[TCFO] Arc 1 — Chapter 68.2
Big Brother’s Epilogue II
“Emperor, this is the second surrender after our neighbour’s. We live up to your expectations and dedicate this to the great Emperor of the Lan Kingdom!”
A bloodied general, his face full of hostility, his eyes trembling with the warrior gaze, knelt on the ground, and looked up at the man who towered above him. The man was dressed in a blood-red dragon robe, with a haughty and indifferent look.
”The soldiers need a good rest. They are too tense. They will easily break. Three years later, I will take the Yan Kingdom ...”
The man on the dragon chair spoke with his half-lidded eyes and his expression unreadable.
Only his pale hands held a man’s hairpin, but it was carved from some cheap wood.
Still, it had been cared for by Lan Ziyu for ten years, by his gentle touch between his thumbs, with the caress of a lover’s affection and obsession. The people in the courtroom knew that it was the only possession of the Princess of Lan Kingdom.
Because it was a hairpin, the Princess of the Lan Kingdom had carved herself but had never been given away.
From then on, the hairpin, which had never been given to him, remained by Lan Ziyu’s side. Occasionally, when he was in the imperial garden, Lan Ziyu was spotted with the trace of an unknown expression. The cold and bloodthirsty monarch, high above the rest, revealed a touch of tenderness and vulnerability to the hairpin.
But more than that, there was a sadness and despair that one could not ignore!
The man kneeling on the ground before Lan Ziyu at that moment looked up at the monarch whose eyes were focused on the hairpin in his hand. With a hint of disapproval and complexity in his eyes, he finally nodded, “Per the Emperor’s decree!”
“Have you found the Celestial Silk and the Shura Flower you were asked to find?
The cold, solemn tone of voice was enough to freeze the atmosphere in the courtroom in an instant as if the slightest disagreement with the man’s answer would bring about the end of the world. Everyone could not help but tremble, for that forbidden matter stood above all else, without exception!
“In answer to my Emperor’s word, it has been found, in a place of extreme cold and a place of extreme heat! And I have ordered the generals to go and retrieve it and give it to Master Yan to begin making the Phoenix Empress’s Wedding Dress!”
The man’s reply made Lan Ziyu, who had been looking cold with half-lidded eyes, raise his head and finally look excited, “Good, good! I want to see her wedding dress as soon as possible!”
“Yes!”
Everyone knew who she was, and Lan Ziyu never concealed the thoughts of his heart. Although Lan Ziyu had declared that Lan Min was the only Lan Empress of Lan Kingdom when he returned to the country with Lan Min’s coffin in his arms, the ministers remonstrated at his decision. Those ministers had died, they were either slaughtered by Lan Ziyu himself in the court to make an example of them, or they resigned the next day and returned to their hometowns. Some, too, changed their mind the next day and wrote a letter to give Lan Min a title, hoping their recognition would please the Emperor!
But whichever it was, any ilk of protest was suppressed by Lan Ziyu’s powerful imperial pressure, and if there was any gossip, there was only one way out, and that was death!
The tyrannical and ruthless tactics made Lan Min a subject of taboo in the Lan Kingdom! No one dared to comment on her. And under Lan Ziyu’s iron coercion methods, not a single person could rebel.
Except for the unspeakable cruelty when Lan Min was raised, every one of his policies and measures had to be hailed as the wise ruler of his generation, a virtuous monarch, a true emperor’s talent!
All the people cared about was a few taels of food in their mouths, a few acres of land in their hands, and light breezes and snow at their doorsteps. As long as he could keep the people fed and watered, they would only listen to gossip about the affairs of his harem. The decree received by the wise ministers made them criticise when Lan Ziyu married his own sister as his wife, but apart from this matter, Lan Ziyu seemed to be born to restrain them.
He was always decisive, sharp, and clear-headed in everything: from buying land in the village, to marrying his wife, to expanding his territory. Everything was meticulously organised, without confusion or a single mistake. The officials’ thoughts towards their Emperor were a mixture of love, awe, fear, and hatred!
The mixture of emotions made the ministers feel helpless to this loyal and crazed Emperor. If pushed to the limit, the Emperor would go mad and kill without a second thought.
So over time, they compromised. As long as Lan Min was not involved, Lan Ziyu was the most suitable Emperor for the ages, the absolute hegemon!
“Prince, please review all the memorials of today’s court.”
The eight-year-old boy who had been standing on the left side of the dragon chair had no trace of youthfulness on his face, only maturity and precociousness. All morning he had been listening to the court. He watched his nose and heart in the morning, obediently on the side as if he were a five-year-old child. In rain or shine, he followed the man whom people admired and worshipped, learning all that he had given him.
Everyone called him the Prince. He thought that it was his father and that the woman who was hidden in the vast ice palace excavated by the imperial palace was his Mother because every morning and evening, he would go to the ice palace to pay his respects to her.
But he was never allowed to call her Mother! Nor was he allowed to call the Emperor, Father. He could only call him Emperor and her, Empress Lan! He was required to call them Empress Mother and Emperor even when he would one day ascend to the immortal throne! He could be disrespected and neglected, but that woman must be treated with absolute respect and admiration, with no room to budge!
And so the teachers who had served him since he was a child called him the Prince, the child of the Emperor and Empress! However, the first words out of his mouth were not “Father” or “Mother”, but “Empress Lan”!
From the age of three, that man, who resembled a god, began to teach him personally. At that time, he wanted to do his best every time, just to see the growing satisfaction in the Emperor’s eyes.
At the age of five, that man treated him like an adult and began to make him stand in the courtroom. Although he drew a few criticisms, one look from the man instantly calmed the agitation of the civil and military officials, and his dull, uninterested eyes instantly extinguished the smoke that had not yet begun! At his gaze, their protest was instantly exterminated.
At that time, in his heart, this man sitting on the dragon throne of the Lan Kingdom was not only his god but the god of all people. They admired him, feared him, and loved him.
The child wanted to do better, to gain more of his approval, but his satisfaction was always when he became more capable of being on his own. The higher Lan Ziyu’s expectations were, the better he had to be to gain his approval.
Because ever since he was a child, he had looked up to this man. He was a man so powerful that he had longed for and admired him from the pit of his heart!
“Your son* obeys your majesty’s decree!”
*Expression is more like your son, your servant.
Lan Ziyu got up and left. When the red dragon robe fell to the lavish floor, it was as bright red, truly extravagant, bringing a sense of splendour and despair to the room.
If one looked carefully, the slabs on the ground were the flowers of the banks of the Yellow Springs. The craftsmen meticulously carved them. The flowers and leaves were rotten and beautiful, symbolic of a cruel and desperate love, a world of eternal sorrow.
After Lan Min’s death, he fell in love with this red, bloody colour. -Red that pierced the eyes, red that killed the heart, just like her on Mount Snowdrop, her blood-stained dress .... corrupted, decayed, desperate and cruel...
His life, on that day, became withered. His heart had long been crushed into ash, sunk into a dry well, and overturned in despair ...
