Falling Dreams Of Fang Hua

Chapter 33: Variables

The bright moon hung in the skies, but Fang Hua's residence was dark. There was a faint light shining from indoors when I snuck inside and closed the door behind me. Turning around, I only saw a few young eunuchs waiting in the courtyard with their heads drooping, not daring to make a sound. In fact, their bodies seemed to be trembling.

"What's wrong, did something happen?" I only just spoke when a storm of footsteps drifted through the darkness. Before I could recover from the shock, I was blinded by the glare reflecting off a group of swords. About a dozen or so guards stood before us in full battle array, their swords drawn.

I trembled and didn't even have time to back away. The leader of the imperial guards gave us all a frigid look and said, "Seize everyone here."

Ah...

Seize?

Why were they seizing Fang Hua's people? Not to mention, I'd only just entered this residence...why seize me as well?

My shoulders hurt from someone gripping me, but I didn't dare use my internal energy. Before anything serious happened, I resolved to endure it. Lack of forbearance in small matters could upset bigger plans.

We were brought before the halls of the old man emperor, where we discovered the eunuchs and court ladies of other masters were kneeling there shaking in fear. It was a chilly night, but the gates to the main hall were wide open, and the scent of medicine drifted out from its depths.

No incense was lit indoors, but all of the lanterns were gleaming. Though the scene was very bright, it also felt particularly empty and desolate. A brilliant yellow robe was spread on the ground where a person knelt by the bed, hands clutching the emperor's own. His eyes were red and his voice choked with sobs as he said over and over again, "Father...your son has been unfilial."

But the figure on the bed remained motionless.

The crown prince bent over and tightly embraced that person, body trembling as he slowly slid off the bed, his expression extremely sorrowful. He was the splitting image of a dutiful child and the sight was very moving.

What was this?

What had happened? I stared dazedly from my position kneeling on the ground, blinking furiously. An old eunuch wiped his eye with a sleeve, and announced in a shrill, drawn-out voice, "The emperor has passed away."

What...

Passed away?!

Across the empty halls and quiet spaces of the palace rang the low, mournful peal of bells. Their depressing notes reverberated endlessly in the skies, and the sound was enough to make one's heart tremble.

The noise shook me until my mind was completely blank. I looked stupidly at the courtyard full of grieving, sobbing people. Some had their faces ashen-white, shivering as they knelt on the ground.

"How audacious, who is this?"

"Move aside, move aside..."

A figure appeared by the entrance to the palace, raising his robes to hurry inside before bowing with two hands raised in the air, a small box nestled within them. "Your servant came too late, and deserves to die ten thousand deaths."

Someone else trailed slowly in after him but stilled his steps to look astonished upon the scene. Amidst the chaos, he was the only one who still had a calm and tranquil expression. No matter how tense the surrounding atmosphere was, he was always quiet and elegant.

"Fang Hua, you came too." Han Zichuan nodded lightly with a gentle smile. He finally turned around and slowly sat down, hands knocking lightly against the surface of a table. Gradually, the smile in his eyes faded as he focused on one person.