Ch. 22: True Past

After being left alone by Chen Fan, Tang Hongyu decided to distract her mind and absentmindedly examined the interior of the log house. Although this place was small, it was exquisitely decorated with elegant and tasteful wooden furniture that gave off a calming and comfortable ambiance.

'This place is perfect for retirement,' a part of her mind thought.

Finally, Chen Fan returned from the kitchenette with a tray. There was an exquisite tea set made from precious jade. One glance at it was enough for Tang Hongyu to understand its value.

Chen Fan poured tea into the cups and presented one to Tang Hongyu, who was absentmindedly staring at the cup. She'd smelled the exquisite fragrance of the tea when Chen Fan brewed it. She understood that this tea was better than the expensive product that she drank before.

"Please drink herbal tea, Auntie Tang. It's made of a spirit herb that can calm nerves and increase mental strength," Chen Fan said, pulling Tang Hongyu out of her dazed state.

Tang Hong glanced at Chen Fan and immediately blushed. She then quickly averted her eyes away and concentrated on her tea.

Chen Fan watched Tang Hongyu silently as Tang Hongyu sipped her tea. She immediately showed a relaxed expression after a single sip.

"Ahh, I feel so warm and comfortable," she unconsciously released a seductive moan.

This affected Chen Fan strongly, making his dragon wake up and ready to hunt a new lair. Fortunately, the table hid his reaction. He also pretended to be unaffected by Tang Hongyu's sexy voice.

Tang Hongyu realized her slip, blushed deeply in shame, and lowered her head. She couldn't meet Chen Fan's gaze.

Silence suffused the room for a while. Chen Fan patiently waited for Tang Hongyu to sort out her mind.

Finally, Tang Hongyu raised her head and looked at Chen Fan's eyes. She tried and failed to show a composed face. The light blush on her cheeks ruined her attempt.

"So, you're really a reincarnation of the Celestial Emperor? And this world isn't Earth and this place is inside the universe inside you, am I right?" Tang Hongyu asked unsurely, to which Chen Fan merely nodded.

After witnessing and experiencing one unbelievable thing after another, Tang Hongyu was finally convinced. She believed in Chen Fan's claim.

Tang Hongyu breathed deeply to stabilize her mind. Surprisingly, she managed to regain her composure until the blush on her cheeks disappeared. She shot a serious look towards Chen Fan and then asked, "So, who are you? Are you this Celestial Emperor? Or are you still Chen Fan?"

To Tang Hongyu, this was extremely important. She feared that she would fail her sworn sister if her sister's son got his body stolen by the so-called Celestial Emperor.

"Both," Chen Fan easily replied.

"Both? What did you mean by that?" Tang Hongyu expressed her confusion.

"I'm still Chen Fan, the son of Chen Yuxing and Wang Xiaoyun. However, I have regained the knowledge and memories of my old life as the Celestial Emperor. If you find it hard to understand, just think about how a person experiences new things, both good and bad, in life and grows up because of it. As someone grows up, he changes yet still the same person in the end," Chen Fan explained while feigning a serene and wise look.

Tang Hongyu couldn't help blushing as she saw Chen Fan's expression.

After contemplating carefully, she accepted Chen Fan's words. Yet, she couldn't maintain her old impression of him because of this. She subconsciously thought of him as an adult instead of a little boy she was responsible for.

Tang Hongyu then asked another thing that had been bugging her mind, "If you were a mighty Celestial Emperor who could even create a universe, how did you die in your previous life?"

When Chen Fan heard Tang Hongyu's inquiry, he fell silent.

'When I decided to lie about being the reincarnation of a Celestial Emperor, I prepared to be asked about this matter. Fortunately, I have prepared a fabricated story…well, it's a half-truth and half lie. The best lie is something built upon the truth, after all,' he mused in his mind.

On the other hand, Tang Hongyu couldn't help regretting her insensitive question. She'd realized that her question was so rude. She also misunderstood Chen Fan's silence as his reluctance to answer because of his death in his past life.

Tang Hongyu was about to apologize to Chen Fan but was stopped when Chen Fan spoke first.

"About that, I failed Tribulation when I tried to ascend to the Celestial God stage. A stage after the Celestial Emperor stage."

Tang Hongyu was confused.

Due to her lack of understanding of the Dao of Immortality, Tang Hongyu couldn't grasp the meaning of Chen Fan's words. This was something that Chen Fan was aware of. However, he still told her that because of what he planned to do.

Sure enough, Chen Fan continued after seeing Tang Hongyu's confused face. "I can see that you don't understand what I've said. Alright, let's do this; since talking about my past life will take a long time, I will transmit the information directly into your mind."

Right after stating that, Chen Fan pointed his index and middle fingers, which then glowed with white light, at Tang Hongyu's face. Then, a stream of light flew and entered her forehead.

Tang Hongyu was startled by this occurrence, but she was too slow to react. When the light entered her forehead, she immediately fell into a daze, her eyes unfocused as images and information appeared in her mind.

She saw the life of a boy of mixed Asian and American blood growing up with a Chinese father and American mother in a certain city in the United States. This boy grew up with the love and support of his parents, but he was bullied by the other kids because of his mixed heritage…

One day, the boy had enough and fought back against his bullies. Unfortunately, the parents of one of the bullies, a rich kid who liked to bully him, were angry because he'd hurt their child, so they sued the boy's parents…

Because the claimant was richer than the parents of the boy, the boy's parents lost in court and got fined. Fortunately, the boy's parents had enough savings to pay the fine with some spare money. Of course, the boy's parents were angry at the parents of the rich kid, but they were helpless against the wealth and influence of the rich kid's parents…

After that incident, the boy and his parents moved out to the hometown of the boy's father. In there he grew up into a young man, though he was more restrained because of the incident in the past. Fortunately, the boy wasn't bullied in his new environment. He even made several loyal friends…

Life was good for the boy, but misfortune struck him; his parents died in a car crash. This happened when he was a second-semester college student…

Due to the lack of parental support, he had to drop out of college. He dived straight into a harsh life, unprepared. He had to work as a laborer in a warehouse to earn a living…

The young man became disillusioned and grew up to be a bitter man; his naivety was beaten out of him by the harsh life…

Unfortunately, he was so unlucky for being killed accidentally when a powerful Cultivator fought against an Evil Entity…

Tang Hongyu idly realized that the face of people in the memories was not clear, but she didn't really care about this. Her mind was solely focused on this boy's, no, this young man's tale because she knew that it was the past life of Chen Fan!

She wanted to understand the new Chen Fan, so she silently watched and digested the story.

So far, these memories weren't fabricated, but the fabrication began from the next point. Of course, Tang Hongyu wasn't aware of this fact.

Tang Hongyu watched the memories silently as the boy who turned into a young man faced the old man in the void…

This part is almost similar to what actually happened, but instead of the young man asking for being reincarnated as Chen Fan with a couple of boons, the edited memory showed how the old man gave the young man knowledge about the Dao and Cultivation and got him reincarnated as an orphan in an ancient Chinese world as an apology.

Of course, Tang Hongyu thought this fabricated part was the real thing…

And so, the fabricated part of the memories continued…