Chapter 2
Chapter 2
[Prince Consort, the Princess Has Been Beaten to Death – 1]
After Emperor Gaozu, Liu Che, and Li Shimin, Zhu Yuanzhang flew into a rage as well.
“Shallow and vulgar! Swayed by something so trivial, with not a trace of imperial dignity!”
Ying Zheng sneered at the sight and walked over with one hand resting on his sword. “We were the first to assume the title of emperor, and Our achievements have endured through the ages. How do later generations judge Us?”
Having learned from the previous examples, the System hesitated and did not dare answer.
Ying Zheng’s swordlike brows drew together. “Speak!” he commanded sharply.
The globe of light flickered uncertainly several times, hopped over to Ying Zheng’s ear, and whispered a few sentences.
The martial majesty of Ying Zheng’s face could not be concealed, yet in an instant it darkened beneath a heavy cloud of menace, shock, and fury.
“What?!”
Liu Che, who had sidled over at some point, could not contain his excitement. “He fought Jing Ke over a woman? And raised Jing Ke’s son for him?!” he shouted.
Ying Zheng: “…”
Liu Che carried on as though he had not noticed. “And shared the realm with a widow?!”
Ying Zheng: “…”
All the emperors were startled by what they heard. They temporarily stopped mocking one another and stared in amazement at the First Emperor and the System at the center of the affair.
Ying Zheng’s face had turned livid. Gloom gathered in his expression, and the veins stood out on the back of the hand gripping his sword. He looked ready to kill.
Zhu Yuanzhang smacked his lips. “Shallow and vulgar, indeed.”
Li Shimin smacked his lips too. “Swayed by something so trivial.”
Emperor Gaozu joined in, clicking his tongue. “Where is your imperial dignity?”
Liu Che: “Hee hee hee hee!”
Ying Zheng: “…”
A pall of storm clouds hung over Ying Zheng. His face blackened, and faint thunder rumbled around him. Without a word, he turned and returned to his residence.
Emperor Gaozu watched him go with some concern. “Will he be all right?”
“Hard to say.” Liu Che stroked the beard on his chin, gloating openly. “He might be so angry tomorrow that he becomes a dead ghost.”
Emperor Gaozu: “…”
The System had met so many legendary figures in a single day. It had never imagined matters would end this way. Flashing guiltily, it turned to flee, but a large hand caught it before it could get away.
“Think you can leave? Not so easily!”
Zhu Yuanzhang squeezed the ball of light and snorted. “You’re coming home with me!”
…
After the System’s arrival, a pall seemed to fall over the emperors’ formerly harmonious residential quarter.
That night, Emperor Gaozu returned home and lay awake on his bed for half the night. After tossing and turning, he rose and climbed to a pavilion, only to see Li Shimin next door drinking alone beneath the moon. Melancholy suffused his expression, and his misery was plain to see.
Emperor Gaozu climbed over the outer wall into his courtyard. “Drowning your sorrows in wine in the middle of the night? That does not seem like you, Li Shimin.”
Li Shimin gave a low laugh. “And yet you have not slept all night either.”
Emperor Gaozu fell silent. After taking a seat, he sighed. “There is simply a weight in My chest. Empress Deming and I met when We had nothing. For decades, We weathered every storm together. How is it that in the mouths of later generations, she became someone else’s shield-a mere signboard I held up for display?”
The night wind howled past, carrying Hu Hai’s wails far into the distance.
Emperor Gaozu rubbed his forehead, pained. “Is Shi Huang still beating his son?”
Li Shimin said, “He is always like this. Whenever something displeases him, he goes home and beats his son. Everyone is used to it. He was so angry today that he will probably keep at it all night.”
Even as he spoke, Hu Hai’s cries stopped. The two men pricked up their ears and listened for a while, but not another sound came.
“He didn’t actually beat him to death in a rage, did he?”
Emperor Gaozu rose. “Come. Let us take a look!”
Li Shimin followed.
Ying Zheng’s residence was not far away. The two rode over, and the moment they rounded the street corner, they saw Shi Huang’s tall, brooding figure standing before his gate. Liu Che had found a chair somewhere and sat in it, cheerfully arguing with him.
Ying Zheng: “You grew muddleheaded in your old age and unleashed the calamity of the witchcraft persecutions!”
Liu Che: “You shared the realm with a widow!”
Ying Zheng: “You trusted charlatans! Even your daughter was duped away by Luan Da!”
Liu Che: “You shared the realm with a widow!”
Ying Zheng: “You exhausted the people with military aggression until the registered households were halved, refugees rose everywhere, and your supply of warhorses dwindled so badly that you could no longer campaign in the Western Regions!”
Liu Che: “You shared the realm with a widow!”
Utterly infuriated, Ying Zheng snapped, “Can we stop mentioning the widow?!”
Liu Che glanced at him. “You fought Jing Ke over a woman and raised Jing Ke’s son!”
Ying Zheng shot back, “A social-climbing husband has no right to say such things to Us!”
Liu Che grinned. “But the social-climbing husband never shared the realm with a widow!”
Ying Zheng: “…”
His face livid and a storm cloud hanging over his head, Ying Zheng clutched his chest and forced himself to remain upright rather than collapse before his enemy.
Li Shimin and Emperor Gaozu were both covered in black lines of exasperation. They dismounted and went over to intervene. “What are you two doing? The pot mocking the kettle-is that entertaining?”
Li Shimin patted Ying Zheng on the shoulder and told him to go inside and beat Hu Hai to vent his anger. Emperor Gaozu urged Liu Che to leave. “You were both emperors in the mortal world. Trading insults in the street in the middle of the night is unseemly. Come, let us go.”
Convinced he had won the battle, Liu Che walked away with his head high, chest out, and lips puckered in a whistle.
Emperor Gaozu and Li Shimin exchanged a look, then both smiled bitterly.
…
After a vigorous mixture of threats and inducements, Zhu Yuanzhang pried the answers he wanted from the System. They left him thoroughly depressed. With a sigh, he turned and climbed onto the roof.
When he was young, he had always liked to hide on the roof whenever his spirits were low. Only Old Ma knew of the habit, and she would often sit silently beside him.
Later, he grew old and she passed away. He never climbed onto a roof alone again.
The night wind screamed. Had he still been alive, he would likely have felt cold. But he was a ghost now, and such things no longer touched him.
The roof was high, with a fine view. Gazing into the distance, Zhu Yuanzhang could glimpse the courtyards of his neighbors on either side.
In one, Ying Zheng was beating his son with a horsewhip, his expression so dark and furious that he looked ready to devour the boy’s flesh. In the other, Li Shimin and Li Yuanda were drinking together, clinging to each other as they wept for their children and for the Empress each had lost.
Zhu Di passed Ying Zheng’s gate. Hearing the commotion within, his brows knotted. Afraid that his own father might follow the example and beat the little bastard son he had produced, he crept furtively to his father’s door. When he discovered Zhu Yuanzhang was not home, he hurried back to his own residence.
No emperor truly shared another emperor’s joys or sorrows. Zhu Yuanzhang merely found them noisy.
He sat on the roof all night. The next day, Zhu Yuanzhang held a banquet and invited the other emperors as his guests. Li Shimin and Li Yuanda were close and sat together. Ying Zheng and Liu Che could not stand the sight of each other, so they took seats on opposite sides of the pair.
After spending the whole night in the darkness, Zhu Yuanzhang still carried a trace of cold frost about him. He personally warmed a pot of wine and filled the emperors’ cups. “In the mortal world, all of you struck awe throughout the four quarters and ruled over all beneath Heaven. Now that you have come to the Underworld, you enjoy endless life without pain or sickness, yet some wishes must remain unfulfilled. If the opportunity arose to return to your old realms, would you go?”
The emperors instantly came alive. They glanced instinctively around them. Quick-eyed and quick-handed, Liu Che shut the door. Under the bright gazes of the assembled emperors, he lowered his voice. “What do you mean?”
Zhu Yuanzhang pulled a limp, sprawled-out ball of light from his sleeve. “With this! I have interrogated it thoroughly. This thing is called a System, and it can communicate with countless worlds. My power alone is insufficient, but if we combine our strength and pass through several worlds in succession, we may yet return to our old realms and mend our regrets.”
Ying Zheng could not help leaning closer. “It truly possesses such miraculous power?”
Li Shimin asked, “It can send Us back to Great Tang?”
“Once or twice will certainly not be enough, but after several transmigrations, it may become possible.” Zhu Yuanzhang looked around the table, his gaze blazing with an unmistakable force. “I intend to go. Who wishes to try?”
Each of the emperors had left regrets behind in the mortal world, some greater and some smaller. If they could truly return to their old realms and begin again, it would be an extraordinary blessing.
Several pairs of eyes met. Not one man drew back. The emperors slapped the table and declared without hesitation, “We do it. Count me in!”
…
The Hall of Yama towered majestically above the flames of the netherworld. King Chujiang happened to be on duty there that day.
A ghost bailiff delivered the register of new ghosts escorted into the Underworld that day, along with a separate list of souls due for reincarnation. King Chujiang had turned only a few pages when an underworld bailiff rushed in, panic-stricken. “Disaster! Disaster! Those mortal emperors have run away with the System!”
King Chujiang shot to his feet. “What?!”
…
After a brief spell of dizziness and confusion, Emperor Gaozu regained consciousness. He steadied himself and discovered that he and the other emperors were seated on stone stools, surrounded by an endless expanse of white mist.
Ying Zheng said thoughtfully, “It appears this is the space of consciousness we occupy after entering another world.”
The others all nodded. At that moment, a sheet of white silk slowly drifted down through the mist. Stroking his beard, Li Shimin smiled. “This must be the primal consciousness of this world.”
Zhu Yuanzhang’s gaze brightened with anticipation. “I wonder what grand, resonant wisdom it will use to awaken our minds.”
Emperor Gaozu reached out and caught the white silk. The moment he lowered his eyes to read it, his brows knotted and indignation spread over his face.
Seeing his strange expression, the other emperors hurriedly crowded around. They peered at the silk and found only two lines written upon it:
Prince Consort, the princess has been beaten to death.
A jade pendant fell from her body. It was the one you had sought for ten years.
Emperor Gaozu stared at the silk in stunned disbelief.
The other emperors were equally speechless.
Emperor Gaozu: “The princess has been beaten to death?”
Ying Zheng: “By her own Prince Consort?”
Liu Che: “Has the Prince Consort lost interest in living? Does he want his entire clan to join him in death?”
Li Shimin: “He dared beat Our beloved daughter to death? We will dig up his ancestral graves!”
Zhu Yuanzhang: “Do not be so cruel. Why not calmly flay and stuff him instead?”