Chapter 2

Chapter 2

In the seventh year of Hongyuan, the heavens opened up, and it rained incessantly for an entire month.

Father Emperor had not entered the inner palace for a long time. He was busy dealing with matters of the court-emergency harvests, floods, famine, and refugees. It seemed as though the stability of the realm had suddenly fractured.

I stood by the side gate, holding a small umbrella as I waited for Father Emperor to finish his court session. I overheard him speaking with Eunuch De.

“Governing a country is first and foremost about punishing corruption. If we cannot put an end to the graft surrounding the levee repairs, no matter how much silver I allocate, it will only end up in the bellies of parasites. Du Ziguo is particularly loathsome; his hand is surely behind this. Once the Imperial Commissioner returns, I will show no favoritism.”

“Your Majesty!”

A clear, ethereal voice filled with tears cried out as a figure threw herself at Father Emperor’s feet.

It was Consort Du.

“Your Majesty, if this concubine’s elder brother has truly done wrong, I beg Your Majesty to spare him this once for the sake of the years he spent studying by your side. Your Majesty, I beg of you.”

Consort Du was beautiful.

She was more beautiful than Empress Mother or any other imperial consort I had ever seen.

Empress Mother once told me that before I was born, Consort Du had always been the one closest to Father Emperor’s heart. Later, however, Father Emperor listened to Empress Mother’s advice to spread his favors equally. Since then, Consort Du had become like any other consort, no longer standing out.

But now, she had come again.

The fine rain, like silk thread, draped her in a misty shroud. The mist condensed into droplets that soaked her hair, and her eyes were rimmed with red, looking like a hibiscus weeping in the dew. Her entire being exuded a fragile vulnerability, as if she were too weak to even bear the weight of her clothes.

She really was beautiful.

Father Emperor was momentarily stunned, but he quickly composed himself. “Stand up. Do you realize that because of your brother’s corruption, the ten-mile levee collapsed the moment the heavy rains hit? Over a dozen villages at the foot of the mountain were submerged, hundreds died, and thousands more are homeless. If I do not punish him, the people’s resentment will never be appeased. I would be ashamed to call myself their ruler.”

“Your Majesty!” Consort Du cried out shrilly. “Have you forgotten? When you were assassinated years ago, it was my brother who carried you back on his back. He sucked the poisoned blood out for you and nearly died himself. If not for a divine physician, he would be nothing but a mound of yellow earth by now. You promised him shared glory and shared wealth-have you forgotten?”

“Du Yueru! Private matters are private, and state affairs are state affairs. I remember his merits, but I must also punish his evils. I am the Emperor; I cannot blur the lines between public and private to shield a suspect. Speak of this no more,” Father Emperor refused flatly.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

I did not like Du Ziguo.

At every palace banquet, he always wore a mysterious smile, as if everyone else were mere ants and only he was truly awake and self-aware.

I always felt that he didn’t even hold Father Emperor in high regard.

“Your Majesty, what if Yueru begs you with her life?” Consort Du wept.

Father Emperor let out a long sigh. “Yueru… your life is a life, but the lives of those commoners are also lives. You see the lives of your brother and your clansmen, but can you not see the lives of those displaced people? Go back and think on it. Life and death are serious matters; do not treat them as a joke.”

Consort Du froze in a daze, but the moment Father Emperor moved to leave, she lunged forward and grabbed his feet.

Father Emperor fell heavily, his head striking the bluestone pavement.

In that moment, I saw it clearly. The moment Eunuch De reached out to support him, he was pulled back by a young eunuch beside him.

Consort Du was quickly restrained by the guards.

Even as she was being held down, a strange smile touched the corners of her lips.

“Xiao Lang, how I wish you were still the Xiao Lang of the past… Hahahaha, Xiao Lang, my Xiao Lang… come back…”

That year, I was ten years old.

I stood frozen on the spot, clutching my umbrella.

The scene was pure chaos.

A young palace maid quickly took the umbrella from my hand and pushed me behind a flower rack before turning to run.

But the side gate opened.

A guard swiftly seized the young maid. Before she could even let out a cry, the guard snapped her neck.

My surging rage was stifled deep in my throat as I watched her collapse to the ground. The umbrella fell into the rain, spinning lazily for a few turns…

Her eyes stared blankly through the gaps in the flower rack at me, and yet through me.

Later, I learned her name.

Her name was Hua Zhi…

What a lovely name.

Father Emperor fell ill.

I fell ill as well.

Consort Du was confined to the Cold Palace by Empress Mother, but she did not cry or make a scene.

Every day, she only asked one thing: “Is His Majesty awake?”

Father Emperor did not wake.

But I did.

I urgently grabbed Empress Mother’s hand and told her everything that had happened that day.

Empress Mother listened quietly. She gently stroked my hair and said calmly, “Until your Father Emperor wakes up, keep this matter buried in your heart. You must never speak of it to anyone in the future.”

“Father Emperor will wake up,” I said with certainty.

Empress Mother fell silent.

She held me tightly, her body trembling slightly.

“Ronghua, if one day your Father Emperor wakes up and he has changed, you must still keep this buried in your heart. Do not panic, do not be afraid. Remember the words your Father Emperor once taught you. You must never forget them. Promise me, promise me!”

Because I was a moment too slow to answer, her voice became harsh and anxious.

It wasn’t until I nodded gently that a single tear of hers fell heavily onto my shoulder.

“Ronghua… my Ronghua… Xiao Lang, you must wake up!”

Much, much later.

I thought about it for a long time before I finally understood. Empress Mother and Consort Du were both calling for their Xiao Lang, but their Xiao Langs were not the same…