Chapter 493: Intangible Cultural Heritage

After these words were spoken, the scene around Chen Ling gradually shattered.

Around those apricot-red eye corners, the scene returned to reality. Chen Ling looked at Yao Qing's eyes, which showed a brief moment of confusion, and after a long while, he slowly stood up.

"It's the real person," Chen Ling said.

Chen Ling had used these eyes to peer into a corner of Yao Qing's "life script." There was no more direct or convenient way to prove it. Even if someone could change their appearance at will, or alter others' perceptions, life experiences cannot lie.

Although he had been "peering" for a long time just now, in reality, it was only a fleeting moment. The only flaw was... this ocular technique seemed to consume a bit too much mental energy.

Even peering into an ordinary person with no mental energy, and only a corner of their "script," had consumed quite a bit of Chen Ling's mental energy. If he were to use this ocular technique on a practitioner of the Divine Path, the consumption would likely be even greater, but this also meant that the upper limit of this ocular technique was far higher than Chen Ling had imagined.

Theoretically, as long as he was supplied with enough mental energy, in the future, he could even read a person's entire "life script" in a single glance, using one look to peer through any character's past and future. Before him, no character would have any secrets.

Of course... this was still just Chen Ling's hypothesis. If he truly reached that point, he could completely be called a conceptual "God of Drama."

After Chen Ling's verification, Su Zhiwei walked straight toward Yao Qing on the ground, preparing to pull him up. But before she could reach him, Yao Qing braced his hands on the ground and stood up with a spring.

"Sister Zhiwei, I don't think this guy is reliable." Yao Qing glared at Chen Ling and said aggressively, "Looking at his eyes, he's clearly not a good person, and he's carrying a boning knife like a perverted serial killer... I don't object to you finding a boyfriend, but we can't put ourselves in danger!"

"He's not my boyfriend," Su Zhiwei said helplessly. "He's just a guest visiting home today."

Hearing this, Yao Qing was stunned. He sized Chen Ling up again, then looked at Yang Xiao standing at the back, and let out a long sigh of relief in his heart...

That's right! Sister Zhiwei shouldn't like this kind of perverted, violent man.

The gloom on Yao Qing's face instantly dissipated. He picked up the square gift box from the side, carefully brushed the dust off the surface, and handed it to Su Zhiwei. A brilliant smile appeared on the boy's face:

"Sister Zhiwei! I brought you a gift!"

Su Zhiwei took the gift box and smiled slightly. "There was no need to be so formal."

"That won't do. Sister Zhiwei, you're a great scientist now. It's rare for you to return to Gusu, so it has to be grand," Yao Qing said with a grin.

"Sister Zhiwei, Grandma said my level is already very high now, and I'll be able to take over soon. I've been embroidering this piece for several months; it's definitely a rare treasure in this world, the kind that can be auctioned directly! Shall I find a place for you to have it framed?"

Seeing Yao Qing preparing to open the door and enter the house, Su Zhiwei was startled and immediately reached out to pull him back.

"Yao Qing, you can't go back now."

"Why?" Yao Qing looked at her in confusion, then noticed the hiking backpack behind her. "Sister Zhiwei, didn't you just get back? Where are you going again?"

Su Zhiwei opened her mouth, not knowing how to answer for a moment. After all, Chen Ling had only said they needed to escape first; they hadn't really decided where to go...

"Anywhere is fine," Chen Ling suddenly spoke up. "As long as it's far away from here, safe, and a place where we can stay for a while."

Hearing this, Yao Qing keenly sensed that something was wrong and immediately asked:

"Sister Zhiwei, did something happen?"

"Yao Qing, I'll explain it to you when there's time." Su Zhiwei heard the urgency in Chen Ling's tone and immediately said, "You go back first. Don't come here for a while, okay?"

After saying this, Su Zhiwei nodded slightly to Chen Ling, and the group immediately walked out of the street.

Yao Qing was stunned for a long time, then hurriedly followed: "Sister Zhiwei, if you're looking for a safe place, why not come to our house! Our house is absolutely safe, and there are plenty of empty rooms; staying there won't be a problem at all... My grandma hasn't seen you in a long time, she misses you very much."

Su Zhiwei was taken aback and thought about it seriously, then looked at Chen Ling, seemingly asking for his opinion.

"Where is your house?" Chen Ling asked.

"It's quite far, about seventy or eighty kilometers away from here? It's on the other side of Gusu."

"Seventy or eighty kilometers..."

Chen Ling began to think seriously. This distance was undoubtedly outside the hunting range of [Tianlang], but it hadn't completely left Gusu. This meant that while settling Yang Xiao and the others, he could secretly change his appearance and return to monitor this place, confirming Nie Yu's movements. It was the golden distance Chen Ling had envisioned.

"That works," Chen Ling nodded immediately.

Although Su Zhiwei didn't know the full situation, she still trusted Chen Ling, so she turned to Yao Qing and said:

"Then let's go pay a visit to Teacher Xiao..."

"Alright!" Hearing that Su Zhiwei was willing to go back with him, Yao Qing's eyes lit up, and he was as excited as a child. "My car is parked right at the entrance! Follow me!"

Yao Qing rushed to the other side of the street like a gust of wind, saying he needed to go open the door and turn on the air conditioning. Watching the boy's receding back, Yang Xiao asked in confusion:

"Dr. Su, the Teacher Xiao you mentioned is..."

"Have you heard of Su Embroidery?" Su Zhiwei explained as they walked. "One of the four famous embroideries, the historical foundation of Gusu, and also a national intangible cultural heritage...

Yao Qing's grandmother is the current inheritor of this intangible cultural heritage. Their family manages an entire museum of intangible cultural heritage, and they hold a very prominent position in the cultural world."

Su Zhiwei paused and added:

"However, Teacher Xiao is already quite old... If nothing unexpected happens, Yao Qing will be the next generation's inheritor of this intangible cultural heritage."

"Inheritor of intangible cultural heritage..." Chen Ling looked at the boy's bouncing figure as he left, the scene he had just seen surfacing in his mind, lost in thought.

Su Zhiwei looked down at the exquisite gift box in her hand, and after a moment of hesitation, she opened a corner of it.

Inside the gift box was a carefully framed hanging scroll. The frame was entirely black, as if made from expensive wood.

In the frame, countless delicate silk threads were interwoven, and the vivid colors were like smudged ink, outlining a natural and lively picture... It was a gray-white Jiangnan cottage, a flowing, murmuring river, the fine, needle-like Jiangnan mist and rain, and the green streams swaying gently in the wind by the shore.

In the corner of the Su Embroidery hanging scroll, two lines of small, neat inscriptions were clear:

August 9, 2024, Yao Qing gifts to Sister Zhiwei:

——《Red Dust》.