Chapter 347
"Three, two, one——!"
Sheng Qingyan lunged forward like a bolt of lightning.
At almost the exact same moment.
"Bang——!"
Old Master Ji fired a blind shot using the metal's reflective surface.
The sniper lying in ambush in the distance let out a shriek of pain as his sniper rifle plummeted from the high vantage point.
"Yingbao, you're amazing."
Sheng Qingyan couldn't help calling out Yingbao again, and he even unconsciously ruffled Old Master Ji's white hair. Realizing this might be too forward, he quickly withdrew his hand.
He swiftly handed over the old man and Duoduo to the arriving military personnel. After the elderly man and the child were safely bundled into the bulletproof armored vehicle, Sheng Qingyan turned around and charged back through the hail of bullets.
The military had already taken control of this area. Ji Zhiyuan's five brothers, who weren't the targets, had been safely evacuated.
As for Rong Yu, she was pinned down in a corner by the crossfire of several snipers.
Three sniper positions had her locked in a triangular formation. The only barrier in front of her was already riddled with holes.
A urgent voice crackled through the communicator: "Captain Sheng, there's a ventilation duct on the west side that allows you to circle around. Clear the obstacles in three minutes, and we can cover Miss Rong's escape..."
Sheng Qingyan's gaze never left Rong Yu.
His knuckles were white from clenching.
Three minutes?
Even three seconds could leave her lying in a pool of blood.
"Concentrate all firepower on suppressing the right sniper position!"
Before he even finished speaking, he had already shot forward like an arrow released from the bowstring.
Bullets kicked up dust at his feet. Behind him came the dense covering fire from his teammates.
The moment Rong Yu saw his figure, her pupils contracted sharply. She yelled his name hoarsely, "Sheng Qingyan, don't come over here!"
She could never forget it.
In her past life, on the cruise ship, the scene of him being shot and falling into the sea.
Her death had cast a shadow over Yingbao for the rest of his life.
A Zheng's sacrifice was a nightmare she could never shake off either.
But Sheng Qingyan acted as if he hadn't heard. His body moved in an erratic zigzag, dodging one deadly bullet after another.
He was too fast.
Fast as a cheetah.
Yet it still seemed too slow.
When he was only three or four meters away from her, the barrier in front of her was suddenly blasted through. The upper half of her body was exposed. On a distant high-rise building, the muzzle of a sniper rifle flashed, and a bullet tore through the air.
The world seemed to slow down.
The bullet ripped through the air, inching closer and closer to the left side of Rong Yu's chest. She slightly turned her face, her eyes, usually filled with smiles, now reflecting his sprinting figure.
This scene——
Sheng Qingyan's eyes widened.
Why did this scene feel so familiar, as if he had seen it before?
Memories shattered like fragments of glass, at this moment, surging fiercely into his mind.
The blood-red sunset on the cruise ship deck, a group of intellectuals, the escort team, the sudden attack from the Lighthouse Country's navy...
The icy seawater filling his lungs, and in his last conscious moment, her heart-wrenching scream of his name.
It was the memories from their past life!
So, in their past lives, they had been lovers all along!
Sheng Qingyan drew in a sharp breath.
The scenes of the past rose so clearly before him. So, in his past life, he had taken a bullet for her, was hit, fell into the sea, and died a martyr.
He had left her behind, pregnant with his child.
He dared not imagine how a pregnant woman could have survived in that war-torn era.
"A-Yu! Duck!"
The moment he roared, drawing his gun, aiming, and pulling the trigger happened in one seamless motion.
"Clang——!"
The two metal bullets collided mid-air. Sparks burst like shooting stars.
Rong Yu whirled around. The intercepted bullet grazed her forearm, finally embedding itself with a thud into the ground at her feet.
Her gaze cut through the smoke and met Sheng Qingyan's across the distance.
His hand holding the gun was still suspended in the air, the muzzle smoke not yet dissipated. The depths of his eyes churned with emotions as thick as the night itself——
It was like a look exchanged only after crossing the boundary between life and death.
"A-Yu!"
Sheng Qingyan rolled over and arrived by her side.
Rong Yu couldn't remember how the evacuation went from there. All she knew was that when she came to her senses, she was already stuffed into a bulletproof vehicle, safely withdrawn to a secure area.
The man was dressing the graze wound on her forearm.
"A-Yu, does it still hurt?"
His jet-black eyes mirrored her figure.
She looked at him. Her lips moved. For a long time, she finally spoke tentatively, "A Zheng?"
"It's me. I am Sheng Qingyan, and I am also Ji Zheng." Sheng Qingyan pulled her tightly into his arms. "A-Yu, I remember. I remember everything. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."
He frantically kissed her hair.
Just a moment before this, he had been wondering who this 'A Zheng' was that A-Yu couldn't stop mumbling about in her sleep.
It was him.
Rong Yu's tears flowed like a torrent.
"A Zheng..."
She leaned on his shoulder, letting her tears soak his clothes.
Back then, when he died a heroic death, she hadn't cried.
When she gave birth, in so much pain, losing so much blood, walking through the gates of hell, she hadn't cried either.
In all those years, as a woman who had lost her husband, she single-handedly upheld the Ji family's honor. She had faced countless hardships, but she had never even reddened her eyes...
Even when she met her husband's reincarnation, those grievances were hard to voice, because he didn't remember.
He remembered nothing.
She had once consoled herself that not remembering those painful pasts might be a good thing.
But in truth, it was self-deception.
He had finally returned.
"A Zheng..."
She called his name.
"I'm here, A-Yu. I'm here." Sheng Qingyan's heart ached with every throb. He kissed her tears away. "It was my fault. I shouldn't have left you and our child. Don't cry, be good, don't cry anymore..."
When no one comforted her, it was bearable. But the moment someone did, the tears became completely uncontrollable.
Until——
"Mom!"
"Mom!"
"What's wrong with you, Mom?"
Old Master Ji dashed into the car in one leap, pulling Sheng Qingyan away and sitting down beside Rong Yu.
"Mom, where are you hurt? Don't scare me, please don't scare me!"
Seeing Rong Yu's face streaked with tears, his own voice choked up. His eyes turned red, and tears streamed down his wrinkled cheeks.
In his memory, Mom was always composed, calm, and unflappable. No matter what happened, she never showed her emotions. But now, she was crying like this.
It must have hurt a lot. Hurt so much that even someone like Mom couldn't bear it.
Rong Yu's uncontrollable tears stopped the moment she saw her grown son.
Crying in front of her child was too embarrassing.
She coughed. "I'm fine. I just got some sand in my eyes."
Old Master Ji sobbed loudly. "What sand? You're lying, Mom. You're lying to me. Are you trying to leave me again?"
A hand suddenly reached out and wiped away his murky tears.
"Yingbao."
Sheng Qingyan stared steadily at the old man before him.
No wonder he always felt an attachment. No wonder he was always inexplicably concerned. So this was his son, the one he had never met.
Yingbao had lived his entire life without a father. His journey must have been so much harder than others.
He had failed A-Yu.
And he had also failed Yingbao.
Sheng Qingyan opened his arms. A gentle smile formed on his lips. "Yingbao, come here. Dad wants to hold you."
Old Master Ji stood there dumbfounded.
He first looked at Rong Yu. Seeing her nod.
His tears gushed out again, his voice hoarse. "Dad?"
"Yes. I am Ji Zheng. I am your father."
Sheng Qingyan reached out proactively and pulled the old man into his arms.
The body of an infant was soft and tender.
But the old man’s body carried a certain stiffness.
He touched his son’s white hair, traced his wrinkles…
He had missed the birth, missed the first steps, missed the babbling, missed childhood, adolescence, youth, middle age… Never had he imagined that his first meeting with his son would occur in the son’s twilight years.
For nearly eighty years, his Yingbao had suffered too much.
“Dad—!”
Old Master Ji let out a sob and held tightly to his father, who was in the prime of his youth.
“Yingbao, be good. Dad is back, and he will never leave again,” Sheng Qingyan said gently, patting his back. “Mom and Dad will always be with you.”
With his other arm, he embraced Rong Yu.
A family of three, who had crossed time and space and overcome every impossibility, had finally come together in an embrace.
Those missed dawns and dusks, those absent meals across the four seasons, those longings that had slowly faded through the years—all were gradually filled by the surging love within their bloodline.
Rong Yu lowered her head.
She looked at her son, whose temples were flecked with gray, and then turned her gaze to Sheng Qingyan, who smiled beside her. She suddenly understood that so-called time and space were merely a measure of longing.
Bullets could pierce flesh, and years could blur faces, but the bond of blood and bone would never be forgotten.
A belated call of “mom” and “dad,” nearly eighty years in the making, seemed to turn every regret into a footnote of completeness.
The toughest thing in the world is not steel.
It is the family bond that can transcend death and penetrate time and space.
It will take root deep in the bloodline and bloom flowers that never wither upon reunion.
— The End of the Main Story —