Chapter 110 A Ceremony of Coming of Age Forged in Blood (Author's Note)
The mountain wind howled, carrying strange roars, like the neighing of horses or curses. It took the young man, who had become a frightened bird, a long time to calm down.
"Look at Fan Niang! You promised yesterday that you would take good care of her as your daughter." Changsun Qingjing hurriedly pushed Fan Niang in front of the dying man, shouting incoherently, "You promised not to think about Yang Guang, not to care about Yuwen Shu, and to take good care of Fan Niang as your daughter for the rest of your life. How can a man break his promise?"
“I won’t go to that Li Keshi’s house. I’ll stay with you until you’re healed. I don’t care if you’ve offended the emperor or some other treacherous official I’ve never even heard of. From now on, I’ll be Mr. Wei’s daughter, and I’ll take care of him…” She picked up Han Shi’e in a daze. “Young Master Li, Madam Changsun, please save Mr. Wei!”
Li Shimin turned his face away, the mountain scenery before him already blurred. He immediately wiped away his tears, accepted the irreversible fate, and grasped Han Shi'e's hand tightly, saying, "I promise you, I will take good care of her."
"How could you agree to him so readily? He's already confused; after hearing your words, he'll be even more suicidal." Changsun Qingjing was at a loss for how to deal with Han Shi'e's sudden dying words, and could only playfully punch Li Shimin. "You should persuade him, tell him you have a way to save him!"
Li Shimin frowned as he endured the pain of his ribs being shattered.
Li Fanniang grasped her adoptive father's hand: "Father, Father, I'm here."
Changsun Qingjing didn't know how this girl, who had already lost her biological father, would cope with the death of her adoptive father.
"Live well, Fan Niang, live until the tyrant dies and the country is destroyed, and the people see the light of day again."
“I’ll listen to you, Father.”
“I don’t want to die like a dog. Remove the arrowheads for me, and hurry up.” He pointed to his chest and added, “Remember, your father died in battle, fighting against a tyrannical and incompetent ruler. Although he was a little late in meeting his comrades who had been buried for many years, we cannot say that he was a traitor who disgraced his father’s name.”
Li Fanniang nodded, uttered "Namo Shakyamuni Buddha," and tremblingly moved her hands close to the half-broken arrow shaft.
Changsun Qingjing turned his face to the side, clenched his fists, and trembled all over.
Han Shi'e smiled and nodded, encouraging Li Fanniang to get started.
The father prayed to his daughter for a dignified death.
The girl gripped the broken arrow shaft tightly and pulled upwards with all her might, gushing blood splattering onto her cheeks and neck.
The blood of laborers who died while performing corvée labor and the blood of the pillars of the nation who attempted to overthrow the country thus converged in the same girl in a strange and tragic way.
Double the bloodshed, double the hatred. Double the blood debt is now owed to Yang Guang.
Li Fanniang collapsed onto Han Shi'e's chest, sobbing and lamenting the injustice of fate.
Han Shi'e was much calmer than everyone had imagined. His lips twitched a few times, his body swayed a few times, and then he died.
"The sky is so high, so blue." This seems to be Han Shi'e's last whisper before his death.
Finally, all resentment and longing for the human world were swallowed up by the mountain wind.
Changsun Qingjing picked up the broken arrow, its blood gradually congealing, from beside Li Fanniang and hurled it far away, his heart filled with mockery of Yang Guang's glee.
What a delightful, mischievous ending!
Li Fanniang cried for a long time before finally snapping out of her dazed state.
Following Han Shi'e's dying wish, she pleaded with Li Shimin and Changsun Qingjing to help her bury her father, without erecting a tree or a mound.
The three men temporarily placed Han Shi'e's body in an inconspicuous cave, covering it with tree branches and rocks, preparing to bury it at night.
“The house should be burned to the ground.” Li Fanniang sat down against the cave entrance and noticed that her adoptive father’s blood had congealed on her cheek. She took a deep breath of the bloody air and said nonchalantly, “No one will be able to find him anymore. He will not disappear in the emperor’s nightmare.”
She turned her head, her eyes filled with reverence: "Lady Changsun, no matter what the world says about my adoptive father, he is a righteous and upright gentleman in my heart... Could you tell me about his history when you have time?"
“Yes, Fan Niang. You don’t need to care about what others say. Your father is a gentleman,” Changsun Qingjing comforted Li Fan Niang. “You can also tell Han Gong’s cousins everything you’ve seen and heard…”
“I want to live. To live until Zhang Liang comes back to fetch me, to live until I can go to Chang'an to meet my adoptive father and his family…” Li Fanniang wrapped her arms around her shoulders to keep warm, “to live until the tyrannical emperor dies suddenly, to live until the clouds part and the sun shines again, and then to bury him back in his hometown. To seal his grave, erect a monument, write his epitaph, restore his name, and clear his name…”
Changsun Qingjing grasped the hand of the illiterate girl who seemed to resonate with him perfectly, and said as if making a promise, "We can do all that you've said. Let's just wait and see."
Li Fanniang nodded, then suddenly pulled a wad of cloth from her bosom and handed it to Changsun Qingjing: "I was in such a rush just now, I almost forgot Young Master Duan's instructions..."
"He gave it to me?" Changsun Qingjing opened the cloth in surprise; it was a map of Jinyang Palace.
“Yes, absolutely.” Li Fanniang recalled the events of last night, “When you and Father went out to collect medicinal herbs, he told me to give them to you after he left. He repeatedly told me to give them to you only after he had gone far away, and now you really can’t catch up with him…”
"It's my fault. It must be my lustful look towards Yu Longzi that put him in a difficult position..." Changsun Qingjing was still resentful about taking someone else's beauty and dared not accept this great gift from Duan Zhixuan, which he had obtained at the cost of his life.
“Young Master Duan told me the other day that you and Father definitely weren’t collecting medicinal herbs, but probably went to commit murder together…” Li Fanniang said casually, she was no longer afraid of death.
"Yes, we conspired to bury a thief, and we almost stripped him naked to divide the loot," Changsun Qingjing nodded in acknowledgment.
Li Shimin squatted down beside them and listened attentively.
"Whether I'm male or female has nothing to do with whether I'm his sworn brother or not." Changsun Qingjing lowered her head and sniffed, her eyes stinging and itching. "How could I possibly look down on his friend?"
“Well said! I’ll take a look at the map too.” Li Shimin leaned over to Changsun Qingjing and examined the map closely. “Considering that Duan Zhixuan will be forced to catch so many fireflies for his fiancée and suffer so many mosquito bites, I have no choice but to steal this Jade Dragon. Otherwise, wouldn’t I be ridiculed by the scoundrels of the Five Mausoleums?”
Changsun Qingjing gave a bitter smile, looking at her disheveled husband. She felt that in the blink of an eye, the world had changed so much, and she didn't know how to cope with the ordinary life after returning to the villa.
"I'm sorry for causing such a mess." Li Shimin squeezed the back of Changsun Qingjing's hand, his eyes filled with the anxiety that he could never return to the carefree days of his youth.
After adding some dry branches and leaves to the entrance of the cave and confirming that everything was safe, Li Shimin knelt down three times before the cave where Han Shi'e's body was hidden.
Li Fanniang leaned gently against Changsun Qingjing's shoulder, her even breath carrying the scent of blood and morning dew.
"The dew on the leek, how easily it dries. The dew dries and falls again tomorrow, but when a person dies, when will they return?" Changsun Qingjing hummed an ancient elegy, patting Li Fanniang's back, which was rising and falling, and suddenly trembling because of the strange scene in her dream.
Occasionally, a faint smile would appear on her face in her dreams. Some people can meet by crossing the Pujin Ferry; some can meet after overcoming countless hardships; but for many ordinary people in this era, whose fates are fraught with misfortune, they can only meet in their dreams…
A cluster of ground plum blossoms hangs down from above the rock she is leaning against, the dew on the tiny petals being slowly absorbed by the morning breeze and the rising sun.
Li Shimin turned his head to look up at the eastern sky, trying to hold back his tears.
The gray sky had become completely clear and transparent, and the dim, lackluster stars had been completely swallowed up by bright, vibrant light. A skirt of gold and red intertwined colors stretched out across the sky, flowing and shimmering like the tail wings of a phoenix.
He suddenly remembered that he had missed his sixteenth birthday, but fortunately, he could still make it to Changsun Qingjing's fourteenth birthday.
The sky finally retracted its magnificent skirt and tail.
Spring arrives with great difficulty in Beiman, but there are still some golden flowers, violets, ground lilies, and wild roses that bloom unhappily in the chilly spring.
Changsun Qingjing took off her turban and re-tied her loose hair into a bun. Then she cut off a few sprigs of ground-flowering plum blossoms that were growing above the inconspicuous grave, tied them together into a rough hairpin, and inserted it crookedly into her temples.
The white lilies by the hair were deformed by the wind, yet they clung tenaciously to the branches, as if the flowers were teasing the cold wind rather than the wind abusing its power.
The disheveled young man ushered in the real coming-of-age ceremony and hairpin ceremony of his life, and experienced a hasty growth overnight.
The ever-changing nature of fate has never shown mercy to the ideals, sincerity, and passion of ordinary people, nor has it taken into account extraordinary love affairs or blood ties.
There are always some things in this world that cannot be threatened by bloodshed, war, power, or death.
Li Shimin knelt down in front of Changsun Qingjing, his dusty and scarred hands lovingly sheltering the star-like plum blossoms from the wind.
“Bizhiqiluo,” he murmured, as if lamenting, as if pondering, as if deep in thought.
Changsun Qingjing looked up, overjoyed: "Is this the elegant name of the flower? It's so beautiful. Like a piece of jade, like a promise, endless and continuous."
"Yes, it sounds beautiful, like a radiant promise, everlasting." Li Shimin smiled as he looked at the clear sky.
That's not another name for *Prunus triloba*, it's "I love you" in Beijing Language and Culture University.
He loved the girl who had gotten into trouble and fled with him, loved the creeping lilies swaying in the dim light covering the hillsides, and loved this fragmented world that endured humiliation yet awaited the dawn...
Author's Note: Note: 1. "Bizhiqiluo" is a phonetic representation of the Xianbei language, fabricated for the sake of fluency, and is 99% unreliable.
2. In my setting, A-Jing doesn't speak Xianbei, but she does speak Turkic. Sheng's father is a pragmatist.
3. The term "Erfeng Hui" came about because Madam Dou was forced to resort to various methods of chanting and praying; it was not something she deliberately learned.
4. This world is a mess, and the little phoenix is patching it up. [starry-eyed]
Mini-Theater (Part 1)
Empress: Keep the 500 gold coins safe. The last paragraph of my senior brother's biography should be read as "heroic sacrifice," but written as "mysterious disappearance." Remember, his character can't be ruined!
Wei Zheng: OK, Goddess! Leave it to me.
Mini-Theater (Part Two)
Erfeng: Director, come out here! It's one thing that the male lead didn't get a scene where he saves the damsel in distress, but what's with him getting his ribs broken by the female lead?
Director Yu: The female lead was too immersed in the role. I'll have her apologize to you.
Erfeng: Never mind... Just remember to give me more screen time.
Director Fish: Okay, okay, I'll add a boat scene for you.
Erfeng: (Eyes shining) You said the boat scene was real?
Fish bones: Guaranteed authentic.
Erfeng: OK!
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