Concealed by Brocaded Clouds, Frost on the Roads: Volume 02 Chapter 12
Chapter 12: A Crochet of Light Moonlight Like Water
translator: Oyen
This afternoon, the temperature was high, and the maids rolled up the curtains at the top of the pavilion. The air was full of fragrances, and she leaned back against the brocade, looking out over the view of the Taiye Pond.
After only a few moments, a maid came up and reported. “Mistress, the Emperor has come.” She looked up in bewilderment and saw him in his dragon robe, coming over.
She looked away and also leaned motionless.
He slowly went up to the top of the pavilion. After the chamberlain had put down a brocade basket, he waved his hand and said, “All of you withdraw.”
He took a white porcelain soup bowl wrapped in gold from the brocade basket, then sat down beside her. Without saying a word, he reached out and handed the full spoon to her mouth. Her eyelashes fluttered slightly. Inside the soup bowl were eggs with red dates and longan. A very ordinary dessert that ordinary people always like to eat. When she was in the Qiuyue Temple, sister Qing Jing once cooked it for her.
His tone was soft, like an autumn breeze. “Eat it, you didn’t eat much at lunch. It’s already this hour, you must be hungry.”
But she was seen gazing in a daze, gazing at the nearby wide lake, not knowing what she was thinking about. Everything on her, including him, moved as if she hadn’t heard anything. Or if she heard it, but pretended she didn’t. She returned to her past cold and distant shelf like before he was injured.
He raised his hand like this, and for a long time, his arm gradually became numb. Only then did she turn her head, raise her eyes, and open her mouth slightly, taking the red dates from the spoon.
He sighed without a sound. “I heard Uncle Shen say that my mother was poor when she was a child, but every year on her birth anniversary, the family, even if they were poor, would still cook her a bowl of this soup.”
The ripe red date seemed to stick in her throat like a bone, and she raised her eyes to stare at him.
“Wushuang, if my mother is still alive now, not to mention such a small bowl of egg soup, what she wants in this world is nothing. However, she is long gone, I have never seen my mother… Wushuang, this is the biggest regret of my life! Even if I now hold the world, but… but I can’t make up for this shortcoming!”
Her eyelashes fluttered slightly, like butterfly wings, in a delicate way. Indeed, she had been born in a house with two healthy parents and had grown up being pampered, so she was unaware of his misery.
“When I found out from Uncle Shen that my mother was poisoned and killed by your aunt, I wanted revenge, nothing but revenge. If it wasn’t for Ruan Yujin, if it wasn’t for her… My mother wouldn’t have died so tragically. I wouldn’t have been so lonely. Yes, I hated her, I hated your entire Ruan family. At that time, it was this hatred that supported me to walk step by step towards this dragon chair.”
“Later, with you, I still don’t understand, something that had been lost, will be lost forever. No matter what I do, it won’t be back. Even if I destroy the Ruan family, my mother will not come back from the dead. Unfortunately, I was too stupid at that time, and I didn’t know that it was important to hold on tightly what in front of me.” So at that time, he had her and Chengxuan, but he was still obsessed.
Then, even God punished him by making him lose her.
It was also from that time that he knew, if, if he could take a step back, then he had more than just a thousand miles of splendid rivers and mountains, but also her, the child, with them accompanying him, standing hand in hand in the clouds. That kind of life was really admired by thousands of people.
“When Uncle Shen falsely passed on my will and ordered you to take poison, after Zhaoyang Hall caught fire. I suddenly realized, in fact, the greatest happiness in my life was already around… but… but they were all lost… Wushuang, you say, what do you want me to do for you to truly forgive me?”
“Wushuang, don’t leave me, I’ll cook egg soup for you with my own hands every year on your birthday from now on, okay?”
The way she looked at him, without a wave in the depths of her eyes, there was nothing. “You once said, when I give birth to the imperial child, whether I leave or stay, you will agree with me.”
His hand seemed to tremble slightly, and he didn’t not speak. After a long time, he suddenly said, “What do you want?” She didn’t say a word for a long time.
His voice lightened. “Wushuang, our children are still so young, do you really bear to never see them again?”
In the near distance, it resembled a mountain-like palace, one after another, connecting with the sky. The sky was as blue as glass and as clean as water. Not far away, a cloud came, so close that it seemed to be able to reach out and touch it.
She stared in a daze for a long time before she said, “I want to go home,” She missed her father, her mother, and even the Qiuyue Temple, and sister Qing Jing.
Qiuyue Temple was hidden deep inside the empty mountain cloud, there was only one stone road up the mountain. Ruan Wushuang stepped on the stone steps step by step, along the road of the ancient trees, occasionally the sound of birds clear and euphonious sound of.
Turning past the stone steps, the sound of wooden fish came melodiously, and several crude houses of Qiuyue Temple had appeared before her.
She entered slowly, settled her heart, and the first sentence she heard in her ears was, “Greed is suffering, anger is suffering, and hatred is also suffering.” She stood in a daze, and was feeling confused unconsciously.
The head monk saw her only after she had finished the lesson and stood up, smiling and saying, “Come here.” The faint sandalwood came from the hemp clothes of the black clothes, which made people feel at ease.
She held the tea and gazed at the curling steam. “Master, back then you said that I had not yet finished my worldly fate and was not suitable to shave my hair. Master, perhaps my worldly fate was just a sinful one, so if I shave my hair, it will be all over!”
The head monk looked at her lovingly with a warm gaze. “Xiao Wan, the Buddhist Temple is quiet and can only skip over your worries and fatigue. It’s just that many things can’t be solved by hiding here. If you’re willing, stay here for a few days.”
She really stayed, as if she had returned to the time when she had just come to the temple, helping sister Qing Jing dry herbs. In the evening of this day, the two of them were collecting herbs in the courtyard as usual, and sister Qing Jing suddenly looked up and said to her, “Xiao Wan, go back, you’re not suitable to be here.”
She raised her head and looked at her puzzlingly. Sister Qing Jing smiled, “He’s here to pick you up.”
Turning her head, she saw him dressed in dark blue plain clothes, standing in the golden sun, like jade. The sunset was scorching, sprinkled with gold and silver light, lining a pair of eyes as black as the night, as if it could drown people.
Sister Qing Jing said lightly, “Xiao Wan, to let it go, is to let it go, you have to sacrifice, only then you can gain something. You’ve been in the temple for several days, and everyday you can’t eat or drink. Since you can’t let go, you might as well not!”
The clouds and mist blocked the mountain road, turning back was the green lantern before the statue of the Buddha. She could really spend a lot of time with the statue of the Buddha and not think about Chengxuan and her toddler Chenglu who was waiting to be fed.
To let it go, is to let it go, you have to sacrifice, only then you can gain something!
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Just want to thank you for having translated this.
ReplyDeleteI know I criticized a lot (because the male lead would anger me to death) but I read that novel a long time ago through Google Translate and I'm glad it was finally translated and I really enjoyed reading this in english at last.
I can't wait to read a new translation from you !