Lin Yi suppressed the doubts in her heart, reached out and took Gu Fang's hand, her fingertips pressing gently, her eyes serious. "Husband, if there's something on your mind, you must tell me. Maybe I can't help much, but it'll feel better to talk about it, and I can think it through with you."
Gu Fang let Lin Yi hold his hand, the warmth of her palm seeping into his. He smiled. "Alright, I'll remember that. But for now, shouldn't you go back and check on Miss He? As for what's on my mind, we can find a quiet time another day and talk slowly, okay?"
Lin Yi thought for a moment; Huang Xining and He Jing were still waiting, and she had been out for a while now. She nodded, stood up, and pointed a finger at Gu Fang in mock seriousness. "It's a deal then! Once I'm done, I'll come find you. Don't think you can weasel out of it!"
"Alright, alright, I wouldn't dare." Gu Fang was amused by her expression and gave a helpless laugh. "Go on, don't keep your guests waiting. I'll be waiting for you."
Lin Yi finally left the study, looking back every few steps. The door closed softly, and the study fell silent again. The smile on Gu Fang's face gradually faded. On the other side, Lin Yi quickened her pace, thinking to herself that she needed to find Huang Xining quickly and ask if that kind of talk about life being empty was a common psychological issue among wounded retired generals in ancient times...
When Lin Yi hurried back to the main hall, Huang Xining and He Jing seemed to be almost done with their conversation. He Jing's eyes were slightly red, but her expression had noticeably relaxed, and she was tidying her sleeves. Huang Xining looked calm. When he saw Lin Yi come in, he asked directly, "How did it go? What did General Gu say?"
"My husband said he'll have A Fu pass a message to Ying Baichuan later to see if he's willing to meet us. No matter what his answer is, I'll send someone to the Court of the Imperial Stud to let you know," Lin Yi explained to He Jing first.
He Jing's eyes lit up and she nodded quickly. "Good, that's great. Thank you, Lin Yi."
"Don't mention it." Lin Yi waved her hand, then turned to Huang Xining, speaking faster. "Xining, let's set that aside for now. Help me figure this out—I think my husband might be a little depressed or have some psychological issue."
Seeing her serious expression, Huang Xining also became serious. "Tell me about it. What exactly happened?"
"We were just chatting, and he said life is empty, that children and such don't matter." Lin Yi frowned. "The topic was about children. He said I was too young and shouldn't have kids. I thought that was normal at first, but then he said we shouldn't have too many kids. I thought that was weird, so I asked him: doesn't everyone think more children mean more blessings and family prosperity? And he replied with that line about life being empty. It felt too strange. Normal people wouldn't say life is empty."
She looked at Huang Xining and continued, "At that moment, my heart skipped a beat. The topic was clearly about children, so why did he suddenly jump to life being empty? I quickly asked him if something was wrong, but he just said he wanted me not to care too much about secular opinions and make trouble for myself. But Xining, when a normal person tries to comfort someone, they'd say something like 'life is short, seize the day' or 'don't care what others think.' They wouldn't just come out and say life is empty. That doesn't sound like open-mindedness; it sounds like despair."
After listening, Huang Xining frowned deeply, his fingers unconsciously tapping his knee. "It is indeed abnormal. In the specific context of your conversation, a more common reaction might be 'children come by fate, just be healthy and safe,' or an explanation from the perspective of your health. He directly elevated the topic to the level of life's emptiness and used such a negative statement. This seems more like a potential negative cognition about the meaning of life or his own value, rather than just an opinion on a certain matter. Unfortunately, I don't have specialized knowledge in psychology. At present, the most important thing is that he's willing to communicate with you. Maybe you can try the method of listening—first create a safe, undisturbed environment, guide him to speak what's on his mind, don't rush to judge or comfort, mainly make him feel accepted. After listening, try to analyze it yourself. The root cause might be related to his old injuries, setbacks in his official career, past experiences, or even some secrets we don't know yet. If you can't figure it out, or if the situation is more complicated than expected, you can always come to A Jing and me for discussion. We'll think of something together. This can't be rushed or forced. Be patient."
Lin Yi sighed. "Alright, I understand."
At that moment, He Jing's voice, tinged with curiosity, cut in, breaking the somewhat heavy atmosphere. "So Gu Fang isn't interested in having kids? No wonder he never married or had children until the end of the original novel."
"What?" Lin Yi's brows immediately knitted together, catching the key point sharply. "Didn't he marry this body of mine? I mean in the original novel—if we hadn't transmigrated, this body should have been used for 'chongxi' (marriage to ward off bad luck) anyway."
"Ah, silly me!" He Jing slapped her forehead in annoyance. "You guys were just analyzing the differences between now and the original story, and I almost didn't catch on." She leaned in and lowered her voice. "The original novel did have that, but it was mentioned near the very end. You probably haven't seen that part yet. There's a passage describing Gu Fang returning from court to the empty prime minister's mansion, staring blankly out the window. The narration says that the reason he's still alone is because he has no interest in such things at all. At the beginning of his injury, there were rumors that he wouldn't live long. Someone suggested finding a woman for him to marry to ward off bad luck. But two days before the wedding, the woman who had been chosen suddenly died—not by suicide, just a sudden death. Everyone speculated that she couldn't handle the fortune. They wanted to find another woman, but Gu Fang took the initiative to go to the then-emperor Ying Xu and ask him to stop the whole thing, claiming he didn't want to ruin someone else's life. The emperor agreed, and the topic was dropped. Later, he lived well enough, but he never married again."
Lin Yi's heart clenched as she listened. Even though that was the Gu Fang from the book she hadn't met, she still felt sorry for him. However, Huang Xining's calm voice pulled her back from her emotions. "The woman originally chosen for chongxi died suddenly two days before the wedding? Lin Yi, if I remember correctly, the time you transmigrated was just two days before the wedding, right?"
Lin Yi gave a start, immediately realizing the implications. She quickly composed herself. "Yes, that's right. So it seems that the woman who died suddenly was the body I came into. That means I came the moment she died? Or maybe shortly after? The timing is too close. When you two transmigrated, were you also on the verge of death?"
He Jing immediately shook her head. "No, I wasn't. You should be able to tell if you were on the verge of death, right? Like feeling extremely weak, in pain, or having a hazy consciousness? When you transmigrated, didn't you feel anything particularly uncomfortable?"
Lin Yi thought carefully and said with certainty, "When I came over, everything was normal. I didn't feel any weakness. Also, what Xiao Zhu told me was that you had a serious illness and then your personality changed drastically. Did your body not die from illness?"
He Jing sighed, her expression complicated. "No, that's just what they told outsiders. Actually, I didn't get sick at all. I just transmigrated one day. But since this body was originally very lively, and I think I'm quite lively too, maybe I wasn't lively enough compared to the original He Jing in the eyes of her family. In short, they immediately noticed that my personality was different from the original He Jing. But since I had He Jing's memories, they couldn't find anything wrong, so they just locked me up and had Taoist priests perform rituals for many days."
She spread her hands, a hint of helplessness and lingering fear in her voice. "In the end, it was still the same. What they saw was still me. Then they brought in other people—I don't know how many—and kept me locked up. Finally, they realized I was still me and had no choice. By that time, I had gone crazy from being locked up. I told them that I was actually their real daughter, and the previous one was a squatter. When I was born, my soul was too weak, and a wandering spirit pushed me out. I stayed near the body, waiting until now when my soul was stable and I could take back my body. The reason the Taoist priests' rituals failed was because I was the soul most compatible with this body, and the wandering spirit had already been driven away. After hearing that, they thought it made sense and believed me. They also felt guilty for keeping me locked up for so long and have been very good to me ever since. Actually, now that I've calmed down, I really regret saying those things about the original He Jing. But at the time, I was already crazy. I was locked in a room and couldn't get out. I ate, drank, and relieved myself in there. If I hadn't known that Xining was on his way to find me, I might not have been able to hold on."
Lin Yi's heart ached as she listened. She hadn't expected that behind He Jing's seemingly lively exterior lay such a story of confinement and near breakdown. She couldn't help reaching out and gently patting He Jing's hand. Huang Xining's face appeared calm, but his tightly clenched fist, with whitening knuckles, revealed his inner pain. When He Jing finished, he slowly loosened his hand and interjected, "When I transmigrated, everything was normal. No complications."
That's strange. Three Earthlings, two of them had normal bodies when they came, but she had been on the verge of death or already dead? Yet she really hadn't felt anything. Could it be that when she came, this body hadn't died yet? And because the soul changed, the body continued to live? That's too far-fetched! Which healthy body would reject its original soul and accept an outsider? But sudden death is really strange. Could someone have poisoned her?
Thinking of this, Lin Yi asked, "A Jing, did the original novel mention why the original Lin Yi died suddenly? Could it be that someone didn't want Gu Fang to marry and deliberately poisoned the original?"
He Jing thought carefully and shook her head firmly. "No. The book just glossed over it with a simple sentence: 'died suddenly, cause unknown.' No clues about poison or murder."
Huang Xining tapped the table lightly with his fingers, a habit of his when deep in thought. "Scattered speculation like this won't get us far. I haven't read the original novel. Lin Yi only read half. A Jing, you're the only one among us who knows the entire plot. The priority now is to sort out the storyline of the original novel." He looked at He Jing, his tone steady. "How about you systematically explain the main plot of the original novel, especially the important events, key character relationships, and the final outcome. Let Lin Yi and me have a complete understanding of what was supposed to happen."
"Okay, no problem." He Jing took a deep breath and began to tell this story that had already veered far off track.