General’s Gown

Chapter 96 The long dream paid in full Part 2

“Little guy, where did you come from? Where are you going?” 

“We…” 

The little boy looked back at his grandma with some worry and hesitation. After seeing her nodding with a smile, he timidly replied to Helian Rongchuan, “…We came from Yan Kingdom.” 

“Yan Kingdom?” Helian Rongchuan suddenly frowned, “It looks like you are also from a big family from Yan Kingdom. Why didn’t you stay at home, but run to Dongyun instead?” Helian Rongchuan suddenly felt an ominous premonition in his heart. 

Did something happen to Yan Kingdom! Did they lose the battle? Was he hurt…? 

“We are… yes…” The little boy looked embarrassed, as if he couldn’t explain it. 

The old lady behind him stepped forward, patted the little boy’s head comfortingly, and said to Helian Rongchuan, “…Our family was unfortunate. We suffered a great disaster and had to escape to Dongyun.” The old lady couldn’t help but sigh again: “I didn’t expect the waterway of Jiaolu River to be cut off. Our group of orphans and widows were robbed and entangled on the road. We were confused and didn’t know where we have gone in Dongyun…” 

The little boy wiped the tears in his eyes. He boldly said: “Big brother, are you from Dongyun too? Have you heard of Diecui Valley? We asked many people along the way, but no one knew about it.” 

Helian Rongchuan was surprised. With a strange look, he looked at the group of people in front of him again, and said, “Diecui Valley?” 

Diecui Valley was where Helian Rongchuan’s villa was located. It had always been very secretive and heavily guarded. 

The old lady took out a map from her arms and spread it out tremblingly: “On this map, only water routes are named, but no land routes. We can’t figure out where we are now, and we really don’t know where to go next….” 

Helian Rongchuan swept his eyes across the map, and was suddenly shocked. The beautiful thin gold stroke on the map was familiar to his eyes. 

“Who gave you this map?!” Helian Rongchuan grabbed the old lady’s arm suddenly, and asked in a trembling voice, “Who are you? Why are you going to my valley?!”

“Your valley?” The old lady looked at Helian Rongchuan in surprise, and hesitated: “Young man, you… is your surname Helian?” 

“How dare you, did you call the name of our Dongyun royal family casually?” Jiu Jin scolded. 

“It’s really you? It’s really you?” The old lady was so excited that she looked at Helian Rongchuan’s face in disbelief, and two lines of tears rolled down: “Great, child, we finally found you!” 

Helian Rongchuan clung to the old lady’s arm and a moment of uneasiness and apprehension passed through his heart: “Who are you? Did Yan Changqing ask you to come? Why didn’t he bring you here in person? Did something happen to him?!” 

Hearing the words “Yan Changqing”, the little boy burst into tears with a “Waa”: “Big brother… he was killed!” 

Helian Rongchuan was stunned, as if struck by lightning. After a while, he suddenly reacted. He grabbed the little boy by the collar, his fingers trembled, and he said sharply, “Who is your big brother? Tell me clearly!!” 

“My elder brother’s surname… surname is Yan…” The little boy was frightened by the sudden change in Helian Rongchuan’s face. He struggled and said, “You are not allowed to bully me, our Yan family are all generals, you are not allowed to bully me…”

Helian Rongchuan felt cold all over. He let go of the little boy, he staggered two steps involuntarily and almost fell, but fortunately he was supported by Jiu Jin. 

“Don’t talk nonsense. Lord Yan is a general, the god of war who wins every battle, how can he die?” Jiu Jin asked. 

The old lady shook her head and burst into tears. Looking at Helian Rongchuan’s shocked expression, she knew that she had finally found the right person for this trip. She felt both sadness and joy in her heart, and she couldn’t help but tell Helian Rongchuan all her experiences of the past few days.

“…We originally planned to follow Changqing’s instructions and keep going, but we heard the news of his passing after less than a day of walking. It was rumored that he suffered from a sudden illness, but it only took less than a day. How can a healthy person just go like that? So we turned around and hid in the corner, and we saw him being buried in a Mausoleum on the outskirts of the city by the emperor himself…” The old lady was sobbing when she spoke of the sad part, beating her chest.

” …This good child must have been unable to overcome the hurdle in his heart because of Ning Cheng’s affairs. And for us, in order not to be humiliated…. We are the one who dragged him down, it’s us who…”     

“…dead?”     

Helian Rongchuan stared blankly at the young and old of the Yan family in front of him like a puppet, the old lady’s voice buzzing in his head.     

Ning Cheng…a scam?     

…the male empress…? ?     

Helian Rongchuan stared straight at the crying people in front of him, but couldn’t hear anything in his ears.     

Died?     

The person he protected and cherished with his own life died?     

Helian Rongchuan stood blankly for a while, his eyes suddenly turned, and a gleam of light flashed.

“Did you see it wrong? Did you hear it wrong?”     

He suddenly jumped up, the light in his eyes was even brighter, and he said decisively: “You must be mistaken! He is not the only one with the surname Yan. He is only twenty-one years old, so how could he die! He promised me ‘there will be a return date’, and he promised me that he will come back. How could he not keep his promise? You must have made a mistake!”     

Helian Rongchuan spoke incoherently, his tone became more and more certain. As he spoke, he placed his bag on his back and walked out the door.

“Jiujin, you go and take them back to Diecui Valley and help them settle down, I will go to Yan Kingdom to pick up Changqing. His family members are here, so it’s time to come back!”

“Young man, you can’t go!” The old lady staggered over and waved her hands.

“When we were leaving, Changqing specially urged us to tell you, he said that someone in Yan Kingdom wants to chase you down and kill you. He told us to tell you to run for your life, don’t look back!” 

Helian Rongchuan was stunned again. The corner of his mouth twitched, and he smiled softly: “So he was worried that someone would harm me? Well, I’ll go find him right now. As long as I stand in front of him with my whole body intact, he will be relieved.” 

After speaking, he ignored all the obstacles and galloped away like lightning, raising the flying snow. 

“Your Royal Highness—!” 

“Young man…” 

The exclamation behind him quickly disappeared in the howling wind and could no longer be heard. 

The heavy snow was raging, and the snow was mixed with icicles, which mercilessly slashed Helian Rongchuan’s face like an invisible thin blade. The cold raw wind poured straight into his nose and mouth, making him almost breathless. But Helian Rongchuan never stopped for a moment. 

The sun rose and set, and the surrounding scenery changed from fields to villages, from mountains to rivers. On the vast white land, only a dark red figure was charging against the wind. 

Good horse, hurry, hurry, take me to see Changqing… He must be waiting for me, he must be waiting for me! 

The snow was getting heavier and heavier, and the snowflakes were fluttering about in the strong wind, it was almost impossible to see the road ahead. After a few days and nights in the wind and snow, the third horse, which was about to collapse, finally stopped. A figure covered in frost and snow, almost frozen, fell from the horse with a thud. 

The well-behaved horse lowered his head and silently licked his master’s frozen face with his warm tongue.

Helian Rongchuan snorted softly and slowly opened his eyes that were full of frost. 

Shengling. 

The ground was above, the sky below, and from an inverted perspective, row after row of obliquely flying soul-calling flags came into view. White silk and black cloth, the big character “Dian” (libation to the dead) was eye-catching so that there was nowhere to hide. Like daggers, they stabbed into his eyes one by one, making him almost shed blood and tears. 

In the civil strife in Yan, even the newly built general’s mausoleum was not spared. The stone figures and horses in front of the tomb fell to the ground, and the entrance to the mausoleum was also bombed with a large hole, leaving a mess.     

Helian Rongchuan didn’t care. He stood up and staggered into the mausoleum. The stone road was long and narrow, without a trace of light, and only the sound of his own breathing could be heard in silence. He didn’t know how long it took, but the two sides finally opened up, and it seemed to be a spacious room with stone walls. Helian Rongchuan took a deep breath and lit the Zhezi (like a torch) in his hand.     

The faint flames illuminated the scene in front of him. This was a circular burial chamber. In the center of the tomb, there was a beautifully carved golden silk nan wood coffin.     

The moment the flames lit up, Helian Rongchuan felt his heart that had been suspended all this time suddenly fall into the black abyss like a block of lead, even his internal organs were torn apart by a feeling of extreme depression and fear. It was crushing him and he just wanted to vomit.     

Helian Rongchuan endured the pain in his heart and stepped forward step by step. He blinked, his fingers sof, as if stroking the face of his sweetheart, stroked the coffin. His lips trembled.     

“Changqing, I’m here to see you, let me see you, okay?”     

It was like he was possessed, waiting for an answer. After a long while, he reached out his hand and pushed it tentatively towards the coffin cover.     

With a dull sound, the heavy coffin was pushed open by a small crack!     

Helian Rongchuan was stunned for a moment. He was so eager to see Yan Changqing that he didn’t have time to think about why such a mausoleum coffin could be pushed away without any tools. The lid was pushed open a few inches again.     

However, the moment the fire shone into the coffin, Helian Rongchuan was suddenly stunned.     

– The coffin was actually empty! !

Helian Rongchuan couldn’t believe his eyes, so he jumped into the coffin and fumbled around. 

What about the person? 

Helian Rongchuan’s heart couldn’t help beating wildly. There was no one in the coffin, does that mean that Yan Changqing was not dead yet? ! 

Unprecedented ecstasy hit his heart. Helian Rongchuan hurriedly wanted to jump out of the coffin, he was too excited. He couldn’t care about it any longer. He only shook his hands and tried several times before finally lighting two candles again, wanting to see if there were any traces of Yan Changqing around him. 

The orange-yellow fire dimly lit up, and Helian Rongchuan looked at the ground of the stone tomb and suddenly held his breath. 

There were indeed footprints on the ground. Not one or two, but a mess. 

Helian Rongchuan followed the traces of the footprints, and at the end of the corner of the stone wall, there was a faint shadow of a crouching person!

Who is it? !