"History is like a person's life. The mistakes that lead to regrets lasting through the ages are often made in a single moment, and even a thousand years cannot make up for the losses caused by wasting an hour."
On the train, Ji Lanming read this passage from When the Stars Shone and sighed. A thousand-year empire had vanished, leaving endless nostalgia for posterity. So much so that every empire that came after fought over the legacy of Rome...
Speaking of which, Constantine XI had it so rough. He was worse off than a mayor. How could anyone win with a start like that?
She turned off her phone and closed her eyes to rest. When she opened them again, she found herself tied up and kneeling by the roadside, with a sale tag stuck beside her...
Looking at the exotic streets and the people with high-bridged noses and deep-set eyes, she examined her own body. The good news: her soul had transmigrated. The bad news: she was about to be sold.
Then a young man bought her. Swayed by his good looks, she planned to repay him with herself, never expecting to marry him twice...
When he proposed a third time, she refused to budge.
"The Ottomans are already at the city gates, and you're still fighting over the palace!"
She still smarted over being killed twice. Three times was enough!
He could be the last emperor, but she had no intention of becoming the last empress.
There was only one city left. Could they really take it all back? Ji Lanming wondered, standing on the towering Theodosian Walls with a hand on the sword at her waist. She looked at the man beside her, whose brow was already etched with the hardships of life. He had done everything he could. He couldn't have done more.
May 29, 1453. The Ottomans had breached the city.
Before the final charge, his hand, covered in sword calluses, took hers. "Do you know what I wish for now?"
Ji Lanming knew only that they were about to die. He had just performed his final Mass. What else could there be?
"More than anything, I want to go with you to the apple tree outside the Gate of St. Romanus and pick apples to eat together."
He smiled, a smile she had not seen in years. It was as if the years of hardship had fallen away and he had returned to the age of twenty, when they first met.
She was surprised, then smiled too. "All right! Let's go pick apples and eat them now!"
He took off his worn purple robe, revealing dazzling silver armor. Like two white birds, they gripped their swords and charged at the Ottoman soldiers, who were as numerous as mountains and seas.
Legend says the last emperor of the Roman Empire did not die for his country. A white-clad angel descended from heaven and turned him into a marble statue, burying him beneath the Golden Gate. If people wait patiently, when the right time comes, the angel will bring him back...
"You will return like lightning,
The whole nation will celebrate,
The earth, the sea, and the sky
Will be bathed in your light.
I will wear white,
I will touch you once more,
Your light and my heart,
I love you so."
Theme: Ten thousand Romanophiles weep in unison. When will the emperor in purple return?
