SMMW | Chapter 34

Wen Qing had been mentally prepared for the arrival of this day.

A man becoming the Crown Princess, and from the imperial family down to the common people, not a single person objected.

It was obvious that heirs were needed to inherit the throne, yet Yuan Hao agreed to marry only one person.

Such a good handle as the crown prince having no heirs went unused, and instead they went the roundabout way of making an issue out of a child born to an outside woman?

All of it was too strange, but the outcome was what Wen Qing wanted, so he pretended not to notice, squeezed his eyes shut, and acted as though everything were normal. Until the day came when he had no choice but to face the truth.

And now that day had come. Yuan Hao walked in and demoted him to secondary consort. A while later, he was going to cast him off.

Back then, when Yuan Hao asked him whether he wanted to be Crown Princess, he had asked why, and Yuan Hao said, “You are the most suitable candidate.” Now, perhaps he was no longer suitable, though he himself did not know what the standard even was.

Wen Qing was upset, but not unbearably so. Calmly, he prepared to accept his fate. Everything that had happened before, he would treat it all as a dream.

But the steward said no. Court regulations stipulated that the crown prince could not cast off any of his wives or concubines.

Wen Qing thought, that was no great matter. Yuan Hao knew magic. He could turn back time and choose a different Crown Princess.

After a spell of dizziness, time really did turn back, but it was not as Wen Qing had imagined. Yuan Hao turned time back to before the demotion in rank.

Why?

This time, Wen Qing truly could not understand.

I had clearly become an unsuitable choice. He was clearly going to cast me off. So why rewind time to here?

Yuan Hao began giving him things. Rare pigeon-blood rubies worth a hundred gold. Wen Qing knew the financial state of the Eastern Palace like the back of his hand, so where had Yuan Hao gotten them?

Then came a purple sandalwood screen. It was a screen, and all of a sudden it had simply appeared in the room.

Then there were clothes, a headpiece, an archer’s ring, painted vases…

Every single thing appeared out of thin air, and every single thing was meant to be given to him.

Wen Qing suddenly realized that Yuan Hao was trying to curry favor with him. He was apologizing, apologizing for what he had done in the previous cycle.

But why?

If he regarded me as a partner for cooperation, then using me and casting me off afterward would be normal, so why turn back time?

If he regarded me as his wife, then why demote me and then cast me off?

Wen Qing could not make sense of it, but Yuan Hao kept giving, and the gifts nearly filled the room, with no repeats among them.

It was not until a writing brush was placed into his hand that the grievance and hurt Wen Qing had been suppressing were finally released completely.

It was a wolf-hair brush. The very first gift Yuan Hao had ever given him had been one of those too, and the two were almost identical.

At the time, it had been after the provincial examination. Wen Qing had noticed something strange about Yuan Hao and had prepared some pastries to test him. The more he tested, the colder his heart became. In the end, Yuan Hao directly rewound time to two ke before, refused to eat the pastries, and gave him a brush instead.

Maybe he had noticed that my mood was off and wanted to coax me with a gift.

Is it the same this time too? Because I am upset, so he is using gifts to coax me too.

But why coax me? What place do I hold in your heart?

It is exactly because you are like this that I have fallen deeper and deeper.

Tears dripped from his chin onto his hand, and only then did Wen Qing realize he was crying again. He clearly was not someone who liked to cry, yet every time it had to do with Yuan Hao, he could not help himself. He hated this version of himself.

One hundred brushes were delivered before him, and then another hundred.

Wen Qing was almost angry enough to laugh. What was this supposed to mean? If I like writing brushes, will you just keep giving them to me forever? Two hundred of them, enough to bury me alive? Am I supposed to sleep under a blanket of brushes at night?

Yuan Hao stood where he was for quite a while, as though he had run out of tricks, then he dashed out and vanished from sight.

Wen Qing had wanted to have a thorough talk with him, but perhaps because he had cried too much, his eyelids grew heavier and heavier. Drowsiness came over him, and in a daze he collapsed onto the bed and lost consciousness.

When he woke again, judging by the daylight, it was still noon. Apparently he had not slept for long.

“Someone.”

Supporting his dizzy head, Wen Qing wanted to ask the servants where Yuan Hao had gone, but even after a long while, no one came in.

Wen Qing called out several more times. It was still the same.

He found it strange. Walking out himself, he discovered that the vast Eastern Palace was eerily empty. Only a scattering of servants could be seen, and all of them were motionless, as though loafing around.

Wen Qing walked up beside one of them. The person seemed to be spacing out, and only reacted once Wen Qing had come right in front of him.

“Crown Princess,” the person said.

“Where are the other servants? Why are there only a few of you?”

The person lowered his head and did not answer.

Wen Qing patiently asked again. Only then did the person speak, but what came out was the same thing as before. “Crown Princess.”

It was a complete mismatch.

Wen Qing passed him by and walked up to the next person. It was the Eastern Palace steward, who was usually slick and worldly, yet it was the same with him too. Only when Wen Qing had come to within almost three paces did the steward react.

“Crown Princess~” said the steward.

“Why are there so few people in the Eastern Palace?”

The steward did not answer.

Wen Qing asked once more, and the steward said, “Crown Princess~”

Wen Qing took two frightened steps backward. At last, he began to face the abnormality head-on.

He ran out into the street. Though it was clearly noon, there were very few pedestrians. The roadside stalls were laden with goods, but the stall owners were nowhere to be seen.

He ran back to the Wen residence, where the gate guard said woodenly, “Young Master.”

Wen Qing went to push the door, but no matter what, he could not push it open. He shouted for the gate guard to open it, but the guard only repeated the same line, “Young Master.”

Wen Qing trembled all over. He drew a deep breath and shouted with all his strength at the entrance to the Wen residence, “Mother!”

“Grandfather! Grandmother!”

But it was useless. Though the surroundings were unnaturally quiet, with only his own voice audible, no one came out, even after he shouted until his throat turned dry and hoarse.

Gone. They were all gone.

Wen Qing stood there blankly. Everything around him was empty. There were houses, there were trees, but there was no one.

He grabbed the gate guard by the collar and demanded viciously, “What exactly is going on here?!”

The gate guard said, “Young Master.”

Wen Qing’s hands shook, and the strength drained out of them. He lifted his head to look at the sky. It was noon, as if time itself had stopped.

He thought of Yuan Hao. If everyone else was abnormal, then could Yuan Hao be the one exception?

Wen Qing knew that Yuan Hao would be at the Ministry of War during the day, so he hurried there at once. Fortunately, the main gate stood open, and he was able to enter directly.

There were very few people in the government office as well. No one paid any attention to his sudden rush inside, and naturally, no one stopped him.

The discussion hall of the Ministry of War was tightly shut, but the window was open. Wen Qing looked inside, and sure enough, Yuan Hao and several officials were gathered together discussing something. All their mouths were moving, yet no sound could be heard.

“Yuan Hao!” Wen Qing shouted by the window.

Yuan Hao did not hear him, and neither did the officials. They held the same postures, motionless.

“Yuan Hao!!!” Wen Qing shouted again.

It was still the same. No one noticed him, as though he did not exist.

Wen Qing retreated a few steps and hugged himself. A huge sense of insecurity and panic engulfed him. He felt that the entire world was false.

Even his teeth were chattering. Wen Qing looked helplessly from side to side and in the end chose to return to Yaoyue Residence.

He shut the windows and the doors all tight, curling himself up completely under the quilt, hoping that when he woke from sleep, everything would return to normal.

His mind was in chaos, constantly running through all kinds of possibilities, and in the end he drifted into a faint from exhaustion.

Even in sleep, he did not sleep soundly. He had no idea what he had dreamed, only that he woke with a start from it.

Opening his eyes, the daylight was still bright. It was still noon.

He worked up the courage to open the door and take a look around. There were still only that same handful of scattered people. When he walked over to the steward, the steward still only knew how to call him Crown Princess.

He wanted to go out to the street and look again. Clearly the main gate stood open, yet no matter what he did, he could not step through it. It was as though there were an invisible wall in front of him, untouchable and unseen.

Wen Qing tried the side gate. It was the same there too.

He was trapped here.

He circled the wall once and even tried climbing over it, but it was still no use. After going in circles, he wound up back at the main gate again, where that same dull-eyed steward still stood. As soon as the distance between them became less than three paces, he would call out, “Crown Princess~”

Steward, steward…

Wen Qing took a few aimless steps, then suddenly whipped his head around. He realized all at once that he did not know the steward’s name.

All this time, everyone had been calling him Steward, but… steward was only an identity, not a name.

As if a sheet of thin paper pasted over a window had been poked through, Wen Qing realized with a chill that the steward was not an isolated case.

What was the name of the pageboy who had grown up with him? He did not know. He was a pageboy, yet Wen Qing had never known his name. They had clearly spent twenty years together, and yet he had never once noticed this.

And the people who served in the Eastern Palace?

Maid A, Maid B…

Guard A, Guard B…

What kind of names were those?

Even the officials at court were only vague figures like Lord Li, Lord Xue, Lord Wang…

As for his colleagues at the Ministry of Revenue, they were the Assistant Minister, the Section Manager, the Department Clerk, the Proofreader…

After serving in the same court for so long, he had actually not known a single one of their names…

And his mother? Everyone always called her Madam Wen. Wen… Qiu… Wen Manqiu. His mother had a name. It was Wen Manqiu.

Lord Jiang was Jiang Hong.

And his grandfather and grandmother?

Old Master Wen, Old Madam Wen…

It seemed that only some people had names.

Wen Qing crouched on the ground. The sun made him dizzy, as though warning him that he ought to go back and sleep instead of wandering around here.

He covered his mouth. His throat tightened and his stomach churned. He dry-heaved several times, yet could not throw anything up.

He sat on the ground, squinting at the sky, feeling as though even the sky itself was turning blurry. He shook his head, and it seemed like perhaps it had only been an illusion.

This world was about to disappear.

A thought surfaced in his mind, sudden and without warning, yet Wen Qing believed it completely.

His body began to grow stiff, and even the ground seemed to become uneven and unstable.

He struggled to his feet and staggered toward Yaoyue Residence.

The moment he sat down on the bed, he suddenly realized that the range was still shrinking. He could no longer leave this room.

But that did not matter either. Soon enough, this place too would collapse, and then everything would be over.

Realizing this, Wen Qing instead felt a little relieved. He emptied his mind and felt even his thoughts slowing down. Let it be like this… Don’t think about anything anymore.

Bang!

The door flew open.

Wen Qing felt that tendency, that force that had been wearing everything away, come to a halt.

Yuan Hao walked in and sat down beside him without saying a word.

Yuan Hao looked a little stiff too, unlike his usual self, but he was still far better than the servants who were like wooden dolls.

He was a yao, after all, so naturally he would be a little different.

Wen Qing seized upon that tiny bit of security. Facing Yuan Hao, he began pouring out everything he had discovered.

“Yuan Hao, there’s something wrong with this world. It feels like the world is about to disappear. Have you noticed? So many people don’t have names. Steward, pageboy, guard, maid, bookstore owner, pharmacy owner, those are all identities, not names. And right now they’re all very strange too, like they have no souls. If you speak to them, they only say fixed things, the same exact lines…”

As Wen Qing spoke, he gradually slowed. He realized that Yuan Hao was still just as before. As long as Wen Qing said anything unreasonable, Yuan Hao could not hear it.

Could it be that I am the only one who has noticed all of this? Could it be that I am the strange one?

“Are you the same too? Unable to hear or see, only able to give fixed reactions and fixed answers. But you should be comparatively special. You have strange magic, and you have a name…”

Wen Qing paused there, then let out a bitter laugh. “Could your specialness also have been designed in advance? Are you really called Yuan Hao? Or Xuanyuan Hao? Baishu? Which one is you, exactly? Or perhaps none of them are.”

Yuan Hao still sat there blankly, with no reaction at all.

Wen Qing thought of the scene when they first met. Yuan Hao had taken first place in the prefectural exam, and Wen Qing had gone over to invite him to a banquet.

He still remembered the very first thing he had said to Yuan Hao.

“My surname is Wen, given name Qing. May I ask this brother’s honored name?”

Immersed in the memory, Wen Qing slowly repeated the line.

“This unworthy one’s surname is Yuan, given name Hao, a native of Hezhou County.”

Yuan Hao moved, but all he did was repeat the answer from their first meeting.

It felt as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over Wen Qing’s chest, cold all the way to the bone. Sure enough, it was fixed. Whatever he said, the reply Yuan Hao gave was fixed too. Everything was fixed.

“My surname is Wen, given name Qing. May I ask this brother’s honored name?” Wen Qing asked again, his voice trembling.

Yuan Hao’s tone was utterly flat, and the words he spoke were not off by a single character.

“This unworthy one’s surname is Yuan, given name Hao, a native of Hezhou County.”

Even with the result already before him, Wen Qing still refused to give up. He had always believed Yuan Hao was the most special one of all. How could it be? How could even Yuan Hao be fake?

“My surname is Wen, given name Qing… may I ask this brother’s honored name?” Wen Qing repeated the line once more. This time, every word trembled, and tears fell together with the question.

“This unworthy one’s surname is Yuan, given name Hao, a native of Hezhou County.”

It was still the same answer, still the same dry tone, just as the sun would always rise in the east. If Wen Qing asked that question, he would receive that answer, precise down to the smallest detail.

It was only that on rainy days the sun could not be seen, and everything had its small exceptions. This time, after Yuan Hao finished speaking, he raised his hand and wiped away Wen Qing’s tears.