Chapter 111 - Ring
The show began with the first episode. Mu Chen, wearing the robes of a prince, was kneeling outside the imperial study. It was snowing heavily outside, and bitterly cold. A palace eunuch was with him, holding up an umbrella. He looked like he wanted to say something, but didn’t dare to do so.
In the imperial study, an old eunuch said to the emperor, who was reviewing memorials, “Seventh prince has been kneeling outside for two shichen, Your Majesty, see…”
“Hmph!” The emperor angrily threw down the vermillion brush. “Let him kneel if he wants, each and every one of them coming to force zhen!”
The old eunuch was helpless and could only silently withdraw. He draped a fox fur coat over the stiff seventh prince. “Your Highness, it’s best if you return ba. The imperial edict has already been issued and cannot be revoked.”
Mu Chen raised his head, both eyes red as he said towards the imperial study with a clear voice, “Father! This son does not ask you to revoke your decree, but asks that father permits this son to go and suppress the Xiongnu!”
The inside of the imperial study was deathly quiet, and no one replied. The old eunuch shook his head and returned inside. The heavy snow was still falling to the ground; on the s.p.a.cious and empty jade steps, that tall and straight figure was like an unbending pine tree in a vast snowscape.
“Your Highness, let’s return ba, lest the empress worries.” The eunuch carrying the umbrella wiped his tears and bent to help the prince up.
The seventh prince stood up slowly. Because he had been kneeling in the snow for so long, he had already lost strength in his legs. Stumbling, he almost fell, but forced himself to straighten up. He looked quietly at the closed study doors for a long time, then slowly turned around and left without a word.
Walking on the silent palace path, the snow crunched under his brocade boots. There was some exhaustion and loss in his low and melodious voice. “Jinmiao is the di princess, so why does she need to marry for the alliance?”
The eunuch was unable to give a reply, and the seventh prince also didn’t want one. He only continued forward, limping into the depths of the imperial palace.
This scene was filmed exquisitely. Mu Chen truly deserved to be a film emperor; the seventh prince’s anger, helplessness, and tenacity were all displayed in full force.
Holding the beer can, Yu Tang tilted his head back and took a long swig.
Song Xiao reached out and touched Yu Tang’s knee. “Did you really kneel for fourshichenthat year?”
“Dunno.” Yu Tang shook his head. He himself didn’t know how long he had knelt for. He had been young back then, and didn’t understand how cold and hard a monarch’s heart was.
At the same time, Yu Lin, who had stuck to the TV as soon as school was over, sighed and reached out to hug Yu Miao next to him.
“This isn’t a horror movie, what are you scared of?” Yu Miao felt a nice and warm plaster sticking to her waist, and she bent her head to tug her brother’s ears.
Yu Lin tilted his head to look up at Yu Miao, who was much taller than he was, then looked at his own small hands, before he silently let go of his sister’s waist.
With the national station as the chief broadcaster, the other two regional broadcast stations with high ratings followed up by broadcasting the episodes after the chief broadcast. Because the scenes for this TV show were too exquisite and the characters were too handsome, many viewers would switch to these other channels to watch them once more during ad breaks.
It was after three episodes that the young top scholar made his first appearance.
The examination hall was jam-packed with people, most of whom were scholars in their thirties or forties, with some who were even already old and grey-haired.
“Shaoye, slow down!” A little manservant diligently caught up while carrying a lunchbox.
“If we don’t hurry, we won’t make it in time.” A person wearing a white, wide-sleeved outer jacket was standing at the very end of the line. His smile was soft and immature, and he looked to only be sixteen or seventeen. His facial features were clear and handsome, his posture was tall and straight, and he stood out in the group of elderly scholars.
Just as he was looking around enthusiastically, beautiful music rang out, and the scene changed to the end credits song.
A beautiful, young male voice rang out as he slowly sang:
…
The desert sandstorm rises, the sky is high and the land is far, with no message;
Apricot blossoms rain down on the Yangtze River, thousands over thousands of miles.
…
This ending song was based on Emperor Jingyuan’s ‘Zhai Poetry’. It used traditional Chinese musical instruments and matched the lyrics.
Yu Miao had been laughing the whole time while watching the story, but when she heard this song, her tears suddenly fell.
“Miaomiao, why are you crying?” Mother Yu was about to say that this song sounded quite nice, but when she turned her head, she saw her daughter crying, and was very shocked.
Yu Lin was stunned, and he stared at Yu Miao without blinking.
“I don’t know either. When I heard the lyrics, my nose suddenly started to sting.” Yu Miao rubbed her eyes. She wasn’t sure why she felt like crying, and just couldn’t hold back.
‘Golden Age of Jinghong’ had three ending songs for three arcs. The first arc was until Emperor Jingyuan’s victory over the Xiongnu, the second was until Emperor Jingyuan’s death, and the third was the reign of Emperor Hongyuan.
The official Weibo released the news that these three songs were called ‘Sandstorm Zhai’, ‘Dingbei Tune’, and ‘Song of the Age of Prosperity’.
【It sounds so good, ahhhhh! Begging for the complete version to download ah!】
【The background and opening music are also very nice, begging for an alb.u.m to be released!】
【Did anyone notice that the ending song is sung by Qiao Su wa, ahhhhh!】
On the first day of broadcast, the ratings for ‘Golden Age of Jinghong’ leapt to number one and continued to climb. The online broadcast was a day after the TV broadcast, and online users who had watched the show on TV hadn’t had enough, and waited in front of their computers on the second day for the online release.
As the TV show got big, not only did the two actors’ popularity soar, even Song Xiao’s and Yu Tang’s fans exploded in numbers.
Dugu An posted religiously every two days, and no longer released photos of Yu Tang as frequently. Instead, he released a few small things about life. Song Xiao always forgot to post on his Weibo, and at Yu Tang’s suggestion, left it to Dugu An to handle.
Today, a photo was uploaded on Yu Tang’s Weibo. It was the lyrics of ‘Sandstorm Zhai’, the handsome and refined words written by hand with extremely cla.s.sical brushstrokes on soft, snow-white writing paper. ‘Gentleman Like Bamboo’ was tagged, and the caption was: Today, I happened to see this on Chief Song’s table.
【Wishing Your Majesty hundreds of blessings and riches, did you visit the empress?】
【These words… this is simply the writing of a master!】
【The empress got first place in a major calligraphy compet.i.tion, you mortals don’t know that, right?】
Consequently, the enthusiastic online users dug out the name list for a past major youth calligraphy compet.i.tion, and Song Xiao really was on it. This was nothing in the first place, since rich people always had one or two hobbies.
But what surprised people was that right after that, Song Xiao’s Weibo also posted something. It was a large sheet of writing paper, with ‘Sandstorm Zhai’ written on it. The words were written very forcefully and powerfully, and were extremely imperious.
The accompanying caption was: A certain someone came to be a bother, the chicken scratch left behind.
【Wishing Your Majesty hundreds of blessings and riches, you’re saying this is chicken scratch?】
【PDA is being spread very quickly, you’re abusing dogs again!】
【Yingyingying, to be able to catch up to the empress, one still needs to learn calligraphy. I don’t know what to say anymore. Mommy, I want to go register for a calligraphy cla.s.s.】
【Chotto matte, do you see those two hands at the corner of the photo?】
After a round of ahhhs, a user finally noticed that in the corner of the second picture, there were two male hands resting very close to each other. One of them unexpectedly had a ring on his finger.
A man rarely wore rings, and a ring signified that he had a significant other. The hearts of the users instantly turned slightly cold. If one of them already had a fiancee or something, then they couldn’t continue playing around.
【After proposing, only fiancees wear rings oh】 An official Weibo which sold rings came over to explain, and promoted itself in pa.s.sing.
The Internet users were suddenly enlightened. They compared that hand with Song Xiao’s hand holding the script and Yu Tang’s hand holding red wine, and discovered that it was Song Xiao’s hand.
【The empress has just graduated from university. It’s impossible for him to be married, so he can only have been proposed to, ahhhhhh!】
Internet users born with an innate pair of eyes for gay love became excited as if they were injected with chicken blood, and began to work hard at pulling out past Weibo posts and media photos. It wouldn’t have mattered if there wasn’t anything to compare, but there was a huge discovery when they started making comparisons.
Everyone discovered that the watch Yu Tang wore was something Song Xiao had worn when partic.i.p.ating in certain events. The small bonsai on Song Xiao’s table revealed its head in an early photo of Yu Tang’s office. The day before, Song Xiao said that he had eaten particularly delicious lobster, and that night, Yu Tang revealed a heap of gourmet food, and one of the dishes was delicious-looking lobster…
The Internet went crazy at these comparisons, and fans clutched their chests one after another and expressed that this definitely wasn’t a pure male-male relationship. Someone even claimed that they would live stream themself eating their handphone if the two of them weren’t engaged.
Yu Tang’s fans had already broken the ten million threshold because of his character as an overbearing president and his young and handsome appearance, as well as his striking resemblance to Emperor Jingyuan.
As a gift for ten million fans, Secretary Dugu An released two pictures. One was the traditional portrait painted of Emperor Jingyuan, with a long sword hanging from his waist as he gazed firmly out of the portrait. The other picture was of Yu Tang in the emperor’s black robes and in the exact same pose as he looked at the camera with the same firm gaze.
The first reaction online was all sorts of nosebleeds and various howls, then soon became…
【What about the empress’s photo? Since the emperor took one, there must be one for the empress!】
【Hurry up and release the empress’s photo!】
【Hand over the wedding photos, aooooo!】
At that time, the TV show had just broadcasted the episode where Emperor Jingyuan perished from his heavy injury, and Empress Duanhui slit his own throat.
The sky was still filled with heavy snow, and Qiao Su stood in front of the jade steps in his phoenix robes as he looked up at the lead-grey sky, without happiness or grief. The flash of the sword blinded the eyes of the viewers and the blood splashed across three chi. On that matchless handsome face was a faint smile.
A distant and hazy song began in the background, and the scene started to quickly flash through the moments from when the two of them met up to the present.
“Scholar Song Xiao greets Your Highness.”
“The Ministry of Revenue can now only provide silver for disaster relief; there is no money for Your Highness to select talents!”
“Junzhu, zhen… hah, it’s nothing.”
“Zhen wants to take him as empress, cease your words, all of you!”
Everything gradually turned to nothing, as the drifting snow slowly filled the sky. It covered the boundless earth as it sent off a brilliant ruler.
The viewers cried themselves to ruin in front of the TV. This scene truly tore their hearts out. Two young yet such capable people, just because of certain people’s prejudiced notions, died in the prime of their lives.
That night, Yu Tang’s Weibo posted a photo without any words.
It was an extremely beautiful photo taken in an olden-day style. Wearing black ceremonial robes, the emperor stood on a bridge with one hand extended. Another slender hand was clasped in it, and on one fair finger was a simple and unadorned men’s diamond ring.
Little Theater
Xiaoxiao: Why so high-profile?
Fish Tang: I want the whole world to know that you’re contracted to this fish pond
Xiaoxiao: …