Just practicing! Updates when inspiration strikes!
[Despised by all, ruthless and scheming power minister x patriotic, loyal, and righteous female imperial exam champion]
In the spring of the fifteenth year of Zhaohua, the female exam champion, Zong Hanzhao, failed in her attempt at reform. She was locked in an iron-bound prison cart and taken to the execution ground.
Scholars cursed her, military officers cheered, and passersby threw rotten fruit at her.
Zong Hanzhao went to her death calmly. She had chosen this path knowing full well that the country she wanted to save was already doomed.
The emperor personally issued the order, and civil and military officials alike watched the execution.
As Zong Hanzhao's head was forced down, she saw the person she hated most in her life: the powerful minister Yin Zhu.
Their eyes met. There seemed to be pity in his gaze, and she cursed him in her heart for being false and devious.
Zong Hanzhao hated him bitterly. She hated him for failing to distinguish loyal from treacherous, for being devious and sinister, and for obstructing her reforms.
In her eyes, even the word "traitor" was too good for him.
She had exhausted every scheme and tactic in court, yet still couldn't defeat him. In the end, he was the victor, and she watched as he sent her to her death.
Zong Hanzhao thought he must be pleased. His lifelong enemy had finally fallen.
From then on, nothing would stand in his way. He could do as he pleased.
Blood spattered three feet high, and no one came to claim her body.
Beneath the gentle spring sunshine, frost and snow fell from the sky, covering Zong Hanzhao like a shroud.
A year later, all the notes Zong Hanzhao had left behind came to light. Only then did the world see the purity of her heart and her loyalty to her country.
While she was alive, people had condemned and killed her. After her death, they praised her with eloquent words.
The scholars even wrote this verdict for her: "She held fast to her first resolve beneath the bright moon, then met her death at a fork in the road."
Zong Hanzhao witnessed it all and could only find it ironic.
When she opened her eyes again, she had returned to three years earlier.
With treacherous officials running rampant and corrupt bureaucrats filling the court, Zong Hanzhao knelt and resigned. She was done.
Unexpectedly, Yin Zhu, who had opposed her at every turn in the past, stopped her on the official road. "Will you marry me?"
Zong Hanzhao: ...
She fell silent and tried to leave by the side, but he blocked her again.
Yin Zhu: "I can marry into your family, too."
Zong Hanzhao: ...Had she finally driven him mad after fighting him all her life?
*
Yin Zhu, a powerful minister, was ruthless, sinister, and despised by all.
He had spent his life navigating the political arena and knew all too well how rotten the dynasty was.
He watched coldly, ready to sink along with the dynasty, when an unexpected change appeared.
The incompetent emperor had a rare moment of clarity and, by sheer luck, found the right path: he opened the imperial examinations to women throughout the country.
The female exam champion, Zong Hanzhao, emerged at just the right moment, burning with the desire to save her country.
Yin Zhu sneered. He would see how she planned to save it.
In court, he opposed her at every turn, becoming the greatest obstacle on Zong Hanzhao's road to saving the country.
They fought for years, until Zong Hanzhao's reforms failed and the emperor, furious, sent her to the execution ground.
Dressed in white, Yin Zhu stood atop the heights to see her off.
He thought: This country cannot be saved. She has failed, and no one can succeed.
Because he had tried, too, but no one remembered.
A year later, he found her notes. He read of her heartfelt devotion to her country and gave a derisive laugh, adding two words: "Wrong path."
Then, after a silence, he added two more: "True heart."
He had glimpsed her true heart, pure and unblemished.
In their second life, he gazed at her upright figure in court.
He thought: Perhaps this country can still be saved.
The world condemned and killed her, while its rotten nature tried to corrupt her.
But Yin Zhu insisted on wishing her strength and high spirits.
He wanted her fierce spirit to burn bright, and he wanted her to break free of her shackles and return to the halls of power.
Theme: A golden-scaled dragon is no creature of a pond.
