Joy of Life Episode 28 Recap
> Joy of Life Recap
Yan Xiaoyi did not catch the assassin, so he went to Guangxin Palace because he was worried about the Eldest Princess's safety. The Eldest Princess knew that her secret conversation with Zhuang Mohan had been overheard, so she simply told Yan Xiaoyi that she had made a deal with Northern Qi using Yan Bingyun, and asked him to personally silence the assassin from last night. Yan Xiaoyi, as the commander of the imperial guards, agreed without hesitation.
It turned out that when Yan Xiaoyi was a child, the small mountain village where he lived suffered a sudden change, and his entire family was wiped out. It was the Eldest Princess who took him away when he was about to starve, leading to his achievements today. Therefore, he swore that even if the whole world were against the Eldest Princess, he would stay by her side.
Yan Xiaoyi told the Eldest Princess that the person's build and height were similar to Fan Xian's. The Eldest Princess was very surprised, but the female official beside her thought that Fan Xian was drunk after the poetry contest in the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and was carried back to the Fan Manor, so it was absolutely impossible for it to be him.
The Eldest Princess thought about it and still felt uneasy, so she instructed Yan Xiaoyi to go to the Fan Manor personally to investigate. Before dawn, Yan Xiaoyi quickly rode his horse to the Fan Manor. At this time, Liu Ruyu happened to have the kitchen prepare some food to personally deliver to Fan Xian. Fan Ruoruo had guarded the room all night without daring to close her eyes.
Seeing Liu Ruyu coming, she quickly put a pillow into the quilt, then pulled the bed curtains closed, pretending that her brother was still asleep. Liu Ruyu saw that she insisted on guarding him herself and was about to leave when a servant reported that Yan Xiaoyi was requesting to see Fan Xian. Yan Xiaoyi forcefully told Liu Ruyu that he had come to visit Fan Xian on the Eldest Princess's orders, and would leave after explaining a few things.
Liu Ruyu was a little uneasy, but seeing his insistence, she still took him to Fan Xian's room. When the two arrived, Ruoruo had already closed the door and was guarding it outside. She stated that her brother was sleeping and it was inconvenient. Yan Xiaoyi became even more suspicious and insisted on entering. Ruoruo simply blocked the doorway herself. Yan Xiaoyi showed no mercy and directly tried to push her away.
Ruoruo was pushed painfully by his rough hands, but she still held onto the door frame tightly. She had promised her brother that she would guard this room with her life. Yan Xiaoyi's suspicion deepened, and after using his internal energy to probe, he found there were no breathing sounds inside the room. Just as the two were in a standoff, Fan Xian's voice suddenly came from inside the room.
Fan Xian told Ruoruo to open the door and let Yan Xiaoyi in. After entering the room and seeing him, Yan Xiaoyi suggested discussing some matters with Fan Xian alone. Liu Ruyu saw his aggressive manner and was worried he would harm Fan Xian, but Fan Xian didn't take it to heart. He just told the two to pull back the bed curtains and wait outside.
After Liu Ruyu and the others left, Yan Xiaoyi directly stated that there had been an assassin in the palace and demanded to check if Fan Xian had any injuries. Fan Xian knew he had no imperial decree, so he wasn't afraid. He proposed that he could be checked, but they would make a bet. If he had injuries on his body, he would let Yan Xiaoyi take him anywhere to be punished.
If he had no injuries, he must kowtow to Ruoruo and apologize for what just happened. Yan Xiaoyi said coldly that he could do it himself. Fan Xian smugly said that he was now the 'Little Immortal Poet Fan' who had written a hundred poems in one night. If he treated him like this, even if he wasn't afraid, wasn't he afraid of implicating the Eldest Princess? Yan Xiaoyi indeed hesitated upon hearing this.
After much thought, he still agreed to the bet. Fan Xian was waiting for exactly these words. He immediately jumped off the bed, lifted his clothes, and let Yan Xiaoyi see his body clearly, front and back. Yan Xiaoyi saw that Fan Xian's body was indeed unharmed, and his face immediately became awkward. He walked out without a word, went directly to Fan Ruoruo, kowtowed to her in apology, and then left without looking back.
Liu Ruyu and Ruoruo watched, dumbfounded. Fan Xian, however, said that offending his sister was a light offense for which making him kowtow was considered lenient. He excused himself by saying he needed to rest a bit longer and sent the two women away. After returning to the room, Fan Xian quickly closed the door. Wu Zhu was standing behind the door. He reminded Fan Xian not to hold it in.
Hearing this, Fan Xian relaxed his internal energy, and a mouthful of black blood immediately spurted out. Wu Zhu told Fan Xian that what Yan Xiaoyi said was true. He was the only ninth-rank archer in the world, and anyone hit by his arrow would be injured, not even excepting Grandmasters. Fan Xian laughed, saying he was lucky. The arrow happened to hit the key at his waist.
He didn't know what material the key was made of, but it wasn't damaged at all by the arrow. Fan Xian told Wu Zhu what he saw last night. Wu Zhu was concerned about why he hadn't returned the fake key in time, but Fan Xian wasn't worried. What he cared about more now was what was actually in that box. Even Wu Zhu, who was usually expressionless, became a little nervous for once.
The two opened the box with excitement and curiosity, only to find another layer of mechanism inside, which was a modern smart password lock. Fan Xian tried for a long time with no result. Just as he was giving up dejectedly, Wu Zhu did something, and the password actually opened. Fan Xian couldn't help but suspect that there must be some unspeakable secret between Wu Zhu and his mother.
On the other side, Hong Sixiang and Yan Xiaoyi reported the matter of the assassin to Emperor Qing. Hong Sixiang confirmed that the assassin he chased out of the palace used the Sigujian technique. Although his skills were only just entering the ninth rank, he was very elusive, so he couldn't catch him. Upon hearing this, Yan Xiaoyi proposed searching the Dongyi diplomatic mission.
Emperor Qing listened to the two of them talking back and forth and coldly asked Yan Xiaoyi if he had real evidence. Two assassins penetrated deep into the palace yet escaped unharmed. If this matter got out, Qing Kingdom would lose all face. The Emperor's fury made even someone as strong as Hong Sixiang break out in a cold sweat.
Emperor Qing reprimanded the two, telling them it would be better to think about why the assassin wanted to assassinate the Eldest Princess than to waste their time, and then dismissed them. Fan Xian opened the box filled with anticipation, only to see a strange object made of unknown metal inside.
Wu Zhu played with it for a while but was completely confused, but Fan Xian, who came from the modern world, knew clearly that what his mother had left behind was a top-tier killing weapon. In this era, thermal weapons were almost invincible. He carefully put the weapon back and found a letter left for Wu Zhu in a hidden compartment.
Wu Zhu asked Fan Xian to read it to him, as nothing about him was a secret to Fan Xian. The Eldest Princess thought and thought, and although she felt that something was wrong with this matter, she couldn't figure out the reason. She could only ask Yan Xiaoyi to inform Zhuang Mohan to leave the capital as soon as possible, lest hesitation lead to changes.
The Empress Dowager learned from Hong Sixiang that the Eldest Princess Li had been assassinated and thought it was because she had monopolized control of the Inner Court Treasury, making others jealous and want to attack her. Hong Sixiang was worried about the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager smiled and told him that she had slept well all night and felt no different.
Wang Qinian, following Fan Xian's instructions, gave the locksmith a large sum of money and sent him away from the capital to lay low temporarily. As he was leaving, Wang Qinian's stingy habit flared up again. He really couldn't bear to give the locksmith the good horse he had bought with his own money. The two struggled for a bit before the locksmith snatched the reins and rode away.
Wang Qinian could only emphasize once again for him absolutely not to tell anyone what happened last night. Wang Qinian sent the locksmith away and turned around, seeing the two people standing behind him. He was so scared he fell to the ground. It turned out that Shadow, pushing Chen Pingping, had appeared behind him at some point. Chen Pingping softly asked him who that person was.
Wang Qinian knelt on the ground, stammering for a long time, biting his teeth and refusing to say. Chen Pingping then asked him if the assassination attempt in the palace last night was related to Fan Xian. Wang Qinian trembled with fear but still insisted he didn't know. Seeing his stubbornness, Chen Pingping ordered Shadow to step forward and give him a good lesson. Fan Xian picked up the letter and glanced at it, then couldn't help but laugh.
The ruthless and cold Grandmaster-level assassin had become 'dear little Zhuzhu' in Ye Qingmei's words, which was truly hilarious. The letter was written by Ye Qingmei during her leisure time when she was pregnant, around the time Wu Zhu left the capital. She treated Wu Zhu like a younger brother, so the letter started with her urging him to smile more and even wanting to introduce a good wife to him through a blind date.
Listening to this familiar tone, Wu Zhu unconsciously revealed a smile. Fan Xian had never seen Wu Zhu like this before. He realized then that perhaps he had never truly understood the person who had been by his side for over a decade. Unfortunately, Wu Zhu couldn't remember anything about what happened back then. Ye Qingmei had always been worried that Wu Zhu was living in this world without curiosity, without desire, and without anything he wanted to do.
That's why she put this letter in the box but didn't let him open it. Because she hoped that one day, Wu Zhu would take the initiative to open the box and read this letter. At the same time, she was also curious about what force would make Wu Zhu open this box on his own initiative? Wu Zhu answered faintly that he just wanted to know what she had left for this world, and if she would mention him.
The latter part of the letter didn't seem like words left for Wu Zhu; it was more like an emotional outlet for Ye Qingmei. She claimed that she came to this world, experienced it, saw it, played in it, became the richest person, pulled the old emperor's beard, and almost unified the world, which was quite a grand life.
She told Wu Zhu that if he saw this letter and she was no longer around, he should destroy this box because she didn't want others to know of her existence, as they were unworthy. She had been to this world, but ultimately, she didn't belong to it. No one ever understood how lonely she was inside. But luckily, even in the loneliest times, she always had Wu Zhu.
After reading the letter, Fan Xian felt a strange sadness in his heart. He asked Wu Zhu if he missed his mother, but Wu Zhu asked him what 'miss' meant.
Fan Xian told Wu Zhu that missing someone means that no matter what you are doing or how many people are around you, a person's image always appears in your heart, you silently repeat their name, you've heard many voices and seen many faces, but the only voice you want to hear is theirs, and the only person you want to see is them. As Wu Zhu listened, a bright smile appeared on his face again.
He told Fan Xian word by word, "Then I miss her." While Fan Xian was tidying up the box, he found another layer underneath. After opening it, there was another secret compartment inside, and in the secret compartment was another letter, but on it was written: "Little Zhuzhu, don't open this letter." Fan Xian was very curious. Wu Zhu nodded, letting him open it.
After unfolding the letter, Fan Xian was astonished to find that it was actually written to him. In the letter, Ye Qingmei told Fan Xian that this world had no time travel, no parallel universes, and it was still Earth. Earth has existed for four billion years, rotating ceaselessly. Throughout this long period, several special eras have appeared: global temperatures dropped significantly, forming large ice sheets in mid-to-high latitude regions.
Water condensed into ice, and atmospheric circulation and ocean currents changed accordingly. In this era, white dominated everything. This was the Great Ice Age, and it would occur periodically. The previous era had ended. They opened the door to the forbidden area, hoping to revive when a new century arrived, just as depicted in science fiction films. Everything was flash-frozen in an instrument. Many years later, the instrument was opened, and the people sleeping inside came out.
She was one such example. When Ye Qingmei woke up, she found that the Ice Age had long passed, the old era had been annihilated, and new humans had appeared. They had gone through tribal periods and slave societies, and now it was a feudal dynasty. Of course, Ye Qingmei was not the only person who woke up from the ice. Many pioneers survived and spread civilization to the new humans. Their legends were also the secrets of the temple.
The more Fan Xian read, the less he understood. If he woke up from being frozen, why did he turn into a child? Fortunately, Ye Qingmei also gave him the answer to this point, stating that he was a special case. He was an experimental subject for an experiment to dataize memory, and the only successful one in the end was Fan Xian.
She knew Fan Xian had many other questions, so she told him that the answers he sought were all in the Taiping Manor. There was a pond in the courtyard there. Ye Qingmei hid a mechanism at the bottom of the pond. After operating it, a hidden door inside the house would open. The secret of the forbidden door, the truth of human extinction, all the answers he wanted were inside.
However, Ye Qingmei suggested that he best not open it. Once he entered that hidden door and learned the truth, he would be destined to return to the place he escaped from, go underground, and face the deepest horror. If he didn't open this hidden door, then all these dangers would have nothing to do with him, and he could enjoy a peaceful and happy life.
In the last sentence, Ye Qingmei told Fan Xian that there was no such thing as true qi in this world. The so-called true qi was actually some remnants left from the previous era. Finally, Ye Qingmei instructed Fan Xian to be good to Wu Zhu. Fan Xian was curious about the secret at the bottom of the pond, but also afraid of the danger. Moreover, he didn't understand why Wu Zhu, whose skills were so good, would need his care.
