon outwardly supports us, there are significant variables."
"What about those families?"
"The Yang family of Jianzhou, the Zhu family of Longjing, the Wang family of Taiyuan, the Cui family of Yingxian, and my Qian family will all provide strong support to Your Majesty," the Minister of Revenue said, placing another piece.
"Still too few... The Heavenly Stem faction is extremely loyal. If it weren't for that old Daoist Dan Hezi's own demise, we wouldn't have been able to infiltrate even one person." Sui Ren said while playing chess with the Minister of Revenue. "Nu Wa, that old hag, controls a large amount of real power. If we want to defeat her, there are only two paths..."
"To retreat and win over others through diplomacy, or to advance with military might..."
As he spoke, the Minister of Revenue made another move, and the entire chessboard was filled with black and white pieces in a tense standoff, each occupying half the territory, with only a small central area left unclaimed.
Everyone was silent for a moment.
"Also," the Minister of Works broke the silence, "the Water Conservancy Department of Suzhou has sent a message stating that the Yellow River water level is abnormally high, and it is suspected that there will be flooding next spring."
"It's early," Sui Ren said blandly.
Boom—
A bolt of autumn thunder split the night sky, illuminating the tense chessboard.
The sound of thunder was like a war drum, reverberating through the night sky. The autumn rain, accompanied by fierce winds, then rushed out of the dark clouds like an army of thousands, striking the earth.
"The storm is coming... the wind fills the tower..."