 Xiao Jin saw the young Chu Shao.
Just like before, she was sitting in the courtyard, practicing playing the flute.
She stayed by Chu Shao’s side but saw another phantom beside her. It seemed that when she immersed herself in fragments of memories in the past, it presented as a transparent figure.
Sometimes there was a scent of blood on it, and other times it carried the aroma of alcohol and mint.
After her past self left the fragments of memories, the young Chu Shao put down the flute and smiled, her eyes filled with joy.
“You’ve left again. When will you come next?” She asked.
Chu Shao caught a whiff of the faint mint fragrance and felt the touch of gentle hands.
There seemed to be a hint of bloody smell in between, but it was pleasant, and she became particularly attached to it.
So when the poison enveloped her, Chu Shao lay on the bed, feeling the sticky warmth of blood flowing through her wrists. Suddenly, she found it fascinating.
It was as if that person was right beside her.
If it were so, she could experience the feeling of being constantly accompanied by that person. Enduring this blood and agony seemed to gain some meaning.
But it was a pity that she was about to die soon.
That person still hadn’t come.
Chu Shao teetered on the edge of death, blood flowing from her lips, and suddenly felt very uncomfortable.
It was more unbearable than the pain spreading throughout her body during the onset of the poison.
What kind of hatred was this? What kind of love was this?
And what is love, anyway?
Then, a god descended beside her.
With indifferent eyes, the god looked at her and said, “I grant you reincarnation and eternal life.”
The benevolent god saved her.
Then, they cast her into hell, ignoring her, paying no attention.
Chu Shao survived.
The curse of eternal life prevented a hundred poisons from eroding her sanity, but gradually, she sank into numbness in her awakening, repeating the same dull days.
She lived on, and she saw Rong Lian holding a sword in her arms, stumbling out of the palace gate.
Chu Shao didn’t know what her Mother was going to do; she only heard the elegant music drifting through the palace, accompanied by the resonating chime of bronze bells. It seemed that the entire Yuanxi Palace banquet was filled with a festive atmosphere.
The prince and princesses should be standing in the hall, holding hands, singing a song whose melody she couldn’t remember.
Chu Shao continued walking forward, hoping to hear the crisp singing voice and have that person come to her side, listening to her play a heartfelt melody.
Then, she stopped in her tracks.
Because in front of her, on the snowy ground, a group of young men dressed in fresh attire surrounded a madwoman with white hair.
That madwoman was her Mother, Rong Lian.
The cruelty of the young men stemmed from their innocence and ignorance. They snatched the nameless sword from Rong Lian’s hands, formed a circle, and looked at her kneeling on the ground, laughing and saying, “She’s so ugly, this old hag.”
“Kill her, don’t let her scare people again!”
Chu Shao stood at a distance, intending to tell those young men that she wasn’t an old hag but the beautiful Mother who had given birth to her.
But those young men had already turned their innocence and ignorance into action.
Like splattering dye on pure white silk, they swung their swords at Rong Lian while mocking her, saying, “You can’t get it, you can’t get it.”
When Chu Shao snapped out of her daze, the woman with white hair was already lying on the snowy ground.
Her face was marred with numerous hideous scars. How could someone so proud accept death in such a state?
So Rong Lian’s final act was to bury her blood-stained face and the sword wounds in the clean snow.
Chu Shao walked over, approached Rong Lian’s lifeless body, crouched down, and reached out to touch the area where silver-blue petals were etched into her skin.
The warm and tender blood felt sticky and wet to the touch.
In the distance, the palace resounded with the innocent and lively singing of children.
Unconsciously, tears streamed down Chu Shao’s face, falling onto Rong Lian’s shoulder marked with blood-stained petals. She could faintly see droplets rolling across the skin, leaving a trace behind.
What a mundane thing it was.
Chu Shao pulled the nameless sword from Rong Lian’s blood-stained shoulder.
She aimed the blade at her own neck, intending to make a cut and end her life, but she couldn’t bear to part with the person who had accompanied her countless times.
And so, Chu Shao continued to live.
After the fall of Yao Country, she was sent to the Fourth Prince’s residence in a bridal sedan chair.
The handsome prince, as exquisite as the Purple Star, looked at her, a smile playing on his lips. But his words were venomous. “The crown prince didn’t want you, but he forced you onto me. Father’s favor towards me has truly increased.”
“On the conquest of Yao Country, Xiao Jin brought you back, and you ended up sacrificing your own life. Truly, you’re foolish to the point of death.”
On their wedding night, Chu Shao listened to the teachings of the Fourth Prince and realized that the interaction between husband and wife was generally this boring.
She slept in the firewood room and occasionally slept in the stable. They looked at a horse and looked at her with the same gaze.
The noble concubines and Zhao Hua in the palace stared at Chu Shao with cold eyes. It was because on that rainy day, the Prince Yan’s coffin was carried back from Yao Country.
Princess Zhao Yang committed suicide in the DaliTemple. The crown prince declined the emperor’s arranged marriage, stating, “The mourning period for Prince Yan has not yet passed, so your child does not wish to marry.”
Chu Shao didn’t know what Prince Yan represented to these people and what it meant to them.
She only made frequent mistakes and was punished by the noblewomen in the Qi palace. Kneeling until her knees bled, and when she moved her legs, she was scalded with hot tea.
Why did they hate her so much?
Later, Chu Shao understood that it was because they unreasonably loved Prince Yan that they developed unreasoning hatred towards her.
After many years, the Fourth Prince died.
Chu Shao married for the second time and married the heir to the Qi Country , Xiao Yu, in order to use his power to restore her own country.
Xiao Yu was not particularly remarkable. When he looked at her, his eyes occasionally carried complexity and melancholy. He always treated her respectfully, rarely staying in the same room with her, and stayed under the same roof.
For Chu Shao, the only good thing about Xiao Yu was the faint scent of mint that he carried with him all year round.
The prince with the scent of mint was about to ascend to the throne and become the Emperor of Qi Country.
On a snowy day, he brought her to the Yangjiao Lane and ate freshly cooked tofu pudding from a shop.
He put a bowl of savory tofu pudding that Chu Shao disliked in front of her and talked about his childhood memories with Prince Yan.
Her nominal husband said that this was the shop Prince Yan loved to eat at and the lane he loved to stroll through.
She smiled, responded, but her eyes were fixed on the light dusting of snow covering the lantern.
Xiao Yu continued talking, and Chu Shao didn’t pay much attention, finishing everything she disliked in the bowl.
Then she realized again that what she was attached to was not the scent of mint, but the person who accompanied her in her memories, the one with the faint fragrance.
Chu Shao restored her country and ascended the throne. She once visited Prince Yan ‘s mansion.
She didn’t know why she wanted to come here and walked through the entire mansion.
Seeing the hundreds of withered mint plants stacked in the warehouse, she understood why Xiao Yu looked at her with that complex and melancholic gaze.
After many more years, Chu Shao lay on the bed, feeling death approaching.
She had some expectations, whether she would be able to see that person she encountered in her youth again and the god who appeared by her bedside.
When she opened her eyes again, she saw a group of young people dressed in fresh clothes surrounding the white-haired woman in the snow, saying, “She’s so ugly, this old lady is so ugly.”
“Kill her, don’t let her scare people again!”
Chu Shao remembered the words the god had said:
“I give you reincarnation and eternal life.”
“Until you obtain true love, you will not die.”
So, there really were gods in the world. But she no longer hoped to obtain love.
Looking at the spirited young people, Chu Shao suddenly remembered that at that time, she had a dagger given by her birth mother tied around her waist.
Why didn’t she draw the dagger from its sheath back then?
In an instant, Chu Shao realized.
She didn’t draw it from the sheath back then, it must have been for now.
Her birth mother loved her. As long as she saved her birth mother, she could obtain love. She could end her life happily.
Chu Shao took the dagger and killed every young person in front of her. She came to Rong Lian’s side, put down the dagger, and embraced Rong Lian’s thin and weak body.
She was about to speak to Rong Lian and ask if Rong Lian loved her very much.
A blood-stained dagger pierced her heart.
Chu Shao stared blankly at the dagger stuck in her chest.
Rong Lian, with white hair, withdrew the dagger in an instant and aimed it at her chest, stabbing again.
Chu Shao couldn’t feel any pain, she just asked, “Why?”
“Why?”
Rong Lian was about to die, but she held onto Chu Shao, softly calling her name and said, “Living is nothing but torture.”
“Death is liberation.”
Chu Shao opened her eyes again, lying on a bed adorned with white curtains.
When the poison didn’t affect her, she pretended to fall in love with the goldfish in the water basin, often asking it, “Do you love me?”
Even though she didn’t know what love was.
Later, that goldfish fell ill and died. She touched its dark blue scales and felt the coldness. So, this is the temperature of death.
The taste of death even made Chu Shao’s blood boil, and she began to anticipate it.
She dismembered the dead goldfish in the water basin into pieces with a dagger.
Her hands covered in fresh blood, she remembered the person who had accompanied her in her youth.
That person, carrying the scent of death, could it be that they were death itself?
Chu Shao felt relieved. Fortunately, the goldfish had died, so she could pretend to have fallen in love with it and be at peace with herself.
Before being summoned by Nan Jin to kill the eunuch and prince, she felt a fascinating pain all over her body and caught a familiar scent of mint.
Has that person come?
Chu Shao was determined to perform well, so her heart raced, and the sword moved swiftly.
She killed those unrecognizable people and experienced a euphoria akin to death in the warm blood. The pleasure was almost surpassing death itself.
Tender and respectful, she killed the old eunuch who accompanied the prince. The prince standing by the bronze bell also died.
She liberated them from love and granted them death.
Chu Shao thought she was too kind.
At the same time, she was anxious and wanted to ask that person, “Did I perform well?”
But the scent of mint dissipated.
Chu Shao’s anxiety disappeared as well.
She felt that everything was boring.
That person didn’t love her at all, didn’t want to accompany her.
Then how should she die?
If the person who had accompanied her countless times didn’t love her, then who else would?
Chu Shao picked up the blood-stained sword from the ground and pierced it through her heart.
Blood spurted, but she couldn’t die.
Chu Shao ascended Mount Kunlun. She jumped off a cliff hundreds of feet high, shattering her bones, but she still couldn’t die.
She tried cutting herself with a knife and burning herself with fire.
She was still alive.
Chu Shao felt lost. How could she die?
Later, Chu Shao lost all her expectations. Love or death, nothing could shake her anymore.
She lived in this world, moving around freely, laughing freely, killing freely.
She did whatever she pleased.
She forgot that there were gods in the world who cursed her with eternal life.
Chu Shao began to appreciate it.
If she hadn’t encountered that benevolent god, how could she realize that the obsession she couldn’t forget from her childhood, the love she wanted to obtain, was so useless?
Chu Shao went through many lifetimes, and whenever she stayed in her memories, Xiao Jin would burst into tears.
One day, Chu Shao became the empress again.
Sitting on a shimmering golden throne, she watched the young dancing girls perform a song of longing for you as they gracefully danced.
She played with a short sword, casually carving words on her wrist.
Blood emerged from the words, exuding a poetic beauty.
After the song of longing for you ended, the blood words dried up.
The words Chu Shao carved on her wrist also lost their warmth.
She raised her eyes and found that everyone in the hall had bowed their heads and knelt down, except for a dancer dressed in red who ran towards her like a flame. It was probably a well-trained assassin, different from before.
Chu Shao hadn’t encountered an assassin in a long time. She gripped the hilt of the engraved blade, a smile appearing on her face.
But she didn’t expect that the dancer would run towards her, trembling, and embrace her. The dancer raised her icy-cold hand and held Chu Shao’s equally cold face.
That person’s voice was hoarse, as if on the verge of tears.
She repeated over and over again, “I love you.”
“I love you.”
“Shao’er, Your Majesty.”
“I love you.”
Xiao Jin’s will was too strong. It even surpassed the order and attached itself to the dancer.
She desperately wanted to tell Chu Shao that she held her in her arms.
But she didn’t notice that a blade had pierced her chest, emerging from her heart.
Xiao Jin lowered her head, looking at the fingers clutching the hilt of the short blade—familiar hands, a familiar appearance.
She raised her eyes and met Chu Shao’s slightly lowered gaze, a smile seemingly present in her eyes.
“What is love?”
“I don’t need that kind of thing.”
“You, go away.”
….
Due to a severe blow to her will, it took a long time for Xiao Jin to regain consciousness. This time, what she saw was the clear and bright Luli Palace.
The light shone in, delicate and gentle, like the snow slowly falling from the top of Mount Kunlun that day.
Xiao Jin stepped into the palace and saw that familiar face once again.
In this lifetime, Chu Shao was particularly calm, standing on the palace platform, gazing at the light on the table.
The painter lightly sketched with her brush, and shadows appeared on the table.
Chu Shao looked intently and seemed to sense something amiss, furrowing her brows slightly.
The painter also furrowed his brows, following suit, “Ninth Princess, as an humble servant, I am commissioned to paint for you. Why aren’t you smiling?”
Chu Shao didn’t answer the painter’s question.
She crossed the drifting light in the Luli Palace and looked straight ahead.
Even though there was nothing there.
Chu Shao’s eyebrows and eyes curved slightly as she smiled gently. “I know it’s you.”
“You’ve finally come to see me.”
“I love you so much.”
“Will you love me too?”
Xiao Jin couldn’t speak.
Her legs trembled, and she knelt on the ground. Before she could say anything, tears welled up in her eyes and fell.
Drop by drop, they fell into the sunlight, transparent but invisible.
Only Chu Shao’s smiling expression remained clear, disregarding the astonishment on the painter’s face as she softly said: “Enough, actually, the things I said just now were all lies.”
“I won’t love anyone, and I don’t know what love is.”
“You should leave now.”
Xiao Jin left.
It wasn’t because Chu Shao was driving her away.
She had only one reason for leaving.
She had already seen every lifetime of Chu Shao.
Now, she was going to find Chu Shao.
Before going to find Chu Shao, Xiao Jin asked 3.0, “Why did the portrait of the princess of Yao Country leak from the palace and spread among the common people?”
3.0 opened the control panel, freezing at the moment Xiao Jin turned around and left.
In the picture, Chu Shao walked over.
She found that portrait, took it out from the album containing portraits of princesses and princes, and inserted it into a folk painting, between the thin sheets of paper.
“You haven’t come to see me in a long time, but since you’re willing to come now, I’ll trust you one more time.”
“I’ll be waiting for you here.”
“I’m waiting for you to come and find me, to grant me death.”
Seeing this, 3.0 closed the control panel.
Pointing to the rebuilt world in that place, she said to Xiao Jin, “She’s there.”
“But time inside passes quickly, so you can’t hesitate or linger too much.”
“I don’t have much authority, I can only help you once, give you one opportunity. When you see her, you’ll become corporeal.”
“The Executor is about to arrive, you should leave quickly.”
Xiao Jin nodded.
Before leaving, she glanced at 3.0, “You granted me the authority, will you still exist afterwards?”
G527, 3.0 didn’t answer Xiao Jin’s question.
She pointed to the ground beneath her feet and said, “I’ll stay here, watching over you.”
“Please, you must find her.”
“Don’t disappoint me.”
….
After leaving the chaotic realm, Xiao Jin could see the light again.
Heavy snow fell, and the Third Prince of Qi, born lifeless, died in her swaddling clothes.
The gears of fate turned, and everything changed its course invisibly.
The scene in front of her swept by and vanished.
Xiao Jin walked quickly.
She didn’t know how many years had passed, she just kept moving forward.
Her figure brushed past a corner of the ancestral hall.
Zhao Yang, the flourishing Princess Zhao, disregarded everything and sought revenge against the emperor, killing him.
Drizzling rain fell, and Zhao Yang, with a final farewell in her heart, looked down at the coffin.
But then, a snow crane flew in, hiding its head under its wings.
Then it approached and extended its beak, gently tapping her wrist.
The scar on her wrist no longer hurt.
Zhao Yang was taken aback.
She reached out her hand and stroked the snow crane’s head, suddenly feeling that the sunlight outside the temple was just right.
Shi Ming stood by Zhao Yang’s side, holding the divination instrument and said, “I have deduced it. Twenty years later, you will encounter someone from the past, and their name will contain the character ‘Jin’.”
Zhao Yang looked at the sunlight outside and nodded, “Jin, it’s truly a wonderful name.”
Xiao Jin paused for a moment and continued walking forward.
Passing by the Yao Country Palace, she searched for Chu Shao’s figure.
Seeing the blooming peach blossoms, Rong Lian held her sword and said to the national teacher sitting opposite, “Today, I’ve come to kill you.”
Nan Jin asked, “I’ve been waiting for so long. Why did you choose today to come and kill me?”
“In the past, I didn’t kill you because I wanted you to suffer, to experience a slow and agonizing life before finding release in death. I didn’t want to let you have an easy way out.”
“And what about now?”
Rong Lian said, “My sword is stained with blood, but my heart remains untouched.”
“Since I can’t let go of my hatred, then I won’t let go. With my heart in this state, I have decided to embrace death.”
“So, I’ve come today to invite you to accompany me and journey to the netherworld together.”
Nan Jin’s eyes were filled with a smile.
She replied, “Alright.”
Xiao Jin didn’t find Chu Shao in the Yao Country’s Palace, so she continued on to the Qi Country.
On the main road, standing on the left and right were two sword-bearing individuals.
Tang Yu asked the person beside her, bombarding them with questions, “Tang Ling, you’ve been undercover for so many years. How could you bear to come back?”
Tang Ling walked and smiled, “Princess Zhao Yang has avenged her great enmity and gone to cultivate at the Dali Temple. What more undercover work do I need?”
“So, you’re not undercover anymore?”
“No more undercover work. Tomorrow, I will resign from my position and venture into the martial world.”
“Tang Ling, if you’re going to wander the ends of the earth, then I’ll resign too and go with you… But what about Nan Jin? Aren’t you following her anymore?”
Tang Ling paused her steps, and with a carefree smile, she said, “She has gone home.”
The spring breeze brushed through the Yangjiao Lane.
Xiao Jin passed by this place and stopped, listening to the clamor inside the teahouse.
Sitting at a square table, Ye Suyu put down her teacup, propped up her elbow, and nudged Ye Juege. Pointing to the young girl being besieged by a group of martial artists, she said with a smiling expression, “Juege, I know that person. Shall we go and help her?”
The sunlight was just right, and the city of Xinyang was filled with floating willow catkins. A young girl held a little girl in her arms, lifting her up so that she could reach the silk ribbon hanging from the willow branches.
She looked up and shouted, “Xueyi, later, make a willow wreath for sister, okay?”
Xiao Jin’s footsteps became faster and faster, and before she knew it, she had entered winter.
At the palace banquet, the lights were as bright as daylight.
The new emperor, Xiao Yu, scooped up the tofu from his bowl, somewhat puzzled, and asked the eunuch beside him, “What is this?”
Snowflakes floated down, and Zhao Hua and Bai Zheng raised their heads to look.
The commander of the imperial guards, Bai Zhu, raised his cup and remained silent for a long time before slowly uttering a congratulatory phrase to his superior, Ye Ji. “Sir Ye, may you have this auspicious moment year after year.”
Ye Ji glanced at him and commented, “Pathetic.”
Gazing at the heavy snow, Xiao Jin suddenly understood where the person she was looking for had gone.
Her heart pounded like a drum as she walked through every winding corridor.
Illusions and dreams intertwined, heavy rain pouring down accompanied by resounding echoes.
Amidst the heavy snow of Kunlun, the daughter of the mountain god adorned herself with the heavens and earth.
As the wind blew, the young Ming Xun stood alone on the mountaintop, sweeping away the plum blossoms and closing the window.
Snowflakes landed on her face, and at this moment, Xiao Jin could no longer distinguish between illusions and the path home.
All she knew was that in this lifetime, she only wanted to grasp that corner of the garment, embrace and lean on it until old age—
The resounding echoes that reverberated in her chest suddenly came to a halt.
Xiao Jin stopped in her tracks.
The vastness of the heavens and earth, silver fir trees gently swaying with falling snow.
The white-clothed woman put away her flute, turned around, her brows and eyes gentle, and smiled at her.
She asked, “Your Highness, why haven’t you returned home?”
Illusions and dreams, desires and delusions, in an instant, dissipated into thin air.
Xiao Jin didn’t bother to wipe away the tears on her face.
She stepped forward and said to Chu Shao, “My wife and I, in this life, will live and die together.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Translator’s note: Wuwuwuwu… That’s the ending of the full text. ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ Wuwuwuw… I’m going to miss this novel. I… I’m not quite satisfied with the ending, but I think all the characters found their happiness, especially the tragic couples: Rong Lian, Nan Jin, Xiao Shuang, and Fengxuan. I’m not satisfied with their ending. 😠I wanted extra chapters to see them happy together, but then I realized most of them are dead. 😠Sigh… At least our main couple was granted a happy ending. I… I have no more words to say. That’s it for the story of Xiao Jin and Chu Shao. Goodbye~
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