Chapter 19
End of the Main Story
Extra: Enduring Regret
Would they meet again?
Would she come back?
The question gave him a headache.
He kept remembering the instant he’d fallen in love: she’d caught his hand and pulled him along with a smile. “Don’t worry. Stay close. I’ll keep holding your hand as we run. If you stumble, I’ll catch you.”
No. Not that instant.
It was after they’d finished running, when they lay exhausted on the ground, watching the white clouds.
No, that wasn’t right either.
It must have been when they played the games she’d invented—five-in-a-row and Chinese checkers—at night. When Mei Anqing lost and drew whiskers on her face, and they laughed together.
None of those was right.
He could no longer be certain.
What if she never came back? Would his memories grow confused as time passed, too?
Murong Su stroked the books she’d left behind.
He let out a long sigh.
Extra 2: Her Own Path
Being empress was a good thing, of course.
Only…
Never mind. She had few paths open to her. She couldn’t even finish that “only.”
They all had their own paths to walk.
Murong Su was the same kind of person she was.
They couldn’t give up power. Power was intoxicating. It also made her certain that, whether or not this was the road she wanted, she would keep walking it.
Those who could let go were remarkable. But so were those who could carry on.
Wei Qinghe did everything she could to obtain a child and secure her position.
Gradually, the palace women could no longer compete for favor. Once they understood the situation, they treated her with the utmost respect. Even the empress dowager no longer dared casually scold or punish her.
She was with the child when a servant brought Mei Anqing’s latest travel journal.
“False bodhisattvas save the masses; true immortals devour people and ruin the world.” Reading softly aloud, Wei Qinghe couldn’t resist picking it up for a closer look.
That night, Murong Su came to her chambers.
“Have you finished?” he asked.
Wei Qinghe had just reached the part where Mei Anqing and Murong Cheng broke up the fraudulent immortal’s temple, rescued the divine physician Yu Guanzhen, and were ordered hunted down by the false immortal. Without thinking, she told Murong Su to be quiet.
He waited good-naturedly.
She read straight through to the end.
In the end, they rescued the other commoners, exposed the immortal’s true nature, and helped the physician reopen his clinic.
She let out a long breath and looked up. “Finished.”
Murong Su’s face was solemn. “They may be coming back.”
“How do you know?”
“Qingqing wrote that she misses mooncakes filled with stir-fried meat and flat beans.”
Wei Qinghe was appalled.
“…Have either of you ever eaten anything normal?”
She’d actually competed for the favor of a man like this???
Whoever wanted his favor was welcome to fight for it.
The End