Chapter 5

Emperor Chongzhao fell into a dream.

Everything around him was hazy in his dream and he walked slowly forward.

A bridge appeared in front of us. Beside the bridge was a huge stone tablet with the words:

[Three lives, reincarnation, six lives of suffering.]

A woman holding an umbrella was standing in the middle of the bridge.

Emperor Chongzhao walked onto the bridge.

The woman turned around. She was wearing a veil, so her face could not be seen clearly, but her eyes had a hint of sadness. There were no pearls or jade in her hair, only a black wooden hairpin, an elegant and delicate light-colored wreath on her head, and she was wearing a green dress.

Concubine Yun did not like the complicated court etiquette and always dressed simply during her lifetime.

"...Yueqing?" Emperor Chongzhao.

"Your Majesty," the woman responded, looking at the lake under the bridge. The lake seemed like a huge mirror with various images flashing in it.

Emperor Chongzhao couldn't help but ask: "Yueqing, what are you looking at?"

Woman: "Previous life."

...Previous life?

Emperor Chongzhao was stunned.

He followed the woman's gaze and saw that the lake surface suddenly emitted a strong light and a few lines of words appeared on the lake surface:

[Six lifetimes of love, disaster befalls, the harp and zither cannot play, no good results.]

The dream followed the content set by Qu Watanabe's editor, pulled Emperor Chongzhao's consciousness in, and started running at a rapid speed.

…

The first life.

He was a general who fought on the battlefield, and Yueqing was the youngest daughter of a noble family. The two met and got to know each other, but Yueqing's family did not want their daughter to marry into a general's family. After many twists and turns, the two finally got married.

When there was no war, life was peaceful like flowing water. Later, when the war came, he put on armor and went into battle. The war was originally destined to be a victory, but because of the instigation of treacherous ministers, he died on the battlefield.

Yueqing was heartbroken when she heard the news and committed suicide by holding his body.

The white magnolias outside the window were in full bloom, just as brilliant as they were on their wedding night.

Second life.

He is a scholar who went to Beijing to take the imperial examination, and Yueqing is the daughter of a royal family. He won the title of the top scholar and had a bright future. One time, he went out with his friends and fell in love with Yueqing at first sight.

A few years later, he was promoted to the fourth rank and won the emperor's favor, so he was finally qualified to ask for Yueqing in marriage. However, the court was in urgent need of a princess to marry a barbarian.

His political enemies who were not on good terms with him smiled at him and said that Yueqing was a daughter of the royal family and could be canonized as a princess and married off to a distant frontier.

He immediately stood up, saying that he loved Yueqing and asked the emperor to grant them a marriage. As a result, he was beaten with twenty boards, covered in blood, and fell into a coma. When he woke up again, he heard the news that Yueqing was canonized as a princess and would be married off to a distant place that day.

His political enemies even wrote a murderous letter to the emperor, asking him to let him be an envoy to escort the princess three hundred miles away.

Three hundred miles outside Beijing.

Yueqing was wearing a red wedding dress, and he was also wearing a red official uniform. They had vowed to grow old together, but now he could only watch her marry someone else.

However, a few years later, Yueqing died of depression, and he left the capital city, never marrying.

In front of the tomb of a princess of the barbarians, there appeared a gravekeeper from the Central Plains.

The third generation.

He is a child of aristocratic family, and Yueqing is a knight-errant. The two met in the martial arts world. After they got married, he and Yueqing went out to roam the martial arts world.

After a few years, they felt a little tired of doing good deeds and found a secluded place to live permanently.

The bamboo forest is quiet, peaceful and happy.

But one time when he came back from hunting, their enemy, whom he had made in the martial arts world, appeared in the bamboo house. That man had killed Yueqing. He lost his mind in rage and killed his enemy. He then held Yueqing's body, filled with sorrow.

The next day, a doctor came to the bamboo house. He was horrified by the situation in the house. After understanding the situation, he was no longer afraid. Before leaving, he said with pity and sympathy: "Poor... Really poor... This lady is only two months pregnant. What a sin, alas..."

Hearing this, his trembling palm fell on Yueqing's abdomen, and he let out a mournful roar like a wild beast.

…

Every life had a bad ending. Even when he and Yueqing had a child, the child never lived past the age of three. Every time when a good ending was about to come, there would always be various people who would get in the way.

Until the sixth generation.

What his consciousness saw and felt in the lake was finally not a strange scene, but his acquaintance with Yueqing in this life.

He looked at the mirror-like phantom in the lake almost greedily.

A little girl smiled and held his hand, "Third brother - I want the white magnolia on the tree!"

He picked up the little girl and asked, "Is it high enough?"

"Wow - I've reached it! So impressive, so high..."

At that time, Emperor Chongzhao was still a teenager who had just entered the race for imperial power.

Although he paid attention to Yueqing with the intention of making friends with the Sword-wielding Marquis, the little girl with the sweet smile did make him love his sister more sincerely.

As the fight for the throne became more intense, the capital city at that time became more and more turbulent. Marquis Zhijian did not want to get involved, so he made a prompt decision to bring his seven-year-old daughter to the Northern Frontier, where she stayed for ten years.

When he came back again, the young boy had become the supreme emperor.

Emperor Chongzhao thought that perhaps Marquis Chijian thought that the capital had been stable at that time, so he asked Yueqing to come back and find a good marriage for her in the capital so that she could get married in a grand manner.

He just didn't expect that when he met the little girl he loved since childhood again, he couldn't control his heart beating fast.

Yueqing didn't like Jingcheng very much, but finally agreed to marry him.

The mirror in the lake flashed very blurry clips of the two people getting along at a very fast speed (mainly because Qu Watanabe was not clear about the specific way his stepfather and Concubine Yun got along in private, so he blurred it out). Even though it was not clear, Emperor Chongzhao's memory still involuntarily emerged with every little detail of him and Concubine Yun.

Things that are dead and cannot be obtained will always become more and more perfect in our memory.

The later theory of white moonlight and cinnabar mole is still applicable today.

Emperor Chongzhao already knew the ending of the sixth life, Yueqing's death in childbirth, but when he experienced it again, he saw a different scene.

At the moment when the Astronomical Observatory made a prophecy about Yueqing’s child, a star emitting black gas fell from the sky and hit the northeast direction of the imperial city directly - which was the location of the Astronomical Observatory.

The woman said: "The black star is a disaster star."

The cycle of life in the lake had ended, but Emperor Chongzhao had not yet come to his senses: "...disaster star?"

Woman: "The star of disaster brought misfortune, and the harp and zither could not play well. Our relationship was disturbed by the star of disaster, and it did not end well in the end."

"The star of disaster..." Emperor Chongzhao recalled the direction where the black star fell, "Is the star of disaster in the Astronomical Observatory?"

"Perhaps, I don't know," she turned around, "Your Majesty, how long have I been away from you."

Emperor Chongzhao was deeply saddened, "It has been nearly three years."

"It's been three years..." She murmured, and then asked anxiously, "How is our child? Is he almost three years old? What's his personality like? What does he like to eat?"

"Are you cute? Have you entered school? Have you ever thought about me?"

"Has your majesty ever told him that his mother loves him very much?"

“…”

Emperor Chongzhao could not answer a single word. He opened and closed his mouth, and was actually a little afraid to face the gaze of the woman in front of him.

After a long while, he whispered, "Our child, he is fine..."

"That's good."

The woman repeated: "That's good."

She held Emperor Chongzhao's hand and said, "It's hard to take care of a child. I feel sorry for you... and I miss you too."

After she finished her last sentence, the woman's body turned into a cloud of mist and slowly dissipated.

Another line of words appeared on the lake: [Six lifetimes of marriage have ended, we will never meet again.]

Emperor Chongzhao staggered forward, and could only barely grasp a piece of wet mist.

"No--!!"

At this moment, Emperor Chongzhao, who was unaware that he was in a dream, felt his hatred for the disaster star reach its peak.

-

"No--!!"

Emperor Chongzhao suddenly sat up from the bed.

Eunuch Yu shuddered, his sleepiness disappeared instantly, and he crawled over, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty?" He hurriedly drew aside the curtain and froze in place.

Emperor Chongzhao raised his hand and felt wet tear marks at the corners of his eyes.

Eunuch Yu asked in a trembling voice, "Your Majesty, are you feeling unwell?"

Emperor Chongzhao slowly came back to his senses.

"No." He said hoarsely.

After a while, he repeated, "It's okay."

"I just...had a bad dream."

It turned out to be a dream, fortunately it was a dream.

Eunuch Yu naturally didn't have the courage to respond, so he just stood there with his back hunched.

Emperor Chongzhao exhaled slowly, suppressed the dull pain in his heart, forced himself to pull himself out of the intense sadness of the dream, and in the blink of an eye he turned back into the emperor who never showed his emotions.

"What time is it?"

Eunuch Yu: "Your Majesty should wake up soon. Now is a good time to clean up."

Emperor Chongzhao: “Yes.”

The palace servants who served the emperor's daily life suddenly became busy, and candles and lights were lit in the side halls around the Purple Palace.

At the same time, carriages stopped in front of the dismounting stone tablet at Donghuamen. Court officials dressed in red and purple official uniforms walked in groups of three or four, waiting for today's grand court meeting.

On weekdays, it is a small court meeting, and only officials above the fifth rank and some special positions come to court. The big court meeting is held every ten days, and all civil and military officials will come to make unified reports, which is generally quite busy.

Emperor Chongzhao always attached great importance to grand court meetings, so the officials under him did not dare to be perfunctory.

After the worshippers expressed their long live the emperor, the chief eunuch shouted, "Get up!" and the grand court meeting began.

Officials from various departments had washed their faces with cold water before coming here, and had been blown by the cold wind all the way. Although they were shivering from the cold, they were all full of energy.

Especially the Minister of Revenue, Lord Lin, who is always keeping an eye on all directions and listening carefully.

He was wary of anyone except the officials from the Ministry of Revenue, fearing that some guy would find ways to trap him and get money from him.

The Minister of Works stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty."

"Three months ago, the money allocated for the construction of the Yiheguan Bridge has been used up. Now the construction period is coming to an end. Your Majesty, please allocate more money to the Ministry of Works."

The Minister of Revenue was alarmed!

The first thing to do at the grand court meeting, the first person to speak, is to get money from him? This is outrageous, this is too much!

He immediately made a "Puh" sound and sneered, "Two hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver are not enough to build a bridge? Since my Ministry of Revenue allocated two hundred and fifty thousand taels in the first place, then there are only two hundred and fifty thousand taels. The construction period has not been completed because your Ministry of Works did not make a good budget! You want more after it's used up? A street child looking for milk from his mother, if one meal is not enough, he can still eat two meals. Lord Gu is old, is there still such a reason!"

This Lord Lin did not come to power through the imperial examination system, but he was indeed a genius in managing money. The previous emperor promoted him to the Ministry of Revenue, and he climbed all the way to the position of Shangshu in recent years.

He claimed that he was not a scholar and was proud of the title of "miser", so he never engaged in the etiquette of the people.

This time his insults were quite "appealing to both the elite and the masses". During the previous emperor's time, the atmosphere in the court was extremely vulgar, and it had also deteriorated a lot. It was only after the previous emperor pulled the ears and yelled at him that things got better. The civil and military officials in the court and Emperor Chongzhao had long been accustomed to it.

The Minister of Works has been scolded countless times, but he turns a deaf ear to it. Their Ministry of Works is a scapegoat with little power and a lot of troubles. It's a shabby place where no one loves them, so it's normal for them to be scolded. He understands it all.

He calmly bowed to the Minister of Revenue, then turned to the emperor and wiped his tears, crying, "Another 50,000 taels of silver are needed. This is already the result of extremely careful calculation."

Their department had an expert accountant who was seconded from the Ministry of Revenue, and he was almost working on this matter with his abacus.

A general hummed, "We should have said earlier that this bridge should not have been built. Although the people have to take a detour, wouldn't it be better to add the remaining money to the military budget?"

"Building bridges and roads will benefit the present and future generations. Why do you think we shouldn't build bridges and roads? The flat ground where your beloved horse gallops is what it will look like after the road is built." An official from the Ministry of Works said, tossing his sleeves, "As expected, a warrior cannot talk about ice even in the summer!"

The generals were a little embarrassed at first, but after hearing what happened, they started to get angry: "Who are you talking about?"

Everyone in the Ministry of Works: "If the money from road construction is used as military expenses, you can have horses running on your foreheads!" You are so shameless to rob the money from our Ministry of Works to use as military expenses!

The general glared and shouted: "You bitch!"

Gongbu blushed and said, "How rude of you!"

They silently recited the words of the Confucian sages and resisted the urge to spit at the generals.

The attendant was writing furiously on the side below, recording the words and deeds of the officials, racking his brains to polish the rhetoric of their quarrels, so that future generations would see this as an elegant court meeting in which the civil and military officials were in harmony and friendship.

The censors in charge of impeachment were very happy and secretly took note of the officials who had quarreled in the court - they could impeach any of them for inappropriate words and deeds and for failing to behave properly in front of the emperor.

Whether Your Majesty listens or sees is one thing, but whether they impeach or not is another.

What kind of official is he if he has not been impeached by the censors!

The grand court meetings were always lively. They were arguing in the audience below, while Eunuch Yu above had a bitter look on his face.

He stole another glance at the emperor sitting on the dragon throne. Emperor Chongzhao was staring at the teacup on the table for an unknown amount of time. His face looked serious, but he was actually in a trance.

What is your Majesty thinking about? This is a grand court meeting!