DDT - Chapter 65
Chapter 65: General × Little Emperor (Side Story)
In the first year of Mingzhao, thirteen-year-old Yi Han ascended to the most honored seat in the Great Chang Kingdom—the imperial throne. His elder brothers watched like tigers eyeing their prey, but they made no overt moves.
In the second year of Mingzhao, fourteen-year-old Yi Han ordered a nationwide campaign to suppress bandits, unknowingly giving several princes the opportunity to secretly hoard troops and provisions. From that year on, assassins began to appear in the imperial palace. Yi Han survived numerous assassination attempts, large and small, thanks to the exceptional skill of his personal guards.
He knew they were sent by his brothers, the princes, but he suffered from a lack of evidence.
In the third year of Mingzhao, Yi Han found a master and began to study martial arts. No one knew of his unusual routine, which would save his life a year later.
The fourth year of Mingzhao was an eventful one. Several princes joined forces to stage a coup. He received no warning and fled the Imperial City in a panic, hiding in the mountains and forests of the northwest. Just as the pursuing soldiers were about to find him, the mysterious and unfathomable General Chi Luo descended as if from heaven, slew the pursuers, and rescued him.
That day, the tall figure on horseback extending a hand to him was an image Yi Han would likely never forget for the rest of his life.
At that time, Yi Han had no idea what a profound impact General Chi Luo—that man, or rather, that woman—would leave on him.
General Chi Luo had always been a mystery. In the first three years of Mingzhao, Yi Han had seen General Chi Luo a few times. The general was taciturn, rarely speaking except for necessary formalities. He appeared somewhat dull on the surface. Yi Han had barely glanced at him before losing all interest in getting to know the tall general better.
However, this same General Chi Luo, who was silent in the imperial court, constantly sent news of victory from the Northwest Border. He was a god of death in the eyes of the Northern Kingdom, Great Chang's invincible general, the Northern Kingdom's nightmare, and Great Chang's salvation.
Later, he fled with General Chi. On the first morning of their escape, he awoke in the general's arms. It was the first and only time he wanted to silence General Chi for good. His own status was too unique, and his suspicious nature led him to believe that the general intended to hold him hostage to seize the throne.
His suspicions were not unfounded. He was a young emperor with no power to even truss a chicken, no influence in the court, and no maternal family to back him. Why would General Chi save him? Surely it was to command the world in his name?
It was the perfect opportunity to strike. In the end, why didn't he kill General Chi?
Perhaps it was that smile he had never seen before—so pure, so guileless. Could a person with such a smile truly commit an act as treasonous as regicide?
Yi Han decided to give him another chance.
His days at the Northwest Border were perhaps the happiest of Yi Han's life. General Chi Luo taught him martial arts and took him into battle, showing him the cruelty of war and the general's own strength.
Every day, General Chi would wake punctually at the hour of Mao. In truth, Yi Han had long suspected that on that first morning, the general likely knew he was pointing a sword at him. With his martial skill, it would have been a simple matter to deal with a novice like himself, yet he chose to use a 'beauty trap' to evade the crisis. Truly a mischievous fellow.
General Chi was terrible. On one hand, he was incredibly gentle and considerate toward him, yet on the other, he casually let a courtesan sit on his lap!
It was unforgivable. It wasn't until Yi Han stormed out, slamming the door in anger, that he faintly realized his unusual feelings for General Chi.
A man like General Chi was a rarity in this world. At least, in all his life, Yi Han had never met a man as considerate and captivating as Chi Luo.
He, Yi Han, had truly fallen in love.
General Chi Luo was very considerate of his wishes. Even after learning that Zhangbei Mountain was the Fourth Prince's stronghold, he still took the risk, leading the army to eradicate the bandits there, and even braved a treacherous banquet.
When he learned that Chi Luo had been poisoned with "Joyous Powder," Yi Han had already decided to give himself to this outstanding man who was gentle and considerate only to him.
Of course, it didn't happen. Yi Han didn't know—if he had discovered General Chi Luo's identity back then, would the final outcome have been different?
From beginning to end, General Chi Luo had never said anything to him, never promised him anything. He simply did everything a general loyal to the emperor ought to do.
That was the truth, but he had taken Yi Han's heart with him. The moment he leaped from the city wall with the Fourth Prince in his arms, Yi Han felt with stark clarity that his own heart had been hollowed out forever.
"Court is dismissed!" The eunuch's voice echoed through Xuanzheng Hall. Emperor Mingzhao rose from the dragon throne and turned to leave. The ministers bowed and departed one by one.
Yi Han wound his way through the palace and returned to Longmian Hall. Dismissing the eunuchs and palace maids following him, he entered Longmian Hall alone and bolted the doors from the inside.
The eunuchs and palace maids were accustomed to the emperor's habit of locking himself in Longmian Hall after court, a routine he had followed for years. They stood guard quietly outside. Without the emperor's permission, no one was to enter, no matter how urgent the matter.
Yi Han walked to the side of the dragon bed and pressed a mechanism on the bedpost. The bed slid aside, revealing a secret passage.
Following the passage down, Yi Han walked for an unknown amount of time before reaching a frigid ice cellar. The walls were lined with ever-burning lamps, like those in a tomb, and dozens of night-luminescent pearls of various sizes.
The light refracted through the piled ice blocks, illuminating the entire cellar.
In the center of the ice cellar was an ice bed piled high with ice blocks. Lying on the bed was a pale-faced woman.
Noticing that some of the ice was melting, Yi Han dragged a large, two-wheeled bamboo basket over. He moved blocks of ice from a mountain-like pile outside another entrance to the cellar, replacing the smaller, melting pieces on the bed.
The woman on the ice bed lay quietly, dressed in white. On her left wrist were three beautiful golden tattoos. Behind her left thumb was the white mark of a healed bite.
"Ah Luo, it's been five years," Yi Han said, sitting on the ice bed. She gently took the white-clad woman's left hand, her fingers tracing the scar and the golden tattoos.
The woman in white did not respond. She wasn't even breathing.
Of course. All her blood had been drained in that final battle.
Yi Han felt she had grown old, for she was always reminiscing, always living in the past.
The white-clad woman's hair was spread out beneath her. Her face was beautiful, and her entire body had been perfectly preserved.
Yi Han always wondered why she hadn't seen through General Chi's identity back then. Her face was so fair, and she had no Adam's apple. Just like herself, she had disguised herself as a man, deceiving the world and, in turn, deceiving each other.
Yi Han's gaze dimmed.
Her fingers gently caressed the woman's face. "My Empress, Zhen misses you so much."
In the winter of the fourth year of Mingzhao, Emperor Mingzhao led the Zhenbei Army back to the Imperial City. General Chi Luo slew the rebel leader, the Fourth Prince, and the Zhenbei Army captured the city. General Chi Luo perished.
Immediately after General Chi Luo fell from the wall, Emperor Yi Han rushed down. Behind her was the victorious Zhenbei Army and the reclaimed Imperial City. Before her was the body of the great Zhenbei General, Chi Luo, lying atop the Fourth Prince's corpse, pierced by a longsword, blood flowing endlessly.
Pierced through the chest and abdomen, and having fallen from such a high wall, she was as dead as one could be.
Yi Han stared blankly at General Chi, then reached out and lifted him into her arms, pulling the longsword from his body. Yi Han sat on the ground, cradling Chi Luo's corpse. She reached out a trembling hand to touch the wound on Chi Luo's chest, only to unexpectedly feel something soft.
In the spring of the fifth year of Mingzhao, an incredible piece of news spread through the newly stabilized Great Chang Kingdom.
The Emperor of Great Chang intended to marry a dead person as his empress. This dead person was a man, and that man was none other than the great General Chi Luo, who had died in the battle to retake the Imperial City!
For a time, the court officials submitted memorials in protest one after another. Old General Chi was furious. However, Emperor Mingzhao was resolute in his decision to name General Chi as empress, even declaring that she would be the only one in his life and he would take no other consorts, which made the officials so angry they could have coughed up blood.
But an arm cannot twist a thigh. When the emperor's mind was made up, no one could dissuade him. For a time, public opinion throughout the Great Chang Kingdom was in an uproar.
When the emperor was forced from the palace, he was saved by the Zhenbei General. The two had shared a tent for months; it wasn't impossible for feelings to develop over time. With the emperor's tacit approval, storytellers eagerly recounted the moving love story of the emperor and the Zhenbei General. Soon, even the common people of Great Chang came to pity the star-crossed lovers.
The voices of opposition gradually faded away. Old General Chi was heartbroken; his eldest child was missing in life and now denied a proper burial in death. The emperor had claimed Chi Luo's body, preventing it from being laid to rest. Seeing the old general weeping, Yi Han promised him that once the imperial tomb was completed, General Chi would be buried with him. Until then, he would take good care of him.
Watching the old general's faltering departure, Yi Han fell into silence.
When she first discovered that General Chi was a woman, she had been stunned for a long time. She never imagined there was someone else in the world like her, hiding their identity and struggling to survive. Strangely, Yi Han felt no anger at being deceived, only the grief and indignation of losing General Chi, and the hidden feelings in her heart that she had no one to confide in.
Yi Han carried General Chi's body back to the palace, back to Longmian Hall. She personally mended the corpse, ordered basins of warm water brought, and carefully washed the body herself. Finally, she dressed her in women's clothes, something she might never have had the chance to wear in her life.
In the summer of the fifth year of Mingzhao, the empress-naming ceremony was held. The Imperial City was decorated with red for a hundred li. She let the world see her sincerity, defying all conventions just to marry one person.
Alas, the beloved was already gone.
Yi Han had never hated her. Her life, Yi Han's life, had been given to her by Chi Luo. What right did she have to hate her for the deception, to hate her for leaving?
She feared she no longer even had the right to love.
Yi Han lay down on the massive ice bed and intertwined her fingers with the white-clad woman's. The chill seeped into her bones. For five years, she had lain like this with the woman in this cold place every day. Her health deteriorated day by day, yet she found joy in it.
She always wondered, if she had given up on retaking the Imperial City, given up the throne, would she have had the chance to live in seclusion with Chi Luo in the mountains?
But there are no 'what ifs' in this world.
In the spring of the twelfth year of Mingzhao, the imperial tomb was completed.
In the winter of the twelfth year of Mingzhao, Emperor Mingzhao abdicated. The Thirteenth Prince, who had remained obscure and taken part in neither the coup nor any other major events, ascended the throne. Emperor Mingzhao personally handed the throne to this sole remaining brother.
In the depths of a snowy winter, she drove a carriage alone, taking the woman in white toward the imperial tomb.
In the spring of the first year of Yongchang, Emperor Mingzhao sealed herself within the imperial tomb. The world never knew the year or month of her death, only counting the day she sealed the tomb as the day she passed.
Emperor Mingzhao's short life became a celebrated tale for later generations. Posterity spoke of her profound love, buried together with Chi...
In the second year of Yongchang, Emperor Yongchang posthumously granted Emperor Mingzhao the title "Mingqing"—Illustrious Love.
In the imperial tomb, inside a massive ice coffin, Yi Han lay fully clothed beside the woman in white. The bright yellow cloth strip that had been wrapped around her right wrist for years was removed. She closed her eyes, never to wake again. On her right wrist, three beautiful, bright yellow tattoos formed an elegant pattern, identical to the golden one on the white-clad woman's left wrist. Their fingers were intertwined.
A mechanism activated, and the lid of the ice coffin slowly closed.
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