AWB Chapter 947 The Grand Finale 7 (The End)
Chapter 947 The Grand Finale 7 (The End)
Lu Yangyang didn't believe it, nor did she want to believe it, that perhaps one morning she would wake up to find Zong Que gone forever.
She was not yet ready for such a separation.
Huang Sumu was already capable of handling things independently at the medical school. After hurriedly handing over all the matters to Huang Sumu, Lu Yangyang returned to the palace and began her research day and night again.
She asked Wen Qingqing to help her find someone from Medicine God Valley to copy the classics and send them over. She also wrote a letter to Yin Yueling, asking her to copy the classics from Yuechuan and send them over as well.
She refused to let go of even the slightest possibility, but she dared not leave Yanjing easily, fearing that if she left, she would never see Zong Que again.
Zong Que was well aware of her anxiety, so he cooperated with her wholeheartedly, giving her medicine, acupuncture, and trying every possible method.
Upon receiving the news, Sheng Junyao, Li Duan, and Wenren Jing, who had already retired, as well as Yan Yue and Sheng Yunjiao, who had been traveling all over the country in recent years, all came back to visit. However, no one could stop the speed at which life passed.
Zong Que persisted in this process for three years.
On his forty-fifth birthday, Lu Yangyang dressed up in a rare manner.
Zong Que could no longer get up and was sleeping more and more, but he was thinking about Lu Yangyang's birthday celebration for him, so he woke up early and leaned against the soft couch by the window, watching the snow falling outside, thinking that another year had passed.
Lu Yangyang came in carrying a small bowl. There were no longevity noodles in the bowl, only a poached egg.
Her cooking skills have always been rather sloppy. Later, she became so busy that she had no time to study how to cook. So when she finally wanted to start cooking, she discovered that all she could do was boil a simple poached egg.
Lu Yangyang sat down next to Zong Que, scooped up a little bit of egg white with a small silver spoon, and brought it to Zong Que's lips: "Try a bite, I added sugar."
Zong Que smiled and opened his mouth. He had long since lost his sense of taste, but looking at her, he remembered what sweetness tasted like.
After feeding him a bite, Lu Yangyang took a bite herself, then put the small bowl aside, sat down on the soft couch, took Zong Que's hand, placed it on her face, and whispered,
"Ah Que, you should go."
"I have no regrets about being able to spend half my life with you in this world."
Lu Yangyang swallowed back her tears with all her might. How could she not have regrets? There were so many. Every time they were busy with their own lives, she would imagine that one day, when they retired like Aunt Jing, they would travel to the ends of the earth together and take a boat trip overseas to see what the world was like.
They always thought there was still time, and that if they did more now, more people would benefit in the future, and they could put themselves aside for later.
Little did they know that this separation would be forever.
But she could no longer force him to stay with her in this world. For the past three years, he had not only supported her with his body, but had also exhausted his soul, using his extraordinary will to stay with her and endure day after day.
How much pain he must be in.
How could she not know?
She realized that in the end, what she had to understand was how to let go.
Zong Que's fingertips brushed her face with difficulty. "Silly lady."
Lu Yangyang looked up, tears still streaming down her face. "I looked in the mirror all night and even put on makeup, just so you would remember how beautiful I still look."
But he could always shatter all her pretenses with just a single sentence.
"Yangyang," Zong Que's voice was slow, and he tried to make sure she could hear him clearly, "I don't believe in ghosts or gods, nor do I believe in past lives or reincarnation, but I still want to believe just this once. I want the path we couldn't walk together in this life to continue in the next."
"Okay, but remember to wait for me. I promise you, in this life, I will live a good life and live to be a hundred years old." Lu Yangyang held his hand, feeling the warmth fading from his skin, and her tears fell even harder: "Is my makeup ruined?"
"Very...beautiful."
Zong Que's voice grew softer and softer, a smile still lingering on his lips, but his eyes had closed without him noticing.
Lu Yangyang tried hard to hold that hand, but found that the hand could no longer hold hers.
Her Ah Que is really gone.
……
Emperor Zhaoyuan Zongque died in the third year of Chongguang, at the age of forty-five, and was buried in the imperial mausoleum in the eastern suburbs.
Emperor Zhaoyuan and his wife had no children. In his later years, he passed the throne to Princess Rong'an, Zong Yuyin, who became the first female emperor since the founding of the Great Zhao Dynasty.
Zong Yuyin was the ninth daughter of the late emperor. She had no title. After Emperor Zhaoyuan ascended the throne, she was given the title Rong'an. Princess Rong'an entered officialdom through the imperial examination in the seventh year of the Yuanyang era and married in the same year. She had a son and a daughter after marriage.
……
Lu Yangyang lived to the age of ninety-three. In the more than fifty years after Zong Que left, she traveled to many places and devoted her life to the reform of Dazhao medicine. From building schools to cultivate talents, to the initial construction of hospitals and their gradual scaling up in major cities, she spent a very long time and saw some pretty good results.
She fulfilled her wish to travel abroad, where she worked with her friend Wen Qingqing, who had dedicated her life to medical research, to improve several effective remedies brought back from overseas.
Along the way, she also gradually saw off many of her closest relatives.
She wasn't by Wenren Jing's side when he left, but later she received a letter he left for her.
"Yangyang, upon reading this letter, you've probably already guessed that your aunt Rongxin and I actually come from another timeline, hundreds of years in the future. I've traveled through time, yet I still don't know where history will ultimately lead. But I do know that the past century, for which our generations have strived, will be the best century in the history of the Great Zhao. Today's Great Zhao is free from internal and external troubles, with a clear political climate, a prosperous economy, and a flourishing of diverse ideas. I'm fortunate to have participated in this tremendous transformation. Perhaps a hundred years from now, power will have fallen into the wrong hands, and war will reignite, but the changes brought about by this century will ultimately affect countless people. Perhaps this is the greatest significance of my time travel."
Lu Yangyang closed the letter, placed it on a candle, and lit it until it burned out.
She was also grateful that she had encountered good teachers and helpful friends on her journey of growth, and that she had been able to glimpse a glimpse of the future world, thus witnessing the most brilliant century of the Great Zhao Dynasty in this grand transformation.
Sensing that his time was near, Lu Yangyang wrote a letter to his descendants to say goodbye and came to the imperial mausoleum alone.
She navigated through the mausoleum's many traps and finally arrived at Zong Que's coffin. After redressing, she pushed open the coffin and lay down beside Zong Que.
Back then, she searched for books in vain, and Yin Yueling came all the way from Yuechuan to give her a gift.
A secret recipe that can preserve a corpse from decay.
Lu Yangyang looked at Zong Que beside her, whose appearance remained unchanged, as if he were just asleep, and slightly raised the corners of her lips.
She slowly closed the coffin, took Zong Que's hand, and intertwined their fingers.
Ah, I have lived a good life.
I have done many, many things and helped many people, and I feel a great sense of accomplishment.
I have not let myself down, nor have I let down our dreams.
But when I came to keep my appointment with you, my hair was already white.
My face is covered in wrinkles, and even the red feathers you drew on my remaining scars are no longer as beautiful as they used to be.
Will you still recognize me?
But I think we will meet again.
When we said goodbye,
My heart will recognize you before I do.
I think you are too.
(End of text)