Overturning the World Chapters 7-8

Hey everyone, this is the second to last update of Overturning the World! The Epilogue will be coming out tomorrow. Although the epilogue is short, I felt like it deserved its own post, so we’re going to give it that one haha 😛

Thanks to those of you who have stuck on this turbulent journey with me! I hope you enjoyed the angst and the lessons that the short story had to offer!

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Chapters 7-8

If Yun Cheng could have brought her home… he would have. But as it was, he didn’t even get the chance to hear her say “You’ve come too late. I am very mad at you.” Courtesy of Ibuki Satsuki.

Cough. Yun Cheng coughed slowly and gradually woke up.  When he saw the box in Qing Shi’s hand, his expression changed, as his eyes were immediately filled with harshness. “Give it over.” His voice was weak and hoarse, but the implicit murderous spirit within his voice made Qing Shi startled, as the wooden box fell from her hands onto the bed. The hair that was bundled up, fell out.

Yun Cheng sat up, and put the hair back. He glared at Qing Shi coldly. “You are not allowed to touch certain things.” When he finished, he tried to control himself and coughed a bit. “It’s alright to cook gruel, to have secret ties with the Yue Nation, or to map out the General’s residence. I’ve allowed you to do all these things, but don’t touch my bottom line.”

Qing Shi was shocked. “You…”

“Get out.”

He knew everything. Qing Shi was terrified. This person knew everything, but he had never said anything about it, and he had never tried to denounce her one bit. Why… Was it really because his doting had manifested in her? Or, was it because of the ingrained memory of another woman in his heart?

After Qing Shi left, Yun Cheng exhaustedly closed his eyes.

His meritorious deeds had been brought about by the withering of the Yue Nation. Sometimes, he would ponder the grave sins that he had committed in his lifetime, but how could he not hate people of the Yue Nation? When he thought about that dreamland from before, his brows knit.

That year, in the depths of winter, he had forced his way into the capital of the Yue Nation, and led soldiers into the imperial palace. He assisted the Emperor of Yue back onto his throne, but when he proposed taking Qing Shi’s corpse back to his country, no one dared agree. After getting to the heart of the matter, he found out that those Yue people had actually defiled her bones and scattered her ashes, sprinkling them on a barren hill outside the imperial city.

Yun Cheng was greatly grieved. He almost couldn’t stay standing as he asked, “Where is she?”

The people in the palace who had survived the armed rebellion brought him there. Nothing grew on the barren hill except miscanthus. “You people… weren’t even willing to seek a piece of shade for Qing Shi.” Yun Cheng gritted his teeth, hating the Yue people to his bones. However, the people behind him said, “This is what the Empress wanted.”

Yun Cheng was stumped for words. A person from the palace said, “When the Empress was severely injured, she ordered us to burn her and scatter her ashes here, if she was to die. She said, this wind could take her home.”

The mountain wind whistled, raising his hair on end. Yun Cheng looked out, and felt his hair sway, as it began to blow towards their motherland. His body seemed to twist about him painfully, from the inside out, putting him in so much pain that he did not wish to live. He slightly bent at his waist and covered his stomach, as some blood rose in his throat.

She wanted to return home; she had always wanted to return home. He had promised her before, that he would always protect her, but he did not accomplish this. In the end, he could not even glance at her again. He was even incapable of bringing her corpse back home… He… was practically useless.

“Yun Cheng, if I want to leave, will you bring me away?”

That question surfaced from the deepest depths of his mind yet again, making him perplexed. If life could repeat itself, even if he had to fight to the death, he would bring her away. However, regrets were worthless, and regret was incapable of making up for his deficiencies…

Qing Shi did not cook gruel for Yun Cheng again. Yun Cheng never asked her about it either. He only leaked some news out for the Emperor. This was Qing Shi’s nation, and Qing Shi’s home. No matter what he did, he could not allow this country to undertake the consequences.

But even if he did not drink the gruel any longer, Yun Cheng’s body continued to grow weaker and weaker. He began to sleep more and more, and his dreams became weirder and weirder. Sometimes, his dreams stemmed from his memories, but other times, he dreamed of things outside his memories. He could no longer distinguish between  and dreams reality.

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The rebel army of the Yue Nation listed the crimes of the Yue Emperor, as well as the faults of the Qi Nation. They tied Qing Shi to a punishment rack and allowed everyone to see her sorry figure. They wanted to show the citizens that they had the means to bind the noble Princess of Qi and the Emperor of Yue, and crush them underneath their feet.

Qing Shi’s eyes despondently looked out at the horizon, almost like a doll without any soul. Her eyes continued to steadfastly look in that direction, as her gaze seemed to pierce through the crowd, one person after another, pierce through the thick, tall city wall, and wander to the Capital of the Qi Nation, a thousand li [1] away. She was familiar with all the great streets and small alleys in that city. There was the Princess residence and Yun Cheng, standing outside her courtyard, and her garden full of pear blossoms.

One man used his gentlest gaze to look into her eyes. She would leap over thousands of mountains and tens of thousands of oceans, all to stay by his side.

They flogged her, but in their words, they were flogging the Qi Nation and the face of the Emperor of Yue. Only Yun Cheng knew that Qing Shi liked capturing little bugs in the summer nights the most. What she treasured most was the broken hairpin that he had gifted her. What she said most was…

“Yun Cheng.”

She was only that sort of girl.

The people who stood below the punishment rack erupted into loud cheers. The person on the punishment rack looked out in an unknown direction, until she could no longer lift her head, until she could no longer speak. She softly closed her eyes, and finally sighed, “Yun Cheng…”

He said, he would protect her forever.

But in the end, she hadn’t managed to hold on until he came.

Dying from a flogging…

When he woke up from his nightmare, Yun Cheng was covered in cold sweat. He covered his tightening heart. It was so painful that his body curled up. On the battlefield, even when he had suffered severe injuries, he had never become weak, but the Yun Cheng at this moment had muddy eyes and fuzzy vision. Qing Shi, Qing Shi. She had really made him give all he had to this lifetime.

He struggled with himself on the bed that night. The next day, he was extremely energized. He said he wanted to go to the Prayer Terrace to pray, and no one dared hold him back. The Protector General, who had been alive for three dynasties now walked to Prayer Terrace like he was taking a walk. This was a divine and sacred place from the very beginning.

He stood on the center of the praying stage, and looked up at the blue dome of heaven. He thought, Did Qing Shi gaze also at the same sky he was now looking at? Was her mood at that time the same as his mood now? Pain and helplessness, love yet regret. He stooped down and slowly looked around the stage. After that, he bent his head down and knelt for three kowtows. “I wish the state will last forever, may my country and Chang’an both prosper.” His voice was very weak and hoarse, as his forehead stuck to the ground. Quite a while passed, but he still did not lift his head.

As the breeze on the platform blew by, Yun Cheng slowly stood up, trembling. He surveyed his surroundings, only seeing an emptiness. Yun Cheng laughed, feeling that he had become muddled and confused due to old-age. What was the point of doing these things? It was almost as if he wanted to call Qing Shi’s spirit back.

He shook his head, and walked down from the praying platform. When he passed by the spot where he had once stood as an imperial bodyguard, he halted his steps. Behind him, the warm breeze felt unhurried. Carelessly, he turned around and looked, like the sunshine had gotten his position wrong. He looked at the plum blossoms covering the entire sky, before they rained down. Princess Qing Shi stood there on the platform, wearing her red garb, with her wide sleeves. Her gaze was somewhat provocative, and somewhat bleak, but most of her gaze felt affectionate, as she looked at him.

Time seemed to turn back ten years. Now, it was still the Sacrifice Day Ceremony that took place that year, with the King and the officials attending the ritual.

He was clothed in the old armor that he had worn as an imperial bodyguard. He took slow steps forward, and extended his hand, but he had forgotten everything. “Qing Shi, I’ll bring you back.”

“Let’s… go home.”

The Princess’s cold eyes softened in an instant. Her lips raised, and her eyebrows curved. “Yes.”

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Translated by tranzgeek

Edited by Ely

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