"Gu Xiangxun, you asked what I wanted."
"I want peace throughout the realm, and I want you safe and sound."
In the bitter chill of spring that year, someone rescued Song Yuran from Nanwu deserters.
The man wore brocade robes and rode a spirited horse. He struck with such speed that Song Yuran didn’t even get a clear look at his eyes.
She was only sixteen that year, and it was the first time she had ever felt her heart stir.
She shouted after his retreating figure, "Hero, I owe you my life. Let me repay you by marrying you!"
All that answered her was dust kicked up by his horse’s hooves.
*
In the early years of Yongtai, snow fell over Yujing. Empress Song Yuran threw herself to her death in front of the Hall of Diligent Governance.
The man she had spent her life searching for had staged a coup for her, leading his troops to surround the capital. Gu Xiangxun, the regent who commanded the realm and struck terror into all, fought his way into the palace with a bloodied sword.
Amid the falling snow, he gathered her bones.
Song Yuran died never knowing that the spring she had spent her life searching for had been right beside her all along.
He said, "I’m sorry. I came too late."
*
The ministers died for their principles, the scholars for their ideals. Gu Xiangxun alone bore the condemnation of the entire realm and walked on through the snow, utterly alone. Song Yuran thought that the snow in his heart must have been falling for a long time.
What she would never know was that it had been snowing for twenty years, and only when she arrived did the clouds part and the sky clear.
*
Female General × Regent
