Dongfo Hall was deserted except for a few clay statues of the Buddha inside. For seven years, no one had paid any attention to the corpse lying inside.
Long Xuan didn’t allow anyone to accompany him into the mortuary side hall. As he pushed open the door and entered the room alone, he was immediately choked by the dust in the air and covered his mouth and nose.
“Wait outside,” Long Xuan said, his hand still covering his face.
There was silence outside the door.
Waiting for the dust to settle, Long Xuan then cautiously approached the thin coffin placed in the center of the room. The room was humid, and moss actually grew on the meager coffin. Mixed with thick layers of dust, it obscured its original color and gave it a pitiful appearance. Long Xuan didn’t smell the putrid stench of a decaying corpse; after seven years, the Empress Dowager’s body should have decomposed completely. He raised the palace lamp in his hand to take a closer look. There were no nails in the coffin. With only a push from his hand, the coffin lid split in half.
“Your Majesty?” Fu Dao heard the unusual sound in the room and called out from outside the door.
Long Xuan watched helplessly as the split coffin lid collapsed into the coffin. The coffin immediately broke into two pieces from the middle and, with a loud “crash” sound, a set of white bones fell to the ground along with several pieces of wood.
“Your Majesty!” Unable to bear it any longer, Fu Dao rushed in with some others.
With more people entering the room, dust filled the air again, making it difficult to breathe.
This time, Long Xuan didn’t cover his mouth and nose. He stood amidst the choking dust, staring blankly at the skeletal remains scattered on the ground.
Fu Dao and the others also saw the white bones on the ground at this time. Long Xuan was still stunned, but they were even more shocked.
These were the remains of the Empress Dowager. If they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, who would have believed it?
Long Xuan only saw a little piece of cloth among the white bones and the pieces of wood. It seemed that Luo Wei hadn’t even bothered to properly take care of the Empress Dowager’s remains. He had simply ordered someone to place her body in this thin coffin. Seven years later, the thin wood had already rotted away.
“Your Majesty, I, I…” Fu Dao’s voice trembled. He shouldn’t have come in; he saw something he shouldn’t have seen.
“Get out!” Long Xuan said angrily without looking back.
Fu Dao and the attendants who had entered hurriedly retreated.
Long Xuan slowly squatted down, reaching out as if to touch the bones. In the end, he withdrew his outstretched hand, saying to the scattered bones, “So he hated you so much that he wanted you to die without a resting place. Imperial Grandmother, Long Xuan has returned victorious from battle and will properly lay you to rest. After seven years, his anger should have subsided. Imperial Grandmother, he hates me more than he hates you. Seeing your end, I suddenly realize that perhaps Luo Wei will never forgive me.1 What should I do?”
There was silence in the room, with only a palace lantern emitting a halo of light.
Long Xuan stood up and walked out of the side hall. He saw the attendants kneeling outside. “Have someone come to handle the bones,” Long Xuan ordered Fu Dao.
As long as he was still being given orders, his life wasn’t lost yet. Fu Dao hurriedly kowtowed and accepted the command.
“Your Majesty,” a guard who had been waiting outside ran in at this moment and reported to Long Xuan, “Prince Xin is outside requesting an audience.”
Long Xuan didn’t let Prince Xin in; instead, he went out of Dongfo Hall to meet him.
“I pay my respects to Your Majesty,” Prince Xin said when he saw Long Xuan, about to kneel and bow.
“In private, Uncle doesn’t need to be so formal,” Long Xuan said, not letting Prince Xin kneel. “Uncle isn’t in the Fangfei Waterside Pavilion, so why did you come here?”
Prince Xin replied, “Prince Jin has always wanted to wait for Your Majesty to come back before deciding on the funeral of the Empress Dowager, so the grand mourning has been delayed until today.” When Prince Xin heard that Long Xuan had come to Dongfo Hall, he broke out in a cold sweat. After the Empress Dowager’s death, Luo Wei had never asked after it. If Long Xuan were to get angry at Luo Wei over this matter, Luo Wei wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. Hurrying to Dongfo Hall, Prince Xin came only to speak up for Luo Wei.
“He did nothing wrong,” Long Xuan easily sensed that Prince Xin was interceding for Luo Wei, so he said, “Uncle should choose a date to handle the grand funeral for the Empress Dowager.”
Prince Xin asked, “Your Majesty is letting me handle it?”
Long Xuan replied, “I just returned to the court, and there are many urgent matters to attend to. The Empress Dowager waited for me for seven years, and since she loved me so much before, she should not mind waiting a little longer.”
“Understood, Your Majesty,” Prince Xin didn’t expect Long Xuan to ignore the Empress Dowager’s grand funeral. Thinking to himself, Prince Xin realized that no one seem to care about Empress Dowager Duanmu in this life.
“Uncle,” Long Xuan stepped forward, calling Prince Xin to follow him.
Seeing Long Xuan walking in the rain, he quickly took an umbrella from Fu Dao’s hand and followed him, holding the umbrella for Long Xuan.
As they walked, Long Xuan asked quietly, “Today, I just want to ask Uncle face to face, was the report about Prince Yu’s severe illness and the request for medicine really found in Xiangnian Hall?”
“Yes,” Prince Xin replied with just that one word.
“And what about the Gao siblings?” Long Xuan asked again.
“The Gao siblings have been held in the Ministry of Justice’s prison until now,” Prince Xin replied. “They are waiting for Your Majesty’s personal review.”
“And what about the child in Gao’s womb?”
“After the news of Prince Yu’s death reached Princess Yu, she seemed to have tortured this Gao concubine. The child in Gao’s womb did not survive.”
Long Xuan paused for a moment, then said to Prince Xin, “I don’t need to interrogate them anymore. The Gao siblings will be executed.”
“Understood,” Prince Xin acknowledged the order, looked at the road he and Long Xuan were walking on, and then asked, “Your Majesty, where are you going? Aren’t you going back to Changming Hall to rest?”
“I have to go see my birth mother,” Long Xuan responded with a wry smile, taking the umbrella from Prince Xin’s hand. “Uncle, please help me watch over things in the Fangfei Waterside Pavilion. You don’t need to accompany me.”
Prince Xin hesitated for a moment but still said to Long Xuan, “Your Majesty, she is after all your birth mother. You should let go a little.”
Long Xuan waved his hand at Prince Xin and walked towards Xiangnian Hall under his umbrella.
Prince Xin stood in the rain for a long time. Long Xuan seemed a little depressed tonight, which Prince Xin was not used to.
Xiangnian Hall had been sealed by Luo Wei. The palace gates were tightly closed, and no human voice could be heard.
Long Xuan looked at the large lock on the door and said, “Open it.”
A eunuch hurried forward, took the key, and unlocked the door.
“Where did you get this key from?” Long Xuan asked. He hadn’t told anyone beforehand about coming to Xiangnian Hall. How could this eunuch have the key to the Xiangnian Hall’s gate?
The eunuch who had opened the lock knelt down and said to Long Xuan, “This key was sent by Prince Jin’s orders. Mr. Fu instructed me to carry it with me.”
Long Xuan kicked open the unlocked palace door and walked in. Seeing the overgrown weeds in front of him, Long Xuan stood still again. What was the difference between here and Dongfo Hall, a place devoid of any living beings?
- Translator: No kidding. Ladies & Gents, after a long and arduous journey through the land of make-believe, LX has finally returned to us and boarded the train to reality town! Miracles do happen! ↩︎
Boundless Dao 
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