“Mother, am I handsome?” Han Tianyi spun around to show his attire and asked. In contrast to his usual style of dress, today, he had dressed more grandly. It was a special day after all.
Today Han Tianyi was twenty-years-old, and so he would have his capping ceremony. His clothing was embroidered with golden lotuses near the bottom, making it seem as if he was walking through a field of lotuses.
Mengfei nodded to the Tianyi of this false world.
Ten years had passed in this false world. In a blink of an eye, Tianyi had turned from a bratty ten-year-old to a bratty twenty-year-old. Not that the people of the dynasty would ever be able to see such a side to him, not even Han Fei did, only Mengfei.
Mengfei saw Tianyi’s expectant eyes and helplessly opened her mouth. “Are you excited?”
“Of course!” Han Tianyi replied immediately. “I can enter the Imperial Examination. I will awe everyone once I become the Top Thesis Author.”
“Don’t be too confident. If you let your guard down or blindly believe yourself, you will set yourself up for failure or even worse, death.” Mengfei couldn’t help but warn. Although it seemed unlikely that Han Tianyi would die within the Xi Dynasty, Mengfei couldn’t help but recall her real son, appearing humble yet proud to the extreme.
Han Tianyi was an exalted child with the blood of the heaven family flowing through his veins. In this world where cultivation didn’t exist, the Xi Dynasty reigned as the world’s greatest power.
“You’re right,” Han Tianyi nodded after widening his eyes in slight surprise. Be rubbed his face and continued. “Emperor-Grandfather might not give me the position of Top Thesis Author even if I am the best. He might give me the position of Flower Snatcher just based on how beautiful my face is.”
Mengfei was struck speechless.
Soon the capping ceremony started with many guests, both from Noble Heritages and Officials, coming to congratulate Mengfei and Han Fei on their outstanding son.
“Princess,” Mengfei turned her head to see the Jiang Duchess come forward to greet her. “Salutations on your beloved son’s coming of age.”
“Many thanks,” Mengfei replied, her tone aloof. But the Jiang Duchess didn’t mind.
She recalled that the Jiang Duchess had a rather outstanding son, according to rumors. “Is the Jiang Scion not here?”
Jiang Duchess shook her head. “Unfortunately, he is bogged down by official matters. He sends his apologies.”
Mengfei nodded and was about to turn away but paused when she spotted the girl behind Jiang Duchess. “Is this your daughter?”
Jiang Duchess blinked in surprise and elation before quickly hiding it. “Indeed, your highness. Daoyi, come up and greet the princess!”
Daoyi was almost precisely the same from Mengfei’s memories.
“I greet Mingzhu Princess,” Daoyi said with a curtsy, her skin almost luminescent.
The Jiang Duchess felt herself well up with anxiety at the silence of Mengfei.
“Full of talent, as elegant as chrysanthemum and as beautiful as roses,” Mengfei said after a long while.
Jiang Duchess stood there stunned, struck silent by the favor of Mengfei. Who in the Xi Dynasty that Mingzhu Princess was the Emperor’s most favored child, even above the crown prince? She was the apple of his eye, the pearl in his palm.
Many wanted to shorten the distance and cultivated a relationship with this famous princess. But, she was said to be born upon the cold mountain tops, a magnolia carved from the ice itself. None who attempted succeeded.
Rather than cultivating a friendship, it was more likely to be struck by misfortune if one offended her.
But Mengfei did something she never did in the ten years that she had arrived. She praised someone.
And that someone was her, the Jiang Duchess’s daughter.
Within a day, word had already filtered out on how Mengfei had praised Jiang Daoyi. Many people began to speculate on what Mengfei’s intent was from those words alone.
Alongside, word of how good Jiang Duchess was at raising children also spread. The son was an official with limitless prospects while the daughter was compared to chrysanthemums and roses.
Even Mengfei herself was not exempt from the ripples.
“Dear, do you like that girl, Jiang Daoyi?” Han Fei asked. The years had been kind to him. Despite a decade passing, the only signs of age were his graying temples.
Mengfei blinked at the word Han Fei asked. Throughout the ten years, Mengfei had not slept in the same room as Han Fei even once. It made her wonder how Tianyi was even born sometimes. But Han Fei showed no dissatisfaction and, instead, treated her even better.
“I feel that she is good,” Mengfei said after collecting her thoughts. “The Yi characters in their name are the same. They have fate.” The “their” Mengfei said naturally meant Tianyi and Daoyi.
Han Fei only nodded, and Mengfei thought that was the end of it.
Life went on, and Han Tianyi attended the Imperial Examination. Although Han Tianyi carried the blood of the heaven family, he was not of the direct line, so he had to attend the Imperial Examination before becoming an official.
As Mengfei had said, Han Tianyi did not take the position of Top Thesis Author. But as Tianyi had said, he had taken the position of Flower Snatcher.
The reason given was that although Tianyi’s thesis was thought-provoking and contained interesting ideas, they were largely untested and showed his inexperience.
Han Tianyi had sulked in his room for three days straight afterward.
But the greatest shock came after that.
“Marriage!?” Mengfei couldn’t help but raise her voice. She had already changed her thought process after bringing Daoyi back from the Xi Dynasty ten years ago. She reflected over Tianyi’s words and accepted them. To cultivators like them, time would be an abyss. Marriage and companionship were not necessarily something that they needed.
Han Fei showed a surprised expression at Mengfei’s shock. “Dear, what’s wrong?”
“Why did you suddenly bring out marriage? Why out of the blue?” Mengfei asked. The topic had utterly blindsided her.
“I thought this was your intent.” Han Fei said.
Mengfei showed a flabbergasted expression.
Cold sweat began to pour down Han Fei’s back. “I mean, you complimented Jiang Daoyi. This is the first time I ever heard you praised someone so much. So I thought that you wanted that girl as your daughter-in-law. I already sent a letter to the Jiang Duke, and they have already agreed. Today is the day we’re sending betrothal gifts!”
Mengfei massaged her temples. She did not think that her words at the time would cause such a mess. It was strangely reminiscent of the time she first saw Daoyi. Only this time, it was her notice that made others take action.
By her side, seeing Mengfei’s rare moment of frustration, Han Fei began to panic. “If you don’t want, I can immediately cancel the betrothal!”
Mengfei sent him an annoyed look. “At this stage, you should have already exchanged the two’s eight characters. Canceling at this point will only cause suffering for Daoyi. Does Tianyi know?”
Even if the Daoyi of this world was also false, she had still been Mengfei’s student. Causing a black mark against her would cause Mengfei to be uneasy.
“Uhh…” Han Fei paused. “I hadn’t told him yet?”
Mengfei barely resisted the urge to fling Han Fei into the sky and left to seek out Tianyi. The saddest part of all this? This was the longest conversation Mengfei and Han Fei had since she came to this world.
“Marriage?” Han Tianyi said with a befuddled look.
Mengfei nodded.
“Do… do you know the girl?” Han Tianyi asked after a moment of deliberation.
“In a way,” Mengfei said. Although the Tianyi of this world didn’t have his memories of the real world, he acted shockingly similar to the real Tianyi. The same should apply to the Daoyi of this world as well.
“What does mother think of her?” Han Tianyi asked.
“She is a good girl. If you marry her, you won’t have any conflicts.” This was Mengfei’s honest opinion on the union of the two.
Tianyi nodded. “Okay, I’ll marry her.”
“Are you sure?” Mengfei asked. “Do you not want to choose your own wife?”
“If mother chose her, then it’s fine.” Han Tianyi said with a smile.
“You’re not saying this because you’re shy, right?” Mengfei asked suspiciously.
“Ack!”
“I know you’re not good at interacting with others. But this is one of your life’s biggest moments. I think you should choose for yourself.” Mengfei said.
“I just said it’s good!” Tianyi huffed, his face slightly flushed.
Mengfei sighed helplessly. Whenever Tianyi became embarrassed about something, he would clam up and hide it by running away or bouts of anger.
In the end, the day of the marriage soon arrived in the spring of next year. The general’s manor was decorated with copious amounts of red and festive music could be heard from the outside and inside.
Mengfei and Han Fei sat in the main hall waiting for Han Tianyi and his new bride. Han Tianyi had left the general’s manor and went to the duke’s manor to bring back Daoyi.
Mengfei felt her heart beat crazily when Han Tianyi returned with Daoyi. An unknown feeling that she could not term welled up within her chest. It was sweet but also slightly bitter.
“Kowtow to the Heaven and Earth!”
Han Tianyi, in his radiant red groom cloth and Daoyi in her brilliant red bridal dress with a red veil covering her head, faced the sky outside and kowtowed.
“Kowtow to the parents!”
Han Tianyi and Daoyi faced Mengfei and Han Fei in the master seat and kowtowed.
“Kowtow to each other!”
And at the final kowtow, Han Tianyi and Daoyi bowed to each other, symbolizing respect for the other.
The bride was sent to the wedding chamber, and the guests kept toasting Mengfei, Han Fei, and Han Tianyi in felicitations. After a certain period of time, the guest retreated, and Tianyi also walked to the wedding chambers.
Knowing it was bad but not being able to help herself, Mengfei released her immortal sense and covered the whole general’s manor. She saw Tianyi and Daoyi hook their arms and down the wine in their cups. Tianyi made a face at the bitterness of the wine while Daoyi hummed and enjoyed it.
Mengfei held her hand towards her heart. There was a sense of loss, but this was only one of the many new emotions she would come to experience.
In this false world, she experienced the joy of her child becoming accomplished and regarded as a wise minister at a young age. Her Emperor-Father died and passed the throne to the crown prince, her Emperor-Brother.
At the same time her Emperor-Father died, her Consort-Mother also passed away in grief, unlike in reality. On the day of the funeral, where everyone hung white banners outside of their homes, Mengfei’s heart was unnaturally calm as if rust had been scraped off a treasured sword.
It was only now, watching all this that Mengfei realized how small one mortal emperor’s life was. An emperor was born holy, but he would one day ruled over millions of mortal like himself. What made him so different? Death would claim him in the end.
It was laughable.
She was an exalted Immortal Empress, yet a mortal Emperor and Consort left such deep shadows in her heart. Perhaps she was the same. She was also no different from mortals. Her emotions were dulled, but she would laugh and cry like the mortals who venerated her.
The world did not stop for the passing of a mere Emperor, no matter how white the capital became.
Her Emperor-Brother was a good Emperor just as she remembered. The only flaw was that, no matter how he tried, he could not have children. All the Imperial Physicians said nothing was wrong with his or the consorts’ bodies, but he could not just sire children.
If the Emperor did not have children, then succession would become a problem that would plague the dynasty. So under pressure, the current Emperor had to look at his relatives for an heir.
And against everyone’s expectation, he chose Han Tianyi. There were no words to describe the shock and chaos that came afterward. The end result was that Tianyi changed his name from Han to Xi and became the Crown Prince.
Beloved as Han Fei may be, there was no way the Xi Dynasty would allow the name to change from Xi to Han. Han Fei even absconded his position in the aftermath.
Mengfei felt strangely delighted, not because Xi Tianyi would become the next Emperor but because his name changed back to Xi.
“Ridiculous.”
Mengfei had uttered those words afterward. Realistic, there was no way an Emperor would take such an action and name the son of a princess to be the next Son of Heaven. Just like everything else in this world, it seemed that reality was bending itself backward to fulfill Mengfei’s hidden desires.
But Mengfei didn’t hate it. It was an introspection of herself.
Soon, her grandchild was born. It was a plump little thing, even if it was false. Mengfei adored him.
As time passed, Han Fei was the first to pass away after her Emperor-Father perished. Till his dying breath, he had not slept in the same room as Mengfei.
The next to go was her Emperor-Brother, who had not sired an heir till his dying days.
Xi Tianyi took up the throne and ushered in the most prosperous era of the Xi Dynasty. He expanded the borders and almost unified the whole world under the Xi Imperial Family.
Her grandson also grew up with broad shoulders and tall stature. He didn’t have the beauty that Tianyi inherited from her, but valorous features from Han Fei.
Mengfei thought he looked perfect as a male.
Time passed as everyone around her aged, Mengfei, stayed eternally youthful. No one thought it strange and accepted it like it was common sense.
Mengfei stayed till Xi Tianyi’s last breath.
Tears streamed down her face. The Tianyi of this world was a fake, yet she had developed feelings for this false son. It was something she had not developed when she experienced other lives.
Xi Longyi
Xi Feiyan
Xi Qiuyue
Xi Manlong
They were all possible children that could be born to her in different lifetimes. But only Tianyi was able to make her experience the feelings of motherhood.
The world twist and shattered
“I miss you, Yi’er”
The world ended.