Posted on December 10, 2016 by therealaphye

  Translated by Luna (lunaris111.wordpress.com) Link to Original

  Edited by therealaphye

  Xiao Yin’s men stumbled upon that zither and brought it to him as a present. It was said that it was Southern Dynasty’s famous zither. He could see this zither was indeed not ordinary, but could not tell what was special about it.

  He once fiddled with the zither, yet he felt the sound produced by each string was about the same. Frankly speaking, it was not as good as their North Kingdom’s huqin.

  Huqin

  However, hearing Hua Zhu Yu’s zither-playing at this moment, his impression of her completely changed. He had not thought that she could actually play zither.

  ‘Zheng zheng’ the sound of the zither flowed into the air. Hua Zhu Yu closed her eyes. Unexpectedly the scenes of her wedding night, the captivating red moonlight on Mount Yu, Jin Se’s miserable cries and Da Qi’s attempt to a.s.sault her emerged before her. She was overcame with emotion and the tune of her zither-playing abruptly changed; it was no longer that mellow “转应曲”.

  Xiao Yin’s pupils shrunk. His bright pupils kept staring at Hua Zhu Yu’s hands, finding it somewhat incredible. The tune could not be said pleasant to hear, but it made him feel unexplainable tremor and melancholy.

  The rhythm gradually got louder, it rose momentarily and then suddenly it fell dramatically.

  ‘Pa’ the zither’s string unexpectedly snapped, catching people off guard. Hua Zhu Yu’s mind momentarily went blank. Blood dripped from her fingers, yet she did not feel even a little bit pain. Da Qi yelled at her for playing a bad tune and breaking the zither. Hua Zhu Yu snapped out of her trance at Da Qi’s voice. She quietly smiled at these people’s ignorance.

  She lifted up her eyes and looked at that cold-blooded, ruthless man, Xiao Yin. Surprisingly he was not angry at all, looking at her with interest, he asked: “What is your name?”


  Hua Zhu Yu felt a chill run up her spine. She casually replied: “ Liu Yun.”


  “Starting tonight, you do not need to be a prost.i.tute anymore, just be bendaxia’s personal zither prost.i.tute. Go then. Hui Xue, you take her withdraw.” With a wave of his hand, he instructed a maid who was standing in attendance.

  “Thank you, Your Highness!” Hua Zhu Yu saluted, thanking him.

  Zither prost.i.tute?!

  She still could not evade this ‘prost.i.tute’ word!

  Hua Zhu Yu was then brought by that maid into a small, private red tent.

  The next morning she woke up, the whole army‘s soldiers all were packing up. The air inside the camp was cold, solemn and heavy.

  Hua Zhu Yu had learned from Hui Xue that the army wanted to march southwards. Since they had decided to start a war, they naturally would not take the prost.i.tutes along. Yet, Xiao Yin ordered her to go with the army.

  If she were to stay behind with those prost.i.tutes, she would be able to wait for a chance to escape. Now that she had to go with the army, the chance of escaping became smaller, but she might be able to catch a glimpse of her father and to find a way to let him know that she was still alive.

  Early spring.

  The sun that hung high in the sky sent out galvanic radiance. Although it was bright and beautiful, dazzling, it was cold and without warmth.

  30,000 elite soldiers all stood in formation. The vast amount of soldiers seemed to stretch endlessly. The flag of the North Kingdom fluttered in the vicious wing. The armor and the sharp edge of their weapons seemed to give off a cold light.

  On the very first horse in the front sat the North Kingdom’s crown prince – Xiao Yin.

  His black iron armor made his entire person seem colder. His black dachang fluttered in the wind making it seem as though the golden dragon embroidered on his dachang was flying in the wind. On his shoulder was a black-feathered and white-clawed gyrfalcon. It’s two eyes were as cold and as sharp as his owner’s.

  dachang

  The gyrfalcon is said to be ‘the king of all eagles.’ Apparently, only one gyrfalcon can be found within a group of 10,000 eagles. The gyrfalcon is also the North Kingdom’s mascot. Hua Zhu Yu had originally believed that this bird was only in legends, yet she could have never thought that actually were such birds.

  Yet the horse that Xiao Yin was riding, was the black horse that Hua Zhu Yu has seen that night. In the day, the horse seemed even more shenjun.

  (E/N: 神骏 (shén jùn), to put it simply, it means ‘good horse.’)

  No wonder she had been unable to ride it; it was Xiao Yin’s horse.

  The army set out at Xiao Yin’s command and the earth shook with the beating of horses’ hooves.

  Neither carriage nor horse was prepared for Hua Zhu Yu. She was wrapped in a sack with the upper part of her body being left exposed. The ropes that held the mouth of the sack were tied to the waistband of the man who rode the horse, so she was in a half standing, half crouching position alongside the horse. The sack was pulled along as the horse was running.

  It was most likely because they feared she would not be able to catch up with the group, and so they did not prepare a carriage for her.

  In fact, she could endure all of these, the only unbearable thing was that the rider was that hateful Da Qi.

  Along the way, constantly there was a strand long, dry, celery wormwood hitting her face and body. The pain was like being whipped. This journey undoubtedly was like torture for her.