Chapter 205 |
Modern era.
The twenty-first century.
Yu Ruo was twenty-one years old this year, a senior student about to graduate from a top-two university.
Everyone in the dorm had their own plans. Some were continuing the academic grind for higher degrees, while others were considering whether to stay in the city after graduation or return home to take the civil service exams and find a stable job.
Yu Ruo had been different from other children since birth, showing an unusual interest in national affairs and history.
From a very young age, he had made up his mind to pass the civil service exams, become a good government official, and make serving his country his life's goal.
It was dark outside. A roommate returned from the library, bringing food back for them along the way.
"I put the food here. Remember to eat, my good sons."
"Godfather!"
The shameless joking pulled Yu Ruo out of his mountain of study materials. Smelling the aroma of the food, he turned around and smiled. "Thanks!"
Roommate: "It's what a father should do. Don't mention it, sons."
Yu Ruo shoveled a mouthful of rice into his mouth and opened a history forum on his computer. He clicked into the exclusive board for the Great Zhou dynasty, scrolled down with his mouse, and saw that the haters of Emperor Yonghe were still jumping around in the forum.
He pulled his keyboard over, let out a cold sneer, and began typing rapidly.
Roommate A came over holding his takeout box. "Oh, this guy still hasn't quit? Debating the whole fandom."
Yu Ruo frowned. "Yeah, he's been cursing all day. I don't know why the request to delete the thread hasn't been approved yet." It was a real eyesore floating at the top of the front page as a hot thread.
Roommate B: "Heh, this hater is getting too arrogant. Come on, we brothers will join the battle too!"
"Let's drop a message in our college group chat. If we don't scold him so hard that his ancestors from eighteen generations back crawl out of their graves to find him, I'll take Doujiang's surname!"
Roommate A rolled his eyes. "In your dreams."
Every single student in their history department, nine out of ten of them, was a fan of Emperor Yonghe. If they could really take Doujiang's surname, Qu, they would steal their household registration books to change their names without a second thought.
Roommate A glanced at Yu Ruo.
The close friendship between the four roommates had originally started because of Emperor Yonghe. After all, they shared the same bias.
However...
Roommate A's gaze lingered for a moment on the desk under Yu Ruo's bed. It was covered with modern merchandise of Emperor Yonghe, as well as thick piles of historical materials about the Great Zhou dynasty. There were both official histories and unofficial records, with detailed annotations on every document.
None of them could compare to his near-obsessive posture of delving into the past, looking as if he wanted to devour the historical records whole.
In the forum, the haters were clearly spamming as a group, with several IDs clamoring in turn.
[Hilarious. Emperor Yonghe's brainless fans actually have the nerve to step on others, saying they're ugly and unfit to play Emperor Yonghe. Why don't you look in the mirror? Was Emperor Yonghe really that good-looking?]
[This person isn't worthy, that person isn't worthy. Why don't you just dig your master out of the ground to act it himself? Sticking tongue out]
[Oh, I forgot. Emperor Yonghe's tomb is an empty coffin, so there's not even a way to reconstruct what he looked like. You brag every day about how handsome he was, but who has actually seen him?]
Yu Ruo typed on his keyboard: [Emperor Yonghe has so many fans, do you think it's because of his looks? It's for his achievements, the thirty-two years of peace and prosperity during his reign, and his immeasurable impact on later generations. Only people lacking in looks obsess over the looks of others. I suppose your idol's face isn't anything special if you have to constantly compare him to an ancestor who passed away ages ago.]
He typed again: [Take a good look at whose territory this is before you come causing trouble. Have you finished your homework? Is it because the forum doesn't have pinyin annotations that you can't read it?]
Typed once more: [Those who provoke first are pathetic, and your idol is destined to flop.]
The four roommates fought fiercely until dawn, flaming the haters into silence.
By the time this anti-hater thread was locked, the haters had already been scolded for over nine thousand replies by the Doujiang fans who had rushed over upon hearing the news.
Right before going to sleep, Roommate A sighed. "The casting for 'Path of the Emperor' has caused such a huge fuss. All sorts of crazy fans are roaming the forums now. I really wonder who the director will ultimately cast to play Emperor Yonghe."
He thought for a moment. "Hey, Yu Ruo, has that idol you're a fan of been discharged from the hospital yet? If our Doujiang had a portrait, I feel like he would look a lot like him. It's just... hard to put into words, you know, that kind of vibe."
Lying in bed, half-curled under his blanket, Yu Ruo browsed his phone. "No news yet."
His phone screen rested on the Weibo profile page of Qu Dubian.
He knew what Roommate A meant; he had become a fan of Qu Dubian precisely because of that vibe.
Even though it was abstract, he always felt that the man's flamboyant and dazzling presence on stage subtly overlapped with his inner fantasy of what Emperor Yonghe looked like in his youth.
Qu Dubian's latest update was from a month ago.
A month ago, this top-tier idol, who shared the same name as Emperor Yonghe, was involved in a car accident and hospitalized immediately. Aside from an official notice confirming he was safe, no other news had been released since.
The trending topic hung on Weibo for a long time. The fans had practically slaughtered the talent agency online, but they still couldn't find a single scrap of relevant information.
The haters reveled in the situation, claiming he must be dead, or that his face was severely injured and he had been abandoned by his agency. In short, there were all kinds of outrageous and malicious speculations.
Yu Ruo asked around in the big fan groups but didn't get any definite news either.
The empty worry in his heart deepened, and he even felt a little irritable.
Clicking into Qu Dubian's homepage again, the promotional photos posted weren't numerous, but they were absolutely exquisite.
That particular set of ancient-style outfits was Yu Ruo's favorite.
In the first photo, the young man in red clothes held a long spear. The tip of the spear balanced a slightly tilted wine cup, and he was laughing merrily with illusory friends around him.
The second photo: wearing blue narrow sleeves, his side profile stained with blood, galloping on horseback.
The third photo: clad in full armor, his ponytail tied high, hair flying in the wind. Bathed in blood, he knelt on one knee holding his spear, his red-rimmed eyes gazing forward, with a burning city behind him.
The fourth photo showed no face. A figure stood with his back to the camera on a snowy mountain, his long spear thrust diagonally into the ground. He silently watched the unmarked tombstones in front of him.
The fifth photo: a secluded bamboo grove with continuous drizzle. He walked through the bamboo holding an umbrella, dressed in plain clothes, completely alone.
The sixth photo...
Yu Ruo's gaze lingered on the back figure in the fifth photo for a long time.
His fingertip gently touched the screen. Pressing for too long brought up a pop-up asking if he wanted to save the image.
Every time he saw this lonely back figure, a touch of desolate coldness would flash through his heart.
Roommate A: "Oh right, Yu Ruo, I just remembered. Have you finalized your graduation thesis topic yet?"
Yu Ruo snapped back to reality. "Yeah."
His research focus was on the final battle between Nanning and the Great Zhou, the war that destroyed Nanning, as well as the historically famous gentleman's pact between the Last Emperor of Nanning and Emperor Yonghe.
Compared to other topics, this direction was considered one of the harder ones to write about. His advisor had urged him twice to change his topic, but Yu Ruo didn't.
He just wanted to write it.
After chatting a bit more with his roommate, Yu Ruo's mind was filled with his thesis on one side, haters on another, and civil service exam questions on yet another...
With his thoughts in turmoil, he gradually fell asleep.
Yu Ruo had a very strange dream.
In the dream, he was a phantom spirit following behind someone.
This person was dressed in plain white clothes and carried a jug of wine, seemingly on his way to an appointment.
His subconscious told him that this person in white was the Last Emperor of Nanning he had been thinking about right before falling asleep.
Yu Ruo floated behind him, wondering curiously what this person was going to do.
The Last Emperor of Nanning walked through the mountains for a long time before reaching a pavilion.
Someone was already waiting in the pavilion. It was a young man wearing a black and gold dragon robe—Emperor Yonghe himself.
He sat lazily by the edge of the pavilion, tossing a small pebble back and forth in his hands out of boredom before throwing it away. Hearing the footsteps, he turned his head and smiled.
"What took you so long?"
Yu Ruo suddenly understood.
Oh, this was a meeting between two emperors.
One was the last emperor who died just as the great unification arrived, and the other was the eternal, enlightened monarch who forged that prosperous unified era.
The atmosphere of their meeting was actually... not like mortal enemies, but rather like friends.
"The mountain road is hard to walk, please forgive me," the Last Emperor of Nanning said with a smile, placing a wine jug on the stone table. "I remembered this time that you don't like strong liquor. I brought you some sweet wine, try it."
Emperor Yonghe didn't move. He tapped his fingertips on the table, raised an eyebrow, and said, "Fill it up."
The Last Emperor of Nanning said helplessly, "You're too lazy."
Two cups of wine were poured.
Emperor Yonghe took a sip, his eyes narrowing as he propped up his chin. The clear, sweet fruity aroma spread across his lips and tongue.
"Lazy? This is called being tired. You killed yourself so cleanly, washing your hands of everything. Do you have any idea how much time and effort it took me to clean up the mess left in Nanning?"
The Last Emperor of Nanning shook his head. "A unified, prosperous era, a name that goes down in history—how many emperors could never ask for such a thing, yet you disdain it."
"It's not like you don't know my personality. This was never what I wanted. If I could, I would definitely drag you out of the underworld to do the work."
"..."
The Last Emperor of Nanning was speechless for a moment. "Alright," he said, offering a formal bow. "Thank you for your hard work, Your Majesty."
Emperor Yonghe threw a small pebble at him.
"Your mischievousness is on par with Xia Fuyang."
The Last Emperor of Nanning laughed for a moment before turning serious. "But, truly, thank you for fulfilling the contract." He raised his wine cup. "Walking through the mortal realm once more, seeing the early days of this prosperous era, and meeting you in a dream—I have let go of the last trace of obsession in my heart."
"Letting go of obsession..."
Emperor Yonghe repeated the phrase. He stood up, walked to the edge of the pavilion, and looked at the distant green mountains shrouded in mist.
He asked him, "Have you ever heard how others evaluate you?"
The Last Emperor of Nanning paused. His fingertips rubbed the rim of his cup for a moment before taking a slow sip. He smiled and said, "It's nothing more than infamy."
Born at the wrong time, trapped early in the mire—it was all fate and timing. There was no need to seek a glorious posthumous reputation.
As long as he had a clear conscience, that was enough.
"You didn't suppress the historians to heavily praise my surrender of the country, did you?"
"Of course not."
"I figured as much."
Emperor Yonghe seemed to roll his eyes.
Yu Ruo's phantom spirit couldn't help but smile. The Emperor Yonghe recorded in history books was not as vivid as the one in this dream. Something like His Majesty rolling his eyes would certainly not be recorded so vividly.
Emperor Yonghe: "Coward. You should go listen to the voices a thousand years from now. Merits and faults, right and wrong, will have their own conclusions."
The Last Emperor of Nanning fell into a trance for a long time. "What kind of scene will it be a thousand years from now?"
Hearing this, the emperor in the black and gold dragon robe chuckled softly.
Suddenly, he raised his eyes, looking straight at Yu Ruo's phantom spirit behind the Last Emperor of Nanning. The oppressive feeling in that instant made the latter's heart race immediately:
"Haven't you already seen the scene a thousand years from now?"
The surrounding scenery suddenly changed, the world spinning.
Yu Ruo abruptly woke up from the dream.
He slowly pressed his palm against his chest, his hand trembling slightly from his pounding heart.
...A dream?
He had actually dreamed of Emperor Yonghe and the Last Emperor of Nanning.
And such a harmonious scene at that.
Yu Ruo shook his head, trying hard to recall, but he couldn't remember what the two emperors in the dream looked like.
He stared blankly for a moment before his phone suddenly started buzzing non-stop. Yu Ruo opened it to look and saw that the big fan group for Qu Dubian (Biandou) he had joined was exploding—
Group Admin: [Fuck!! Concert!!! Our cub's concert date for this year is set! A show on 10.27! There are still two months, does this mean our cub is okay ahhhhh!!]
[Biandou YAY finally there's news woo woo...]
[Is the ticket grabbing time set yet? There's no activity on the cub's Weibo woo woo, I hope the agency didn't post it by mistake.]
Yu Ruo: !!!
He sat up in bed all at once. Dreams, essays, and all sorts of messy thoughts vanished completely. He immediately surfed through the trending topics on Weibo for a while, then quickly clicked into Qu Dubian's Weibo homepage.
Who would have thought that just as he clicked in and refreshed, he saw a freshly posted update from the Weibo owner:
Qu Dubian V: [Had a long dream, and now I'm discharged from the hospital. Thank you all for your concern, I am safe and sound. See you at the concert.]
The accompanying picture was a hand holding an apple. Although the focus was on the fingers, the blurred background outline clearly showed a hospital bed.
A certain hospital, single VIP ward.
After Qu Dubian posted on Weibo, he didn't look at the comment section that was erupting like a geyser. He put down his phone, got out of the hospital bed, and walked to the window.
The morning light filtered through the gaps in the blinds. He slightly raised his hand, and the light fell on his fingertips and palm.
The interplay of light and shadow was like an illusion, just like a dream.