A Shared Dream

A refined young lady and a deranged madman

The day they arrived in Wu Commandery by boat, a violent rainstorm was raging. Fu Ruoshu accidentally fell into the water and was rescued by her older cousin, Lu Heng.

That night, she fell into a feverish sleep and dreamed.

Thunder rolled over a ruined temple in the wilderness. Startled, she stumbled backward and bumped into a wall of flesh. She turned and saw who it was: her older cousin.

Lu Heng's long lashes lowered slightly. He said nothing.

Fu Ruoshu wasn't surprised by his coldness. In the eyes of Lu Heng, the perfect gentleman, every young woman was a precious pearl, except Fu Ruoshu, whom he looked at with dead fish eyes.

But later, she began to dream often of a ludicrous dynasty, a dynasty where a woman's virtue was no longer in her skirt.

In those dreams, there were sticky, sloshing sounds, scorching wax, and the irritating cries of a cat...

Fu Ruoshu found it impossible to speak of. And in real life, Lu Heng's growing inability to conceal his disgust for her only made her feel more ashamed.

Then, in the depths of winter, she was still willing to return, only to witness a massacre.

Blood spattered across the snow. A man looked her way, sword in hand.

Beneath the hideous ghost mask were the very same eyes from her dreams, besotted and yearning...

*

The emperor's power had waned, and the great clans had become dominant, above all the Lu clan of Wu Commandery.

Everyone knew Lu Heng, the Lu clan's eldest legitimate son, as a man of effortless grace, as handsome as an orchid tree. But no one knew the Lu family had another son, Lu Yan, his twin.

Because of the taboo surrounding twins, Lu Yan had been kept from the light since childhood.

At twenty, in the depths of winter, the Lu family prepared an engagement banquet for his older brother, who was to marry the Fu family's daughter, Fu Ruoshu.

In a dark, narrow alley, amid endless white snow, he saw the bride-to-be.

The refined young lady had never seen bloodied filth. She forced herself to stay calm and asked, "Who... are you, exactly?"

Snow whirled around them. Blood dripped from the long sword. Lu Yan stared at her red dress trailing on the ground, his throat bobbing. After a long pause, he said softly, "Cousin."

Seeing Fu Ruoshu visibly relax, Lu Yan suddenly seized her bright red sleeve and yanked the startled woman toward him. Ignoring her struggles, he pressed his nose to hers and tore away the pretense: "Sister-in-law..."

Fu Ruoshu looked up sharply. Lu Yan's lips curled into a faint smile.

No one knew that he could glimpse a sliver of daylight only in his dreams. Because of that, his cold pillow upon waking felt all the more like unburied bones in a mass grave.

He yearned for her. Dreams were nowhere near enough...

*

Clear-headed restraint amid the collapse of propriety in dreams.

Under the tides of desire beneath feudal morality in waking life.

Cover: Paigu Xiaobao

Theme: Waiting for fireworks, waiting for a better us