Chapter 117 Epilogue: The Most Honored Couple of the Empire.
After resting overnight, Yuan Chao felt much better. The next day, he went with Xiao Zhuo and Ji An to the house they had taken out in the suburbs.
I left in haste years ago, only to take one last look. Now, I return to this place, where the grass and trees have grown lush and covered my mother's grave.
Yuan Chaolu bowed deeply to the low mound, her voice choked with emotion: "Mother, Father, Aju is back. My brother and I are all well now, and my husband is with me, accompanying me to see you."
She gripped the wild grass in front of the grave with her fingertips and carefully cut away the weeds one by one with a dagger.
Seeing that her fingertips were red, Xiao Zhuo took out a handkerchief and handed it to her. Knowing that she must be feeling emotional, he raised his hand to pat her shoulder, leaned down slightly, and pressed down the thickest clump of weeds for her so that she could cut them away.
Ji Anze stood a few steps behind, silently observing everything.
“Last year, my father died suddenly. I only had time to hastily build this low tomb so that he could be buried with my mother. Then I set off to escape from Longxi overnight.”
Yuan Chaolu glanced to one side and saw a small mound there. He looked at Ji An with a puzzled expression.
Ji An: "This is the grave of the little dog we used to raise."
Yuan Chaolu suddenly realized: "So it's its."
She smiled gently and said, "Now that I'm with my mother and father, I shouldn't be lonely."
Seeing that she seemed sad, Xiao Zhuo took her hand and said, "After we leave, have someone repair their graves properly."
Yuan Chaolu smiled slightly: "Let's go, I'll take you to see the place where I lived when I was a child."
She led him down the mound to a traditional earthen courtyard by the river in the village.
“My father was a craftsman, and he built this courtyard.”
This is a small courtyard, not large, but it is neat and tidy, with well-built walls, which makes it stand out among the rough mud houses in the village.
When she was a child, she thought the house could shelter her from the wind and rain, but now that she has taken him there, she finds it to be so cramped.
The room was extremely simple, covered with a layer of gray dust, and filled with a dusty smell.
Xiao Zhuo looked around the house and found it hard to believe that she had lived in such an environment when she was young.
Her room contained only a small bed, narrow enough for just one person to sleep comfortably. On the mottled walls, there were several murals, with delicate brushstrokes outlining exquisite lines.
On the bedside table next to him was a miniature shrine to the Thousand-Hand Guanyin. Xiao Zhuo picked it up and saw the words "May my little girl be safe and sound" engraved on the bottom of the shrine.
Xiao Zhuo played with it and said, "Did your father carve this?"
She looked proud: "He's my father. He painted the murals on the walls for me. Our house is small, but my father is very skillful. Look, he made all those cabinets for me. What do you think?"
Xiao Zhuo gazed at the small Buddhist shrine in his hand and suddenly remembered seeing a similar one in her palace. He handed it to Ji An, indicating that she should keep it safe.
The fact that such a simple home could have carved out such a small space just for her speaks volumes about the couple's love for her.
He asked, "What did you do when you were young?"
“I would stay with my father or mother, and sometimes we would stay at home together. I would help with chores. I’m not very good at cooking, so my younger brother did all the cooking. But I was the one who washed all the clothes at home. The water was so cold in winter that my fingers almost froze off.”
“There are many children of the same age in the village. In winter, they play snowball fights together, and in summer, they go down to the river together.”
She led Xiao Zhuo out of the house and along the ridge to the small river outside the courtyard. The wind rustled through the weeds on the riverbank.
She pointed to the pear tree by the lake and told him that she had planted it herself.
Sunlight filtered through the gaps between the trees, falling on her porcelain-white cheeks. Yuan Chaolu looked up, feeling the sunlight climb up on her face.
Xiao Zhuo raised an eyebrow: "You can go into the river, so what else can you do? Climb trees?"
Yuan Chaolu said, "I used to do that when I was a child, but I don't do it anymore now that I'm older."
Just then, a hesitant voice came from behind: "Morning Dew?"
Yuan Chaolu paused, turned around, and saw an elderly woman carrying a bamboo basket, watching her from afar on the hillside. The old woman walked towards her, followed by several small brown dogs.
“Child, is it really you? I saw some noise coming from your house from afar, I never thought it was really you.”
The old woman looked at the handsome man beside Yuan Chaolu, then looked at Yuan Chaolu herself. "Chaolu, this must be your husband. You are truly blessed. Your mother would be pleased if she knew this in the afterlife."
The emperor and empress came to visit the old residence, keeping a low profile. They had no attendants with them, and their guards were waiting in the fields outside the village, so the people in front of them naturally did not know their identities.
Yuan Chaolu asked, "Is that Zhang Amu? How is Amu doing?"
"Good, this year's harvest is much better than last year's, thanks to the Emperor. Now that there is no more war, we can finally farm in peace, unlike before when there was constant fighting."
Yuan Chaolu squatted down, stroked the puppy at her feet, and turned to look at Xiao Zhuo with a smile.
Seeing how much she liked it, the old woman said, "This is the puppy of the dog you used to have."
Yuan Chaolu asked in surprise, "It gave birth to it?"
“These are its offspring’s offspring. After all these years, this is a new litter of its offspring.”
The little yellow dog, wagging its short tail, circled around Yuan Chaolu without any shyness. It came up and sniffed her skirt, making a "woof woof" sound, which was really adorable.
As soon as Yuan Chaolu raised her hand, it came close and nuzzled her affectionately. She chuckled softly, but Xiao Zhuo leaned down and picked it up from the ground.
The puppy wriggled and barked twice at the man, a stark contrast to its previous friendly and adorable demeanor towards Yuan Chaolu.
"Should I take it back?" he asked, holding it in his arms.
Yuan Chaolu stared blankly at the man's embracing gesture. "Aren't you the cleanest person?"
“It’s a clean animal,” he frowned, glancing at it. “But it’s fine once it’s cleaned. It’s not like we haven’t kept other animals before; it can’t be harder to tame than a golden lion, can it?”
He turned back in the warm sunlight and asked, "Do you like it or not?"
Yuan Chaolu smiled and said, "Good!"
Later that evening, the emperor and empress bid farewell to Zhang Amu and left the village.
Holding the money and silk left by Ji An, Zhang Amu's fingers trembled. Only when her husband spoke did she stammer a word.
**
As dawn broke through the sky, another day dawned, and the horizon was ablaze with fiery red light.
The Emperor and Empress are about to depart for Luoyang today, and the procession is making final preparations.
Yuan Chaolu stood alone on the plain, her long hair billowing and her clothes fluttering in the wind. She raised her head and looked at the golden light above her, her heart tightening slightly as the wind blew through her.
She left Longxi for Luoyang with nothing, but now she has everything she wanted: a lover and family.
The wind whistled past her ears, and she heard footsteps approaching. Yuan Chaolu turned around, her gaze slowly landing on Xiao Zhuo's face. "You've come?"
Xiao Zhuo came to tell her she could leave, but looking at the golden clouds rolling under the sky, he stopped and stood beside her. After a moment, he said, "You once owed me something?"
Yuan Chaolu said, "What?"
Xiao Zhuo lowered his eyes and remained silent, waiting for her answer.
Do I owe him something?
Yuan Chaolu pondered for a moment, then suddenly thought of something, an unnatural look appearing on her face. She said, "A child?"
He seemed quite surprised by the answer, and said with a smile, "That counts too. I mean, you once owed me a sincere heart."
Upon hearing this, Yuan Chaolu immediately avoided his gaze and tried to go down the mountain, but he stopped her.
"Now that I possess this, I believe that after this experience, A-Ju will never be able to take her heart away from me again. As for the offspring you mentioned—"
He chuckled softly, golden light dancing on his eyelashes like the fluttering of butterfly wings, making her heart feel as if it had been gently struck by something invisible.
"Let's raise a child who carries our bloodline and will one day raise the world, so that our bloodlines will be intertwined, continuing year after year, generation after generation, without end, how about that?"
Golden light shone down, illuminating the most distinguished couple in the empire.
**
The Book of Qi records:
Empress Yuan Chaolu, whose childhood name was Aju, was born in Chang'an. She experienced the chaos of war in her childhood and wandered in Longyou. She was taken in and rescued by a merchant. At the age of fourteen, she was forced into the service of Helan's family as a maid. At the age of seventeen, she killed a servant in the family and escaped, hiding her past. In the third year of Renxi, she entered Luoyang.
Her beauty was exceptional, delicate and elegant. Initially, the Emperor, following the decree of Emperor Taizu to arrange a marriage between the Xiao and Yuan families since childhood, chose her as the Princess Consort of the Prince of Yan. The Prince of Yan refused and wanted to break off the engagement. Not long after, Pei Xi, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, proposed to her. The Prince of Yan was filled with remorse, but the Emperor, showing compassion and unable to bear seeing her orphaned and helpless in her childhood, bestowed upon her a precious seal and made her Empress, allowing her to enter the inner palace.
The Empress Dowager, fearing infighting among her brothers, repeatedly advised the Emperor against it, but he was displeased and refused to listen. Instead, she issued an edict to the whole country, and envoys from all directions came to offer their congratulations.
On New Year's Eve of the fourth year of Emperor Renxi's reign, the Emperor and Empress had a falling out and argued over Changqiu Palace. The matter was kept secret and not known to outsiders. Later, the Empress moved away from Changqiu Palace. The Emperor, feeling unhappy, lived alone in Xuande Palace. He became ill from resentment and even vomited blood. On a snowy night, he climbed the pavilion where the Empress was staying. The Emperor and Empress then reconciled. From then on, the Emperor's favor towards the Empress grew stronger and never declined. Throughout the Emperor's reign, there were no concubines in the harem.
In the spring of the fourth year of the Renxi reign, the younger brother, Ji'an, was trapped in the heart of Rongbei. The Emperor and Empress concealed their identities and entered Rongbei, releasing Ji'an and returning home. Passing by an ancient Buddhist cave, Ji'an wept and said, "My sister suffered hardship and displacement in her youth. She and her foster father built this Buddhist cave here. I wish to see it with Your Majesty." The Emperor then saw the Buddhist cave and sighed, "I had never seen the Buddha before, but now, seeing the Buddhist cave built by my sister, I see countless Buddhist kingdoms illuminating my heart." He then secretly said, "This Buddhist cave was built by my wife; how can it remain in another country for long?"
In the seventh year of the Renxi reign, Rong troops invaded the border. The emperor personally led the three armies, marching straight into the northern desert, and decisively defeated the Rong tribes. The Rong tribes sent envoys to submit to the emperor, and the emperor controlled the grasslands to the north and the desert to the south, bringing them all under his control. The emperor's power extended throughout the land, and his virtue spread to all corners of the world.
Later, he was clever and intelligent, with exceptional talent and skill, especially in murals and sculptures. His book "Yingzao Kaogong" (Building and Design Examination) thoroughly explored the methods of painting and depicted the exquisite details of Buddhist caves, which was highly regarded by scholars. Murals can be seen in Huihe Temple in the east of Luoyang and Sanbao Temple in the south of the city. The Xiping Buddhist Cave east of the Luo River was also built by him.
The elder sister, Yuan Zhaobi, was skilled in traditional Chinese medicine and wrote medical books that have been passed down through generations; the younger brother, Ji'an, was brave and skilled in battle and had made outstanding military achievements, as detailed in "The Biography of the Yuan Family".
People of the time composed a folk song in praise of it:
"The mountains are majestic, and the waters flow freely."
A beautiful woman came from the west; her virtue is as high as a mountain, and she will assist my king.
A beautiful woman came from the west, bringing peace to our northern lands and nourishing the four directions.
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The ending is modeled after historical records and folk songs, so please forgive any shortcomings.
This only covers the initial part, not the whole picture. For example, how the Empress dealt with the Lu family and the Helan family.
Finally, the emperor forcibly taking his younger brother's and his minister's fiancée, and arguing with the empress but then taking the initiative to reconcile—these kinds of things must be recorded in history.
That concludes the epilogue; the next part will be the epilogue.
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