Love Lock

Chapter 362 Trying to Find Love (Exciting Finale)

The palace maids and eunuchs in the imperial palace were most skilled at reading people's expressions and gossiping.

The news of the Empress's passing spread like spring willow catkins, filling every corner of the palace overnight. Even the imperial physicians returning home from their duties couldn't help but bring the news out of the palace walls.

What's puzzling is that the palace's death knell did not sound for a long time, and this unusual silence added to the mystery of the rumors.

As dawn broke, Zhao Zun, dressed in a bright yellow dragon robe, steadily ascended the jade steps in the Golden Palace.

His face was as calm as a deep pool, only his deep eyes held an imperceptible pain.

When Zhao Zun entered the main hall, the court officials were whispering amongst themselves, their murmurs like the buzzing of mosquitoes, echoing faintly in the empty hall.

"I heard that Weiyang Palace was brightly lit last night, and imperial physicians were going in and out..."

"I heard that the Empress passed away in the end."

"But I didn't hear the death knell! Did you hear it?"

"I do not have either."

"But Physician Liu said that he had indeed passed away. He confirmed it himself."

"Shh! Watch your words! His Majesty is here. Can't you see that he looks strange today?"

Zhao Zun walked to the dragon throne and sat down, at which point the whispers below gradually subsided. Without His Majesty's confirmation, they dared not speak further. They could only offer their respects and pay their respects.

"Long live my emperor! Long live! Long live!"

"Rise!" Zhao Zun's tone was indifferent.

Seeing that His Majesty's expression was calm but his spirits were not good, the Duke of Heng hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward and bowed, his robe sleeves trembling slightly as he said, "Your Majesty, I heard that Her Majesty the Empress was attacked yesterday. I wonder if Her Majesty is still well..."

Zhao Zun raised his hand to interrupt, his voice so calm and steady that not a trace of emotion could be detected: "The Empress was frightened yesterday and is unwell. She needs to rest and recuperate. I have already given an order that no one is allowed to go to Weiyang Palace to disturb her."

His gaze slowly swept over the assembled officials, his eyes as cold as ice, instantly silencing the whispering courtiers.

Zhao Zun ordered: "The Imperial Medical Academy shall immediately begin to search for rare medicines from all over the country, and the Ministry of Works shall recruit skilled craftsmen to enter the palace and retrieve 10,000 tons of stored ice to repair the palace buildings in Weiyang Palace."

To extract 10,000 tons of stored ice?
Upon hearing this, the court fell into a deathly silence. The officials looked at each other in bewilderment, but none dared to question this strange decree.

Only Zhao Zun knew that this was not for repairing any palace, but for building an ice chamber to preserve Han Lei's body from decay—his last hope.

Yesterday, after dealing with the remaining assassins, he rushed back to Weiyang Palace, arriving at dusk. Fine snow was falling from the air. He shook off the snowflakes and stepped into the inner hall, where the solar-powered lights illuminated Han Lei's serene face.

Han Lei lay quietly on the couch, her face lifelike, as if she were merely asleep.

He sat down on the edge of the bed, took Han Lei's cold hand, and rubbed it against his cheek, wanting to talk to her for a while. But to his astonishment, Han Lei's hands were still soft, without the slightest stiffness. He then checked the joints and muscles of Han Lei's other parts, and they were still soft.

It should be noted that from the time the imperial physician took Han Lei's pulse and discovered that she had stopped breathing, to the time he stayed alone in the hall talking to Han Lei, and then to the time he went to the front hall to handle matters and returned, two hours had passed. According to common sense, the body should have reached the stage of rigor mortis, but Han Lei's body, apart from being cold and having no body temperature, was still as soft as a living person.

This discovery did not frighten Zhao Zun; instead, he felt a secret delight. His gaze unconsciously fell on Han Lei's chest, where the remnants of the love lock, placed through a silk handkerchief, gleamed faintly in the lamplight, like twinkling stars in the night sky.

At that moment, he suddenly recalled his relentless confession to Han Lei two years ago in the military camp in Yong'an City, and how Han Lei's attitude had always been ambiguous.

At that time, he placed the Love Lock on the altar, feeling anxious and uneasy. Unexpectedly, the day he took the Love Lock off the altar, Han Lei suddenly came to him and accepted his confession.

Now, despite having no injuries and no identifiable cause of death, Han Lei has passed away. Moreover, with the remains of the Love Lock placed on her chest, she remains erect even in death.

Therefore, he firmly believed that the jade pendant did indeed possess a mysterious power.

After the court session, Zhao Zun went straight back to Weiyang Palace. He waved to dismiss the palace servants, sat alone beside Han Lei, and gently held her still soft hand.

“Little girl,” he murmured softly, his fingertips gently stroking her cheek, his voice trembling with suppressed emotion, “I know you’re not dead, you’ve just been taken somewhere. Wait for me, I will definitely mend the Love Lock, I will definitely find a way to bring you back.”

He removed the half of the love lock from his neck. The patterns on the jade pendant were still faintly visible, but it had lost its former luster, just like his heart at this moment.

"Five years, give me five years. If nothing happens after five years, I will come to you."

Outside the palace, the wind and snow began to rise, tapping against the windowpanes, but Zhao Zun's gaze grew increasingly firm, as if he wanted to condense the swirling snow into the power to find her.

……

Han Lei suddenly opened her eyes, her chest heaving violently as she gasped for breath.

She was sitting in the driver's seat of the ambulance, which was parked on the side of a mountain road. The setting sun shone through the window, making her squint, and it took her a while to adjust to the sudden brightness.

"This is..." she murmured to herself, pushed open the car door and got out, her feet feeling weak when they touched the ground.

The surrounding scenery was eerily familiar—it was the very spot where she had fallen off the cliff during her mission. Yet now, the mountain road was perfectly intact, the asphalt gleaming black in the sunlight, without a trace of collapse.

She clearly remembered that she was in the showroom of the Dajing Dynasty Textile Factory with Zhao Zun when a crossbow bolt pierced the air and shot straight into her chest... Then, her consciousness blurred and everything went dark.

Instinctively, she touched her chest. There was no wound, no blood, but the jade pendant Zhao Zun had given her, which she always wore around her neck, was gone.

What's even stranger is that she was wearing a modern camouflage military uniform, not the ancient costume she was in when she was assassinated.

"This...could it all be a dream?" she asked herself softly, her voice drifting in the mountain breeze, tinged with a sense of bewilderment.

In the distance, an SUV drove by and passed in front of her. Its modern design convinced her that this was indeed modern, the world she knew.

This is the place to go on a mission. How is her mission going? She reached into her pocket, wanting to take out her phone to call her comrade and ask, but her pocket was empty and she couldn't find her phone.

What's going on?
Han Lei shook her head in confusion and decided to head to the mission location first to avoid delaying the mission.

She started the ambulance and sped along the mountain road. She glanced at the time display on the control panel: November 22, 2002.

"This can't be!" she murmured. "Time hasn't passed at all..."

Upon arriving at the mission location, a comrade greeted her with displeasure: "Han Lei, why are you so late?"

She jumped out of the car and answered instinctively, "I was nearby. I came over to provide support as soon as I heard the notification from headquarters." The answer was so natural, as if she really was just late.

"The kidnapper has been killed. Go check on the hostages." His comrade said, then turned and went to attend to his own business.

As a military doctor, Han Lei immediately stepped forward to check on the hostage's physical condition. Fortunately, apart from some minor external injuries and shock, the hostage was unharmed.

She performed the examination and treatment with practiced ease, her movements so fluid it was as if she had never left this era.

After the mission was completed, the special forces team escorted the hostages back to the city. Han Lei, preoccupied, boarded the ambulance, started the engine, and prepared to go back to the city with them. After fastening her seatbelt, her mind was in turmoil; something felt off.

She glanced at the time on the center console again, which clearly showed 3 PM on November 22, 2002.

The mission time and location were the same, without any discrepancies. She received the mission at noon and rushed to the mountains, arriving here in no more than an hour. Even including the time spent on the rescue mission, the difference was only about an hour. In other words, she didn't have time to go anywhere in between; the hour difference was barely enough time for her to take a nap. Yet, in that incredibly clear memory, she had lived with a man named Zhao Zun in the Great Jing Dynasty for over a year or two and had even given birth to twins—this simply didn't make sense.

"If it really was just a dream..." she laughed self-deprecatingly, "that would be too ridiculous."

If it was a dream, it was far too real, so real that it still aches in her heart. Not a physical pain, but a kind of heart-wrenching longing.

That doesn't seem right either. She was clearly rushing to carry out a mission, driving the ambulance with a high level of concentration, so why would she fall asleep in the vehicle?

Besides, she's a highly educated person; how could she believe in such nonsense as time travel like a little girl?
Could it be a ghost encounter?

Looking at the bright sunlight outside the car, Han Lei thought it was impossible to have encountered a ghost. It must be because she had been under too much work pressure lately, or because she was feeling romantic and missing men, that she had such a dream.

It seems I should start dating too.

She smiled and shook her head, trying to shake off those chaotic thoughts: "Maybe it's time to start a relationship, so I don't have these erotic dreams all the time."

The ambulance drove smoothly on the mountain road, and Han Lei focused intently on the road ahead.

At a sharp bend, she suddenly saw a car accident ahead. An SUV had collided with a motorcycle, and the injured person lay on the ground covered in blood, the glaring red particularly conspicuous in the sunlight.

The car owner was anxiously making a phone call when he saw the military ambulance approaching. His eyes lit up and he immediately waved for help.

Han Lei stopped the car without hesitation, took out a first-aid kit, and went forward.

"I'm a military medic, let me take a look," she said simply, squatting down to examine the injured person.

At this moment, she felt as if she had returned to the Han Lei who was saving lives on the battlefield.

The motorcyclist suffered a severe leg fracture and head trauma, but remained conscious.

The car owner quickly stepped forward to explain the situation. He had already dialed 120, but the place was dozens of miles from the city, and the ambulance had not yet arrived.

Han Lei quickly provided first aid and immobilized the injured person's wounds. Her movements were skillful and precise, and every step seemed to be an instinct etched into her bones.

About half an hour later, the ambulance arrived. The paramedics praised Han Lei for her treatment, saying, "The patient's injuries were serious. It's thanks to your timely and appropriate treatment that the situation became more serious. Otherwise, it might have been dangerous by the time we arrived."

The car owner kept thanking the doctor, saying, "Thank you so much, doctor! Thank you so much!"

Han Lei smiled slightly: "It's nothing, I just happened to run into you." But there was a hint of melancholy in that smile that she herself didn't understand.

After watching the ambulance leave, she got back into it and drove back to the city.

Although she had been busy skipping grades and working over the years, she still had a few close classmates and comrades-in-arms. As she drove the ambulance, she thought about inviting some classmates to go to a bar on the weekend to see if she could find some romance and start a relationship, and also relax.

Just then, a "ding" sound suddenly came from my mind.

Immediately afterwards, a mechanical voice sounded: "Congratulations, host, on the successful rescue. The system rewards you with five hundred taels of gold."

The familiar sound made Han Lei slam on the brakes, and the ambulance came to an abrupt stop on the side of the road, the tires screeching as they rubbed against the ground.

"System?" She stared wide-eyed in disbelief, her heart pounding.

She tried to open the system with her mind, and sure enough, a familiar panel appeared in her mind.

The system has appeared, but what about the space watch?

She subconsciously looked down at her wrist, and sure enough, the space watch was firmly on her wrist, gleaming with a warm luster in the sunlight.

If both the system and the space watch exist, then...

Did she really travel through time?

Did she really get married?

Zhao Zun's handsome and aloof face instantly appeared before her eyes—

That noble-looking man who was ambushed in the mountains; that man who endured all kinds of suppression and suspicion from the emperor, yet remained silent for the sake of his family and friends; that man who was both literate and martial, and also affectionate and righteous; that man who confessed his love to her as soon as he came up to her like a conqueror; that man who always succumbed to her coquettishness and cherished her dearly.

They got married!
In that place called Cangzhou, they worked together and developed together. They built Cangzhou, a place once seen as impoverished and desolate, a place filled with their laughter, their sweat, Zhao Zun's broad-mindedness, his warm embrace, and his doting whispers...

They also had the fruit of their love, a pair of twins, a boy and a girl, born on the Mid-Autumn Festival. They were flesh and blood of her own flesh.

Yes, this isn't a dream, nor is it a miraculous encounter. She really did time travel!

In an instant, the inexplicable longing in her heart finally found its answer, like the bright moon revealed after the fog dissipated, also revealing the madness of her longing.

She has a beloved lover and a child who has just been born to him.

All of this stemmed from the system's statement: "The Buddha said that everyone you meet in this life is someone you had entanglements with in your previous life."

She was now completely entangled in this situation, unable to break free. Yet, the system had brought her back to the modern world.

Her heart suddenly ached as if a piece had been ripped out, making it almost impossible for her to breathe.

No, she wanted to go back; she wanted to find the man she loved.

"System, system, come out! System, system, come out..." She pounded on the steering wheel, frantically calling out with her mind.

If the system can take her through the first time, it can take her through the second time—that is her only hope and path!

But the surroundings were quiet, with no sound except for the occasional passing vehicle.

"System, system, come out! Take me to the Great Jing Dynasty. I need to find Zhao Zun, to find my home."

"System, system, can you hear me? I beg you, please come out!"

“My husband is waiting for me, and my children are waiting for me.”

"system!"

……

The mysterious system seemed to have crashed, no longer responding.

"Zhao Zun... Brother Zun."

Han Lei whispered the name, tears welling up uncontrollably and dripping onto the steering wheel...

Friends, today marks the end of the main storyline. We'll begin updating the side stories tomorrow, so please continue to support us! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!