Chapter 301 Final Chapter: Eternal Sleep in the Great Dream
In the spring of the 256th year of the Great Wei Dynasty, the 40th year of the Yongming era.
Song Zhen had a very long dream.
In his dream, he divided the world into a chessboard, holding people in his hands as pieces, playing a game of chess where lives were at stake.
At the beginning of the game, he was a young man obsessed with chess, living a carefree life with no worries about food or clothing.
Suddenly one day, the blade that would wipe out the entire family fell without warning.
Because the eldest daughter of the Cen family was the principal wife of Crown Prince Li Mu, the entire Cen family was wiped out overnight.
In her dream, Song Zhen was no longer as heartbroken and in unbearable pain as she had been before.
He calmly watched everything unfold before him, standing in the corner, watching himself being carried out of the secret passage by the Song family many days later, barely alive.
As we passed each other, that familiar face was looking in his direction.
For a fleeting moment, their gazes transcended time and space, meeting.
Nearly fifty years later, in her dream, Song Zhen looked at the Cen family courtyard in disarray, her heart calm and undisturbed.
He just wanted time to pass faster in this dream. Faster, so that perhaps he could see her again in his dream.
Perhaps it was a blessing from heaven, but in the blink of an eye, my dream came true.
He returned to that dark alley, where he saw He Lin being chased and forced to hide there, only to be discovered and trapped in a dead end.
Song Zhen looked at her with great interest.
Looking back now, it was those sharp, fearless eyes that stirred his compassion when he was utterly despondent, causing him to stop in his tracks.
"May I help you, young lady?"
Just like before, not a second off.
He looked behind him and saw himself at twenty years old, standing at the end of the alley, holding the white jade flute, tapping it gently in his palm.
A smile played on his lips, as if he had everything under control.
But only Song Zhen himself knew that he was terrified at that time.
Knowing no martial arts skills, his reckless confrontation with a group of assassins was the most adventurous thing he had ever done.
But it's also the thing I regret the least.
That one sentence gave He Lin a chance to catch her breath.
Taking advantage of the moment when the group of men in black turned around, she swiftly took them all down.
Ordinary people would have fled in terror at the sight of this.
Song Zhen, perhaps due to his inherently extraordinary nature, smiled gently and reached out his hand to the woman whose eyes were full of wariness: "Come with me."
At this point, everything was just as Song Zhen remembered.
But the next second, it gradually deviated.
In her original memory, He Lin stared at the outstretched hand, looking at him in surprise. Before she could answer, she collapsed and fainted.
But in this dream, she shook her head.
Song Zhen, who was standing to the side, was stunned for a moment.
He Lin stood up, looked in his direction, and suddenly burst into tears.
She walked over, opened her arms, and tightly embraced Song Zhen, the woman from her dream forty years later.
She said, "Prime Minister, I miss you so much."
Song Zhen felt as if someone had ripped open her chest, and she suddenly woke up.
The candlelight flickered softly in the room. Li Jin, who had been sitting by his bedside for a long time, was startled by his sudden awakening.
He raised his hand, picked up a handkerchief from the side, and dabbed the sweat on Song Zhen's forehead.
"Your Majesty," Song Zhen called softly, frowning.
Li Jin looked at him, nodded, and asked with concern, "Does the Prime Minister still feel tightness in his chest? Does his head still hurt?"
Song Zhen shook his head: "I'm just a little tired. I'm sorry to trouble Your Majesty."
But Li Jin hesitated, then after a long while, forced a faint smile and nodded.
He sighed, looked up at the dark night sky, and suddenly brought up an old story: "Minister Song, do you still have that imperial edict?"
He was referring to the scroll from forty years ago, when the late Emperor Li Yi appointed Song Zhen as prime minister.
"Keep it." Song Zhen propped herself up on the bed, leaned against the bed frame behind her, and laughed. "The late emperor's decree must not be disobeyed."
Having his thoughts read, Li Jin stared at his face, unable to utter a single word for a long time.
"Didn't we already agree on this?" Seeing Li Jin's somewhat annoyed look, Song Zhen raised her hand and patted his back. "I will help His Majesty create your grand ambitions and send Great Wei to the peak of peace and prosperity."
His smile remained unchanged: "After my death, His Majesty, scatter my ashes to comfort the innocent souls who were caught up in that struggle all those years ago."
"Okay!" Li Jin wanted to say something more.
Song Zhen shook his head: "I have lived forty years longer than expected and am content to witness this day with my own eyes."
The night wind was chilly, and although there was a charcoal fire burning inside, Song Zhen still felt a biting cold while sitting on the bed, wrapped in a thick fox fur coat.
"Do you remember that day?" he asked suddenly, leaning against the headboard. "Could you tell me about it again?"
Li Jin looked at him, her lips trembling slightly as she gazed at Song Zhen's lifeless face.
He knew that Song Zhen was asking about the day He Lin died.
That day, as the appointed imperial inspector, Song Zhen implemented new policies and reformed taxes in Jiangnan.
He was unable to return in time for the final stage of He Lin's life, which became a huge regret for Song Zhen for the next ten years.
Li Jin lowered his eyes, pondered for a moment, and then, who had always avoided talking about this matter, slowly began to recount the whole story.
“Actually, you weren’t the best candidate for the imperial inspector position back then,” he said. “It was He Lin who went to the palace and begged Shu’er to persuade me to send you personally.”
Song Zhen had thought of this.
“At that time, her body was already…” Li Jin paused, unsure how to continue.
Since giving birth to her second daughter, He Lin's health has been deteriorating.
Even if a woman from the martial arts world later went into hiding and put down her twin swords, the old wounds accumulated over the years would become increasingly unbearable as she grew older.
For many years, Song Zhen took her to seek medical treatment and massaged her acupoints every day, but she was afraid that he would neglect his work, so she always pretended that she was fine.
Before departing for his inspection tour, Li Jin specifically instructed him to return early, saying that he could always go again another time.
But Song Zhen didn't think too much about it at the time.
How could he have imagined that He Lin was already seriously ill, and that sending him to Jiangnan was just a way to prevent him from seeing her suffering?
“She went to great lengths to prevent us from telling you,” Li Jin chuckled. “The Prime Minister’s wife only schemed against you once in her entire life, and that was this time.”
Upon hearing this, Song Zhen chuckled softly.
"Whether it's Shu'er or the imperial physicians, I have invited renowned doctors from all over the country, but they all just shook their heads and said that there was nothing they could do to save him."
"To avoid worrying you, she lay on her bed, barely clinging to life, and asked Shu'er to promise her that if she didn't make it to your return, you must never see her after she's died."
Li Jin pursed her lips, remained silent for a moment, and then took a deep breath.
"Therefore, when the Prime Minister returned to the capital, he only found the tomb..."
He Lin didn't want Song Zhen to worry, but as clever as he was, how could he not know what she was thinking?
He swiftly and decisively took care of everything in Jiangnan, but he still couldn't see her one last time.
When they rushed back to the capital, only a tomb remained.
He Lin, who didn't want Song Zhen to worry, not only failed, but also left Song Zhen in a daze for the next year.
He listened to Li Jin's words with his eyes closed.
In a daze, it felt as if I had returned to that day.
When he returned to the capital, he was still in his court robes and had not returned to his residence. He leaned alone against He Lin's tombstone.
I just sat there, tears streaming down my face, gazing at the vast expanse of the world, watching the wind and clouds drift by.
"Prime Minister."
Suddenly, Song Zhen paused.
He staggered to his feet and looked at the familiar figure at the end of the road.
He Lin was dressed as if they were meeting for the first time, with two swords slung over her back, and she was waving at him.
She said, "Let's go home."
In my dreams, Song Zhen has no regrets.
Li Jin, out of her dream, finally couldn't help but cover her face and weep.
With trembling hands, he took out the copper coin that had granted him immunity from death years ago from his bosom, threaded a red string through the coin's eye, and personally placed it around the neck of Song Zhen, who had already stopped breathing.
In this way, it would be a life for a life.
In this way, there is still a possibility of meeting again in the next life.
"Bury him with your mother."
Looking at Song Zhen's son, Li Jin buried the matter of his son's ashes forever in the dust of the Great Wei's history.
[Author's Note]
Thank you for reading. This concludes the novel, "The Female Coroner of the Great Wei Dynasty."
Thank you for following the updates, thank you for your comments, and thank you for accompanying Jin Shu and Li Jin and supporting me through these past six months.
Over the next period of time, I will conduct a detailed optimization of the entire text, correcting typos and errors, improving the tone of the language, and enhancing the reading experience.
[This will not change the existing storyline. Multiple update notifications may appear; please ignore these if you've read this far.]
See you in the next story!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
