“Why didn’t you tell me that you were back, Baili Hanbin?!” Hanbin was studying on arrays and seals when a sudden commotion came from outside along with someone saying something with awkward-sounding Chinese.
His hand pausing for a moment as he held a stone, Hanbin turned towards the entrance to see the handsome face of a mixed-blood. “Eunwoo?”
Eunwoo stepped into the yard in a few steps, before walking in circles around Hanbin and saying, “You’ve improved, I’m sure you can make it into the ranking battles this year.”
Upon hearing this, Hanbin’s expression became depressed and he looked down at his legs. “How could I do that when I’m like this?”
“I thought you would have changed this time around, but you’re still the same!” Upon hearing this, Eunwoo smacked his palm onto the table in frustration, and he was about to say something before he remembered Chanyeol’s words and swallowed his words back into his stomach. “…Are you going to leave the ancient martial arts world again?”
“No.” Hanbin shook his head slightly as he looked at the completed array on the table. “I’ll just stay here and help out the youngsters of the Baili family.”
Eunwoo was satisfied when he heard the first part, but he held down his words again after hearing the latter part. “Fine, but that’s not what I’m here for today… Do you still remember that aunt of yours?”
“Of course.” Hanbin picked up another stone and placed it on the table. Even though his aunt hadn’t been back in China for a long time, they had always kept in contact.
“Okay, good. Lemme tell you something interesting.” Eunwoo whispered as if he was about to say something controversial. “I saw someone that looked just like your aunt the other day.”
Upon hearing this, Hanbin paused for a moment as he remembered the elegant face that had eyes that seemed to have a galaxy in them before he looked down slightly. “It’s common enough for people to look alike in the entire world.”
It wouldn’t be strange if it were just similarity in terms of looks, but with that talent, too…
“Aren’t you curious in the least?” Eunwoo didn’t know how Hanbin was so nonchalant about it. “Were you not curious at all about what she did in the two years that she was gone, and how she lost her memory?”
“She already planned to spend the rest of her life in England, and she won’t be coming back.” Hanbin waved his hand dismissively as if he didn’t want to continue on the topic any further. “No need to talk about this anymore.”
“Alright, if you say so.” Eunwoo rubbed his nose awkwardly. “I’ll be going in to see Grandpa Baili.”
After he walked in, Hanbin’s gaze moved up and he sighed, not setting down the stone in his hand for a while before he pulled out the piece of paper that Lisa left him the time she came here.
Even after mulling over it for a while, he still couldn’t calm himself.
***
After he got a call from his disciple, Rong Seungwon immediately rushed towards the Su family. He had diagnosed Master Su’s sickness before, and even he couldn’t do anything about it. Even though he was well known as the divine doctor, his specialty was more on creating antidotes and poisons, as well as traditional Chinese medicine, hence his hands were tied with Master Su’s sickness in particular.
Thankfully he had a jack of all trades in his disciple Jackson, and while he was displeased back when he started studying western medicine right after he finished learning traditional Chinese medicine, but as time went by he realized that western medicine had its pros too.
Jackson knew what Master Su’s sickness was just by looking at his symptoms, and while he didn’t know how to cure him completely he knew the direction he should have gone in. Seungwon didn’t know about western medicine at all, but after Jackson explained it to him, he made some medical pills and used several arrays to help keep Master Su in the realm of the living.
In the end, he couldn’t do much because it simply wasn’t his profession.
That day, he suddenly received a call from Jackson saying that Master Su came to, and he was extremely shocked. According to his knowledge, Master Su’s thoughts were incoherent and he was only hanging onto life by a thread because of the pills he gave him, and such a person that couldn’t even open his eyes properly was awake?
Seungwon’s first reaction was one of disbelief!
Then again, Jackson had no need to trick or lie to him, so he could only go to the Su family to see it with his own eyes.
When he got there, Jackson was still there, and his gaze was immediately attracted to the old man lying in bed. Even though Master Su was still pale and weak, he seemed to be in good spirits as he talked with his grandson.
“Divine Doctor Rong.” Upon seeing Seungwon, all of the members of the Su family that were present all stood up and bowed at him respectfully.
“No need for all there formalities.” Seungwon wasn’t a stickler for all this, and he only walked towards his disciple with a surprised expression. “Were you the one that did this?”
Jackson was looking at the research results left behind by Lisa, and when he heard Seungwon’s voice he stood up. “Master, you’re here!”
After a moment, he reacted and replied, “I’m not the one that saved Master Su, his savior was someone else.”
“Who was it?” Seungwon asked curiously.
“The one that saved him was the genius freshman from A University that I told you about before, she’s amazing.” There weren’t a lot of people that could impress Jackson, so Seungwon was immediately interested, but then he sighed upon realizing that she was a western medicine student.
Jackson realized what he was thinking immediately, and was about to tell him that she knew traditional Chinese medicine too before Seungwon spoke again, “What’s that you have in your hand?”
“Oh, this is the medical plan that we researched together,” Jackson said, passing him the papers as he did.
Seungwon accepted the papers and then was stunned for a moment, before staring at it seriously.
Jackson: Does he understand everything? :O
After a while, Seungwon seemed to have scanned through all of the papers before saying, “Rich and bold strokes with a distinct aura that’s almost out of this world, what wonderful writing!”
Jackson: … He thought he really understood what the research documents were saying!
After being cut off like that, Jackson forgot what he was going to say, and Seungwon went over to check on Master Su’s pulse instead. The moment his fingers touched the elder’s wrist, his expression turned into one of shock. “What a strong life force! What did you two do, Jackson?”
“I didn’t do anything.” Jackson couldn’t feel the life force in Master Su’s veins like Seungwon could, and he could only detect his general health condition through machines and apparatus.
“Well don’t leave me hanging, what did she do?” Seungwon asked.
Jackson thought for a bit, before replying carefully, “She… fed Master Su a cup of water…?”
Seungwon: “…” I’m old but not senile, could you not?
What Jackson said was the truth, but Seungwon didn’t believe him…
“You youngsters like to bully old people like me nowadays.” Seungwon sighed. “As expected of growing old and useless, not only did that youngster from the Jeon Family bully me but my own student too…”
Jackson: “… I’ll help you contact her, but I’m not sure whether she would come to see you.” Jackson obliged, but even he wasn’t sure about it.
It was hard to get a hold of Lisa, and Jackson was actually quite respectful of her ability and foresight. Every step of hers seemed to be calculated beforehand, and as he was being prideful for stepping one step forward, she had already calculated the next hundred steps beforehand and wasn’t prideful in the slightest when she achieved anything.
***
After getting out of the Su family, Lisa drove back, and because she didn’t have anything else to do, she took out her computer and logged onto the game.
It was as lively as always in the game, and ever since virtual helmets became more commonplace, more and more people started playing this game and realizing how fun it could be.
Upon looking through her friend list in the game, the ID ‘A Flowing River’ was grayed out, and while Rosé and Mark weren’t online, Jimin and Chanyeol were.
And so Lisa led the newbies in the guild around through every dungeon from low-leveled to high-leveled, killing every boss so quickly and easily that the newbies couldn’t even react before they were brought to the next dungeon.
After sweeping through all the dungeons, Lisa was about to log off before an unfamiliar ID messaged her.
[Common]: Do you really not know how to do oil painting?
This was the second time that this person had asked her this, who was it? Lisa squinted slightly and tapped on her keyboard, hacking into the webcam of the sender.
A good-looking face popped up on her screen, and while she had already expected it, but as soon as she saw this face, Lisa tapped on her keyboard and a bright light emerged from her character in the game.
***
The character with the ID ‘Common’ immediately dropped to the ground, more dead than ever.
In a villa in Imperial Capital, Lucas watched as his own character was insta-killed with a frustrated expression.
“Brother Lucas, I want to hold an art exhibition!” The door was pushed open along with a chipper voice.
Lucas switched off his computer and hummed dismissively. “Don’t come in, I’ll be right out.”
Yuqi stood there at the door, looking in at the painting that was hanging on the wall with jealousy. Lucas’ study was very minimalistic—With only a simple computer and a few painting tools and more or less nothing else, she was still never allowed inside this room.
Lucas and Yuqi went downstairs, where Sima Jun was waiting.
“Teacher, how is it?” As soon as they got downstairs, Lucas immediately asked Sima Jun. They had been busy ever since they got back in the country with interviews and their hands were full preparing for the biennale.
Sima Jun sipped his tea and shook his head. “Shen Suran has just gotten back to B University, I’m sure we’ll get news in the next few days.”
Lucas suppressed his emotions as he poured himself a cup of tea, but he couldn’t stop his fingers from trembling ever so slightly.
Yuqi lowered her head to hide her emotions. If they couldn’t find her, then let it be that way forever!
***
At the same time, Madam Jeon rushed back home, kicking the chefs out of the kitchen in preparation to cook dinner for her son.
Before she could start, the butler came up to her and said, “Madam, Miss Tzuyu is here.”
“Tzuyu?” Madam Jeon didn’t hear any rumors because she just came back. “Let her in and invite her for dinner tonight.”
Tzuyu waited outside the door in anticipation, wanting to tell the news that she had gotten to Mrs. Jeon immediately.
The butler immediately invited her in cordially, and after thanking him she walked inside to find Madam Jeon in the kitchen. In her eyes, Madam Jeon had always been elegant and graceful, and far beyond reach. When did such a person cook with their own hands and step into the oily and hazy kitchen?
“Tzuyu, what good timing. I’ll be cooking dinner today, and Jungkook will be coming back too…Hm, Eunwoo came back to China today too, so maybe you youngsters can have a good chat, yes?” Mrs. Jeon mentioned nonchalantly.
Tzuyu was actually not that familiar with Madam Jeon, but since she was talented and stood out within the younger generation especially as a girl, Madam Jeon knew of her and had a favorable impression of her.
“Auntie Jeon.” Tzuyu remembered the rumors about her that were circulating in the ancient martial arts world, and in fear of Madam Jeon disliking her, she immediately told her the gossip she heard, “I heard that Young Master Jeon has close relations with someone in the outside world, a regular girl.”
Madam Jeon’s hands paused for a moment, her gaze becoming cold as she hummed dismissively.
Tzuyu didn’t see her change of expression, and she continued to speak, “If he continues doing this, it will displease the elder council! Auntie Jeon, you have to constrain him so that he doesn’t walk onto the wrong path, it wasn’t easy for him to get to where he is today!”
She looked at Madam Jeon with a worried expression.
Madam Jeon put down the veggies in her hands and turned around with a cold glare. “Enough! No matter what my son does, educating him is my responsibility, who are you to point fingers and direct our family matters?”
Madam Jeon had always been the image of a perfect noble matriarch, but as soon as she became angry, she proved that she was indeed Jungkook’s mother with a cold, piercing gaze that sent chills up Tzuyu’s spine.
Tzuyu hadn’t expected her to react in such a way, and she was stunned still for a moment.
At this moment, the butler spoke from outside. “Welcome home, Young Master.”
When she heard the butler’s voice, Tzuyu became even more panicked than before, Jeon Lian’s words echoing in her ear. That person outside would never let their family off the hook!
She only came here today because she knew that Jungkook only rarely stepped into the Jeon Manor, and she only came to see Madam Jeon, but not only did the woman react in such a way, he came back at this timing too!
If Madam Jeon was still one to let people go based on past graces, but Jungkook was truly cold-hearted, and he wouldn’t give anyone a second chance. This was something that Tzuyu knew for sure.
“Where’s my mother?” The cold voice rang outside, but it seemed to penetrate through the walls. Even at home, he was still as cold as ever.
“Madam is in the kitchen…” The butler paused in his sentence for a moment, as if he wanted to say something.
Jungkook took off his jacket and handed it to the butler, folding up the sleeves of his shirt as he walked towards the kitchen.
The moment he arrived at the door to the kitchen, he saw someone that didn’t belong here and he paused, his expression suddenly becoming colder and harsher.
Upon seeing Jungkook come back, Madam Jeon glanced towards Tzuyu before saying, “Butler, please see this visitor out.”
She had been quite happy about being able to cook for her son in such a long while, but she hadn’t expected the wet blanket in the form of Tzuyu to dampen her spirits.
Who did she think she was, stretching her hands into their family. Did she think that she was dumb enough to be swayed by her words?!
Tzuyu finally reacted, and Madam Jeon’s disdainful expression coupled with what happened that afternoon almost made her black out from regret and shock, but she bit her lips and forced herself to stay awake. She couldn’t just leave like this, she wouldn’t get another chance like this ever again!
“Young Master Jeon, my father was just too worried about me…” The more afraid she was, the clearer she was with her words, and just from her tone, it seemed as if she was suffering from a great injustice.
Jungkook only raised his hand to stop her from continuing with what she was about to say. “Ignoring the secret order and bringing people into the trial tower, almost destroying the balance of the entire ancient martial arts world that has been kept for thousands of years… You should be thankful that your ancestors were the protectors of the tower, or else you would have been dead by now.”
“Butler, take her away and watch them move out of the core district. They are not allowed to ever set foot in this place ever again.” Jungkook gave the butler a meaningful gaze, and the butler had the servants take Tzuyu away from Jeon Manor.
Tzuyu was as stunned as a wooden chicken, not fighting back or reacting at all for that matter as she was taken away.
After that, Madam Jeon picked up her vegetables again and glanced at Jungkook. “Are you still with that girl from the outside world?”
Jungkook walked into the kitchen and nodded without a second thought.
“Absurd!” Madam Jeon’s expression darkened and she slammed the innocent veggie back onto the kitchen counter.
She could keep her calm facade when it was in front of Tzuyu because she was just an outsider and she would take Jungkook’s side over hers any day, but now that he acknowledged it himself, she just couldn’t keep her anger down.
All of the servants nearby almost stopped breathing and made their way out quickly and silently, not daring to eavesdrop on family matters such as this.
“I’m not fooling around, Mother. I’m serious.” Jungkook took some vegetables and started chopping them up rhythmically.
After the butler sent Tzuyu away, he came back to the scene that was filled with the scent of gunpowder and didn’t know what to do for a moment.
“You’re serious? This is your way of being serious? Ever since you were little, I’ve always told you to not interact with anyone from the outside world!” Madam Jeon shouted, her expression as if she was about to have a heart attack. “Don’t you know that you can’t…”
“Madam!” The butler was shocked and immediately went over to support her, cutting off her words as he did. “Young Master has learned how to cook since the last time he came back, let him cook dinner for today, yes? Please calm yourself down, Madam.”
The butler helped her over to sit on the sofa in the living room, and all of a sudden she remembered what happened the last time and looked over at the butler. “Did you already know this since the last time I came back?”
The butler was silent, neither confirming nor denying her words.
The last time Jungkook came back, he could see that the young man was extremely serious about his relationship judging from his attitude and rare tenderness, so he lied to Madam Jeon.
“Madam, you know how Young Master is. He can’t be swayed from any decision he makes, not even the elder council. In any case, his position and power are high enough that he doesn’t need the help of anyone in that regard…” The butler said with a low and steady tone.
In response to this, Madam Jeon only shook her head with a somewhat blanked out expression. “It would be fine if that were the only problem, but the legacy of the Jeon family cannot be tainted. The heavenly will…”
The butler couldn’t hear what she was saying because she was muttering at that point, but Jungkook was already done with the first dish so he immediately went over to help serve it on the dinner table. As he did, he discreetly leaned towards Jungkook and said, “Don’t distress Madam any further, Young Master.”
Jungkook stood there for a moment, his fingers touching the jade pendant that was handing on his neck before he walked towards Madam Jeon and crouched down in front of her. “Don’t worry, Mother, I’ve already gone against it twice.” He pointed towards the sky.
Madam Jeon was shocked greatly as she stared at him in disbelief, before getting up from the couch and checking up and down on her son with trembling fingers. “Let me see if you have any injuries, you brat, did you think it was easy to raise you? You’ve never worried me at all in all these years, and the one time you do it’s with something as big as this…”
“I’m fine, please don’t be worried.” Jungkook held Madam Jeon’s hand and looked at her with a steady gaze. “I won’t let anything happen to me.”
“What about her…?” Madam Jeon muttered as she sniffled. The girl that he liked was just a normal person, how could she deal with it…
Jungkook only smiled, a rare gentle expression blooming on his face along with a tint of pride. “Her? I think the natural laws of the world are more afraid of her than the other way around.”
“Huh?” Madam Jeon evidently hadn’t expected such an answer, and she couldn’t react for quite a while.
Jungkook didn’t explain any further and only smiled at her before going back into the kitchen.
He had really changed…
Her son had always been as cold as ice, and had never smiled like that before, not to mention cook? What kind of girl was it that brought such change in him?
But this was the heavenly law they were talking about, and after some thinking, she called Jeon Joowon that was currently in some unknown corner of the world.
How wonderful would it be if they were born in a regular family? If they were, her son wouldn’t have to carry such a burden at such a young age, and not even have freedom of choice for such an important thing in his life.
The members of the Jeon family couldn’t do as they pleased.
At the moment, Madam Jeon didn’t know how much of a cheat character her future daughter-in-law was.
In the kitchen, Eunwoo rubbed his chin as he looked at Jungkook cook. “You started doing these things, how unbelievable!”
“There’s more than just cooking,” Jungkook replied. Feeding dogs and feeding birds… And giving dogs baths, he learned a lot!
Eunwoo: “… You weren’t possessed, by anything, right?”
Jungkook only turned around and fixed him with an unamused stare.
“What, do you want to fight? I’m not afraid of you you know!”
Jungkook didn’t even want to spare another word with this person, focusing on the last steps of his current dish and tasting it.
Not bad, he should make this for Lisa sometime.
There were still some dishes left, but Jungkook seemed to have lost the motivation to cook, leaving the rest to the helpers as he walked upstairs with his phone in hand, holding the jade pendant tightly.
He had been extremely busy with the matters of the ancient martial arts world these few days, and after the confrontation with Madam Jeon he couldn’t help but feel down. That was until the phone call connected, and the familiar cool yet warm voice spoke to him from the other side of the line, sending warmth to the bottom of his heart.
***
“Brother Jungkook, please don’t burn yourself out.” Lisa could discern the fatigue in the young man’s voice. This was the first time he had called him while he was busy instead of after everything was done with at the quickest speed, so something must have happened.
For him to call her out of the blue tonight, something must have happened, and Lisa felt her heart ached slightly at the thought. After she hung up on the call, she stood there by the window and stared outside worriedly for a long while.
“Beauty Lisa, do you want me to help you see what Big Jeon is doing?” The system spirit asked, feeling quite sad upon seeing its host in such low spirits.
Lisa breathed deeply. There was nothing she could do right now except improve herself as much as she could.
After getting herself out of her funk, another phone call rang, but from Cheng Zhou this time.
“Lisa!” Cheng Zhou’s voice was tinged with excitement. “‘Empire Under Siege’ has passed preliminary censorship, and it’ll be premiering the day after tomorrow!”
“That quickly?” Lisa was quite surprised. Wouldn’t it be at least half a month after this?
“The distributors were so swept off their feet by the movie that they gave us their a reserved position! I already posted about it on Weibo, go look?” Cheng Zhou seemed to have been busy, so he hung up after telling her the news.
Lisa sat on the sofa and tapped on Weibo, reposting Cheng Zhou’s post of the movie premiere.
For A Millennium: //@(Verified) ChengZhou: Empire Under Siege will premiere tomorrow midnight. [link]
Then came Seokjin’s repost, Suzy’s repost, and the reposts of the staff and cast.
Most movies started promotions at least one week earlier, but even though this one only started promoting the day before, it still caused a great buzz.
The next day, every movie theater was filled to the brim with people waiting to see ‘Empire Under Siege’. Most of these people were fans of Seokjin and Suzy, some were fans of the original novels, and there were even a few fans of Lisa’s.
At the same time, four-dimensional glasses were provided at every large cinema.
This sort of technology was immensely interesting for the youngsters, and another interesting point was the danmaku comments that could be toggled on and off.
【AAAA LI SEOKJIN IS SO HANDSOME!!!】
【Who’s this actress that plays Princess Qixia? Can someone tell me?】
【Her Weibo @ForAMillenium, join our beauty’s harem!】
All the comments, in the beginning, were talking about the actors’ pretty faces, until the first climax of the film came.
The unparalleled beauty Princess Qixia jumped off the city walls with a smile that made it seem as if she had let go of all her ties in the mortal world, and everyone’s eyes were attracted to that beautiful last hurrah of the princess.
Everyone thought back to the lively beauty at the beginning of the movie, and that princess was lying in the snow quietly as if she were asleep.
In the large snowy fields, she was alone.
Because of the virtual glasses, this scene was even more realistic, and the audience felt as if it had happened right in front of their eyes.
【B*stard crown prince, the princess is dead!!!】
【Why didn’t you come back sooner? She didn’t need to die!】
“…”
At that moment, they all seemed to have forgotten that the crown prince was their favorite Li Seokjin.
The last emotional point was when Concubine Zuo Qiuxiang died, and many people even cried.
The movie played until two past midnight, but many people didn’t even want to leave, instead buying tickets for the next viewing as they sniffled. Some girls even bought large packs of tissues and popcorn, inviting all of their besties to come to see this movie together with them.
All of the screenings were packed to a brim, and after a single night, the movie was a smashing success!
The two leads for the movie became even more popular, but the ones that got the most attention were two side characters!
Haters and keyboard warriors existed everywhere, and upon seeing them become popular because of this one movie, they all started spreading hate comments out of nowhere.
【Not even one movie critic has given a solid review yet, they definitely had bots and bought tickets themselves!】
【I heard that those two went in through the back door, I’m jealous that beautiful people can have it so easy…】
【How disgusting! Let’s not give in to the dark side of the industry!】
At this moment, a renowned movie critic posted on Weibo.
“I’m sorry for posting this review late, but this movie was too alluring that I watched it three times…In all honesty, I just wanted to see a movie directed by Director Cheng and purely went there because of Li Seokjin and Song Suzy’s popularity, but I never expected the one that surprised me the most was a rookie—The actress of Princess Qixia. It has been a long time since I’ve last seen such impactful acting, she’s truly a god-given talent… In conclusion, she’s a beauty like jade, with a smile that could turn cities upside down.”
After that came pages upon pages of posts from critics all over China that suddenly remembered they had a job to do.
After so many good reviews on the movie, all of the haters’ faces were smacked hard, yet none of them dared to say anything more.