Fuzhu’s Ballad

CHAPTER 1

Unpardonable

The wind howled as it miserably swept over the snow-covered city.
In the dismal atmosphere, the entire capital withered into a tintless ink painting.

The sparse snow particles drifting down from the dark drooping clouds stung Lan Dan's face.
On the center of the high platform, she was kneeling in front of the executioner who was spraying wine onto his sword.
As an Imperial Princess, she had experienced countless kneelings.
She knelt down to others, and others knelt down to her.
However, she had never expected to kneel for the last time in this manner.
She felt neither sad nor scared, only relieved.

A few spectators stood below the high platform.
Now that the imperial power had fallen into new hands, how many remnants of the previous dynasty must be pulled out and beheaded? The sudden change didn't feel refreshing anymore.

An old man with graying hair spat out loudly, “Bah! A beast who could poison his father to death! Da Min is actually ruined in the hands of such a woman!”

The people around hastily gave him a push.
Nowadays, mentioning “Da Min” seemed to have become an official taboo.
Naturally, it was safer to say less.

Lan Dan lowered her eyes.
She didn't need to look to confirm that the person who could criticize her like this was a commoner.
She had listened to the verdict of the new imperial court against her.
The pronouncement was brilliantly eloquent, condemning her for patricide and high treason, spurning her for bringing calamity to the common people with the sinister and selfish nature of a woman, and overthrowing the previous dynasty.
Such lengthy and flashy speech, didn't the old man precisely nail it with just two sentences?

“It's noon,” announced the supervisor in charge of the execution.

In the end, Lan Dan couldn't resist lifting her head to look at the audience, then up the city gate tower not far away…
Even at this point, she didn't understand why she still needed to make sure.
No one really came to see her off in her last moments.

Perhaps sympathizing with her mood, the tower appeared very gloomy and solemn in the wind and snow.
In the old days when she was still Princess Danyang, she would occasionally follow her elder brothers up the tower to watch the executions from a distance.
The Crown Prince often had a disdainful face, commenting coldly that such a sinner could be replaced by more outstanding and excellent person.
Fifth Prince would show regret, noting that this man had some strategic thinking and that it would have been good to use him if he had not made a wrong step.
Seventh and Ninth Princes would murmur their agreement.
As an unfavored princess, her mind tended to be more delicate and sensitive.
Lan Dan vaguely perceived that Fifth Elder Brother was a little treacherous.
Whenever she was idle, she would secretly think about what would happen if he would rebel one day.
Ironically, before Fifth Elder Brother could make any move, she had personally handed Da Min's ten thousand miles of territories to Shentu Cheng.
In the end, nobody in the Xiao family needed to worry about such a day.

Now it was her turn to be decapitated in public, yet not a single person she knew had the leisure to watch the excitement.

It was unusual for members of the royal family to be executed by decapitation, but in the current dynasty, she was no longer considered part of the royal family.
In just ten days, she had already been reduced to a remnant of the previous dynasty.
Moreover, she was a heinous sinner who poisoned her Father Emperor.
Such hideous crime was unpardonable.

But…
didn't Shentu Cheng even come to see her off?

At this point, with the blade already resting at her neck, any feelings of love or hate vanished.
Whether he was insincere to her from the very start or had just recently burned bridges, she numbly thought that he should have at least come.
Despite whoever else failed to show, he was the one who ought to have been there.

The top of the city wall was still empty.
A person like her who killed her father, the Emperor, had no family and home.
Leaving in such a desolate way was what she deserved.
She had no defense.

The wind was getting stronger, the snow falling in quicker succession.
Lan Dan closed her eyes.
The whistling wind in her ears and the bone-piercing cold oddly brought back memories of the bright and warm spring.
In her mind, the pink and white peach blossoms bloomed all over the mountains and plains, the petals floating in through the window lattices and landing on the table.
This was the best spring in her life.
She finally met that person— the one who promised to cherish and love her.

Henceforth, she spent the happiest summer and autumn in her eighteen years.
For the first time, she realized that life could still be full of hope and joy.
Her palace and her sky suddenly seemed to brighten.
Those days of walking forward with heaviness and numbness disappeared without a trace.
Suddenly, someone grabbed her hand and pulled her for a run.
Giddy, she believed that she would keep running like this to a more beautiful and better place…
Then, winter came, and she listened to him say with his own mouth, “Revenge for the Holy One!”

The Holy One he was talking about wa