Mulberry Song

Tenth year of Yong Ge, the emperor falls gravely ill, electing Tai Hao, son of Prince Si as crown prince.

Watching those sorcerers fussily chanting incantations by his side, I just want to vent out my irritations. These Taoist priests, who are nothing more than deceiving mystics trying to play G.o.d, I seriously wish I could just reveal my true form and scare every one of them to death.

He has long been lying sick in bed, his body already thinned down to the extreme, the dark circles under his eyes deep, yet every time these Taoist priests comes to chant the incantations, he would still keep his spirits up, watching them complete all those bizarre rituals.

The state power has already been completely handed over to the crown prince. To this day, Zi Wu has not taken in a single consort, with no male heir, he naturally elects his brother’s child as crown prince. Fortunately the crown prince holds absolute respect towards Zi Wu.

The strange rituals finally comes to an end, the sorcerers all withdraws. He is already extremely exhausted, closing his eyes to rest.

I sit by his bedside, silently gazing down on his face, the sourness in my heart unbearable.

Zi Wu, Zi Wu, why put yourself through such suffering?

What honour Sang Ge has, to receive such longing from you……

“Your majesty.” A senior eunuch very lightly calls out to him, “Your majesty, Crown Prince is here.”

He slightly stretches his eyes open, lightly nodding. The eunuch thus invites the crown prince in.

“Imperial uncle, is your body feeling any better?”

Zi Wu shakes his head, helplessly smiling: “Isn’t it still the usual, how are the state affairs?”

“Everything is well at peace. Hao-er visiting today, is to inform uncle of great news.” Zi Wu grows interested, raising his eyes to look at him, Tai Hao cheerfully says, “Not long ago, when Grand Secretary Xiao Yi was in Tachun, at the outskirts of the Capital, he ran into Reverend Tai Xu! Xiao Yi thus invited Reverend into his estate as guest. This person is but the grand master of metaphysics, should we invite him in, then uncle you……”

Zi Wu waves his hand, smiling as he says: “What reverend, what grand master? Can the amount of reverends and grand masters that’ve come to the palace these past years be considered little? It is but an empty t.i.tle, nothing more than fakes, deceiving mystics trying to play G.o.d. Hao-er should not believe it.”

Tai Hao is stunned: “But does uncle not believe it?”

“Believe?” Zi Wu’s one laugh brought along a round of coughing fit, the surrounding people busying to feed him water, after a very long time, does he finally settle down, looking out the windows, saying, “It is but a ray of obsession that cannot be put down. Always fearing when it’s time I go down, she has not waited for me. Always wanting to get a little look of her now, only then would my heart be at ease.”

Tai Hao hesitates to speak: “Then Reverend Tai Xu, to invite or not invite?”

Zi Wu after a moment of silence: “Invite.”

That next day, I see this Reverend Tai Xu. Divinity running bone deep, what’s more important is, I can sense an overwhelmingly strange air shrouding his entire being, inducing the fear in me, thus not daring to stay close. As soon as he enters the grand hall, I could only sense a pressuring force, pressing down on me to the point I couldn’t breathe, having no choice but to hide outside. I watch them through the windows.

That Reverend Tai Xu does not perform a grand bow upon seeing Zi Wu, only nodding his head lightly. Zi Wu is not bothered by it either, allowing the eunuchs and palace maids to all withdraw to the outer hall.

“Old priest I, hears your majesty has indulged in Taoist sorcery for many years.”

Zi Wu’s pale lips tugs up a little: “[I’m] but only clinging to one person.”

Reverend strokes his long long white beard: “The empress?” Zi Wu’s eyes instantly sparkles, steadily staring at him. Reverend smiles, saying: “Should it be the empress, she’s right here.” Once spoken, his beaming smile directs towards me.

My heart clenches, but sees Zi Wu also look over desperately, his expression filled with nervousness, he does not see me.

“You can see her? You can see her?” Zi Wu keeps on asking, “Is she well? Is she still waiting for me? Is she……is she…..” Following on, he actually grows so overwhelming anxious, that he does not even know what to say.

My eyes were overcome with absolute swelling pain, should I still be able to cry, I would already be choking back my sobs.

The old priest looks me over, saying: “The empress has been swallowed in severe attachment, thus become a ghost. Should she still not relieve her soul and reincarnate, I’m afraid she will be confined to the human realm for eternity, reduced to an evil spirit.”

Severe attachment?

Since when did I have a severe attachment? My eyes turn to see Zi Wu, struck with the sudden realisation, so it is not that had no attachment, but because being overly attached, I have actually let go of self-importance. Attached to An Zi Wu, persistently awaiting him. Awaiting him through the aging years, standing by him, watching over him.

Zi Wu upon hearing Reverend Tai Xu’s words, freezes, asking: “How to relieve?”

“With no attachment left, without relieving, can also reach reincarnation.”

“What attachment does Sang Ge have?”

“This, your majesty will have to ask yourself.”

Zi Wu once again freezes, mouth softly whispering the two words “severe attachment”, abruptly dumbfounded: “She’s waiting for me, she’s indeed waiting for me.” The exhilarated joy in his words difficult to conceal.

Reverent Tai Xu leaves with a smile.

That night, Zi Wu’s bedchambers has not one person guarding it, I stand under the plum tree in the courtyard, silently gazing at the hazy moon scene.

The breathing of the person inside the chamber grows a little heavier, I turn my head back, and sees him quietly leaning by the window, those features lit with a warm smile. Just like the very first encounter amongst the misty rain in Jiangnan.

I a forsaken songstress, he a dandy marquis, beautiful like the dreamlike first meeting.

The plum blossoms behind in full bloom, the descending of petals like pink snow paving the land.

“Sang Ge.” He says, “I’m home.”

On the third month of Yong Ge tenth year, the emperor pa.s.ses away.

……the end.

Finally after a decade of waiting, a decade of longing, the two are finally together.

I love how after all this time, there is nothing else to be said in that precious moment other than that one phrase of “I’m home”. For Zi Wu, after all that worrying of whether she is still waiting for him, also those questions of panic, and the explanations he wanted to ease her ‘anger’ with in chapter 3, he spent seven whole years trying to reach out to her again, just to get another little look of her, and thanks to the rea.s.surance from the G.o.dly Reverend Tai Xu’s words, he comes to realise she is still the Sang Ge who was always waiting for him, so all that was left for him from that very point, was only to return to her side, to finally end her waiting. As for Sang Ge, she has watched over him this entire time, and has personally seen his devotion to her alone. No words are needed to tell her how much she actually means to him, no words can exceed the devotion he has displayed throughout his ten years of reign. And so, with those very words coming from his lips, she really could not ask for anything more. Because all along, this is all she wanted, to be able to wait for him to return to her.

Actually, Zi Wu’s “I’m home” sounds so much more softer and sweeter in Chinese (wǒ huí lái le / 我回来了) the more accurate translations would actually be “I’m back”, but excuse me for changing it to a less accurate translation, because I personally found it sounds a tad too comical this way, all I could think of was The Terminator when I typed it out at first – talk about ruining the mood XD So I took it upon myself to change it to “I’m home”, hoping that it sounds sweeter in its own right…only by Sang Ge’s side is Zi Wu at home

……either way, please understand this little alteration haha, but if anyone has any ideas for a better way to put it, I will gladly accept your suggestions ^_^

Also I just noticed that the author first introduces Zi Wu’s country as Cháng Gē / 长歌 which means long song, but in chapters three and four, the country or the reigning era seems to be called Yǒng Gē / 永歌 which meanseverlasting song. Yong Ge is definitely the more meaningful name, not to mention the more auspicious name for a country too, but both are named after Sang Ge anyways – a homage that represents Zi Wu’s everlasting love, longing and grat.i.tude towards her, such that would continue to be pa.s.sed down through generations, even if a day comes when Yong Ge perishes, this reigning era that had once existed would still continue to go down in history, as will the story of the empress whose n.o.ble death lead to the rise of this era, and the emperor whose undying love for her lead to a lifetime of longing, a lifetime of remarkable devotion, with not a single woman setting foot in his back palace throughout his entire reign…this in itself is a G.o.dly feat considering the hundreds of concubines that occupies the back palace back then, but of course such devoted emperor only exists in fiction haha

Well~ it’s been one h.e.l.l of a short rollercoaster ride, with endless shedding of tears along the way, but I’m very happy to have shared this wonderful story with everyone and I do hope you all had a wonderful time reading as I did with translating it ^_^

Next time, I promise I will pick up a more comedic story, and make up for all the tears with plenty of laughs :D

Thanks for reading!