Ashes to Crown

Chapter 15: Chapter 15: Life and Death

The early morning wind blowing off the river was bone-chillingly cold, yet a layer of sweat broke out on Ah Fu’s back.

This Ah Jiu wasn’t joking. He was really going to kill her.

She stood perfectly still, watching Ah Jiu. She didn’t cry or make a fuss. Her expression was calm as she said, ”Shouldn’t you at least give me a reason?”

Ah Jiu chuckled. ”Look at that, your true colors are showing. What does a face like that have to do with being honest and pitiful? I knew you were up to something from the very beginning.”

Ah Fu said nothing, just watched him.

”Your mother is on her deathbed, yet she still has the mind to put on such an act, spouting nonsense about love and affection,” Ah Jiu said, his face full of disgust. ”She must be from a brothel.”

’So it was true. Li Niang’s spontaneous words had drawn his attention. This guy was too damn sharp—he’d actually guessed correctly.’

Ah Fu thought for a moment before saying, ”My mother and father love each other very deeply—”

”This is a matter of life and death, and you’re still talking about deep love? Did your mother forget she has two children to look after?” Ah Jiu cut her off with a sneer. ”Little girl, your act was certainly convincing, but you were just a little bit off. That’s because you’ve never seen what a real dying mother with children she can’t entrust to anyone looks like.”

’What a dying mother with children she can’t entrust to anyone looks like?’ Ah Fu stared at Ah Jiu. ’It sounds like he’s seen it before.’

”What does it look like?” she asked, her curiosity piqued.

It was unclear whether it was her attitude or her question that angered Ah Jiu, but his expression darkened.

”You mentioned General Chu right at the start—mixing truth with lies. Yang Dachun was fake, which meant General Chu was likely real,” he said coldly. ”That’s why I deliberately let you see the secret letter. Just as I thought, that’s what you were after.”

’I was exposed from the very beginning? All I did was mention Yang Dachun and say my father’s name, and he figured all this out?’

’Then again, why would he let me see a secret letter? That was my mistake. I was careless.’

’But I couldn’t help it. I was just too worried about Father.’

Ah Fu looked at him and said, ”Young Master Ah Jiu, please put down your weapon first. This isn’t what you think—”

Before she could finish, Ah Jiu’s gaze shot past her toward the river, his expression growing stern.

Ah Fu instinctively looked over as well. Mist swirled over the river’s surface, where a large boat was slowly approaching. A person stood at its bow. She couldn’t make out his face, only his white brocade robes and the blue sash at his waist—

Her accomplice? Ah Jiu’s voice was frigid. ”Are you going to talk or not!”

’His accomplice?’ Ah Fu wondered. She pulled her gaze away from the boat and back to him, continuing, ”—I didn’t know you had a secret letter. I just happened to see it, and I also happen to know General Chu Ling, so—”

Once again, she didn’t get to finish. A cold light flashed before her eyes, followed by Ah Jiu’s frigid voice. ”Die.”

Pure terror shot through Ah Fu.

’He wasn’t trying to interrogate me at all. He just wanted to kill me to silence me.’

In that instant, the instincts of her thirteen-year-old body took over. She ducked, and the dagger scraped past her cheek.

But the dodge made her stumble on the slick river stones. She lost her footing and fell backward into the river.

SPLASH.

Ah Jiu vanished from her sight, replaced by the morning sky. Then, the icy river water swallowed her whole.

Just like... that time.

And just as quickly, a familiar memory swallowed her.

Ah Fu’s vision blurred. Her breathing stopped. She couldn’t hear a thing.

...

...

There was a lake in the Chu Family’s garden in the Capital City.

Though the Chu Family had since fallen into decline, their ancestors were ministers who had risen to power with Emperor Gaozu. As some of the first meritorious officials to enter the Capital City, they had claimed—or rather, been granted—a former residence of the previous dynasty’s Royal Family. This estate was most famous for its garden.

To this day, it remained a famous garden in the Capital City—known now, of course, as the Chu Garden.

She had also loved that garden, especially sitting there with her cousin and the other young ladies, painting and playing music. It was a kind of beauty she had never witnessed in the Border County.

But her skills were poor, so the others wouldn’t include her.

On one particular occasion, after being mocked and ostracized again, her cousin bluntly told her to go prepare refreshments for everyone.

Angry and hurt, she walked away. She sent the maids to prepare the refreshments while she went to the lakeside to sulk by herself.

Then, she stepped on a loose stone and plunged into the lake.

She couldn’t swim, and with no one around, she thought she was going to die. Then, someone descended as if from the heavens—

...

...

Ah Fu’s eyes were open in the water, and she could almost see that scene playing out again.

She had already been sinking, so when he jumped into the lake, it truly looked as if he were descending slowly from the heavens.

He wore white robes, and his eyes were as bright as stars. He reached out to her, pulled her into his arms, brought her out of the water... and set her on a path of no return.

Ah Fu shut her eyes and gasped, but she only managed half a breath before icy water flooded her mouth.

’Help—’

She reached out desperately.

It seemed like a flood of thoughts, but it all happened in a single instant.

...

...

Before Ah Fu even fell into the river, the guard, Tie Ying, had already seen her as he stepped out of the ship’s cabin.

The distance was too great for him to know what was happening. He could only see a young man and woman and assumed they were a young couple meeting for an early morning tryst by the river.

He averted his gaze and walked up behind the person at the bow. ”Breakfast—”

He hadn’t even finished saying that breakfast was ready when the person in front of him cried out, ”Look out—”

Tie Ying tensed instantly. Then he heard a woman’s scream and the SPLASH of someone falling into the water.

The girl he had just seen by the river had fallen into the water.

’What’s going on?’

Tie Ying looked at the young man, who was still standing in the same spot, motionless, as if he hadn’t even seen the girl fall in.

He was too far away to see the young man’s expression, but his posture radiated an inexplicable coldness.

’Was it a young lovers’ quarrel, or something else?’

While Tie Ying was still mulling it over, he heard another SPLASH. The person from the bow was gone.

For a moment, Tie Ying stood at the bow in a panic. As a personal attendant, his martial arts were second to none, but he couldn’t swim.

His master, on the other hand, looked frail and scholarly but was an excellent swimmer.

Tie Ying regained his composure and signaled for the boatmen to turn the vessel and follow.

...

...

Ah Fu struggled relentlessly.

’This isn’t the Chu Family’s estate in the Capital City. This isn’t my past life. The ’me’ from that life is already dead.’

’It was so hard to get a second chance. I don’t want to die here.’

But the will to live couldn’t command her body. Neither her thirteen-year-old self nor her twenty-something-year-old self knew how to swim.

Compounded by the trauma of drowning in her past life, her fear of water was even greater now. She quickly choked on several mouthfuls of water and began to sink toward the riverbed.

Tears streamed from Ah Fu’s eyes, lost in the river’s current.

’I died such a miserable death in my last life, but at least the one who killed me and the status I held in death were both supreme.’

’This time, not only is my death miserable, but it’s at the hands of some nameless punk. And I’m living under a false identity, so who knows how long it would be before anyone even found out.’

’Why is my life so wretched?’

’Maybe... maybe I never really came back to life. Maybe this is all just a fantasy playing out in the instant of my death.’

Ah Fu’s arms stopped struggling as her consciousness began to fade. But just then, through her blurry vision, she saw someone gliding slowly toward her.

His white robes billowed in the water like a peony blossom.

He reached out and wrapped Ah Fu in his arms.

Ah Fu looked at his face, as gentle as moonlight. His lips were pressed tightly together, causing two dimples to appear on his cheeks—

’Ah, those dimples... they hold a wine that can never be finished, a wine that can make one drunk with a single sip.’ Ah Fu reached out a hand to gently touch one. This was the sweet nothing she had loved to whisper to Xiao Xun—

Xiao Xun.

Xiao Xun?!

Ah Fu felt as if she might explode underwater. Her previously limp limbs thrashed violently, churning the river water into a vortex.

’Xiao Xun? Why am I seeing Xiao Xun?’

’This isn’t the Capital City. This isn’t the lake in the Chu Garden.’

In some wild river on the distant border of the Central Plains, she had fallen into the water and met Xiao Xun. Again.

Xiao Xun, the Heir of Zhongshan King.

The next Emperor of the Great Xia.

The husband who had placed the phoenix crown upon her head.

And... the enemy who had cast her aside like a worn-out shoe, granting her a cup of poisoned wine and a white silk cord.

She was the Empress of the Great Xia.