Chapter 106 – The Ancestor’s Extravagance (2)
Ning Xuemo turned her head and saw a young lady fluttering toward them. Her royal dress looked vivacious and lively; she held an elegant and romantic appearance. It proved to be that “full of zeal about her feelings towards her older brother” princess, Ji Yunyao.
In front of her imperial father and her older brother, she was excessively gentle unlike her previously arrogant and lofty attitude.
First, she respectfully gave her greetings to Emperor Le Xuan and Ji Yunhuang. Then without a word, she slipped herself between Ji Yunhuang and Ning Xuemo, warmly pulling Ji Yunhuang’s arm as an intimate gesture. “Big Brother Crown Prince, can you let me go with you?”
When Ji Yunhuang, who always treated other people coldly, saw his little sister, his face relaxed greatly. He patted her hand and said, “Didn’t you leave to the garden for training? Why did you run off here?”
Ji Yunyao pouted. “Someone just happened to be back home, and since the Ancestor allowed two more people to accompany imperial father, it would naturally be more appropriate for someone with the right status to go in, rather than a random person with no status. I am more than suitable to go inside, unlike someone… Imperial Father, what do you think?” After she finished giving her arguments, she sent Ning Xuemo a glance.
Ning Xuemo nearly yawned. The Ancestor only allowed Emperor Le Xuan to bring in two more individuals, but they were only there to greet him and listen to his commands. That’s all. What else could they do apart from that?
Waiting upon someone was not her job and did not concern her one bit!
Although the Princess spoke somewhat arrogantly, she just wanted to make her point.
Therefore, Ning Xuemo grabbed the opportunity offered to her. “The Princess’s words are correct. It is truly the most appropriate for the Princess and the Crown Prince to accompany the Emperor. I, a humble woman, should not be here to interfere, and I still have matters to attend. May I be allowed to retire?”
Ji Yunhuang slightly creased his brows. He glanced at Ning Xuemo and saw her smiling expression. His intuition told him that this little fox really wanted to slip away.
Emperor Le Xuan bluntly said, “Yunyao, stop acting willfully! Xuemo, you’re going to come with us and Yunhuang! Hurry go take a bath, and change your clothes! Yunyao, you return first and continue to practice your skills. I don’t want you to cause trouble here. This is an imperial edict. Now go!”
The Emperor gave out an imperial edict. Even if she was spoiled and unbridled, she would not dare to go against it. She could only bite her lips while unwillingly saying, “Yes.” Once again, she coldly glared at Ning Xuemo before turning back and leaving.
Ning Xuemo was about to rub her forehead but refrained from doing so. That old Emperor must be afraid that her days were too carefree, filled with leisure. He went as far as creating new enemies for her…
‘A jealous princess, what an annoying thing!’
‘Especially when she strived her best to eliminate everything that might stand between her and her elder brother by hook or by crook.’
‘Because of that, it made her even more hateful toward me!’
……
‘There is a beauty from the North,
Whose beauty stands alone.
One glance at her, cities fall;
Another glance at her, empires collapse.’[1]
‘Her robe is a cloud; her face is a flower.
Or a moon-edged roof of paradise…’[2]
Finally in that split instant, she saw the Ancestor. All the poems and songs she had learned and known from her previous life that described a beauty flooded into her mind one after another.
She felt that all those poems and songs could not be any more accurate to describe the Ancestor sitting on the master seat. However, she needed to change a few words to make it accurately fit reality.
For example, she would change it to “There was a beauty at the top, whose icy attitude stands alone.”
“One glance at him, froze people’s heart. Another glance at him, froze their whole seat.”
“His robe is a cloud; his face is an ice cube. Or a moon-edged tip of an iceberg…”
‘This is a living ice sculpture! An amazingly beautiful living ice sculpture! Everything on him looked snow white! The only thing black on him are his hair and his eyes!’
His chang pao was extremely breathtaking. Although it was unclear what material it was made from, it was as if he wore snow white clothes woven from clouds. On his chang pao, dark shades of cloud patterns could be seen moving along with each of his occasional movements. Those cloud patterns looked like they were floating and wandering in a white sky.
His hair was tied in a bundle and fixed under a white jade crown. The jade crown’s[3] material seemed to be made from an unusual type of nephrite possessing a creamy color known as “mutton fat” jade[4]. However, the luster from that white jade was much more gentle and more translucent than the “mutton fat” jade she knew from her previous world. What’s more, a turbid windy flow of clouds could be faintly seen from inside the jade.
On his head, his long hair appeared to be like a waterfall cascading down his back, flowing down his white clothes, and ending its course spread out on the ground.
[1] Those lines are a part of the lyrics for the song The Beauty Song which was written by Li Yannian, a musician during the Han dynasty. He wrote that song to praise his younger sister’s beauty. When he sang the song to Emperor Wu, it sparked the Emperor’s interest and his sister ended up being a favored concubine. Click here for the video of the song which was used in the movie House of Flying Daggers.
For extra information, Emperor Wu bat for the two teams, and Li Yannian was one of his lover. I could start talking about homosexuality throughout China history, but I’ll stop here. For more informations on that subject, click here or if you want the short version with NSFW ugly drawings, click here.
[2] This is part of a poem called Song of Pure Happiness I written by Li Bai, also known as Li Bo, a chinese poet from the Tang Dynasty. I took the translations directly from this website which contained other poems from Li Bai : click here. Li Bai was known to be a genius poet and a romantic. That poem was written to praise Yang Guifei‘s beauty. If you can read French, then you will be able to read the explanations of the poem : here. The english link for the essay on the poem is dead.
[3] It’s not the european version of a crown. click here for image
[4] There exist different types of jade. The mutton fat jade is classified as a nephrite with the uncommon white color. For more informations click here and here.