Second Young Master Lu looked down: “Cousin, why did you write these two lines of poetry?”
Luo Lingyu blushed: “Sitting idle on a summer night with nothing to do. My heart was moved, so I wrote it down.”
…
The moon was like frost and snow, silvery bright across the ground.
In the Prince of Hengyang’s mansion, after the young master returned, he shut himself alone in his room. Master Kong and other retainers worriedly knocked on the door, but Liu Mu’s eyes looked at them like a wild beast in the forest, like a steel knife in raging fire – vigilant, strange. Master Kong’s heart skipped a beat as Liu Mu, hugging a wine jar, closed the door – “No one disturbs me!”
Liu Mu sat against the wall in his chamber, wine jars piled by his feet, drinking one after another with unrestrained abandon.
Drinking the wine hurriedly, 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 jar after another, his whole body trembling, seeing the moonlight float in like water, wave after wave, layer upon layer. That moonlit radiance, in his eyes, was like twisted shadows, protruding daggers—just like how for all these years, his imperial brother had guarded against him as if he were an enemy. He had thought his brother loved him!
Those daggers, ready to stab him at any moment.
Liu Mu mumbled to himself: “…And what have I ever done?”
Had he ever prevented his brother from ascending the throne? No.
Had he ever resented his brother establishing a crown prince? No.
The late emperor’s favoritism toward him had already made him a thorn in His Majesty’s eye. This assassin was just one time; next time, if he were more helpless, his head separated from his body would be what His Majesty wanted to see.
Liu Mu’s lips twisted downward, smiling grimly. Smashing another wine jar he was holding, the young man’s handsome face appeared somewhat distorted and fierce: “You treat me as an enemy? You’re so old now, muddle-headed and incompetent, court affairs in chaos, entirely relying on noble families for support. Do you think you’re a good emperor? Do you think the noble families care about you? You’re nothing but their tool for seeking private gain. Being so ineffective, yet still guarding against me… heh, what you don’t want to give me, I’ll just take it anyway.”
“If someone like you can be emperor, why am I the one being assassinated? What utter nonsense!”
“Brother… here’s to you! From now on, let our brotherhood… be in name only.”
Prince Liu Mu of Hengyang drank alone, growing more desolate with each drink, yet also more clearheaded. As the night deepened, gradually the lamps went out, and human presence in the darkness also weakened. Liu Mu hugged his wine jar, crying and laughing, while Luo Lingyu put away her writing and went to sleep, and Second Young Master Lu Xian returned to his quarters with a heavy heart.
Second Young Master Lu, a frail scholar, was physically weak and prone to nightmares.
Having drunk two cups of tea before bed, Lu Xian felt uneasy, feeling those two lines of poetry by Luo Lingyu were familiar, that he must 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, he would discover some clue, some trace, and correspondingly, the dream would tell him more things. He was troubled by his dreams, having sought help from both Buddhist and Taoist masters to no avail, and gradually, sadly grew accustomed to his dreams, as if they had little to do with himself.
Sure enough, after he fell asleep, he began to dream again. But this time the dream was extremely short, and he didn’t fall ill; at the same time, perhaps because he had always complained that he wasn’t in his dreams, this time Second Young Master Lu finally appeared.
Like a wandering soul, Second Young Master Lu drifted through the dreamscape, watching with strange feelings as another Lu Xian appeared. That was the true character in the dream, the Lu Xian of one year later. The dream-observer, like a wandering ghost, seeing Second Young Master Lu’s court robes in the dream, finally accepted that in this dream world, one year later, Second Young Master Lu truly held the official position of Zhongsan Dafu.
How could someone like him, who cared so little for politics, hold such an important position a year later?
But that was useless anyway.
As an outsider, Lu Xian, who had already dreamed several times, saw the sky grow dark, lightning flickering, and palace servants fleeing, while also hearing the chanting of Taoist priests and shamans performing rituals floating through the inner palace. He suddenly realized this was from the previous dream, after the fall of Jianye that he had witnessed when the new emperor Liu Mu had killed Empress Luo Lingyu and then committed suicide with his sword.
Was this ending not over yet? Was it not the conclusion?
Second Young Master Lu, like a wandering soul, anxiously drifted through the inner palace, the strange chanting of priests and shamans giving him a headache. On one side the palace gates were being destroyed by the army, on the other, the shamans were still performing rituals… Palace servants were fleeing with bundles, crying and panicking, but while everyone was fleeing outward, Lu Xian suddenly saw his dream self holding a young lady’s hand, walking against the flow of people.
The wandering soul from outside the dream was shocked: “Huan’er—”
He immediately floated over.
Watching his dream self and Luo Yunhuan struggling to push through the crowd running toward the inner palace, Luo Yunhuan sobbed and urged: “Cousin, why haven’t we found my sister yet…”
Second Young Master Lu was anxious, seeing fires throughout the palace while also being disturbed by the humming of the priests’ rituals. He still had to comfort Luo Yunhuan: “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 Yunhuan burst into loud tears: “No, no! His Majesty won’t protect my sister! Since Third Cousin left, she’s been so sad… Second Cousin, take me to find my sister! I’m so afraid she’ll do something desperate…”
The young lady, now over ten years old, had a dirty face, her crying leaving streaks of grey. Held by Second Young Master Lu’s hand as they ran through the inner palace, she would cry and check every palace maid’s corpse they came across to see if it was her sister. Second Young Master Lu found it strange, not understanding why after Third Brother’s death, his cousin would be so sad that it worried her little sister… But Jianye had fallen, the northern army had entered the capital, and the noble families of Jianye were frantically fleeing south. Second Young Master Lu had agreed to enter the palace with Luo Yunhuan, firstly because their cousin was family after all, and secondly to try to persuade His Majesty to retreat with them.
Even if tensions between His Majesty and the noble families had reached this point, shouldn’t they cooperate in the face of enemies?
The Taoist priests and shamans were still shaking their bells, yellow talismans flying everywhere like scattered debris. Wild winds arose, dark clouds rolled overhead, and lightning flashed. In the shamans’ chanting, Second Young Master Lu’s head began to ache, sweat beading on his forehead. At first, he had led Luo Yunhuan, but now she was dragging him deeper into the inner palace. They ran and hid their way forward, finally reaching the Empress’s chambers, panting heavily.
The observing Lu Xian from outside the dream was desperate: “Hurry, hurry, hurry! Cousin Luo and His Majesty are waiting for you to save them…”
But it was too late.
On their way, they met a trembling palace maid trying to flee with her bundle, whom Luo Yunhuan recognized as someone from the Empress’s palace. The inner palace had many walls, and Second Young Master Lu could hardly have had the chance to regularly visit His Majesty’s inner palace, so he couldn’t find the way. He simply grabbed this fleeing palace maid and had her lead the way. Second Young Master Lu and Luo Yunhuan ran into the chamber with flying curtains, and tears fell from Luo Yunhuan’s eyes as she immediately saw the lady lying on the couch, barely breathing. The young lady flew forward—
“Sister!”
Lu Xian stood stunned, seeing the blood on the ground, seeing the young emperor fallen in the pool of blood, pale-faced, and his cousin whom the emperor had strangled to death. While others looked ugly in death, his cousin was a great beauty – in 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, seeing the state of the Empress and His Majesty, screamed in terror. With a flutter, the bundle she was carrying fell to the ground, its contents spilling out and rolling to Second Young Master Lu’s feet.
Both the Lu Xian outside the dream and the one within 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 it, a bright moon rose over the eastern mountains on a spring night in Jiangnan. On a boat with a black awning, a beauty lifted her skirts, bending to scoop water. Night mist like wind, the painting’s mood is vast. In the distance, mountain ranges towered; nearby, a beauty on a night boat.
At the painting’s end, the signature read “Recluse Who Seeks Plum Blossoms.”
One was calligraphy. The writing paper lay atop the opened painting scroll, the elegant handwriting completely different from the “Recluse Who Seeks Plum Blossoms” signature on the painting. This calligraphy seemed more like a woman’s hand. It read “Through a thousand autumns I ask for one word from you, Willing for love to be as unchanging as mountains.”
Both the calligraphy and painting had fallen from the palace maid’s bundle, the painting scroll unfurling, the writing floating above it. The writing falling on the painting seemed to land on the beauty of the river in the painting. Even more like… a sudden wind arose, the painting embracing the writing, both pieces blown by the cold wind. From beside their feet, they rolled out of the chamber, flying through heaven and earth.
Like an embrace.
The Second Young Master Lu in the dream froze: “…This is…”
The Second Young Master Lu outside the dream’s pupils contracted rapidly, realizing this piece of writing was the same one his cousin Luo Lingyu had written earlier that evening before his dream. The outsider naturally couldn’t communicate with the person in the dream; the dream’s Lu Xian pressed his forehead, enduring his headache, unusually sensitive, sensing something strange.
Second Young Master Lu turned to ask Luo Yunhuan, who was crying so hard she could barely breathe: “This writing… did your sister write it?”
Luo Yunhuan looked over, tears hanging on her eyelashes. She thought of something and showed a fragile smile: “…Yes.”
“Was it written for His Majesty? When did she write it?”
Luo Yunhuan lowered her eyes, looking at the snow-faced lady she held in her arms. Her tears fell on the lady’s face, the young lady’s shoulders trembling as she grieved: “…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 wounded and defeated.
…
The past was like wind, both sides wounded and defeated.
Judging by the timing in the dream, when Cousin Luo wrote those words, it was around this same time in reality, wasn’t it?
Before long, she would be designated as Prince of Hengyang’s bride.
Must prevent it!
…
Second Young Master Lu’s heart was heavy with grief. When he went to see Third Brother and Cousin Luo again, the way he looked at them once more made people think he had a “brain ailment.”
Second Young Master Lu first went to the “Clear Courtyard,” then to the “Snow Tracing Courtyard” to find Luo Lingyu, but was told by the maids: “We heard the Prince of Hengyang was somewhat injured while saving our lady, and our lady was extremely worried, so she specially prepared gifts to visit him.”
Second Young Master Lu: “…?!”
Outside the Lu family gate, just as Luo Lingyu was lifting her skirts to board the carriage, a gust of wind came from behind, and a hand reached out to pull her down from the carriage. Luo Lingyu was so startled that her eyes widened, seeing Second Young Master Lu holding her hand, his tone urgent and serious: “Where are you going?!”
Luo Lingyu was already going behind Lu Yun’s back to see another young master, and with Second Young Master Lu’s stern face, she suddenly stammered: “…Go-go-go-going to visit the Prince of Hengyang…”
Visiting someone who had saved her, she wasn’t wrong on the surface… She and Third Young Master Lu hadn’t made any vows, had they? Second Cousin shouldn’t look at her with those eyes that seemed to say “What a fickle woman,” should he?
Lu Xian said solemnly: “…I’ll go visit in your place.”
Luo Lingyu: “…Ah?”
Lu Xian, his heart aching terribly, reproached her: “Third Brother has gone blind, yet you still want to visit another young master. The Prince’s injury is just a small matter, I can go on your behalf. You should take good care of Third Brother.”
Luo Lingyu was bewildered as she was enthusiastically persuaded to return by Second Cousin: “…”
—Brother Xuezhen, come quick and see! To stop me from going out, your Second Brother cursed you saying “You’ve gone blind”!