Romancing the Son of Heaven

Stratagem 35: Expose the Deeply Hidden Truths (3)

Yu Gan did not give more of a preamble and just directly started. This song was indeed much different from the first one. It was calm and soothing, with a certain gentleness to it, but there were also parts that were outright dazzling.

It was like walking through a garden, the flowers all in full bloom, their intoxicating scent lingering in the air as if you could touch it. There was a feeling of floating weightlessly in the air instead of stepping on the stone path, relieved of all the burdens of everyday life. The sunlight shining down on was bright, warming you from head to toe. If you were to look up to admire it though, the bright rays would be too bright to look at so you would have to avert your gaze. Still, even if you did, the beautiful scenery unfolding in front of you would be enough.

Hearing this melody, which was light most of the time but incredibly sophisticated at others, the sound of the strings weaving together into a vivid picture, Jing He lost track of his previous thoughts regarding Qiu Ling, and looked over to Yu Gan, completely lost in the music.

When the final note faded, he took a moment to pull himself out of those images, and then faintly shook his head. "That is a very beautiful song." To be honest, he didn't know much about the previous dragon king.

Qiu Ling had reigned for so long, not much was talked about him anymore in the Nine Heavens. He had only heard a few rumors that he hadn't reigned any shorter Qiu Ling had, and he knew that under his reign as well, there had been prosperity.

But that was the extent of his knowledge. He didn't know how Qiu Ling's relationship with the previous Longjun had been, or how that man had dealt with matters in this realm. Although, he was pretty sure that he should've been a good king if his people had mourned him so much.

Yu Gan lowered the bow and smiled, happy when she heard the Son of Heaven's praise. He might not have directly praised her skills but being able to bring out the beauty of this song and having him acknowledge that meant pretty much the same.

The song was not that difficult to play, for the most part, but to actually capture the essence of it, and make somebody see the true beauty in it, it was something that wasn't easy. Clearly, it had worked on the Son of Heaven and Yu Gan did not feel ashamed to admit that she figured that she had done pretty well.

"Well, then would Your Highness like to hear another song? Something similar, maybe?" She hadn't known what to play originally, but now, she figured that she probably had a direction.

She had chosen the first song because the Son of Heaven had asked for something important to the dragon race and she had wanted to show him something that had to do with their current king and help him out a bit with his efforts of seducing this person.

While she played, the king had looked a little strange for a moment though, indicating that maybe there had been something wrong with the Son of Heaven. Yu Gan had even thought of stopping the song before she was halfway through. In the end, she continued to play the rest because she wasn't sure if she hadn't misinterpreted it but upon reflecting some more, it might be that the stimulation had been a bit too much.

Yes, she probably should've thought of that beforehand but right now, her king's beloved was in a delicate state. Even though she couldn't see him, the fact that he wouldn't even show his face indicated that his condition should be bad. Not to mention that even his voice sounded weak right now. It was hardly more than a whisper. In this case, it was better to play something that was soothing and put his mind at ease instead of aggravating his emotions.

Jing He didn't want to keep Yu Gan too long but, to be honest, he was quite interested in hearing more. After all, while he had been able to ask An Bai about the dragon realm previously and his uncle had also told him the bit that he knew, just hearing or reading second-hand accounts of these matters was different from experiencing a bit of the dragons' culture.