Chapter 1: Soul Flying
The sharp west wind urges the green trees to wither, the chrysanthemums and withered lotus leaves to bloom, and the festive items awoke the end of autumn.
In the remote south courtyard of the Second Prince's Mansion in the capital, half a pond of withered lotus leaves float in the clear water, the petals withered and no one cares for them.
Tang Ying lay quietly on the bed. The heavy curtains blocked out the autumn sun outside as well as her lifeless eyes. Although she was in her prime, she was like the withered lotus in the courtyard, having lost her vitality under the chilly autumn wind.
The door was pushed open with a creaky sound, and the maid A Lian came in with a bowl of medicine, placed it on the bedside, and said softly: "Princess, it's time to take the medicine."
Tang Ying knew that her body could not hold on any longer, so she did not care much about taking medicine and just tried to get by.
"Put it there for now. I'll drink it later."
A Lian tried her best to persuade her to drink it, and Tang Ying couldn't persuade her, so she could only let her feed her mouthful by mouthful with a small spoon.
After taking a bowl of medicine, Tang Ying suddenly felt difficulty breathing. However, at the moment of death, she suddenly became suspicious and realized the reason why she had been bedridden for a long time: "Alian, why is it you?"
Three years ago, Tang Ying's father and brother died in battle, and the border town fell into the hands of the enemy. Under the desperate escort of a group of servants, she fled in a hurry with her maid A Lian, and lived in a hunter's house in the mountains for several days until the second prince Yuan Lang led the court reinforcements to retake Baicheng, and she was brought back to the capital in the name of a loyal and brave orphan.
Yuan Lang took good care of her along the way. After arriving in Beijing, he petitioned the emperor and asked to take care of Tang's orphan, which won him a lot of favor among the generals in the court.
This move won the emperor's praise, and he soon granted the marriage. The two got married in the deep mourning period. Tang Ying moved into the second prince's mansion, waiting to consummate the marriage after the mourning period.
But over a year later, her health gradually worsened and she became bedridden. She eventually became so sick that her body became weak and she passed away.
At first, she was accompanied by a group of maids from the palace, but after they began to have doubts, they gradually dismissed them with excuses, leaving only A-Lian to take care of her. She drank bowl after bowl of medicine, but there was no improvement.
A'Lian was bought into the Tang family when she was seven years old. She escaped from the war-torn area with her and entered the Second Prince's mansion together. Unexpectedly, she would be killed in the end.
She held her belly and said, "Miss, I can't help it. I have to make plans for this piece of meat in my belly."
Tang Ying didn't expect the answer to be like this and was extremely shocked: "It's... Yuan Lang's child?" Doesn't he have another lover?
A-Lian lowered her head and shed tears: "Miss, I'm sorry!"
Tang Ying felt as if she had fallen into an icy pond, chilled to the bone. She smiled miserably: "Since you have already... since you have already become an accomplice to the tiger, why bother pretending to be so?" She closed her eyes, feeling the waves of pain in her body, gritted her teeth and squeezed out a word: "Get out!" She used up almost all her strength.
Queen Aliancang took two steps back, at a loss as to what to do.
The door was pushed open again, and it turned out to be the second prince Yuan Lang, wearing a purple robe and a golden crown, with an extraordinary demeanor. He stood in front of her bed, looking down at her and said, "I'm here to see you off, have peace of mind." It didn't seem like he was coming to say goodbye to his wife, but rather to see off his political enemy, and he didn't seem sad at all.
Tang Ying let go of the corner of A Lian's clothes, looked up and could only see the man's handsome chin. Pain surged up in her heart, and even his handsome features were blurred. He was far from the image of the Second Prince who was praised by everyone in the capital for doting on his wife.
She was unwilling to give up. Her skinny hands tightly grasped a corner of his clothes and asked with difficulty, "Why... won't you let me go?"
Half a year after the wedding, she accidentally found out that Yuan Lang had another lover, but he still wanted to marry her. She mentioned divorce at that time.
After losing her father, brother and family, she felt indescribable pain in her heart. The gentle and considerate prince took good care of her and gradually led her out of the pain of losing her family. She thought he was the man who would accompany her for the rest of her life, but she didn't expect that he would stab her in the back in the end.
The daughter of the Tang family would never beg for mercy humbly.
After Tang Ying learned the truth, she proposed divorce to Yuan Lang several times, but he not only disagreed, but also forcibly moved her to the remote South Courtyard on the grounds that she was "ill".
Yuan Lang leaned forward and stared at the woman in front of him. Even when she was dying, he showed no emotion at all. He only uttered a few cold words: "Even if you die, you are still useful to me."
"What a great...making the best use of everything!" Tang Ying couldn't help but laugh sarcastically. She actually expected that the prince who was ambitious to seize the throne would one day repent and let her live a free life. She was so stupid and naive.
Her skinny fingers weakly loosened the corner of the Second Prince's clothes. Her consciousness was dominated by the severe pain in her abdomen. She soon fell into coma. Darkness surged up like a tide. She had difficulty breathing and her heartbeat gradually slowed down. The remaining unwillingness made her open her eyes wide, but it was still no match for the gradually thinning air in her chest. Like a fish out of water, she had to give up struggling.
After Tang Ying swallowed that breath, she felt her whole body become light, as if she was freed from some kind of restraint, and she sat up involuntarily.
She had been ill for a long time and had been bedridden for a long time. After she sat up, she did not forget to look up at Yuan Lang standing beside the bed. Only then did she realize that he looked different. She felt strange and reached out to poke a hole in his masked face, but her transparent fingers pierced through his cheek...
"Ghost!" Tang Ying screamed and jumped up suddenly, but she bounced off the bed and floated in the air. She tried to grab the bedpost in a panic, but she couldn't even grab the bedpost. She almost flew through the room and was scared to death by herself.
——No, she is dead?
She was floating in the air, and when she turned around and looked again, she found that her body was still lying on the bed. All the sufferings in her life were hidden under her calm face, but her eyes were still wide open unwillingly. At this time, looking at her own skin was like reading someone else's story. All the resentment and unwillingness were left in that skin.
Becoming a floating ghost not only made her lose her heavy body, but also allowed her to let go of the grudges and hatred between her and Yuan Lang, and to observe this man who was once her husband and dominated her life and death from a new perspective.
Yuan Lang reached out his hand to check her nose and found that she was not breathing. He stroked her eyes with his big hand and forced them closed for her.
Although the two were nominally husband and wife, they did not even have any intimate behavior. Tang Ying always felt that he respected her before. Later, when she saw him pinching another woman's waist and kissing her hard, as if he wanted to swallow her into his stomach, she knew the reason.
He just had someone in his heart and didn't want to get close to her.
Yuan Lang stood by her bed for a long time. After a long time, he turned around and went out, telling A Lian: "Clean her up. The descendant of a loyal hero should have a decent funeral."
I don't know if it's because she has no obsession with Yuan Lang, and at the last moment she just hopes to leave the Second Prince's Mansion. When she heard his words, she just found it funny, and squatted at the head of the bed watching A Lian wash and dress her.
A'lian was taciturn and there was no one to help her. She concentrated on washing Tang Ying's body, as if she was not facing the remains of the previous master, but the rare treasures on the antique shelf in the second prince's study. Tang Ying found it very boring, so she would go outside from time to time to take a look.
The shroud and coffin had been prepared long ago, and even the burial objects were all valuable. The stewards of the Second Prince's Mansion went to various mansions to announce the death, and the whole mansion was decorated in white, ready to welcome mourners.
The second prince locked himself in the study and told others that he was "too sad and bedridden." However, Tang Ying did not believe him and went through the courtyards to the study in the front yard to find out what was going on. She discovered that the second prince was conspiring with his staff to overthrow the crown prince.
Tang Ying sat on the desk, leaning in to take a closer look at Yuan Lang's eyebrows, nose and eyes, and even blew on his eyelashes, muttering, "As expected, male beauty can mislead people. It's hard to find any flaws even if you look closely. My death is really not unjust!"
The Second Prince's eyes felt a little itchy, so he couldn't help rubbing them a few times. He always felt as if someone was watching him, or whispering in his ear, but when he listened carefully, he could not hear anything. He could only endure the discomfort and continue to discuss matters with his staff.
Seeing that he actually reacted, Tang Ying would pull his ears, poke his eyes, and tug at his hair. He was actually very pleasing to the eye when he frowned, and she couldn't help but think of the saying, "To die under the peony flowers is to be a romantic ghost."
She grew up at the border. Her father and brothers were all rough and unrestrained men. The lines on their faces were made rough and hard by the wind and sand at the border, which was very different from the pampered princes. She was escorted all the way to the capital by the Second Prince, who cared about her and was gentle and considerate. She approached him like a survivor holding onto a piece of driftwood in the sea of suffering, and she didn't ask why.
In the final analysis, it's my own fault for being stupid, I can't blame others.
Tang Ying also tried to leave the Second Prince's Mansion, but strangely, there seemed to be a ban around the palace. She tried many times but couldn't leave. She could only stay for the time being and float around the mansion. She watched her body being put into the coffin with her own eyes, and also watched the people in the mansion kneeling in the mourning hall and pretending to cry. Even Yuan Lang's "heartbreak" was fake.
She felt that she was a complete failure as a human being. After her death, there was not even one person who truly missed her. She had no attachment to the Second Prince's Mansion and only hoped to leave as soon as possible.
After her death, Yuan Lang had been discussing matters with his staff all night long. He was unkempt and haggard, which was very much in line with the image of a widower who had lost his wife. When mourners arrived, he staggered to the mourning hall in simple clothes, supporting the coffin and crying bitterly. Even the people who came to pay their respects were moved by him and repeatedly lamented the tragic fate of the second prince's wife.
The ill-fated second prince's wife: "..."
——It turns out I’m not the only one who’s blind?!
At that time, Tang Ying was sitting cross-legged on the coffin, leaning her chin on her hand and looking at him. The usually dignified man was now crying and pounding on the coffin, muttering, "Yingying, get up... Yingying, don't leave me..."
"No way? This is such a great acting!" Tang Ying wondered, if she followed Yuan Lang's wishes and really sat up from the coffin, she wondered if he would still be able to continue crying?
She was confined to a corner of the world, and her life was boring. In recent days, she was like a wisp of light smoke, gradually adapting to her current "body". She didn't have to worry about food and clothing, and she didn't have to be trapped in a skin. She found that being a ghost was much happier than being a human. Although she didn't know why she couldn't leave the Second Prince's Mansion, she could hear and see more clearly every day than being trapped in the South Courtyard. She even saw several lively events, which were more exciting than what she had seen in the tile house outside.
She looked at Yuan Lang playing the role of her affectionate husband, and she cried until she fainted. She was carried back to the study by the people in the mansion, and she still found it funny. As she floated away, the doctor in the mansion announced to the public, "The prince was too sad, and his blood was not flowing back to his menstrual period, so he fainted. It's better for him to stay in bed and rest for the time being, otherwise it will be terrible if he leaves a root of disease."
Tang Ying was quite regretful: "I can't follow through with my pretense."
So Yuan Lang naturally stayed in the study to "rest" and continued to discuss matters with his staff until one day he mentioned a person's name.
At that time, Tang Ying was already somewhat confused. Sometimes he would forget the time while drifting. When he opened his eyes again, it seemed that the funeral had been over for many days. Yuan Lang, wearing ordinary clothes, half leaned on the Luohan couch and said, "If Tang Yao had not been so stubborn and refused to surrender to me, the lives of their father and son would not have been buried."
Tang Yao is Tang Ying's father.
Tang Ying woke up from the chaos in an instant, and heard the goateed aide sighing: "The Tang family is loyal and brave to the prince. They fight wherever His Majesty orders. Both father and son are brave generals, but it's a pity that they don't know how to adapt..."
Yuan Lang seemed to be recalling something from the distant past, and after a long time he said, "The whole family is stubborn, even the daughter..." He swallowed the rest of the sentence.
Tang Ying was alone and had no worries in the world, but the death of her father and brother was an untouchable pain in her heart. She did not expect that there was another hidden story, which seemed to be closely related to Yuan Lang. Her body suddenly swelled up, and she shouted in grief and anger: "I will strangle you to death!" and rushed towards Yuan Lang.
At that moment, Yuan Lang clearly heard a woman's shrill voice. Since Tang's death, he has felt that someone is watching him many times, and he is uneasy . A few days ago, he went to Hongfu Temple and asked Master Yuanjue for a talisman.
He subconsciously took out the amulet from his neck, and then he heard a scream. Tang Ying saw a golden light in front of her eyes, and she ran into it and her soul flew away.
