Drunken Sprint

After being reborn, An Ge becomes Xuan Rong. The Han Mu she cannot forget is now a debauched drunkard, while the slave who once wanted to dash his head against a pillar and die with her has been possessed by an attendant of Meng Po, who chases it around day after day, trying to force it to drink Meng Po’s soup. Xia Zhengshu walks through the peach groves and turns to Xuan Rong. “Are you dead? My mother treats you like this, so why don’t you dodge?” By now, Xuan Rong has come to her senses. She pushes Zhengshu away and drifts several paces off as lightly as a petal. Zhengshu shouts, “Now you’re alive again.” Xuan Rong beams. “Don’t forget, I am a Qi woman. Whoever can keep my people safe and well, I, Xuan Rong, am willing to become his concubine.” “Do you mean it?” Xuan Rong’s expression turns solemn. She plucks a peach blossom and tucks it into her hair. “If I break this promise, may I be like this flower above my head, for anyone to pluck.” Then she drifts away. Back in her bedroom, Xuan Rong tells the mute servant to prepare a large tub of hot water, locks herself inside, and scrubs her shoulders again and again as she soaks in the tub. She doesn’t know what came over her, how she could lose herself amid the intoxicating fragrance behind those layers of curtains. Even now, she feels utterly ashamed when she thinks of it. She also doesn’t understand why Xia Zhengshu repulses her. Is it his obsession, his gloom, his arrogance, or the fact that, from beginning to end, he is a general of an enemy state?