Arrangements made by Zhu Li soon secured a ship bound for home.
It was a cargo ship, and all the paperwork was in order. The fatty and I had arrived with proper documentation, so boarding posed no issues.
However, Ni Li and her daughter had to remain in the cabins.
The ship was massive, its deck completely filled with shipping containers, primarily transporting fruits and vegetables.
The ship departed the port at noon. The fatty and I stood on the deck, smoking cigarettes and watching the receding dock with a sense of melancholy.
"Mr. Xiang, what exactly is this Illuminati organization? Could it be some kind of cult?" the fatty asked.
I shrugged. "Who knows? Once we're back, you can try to get some information."
"No problem, leave it to me," the fatty replied, exhaling a plume of smoke.
Just then, two voices drifted from behind me.
"Young lady, we didn't actually have to take a ship..."
"Taking a ship is quite nice."
Hearing that voice sent a jolt through me, as one of them was incredibly familiar!
I turned around almost instantly. When I saw the source of the voice, I froze, and she, too, seemed taken aback.
"An Ying..."
"Xiao Fei?"
I never imagined that the person I had gone to such lengths to find would appear right here!
When the fatty turned his head, he was startled. "Heavens! This is too much of a coincidence! Truly, it takes a hundred years to share a ship!"
For some reason, the An Ying before me seemed different from the last time I'd seen her.
An Ying now carried a familiar aura, reminiscent of when I first met her in Guangling all those years ago.
Her cool demeanor, the hint of melancholy in her brows, and the faint surprise in her eyes gave me the feeling that she had reverted to being Sister Ying.
Or, perhaps, she had regained her memories.
Standing beside An Ying was Feng Shu, a woman I also knew, though we hadn't interacted much. We had met several times.
An Ying offered a smile. "It's been a long time, Xiao Fei."
Her tone of voice made me feel a little disoriented. "Sister Ying?"
She smiled slightly and nodded gently.
"You... your memories..."
Just as I was about to ask if her memory had been restored, Feng Shu approached and pulled the fatty aside.
It seemed she wanted An Ying and me to have a private conversation.
When we were alone, An Ying walked over and leaned against the railing, gazing up at the sky. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to find you..." I stated truthfully.
"Looking for me?" She turned her head to look at me.
"I wanted to ask you some things..."
"About your father's affairs?"
"Your memories..."
"They've mostly come back... but some things from before are still very vague."
"When is 'before'?"
An Ying turned, a playful smile on her face. "Five hundred years ago? Or a thousand?"
She then chuckled. "Aren't you afraid of me?"
"Afraid of what?"
"I am immortal, after all."
"What's there to be afraid of?"
"Indeed... what is there to be afraid of?" She shrugged. "It seems you've met Professor Zhao already?"
"Yes."
"And he told you everything?" she blinked. "About the Illuminati?"
"He did."
"Then what else do you wish to know?"
I let out a breath, pulled a cigarette from my pocket, and lit it, taking a slow drag. "Were the people looking for you members of the Illuminati?"
"Yes."
"What did they want from you?"
"Naturally, they want to understand why I am immortal," An Ying explained. "Unfortunately, this question has also perplexed me. I can't recall when I became this way; my past memories are like dreams, very unreal. Yet, there are often many pieces of evidence proving that it wasn't all a dream."
"What were you looking for Marquis Suizhu for?" I asked.
She smiled. "To figure out why I became this way."
"You mean your immortality is related to Marquis Suizhu?"
"Highly likely."
"And where is Marquis Suizhu now?"
"In the hands of the Illuminati," she said. "They are still researching it."
"Is that why you reached a truce with them?"
"Yes."
"Do you know Wang Yang?" I asked.
"Yes, he is a member of the Illuminati."
As expected, I mused inwardly.
"Was my father's death related to the Illuminati? Why did they target my father?"
An Ying pondered for a moment. "Xiao Fei, do you truly want to know the answer?"
"Yes!" I blurted out.
"Aren't you afraid the answer will be different from what you expect?"
"Even if it is different, I still want to understand what happened," I replied.
An Ying nodded. "That's true... So, if I told you that your father's death had nothing to do with the Illuminati, would you believe me?"
I was taken aback. "Impossible!"
"Yet, that is the truth," An Ying said slowly. "The deaths of everyone in the archaeological team that year were not caused by the Illuminati..."
"Then how did they die?"
"Marquis Suizhu."
"Marquis Suizhu?"
"Indeed. In modern terms, Marquis Suizhu contains a radioactive substance. Anyone who came into contact with it would suffer cell damage and eventually die."
"Then what about Professor Zhao? Why is he still alive?"
"Because he did not come into contact with Marquis Suizhu."
"Impossible!"
"What's impossible?" An Ying asked, looking at me.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm my emotions. "Most of the archaeological team died. According to you, they all came into contact with Marquis Suizhu. As the head of the team, Professor Zhao couldn't possibly have avoided it."
"Because he wasn't the one who found Marquis Suizhu, and the situation that year was quite complex. There were already internal conflicts within the archaeological team. It's perfectly normal that he didn't come into contact with it."
"But he said..."
Before I could finish, An Ying picked up my sentence. "He said he and your father launched an investigation together? And discovered it was the Illuminati's doing?"
I nodded.
She said faintly, "That was all his own speculation. He's always been a coward. In truth, your father had already discovered that Marquis Suizhu was problematic, but no one listened to him at the time... I didn't heed his warning back then either, which is why I fell into a deep slumber and lost a large amount of my memory... I don't lose much memory with each rebirth, but because of Marquis Suizhu, I lost almost all of it that time."
She paused. "After I woke up, I went to Guangling, and that's where I met you..."