Because we were both infected with a paired life-and-death curse, we could feel each other’s emotions and share each other’s pain. The Crown Princess and I tormented each other for ten years. She hated me for separating her from my elder brother, and repeatedly stabbed herself to force me to divorce her. I hated her for loving someone else, but endured the pain throughout my body and clung desperately to the imperial decree marrying us. Each of us held the other’s life in our hands, and neither would yield first. But on the day our kingdom fell, she put on my cloak and rode alone to draw away a hundred thousand enemy troops, saving my life. “A Xuan, you have to live. Go, quickly!” I survived, but the enemy captured the wrong person and tortured her to death by slow slicing. “I’ve repaid the debt for saving my life.” “If there’s another life, Your Highness, I only ask you to let me be with him.” Song Ning died reciting the love poems my elder brother had written for her. That night, I was betrayed by a traitor and took my own life on the battlefield, swearing I would never live as a subject of a conquered nation. When I opened my eyes again, I knelt and kowtowed to my father. “I’ll go to Xirong as a hostage in my elder brother’s place.” Song Ning, you gave your life to ask for the thing you wanted in your next life. In this life, I’ll make it happen.
