Water Reflects Peach Blossoms

Cen Sheng?

Jiang Ruan's breathing stagnated, as if something was blocking her throat, and the joy in her heart was instantly replaced by bitterness.

Looking at Cen Sheng in front of him and hearing his old and trembling voice, Jiang Ruan almost couldn't stand.

She suddenly remembered what she had overlooked.

One day in heaven and one year on earth.

How could she ignore such a cruel fact?

She was trapped in the Heavenly Palace for nearly two months, while sixty years had passed in the mortal world...

Jiang Ruan's eyes were red as he looked at the old man in front of him who was almost at the end of his life. He asked in a trembling voice, "Mr. Cen...?"

"It's me." Cen Sheng smiled at Jiang Ruan with a happy face, as if he was meeting an old friend who hadn't seen him for many years.

Jiang Ruan saw joy and relief on his face, but she didn't see even a trace of the youthful and intense affection that young Cen Sheng had for her.

In her time, two years ago, Cen Sheng had a handsome face and his smile was as warm as the sunshine.

He would teach her to play music with grass leaves, praise her beautiful purse, secretly send her snacks, and pick the first apricot bud in spring for her.

Jiang Ruan suddenly burst into tears.

She just felt that fate was playing tricks on her and Cen Sheng. Why did it play such a trick on her and Cen Sheng?

She also felt that she should hate Donghua. If it weren't for him, she and Cen Sheng wouldn't have ended up like this.

Watching her cry, Zheyan, who was standing aside in hiding, felt indescribably complicated in his heart.

Seeing Jiang Ruan crying, Cen Sheng smiled and comforted her: "We are old friends meeting, why are you crying?"

"Don't cry, it's fate that brings us together."

The little boy standing next to Cen Sheng heard his grandfather say this, and looked at the peerless woman opposite him with clear eyes. He was shocked that the fiancée his grandfather had been waiting for sixty years was actually her!

The little boy asked in disbelief: "Grandpa, is it really her?"

How could there be such a bizarre thing in this world? Could it be that my grandfather’s fiancée is a fairy with eternal life and everlasting beauty?

"...Grandpa?" Jiang Ruan looked at the little boy. After hearing his words, she looked at Cen Sheng with tears in her eyes and asked in disbelief, "You..."

"I already have a family." Cen Sheng placed his hand on the shoulder of the child who was about to speak, and his gentle gaze fell on Jiang Ruan: "This is my grandson."

"How have you been these years?" he asked again.

Jiang Ruan fell from heaven to hell in an instant, his mind went blank, and he couldn't recover for a long time.

Wiping away the tears from her eyes, she asked Mr. Cen, "...When did you get married?"

She hadn't kept her appointment for sixty years, and Mr. Cen had a family and even grandchildren.

How long had he waited for her? Did he ever go to look for her?

Looking at Jiang Ruan's face, which showed no sign of concealing surprise and sadness, Cen Sheng replied calmly, "A year after leaving my hometown to come to Jian'an to take the imperial examination, I passed the exam and became the top scorer. The Emperor granted us a marriage, which was the greatest honor for me and our ancestors."

Jiang Ruan's hands suddenly clenched.

She asked, "Since you were granted marriage a year after leaving your hometown, and my father wrote to you, saying that I would come to Jian'an and marry you after the mourning period was over, why didn't you tell me the truth in your reply?"

If she were to be told, although she would be angry, she would not leave her hometown or her parents.

I will pay tribute to my parents often so that their graves will not be left uncultivated for sixty years!

Cen Sheng paused for a long moment before speaking in a hoarse voice, "When I received my uncle's suicide note, you were the only one left in your family, fatherless and motherless, helpless and destitute. If I had abandoned you again, I'm afraid your life would have been even more difficult..."

"But you already have a wife!" Jiang Ruan was furious at his excuse. "You have a wife, but you didn't tell me... What dirty plans are you having?!"

Cen Sheng shook his head. "My feelings for you have never changed. Now that I have a family, I will not provoke you again. I originally planned to take you in as my sister and find a good marriage for you in the future."

"Who asked you to find a marriage for me! Who wants to be your sister?!" Jiang Ruan was filled with grief and indignation. She felt that everything she had done and all the hardships she had experienced in order to keep the appointment had become a joke.

She was trapped in the Heavenly Palace and risked her life to escape, and traveled through mountains and rivers to find him.

But he had already been married, had a happy family, a harmonious relationship with his wife, and even had grandchildren!

Jiang Ruan wanted to laugh at his own naivety!

She glared at Cen Sheng with a sad look in her eyes, and pulled out the wooden hairpin that she had been wearing in her hair.

Under Cen Sheng's complicated gaze, she handed the hairpin to him and said angrily, "You are the one who broke the promise and are so ungrateful! You are such a heartless and despicable villain that you are not worthy of having anything to do with me anymore! Today I will return the token of love you gave me. From now on, we will go our separate ways and there will be no more entanglement!"

Looking at the wooden hairpin handed to him by the white fingertips, Cen Sheng took it with his withered hand.

Seeing him take it, Jiang Ruan said coldly: "Give me back the purse I gave you!"

Cen Sheng's lips moved: "Wait, I'll get it."

Just as he walked a short distance into the mansion gate, Cen Sheng suddenly felt as if his end had come. He vomited a large mouthful of blood with a burning sensation in his internal organs!

He raised his hand to stop the child's panicked shouting. With the child's worried support, he tremblingly wiped the blood from the corner of his lips with a handkerchief. He wiped for a long time, and after wiping the blood from his lips and hands, he took out a green purse from his arms with great care.

The purse is well preserved, and you can see how much the owner cares for it.

His fingers lovingly stroked the two extremely ugly mandarin ducks embroidered on the purse. Cen Sheng sat trembling on the stone steps, hugged the purse in his arms, gritted his teeth and cried silently.

Outside the door, Jiang Ruan's eyes were red, but she restrained herself from crying.

Mr. Cen is shameless! He doesn't deserve her tears!

Everything that happened in the past was due to her misjudging people. After today, she and Mr. Cen will never reconcile!

Looking at Jiang Ruan's pretty little face that was pale, her eyes red and tearful, but she looked strong, Zhe Yan, who was standing beside her and was a head taller than her, raised his hand distressedly to wipe away the tears in her eyes, but suddenly thought of his current situation, and retracted his hand that had just been raised.

Jiang Ruan's original fate was tragic, but after meeting Donghua, he rescued her and then forcibly brought her back to the Heavenly Palace by Donghua, thus changing her tragic fate.

Donghua saved her twice.

The first time was when he saved her from being killed by a monster.

The second time was that if she followed her original fate, she would die from a cup of poisoned wine sent from the palace.

The first time Zheyan saw Cen Sheng, he knew that this man was not married, had no children, and was even still a virgin.

The original destiny of Cen Sheng and Jiang Ruan was that Cen Sheng would go to Jian'an to take the imperial examinations and become the top scorer. When he had packed up everything in Jian'an, familiarized himself with his current official duties, and was preparing to send a letter back to inform Jiang Ruan and his daughter of the good news and to marry Jiang Ruan in a formal ceremony with a sedan chair carried by eight people, he received the last letter from Jiang Ruan's father.

The letter stated that he was seriously ill and was about to die, so he asked his daughter Jiang Ruan to go to Jian'an to seek refuge with him, and to allow the two to get married after the mourning period was over.