Lu Xian looked down: “Why did cousin write these two lines of poetry?”
Luo Ling Yu blushed: “On a summer night, I sat idly with nothing to do. My heart was moved, so I wrote it down.”
The moon was like frost and snow, covering the ground in silvery brightness.
In the Prince of Hengyang’s mansion, after the young master returned, he locked himself in his room. Teacher Kong and other advisors worriedly knocked on the door. However, Liu Mu looked at them like a wild beast, like a steel knife over fierce flames – alert and strange. Teacher Kong’s heart skipped a beat as Liu Mu had already closed the door while hugging wine jugs, saying “Don’t disturb me!”
Liu Mu sat against the wall in his quarters, wine jugs piled by his feet. He drank one jug after another with great abandon.
Drinking wine hastily, clear wine dripped down his throat into his robe. Liu Mu covered half his face with his hand, the exposed half showing expressions that alternated between bewilderment and overflowing fury.
“Crash—!”
Liu Mu smashed one wine jug after another. His whole body trembled as he saw moonlight floating in like water, wave after wave, layer upon layer. The moonlight’s radiance appeared in his eyes like twisted shadows and protruding daggers — just like how his imperial brother had been guarding against him like an enemy all these years. He had thought his brother cared for him!
Those daggers were ready to stab him at any time.
Liu Mu mumbled to himself: “…And what have I ever done?”
Had he ever tried to stop his brother from ascending to the throne? No.
Was he dissatisfied with his brother establishing a crown prince? Also no.
The former emperor’s favoritism towards him had already made him a thorn in His Majesty’s side. This assassin was just one incident – next time, if he was any more helpless, his head being separated from his body would be what His Majesty wanted to see.
Liu Mu’s lips curved downward into a grim smile. Smashing another wine jug he was holding, the handsome young man’s face became somewhat twisted and fierce: “You treat me as an enemy? At your age, you’re muddleheaded and incompetent, court affairs are in chaos, completely relying on noble families for support. You think you’re a good emperor? You think the noble families really care about you? You’re just their tool for seeking private gains. Being so ineffective, yet still guarding against me… heh, what you don’t want to give me, I’ll take it anyway.”
“If someone like you can become emperor, why should I be the one being assassinated? What utter nonsense!”
“Brother… here’s to you! From now on, let’s just be brothers in name only.”
Prince of Hengyang Liu Mu drank alone, feeling increasingly desolate the more he drank, yet also becoming increasingly clear-headed. As night deepened, gradually the lights went out, and human presence in the darkness weakened along with them. Liu Mu hugged his wine jug, crying and laughing. After Luo Ling Yu put away her writing, she went to sleep. Lu Xian returned to his quarters with a heavy heart.
Lu Xian was a frail scholar prone to nightmares.
Before sleeping, after drinking two cups of tea, Lu Xian felt restless, thinking those two lines of poetry from Luo Ling Yu seemed very familiar – he should have seen them before. Then, Lu Xian clapped his hands together, guessing he would dream again.
It seemed to always happen this way – in reality when he discovered some clues or traces, correspondingly, the dream would tell him something more. He was troubled by his dreams, seeking help from both Buddhist and Taoist masters to no avail. Gradually, he sadly got used to his dreams, as if they were always unrelated to himself.
Sure enough, after he fell asleep, he started dreaming again. However, this dream was extremely short, and he didn’t fall ill. At the same time, perhaps because he kept mentioning that he wasn’t in his dreams, this time Lu Xian finally appeared.
Like a wandering soul, Lu Xian drifted through the dreamscape, watching with a strange feeling as another Lu Xian appeared. That was the real character in the dream, the Lu Xian from a year later.
The dream outsider, like a wandering soul, saw Lu Xian’s court robes in the dream, and finally accepted this dream world – a year later, Lu Xian really had been appointed as Zhongsan Dafu.
How could someone like him who didn’t care about political affairs hold such an important position a year later!
But that was also useless.
As an outsider, Lu Xian who had already dreamed several times saw the sky grow dark, lightning flashing, palace servants fleeing, along with floating chants from Taoist priests and shamans performing rituals in the inner palace. He suddenly realized this was from the previous dream, after the fall of Jianye city he had witnessed, where the new emperor Liu Mu killed Empress Luo Ling Yu before taking his own life with a sword.
Could this ending not be over yet? Was this not the conclusion?
Like a wandering soul, Lu Xian anxiously drifted through the inner palace. The strange chanting of priests and shamans gave him a headache. On one side the palace gates were being destroyed by army forces, on the other side the shamans were still performing rituals… Palace servants were crying and fleeing in panic carrying bundles, but while everyone was fleeing outward, Lu Xian suddenly saw his dream self holding a young lady’s hand walking against the crowd.
The wandering soul in the dream was shocked: “Huan’er—”
He immediately floated over.
Watching his dream self and Luo Yun Huan struggling to squeeze through the crowd running towards the inner palace, Luo Yun Huan choked with sobs and urged: “Cousin, why haven’t we found my sister yet…”
Lu Xian felt anxious inside, seeing fires breaking out throughout the palace while also being disturbed by the humming sounds of the ritual masters. He still had to comfort Luo Yun Huan: “Soon, soon! Why must you enter the palace to find cousin Luo? Wouldn’t it be better to flee south with the Lu family? Cousin Luo has His Majesty’s protection…”
Luo Yun Huan burst into loud tears: “No, no! His Majesty won’t protect my sister! Since Third Cousin left, she’s been very upset… Second Cousin, take me to find my sister! I’m so afraid she’ll do something rash…”
The young lady who was already over ten years old had a dirty face, crying until there were streaks of grey. She was held by Lu Xian’s hand as they ran through the inner palace. Every time they saw palace maids lying dead on the ground she would cry while turning over the bodies to check if it was her sister.
Lu Xian felt strange in his heart, not understanding why cousin would be so upset about third brother’s death that it would make her young cousin so worried… but Jianye city had fallen, the northern army had entered the capital, and the noble families of Jianye were fleeing south in panic.
Lu Xian agreed to enter the palace with Luo Yun Huan, firstly because cousin was after all their own relative, and secondly to try to persuade His Majesty to retreat with them.
Even though the conflict between His Majesty and the noble families had become like this, shouldn’t both sides cooperate when facing an enemy?
The Taoist priests and shamans were still shaking their bells, yellow talismans flying everywhere like scattered debris. Strong winds arose, dark clouds rolled across the sky, lightning flashed brilliantly.
Lu Xian’s head began to hurt in the shamans’ chanting, sweat seeping from his forehead.
At first he was leading Luo Yun Huan, but later it was Luo Yun Huan dragging him deeper into the inner palace. They ran and dodged along the way, finally reaching the Empress’s chambers out of breath.
The observing outsider Lu Xian was extremely anxious: “Hurry, hurry, hurry! Cousin Luo and His Majesty are waiting for you to save them…”
But it was ultimately too late.
On the way they encountered a trembling palace maid trying to flee with her bundle, whom Luo Yun Huan recognized as someone from the Empress’s palace. The inner palace had many walls, and Lu Xian couldn’t possibly have had the chance to wander through His Majesty’s inner palace daily.
He couldn’t find the way, so simply grabbed this fleeing palace maid to lead them. Lu Xian and Luo Yun Huan ran into the chamber with flying curtains. Tears fell from Luo Yun Huan’s eyes as she immediately saw the dying lady on the couch. The young lady flew forward—
“Sister!”
Lu Xian stood dazed, seeing the blood on the ground, seeing the young emperor who had fallen in a pool of blood with a pale face, and his cousin whom the emperor had strangled to death. While others looked ugly in death, his cousin was a great beauty – after death, her face was snow-white, her long hair like a waterfall. Her body was curved, brows furrowed in pain. She looked not dead, but as if sleeping.
The palace maid who had returned with them saw the state of death of the Empress and His Majesty, and screamed in fright. Flutter flutter, the bundle she was holding fell to the ground, the items inside tumbling out, rolling all the way to Lu Xian’s shoes.
The outsider Lu Xian and the dream Lu Xian both lowered their heads, bent down to look at the paintings and calligraphy that had rolled to their feet—
Two pieces of paper unfolded.
One was a painting. In the painting, a bright moon rose over the eastern mountains on a spring night by the Jiangnan river. On a black-awninged boat, a beauty lifted her skirts, bending down to scoop water. The night mist was like wind, the painting’s artistic conception vast. In the distance were mountain ranges and peaks, nearby was the beauty on the night boat.
At the end of the painting, the signature was “Plum Seeking Recluse.”
One was calligraphy. The paper with writing was spread over the unrolled painting, the graceful handwriting completely different from the “Plum Seeking Recluse” signature in that painting. This calligraphy looked more like a woman’s writing. It wrote “Through a thousand autumns I ask one word from my lord, wishing love unchanging as mountains.”
The calligraphy and painting had both fallen from the palace maid’s bundle, the painting scroll unfurled, the writing floating above the painting. The writing falling on the painting seemed to land on the beauty in the river water. Even more like… the wind suddenly rose, the painting embracing the writing, both pieces blown up by the cold wind. From beside people’s feet, they rolled out of the palace chamber, flying between heaven and earth.
Like an embrace.
Lu Xian in the dream was stunned: “…This is…”
The outsider Lu Xian’s pupils contracted rapidly, realizing this piece of writing was the same one his cousin Luo Ling Yu had written tonight before the dream. The outsider naturally couldn’t communicate with the person in the dream. Lu Xian in the dream supported his forehead, enduring his headache, unusually sensitive, realizing something strange.
Lu Xian turned to ask Luo Yun Huan who was crying nearly unable to breathe: “This writing… did your sister write it?”
Luo Yun Huan looked over, tears hanging on her eyelashes. She thought of something and revealed a fragile smile: “…Yes.”
“Was it written for His Majesty? When did she write it?”
Luo Yun Huan lowered her eyes, looking at the snow-faced lady she held in her arms. Her tears fell on the lady’s face as the young lady’s shoulders trembled, grieving as she wept: “…Last summer night. Her heart was moved, so she wrote it down.”
…
Her heart was moved, so she wrote it down—
Love is like carrying a torch in the night, the light in one’s palm weak, the road ahead endless.
Either flowers bloom and the moon is full, or both sides are destroyed.
…
The past is like wind, both sides destroyed.
Judging from the timing in the dream, when cousin wrote those words, it was around this time in reality, right?
Before long, she would be engaged to the Prince of Hengyang.
Must prevent it!
…
Lu Xian felt sorrowful in his heart. When he went to visit third brother and cousin Luo again, the way he looked at them once more made people think he had “brain illness.”
Lu Xian first went to “Clear Courtyard,” then went to “Snow Trace Courtyard” to find Luo Ling Yu, but was told by the maid: “Heard the Prince of Hengyang was somewhat injured while saving our lady, our lady was very worried and specially prepared gifts to visit him.”
Lu Xian: “…?!”
Outside the Lu family gate, just as Luo Ling Yu lifted her skirts about to get in the carriage, a gust of wind came from behind, a hand reaching out to pull her down from the carriage. Luo Ling Yu was so startled her eyes widened, seeing Lu Xian holding her hand, his tone urgent and serious: “Where are you going?!”
Luo Ling Yu was already going behind Lu Yun’s back to see another young man. With Lu Xian’s stern face, she suddenly stammered: “…Go-go-go-going to visit the Prince of Hengyang…”
Visiting someone who saved her, she wasn’t wrong on the surface… She and Third Young Master Lu hadn’t made any vows either, right? Second cousin shouldn’t look at her with eyes that seemed to see her as “fickle,” right?
Lu Xian solemnly said: “…I’ll go visit in your place.”
Luo Ling Yu: “…Ah?”
Lu Xian reproached her painfully: “Third brother’s eyes are already blind, yet you still want to visit another young man. The Prince of Hengyang’s injuries are just minor matters, your elder brother going once in your place is enough. You should take good care of third brother.”
Luo Ling Yu was bewildered as she was enthusiastically persuaded back by second cousin: “…”
—Brother Xue Chen, come out and look! To stop me from going out, your second brother cursed you saying “your eyes are already blind”!
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