Hidden Shadow – CH 147

Chapter One-Hundred-Forty-Seven: I Am Hua Rongjian

An Jiu left the house and found a secluded spot to hide.

It felt like only yesterday that Chu Dingjiang was captured protecting her, so how could their reunion be like this?

Yes, from the beginning, he had said he rescued her because he did not know she had lost her inner strength and was no longer of any use to him; he even planned to drown her in the pond…

She had forgotten those words.

After thinking for a long time, she returned.

Chu Dingjiang was still there.

He knelt before the table, looked up at the sound, and smiled when he saw An Jiu’s clear, bright eyes.

“Why are you disguised as Hua Rongjian?” Her human skin mask was given to her by Hua Rongjian. Chu Dingjiang had not recognized her at first glance downstairs at the teahouse, but had looked around and discerned her identity by intuition. Therefore, he could not possibly be Hua Rongjian.

“I am Hua Rongjian,” he said, staring intently at her, his words leaving no room for doubt.

During his time under house arrest, he realized something: since he had developed feelings for a woman, there was no reason to hide it like a thief. He could not do the foolish thing of silently liking someone and enduring it in silence. The woman he had set his sights on would share his fate.

An Jiu sat cross-legged opposite him, staring at him for a long time. “I came back because you told me the truth.”

An Jiu had considered many possibilities, but she could not understand his answer. If Chu Dingjiang was really Hua Rongjian, then who was that philanderer from the Hua family?

“Every word is true,” Chu Dingjiang said.

“You are a whole size bigger than Hua Rongjian.” An Jiu suddenly remembered a scene she had seen in a movie theater while hiding from pursuers, where a huge mammoth believed it was an opossum. Chu Dingjiang was like that mammoth, so enormous yet hypnotizing himself into believing he was Hua Rongjian.

An Jiu suddenly chuckled.

Chu Dingjiang could not understand how being a bit thicker than Hua Rongjian was laughable, even if he thought about it for eight lifetimes. He waited until she finished laughing before asking helplessly, “Why were you laughing?”

“I just suddenly found you very interesting,” An Jiu replied truthfully.

She was not good at handling relationships, let alone maintaining a romance, but she knew she had developed an indescribable feeling for Chu Dingjiang. She did not want to give up on him for the time being.

“Look here,” Chu Dingjiang said, his eyes sparkling with laughter. An Jiu’s attitude gave him the courage to be honest.

Chu Dingjiang took the sparrow-shaped lamp, caressing it with great affection. “This is my home.”

His former boldness and ruthlessness had vanished. A tall figure, shrouded in the dim light, appeared exceptionally lonely and desolate. “I was born in the Zhao state during the Warring States period. I still remember when Prince Fan rebelled. I tried my best to dissuade my father from following him, saying that the Zhao ruler was wise and capable. But no one heeded my words. So I secretly plotted my escape. In the end, Prince Fan was defeated, and I stepped over the corpses of my ally, the entire Wu clan, to protect the Hua family, thus bearing the infamy of betraying my country, My Lord, and my clan. Now, the grass grows lush by the Yanggu River; I wonder which handful of soil once belonged to me…”

When he opened his eyes again, he was still Hua Rongjian, but the world had changed drastically.

He was reborn into the Hua family, the foremost family of the Song Dynasty, carrying his memories.

After two years of endurance, he finally had the opportunity to look through the family genealogy and found his former self, Hua Ji.

Hua Ji was not his real name. During the Warring States period, it meant “youngest son of the Hua clan,” a record that only allowed later generations to know that the Hua clan once had such a person, but whose face remained obscure.

No one knew that he was once called Hua Rongjian. No one knew that he devoted himself to protecting the Hua clan, sacrificing everything, and no one knew that the ruthless prince of the Warring States period possessed abilities far exceeding merely protecting a single family.

“When I was seven, I discovered that my father in this life was secretly keeping a woman outside the marriage, and they had a five-year-old son. He looked remarkably like me. I appeared before that woman and asked her if she wanted her son to become the legitimate heir of the Hua clan. That woman was willing to pay any price for it, so I secretly killed her.” Chu Dingjiang paused. Seeing that An Jiu’s expression remained unchanged, he continued, “I took that child back to the mansion and raised him.”

Later, this matter was discovered by Prime Minister Hua. He did not try to hide it but calmly analyzed the Hua clan’s predicament with Prime Minister Hua, saying that to preserve the Hua clan, the child should take Hua Rongjian’s identity. He clearly remembered the Prime Minister Hua’s horrified expression at the time.

Politically astute, he had long recognized that the Konghe Army was an invaluable weapon; if used properly, it could overthrow the dynasty. Therefore, he resolutely disfigured himself and joined the Konghe Army.

He needed to vent all his resentment and forbearance; merely leaving a name in the family genealogy was not enough! He wanted to leave a significant mark on history.

As a child, he resembled that Hua Rongjian by eight or nine points, but as he grew older, the two became less alike. That person had become the real Hua Rongjian. If he did not do something to prove his existence, there would be no proof that he had ever existed.

An Jiu remained silent.

In other words, Hua Rongjian from the Warring States period was reborn in the Song Dynasty and abandoned his noble status to join the Konghe Army… This also explained why the current Hua Rongjian did not resemble his elder brother Hua Rongtian much, while Chu Dingjiang and Hua Rongtian looked more alike—they were actually full brothers.

“You do not believe me?” Chu Dingjiang asked.

This was such an unbelievable thing that even he himself still found it hard to believe. However, after a long while, he heard An Jiu calmly say, “Should I call you Chu Dingjiang now?”

He nodded. To stabilize the country, if it were not for facing such a weak yet promising nation, he probably would not have felt such a strong desire.

An Jiu vaguely understood the meaning of the name, but her interest waned. “I want to see you.”

Chu Dingjiang raised his hand and lightly covered his mask. “You will see later.”

He had never thought appearances were that important, so he had not hesitated at all when he damaged it, but at this moment, he suddenly cared. “You will see later, after I heal it.”

An Jiu did not have a penchant for admiring other people’s scars, so she nodded and changed the subject. “How can I help you?”

“Be by my side. I need you, and I need your mental power.”

An Jiu, having received her answer, stood up and said calmly, “It’s getting late. I have to go kill someone. We can talk later.”

“Fourteenth.” Chu Dingjiang felt uneasy seeing her ambiguous attitude.

“In exchange for a secret.” She opened the door and slipped out. Leaving behind a single sentence, “My name is An Jiu.”

Chu Dingjiang was stunned for a moment, then smiled.

With just one sentence, Chu Dingjiang understood why she was not surprised by such a bizarre event.

It was past noon, but there was still plenty of time before Li Ting returned home, so An Jiu wanted to clear her mind.

Headmaster Sheng was right; Chu Dingjiang was no pushover.

Thinking back, it seemed he always knew what she craved most, always managing to hit her sweet spot. If he were to scheme against her, An Jiu could foresee her end being nothing but dust.

An Jiu did not want to be used, so she decided to observe first.

She sat at a roadside tea stall with a storyteller until dusk.

The summer heat dissipated, and the streets were even more bustling than in the afternoon.

An Jiu spotted Li Ting in the throng. He was not in a sedan chair like in the morning, but walking through the crowd, followed by a fourth-level martial artist leading two horses.

Li Ting walked to a sugar figurine stall, where the stall owner greeted him familiarly. He bought two sugar figurines, carefully wrapped them up after weaving through the crowd, and then mounted his horse and rode away.

It was forbidden to ride at high speed in the city. Li Ting was not fast, and An Jiu could easily keep up on foot, but it would save a lot of time compared to riding in a sedan chair. He was in a hurry to get back to the mansion and even took a shortcut through a small alley along the way.

An Jiu followed him all the way to the mansion. She quietly hid in a tall ginkgo tree in the courtyard.

Madam Li was already waiting at the second gate. Seeing Li Ting enter, she stepped forward to greet him, and the two walked together towards the dining hall. Just like in the morning, they did not exchange many words, but the atmosphere was exceptionally warm and natural.

As they approached the dining hall, two little children came running out like cheerful little birds. The older child called out crisply, “Papa!” and hugged Li Ting’s leg. The other child, whose legs were not quite nimble yet, toddled over, calling out in a childish voice, “Grandpa!”

“What kind of aunt are you? You do not know how to take care of your nephew; you have absolutely no manners of a proper daughter!” Li Ting scolded sternly, but his eyes and brows were already brimming with smiles.

The little toddler wobbled over and hugged his other leg.

The two children were not afraid of his feigned scolding at all, their big, bright eyes blinking as they looked at him. He then took out some sugar figurines from his sleeve and gave one to each of them.

The children cheered as they took the sugar figurines and ran back into the house.

Madam Li gently scolded, “You are buying these little trinkets again. Eating this every night will make them sick!”

Li Ting smiled and brushed it off. “I will not buy them next time.”

“You always say that,” Madam Li said, annoyed. “Shu’er will be married in a few years. It is bad enough that you’ve spoiled her, but if she has rotten teeth, which family would dare to take her…”

Li Ting quietly took her hand, squeezed it, and laughed it off. “I will change later. Let’s eat first.”

Madam Li blushed, pulled her hand away, and muttered under her breath, “Shameless old man.”

A group of maids and servants covered their mouths, trying to suppress their laughter.

The eldest son and his wife came out to greet them, and the family entered the dining hall one after another.

An Jiu stared blankly at this scene until only the maids serving dishes remained in the corridor.

Laughter and cheerful voices came from inside the house.

An Jiu sneaked into the study. Sure enough, Li Ting had entered shortly after dinner to look at the official documents he had brought back from the yamen. He did not return to his room to wash up and went to bed until almost midnight. As the lights went out, An Jiu sensed a familiar presence around her and quietly left the Li residence.

Climbing over the courtyard wall, she looked into the shadows and saw Chu Dingjiang leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, looking at her sideways.

“Watching other families eat, are you not envious?” Chu Dingjiang chuckled, pulling a paper package from his pocket and tossing it to her.

An Jiu caught it; inside was something warm and soft. She opened it and found four plump white steamed buns.

She walked into the shadows, squatted down beside him, and began to eat heartily.

After finishing, she wiped her mouth, stood up, and told him with a cold, arrogant expression, “Do not think you can buy me off with four buns.”

“Are eight enough?” Chu Dingjiang teased.

“Do not measure me by your own worth!” An Jiu crumpled the oil paper into a ball and stuffed it into his arms.