Rebirth Of Chen An

Chapter 164: Chen Yang, the Ancient Version

“Nothing serious. I’m having a bit of a sunstroke. A little rest will do.” Chen An held his forehead while he answered.

Sunstroke? Ding Sheng and Qingyu looked up at the sky; it was overcast with clouds, while an autumn breeze was bringing with it a slight chill.

With his eyes closed, Chen An tried to calm himself. A moment ago, images about the emperor perishing in the fire flashed before him like a TV drama, and numerous pictures about the emperor appeared in his mind.

He suddenly had a strange idea: could this emperor be him before he was reincarnated?

Chen An opened his eyes and frowned. If the emperor was really his previous life, he was very different then indeed: instead of fighting back when he was unfairly treated, he jumped into the fire and took his own life.

“Your lordship?” Qingyu, who was standing aside suddenly said.

“Chen Yang?” This came from Ding Sheng.

Chen An looked up and saw a young man standing not far away. Though with his hair in a bun in the ancient fashion and dressed in exquisite clothing, Chen An immediately recognized the coming person.

A man who looked like Chen Yang, nephew of the emperor, and the so called ‘Prince Apathy’ with great powers in the imperial court.

This was getting really interesting. Chen An lifted the corners of his lips. Whether the emperor was him before reincarnation or not, he was not going to stand by and let everything pass.

Standing up from his chair, Chen An, who had more or less regained his composure, walked towards the Prince while the latter stared at him as if in a dream, and asked: “has the General mentioned me?”

“You——”the Prince was unable to utter another word. In his eyes were reflected an image of Chen An, smiling yet indifferent. He’d heard about the man from the General, yet still, he could hardly believe his own eyes when he saw him.

How could there be someone so like the emperor.

“I suggest that you do not mistake me for the emperor, who’d died in the fire. If there’s a single trace of guilt towards him in you, you should not disrespect him like that.”

The biting words instantly made the Prince frown; as a coldness glinted in his eyes, he grabbed at Chen An, saying: “who the hell are you?!”

Chen An moved out of his reach, and replied with a smile: “the General has asked me the same question many times, so why don’t you talk to him? The only thing I can tell you is that I’m not your emperor. He’d dead and cold, never to be alive again.”

Upon finishing, Chen An saw clearly that the face of the Prince turned white as a sheet.

“Ding Sheng, we’re leaving.” Leaving the Prince the way he was, Chen An turned and left.

…

…

“So there’s an ancient version Lu Feng, and an ancient version Chen Yang. Is it possible that there’s an ancient version Ivanov, too?” Back in their room, Ding Sheng was seriously contemplating the question. He looked over at Chen An, who was looking out of the window absent-mindedly, and asked: “Uncle Chen, do you think I will run into an ancient version me?”

“Don’t get excited. It’s not going to happen. But I’m sure there’s an Ivanov of this world.”

With his chin supported on his hand and his eyes half closed, Chen An was bored. No matter how clean the air or how healthy the food was in this place, he wanted to go back to his own world.

“Uncle Chen, how you do know there is an ancient version hairy bear, but not an ancient version me?”

Chen An could tell from his tone that Ding Sheng was not totally convinced, so he fixed the young man with a stare and said: “today, when we were around the burnt down palace of the emperor, I saw images of the emperor’s life flashing before me.”

“Remember when we were in the small city, I told you that I asked the tavern boy whether he saw a man with blond hair and blue eyes.”

“Yeah, and he said it was how the foreign nationals from the north looked like,” Ding Sheng provided.

“You don’t seem surprised that I saw the emperor’s past,” Chen An expected the young man to be more excited at this; yet the young man was entirely calm.

Ding Sheng beamed, revealing his neat white teeth: “Even if Lu Feng and the others appear before us right now, I won’t be surprised.”

Ding Sheng had experienced, in the past few days, too many things that were out of the ordinary, like Chen An was in fact the Old Fox, they  travelled in time to another world, and so on. He was by now desensitized towards things that would previously seem odd to him.

Well, now that Ding Sheng was immune to oddities, Chen An went on without further ado, “the leader of the foreign nationals was Ivanov.”

He paused a moment and then added, “he looks like Ivanov, but is not the same in personality.”

At least judging from the emperor’s memory, this leader was not as lovable or humorous as the hairy bear.

Chen An wasn’t exactly eager to probe into the intricate relationships between these people; he just wanted to go back to where he came from, back to his own Ivanov and the others. He wished that everything could be normal again.

With the foreign nationals approaching from the north, a dear price would be paid to stop their troops. Given the terrible state the nation was in, even someone as resourceful and tough as the General or the Prince could not easily reverse the situation without fighting a difficult war first.

And people would die in a war.

The General and the Prince, who had been rivals before, were brought to the same table because of this problem of the foreign nationals, to discuss strategies for defense.

“What are you looking at me for? I do have certain powers, and tools to win a battle. But we immortals are not fond of killing, which is a sin and will only harm our well-being.”

Arms before his chest, Chen An glanced at the Prince and the General, both of whom were thinking about using him in this, and said, “do I look like someone who will sacrifice my own interest for the sake of others? If you think so, I suggest you think again.”

They were already disabused of the belief that this man was like the emperor; yet somehow seeing his face still aroused some unrealistic hopes in them.

Chen An’s words brought them instantly back to reality. The late emperor was kind, generous and compassionate, unlike this man who was overbearing and employed sarcasm in almost every sentence he uttered.

“Master, you once said, you came down because you want to stop the war and relieve the people from their sufferings. Now the enemies are approaching, are you going to stand by and watch?” There was sincerity in the General’s voice; the battle with the bandits was an eye-opening experience for him and he was unlikely to forget that.

“Stop imposing your moral standards on me; it doesn’t work.” Chen An lifted his hand and said coldly: “how does helping you equal to helping the people? And seriously, don’t you two find yourselves laughable?”

“What do you mean?” the Prince asked with a frown. If it wasn’t for the fact that this man had the looks of the emperor, his impudence and arrogance would have earned him a visit to the wild dogs.

“Clearly, both of you cared about him. But you won’t say it. And the poor emperor had to burn himself to stop you two from fighting each other. And now, well, well,” he fixed the two with a glare and sneered, “you two are forming an alliance because there’s a common enemy.”

“So he died in vain, poor guy.” Seeing anger rising on both the General’s and the Prince’ face, Chen An stood up, “I can stop the enemy’s troops without losing one soldier’s life on your side, but on one condition. You can take it or leave it.”