Wishing You Eternal Happiness 1
Wishing You Eternal Happiness
Hi everyone! This is marchmallow.
This is a novel from one of the authors I admire that I’ve long been wanting to translate. I hope you all enjoy it and look forward to the updates!
I will be updating this every weekend along with Feng Xing.
《 Synopsis | Table of Contents | Next 》
Translation: marchmallow
TL Checker: StackedSnowflake
Chapter 1
Its natural hue is as clear as ice and as bright as jade. Amidst bleakness and desolation, it fights to the bitter end to greet the autumnal winds of the west with a welcoming embrace.1
***
It had been late autumn when Jiafu was buried. She could distinctly recall the splendor of the hibiscus-filled garden within Jinbi Palace. From a distance, it resembled a conglomeration of rosy clouds adrift midair.
She could also remember that afternoon quite clearly.
A number of days had passed since she had last seen the Emperor’s face. Those in the palace spoke of how the Empress sedulously waited upon the ill Emperor to the extent where she would sleep even with her outer clothes on.
Upon her entry, she beheld Empress Zhang’s swollen eyelids, her mien wan and sallow. Prior to the Empress’ exit, she relayed that the Emperor had summoned Jiafu and requested for her to serve him well.
The Empress was amiable, her countenance benign as usual.
The bitter odor of spices and medicine wafted afloat amid layer upon layer of yellow curtains. The palace hall’s lattice windows were tightly shut, rendering it dusky and grim deep in the hall, as though a shroud of shadows would envelop her.
Jiafu peered at the man named Xiao Yintang kneeling on the dragon bed. He had been kneeling there for about the same time it would take to whittle half a stick of incense.2
In a brief span of ten years, the imperial power of the Great Wei Dynasty had changed four times, from the reign of Tianxi, Chengning, Yongxi, to Zhaoping, the dynasty’s Late Emperor Shizong.3 Wars had frequently erupted within this period; however, the Great Wei Dynasty’s late emperor soon completely obliterated all of the country’s internal turmoil. The nation’s power accumulated day by day, and the people’s various livelihoods had also stabilized. After Xiao Yintang took the reins of imperial power from his father, Shizong, the upheaval on the northern frontier once again made a resurgence. The new Emperor was ambitious. The year after he ascended the throne, he disregarded his ministers’ strenuous admonitions and obstructions, mobilized the entire nation’s soldiers, and personally led his troops into battle to fight against the Turks. Although they had triumphed after much strife, his incaution had incurred him grave injuries. His condition deteriorated after returning to court to a degree where even the imperial physicians were wholly helpless. The dire news thereupon began to circulate in secret.
Xiao Yintang had dozed off when, all of a sudden, his hands sprung up and whisked aloft in disarray, as if sparing no effort to ward off something.
His eyes were still closed, but his brows were tightly knit together. He looked pained, his expression seized with terror. Beads of cold sweat unceasingly trickled down his forehead, looking like he was plagued by some lurid nightmare.
Jiafu hastily shot up, scurried over, and grasped his cold and sweaty hand.
“Your Majesty, wake up——”
The next moment, the Emperor shoved her away with explosive force until she toppled on the floor. Despite the pain, she clambered up and approached him once more, his obscure and delirious ravings assailing her ears upon closer proximity.
“You’an! You’an! Is this the retribution you’re giving me? Let me go! Must you blame someone, blame Imperial Father! It was all his fault——”
The sound of gurgling escaped Xiao Yintang’s throat, as if a pair of invisible hands were clutching his neck, straining his breathing.
Jiafu’s heart suddenly hammered against her chest. Xiao Yintang continued to mumble in his nightmare, but his tone had transformed.
“Zhen4 is the emperor! Zhen is the emperor of Great Wei! Pei You’an, zhen does not fear you! You should never have existed in this world to begin with! Even if you’ve turned into a ghost, what can you do to zhen?!”
He gnashed his teeth in bitter hatred. His countenance distorting, his wanton hand captured one of Jiafu’s wrists. As his teeth chattered, his fingers immediately tightened. In an instant, the last of his whole body’s strength seemed to coalesce into these five fingers.
Jiafu felt as though the bone in her wrist would soon crack. Withstanding the acute pain, she called out to him once more.
Xiao Yintang finally awakened. His eyes abruptly snapped open. Cold sweat cascading down his face, he fixed his gaze on Jiafu by his side.
Jiafu’s complexion slightly paled. She looked at him for a moment, a smile lighting up her face. “Your Majesty, it’s this concubine5……”
Xiao Yintang released her wrist, causing her arm to dangle with the feeblest of strength.
Jiafu wiped the cold sweat on his forehead.
His face was drained of color. He briefly shut his eyes, then asked with a strangled voice, “A’Fu,6 did you hear what zhen was saying while dreaming just now?”
The handkerchief in Jiafu’s grasp paused.
Pei You’an, the eldest son of the Wei Grand Duke7 Manor, was born with a frail and sickly constitution. However, he had a preeminent innate ability: an extraordinary retentive memory that had allowed him to garner the scholarly honor of Jinshi8 at age fourteen. At that time, the Tianxi Emperor had been so ardently fond of him that he bent the law to decree him to enter the Institute for the Advancement of Literature as an expectant official. He bore the good reputation of “high minister in plain clothes, a young grand councilor”.9 The Late Emperor Shizong also fully held him in high esteem. Three years ago, he perished in Anxi County while serving as its military commissioner, unmarried all his life, not even reaching the age of thirty.
It was said that on the night before in Suye City, his old illness had recurred, prompting him to vomit an excessive amount of blood. With a candle in hand, he met all the subordinates who had paid him a visit. All the men were in tears, yet his face remained unwavering. He spoke and laughed in an unconstrained fashion, telling them of how medicine and acupuncture stone needles had accompanied him since childhood. Someone had once professed that he would not live past the age of ten, yet he survived until now. He claimed that he had beseeched the heavens to lend him twenty more years; as such, he could pass without regrets.
The grievous news about Pei’s illness while in a desolate and isolated city outside the Great Wall spread to the capital. Rumor had it that the Late Emperor Shizong was so overwhelmed with grief that he immediately fainted that instant.
After his death, he was not buried in the Pei family’s ancestral tomb, but rather, in a field outside Suye City as he had willed. The army and the people bewailed to the heavens, reluctant to depart from there for about half a month. Shizong made an exception and conferred him the posthumous title of Prince of Anxi. The posthumous event was to mournfully extol his eternally reposed soul.
In terms of relationship, Pei You’an and Jiafu were maternal ‘relatives’, but apart from their accidental encounter many years ago, there had been no other interactions between the two.
“This concubine did not hear it.”
She responded, then proceeded to wipe his sweat.
Xiao Yintang slowly drew out a breath and closed his eyes for an interval. His expression gradually soothing, he gently held Jiafu’s hand and proclaimed, “A’Fu, zhen loves you like zhen values life. When zhen laid eyes on you for the first time, you were immediately placed on the cusp of this one’s heart. Over the years, although you have not been bestowed a title or position, zhen believes that this one’s favor for you has already reached the apex. Now, Zhen has to go. Arrangements have been set once this is all over. Your mother’s family, zhen has also taken care of them. The only thing zhen cannot bear to part with is you……”
“When zhen passes, are you willing to accompany zhen?”
He laggardly unclosed his eyes, tilted his head, and gazed at her.
His face was ashen, and his dark brows had a tinge of green hue. The dull air brought about by his impending demise had veiled his originally handsome features.
Half-kneeling and half-sitting, Jiafu’s eyes steadied onto the emperor gazing at her.
“What, are you not willing to accompany zhen?”
The corners of his mouth were ambiguously upturned as he asked this.
”Replying to Your Majesty, this concubine is willing.”
She drew back her hand and afterwards kowtowed in the direction of the dragon bed. She knelt there for a long time with her forehead pressed against the ground.
“Come closer to zhen.” Once more, he stretched out his hand to her, locked her in a firm embrace with his sole remaining strength, and expelled a lengthy sigh. This sigh bore endless remorse and utmost reluctance.
“Zhen fears that the underground palace will be lonely. After zhen goes, there will be no one as understanding as you that zhen can talk to, which greatly worries zhen. Zhen is even more afraid that once zhen leaves, you will be alone in this world. From then on, you will be forlorn and helpless. Why not go with zhen? That way, zhen can rest assured.”
“A’Fu, do not fault zhen. If there is a next life, zhen will grant you the empress’ seat……”
His lips were grazing her ears as he murmured, his voice thick with overflowing tenderness.
……
In the autumn of the second year of Shenguang’s reign, Xiao Yintang, the Emperor of Great Wei, died in the prime of his life, not even two years after he ascended the throne. His posthumous name and title was Dunzong.
One who cultivates harmonious relationships with family members and friends is called “altruistic”. One whose virtuous behaviors are unwavering is called “altruistic”.10
In the same vein that an emperor’s virtues were manifested through his posthumous title, Xiao Yintang issued a commendable imperial edict on the verge of his demise.
He declared, “Zhen cannot bear to sacrifice human lives. After zhen passes, all imperial concubines will be spared from live burial so they can all live an easy life until old age.”
In the previous dynasties, the number of women in the imperial harem exempted from the live burial upon the emperor’s death ranged from a few to more than a hundred.11 Great Wei adhered to the old system. Xiao Yintang was only thirty years of age when he was snatched away by an abrupt death. For the women in the rear palace, it was akin to thunder in a clear sky. Stricken with grief, their cheeks were bathed in tears all day long. When time came, they were only waiting to hang themselves from the beams of their rooms as a requisite to their imminent burial in the underground palace. Much to their astonishment, the Emperor pardoned them from such doom. Though they would fritter away their remaining years in the cold palace until old age, as opposed to being impelled to accompany him in death, the fact that they could keep their lives was still a blessing. Everyone was deeply grateful, and they wept before his tomb with genuine tears.
But all these had nothing to do with Jiafu.
Devoid of any joy or sorrow, she was already resigned to such a fate.
In this life, she was much like a rootless duckweed. After fully committing herself to Xiao Yintang, with neither a title nor status, she was rendered unfit to be seen by anyone in broad daylight. To have this kind of conclusion was not unexpected.
But as she was waiting, the three feet of white silk that should have been there was nowhere to be found.
The newly promoted Empress Dowager mandated that she be installed into a precious gold-threaded wooden coffin specially prepared for her. In this way, she would be buried in the underground palace alongside the Late Emperor.12
“The Late Emperor ordered me to take care of the people in your Zhen family. You should rest assured and follow the Late Emperor. I will certainly live up to the Late Emperor’s trust.”
Empress Dowager Zhang was no longer as magnanimous as in the past. As she stared at her, every word she enunciated was laden with undisguised rancor.
The heavy coffin lid was lifted and pushed down, squeezing out the remaining light before her eyes.
Ultimately, Jiafu’s world turned pitch-black. From then on, she would be eternally confined in that narrow space within the underground palace, no longer capable of leaving.
She neither struggled nor screamed. She understood that, no matter how she would struggle or how loudly she would cry out, everything would be futile.
This ending of hers had been decreed by fate.
Life was not up to her decision, marriage was not up to her decision, and even death was not up to her decision.
The air grew increasingly scarce, and her chest ached as her breathing petered out. Throughout the endlessly painful torment of dying, her fingernails relentlessly clawed and latched onto every surface of the coffin’s body within her reach, engraving a trail of scratches on the golden-threaded hardwood slab.
Only then did she realize that she, too, feared death. This boundless oppression from the darkness underground that accompanied death had once been unimaginable to her.
She knew that she wanted to live. No matter how hard it was, she wanted to keep on living.
But it was too late. In this life, this was her ultimate end. Her life would come to a close this way.
Had she not married her second biaoge,13 and had she not encountered Xiao Yintang, what would her life have looked like?
She began to weep. Tears had welled up, but crying only consumed more air and intensified her misery.
All kinds of grotesque and variegated hallucinations began to manifest before her eyes. At the end of the light and shadow, while in a trance, she seemed to notice that a man had penetrated the inexhaustible gloom of the underground palace, ambling towards her with a smile.
She recognized him. He was her father.
Many years ago, when she was but a young girl of thirteen, her father had gone to sea, and she had seen him off at the dock. Before he set foot on deck, her father had promised her that, on this voyage, he would gift her a necklace made of purple mermaid pearls14 strung together.
Purple mermaid pearls were produced in distant overseas and foreign regions. Not only did they glow at night, but legend had it that they could also betide good fortune to people. Anyone who encountered ‘those who lived in the sea’ would be considered harbingers of immense luck.
”With it on, the life of A‘Fu’s dad will be smooth-sailing, free of disasters and diseases.”
Her father’s tone of voice and beaming face of that time were still vivid in her memories.
But after that trip, he never returned.
“A’Fu, Dad is back and has brought you a necklace. Do you like it?”
Her father gazed at her with eyes full of fondness.
“Dad——”
With a smile and tears in her eyes, Jiafu held her hand out to him. She called out to her father, the man who had loved her most in the world.
The last breath of precious air had forsaken her lungs. Her hands, with fingernails already broken and bleeding, lost all strength and slowly hung down from midair, resting atop her soft and warm chest.
The edge of her lips curled up into a smile.
Translator’s Note:
A mountain of footnotes ahead. I always assume that not all people are familiar with common terms in Chinese web novels, and I tend to over-explain, so my footnotes end up being lengthy. Anyway, the numbers in superscript link directly to the corresponding footnote and vice versa.
《 Synopsis | Table of Contents | Next 》
Footnotes:
1 This line is from a poet named Fan Chengda (范成大) in the Song Dynasty. The poem with the title 《菩萨蛮木芙蓉》 describes the cotton rose hibiscus, which is relevant to the FL’s name, as the ‘Fu’ (芙) in Jiafu means hibiscus.
2 A stick of incense takes about 30 mins, he might have been kneeling for 15 minutes. Basically a poetic way of describing that span of time.
3 The Zhaoping Emperor (昭平) and Late Emperor Shizong (先帝世宗) are the same person. Each dynasty’s emperors have their own ‘reign’. At this point in time, the late emperor’s reign was called ‘Zhaoping’, but he had the ‘temple name / posthumous title’ of Shizong. Once the emperor dies, he is referred to by his posthumous title and not his reign title.
4 朕 (zhèn): illeism the emperor uses to refer to himself
5 妾 (qie): a married woman’s (regardless if main wife or concubine) self-address when speaking to her husband
6 阿 (ā): prefix used before monosyllabic names, kinship terms etc to indicate familiarity
7 国公 (guo gong): Translates to Imperial Duke in Zhou Dynasty, where 国 means state. However, dukes in Zhou Dynasty were actually related to the imperial family, and Zhou monarchs were kings, not emperors. In this novel, it’s a title (sometimes hereditary) usually given to high officials who helped found the dynasty. I’m gonna use “Grand Duke” for this one, as Imperial Duke may sound confusing because they’re not related to the imperial household.
8 进士 (Jinshi): highest degree/scholarly honor achieved through passing the court/palace examination, the highest level of imperial examination personally supervised by the emperor
9 An Expectant Official (待詔) is basically someone serving in a post requiring an imperial appointment to have an official title. It could be that there weren’t any job openings yet, so the emperor assigned him to random odd jobs at the Hongwen Pavilion, otherwise known as the Institute for the Advancement of Literature. The term ‘high minister in plain clothes’ (白衣公卿) is an idiom for Jinshi without an official title, someone not yet in high office but having the qualifications and potentiality for attaining it, basically a ‘Potential Dignitary’. They’re lauding him for having the skills that could qualify him to become a ‘grand councilor/prime minister’ despite his young age.
10 敦 (Dun): Dun in “Dunzong” stands for altruistic. Source
11 If I understand this correctly, the women usually exempt from live burial are those with princes, since children need their mothers. Those who didn’t would be buried with the emperor to ‘keep him entertained’ in the afterlife.
12 Women are allowed to commit suicide (given three feet of white silk to hang themselves) before they accompany the emperor in death to alleviate their suffering, but this empress dowager probably hated her so much that she just denied her that right and straight out buried her alive.
13 表哥 (biǎo gē): older male cousin via female line. I will be using this to refer to her male maternal cousins, since the english equivalent for that (cousin-brother?) sounds awkward. Simplifying it to cousin also destroys the nuance. Back then, people could marry their biao cousins, but not their tang (or paternal) cousins with the same surname.
