11.
Princess Vệ Dương was gone for three days.
“When my imperial brother’s people got there, Hách Liên Mạc was still pretending to be the Tô family’s Third Master. Was he really that confident?”
“He was such a convincing impostor that no one would have thought he was a foreigner.” I said, “If Princess Vệ Dương hadn’t been so perceptive and known their sacred beast, perhaps even when the capital fell, the real Third Master still wouldn’t have been exposed.”
“All the Tô family’s men have been executed. My imperial brother interrogated the remaining members of the Tô family all night, but unfortunately, none of them knew anything.”
“But piecing together a few scattered remarks, it seems that when the concubine of the Old Master Tô gave birth, the baby was switched. The real Third Master of the Tô family died long ago. The man who has lived in the Tô family all these years is this Hách Liên Mạc.”
“The Tô family didn’t know any of this. It was Hách Liên Mạc’s side that revealed it.”
“That’s not all.” Princess Vệ Dương slapped the table. “The guards also found maps of the capital’s defenses and a map of the region in his room.”
“A bunch of parasites. No wonder they were able to advance south so easily. They’d been lying low for decades and even had maps of the capital’s defenses. How could things not go smoothly for them?”
Princess Vệ Dương angrily pounded the table again and again.
At last, the heavy stone in my heart fell away with the pounding of the table.
That summer, I went to a brothel.
A long time had passed since the Tô family was confiscated, and the memories of my past life had gradually grown hazy.
But as soon as I stepped into the brothel, I remembered everything from my past life: being hung in a cage, being forced to entertain customers, and having my hair seized as my face was shoved into a bucket of filth.
The moment I walked in, I saw Tô Nguyệt Oanh, one breast half exposed as she sat on a middle-aged man’s lap. Her red robe had slipped down, revealing her smooth, pale skin; there was no hiding her youthful beauty.
She was just like I’d been. No matter how beautiful or talented she was, she was nothing but a piece of rotting meat.
At first, I wanted to go over and scream in her face: “Tô Nguyệt Oanh, this is all you amount to. What happened to your precious resolve to stay true to yourself?”
But standing in the brothel, I felt no satisfaction at all. I went out through the back door, where several newly arrived young girls were hanging in cages.
“Why? I should be happy, shouldn’t I?” I asked Princess Vệ Dương.
“Because using things like this to bind and humiliate women is wrong. She’s trash, but you’re not.”
Princess Vệ Dương stood up. “Come on. This place is full of rotting corpses. Let’s go reform the labor system.”
12.
Princess Vệ Dương took me away from the capital, and we went to Giang Nam.
She improved the spinning machines, hired women workers, and established basic education.
She accomplished so much, yet every time she humbly said, “Don’t admire me too much. I’m only standing on the shoulders of people who made a great impact.”
We went to the forests of the Southwest, and even to Mạc Bắc in Outer Mongolia.
The memories of my past life gradually faded. I realized that the brothel that had once imprisoned me for my whole life wasn’t so frightening after all.
Nearly twenty years had passed by the time I saw Tô Nguyệt Oanh again.
She was working in a factory, her hair wrapped in a headscarf. She no longer looked anything like she had in her youth.
A little girl who looked exactly like Tô Nguyệt Oanh as a child took her hand. “Mother, Mother, look! It’s the princess and your lady official.”
She looked at me in surprise, then bit her lip and lifted her chin, like the eldest young lady of the Tô family of old, as if trying to salvage a little of her pride.
The older woman behind her slapped her. “What kind of attitude is that? If it weren’t for them, your daughter would have to work serving other people now, too.”
Once you’re branded a lowly registered person, you and all your descendants are lowly registered for generations.
The princess worked hard to abolish this system, and five years ago, she finally achieved her goal.
The little girl holding Tô Nguyệt Oanh’s hand gazed at us with shining eyes, and I smiled freely.
“She’s not the only one who has to thank me. Her descendants, for generations to come, all have to thank me—and the person she once hated and looked down on most of all.” That was what I told Princess Vệ Dương when she asked me.
After nearly thirty years across two lives, I finally got my revenge on Tô Nguyệt Oanh.
Princess Vệ Dương suddenly slapped the table. “But there’s one thing I’m very unhappy about.”
“People only know us as the princess and her lady official. That’s understandable for the common people, but after all we’ve done, we’re still going to leave no names behind.”
“It’s just like Tô Nguyệt Oanh. Everyone knows her as Empress Tô, but what was her name? What was her life like? No one knows.”
Princess Vệ Dương took my hand. “More importantly, if we don’t record things now, you won’t know how they’ll portray you in TV dramas in the future.”
I nodded. I didn’t quite understand, but it made sense.
That night, Princess Vệ Dương returned to the capital and kicked down the historian’s front gate:
“Write it down: I am Nguỵ Lan, and she is Quan Trình.”
13.
By the summer of the following year, the princess’s health had grown very poor.
We returned to the capital early. She often leaned against her bed, and though speaking was difficult, she still murmured, “Quan Trình, don’t be sad. I’m about to get air conditioning, a phone, and lobster.”
“Quan Trình, I really want to show you my era.”
“I really want to take you out for drinks.”
“Then we’ll find two handsome guys. You take one, and I’ll take the other.”
The first heavy snowfall came, and the princess passed away. Since she had never married, the young emperor buried her in the imperial mausoleum.
I packed up everything in her princess’s residence and took it into the tomb. The young emperor didn’t quite understand.
I explained, “To create more jobs.”
My mind was a little muddled, but her words were still very clear.
The young emperor muttered, “You and my imperial aunt are alike. You both say such confusing things.”
When I passed the Tô family’s former home, it had been converted into a school for basic education.
I walked around the place. In the small courtyard to the southwest, where Hứa Mộc had died, I had also met Princess Vệ Dương.
I looked up. Two little children were perched on the wall, looking as if they were about to climb over. Sunlight fell on them, just like the first time we met.
Extra Story – Modern Day
“Nguỵ Lan…”
I felt someone pat me on the shoulder.
I opened my eyes. My roommate, Mạnh Thanh, looked utterly helpless. “Did you come to the library just to sleep?”
“And your hands are freezing. No matter how much I patted you, you wouldn’t wake up.”
I stretched and glanced at the pages of notes Mạnh Thanh had filled with writing. “I’m only a sophomore. Do I really have to work this hard?” I said in surprise.
“If you wait until junior year to study for the graduate school entrance exams, it’ll be too late.”
“You guys are such bookworms!” I said indignantly.
“The movie ‘The Wei Dynasty’ opens today. Want to go see it?” Mạnh Thanh asked.
“What?” My eyes went wide. “What film studio would make a movie about Đại Ngụy? What’s it about? Abducting women?”
Mạnh Thanh gave me a strange look. “What are you talking about? A dynasty that lasted over three hundred years has more than enough stories to make movies about, you know?”
“But the most legendary period was still the reign of Emperor Huệ of Ngụy. The whole dynasty was on the verge of collapse, and he still managed to save it.”
“Exactly!” I said modestly. “It wasn’t just Emperor Huệ of Ngụy—Princess Vệ Dương played a huge role too, didn’t she?”
“That’s right.” Mạnh Thanh propped her chin on her hand. “According to unofficial histories, Princess Vệ Dương was Emperor Huệ’s great love. Since she didn’t want to share a husband with anyone else, he made her his younger sister. Otherwise, why would Princess Vệ Dương never marry? It wasn’t as if finding a match for a princess like her would have been difficult.”
“What kind of ridiculous unofficial history is that?” I was utterly shocked.
Mạnh Thanh said excitedly, “I heard ‘The Wei Dynasty’ is based on that unofficial history. The female official Quan Trình, whom Princess Vệ Dương always kept by her side, was supposedly a man in women’s clothing. Princess Vệ Dương fell in love with her but couldn’t have her, so she forced her to stay by her side. And that gradually turned into a love triangle between Emperor Huệ, Princess Vệ Dương, and Quan Trình…”
Before Mạnh Thanh could finish, I slammed the table and jumped to my feet, drawing the attention of everyone around us.
Mạnh Thanh leaned down over the table and whispered, “Hey, this is a library. What are you doing?”
“What am I doing? I’m suing them for libel!”
On the way back to the dorm, I kicked a pebble. Damn it, all that effort getting into the court historian’s office had gone to waste. Who knew people in the future could be so shameless?
My phone chimed. I picked it up and looked.
[More than half of Princess Vệ Dương’s tomb has been excavated; over 7,000 artifacts have been discovered…]
I looked at the familiar wooden bed and the grape trellis I’d made with my own hands. This had to be Quan Trình’s handiwork. The young emperor couldn’t have been this meticulous.
A wave of heartache welled up inside me. I turned and headed to a bubble tea shop. I hadn’t had one of these drinks in more than twenty years.
While I waited for my bubble tea, I heard people talking behind me. “Have you seen the girl making the bubble tea? I’ve never seen her here before.”
“She’s wearing a mask, but she looks really pretty.”
I followed their gaze. A girl with bangs covering most of her eyebrows. A strange feeling suddenly stirred inside me.
I walked up and tapped on the counter in front of her. “Want to go for drinks with me later?”
She slowly lifted her eyes. “Why?”
I smiled. “Because I keep my promises. Even after a thousand years, I still remember.”
She slowly took off her mask, just like the first time we met.