“What is full must empty, and what is lacking will one day be full. The world turns and turns; meetings and partings are all dust. Nothing is constant, and all splendor ends in ashes. When the song ends and the people leave, all things return to nothing. Words rise to the lips, then fall silent; all I can say is that autumn is cold.”
People spend their whole lives trapped behind vermilion walls. They turn against their own flesh and blood for power, fight among the imperial consorts for love, and set brothers against each other over the succession. Dynasties rise and fall, fortunes wax and wane, great houses flourish and decline. A century of splendor is, in the end, no more than a fleeting illusion.
“Her golden hairpins and willow-shaped ornaments gleam as she laughs, leaving behind a faint fragrance. I search for her through the crowd a thousand times, then suddenly turn and find her where the lamplight grows dim.”
“Who is he looking for?”
Within the palace walls, promises made long ago turned to bubbles. In the end, it was only this: year after year the flowers look the same, but the people change with every passing year··
Once, they had gazed at one another from horseback across the wall; one look had broken his heart. Now, it was: “Lately, whenever I catch a glimpse of you, I fall silent, and my brows only draw together.”
Only the rosary beads remain, with love still deep: “Though seas dry and rocks crumble, the pair of mandarin ducks will stay together; if they must part, they will die together.”
A great fire broke out at Prince An’s residence, consuming every desire and every ounce of greed for imperial power.
Onstage, the storyteller sang: “Born of the same root, why should we be so quick to destroy each other?”
The palace walls loom high, spears flash suddenly; those who fight for the throne slaughter their own kin.
Splendid blooms embroidered, wind-stripped and rotten; branches of great houses scatter, and flesh and blood turn against one another.
Tragic! Tragic! Tragic!
The vermilion walls grow old, glory slips away; the great houses’ dreams shatter, impossible to reclaim.
Vows of joy betrayed, a life of delusions; in a single day, fortunes fall and all things end.
Enough! Enough! Enough!
In the end, all that remains is:
Longing that cannot be fulfilled, old grudges that cannot be erased, and death between us;
Kindness and duty betrayed, love and hate at odds, and no passage between the ends of the earth.
Remembering the past
“Third Miss Xu, this is the third time I’ve saved you.”
“Third Miss Xu, are you thinking of marrying me?”
“I’d become a nun before I married you!”
“I will protect you for the rest of my life!”
Sorry dear readers, I am the author of this novel. I have been ill recently and have not recovered yet. Plus there are many things going on recently, I may have to stop updating for a while. I am really sorry.