The imperial son-in-law resented me for separating him from the daughter of the Prime Minister, and hated the royal family for throwing its weight around.
Not only did I send his childhood sweetheart off to marry into a foreign kingdom, I also forced him to marry me.
For five years of marriage, he secretly wept every night.
"How could A Yao endure the hardships of a foreign land?"
But to me, the woman who shared his days and nights, he offered only this:
"I am unworthy of the princess's affection."
"If I could choose, I would rather be a stranger to you, Princess."
Though our bed was only three feet wide, it felt like a nine-foot-wide river of stars, dividing our lives in two.
But the day the Northern Di invaded the capital, he shielded me with his body.
He stood with his blade in hand, pierced by spears, his hot blood staining my eyes red.
I cried and begged him to flee with me, but he smiled gently.
"I have already failed the one I love. How can I fail my country too?"
"A Yu, run. Live well."
"If there is another life, I hope we can both have..."
He never finished speaking. His life was over.
The country was lost and my family destroyed. What right did I have to go on living?
That night, I took my own life before the enemy troops, using the head of a princess to protect the people of the city.
When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day we were choosing who would be sent to marry abroad.
"Father, I am willing to go."
In this life, I will let them be together, and set myself free as well.
