I Have Also Drifted for a Long Time - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The Shangyuan Lantern Festival was bustling beyond belief.

I followed Shen Huaizhi and Lady Su from a neither-far-nor-near distance, feeling rather listless.

But before long, several groups of imperial horses suddenly appeared on the crowded avenue ahead.

It was the emperor’s procession.

The imperial guards cut an imposing figure as they dispersed the commoners in orderly fashion, shouting, “His Majesty is passing through! All idlers, stand aside!”

Carried along by the crowd, I stumbled forward, with Cuizhi shielding me at my side.

The press of people was too great. Shen Huaizhi had his arm around Lady Su, and he had no attention to spare for me.

By the time I came back to my senses, I had already been separated from them.

Cuizhi said gloomily, “If we’d known it would be like this, we might as well have stayed in.”

I smiled. “Everyone wants a glimpse of the Son of Heaven’s sacred countenance. This is only to be expected.”

From within the crowd, I saw a palanquin surrounded by attendants in the distance.

Behind its curtains, a familiar face appeared.

The instant our eyes met, I froze where I stood.

By the time I snapped out of it, the person behind those curtains had already gone far away.

And I still stood there in a daze.

In the three years since I transmigrated here, I had never once seen this emperor.

I had only heard that the current emperor was weak and incompetent, with the mind of a three-year-old simpleton. His power had been gnawed away and hollowed out by powerful ministers, leaving him an emperor in name only.

And yet, no matter how muddleheaded and useless he was…

What right did a concubine-born daughter like me have to meet the emperor?

With that one glimpse today, I had never imagined that His Majesty would look so much like Jiang Zhi, my childhood friend from the modern world.

Tanks, transmigrators, Jiang Zhi…

A ridiculous, uncanny thought burst uncontrollably into my mind.

No language in the world could describe how I felt in that moment.

It was as if I had been running alone through a long, endless night.

Running until the oil was spent and the lamp burned out, beneath boundless moonlight.

Then, all at once, a beam of light appeared, reminding me…

That I, too, had once longed to dance with the light until I was reduced to ash.

Cuizhi looked at me with worry written all over her face. “My lady, what’s wrong?”

I shook my head.

When I looked up, I saw a wisp of incense smoke disperse, vanishing into the vast indigo world.

After a long while, I murmured, “It’s all right. At least the things I wanted to do-he has already done them for me.”

“Even if he isn’t that person, at least…”

“I am not alone on this path.”

The next day, I was still asleep.

Cuizhi hurriedly shook me awake and said in a low voice, “My lady, wake up. The Marquis is here.”

I frowned, but had no choice but to let Cuizhi dress me and do my hair.

Before long, Shen Huaizhi arrived.

He wore a scarlet court robe, as noble and aloof as ever.

Perhaps the fumes of the medicinal incense were too pungent to bear, for when he saw me, he furrowed his brow. There was still a complicated look in his eyes.

I bowed and greeted him softly. “Greetings, Marquis.”

He was just about to speak when he was interrupted by a eunuch hurrying in from behind him.

The eunuch held a gilded object in his hands and announced in a clear voice, “By His Majesty’s decree, Madam Lin of the Marquis’s Mansion is specially summoned to the palace for an audience.”

At those words, even Shen Huaizhi froze, his face full of confusion.

“Eunuch, could there be some mistake? She and His Majesty have never met. What audience could there be?”

The eunuch merely said coldly, “His Majesty’s sacred will is not for us to speculate on. Marquis, Madam, kneel and receive the decree.”