Chapter 733 - Meeting in Another World
The one hundred and twenty-one year old Imperial Prince Xu had hair that turned completely white but he still looked to be around his sixties to seventies. His stature was still as tall and lofty as before, but it was no longer as ramrod straight as it was in his youth. In those days, no one could fight against him, but now he could only quietly lay on his bed with his phoenix eyes half closed as he breathed weakly. The imperial physicians were helpless at this point, so his children and grandchildren were all squeezed into this room with heavy expressions and mournful looks.
Sitting next to him in the armchair was the a hundred and fourteen year old Yu Xiaocao. Although her hair had turned completely white, her skin was still fair and exquisite with fine wrinkles deposited throughout. The signs of age added a bit of maturity and loveliness to her.
Imperial Prince Xu and his wife had lived long lives and both of them had entered their hundreds with hale and healthy bodies. In the west side of the capital, people could often see a tall and lofty figure with a slender and short figure strolling idly on the streets. Their hands were always linked together as they slowly walked around. They looked like a picture that would never fade.
In the capital, Imperial Prince Xu and Princess Consort Xu had become legendary figures. The commoners told stories about them, while the literati wrote them down. It was widely known throughout the public that they had a constant and ceaseless romance. The stories about their great and grand feats were also well known and added to their mystical lives.
Imperial Prince Xu only had Princess Consort Xu as his woman in his lifetime. Some claimed that he was afraid of his wife and didn't even dare to glance at other women; others claimed that Princess Consort Xu had bespelled him, which was why he had no interest. There were even some who said that Imperial Prince Xu truly loved his wife down to his bones, which was the true reason why he had never had any interest in other women...
Regardless, no matter what people said or claimed, none of it influenced the married couple. At the age of sixty, Imperial Prince Xu had finally freed himself of all of his duties and had gone off with his wife to travel the country to sightsee. The two of them had set foot into every crook and cranny in the Great Ming Empire and left footprints everywhere.
Imperial Prince Xu had even fulfilled a promise he made in his youth. At the age of sixty-five, he had taken his wife to sail the oceans to head to the west so that they could travel and expand their horizons. Princess Consort Xu had even become sworn sisters with one of the queens in a small country. Imperial Prince Xu had even fought against some man-eating people in one of the areas there and beat them until they kneeled and begged for forgiveness. He was truly an old but extremely vigorous man.
Imperial Prince Xu had celebrated his one hundred and twentieth birthday in a grand celebration, which had coincided with Princess Consort Xu's one hundred and tenth birthday. Despite the many years that had passed, their feelings and emotions for each other had not been diluted. Instead, their relationship was like a pot of good wine, becoming more and more fragrant as the years passed by.
Everyone believed that they would both be like Peng Zu[1] and become living auspicious icons. However, Imperial Prince Xu fell down one day soon after he reached one hundred and twenty-one years old. He didn't have any illnesses or injuries. His body was finally reaching its end. At first, he began to sleep longer. Sometimes, he'd be chatting with you for one minute and the next minute he'd be fast asleep. Now, he spent over seventeen to eighteen hours a day asleep in his bed. The times when he was awake and alert became shorter and shorter.
Although Yu Xiaocao had long prepared herself or this, she still couldn't help but feel distressed that this imposing man, who had held up the sky for her and was a great hero, was past his prime and about to go. At the same, she also felt somewhat terrified. She was someone who had experienced a previous life before and didn't know whether she'd have the luck to encounter him in the next one...she hoped that when she was in front of Grandmother Meng, she would be able to keep her memories from this life while drinking the soup of oblivion. That way, in her next life, she'd be able to find his shadow in the crowds of others.
