ATLAS TRANSLATES

Sweet dew on grass, a gentle night.

The night lanterns swayed with the clinking of iron horses. A thin mist rose again, blurring the world outside the window like windshield wipers. Silver frost had settled on the fragrant steps by the door.

A graceful lady in an elegant dress that swept the ground stood before her dressing table, arranging flowers, watering them, and trimming stems. Under the lamplight, her cheeks were slightly flushed.

In her skilled hands, the flowers bloomed brilliantly, almost dripping with beauty.

This was the flower that Lu Yun had tossed into her arms when he left with his umbrella at dawn that day. Luo Lingyu hadn’t thrown it away, but instead had planted it and was caring for it tenderly.

Dense flowers veiled her face, the beauty behind them. Luo Lingyu instructed her maid Lingyu, thinking as she spoke: “Bring out the wine that Lady Jiang gave me before she left. Add some rose dew to it, pour in some ice water, using the recipe I gave you before. The weather is getting hotter – drinking rose-infused wine on a summer night would be quite elegant.”

“Pick the banana leaves from the courtyard, cut them properly, and sew them into a mat. It will be cooler to lounge on.”

“Yilan, get brush and paper. I’ll write a monthly calendar. We can follow it to stay in harmony with the seasons.”

These were the ordinary, refined activities of a noble lady’s chamber. Only daughters of scholarly families had such leisure to tend flowers, collect dew, pick leaves, and warm wine.

As she tended to the flowers, there was a gentle knock at the wooden door. The maid opened it to find Lu Xian, travel-worn in his flowing robes with wide sleeves, holding a box. Standing under the lantern outside the door, the young master appeared refined yet distracted, his expression distant, seemingly preoccupied.

Yesterday at Kaishan Temple, Luo Lingyu had stumbled upon Lu Xian’s mysterious behavior. At the time, moved by Luo Lingyu’s words, Lu Xian had wanted to reveal everything about his dream. However, Princess Liu Tang had arrived with Luo Lingyu’s sister, anxiously speaking with Lu Xian, and Luo Lingyu had tactfully left with her sister. The matter was left unresolved. But Lu Xian couldn’t forget it, and after thinking for a day, he decided to visit Luo Lingyu.

The flower-tending lady raised her bright eyes, clear as water, quietly watching as Lu Xian handed the box to the maid. Lu Xian spoke casually: “Cousin has just recovered from illness and lost quite a bit of weight. I brought some lingzhi mushrooms and ginseng. When you run out, don’t ask the steward – just ask me directly.”

Luo Lingyu put down her water-droplet covered scissors and gave a distant bow, her tone light and teasing: “Then many thanks to Second Cousin.”

When she raised her eyes, they flickered slightly – she had already guessed why Lu Xian had come to see her. Lu Xian’s dreams and what he had mentioned about Lu Yun’s life and death had caught her attention.

After the maid left, Lu Xian pondered how to tell her about his dream. In his view, his dreams always involved Lu Yun and his cousin Luo, always witnessing the tragedy of their love. But the timeline of his dreams was chaotic — when small things couldn’t affect major events, nothing would change in his dreams. But once they had an impact and the major event ended, the dream’s hidden dangers would disappear, and he wouldn’t continue having that dream.

However, Lu Xian himself didn’t know what kind of things could affect major events. The first time he changed Lu Yun and Luo Lingyu’s fate, he had been in a daze, but there had been clear instructions then – he could see at a glance that as long as Luo Lingyu didn’t marry the Prince of Hengyang, the tragedy could be averted. He had worked blindly toward that goal, and he had indeed succeeded.

But in his current dreams, Lu Xian couldn’t yet see any opportunity to change them. He only knew that they lost the war, and Lu Yun died. He couldn’t prevent the war – he didn’t have such great power to influence the warfare between two countries. He had previously thought that if Lu Yun didn’t go to the border, but the dream told him it was useless. By now, Lu Xian didn’t know what to do. And then Luo Lingyu had caught him muttering about it…

Lu Xian hesitated: “Cousin, do you really want to know what I dreamed? Even if, as you say, there is no past life, and I can only foresee the future. But such ability easily invites heaven’s jealousy. What if telling you leads to worse results?”

Luo Lingyu pondered: “That depends on what worse results might be.”

Thinking of his third brother’s death, Lu Xian’s heart constricted: “…It probably can’t get worse.”

Luo Lingyu smiled: “If Second Cousin can truly dream of the future, then when the future outcome isn’t good, Second Cousin will surely try to change it after waking up? I believe that no matter what kind of sign heaven gives Second Cousin, everything that develops has its own logic. It’s impossible for that logic to disappear just because Second Cousin tells me about the dream. If nothing changes, events will follow their natural course, which makes sense. If the logic changes, there must be other factors involved… these other factors could be the small things Second Cousin changed, or they could be fate’s stubborn remaining will.”

“So, what difference could adding me make?”

Lu Xian urgently said: “It makes a difference! For example, you’re this year’s Flower Goddess, but in my dream, you weren’t chosen as Flower Goddess this year – it was next year instead. And do you remember the day you opened your cosmetics shop? In my dream, it should have been the Prince of Hengyang who saved you, with Third Brother’s arm getting injured without you knowing; but in reality, Third Brother’s eyes were scalded. The same bad things – I avoided one, but there was another…”

Luo Lingyu looked at Lu Xian, lost in thought for a moment, then shook her head: “That difference doesn’t seem very big. Besides, Second Cousin, you didn’t actually change anything at the cosmetics shop.”

Lu Xian: “…?”

Luo Lingyu said softly: “Third Cousin’s arm was still injured.”

Lu Xian: “…What?! How did I not know?”

Luo Lingyu then told him that Lu Yun’s arm had still been injured, just not on that day at the cosmetics shop. Instead, it happened one day later when Luo Lingyu and Lu Yun were enjoying the shade under a grape trellis. The trellis collapsed, and Lu Yun used his arm to block it, injuring his arm then.

Speaking of this, Luo Lingyu’s cheeks turned pink, her heart racing. She remembered that the grape trellis had collapsed that day because she and Lu Yun had been too passionate.

Luo Lingyu smiled: “So that day, Second Cousin didn’t really change anything.”

Hearing this, Lu Xian first froze, then became dejected. He had naturally thought he had changed a lot that day, preventing Luo Lingyu from becoming close to the Prince of Hengyang. But after what Luo Lingyu said, he remembered that in the dream, Luo Lingyu had wanted to visit because the Prince was injured, and in reality, Luo Lingyu had also wanted to visit but was stopped by him… What he had changed was only whether he stopped Luo Lingyu or not, but if it wasn’t a startled horse it would have been spilled water – he hadn’t changed anything at all.

Luo Lingyu seemed lost in thought: “So, this means that while small events can affect major events, changes that are too small are meaningless. Things will still happen, logic exists independently, and will keep moving forward. In other words, Second Cousin can only change some minor details, but cannot prevent events that exist naturally in heaven and earth.”

Lu Xian was already confused, half-understanding. But the part he did understand made him go “Ah,” as if suddenly enlightened.

Wasn’t Luo Lingyu’s meaning exactly matching his dreams—

The coming-of-age ceremony on June 19th, he couldn’t force it not to exist;

Lu Yun’s death tribulation, he similarly couldn’t make it not exist beforehand.

He could only try to guide things in a different direction when they happened. But now, it was easier to influence the events of cousin Luo’s coming-of-age ceremony; whereas Lu Yun’s death at the border was not easy to influence.

The logic of major events didn’t care about his will, it just kept moving forward.

Putting it this way, Lu Xian felt relieved: if so, telling his dream to cousin Luo should indeed do no harm. As long as major events could be anticipated, small changes were just opportunities.

Luo Lingyu turned to look at him, speaking softly: “…Then, Second Cousin, can you tell me what happened to Brother Xuechen in your dream?”

“Only after you tell me can I judge whether it’s worth believing.”

Luo Lingyu wasn’t particularly clever. She had many small cleverness. These small cleverness let her live well; but when it came to the big picture, due to her limited perspective, she didn’t have it.

Lu Xian thought his dreams only centered on Lu Yun and Luo Lingyu’s love story, and hearing this, Luo Lingyu didn’t know Lu Xian had omitted other things. She also thought Second Cousin just kept dreaming of a tragic love story. Though she had questions, they just flashed through her mind – she was too caught up in the heart-wrenching dreams Lu Xian described to think of anything else.

Lu Xian didn’t mention the part about Luo Lingyu possibly marrying the Prince of Hengyang. To this day, he remained wary of the Prince and didn’t want Luo Lingyu’s impression of that young prince to deepen. Lu Xian only vaguely mentioned Lu Yun’s end of being pierced by countless arrows, with Luo Lingyu marrying someone else; then spoke of Lu Yun dying in the snowy mountain fog, with Luo Lingyu fleeing to distant lands.

Death tribulation was hard to change.

Until now, unchanged.

In Lu Xian’s dreams, Luo Lingyu and Lu Yun’s fate was always slightly off. Always arguing, always missing each other through misunderstandings. Because of arguments, missing the chance to marry him, forcing him to go to the border; because of misunderstandings, she witnessed the moment of his death, and similarly had no fate to stay with him long.

He always died at the border.

Luo Lingyu had been listening quietly, but as Lu Xian continued speaking, her face grew increasingly pale, and fear arose in her heart.

At first, she was just trying to comfort Lu Xian, thinking there was no harm in listening, no loss in hearing it. She hadn’t taken it very seriously then, but as Lu Xian continued, she began to fear. Because Lu Xian’s dreams… they had logic to them. The events in the dreams matched her and Lu Yun’s personalities – she might do such things, and he might as well.

Compared to the dream of Lu Yun dying in the snowy mountains, the first dream of Lu Yun dying from countless arrows at Jianye City’s slope resonated more with Luo Lingyu. She hadn’t reached the point of loving Lu Yun so deeply that she wanted to live and die with him, but she had already gone through that first stage of being angry at him, loving him, and wanting to maintain her pride before him.

She might feel resentful and wronged, hating and being annoyed with him while not wanting to hurt him, and thus marry someone else; he might also be filled with anger and go far away to the border, dying there.

Lu Xian’s voice was faint: “…Then, you married another noble family’s son, living quite well. But later when the southern capital fell, no one could escape being captured or killed, including you…”

“…He died at the border, I looked for you in my dream, but never found you again…”

“Cousin… do you believe my dreams are real?”

Lu Xian looked at Luo Lingyu and found this lady’s snow-white face had a hint of rigidity. This rigidity was quite stubborn, leaving her without any expression. She stood by the window under the moon, tall as jade, her black hair falling like a cascade, her bright earrings rippling like water circles on her cheeks, rising wave after wave of radiance. Such brilliance and charm would make anyone bow.

But the lady’s expression was rigid, almost cold.

Lu Xian called again: “…Cousin Luo, did you hear what I said?”

Luo Lingyu’s eyelashes trembled, and she suddenly came back to herself.

That look she gave Lu Xian made him instinctively feel something was strange.

Lu Xian heard his cousin say softly: “I don’t know… Second Cousin, let me think about it.”

After Lu Xian left, Luo Lingyu sat by the window. When no outsiders were watching, she finally showed her lost and bewildered side. She sat in a daze, looking at the newly trimmed flower branches by the window, at the scissors thrown on the table. She suddenly burst into tears, grabbed the scissors and started frantically cutting the flowers—

Lu Yun would die.

Lu Xian had deliberately spoken so casually, deliberately revealing an expression that he could change fate. But Luo Lingyu heard that no matter what, Lu Yun would die. Such a difficult death tribulation to overcome… Lu Xian had inadvertently revealed that he had already changed many things the first time, but why hadn’t he changed Lu Yun’s death?

Why would Lu Yun die whether or not she was with him?

He would die!

What would she do?

Flower petals were cut and fell, branches and leaves scattered messily on the windowsill and table. The lady lay on the table crying, feeling utterly wronged:

“I just wanted to get married, wanted to marry someone with power and influence. Better if that person was good, best if we loved each other. It wouldn’t matter if he didn’t love me. As long as I lived well, I didn’t care.”

“If he’s going to die… if it really can’t be changed… why should I marry him, wuu wuu wuu.”

Besides changing fate, Luo Lingyu actually had another path she could take.

That was to forget Lu Yun from now on.

Continue looking for a suitable gentleman who was willing to marry her.

Lu Xian was deeply mired in the quagmire, caring for his brother, determined to change his brother’s fate.

But Luo Lingyu could withdraw halfway and choose another path.

She was scared.

She was afraid of giving her heart in vain.

She was so selfish, and having rarely given her true heart, she didn’t want to end up with nothing good in the end.

No one could stop her eager pursuit of a privileged life.

She was just a fifteen-year-old girl experiencing first love, with the idea of cutting losses early deeply ingrained in her bones.

After cutting the flower branches, Luo Lingyu cried while gathering all the things Lu Yun had given her and putting them in a box. The letter Lu Yun had written to her just two days ago was also thrown in. She was so scared she wanted to burn it all, but when the flames had barely started, Luo Lingyu stared at the snow-white letter paper on top of the box, then rushed over to stamp out the fire and saved those things back.

The arm bracelet, jade pendant, hairpins, letters… she couldn’t bear to part with any of it.

“My lady, are you crying?” the maid outside asked hesitantly and worriedly.

Luo Lingyu wiped her tears and said hoarsely: “…No, you all go to sleep, don’t mind me.”

She cried and wept, feeling miserable.

Selfishness made her afraid, love made her reluctant… the lady covering her mouth with a handkerchief to sob, through tear-blurred eyes, couldn’t help wishing Lu Yun were here.

Perhaps because Lu Xian’s dream was too real, the fear pressed on her heart, and crying herself to sleep that night, Luo Lingyu also dreamed of something.

She didn’t have Lu Xian’s constitution, she couldn’t dream of the future like him. Luo Lingyu’s dream was simply of a world without Lu Yun.

Perhaps it was as Lu Xian said – she had married someone else, or perhaps later Lu Yun had died and she had returned to Jianye alone.

In any case, in the dream it was still the familiar Jianye, the familiar Lu family, but there was no more Lu Yun.

In the dream, the lady walked past “Clear Courtyard” – the flowers and plants in the yard had withered, servants and maids had all been dismissed, even Jinyue had married and left Jianye; and that grape trellis had no more grapes, no more young man sleeping on the couch under its shade. The Qinhuai River was cold, Mochou wept tears. Luo Lingyu stood on high buildings, stood on city walls.

Sometimes she saw brilliant lights lasting till dawn, night after night;

Sometimes she saw endless snow, heaven and earth in clear silence.

This was a world without Lu Yun. Either he had gone to the border, or he was already dead. She didn’t know.

Luo Lingyu just… just… She lived in a bustling place, but in her heart there wasn’t a day she didn’t think of him.

Sometimes living in grand mansions, sometimes walking in small alleys. Her face was calm, but in her heart weeds grew wild, desperately missing someone. Someone who no longer existed in memory, someone who was already dead, should slowly be forgotten, should walk out of her life. But he hadn’t. She always remembered him, and the better she lived, the more a bloody hole gaped in her heart, growing bigger and bigger, bleeding more and more.

The emptiness in her heart could not be filled by external things. Perhaps originally having no heart would have made it easier to be happy, but after having a heart and sealing it again, it was always more bitter.

Early in the morning before dawn, the sky was gray and misty. In the curtained bed, Luo Lingyu tumbled out of her dream. She was covered in sweat, her eyes swollen from crying all night. Running her fingers through her long hair, the lady sat curled up in the plum blossom curtained bed sobbing. Having cried too much, her eyes no longer had tears, just a painful dryness. The beauty who cared so much about her appearance knew that in her current state, she definitely couldn’t go out today.

Luo Lingyu pushed open the curtain, lit a lamp, and sat down at her desk, finding the letter from Lu Yun that she had wanted to burn the night before. With her black hair like silk falling loose, in thin summer clothes that revealed her slender shoulders and slim waist, the lady bent over the desk, her face showing a hint of pink. There were tear stains on the letter paper, but she patiently read his letter again.

It was just ordinary conversation, like casual chat.

Lu Yun asked her: “What did you eat last night, did you get sick? Did you sleep well, did you have to get up in the night? Are you in a good mood, has anyone upset you?”

“The begonia flowers aren’t blooming well, they’re not as good as when you took care of them. Come over and tend to the flowers.”

“Has anyone bullied you, made you angry? Don’t harbor harmful thoughts, but don’t let yourself be wronged either. If someone bullies you, just find Prince Chen, he will look after you.”

The letter contained a leaf from the north, for her to think of him when she saw it.

Though he had written so much only because he mistakenly thought she was pregnant, when he was gentle, he was truly good. Reading the letter, she could imagine the warmth in his eyes; it was as if he was pressing his forehead against hers, tender and intimate.

Luo Lingyu’s lips curved up slightly, reading the letter made her happy again, no longer filled with the anxiety and fear she had felt after hearing Lu Xian’s dream.

Originally she hadn’t planned to write back to Lu Yun, thinking she would give him a surprise when she went to Nanyang, asking him about the pregnancy in person. Now Luo Lingyu thought that Lu Xian had probably already explained things clearly. Since Lu Yun didn’t blame her for her questions, they were just questions. When she had told Lu Xian she wanted to go to Nanyang, the main reason was probably that she missed Lu Yun.

She realized she truly liked this person – when he wasn’t in her dreams, she couldn’t even cry.

Crying for other young men, other people, seemed meaningless.

The lady lay down, ground the ink stick and picked up her brush, pondered for a long time, then let the ink fall onto the paper like spotted bamboo’s clear tears. Tears welled in her eyes again, but Luo Lingyu held them back, and after thinking for a long time, wrote just a few words:

“I think of you, my lord, day and night.

Winter is long and summer short, paper cannot express my words.”

The moment she lifted her brush, she had made her decision. She would not leave him, would not give up on him just because she thought he would die. She had considered many men who wanted to be her husband, but in her heart she only truly liked one Lu Yun. She was still in the most beautiful ambiguous period of love, still guessing at each other’s hearts, still afraid he wouldn’t marry her… how could she give up?

After writing these few words, the lady suddenly felt relieved. Having not slept well all night, she now finally felt some drowsiness.

In early September, the Prince of Hengyang was given the title of General by the court and sent to govern Yingchuan Prefecture.

Unfortunately, Liu Mu had not succeeded in helping Lu Xian join the army.

Firstly, the Lu family still wouldn’t agree to send both legitimate sons to the battlefield. The bloodlines of legitimate and illegitimate sons were different, and the Lu family’s fourth young master was only a concubine’s son and not yet grown. Left Minister Lu Mao, who usually let his sons do whatever they wanted, didn’t help his son this time. Even with Liu Mu’s efforts, if the Lu family didn’t agree, Liu Mu could do nothing.

Secondly, Luo Lingyu had told Lu Xian that Lu Yun was so wise, ordinary reasons wouldn’t be enough to make him throw his life away. If Lu Xian had dreamed of his death twice, and the first time was because the court wanted him dead, since things wouldn’t change, who knew if the second time, the problem was also with the court? If the court was the issue, then Lu Xian staying in Jianye would be better than going to Nanyang to protect his brother.

Lu Xian… was successfully convinced by Luo Lingyu.

With his cousin helping him strategize, he felt his dreams weren’t so directionless anymore.

And at Luo Lingyu’s earnest request, Lu Xian reluctantly asked Liu Mu for help, asking him to take his cousin along when he left. He hoped that after Liu Mu reached Yingchuan, he would have someone escort his cousin to Nanyang. After all, Yingchuan wasn’t far from Nanyang. When Lu Xian made this request, he felt quite uncomfortable, as he originally hadn’t wanted any connection between the Prince of Hengyang and his cousin.

Liu Mu agreed casually.

Liu Mu’s quick agreement made Lu Xian suspect the other still had unspoken feelings for his cousin. Lu Xian had to force himself to remind Liu Mu, directly and indirectly, not to have designs on his cousin. Liu Mu just sneered and ignored him.

For various reasons, Luo Yunhuan tearfully saw her sister off as she got into the carriage, waving goodbye to her sister.

Luo Lingyu got into the carriage, following Liu Mu toward Nanyang. She would soon see Lu Yun.

All of this was already changing.

Sitting in the carriage, the lady whispered encouragement to herself: “It’s not that nothing has changed, just that the changes aren’t big enough yet. There’s still a way. And Brother Xuechen will probably have better ideas than mine?”

“Brother Xuechen… I can finally see you.”