Warning: This chapter contains violence, both sexual and physical, and suicide.
Winner Takes It All
Yueli~
Who is this stranger?
Qing Yuan’s terrifyingly dreamy, melancholic, and nostalgic tone jolts me awake, like an icy splash.
Words tumble from Qing Yuan’s lips in a nervous, rapid-fire rant. “All he had to do was what I paid him to do. To keep you away from others and not touch you. I warned him. I told him not to take your virginity and to keep you pure for me until I showed up with a matchmaker to set a wedding date for us. You see, nobody would have blinked twice if I suddenly appeared with a wife of common birth because people know I’m not a conformist. I’m different, special, like you said.”
My anxiety and panic feel overwhelming, spreading like ink bleeding across a clean page. My racing heartbeat is pounding in my ears. Clutching my stomach as another contraction leaves me panting, I try to reason with him. I think seeing me has triggered his depression and is making him act out in ways I know aren’t typical for him. “Look, you have had your fun teasing me, and you got me. I was startled for a moment, but Qing Yuan, I’m not kidding anymore. The babies are coming! They are coming fast.”
Qing Yuan doesn’t reply. I hear footsteps receding. I feel a sliver of hope. I pray he’s come to his senses and is getting Jinghua to help me. But then another contraction hits, making me fold over. Intense, outright panic overwhelms me. “HELP ME!” I scream. “Please, Jinghua! HELP ME!”
Leaning ever so slowly, I extend my hand, feeling the earth beneath me with my fingertips. The ground beneath me feels rough and textured, with grooves and crevices that I can trace with my touch. As my palm finally makes contact, I am greeted by the lingering moisture left by the fallen leaves. A delicate quilt of dampness softens the ground beneath me.
I brace myself into a nearby tree with my legs parted under my dress because of the pressure, and a longer, more painful contraction makes me want to push. When I hear hurried steps coming my way, then a pause as one would do when they come across a shocking situation, I scream in sheer hysteria, “I’M THE EMPRESS AND I’M IN LABOR! PLEASE HELP ME! THE EMPEROR WILL REWARD YOU IN ANY WAY YOU DESIRE!”
But when I hear it’s just Qing Yuan chuckling and coming back to torment me. I started to beg and cry from the pain and my fear.
He scolds me and tells me to stop yelling because nobody is coming. Jinghua and Little Min, with the soldiers who came with us, are dead. I hear him take a seat across from me. The madness in his voice that I barely recognize petrifies me as he chats casually, as if we’re having a lighthearted, friendly conversation when he knows I’m in labor.
“Do you remember the lantern festival? You held me in front of everyone. That was romantic. We had fun eating treats, and I enjoyed buying you nice things that made you smile. We have so many memories, especially in Qingshui City. I miss playing dice and games with you before bed. I used to let you win because it made you happy, even when you were mean to me.”
Qing Yuan’s tone becomes melancholy, solemn as he accuses in a small, broken, pouty voice. “You were selfish and hurtful. You made me listen to Jinghua being intimate with you every day. It was purposeful when you left the door open, making me watch him pleasure you even though I desired you. It made me feel pathetic when you sucked his cock while staring at me. You teased and tortured me. Why did you do that?! Was it because you were thinking of me when you pleasured him?”
He is flippant. His mood swings like a flipped coin. It’s impossible to predict which side it will land on. He laughs wildly, scaring away nearby birds. I hear their wings flapping as they fly away. “I had hoped Meili would seduce Jinghua. I even gave her a potent aphrodisiac to give him, which she did, but it backfired on me, too. That smug bastard, Jinghua, spent three whole days using you like his personal toy. Why did you act like a whore for him?”
He exhales, continuing his lunacy fueled tirade without acknowledging or caring about my pain. “Now that I think about things, I consider the Wang family and I were destined for misfortune, or maybe I was the fool for trusting another one of them. Little Princess, do you know how Jinghua was truly injured in the fireworks factory? How could someone small like Meili overcome him? It was me. I hit him over the head. All she had to do was set him on fire, but she couldn’t. She had developed feelings for him, too, so I had to do her part.”
“STOP!” I scream, my voice echoing through the air, a desperate plea coated with the taste of urgency. “STOP NOW WHILE YOU CAN!” The sound tears through the stillness, like jagged shards of glass ripping through velvet. My dry throat burns, raw and scratchy, a sensation akin to rubbing sand against tender sunburned flesh.
“JINGYUAN IS GOING TO KILL YOU!”
I screech in anguish and pain, gasping and panting, feeling the pressure down below. He clicks his tongue and scoffs at me. He says, “Well, I don’t doubt he will want to, but he would have to find us first. Little Princess, you and I are going to cross the ocean to a place where nobody knows who we are and start over the right way. However, we need to eliminate those things within you to begin our adventure. I’m going to take you somewhere we can leave those brats behind. If not, I can always drown them. I hate baggage.”
I flinch and recoil, hissing at him in disgust. I try to block his hands, but he touches my face without restraint. His rough, calloused palm scratches into my skin as he digs into the neck of my dress. He gropes the curve of my breasts, but then stops. He mumbles to himself, saying that this isn’t the right time or place to enjoy me fully.
When he says, “Here, take my hands. Reach out a little. They are right in front of yours.” I realize it’s my chance. I know by the direction of his voice that he’s standing in front of me. His hands catch mine, and I hear him grunt from my weight. I stumble when he wobbles a bit to regain balance. I can picture him bowed over, shifting his weight onto his toes to lift me.
He pulls me to my feet when suddenly I gather enough strength to lunge forward towards him, baring my teeth like a wolf as a surge of adrenaline fueled by panic courses through my veins. The deafening sound of my heart pounding rings louder and faster when I grab his face with my fingers clawed, aiming for anything, his eyes. The sound of his wailing, the feeling of his skin tearing, his flesh gathering under my breaking nails, and the smell of his blood energize me, so that I growl at him.
But without my sight, he has the advantage. A sudden and focused hit causes one knee to crack and bend unnaturally inward. It must have been his foot because his fists are slamming into my chest and my face. The speed of his attack tells me he’s using both hands. It’s a violent assault before he shoves me back with full force.
My poor children, I am falling.
I expect to land flat on the ground, but I collide with a fallen tree—a solid, tubular object. The rough bark surface grazes my fingertips as I descend. When my lower back first makes contact, it creates deafening popping and cracking sounds—my broken body arches like a bow over the log.
The angle of my fall causes the top of my head to strike the ground with a resounding thud that makes my brain shake and my ears ring. The throbbing pain in my upper torso intensifies, but I’m numb from the waist down. I try to move my legs, but it’s in vain. The contractions that were intense and pressing moments ago are now absent.
“Qing Yuan, please, I’m begging you. Please find someone! I can’t feel or move my legs. I promise not to tell anyone what happened here if you help me,” I groan, struggling to breathe—the fear in my voice, helplessness. I can hardly recognize it as my own.
“Why did you do that!” he screams, his voice booming like clapping thunder. I can feel the intensity of his fierce and heated, blazing animosity towards me, his rage matching the senseless, impossible level of fear that grips me. He circles me, his screams and curses echoing in my ears. As he yanks me over the log, I can feel the rough bark scratching and tearing at my dress, leaving painful splinters and marks on my upper body.
The wind rushes past my ears, creating a howling roar that feels as if it’s coming from deep within me. The scent of damp earth that will be my grave fills my nostrils. Finally, my head slams and lands on the ground with a thud, my body spread out flat on the hard surface, and I feel his hot breath on my face from above.
Qing Yuan weeps morosely. He’s crying. Perhaps his tears are dropping on me, but I can’t feel anything. I’m in such agony, I’m dazed and stupefied. “Why did you do that? Why did you make me hurt you? Why don’t you understand that I love you? Now I can’t let you go, and I can’t take you with me.”
I was right about this place. I will die here with my unborn children trapped inside me, and that angers me more than anything else. I can’t move my legs, but my hands are free and move. If I’m going to die, I will die fighting.
I suppress my fear and anguish, trying to speak softly, coaxingly. “Qing Yuan, I apologize for misunderstanding you. You were right. I ruined everything, but we must face reality. You can probably see the blood because I’m dying. But please…I shouldn’t ask this of you. Please kiss me once before I die so that I can taste the sweetness of your lips, then I’ll have no regrets.”
He exhales with a sudden, audible puff, like someone overcome with delight. I can picture his expression smiling with delusion and his eyes, dead, devoid of humanity. “This is how you should treat me. See, I knew this was how you felt about me.” Qing Yuan exhales, his warm breath on my skin. “Why did you ruin everything when I love you more than anyone else?”
He whispers my name like a sacred prayer, “Little Princess.” he tenderly strokes my hair, fueled by his madness and delusions. It makes me sick, but I force myself to smile to draw him closer to me.
Since he altered my fate, I will change his, too.
“You’re so beautiful,” he murmurs in a throaty, gruff tone, his voice laced with desire. As he speaks, his warm breath washes over me, covering my flesh like a sultry blanket with a hot and humid sensation that settles on my skin, reminiscent of the uncomfortable humidity that accompanies the monsoon season.
He’s that near.
I feel his tented arms on my sides and his weight shifting as he comes closer. The warmth of my burning skin is replaced by coolness as he leaves a sheen of saliva from licking the exposed part of my breasts. When his lips touch mine, I am receptive, inviting his tongue to enter my mouth. His tongue moves, penetrating my mouth leisurely, moaning, savoring the moment and the taste of me when I quickly clamp down and lock my jaw on his tongue. The human tongue isn’t that easy to bite off.
“AAAHHHHHHH!” Qing Yuan shrieks and pulls away, his tongue stretching. I find his face with my hands and poke my fingers into any reachable spot until he punches and slams his fists into my face again. His tongue is free from my teeth because he’s knocked them out. Sharp bits of broken teeth and pieces of flesh in my bloody mouth cover my tongue, and when I bite down, it feels like I’m chewing overcooked rice with small pebbles because it wasn’t washed properly.
“YOU FUCKING BITCH!” Qing Yuan yells and curses at me while kicking me in the face and upper torso. His injured tongue causes him to have a lisp. He binds my hands together and positions them up. Then, something I feared happens. I hear clothes rustling as the air brushes against my bare breasts. Please, not this!
He is ripping off my clothes. He growls and blames me for ruining everything. He says all he wanted was to love me, but I had teased and taunted him. He threatens that since I’m about to die, he will make sure our last breaths will be with him inside me, since he plans to kill himself, too. He wants us to be together until the end.
It’s not just shock but a dreaded acceptance, the grim realization of the inevitable that keeps me from asking him to stop. I don’t bother. I lie still like a corpse, the corpse I will soon become.
The Qing Yuan I thought I knew is gone forever, or maybe he was never there at all?
His dementia has brought him too far, and he can’t turn back now. Instead, I seek solace in prayer, pleading with the Gods for mercy. I beg them to protect my unborn children from such a shameful and terrible fate. I even pray for a demon to help me in my desperate moment, willing to give up my soul in return, yet I know this is it for me and the babies.
It is absolute madness—pure, unadulterated insanity. My resentment and rage towards him are so intense that I can’t stop mocking him, despite knowing it’s irrational. I laugh scoffingly in his face. “I know you killed Jiejie. Why? Did she tell you the truth about your small useless pecker compared to Jinghua’s?”
Before I say what I’m about to say, I apologize to his mother in the afterlife. I believe she would understand and forgive me. To reach this demon, I plunge into the lowest depths of hell to gather my venomous spite, aiming for his jugular with words as sharp as daggers.
The calmness and fluidity of my voice and delivery are unnerving. It scares me. “Qing Yuan, your poor mother didn’t die giving birth to you. Your father hung her because she gave birth to a useless demon spawn like you.”
As my parting gift to him, I taunt him haughtily, jeeringly. My every condescending cell within me spews. “Ha, ha.. ha.. You pathetic bastard. This isn’t the end for us. When you return to the fiery pits of purgatory from where you were shat out, I’ll be waiting for you, TWAT!” I spat in his face.
“SHUT UP! SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!” Qing Yuan roars, and it makes me laugh harder. It sounds more beastly than human because that’s what he is, an animal.
No, not even animals are as vile as he is.
He’s up, running circles around me, screeching. “This is the problem with noble bitches! You always think you’re so high and mighty! Yes, I killed your Jiejie, and I’ll kill you the same way. Then I’ll leave your corpse here for the bears, wolves, and tigers!”
The pressure of his body on my upper torso is enough to keep me from breathing, but when he wraps his hands around my neck, squeezing. I accept this is my end.
=======
Jinghua~
The mercenaries hired by Qing Yuan weren’t that formidable. It was their element of surprise that caught him off guard. Qing Yuan had a decent head start on him. However, he didn’t bother to cover his tracks, assuming everyone was dead.
Jinghua found them in a densely wooded area. A-li was lying supine, her blindfold and ripped white dress now deep ruby, soaked in her blood, scrunched up around her waist. Other than that, her body was exposed. Qing Yian was sitting on her chest, choking her. The madness that consumed Qing Yuan made his inevitable downfall possible. In the throes of his manic state, he heard nothing when Jinghua approached his lifelong friend from behind. With a viciousness, Jinghua plunged the blade into the side of Qing Yuan’s neck and slit him from ear to ear.
The shocked expression on Qing Yuan’s face, the look of his limbs twisted and broken from being thrown against the tree, would haunt Jinghua until his death as a regret. He would regret killing him too quickly instead of prolonging his pain, breaking one bone at a time, slicing his body with a thousand blades for ten lifetimes. Qing Yuan’s death had been too compassionate, too painless, far too swift for the likes of a monster like him.
Jinghua could barely breathe. He hyperventilated when he saw A-li’s bloodied and beaten face, which was so swollen it was unrecognizable. It was a labored wheeze. She exhaled but struggled to breathe. Her broken teeth were visible in her damaged mouth. His body plunged. Truly, when he fell beside her, it was because his legs gave out on him.
“A-li, I’m here. You’re safe now. Don’t move! People are coming.” He held her hand, which was ice cold. His tears mingled with her blood as he wiped her face.
“Jinghua, you’re here.” How was it possible for her to speak with such clarity? The resolve in her tone paralyzed him before she uttered another word. In his heart, he knew what she was going to say, and he wasn’t wrong. “Jinghua, the babies are coming. I can’t push them out, and they can’t wait. You must help me and deliver them before it’s too late!”
“No, A-Li. Just wait… You and the babies will be fine. Everything will be fine.” He knew he needed to stay calm for her, but Jinghua wept hysterically, and his erratic panting breathing was the only thing that interrupted his constant sobbing.
A-Li was in intense pain. How could she not be? But she remained calm and fearless. Her small hand was blood-stained, with broken nails and bent fingers. The scene was horrific and surreal. Despite this, A-Li smiled gently and reached out to Jinghua, making him break down even more.
She told him, “Jinghua, it’s too late for me, but you must save them, otherwise my life was in vain. You were my first love, husband, best friend, and father to Haoyu. Now, you must save me by saving my babies.” Her tattered lips pulled back into a bloody, toothless smile that, despite the damage, wasn’t grotesque. It was tender. “Please, Jinghua. Do as I ask.”
How could she ask this of him?
Jinghua’s heart shattered into a million pieces at her request. “I won’t,” he sobbed. She was asking too much. “I can’t. Please, A-Li. Don’t make me do this to you…” He pleaded, shaking his head as tears poured down his face. “I can’t hurt you. I love you!”
“Oh…my handsome and good Jinghua…” Her mouth opened and closed, gulpingly, like a fish out of water, as if gasping for the air that now seemed thin and suffocating. Her breathing became shallow and labored, each breath a struggle that filled the air with a rasping sound, like the whisper of dried leaves in the wind.
Jinghua recognized the familiar sound, a haunting repetition of his own last moments after the fire —the sound of desperation and fading hope. He knew that it was taking every ounce of her strength to utter the words, her voice trembling with the weight of her plea, her fingers clutching at the fabric of his clothes as if seeking comfort and support, conveying her desperation and unwavering resolve.
“I will do this because I love you,” he whispered, gently lifting the blindfold from her eyes. As the soft fabric slid away, her lashes fluttered rapidly, their quick motion resembling the swift wings of a hummingbird in flight. Opening her hemorrhaged eyes, the lingering effects of being choked. Her eyes remained the only recognizable feature shimmering with an unfathomable inner strength, and she could see.
Their eyes met—hers intelligent and aware—and their profound connection, which he believed gone, was still there, so beautiful, so pure and unbreakable, unchanged by time or their separation. A faint chuckle escaped her lips, accompanied by a delicate smile that played upon her face. In that fleeting moment, time seemed to stand still as every passing second shared between them was exchanged; their emotions intertwined as the silk-like threads of their feelings wove a tapestry of love and longing.
Their first meeting was a serendipitous moment, filled with the ripe smell of smashed apples littering the road and the sight of their vibrant green hues contrasting against the dull gravel road. As their eyes locked, she glared at him, flushed-faced, and her eyes were full of pride and will.
Their contract to become lovers was sealed on a Thursday. In the dimly lit servants’ quarters in her parents’ manor, the soft flicker of candlelight had danced across her face. He could still smell the ink on the agreement they had written. Jinghua didn’t know how the ink had gotten on her face, but he chose to keep the thumb smudge on her face a secret, a funny mark that only added to her charm.
Their first meeting during the lantern festival, when every glance from other men. His heart clenched with a mix of possessiveness and desire. She taught him the meaning of jealousy and possession that night. And the many lanterns moving towards the heavens had glowed like stars within reach when she wrote and recited a haunting and stirring wish carried on the wings of her prayer.
—三生三世，桃花十里—In three lifetimes and three worlds. There will be ten miles of peach blossoms, but I only need one—
The first time they made love. He was her first, but she wasn’t afraid. She presented herself to him as a divine gift, urging him to accept everything she offered. It was a passionate surrender to desire, a beautiful and life-changing act that unfolded in the cozy confines of an inn, seeking refuge from the relentless rain outside. The sound of raindrops tapping against the windowpane provided a soothing rhythm, harmonizing with their whispered words and breathless moans. The scent of their entwined bodies mingled in the air. A heady combination of sweat and desire surrounding them had been intoxicating.
And finally, her greatest gift upon becoming his wife was a promise of love and companionship that transcended all boundaries. The sight of her walking down the pebbled aisle, surrounded by dove trees, brought tears to his eyes. On the wedding night, the feeling of her hand in his, their fingers interwoven like their bodies, created a sense of unity that no words could convey. With that love, they had created a perfect son.
Jinghua didn’t know how he did it with such a blurry gaze, yet he did as his A-li asked. He delivered her children, two healthy boys who cried loudly and fiercely as if they knew of her sacrifices. As she bled out, dying from the incision down her abdomen, Jinghua begged. “Don’t forget me. Please don’t forget Jinghua.” He pleaded in absolute desperation as if he were begging for his life because he was…
She had been his life.
======
Jingyuan~
Long ago, I made a deal with Bai Qian, telling her she could leave Kunlun Mountain only after she gave me a son. I told her she had to leave our child behind when she left, and how fitting it has turned out.
That’s precisely what she did.
The mortal version of her gave me two beautiful and perfect sons of my seed, along with Jinghua’s child, Haoyu, and left them behind when she died.
Her palace remains unchanged, as if waiting for the return of its empress, and it will stay vacant, with memories of her as its sole occupant. Most of her servants have begged to stay and care for her manor. Some took their lives. Little Min killed herself the same night to follow and serve her mistress in the afterlife.
It hasn’t been three months since Yueli’s passing. The ministers are already petitioning me to take another empress, but I’ve made it clear I won’t marry again, and she will be the only empress during Emperor Jingyuan’s reign.
How can I possibly replace her when I’m still grieving? My world is now cold and grey without her warmth and her colors.
Her laughter had been like the soft petals of a daisy, a bright burst of daisy yellow. Her heart, Algerian blue like the sea. It was clear, vast, and deep, sometimes warm and comforting, like the gentle caress of a summer breeze, and other times cold and discouraging, like the chilling touch of an icy wind.
I yearn to drown in her waters and lose myself in the depths of her once more. I miss her.
I miss her so much, I can’t seem to focus on anything else. I often find myself wandering inside her palace because it still smells of her. Her clothes, her bed still carry her unique scent, and occasionally, if I’m lucky, I find a strand of her white hair. I can’t wait for this trial to end, so I can tease her about having hair like Donghua Dijin.
Though I know this mortal life is but a fleeting moment, a blink of an eye for an immortal like me, I miss her, and I’m not alone, as my beloved brother Jinghua is dying from grief.
I’ve called for doctors from all corners of the dynasty to save him. Some physicians report that he has a tumor in his chest. Others maintain he has a fatal coughing disease, while many say he has a blocked median that’s wreaking his Qi, but Jinghua has a different explanation.
“A-li once mentioned that she would sense it if we weren’t breathing the same air. She was right. She’s gone, and I can’t feel her anymore. The air without her doesn’t fuel my lungs. I’m dying from lack of oxygen and suffocating.”
Jinghua’s feeble voice trembles through the air, barely audible amidst the silence. His frail figure seems to fade, shrinking with each passing moment, like a wilted flower losing its vitality. The sound of his uncontrollable coughs echoes through the room, as if the very walls are cracking under the strain.
The scent of blood taints the air. Its metallic aroma of the handkerchief pressed against his pallid lips. Every breath he takes is a struggle, his body crumbling from within. As he spits blood into the fabric, a vivid red stain blossoms, a stark contrast against the white.
“But I’m sorry, brother,” he whispers. “I hate to leave you behind. I hate the thought of you being alone.” Jinghua strains to whisper. His life is fading like a spent candle’s dying flame, its wick exposed and wax nearly gone.
The stinging scent of tears fills the air as my breath quivers, my chest heavy with sorrow. The sight before me is agonizing, as I witness my brother in his feeble state. The dam holding back my emotions finally bursts, tears cascading down my face, their salty taste mingling with the bitterness and aching in my heart.
“You should be sorry,” I whisper back, my voice strained and tight yet trying to sound lighthearted for him, for me, for us. “You should feel bad for leaving me after Yueli. If I didn’t know better, I would think your two are in cahoots.”
He is so fragile, his frail form trembling as he lets out a soft chuckle, the sound barely escaping his lips. I’m in awe of where he gathers his strength from, for his body seems to sustain him minimally. With each breath, he inhales with a gasp, the air thin and feeble, barely filling his lungs. And when he exhales, it’s a swift puff, a mere fraction of what he took in.
As he speaks, his eyes closed, his shaking voice quivers, sounding like a crying newborn, like a feeble lamb, as if even the act of speaking and keeping his eyes open is an arduous task for his weakened body. “Thank you, brother, for raising and loving Haoyu as you do.”
I feel like I’m falling apart, my existence breaking, shattered like glass hit with icy water while still hot and being blown. The shattering glass echoes sharply in my ringing ears, its fragments piercing my heart, a pain so intense I want to pound my chest until it and my ribs cave in, and I want to roar, yet I remain frozen. I don’t want him to go. Please don’t go, Ye Hua.
His entire body convulses violently, causing ripples through him like an earthquake. I reach out and tenderly wipe his face, feeling the dampness of his clammy skin beneath my fingertips. As he coughs, the harsh and guttural noises reverberate against the walls. I swiftly dab his mouth once more. He can’t swallow. I bring a small cup to his lips, but his feeble strength betrays him. With a gentle touch, I guide a spoonful of warm water to his parched mouth, the liquid trickling down his throat. It gurgles.
A hushed, unspoken gesture from me, the collective family members and servants withdraw, enveloping us in a cocoon of tranquility and security, where only he and I remain.
The stillness stretches out, granting us a private haven, reminiscent of our shared existence as twins, arriving in this world in unison. Our first embrace had been with each other. We sought solace in each other, yearning for the nurturing comfort of our mother’s womb, which we had just left.
Now, as his departure looms, it’s only fitting that he goes with only me by his side, but I muster the courage to pose a question that has plagued my thoughts for years. I ask, “Jinghua, why didn’t you reclaim Yueli and Haoyu? You knew she still loved you, and you knew Haoyu was your son, so why didn’t you try to take them back?”
He closes his heavy eyes and sighs. I rub his brow with a warm and damp towel when a smirky smile appears on his lips.
He tells me, “Don’t tell A-li in heaven, but I loved you more than her. How could I not? You’re my blood, my twin brother. If I had stolen her from you without virtue, would I have deserved her and Haoyu? I left them in your care because they deserve only the best. Dege, to me, you are the best.”
How could I have been so oblivious and selfish?
The mortal version of Ye Hua had picked me over his beloved, yet I had never considered picking him over her. I wanted her at any cost. He had been virtuous and thoughtful, honoring our deep bond between brothers, forsaking his heart’s desire and his son for me. I’m unworthy of such a brother.
“Jingyuan, get me the small mother-of-pearl box on my desk,” he requests, interrupted by a severe coughing fit that leaves him weak and more fragile.
He instructs me to open it. Inside, there is a carefully folded document and bundles of hair, presumably Yueli’s.
Jinghua confesses to me that, despite sounding unbelievable and despite Yueli accusing him of lying, he discovered her hair tucked in his clothes when he woke up on Mount Junji after being resurrected by the little dragon witch Saintess Changying with green, glowing eyes.
HA! That child Changying…
I still don’t know the actual events in Qingshui City from Jinghua and Yueli, since it seems intrusive to ask. This is the first I’ve heard of Changying, yet I shouldn’t be surprised. Her children all have a mischievous streak in them like her, and now I think of them. I suddenly recall seeing an eunuch who closely resembled A-li the night I thought concubine Wan was Bai Qian.
I shake my head and roll my eyes heavenward, wagging my finger as if they could see me. Laughter erupts from me unexpectedly. He jumps at my sudden laughter, and then Jinghua grins when I reply. “I believe you.”
His daughter, Saintess Changying, used her magic on the person she would never consider saving. This will be interesting when the details come to light.
“What’s this document?”
Jinghua’s pale face becomes smug and sneaky. He laughs at me, saying, “I hope this doesn’t anger you. Neither A-li nor I would have made a fuss about it ever. It’s our annulment: He explains she returned it to him because he forgot to mark it with his royal seal, making it official. Jinghua asks that the document be buried with him. It will be our little secret.
It suddenly dawns on me. According to the annulment document and Huaxia laws, she was still married to Jinghua when I married her. This makes her an adulteress, but it also invalidates our marriage. She was married to Jinghua when she died. According to the rules set by the elders, she would return to Nine Heaven to take her place as Ye Hua’s empress.
I throw my head back, letting out a hearty chuckle. I’ve never heard of anything more outlandish or hilarious. Fate, what a fickle and unpredictable one you are. Truly, you are most twisted.
“Didi you win,” I tell him feeling genuinely thrilled for him. Jinghua wants to know what he’s winning. I reply, “Everything.”
“Winner takes it all.”
I hold his hands, wishing my love could warm his cold skin. “You won fair and square, without cheating. You did it with honor and heart. I’m proud of you.”
I lean in and lightly kiss his forehead, earning me a coy, boyish smile. I tell him. “I love you, brother. I also love her. So, I sincerely hope and pray you both honor and make each other happy, and are blessed with many children. But remember, if you argue, I’ll side with you privately yet her publicly, because I’ll always be her shifu.”
“Sometimes you say the oddest things, brother. Do you think we will be twins in our next life? I hope so.” Jinghua wonders, and I reply, “Yes. We will be twin brothers for all of eternity. Now close your eyes, set yourself free from this mortal shell, and go to your beloved. She is waiting for you.”
“Do you think so?” A faint fading “Good. Good…. I love you, dege…” escapes his lips, followed by Jinghua’s death moments later.