The Gilt Book

Snarky blurb: When I was five, for some reason, my dad went nuts and gathered all his sons together so that old fox Gu Feiqing could read our fortunes. When it was my turn, the old fox studied me with a smile for a while, then sighed. “What a pity. The Fifth Prince has the makings of an emperor, but not the heart of one!” I rubbed my nose, which was about to start running, and thought, What the hell does a five-year-old know about the heart of an emperor?

But when I was eleven and that kid Helian Yuyu was five, he grabbed my hand and sobbed, promising that once he became emperor, he'd make me the most comfortable prince in all the land. That's when I finally understood, with all the weariness of age, that not everyone in this world treats the throne like a pile of crap the way I do!

Literary blurb:

I traded all the world's glory for a letter in your hand

Read it through, then smile into the breeze, never looking back

I took this step with my beautiful youth

Amid the storms, I could only hold back my tears and pray to heaven*

Vast, the sky cages heroes who hunt the deer; boundless, the waters wash away half a lifetime of striving

I sigh at the dawn dream of favor, at spring's passing once more; the beaded curtains part, who lowers the emerald drapes?

The silver zither falls silent, the sandalwood strings left unplayed

The purple inkstone has dried, the jade ink no longer flows

I reckon a lifetime of cleverness is for naught, even where the snow melts

I resent how quickly the golden, jeweled days of youth have passed

I gathered the sun and moon's radiance to make a candle

Its empty light shines on the world's shifting fortunes, illusions, and void

I scattered a thousand bushels of pearls to pave this road

When the dream ends, all returns to dust and earth

----The poem above is from HITA's A Book of Inlaid Gold. Give it a listen if you're interested. It's fantastic!