Eternal Years - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

On the day of the Flower Appreciation Banquet, every noble young lady of marriageable age in the capital gathered at the Commandery Prince’s Estate.

The Commandery Prince and the reigning Emperor were deeply devoted brothers. Indifferent to fame and fortune, he was the sort of man who lived like idle clouds and wild cranes, free and untroubled.

For that reason, the rear garden of his estate was especially elegant, with a charm all its own.

Most of the noble young ladies attending the banquet had only recently reached coming of age. In twos and threes, they kept one another company-some composing poetry and playing the qin, others playing pitch-pot or guessing riddles. Fragrance drifted through the air, and laughter rang out bright and sweet.

When I entered to pay my respects, the lively atmosphere stilled for an instant.

The girls looked at me with either curiosity or distaste. Not one of them spoke to me.

The romantic tale of the Top Scorer of the Imperial Examinations and the woman-disguised-as-a-man Tanhua had already spread through every street and alley. As the former fiancée of that Top Scorer of the Imperial Examinations, I was naturally not someone they welcomed.

I found a place in a corner and sat slightly to the side, quietly drinking tea before the floating cups along a winding stream. The noble young ladies’ hushed conversations drifted into my ears.

“Is that her? Is she truly eighteen?”

“She is remarkably beautiful, though. I heard she was the one who proposed breaking off the engagement with the Top Scorer of the Imperial Examinations.”

“Just as well it was broken off. At least she had some self-awareness. How could she compare with an extraordinary woman like Lord Lanxiang?”

I took a sip of tea, and then I heard a cold, mocking laugh.

“If she had any self-awareness, she wouldn’t have come to the banquet at all. What, does she still dream of becoming the Heir Consort?”

The girls burst into laughter, clear and pleasant, like flower-laden branches trembling in the breeze, like jade pendants chiming together.

Amid that laughter, I suddenly remembered that before my coming of age, I had once visited the Commandery Prince’s Estate with my elder female cousin.

Everyone knew that the Commandery Prince had only one son, a young man whose brilliance and beauty surpassed all others in the capital.

Jin, the Young Commandery Prince, had been born under an extraordinary fate. From the moment he was born, he was accepted as a nominal disciple by Eminent Monk Wujue of Jingan Temple. He followed Wujue for eighteen years to study medicine, traveling and practicing throughout the land.

Though he was born into the imperial clan, he treated the sick without regard for rank or status. Unrestrained by nature and eccentric in his conduct, he possessed medical skills said to be capable of bringing the dead back to life.

Yet what he was even more famous for was his appearance.

It was said that five years ago, His Majesty doted greatly on the devastatingly beautiful Consort Li and held a Birthday Banquet in her honor.

Jin, the Young Commandery Prince, had just reached his coming-of-age at twenty then. Dressed in a crimson brocade robe, he stood beside the consort and offered his salute.

His Majesty had drunk a little wine and praised him with a smile: “Jewels at one’s side.”

Now Jin, the Young Commandery Prince, was twenty-five. For the marriage of this “jewel and jade,” who knew how many Flower Appreciation Banquets the Commandery Princess Consort had already held?

When I had attended the banquet with my elder cousin years ago, the rear garden had been much as it was today, filled with perfumed robes and the shadows of coiffed hair.

The only difference was that the many noble young ladies who had attended back then had long since married and become wives.

The scenery remained the same, but the flowerlike faces had changed; the people before me were all new.

I only wondered whether the Little Commandery Prince would be as he had been back then, never showing himself from beginning to end.

But that no longer had much to do with me. I lowered my eyes and drank my tea.

After I broke off my engagement with Cen Ming, Mother had worried so much over arranging another match for me that many more strands of her hair had turned white.

I had come to the banquet only to ease her mind a little.