One leap from the city tower thus fulfils the Marquis of Chang Ye's triumph in conquering the world, establishing a new era. Yet she only turns into a wisp of a lone soul, accompanying him day and night.
[Note that the title shares the same name as...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Qi perished, the city defences were re-established, with Marquis of Chang Ye – An Zi Wu as monarch, the new reigning era named Chang Ge (meaning – long song).
Time flows by, in a blink of an eye, it is yet another year of the seventh-seventh festival. I quietly stand by the shore, looking out to the big ship in the middle of the river, currently holding a banquet, I stand there silently, wordlessly.
That’s right, I died. Died on the night the imperial palace of the Qi nation was seized, but I have not yet left for the netherworld. It is not that I don’t want to go down, but because no wardens of the netherworld had come to guide my spirit away, so I can only take on the form of a wandering soul amongst the human realm. The so called ––
Ghost.
To qualify being a ghost, one must be subjected to the existence of an intensely strong attachment. I have reflected over this for a long time, but I indeed cannot find any thing or place that I am still reluctant to part from in this world. I don’t know where I should go, fortunately, I have been following my husband all along.
I watched him ascend the throne, become the emperor, clean up the bloodshed covering the imperial city inside out, then grandly bury me, exceeding the proper ritual an empress should have, a funeral that was practically a national mourning.
I know, perhaps in his heart he can only compensate me in such way. And I am really grateful I was able to see this.
I watch over him, every day in court, during meals, when sleeping. To the point of feeling that this period of time, compared to when I was still alive, I have spent much more time with him than ever before. There is no one able to see me, which means I can freely shuttle to wherever his presence lies.
But today I don’t wish to be by his side. Because on an occasion like today, countless singing orioles and dancing swallows are bound to be by his side, with countless fragrant elegance and veiled screens. No matter how open minded I can be, I will still feel absolutely unpleasant. So it is better to hide a little further away, what the eyes does not see, is regarded as clean.
The lantern lighting dims a little on that luxurious pleasure ship, painted in joyfulness. The banquet seems to have ended. Thinking of the atmosphere of rouge and power on it, I am still not very willing to go back.
And what I did not expect, after a little while, was a line of people dressed in ordinary clothing, leaving the pleasure ship. That one walking right at the front is precisely my husband of my lifetime, An Zi Wu.
This is emperor incognito……?
Following by his side are all his trusted confidants, I curiously follow after them.
