Beauty to Ashes

Chapter 8

Jin Xiu smiled. "Forget it. Ah Lan is the only thing you can use to threaten me. But the only thing you can use him to do is to force me over here." 

Her smile became even more radiant and genuine. It was a smile that seemed to contain and suppress a profound sense of malice.

"Chen Ruo, what you owe me you will return me one by one, starting from today. All the happiness that had been forcefully wrenched from me, please return it." After she said this, she turned around to leave, leaving him bleeding behind her.

Before, he had turned his back on her and failed to see her utter despair and hopelessness. Today, she was the one who didn't turn back, flicking her sleeves as she departed while leaving him to struggle on his own. 

Retribution. 

This was retribution for his treatment of her back then. Even though this debt was settled, there was no sense of exhilaration.

Chen Ruo muttered some words to himself and suddenly, he grinned. 

He would just repay the debts in this way. He wanted her by his side and didn't care about anything else. If she didn't want to be happy with him, then she didn't need to be happy. She could take whatever she wanted from him, as long as she stayed by his side. For this, he was willing to lower himself.

Chen Ruo followed behind the white-haired girl like a soulless being. When she walked through the desolate doors of her previous residence, that girl suddenly turned her head and smiled prettily at him, before slowly closing the sliding doors on him.

From then on, Chen Ruo never got the chance to see that sliding door open up for him. That pretty and decisive smile had severed all relations, becoming the final parting song of the only girl he ever loved in his life.

After that door slowly closed on him, the white-haired girl in plain clothes slowly slumped against the door frame, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. She was back in the land of her nightmares. The helpless and defenseless Jin Xiu of many years back brushed shoulders with her in this familiar palace room. Her entire being was wrought with bitter cold and she could only mutter the name of the man she loved as she clutched onto the wooden bead bracelet on her wrist.

Chen Lan...Chen Lan. 

She silently repeated her lover's name as her fingers gently caressed her belly that was still flat. You must be happy, she thought like this before quietly closing her eyes as tears seemed to fall. 

This time, Chen Lan would no longer be able to appear in front of her and wipe away her tears... 

Chen Lan...Chen Lan...Chen Lan...

In the sixth year of the reign of Emperor Ruo, the consort of Prince Wu passed away. Prince Wu submitted a petition requesting to be dispatched to guard the borders. It was granted. The reigning emperor instated a new empress, Empress Xiao. The new empress was chronically ill and stayed away from the public eye in the rear court.

In the seventh year, Empress Xiao gave birth to the first son, named Huan.

Hence, this tangled mess came and went just like this. History recorded everything as these few meager lines.

This struggle that drew both blood and tears was merely like this. After that, time slowly trickled on. Chen Ruo had already sat stably on the throne for twenty years.

Early in summer that year, deep into a dark night, that girl that was getting on in her years was suddenly roused from her sleep in the depths of the palace. In the midst of the vague silence, she slowly reached her hands to her cheeks which were soaked with tears, tears akin to warmblood that would not stop flowing.