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Evil star.
People liked to hear and tell stories. When they spoke of it, they might not even know themselves what an evil star was; people shouted that the evil star was coming when a big meteorite fell in the south a month ago, and today this girl also called him an evil star.
The Iron-Clad Guards, who were under the emperor’s direct control, set out from their outpost, went through all four districts of the capital’s lower city, and took away dozens of men and women, children and elderly. Amidst their howling protests, the guard-captain drew his sabre, laid it against an old man’s wrinkled neck, and announced loudly, “His Majesty is about to preside over the Spring Festival, yet you talk of evil omens to confuse the public with wicked words. You should be punished according to the law!”
The blade rose, light flashed, and blood far more red than the frostbitten spring peaches outside the city splashed out. The crowd of onlookers shrank away, leaving only the victim’s relatives to let out silent cries as they crawled on the ground.
These were the emperor’s Iron-Clad Guards. They had the power to kill people in the streets and no one dared to stop them.
A trial? Was a pariah worthy of mobilising the justice department?
The fourth month was a time when the nobles held flower viewings in celebration of the Spring Festival. The flowers bloomed around this time and the weather typically wasn’t too hot to bear, therefore the current emperor, since ascending the throne a decade ago, took the lead in hosting flower viewings, banquets, and the like, and it had long since become a tradition. Thus did the nobles default to using the fourth month as a time for socialising — aristocratic young men played elegant games while drinking and composing poetry or went on spring hunts, while aristocratic young ladies wore their new clothes, admired each other’s embroidery, collected some of the many blossoms which fell to the ground, and went on leisurely outings on lakes.
From this came countless marriages among the nobles.
Not long afterwards, the street was once again spotless.
The premier spring banquet, exceedingly popular among nobles, was held at Linghe Pool which was also the residence of the Grand Princess. Princess Qinghe was the emperor’s younger twin sister, and everyone knew that she handled most of the government affairs while the emperor spent all his time in the inner palace.1The imperial harem As a result, at every spring banquet season, so many noble guests in their gorgeous scented carriages lined up outside her door that they resembled long dragons winding through the streets.
Among these people were two outliers who rode tall, black horses. It wasn’t that the horses weren’t noble enough, but that when compared with everyone else who were all in their luxurious carriages, just riding a horse made them look very humble indeed.
Although one of the two sitting atop the horse wore a magnificent robe in aristocratic style, he frowned often and seemed to feel uncomfortable. People who passed by them also frowned, and even the servants of the nobles whispered to each other.
“They’re really…” they said hesitantly, then, “What a pity that they’re barbarians.”2蛮夷, specifically meaning ethnic minorities not living in the central Chinese plains
The handsome man on horseback turned a deaf ear, however his attendant glared at the gossiping servants and whispered to his lord, “My Lord, this is the first Spring Banquet held since the mourning period for the empress dowager ended and the emperor ordered all the princes to return to the capital. I said earlier that you would definitely get targeted if you come just like this…”
The man whom he called lord gave him a sideways glance. “In their eyes, I, Lan Jue, am only a representative for country bumpkin barbarians even if I come covered head to toe in gold. Didn’t you know this from the start?” he said casually.
Even though he was the king’s personal bodyguard, Yang Feng was still struck by this glance which made his heart beat wildly. When they first entered the capital, it was this look which attracted the obsession of countless young ladies, but unfortunately, as soon as they learned of his identity, they all dispersed.
Just as they were talking, a rather fat old man disembarked from his carriage and spoke to another middle-aged man. “I heard that several princes of marriageable age have come this year, do you have any suitable candidates?”
“In short, it’s fine as long as it’s not the Lord of Western Tang. It’s such a pity too, I heard that the boy is very handsome and has quite the elegant name, but he’s descended from a guilty minister and his fiefdom is so far away…”
Halfway through his words, he saw the person in question riding past with reins in his hands and looking at them with a bright grin.
Lan Jue, Lord of Western Tang. Originally, the entire Tang territory belonged to the Lan family, but due to a variety of reasons it was divided into two. This Lord of Western Tang didn’t have a good life. All kinds of bandits and foreigners wandered around his land’s borders and skirmishes constantly broke out, so as soon as the teenage Lan Jue could ride a warhorse, he began leading troops into battle. When he stood next to the other nobles, there was no way to hide his bloody aura; no matter how harmless he looked, the nobles all felt that his smiles hid knives.
And the outrageous thing was — he had only one servant following him? Wasn’t that for easier eavesdropping!
The female attendant in charge of welcoming guests to Linghe Pool secretly glanced over, and her heart rate accelerated sharply upon catching sight of Lan Jue’s smile. However, after she recognised the jade plate3Technically more accurate to call it a jade plaque, but plaque makes me think of dental plaque on his waist, she also clicked her tongue in disappointment.
Talking behind someone’s back was one thing, talking about them to their face was quite another. Although the two were nobles, their titles couldn’t match the lord of a principality,4国主: lit. master or owner of the country so they hurriedly backed away and let Lan Jue’s duo go first.
Yang Feng, angrily following his lord, couldn’t help saying, “Wars and refugees are everywhere yet the emperor is holding a banquet, is it just for these rice buckets to wag their tongues! Their daughters aren’t worthy of you!”
Lan Jue glanced there indifferently, then turned back. “If it weren’t for the famine and us truly needing food relief, do you think I would really be willing to travel thousands of miles to bring an unfamiliar woman home?”
This path was a last resort for Lan Jue, but unfortunately the current situation was that any daughters of the nobles who would be able to help him probably… really did look down on the position of his wife.
* * *
The banquet didn’t have to announce its start. After the guests arrived, the female attendants brought out cakes and fruits. A maid stood behind each noble to serve them their drinks, but Lan Jue waved her away.
Alcohol in the capital was too weak, Lan Jue put it down after a single sip.
After a while, some young men in plain clothes came out and began reciting poetry.
Lan Jue glanced at them, then called over an attendant and asked, “What’s going on over there?”
The attendant was stunned for a moment at his choice of words before she realised that he was talking about the people who were reciting poems. “Those are guests of various families,” she answered, “My Lord isn’t usually in the capital, you probably don’t know that recently there’s a trend for noble families to host a few luminaries, even the imperial family’s Donglang Pavilion and Cardinal Academy also have a few literati staying as guests. You weren’t present for the Spring Banquet last year, the literary debate then was particularly exciting and the Grand Princess personally selected four of them and called them the capital’s Four Young Masters.”
After listening silently for a while, Lan Jue commented, “Obscene words and lyrics.”
The attendant who was explaining to him was surprised again, then quietly retreated. No wonder everyone said the Lord of Western Tang only appeared as elegant as the moon, but was actually a bumpkin coming into the city.
Yang Feng was even more direct. “Not one of them can fight,” he said.
“Have you heard? Last night Chu Xiang had a poetry competition with that newly promoted Han Feng at Qianli Lake and lost, then he jumped into the lake!”
“Young Master Chu, from the Four Young Masters?”
“Yes, so now, who will the Grand Princess choose to replace him?”
As Lan Jue listened to the scholars, the corners of his mouth twitched and revealed an indifferent smile.
“Villagers in the countryside do everything to live another day, but nobles in the city jump into a lake just because they wrote a bad poem,” he chuckled under his breath. “How elegant, how boring.”
* * *
However, Chu Xiang, who had ‘jumped into the lake’, was currently wrapped in a white sheet at an inn and thinking about life.
The girl called herself Erni. She was a girl born into a poor family, so it was already pretty good that she wasn’t simply called ‘Er’.5‘Er’ as in two (二), ‘ni’ as in maid (妮). People were pretty shit to girls back then. Chu Xiang gave her a jade button and asked her to help him pawn it, then buy him some new clothes and medicine to prevent colds, and she could then keep whatever was left as a reward. The girl burst into joy on the spot, and the evil star became a good omen to her.
Chu Xiang sat by the window. The street outside was very lively, with an ‘even if the world ends tomorrow we still have to live today’ kind of energy, it was completely different from the boundless universe he saw outside his Captain’s Quarters.
He carefully recalled his memories. He had spent so long in the 28th century that he forgot most things from this world, who knew if it was still the same as when he ‘died’ — right, how did he die again?
He couldn’t reach Longque’s control panel, he couldn’t hear the central AI in his ears, it truly did make him feel very lonely. Chu Xiang flipped through the memories which had only been gathering dust for many years and vaguely remembered…
It seemed that he attended some kind of banquet, drank too much, and then someone threw him off a bridge into a lake?
The Chu Xiang of this world was born in the snowy plains of the north, so naturally he had no swimming skills. A frail scholar was thrown into a lake while drunk — if the magical time travel hadn’t happened, he would be a corpse floating in the lake right now.
Longque… Chu Xiang’s hand shook slightly. Oh Longque, I’m afraid you’ve already turned into stardust.
It wasn’t too bad. In this way, when his old comrades mentioned Chu Xiang’s name, they would think of his glorious closing ceremony, go to his grave in the Martyrs’ Cemetery to pay homage, raise their glasses to him, and say, “Congratulations, you died a brilliant death.”
And when millions of years passed, his stardust would create a new star.
Thinking of this, a smile crept into his eyes.
So the question came: the Chu Xiang of this world hadn’t yet reached adulthood, what should he do next?
He vaguely remembered that this place was similar but not identical to China in the 28th century. There had already been signs before he had travelled through time that the world was going to be turbulent. The vassal states were growing stronger, each raising troops and buying horses, while the emperor was a figurehead who indulged himself with his harem. Perhaps he also knew that his days as emperor were numbered, so he just enjoyed himself in the time he had left. Meanwhile, nobles in the capital held banquets and dances, living their luxurious lives with no thought of the future.
Literati gathered in Tianyan, the imperial capital, because elegant music and poetry were popular among the nobles there; even someone from a commoner’s background could become a celebrity overnight if they wrote a popular verse.
Sighing, Chu Xiang reflected that if it weren’t for his rebirth, he would also be like that.
…Now, without a spaceship, he felt too uncomfortable!
Moreover, he had no clue who targeted him! But he couldn’t just forget it either — although Chu Xiang didn’t necessarily want to retaliate, what if they tried again? Chu Xiang really couldn’t remember these grudges from over a decade ago, but he was still worried, so he needed to investigate a bit.
After waiting for more than four hours, when Chu Xiang was starting to suspect that Erni ran with the money, the little girl finally came back.
“Why did you take so long?” He handed her a cup of tea which the sweaty little girl drank in a single gulp.
“There were so many nobles and the streets were filled with guards, I heard that it’s because a big lord is hosting a banquet.” Erni didn’t mention that she had almost been beaten out of the city because they mistook her for a refugee. She handed him a bag of clothes, and said, “No one was at the apothecary, I bought a piece of ginger. I can make ginger syrup, you should be fine after drinking it.”
Chu Xiang thanked her, then found that the girl’s aesthetics were quite good. He held a light blue robe embellished with silver embroidery thread, which were more in line with his current tastes than the white mourning-style clothes ‘he’ originally wore.
It’s just that he wasn’t used to wearing long robes with long sleeves.
“Here, your money!”
“Don’t, I said that it’s for you, you go buy yourself a few pretty dresses,” Chu Xiang smiled.
Erni shook her head. “No way, if I’m too pretty, I’d have to marry someone as their concubine.”
Chu Xiang was speechless for a moment. Erni persistently stuffed the money to him, saying that she had already bought a bag of candy to eat and that was enough.
After a moment of silence, she suddenly spoke. “Evil Star, aren’t you going to the big lord’s banquet?”
Chu Xiang chuckled in surprise, wondering why he was suddenly stuck with the label of evil star.
However, when the girl brought up the banquet, Chu Xiang’s faded memories did offer something — the Chu Xiang of the past did often attend banquets, and seemed to have been called something fourth young master by the Grand Princess… Right, if he remembered correctly, today was the Spring Banquet held at the Grand Princess’ residence!
!!!
Chu Xiang abruptly jumped up. Although time travel was an extraordinary thing, since he had travelled back and got a new life, it would be too much of a pity to be dragged out and executed the next day just for not attending the Spring Banquet. Since the Grand Princes pointed him out, he should at least show his face there — this was a world where lese-majesty was a punishable crime.
However, just as he reached the door, Captain Chu suddenly had a headache when he realised that poetry and songs were all out of his reach now, because if he opened his mouth the only thing to come out would be 4D space-time battle tactics.
Translator:
It’s a headache and a half to work out how to translate 国 (guó, kingdom) when it’s referring to a territory under the overall rule of an emperor, since kingdom implies a king as its sole monarch. I’ve given up and gone for principality — usually used for a state with a monarch using the title of prince or princess, e.g. Liechtenstein — but if anyone has a better idea please comment.
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- 1The imperial harem
- 2蛮夷, specifically meaning ethnic minorities not living in the central Chinese plains
- 3Technically more accurate to call it a jade plaque, but plaque makes me think of dental plaque
- 4国主: lit. master or owner of the country
- 5‘Er’ as in two (二), ‘ni’ as in maid (妮). People were pretty shit to girls back then.