The King’s assistant glanced at Zhou Qiang’s shadow on the ground and sighed with relief, "There’s a shadow, it seems he’s not a ghost."
"What are you talking about? Of course, I’m human. What’s with those ghost-seeing expressions on your faces?" Zhou Qiang was quite dissatisfied, "I say, you all are really going overboard. I just overslept that day. When I woke up, you all had already left. Why didn’t you wake me up?"
"What?" Everyone looked at Zhou Qiang in astonishment.
"Are you saying you fell asleep that day and didn’t enter the desert with us?" Professor Wu asked with a shocked expression.
"Yes, Professor, how could you all do this? Why didn’t anyone wake me up? Cheng Luo, why didn’t you call me? That’s way too much, doing such a thing." Zhou Qiang said indignantly, "We came to the desert together, why was I left behind?"
Zhou Qiang grumbled continuously, watching the faces of the crowd grow paler, realizing something was amiss.
"What’s wrong?" Zhou Qiang asked puzzled.
"Zhou Qiang has always been in the town, didn’t enter the desert with us. Then, who was the Zhou Qiang that was with us all along?" An assistant voiced the question troubling everyone in a difficult tone.
Cheng Luo turned and looked towards the endless desert, spoke slowly, "I think I know who he is."
"Who?" Everyone asked eagerly.
"It’s the old State Preceptor. Just as Tianmiao elder sister said, his soul has been wandering the desert, self-blaming, in pain, guilty." Cheng Luo said quietly, "And he has always been preventing me from entering this desert."
"The old State Preceptor? Are the stories Miss Tianmiao told all true?" Professor Wu asked slowly.
"That’s right." Cheng Luo nodded, then quickly recounted the entanglement between the King and the new State Preceptor, "Irel Ancient Country’s last Monarch, King Che, initially a tyrant, became a wise ruler under his lover’s influence. Moreover, this King Che was reputed as the most handsome man in the world. Irel Ancient Country has always had powerful State Preceptors protecting the nation..."
"I see!" The crowd listened, captivated.
"So are you saying the old State Preceptor opposed the union because King Che’s lover was a man?" Zhou Qiang asked.
"Correct. The old State Preceptor was too obstinate." Cheng Luo huffed.
"But in that era... people probably couldn’t accept such things." Zhou Qiang sighed.
"So you can see how deep King Che’s feelings were with his King’s Husband. He would rather defy the whole world to be with his lover." Cheng Luo sighed, "The most crucial point is, the reason King Che could become a wise ruler, the old State Preceptor probably long forgot. Even if it wasn’t for the tragedy caused by the new State Preceptor in the end, I suspect King Che would have abandoned the throne for his lover and gone far away."
"Hmm? You little girl, you haven’t been in love, yet you speak so eloquently?" Professor Wu asked with a smile.
"Anyway, I just know." Cheng Luo said.
"Then is Tianmiao a descendant of Irel Ancient Country’s royal family, becoming the Guardian God of this desert after death?" An assistant asked excitedly.
Everyone felt this theory might be likely. In the desert, they had experienced too many incredible, magical events.
"No, Tianmiao sister definitely isn’t a descendant of Irel Ancient Country’s royal family." Cheng Luo said with an extremely certain tone.
"Then who is she?" Several people asked in unison. The mysterious appearance and disappearance of the beautiful woman, like an elf in the desert, so kind, beautiful, and strong...