After My White Moonlight Offered Me to the Tyrant

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After Wei suffered a crushing defeat in war, the kingdom had no choice but to offer people and wealth to the powerful King of Liang in exchange for a temporary peace.

Xiao Jing was Wei's most renowned general. He was a man of great character, open-hearted and as bright as the moon on a clear night. He was also extraordinarily handsome.

The only thing people criticized him for was that he had never married, despite being well past the usual age.

Xiao Jing never explained. When he was young, he had fallen in love at first sight with Lu Fu'an, the heir apparent, and had kept his love hidden in his heart for years.

He had once dreamed of growing old together with him. But that dream shattered when the person he loved knelt before him and cried out, hoarse with desperation, "Xiao Jing."

"Please. If you kill the King of Liang and return home safely, we can be together forever."

Everyone knew that the King of Liang, Yu Jianxun, was capricious and cruel. He loved fine wine and beautiful men, and no one who entered his bedchamber had ever lived longer than three months.

Xiao Jing drank all night. The next day, he sent a brief letter with just one light, weightless word: "Fine."

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The palace of Liang was filled with music and dancing. Yu Jianxun, seated in the high seat, laughed softly. "That's an unusual way to humiliate someone."

Though kneeling, Xiao Jing kept his back straight and wore a carefree smile.

"Make him my empress," Yu Jianxun said casually. "I'll grant Wei that much face."

The whole hall was stunned.

"Heir Apparent, are you willing?"

"It would be my honor."

Their eyes met, and each read the other's murderous intent.

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Lu Fu'an had always thought of Xiao Jing as one of his pieces on the board: loyal, courageous, and deeply in love with him, a piece he could discard or use as he pleased.

But as Xiao Jing's letters grew less frequent, his handwriting grew increasingly perfunctory, and his words about the King of Liang became vague, Lu Fu'an suddenly panicked. He didn't understand why the piece had slipped out of his control.

When they met again, the King of Wei was kneeling as he presented his letter of surrender.

Lu Fu'an knelt on the ground. The other man was still as handsome as ever, but his eyes held no love, only coldness.

The King of Liang spoke. "Weren't you in love with me since we were young, and devoted to me for years? Does my empress no longer like me?"

Xiao Jing laughed, then whispered in Yu Jianxun's ear, "Songluo, was I not attentive enough to you last night?"

The emperor who inspired terror wherever he went merely chided him softly. "That is unbecoming."

[Note: "Zhou Maoshu of Chunling was a man of great character, open-hearted and as bright as the moon on a clear night." From Huang Tingjian's Preface to the Lianxi Poems, in the Yuzhang Collection.]

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