The day after, Dongting was distracted all day long, afraid that her dream would come true.
Afraid Yuansheng would be like her in her previous life and meet a tragic death.
However, fortunately the Heavens were not so cruel in this life. The man from the dream never showed up, and so Yuansheng"s fate was changed.
She didn"t marry into a powerful, rich family, instead finding an ordinary man to marry.
The days were a bit ordinary, but husband and wife got along well, and they treated each other with respect.
Yet Dongting was not so lucky.
Her past bit by bit once again fell on her.
Third Prince put on a hypocritical show of affection and attempted to obtain her and thereby obtain the world.
Dongting saw the vicious, cruel Third Prince and was itching to hack him to pieces, but when she thought of what she had endured in her previous life, she felt that killing him would be too good for him.
She wanted to spare him and ruthlessly torment him instead.
With Dongting and Song Yuming working together, they exposed Third Prince"s many evils.
The emperor was furious and stripped Third Prince of his conferred t.i.tle at once and reduced him to a commoner.
Third Prince from then on was melancholy and lacking in ambition.
After all this, Dongting went to see Third Prince and told him everything that had happened in her previous life.
Third Prince suddenly realized that everything that had happened to him had been Dongting"s doing.
In his anger he wanted to kill her, but Song Yuming came to the rescue.
Because he had plotted to murder the wife of the crown prince, Third Prince was ordered by the emperor to commit suicide.
That"s right.
Dongting became the wife of the crown prince.
Turns out that Song Yuming was the son of the emperor"s favored consort.
When the emperor"s favored consort was killed, it was Third Prince"s mother who did it, and a palace maid had risked her life to save Song Yuming.
Now the truth was out for all to see.
Third Prince"s mother"s whole clan was toppled and three generations were executed.
The emperor was getting old and no longer wished to rule.
He declared that he was abdicating the throne.
Song Yuming ascended the throne.
Dongting was conferred the t.i.tle of empress of the eastern palace.
Henceforth, they lived happily ever after.
The End
Translator"s Note: Welp, the ending was bad, sorry about that. I didn"t write it. I knew it was bad because I had read this before. It"s too abrupt, much too abrupt, and the summary format is unsatisfying. Also, no word about what became of Wanqing and her baby. She pleaded illness, but was she really sick? Or was that her ruse to save her baby? We don"t know.
More importantly though, this ending completely undermines the theme of the novel. All through the story Dongting wants nothing more than to lead a peaceful life, she doesn"t want to go back to the plotting and scheming of the capital. But in the end she"s right back there, in a more powerful position. You think there won"t be more scheming? In the end, the author didn"t allow the theme to play out. I"d much rather Dongting and Song Yuming to have stayed in the fis.h.i.+ng village and lived their lives. I would gladly have read a hundred more chapters of daily life there.
But despite the bad ending, and it is a bad ending, I translated this novel because I really liked the couple and their fluffy interactions. At least I can say that in my opinion at least, the novel was great all the way up to the last chapter, where it fell apart. Song Yuming is a standout male lead, and both of them actually were good, decent people all the way through. That was nice to read. So rather than focus on that horrid ending, let"s remember all the good fluffiness that happend before then.
In any case, it is what it is. I don"t plan to translate anything else, so no need to suggest anything.
Thanks everyone for reading!