Before the age of seven, Luo Yuan felt his life was dry and meaningless. As the sole prince of his father, the Emperor, he was named Crown Prince from birth. From his earliest memories, he lived alone in the vast Eastern Palace, surrounded by wet nurses, maids, and eunuchs. He felt Nurse Chen was his mother, yet everyone told him his mother was Consort Jin, residing in the Huining Hall.
In his impression, his father, the Emperor, was a stern man. He always had to be cautious in his father's presence, fearing he might accidentally anger him. His greatest fear was the morning ritual of visiting his father's chambers to pay his respects. The Emperor would invariably make him recite the scriptures he had learned from the Grand Tutor the previous day. If he failed, his father would whip his palms with a jade brocade belt. He dared not cry, for his father had said a Crown Prince could not weep.
Consort Mother's Huining Hall was always cold and deserted. The vast palace housed only a handful of elderly eunuchs. The Emperor permitted him to visit his mother once a month. In his memory, his mother was a beautiful but sorrowful woman. People said she entered the palace at thirteen and, at such a tender age, became one of the many lonely women in the Emperor's deep harem. He often saw her sitting in the courtyard, gazing at the sky, murmuring words no one could understand. Some said his mother suffered from hysteria. But he knew she was reminiscing about life outside the palace.
This was the palace of his memories, much of it blurred by the passage of time. He clearly remembered the feeling – a feeling of coldness, monotony, grayness, and even unease.
The only vivid memory came from the colossal wisteria tree in the Chengping Hall. Chengping Hall was the residence of the Imperial Advisor. Sometimes, after the Emperor punished him, the Imperial Advisor would quietly come to the study after the Emperor left and help him up as he knelt on the ground, secretly wiping away tears.
The Imperial Advisor wiped his tears, "Ayu, let's go have something delicious to eat."
"But Father said I have to kneel here for an hour," he sobbed.
"No one is watching anyway. I'll tell your father you've knelt the full time, won't that suffice?" He smiled at him, winking.
"Okay," he replied, "What delicious food are we having?"
The Imperial Advisor took his small hand, "Heh heh, follow me. I promise you've never tasted it."
The thing the Imperial Advisor spoke of, which he had never tasted, was something the Imperial Advisor made himself.
Luo Yuan remembered sitting under the wisteria tree in Chengping Hall, watching the Imperial Advisor set up a small stove and place an orange-yellow substance into the peculiar flat pottery pan on the stove. Soon, the orange-yellow thing melted. Then the Imperial Advisor took a pre-shaved bamboo stick, rolled the substance into a ball, and inserted it onto the stick. When the substance on the stick hardened, the Imperial Advisor handed it to him, "Ayu, for you."
"What is this?" he asked curiously.
"Lollipop, ah, what's the Chinese for it, maybe 'gun gun tang'?" The Imperial Advisor tilted his head, thought for a moment, then put the candy in his mouth with the small wooden stick.
"So it's lollipop," he said, imitating the Imperial Advisor, putting the candy into his mouth and sucking on it.
"Is it sweet, Ayu?"
"Yes, so sweet!"
Later, the Emperor allowed his mother to leave the palace once a month to offer incense. On that day, the Emperor, for the first time in his memory, allowed him to accompany his mother out of the palace. It was his first time outside. He remembered on the carriage, his mother opened the window and stretched her hand out, as if to touch the warm sunlight. He saw the gentle spring sunlight of April shine on his mother's face, forming a peculiar halo.
The warm sunlight melted the woman who was always cold in his memory into a mother.
But the memory was forever frozen on that mountain path beside the precipice. Danger came suddenly. He saw boulders rolling down from the mountain. Before he could react, his and his mother's sedan chairs tumbled into the valley. In the moment of falling, he saw a strange smile on his mother's face. That smile still appeared in his dreams. His mother's lips parted, saying, "Go north, Ayu."
It was because his mother held him tightly in her arms that he survived. When he woke up, his mother had stopped breathing. Not far away, a group of masked men in black hurried over. He hid. He saw those men in black searching among the wreckage and bodies, while killing everyone who still had a breath of life.
He stumbled away. North, his mother told him to go north. He knew what his mother meant. Youzhou in the north was his mother's hometown, where his maternal uncle was stationed. He had to go north to find his uncle.
It was a journey of a thousand li, extremely difficult for an eight-year-old child. When he inquired about passenger ships to Youzhou at the dock, he was tricked by human traffickers onto a ship. For over ten days at sea, he and over a dozen others were chained together, cooped up in a narrow cabin all day. Fortunately, from the human traffickers' conversations, he learned that their destination was Youzhou City.
Years later, he even felt a sense of gratitude towards the human traffickers. For without them, he might not have seen that woman on that dock that night.
That strange woman sitting and staring blankly on the dock.
She looked so different: despite wearing the coarse hemp clothes of the lowest servants, she appeared clean and carefree; the lamplight behind her formed a hazy halo, making her whole person exude a soft glow. The Grand Tutor told him that in the distant Eastern Penglai Islands lived flying fairies and goddesses. He thought this woman must have come from the distant Eastern Immortal Islands.
That night, he and the other slaves sat in the courtyard. His mind was filled with the woman with the hazy halo, so much so that he didn't even think about how to escape and find his uncle.
He never expected to see her again so soon.
She appeared with the morning sun. She was backlit, and the golden sunlight formed a dazzling halo behind her. Years later, he still remembered that scene. He thought she must have been born on a beautiful day, for she was so radiant.
The woman bought him with a gold ring. She smiled and said to him, "Hi, little fellow, what's your name? I'm Ivy, Ai-Wei." Her voice was like heavenly music.
She seemed to be searching for something. He held her hand and walked through the streets and alleys of Youzhou City, passing by his uncle's residence multiple times. But he wasn't in a hurry. He felt he could wait a little longer.
All day, he followed her, inquiring from one household to another. Although they found nothing, and were sometimes even driven out as if they were madwomen, she maintained her smile despite the scorn and insults.
He saw her scratch her head, smile apologetically, and say to him, "Little fellow, you must be hungry by now." Then she rummaged through all her pockets but couldn't find a single copper coin.
It turned out she had used her only valuable possession to buy him.
She took him to a sparsely populated forest on the outskirts of the city. He saw a small tent hidden in the bushes. It was in that tent that he witnessed the most magical things in the world. The 'Eternal Bright Lamp' that shone like the sun; a 'little box' that automatically played melodious music at a touch; a strange but obedient 'black bird,' through whose eyes they could overlook the land. But his favorite among them was the board containing the 'shadow puppets.' Inside the 'board' lived three strange, fat bears: a brown bear, a white bear, and a black-and-white bear. Although the three bears spoke in a language he didn't understand, he watched them with great fascination.
He was convinced this woman was a fairy from the Eastern Immortal Islands. He even forgot that he was supposed to be looking for his uncle. He felt being with this woman was more interesting.
But she left.
She said she would return soon, but he waited and waited, until spring passed and summer arrived, until his uncle finally found him. He refused to leave, kicking and struggling with all his might to refuse to leave with his uncle. But he was still a child. His uncle took him back to his residence. He had tried to escape, but after being caught and severely beaten, he was placed under closer guard, with escorts never far from him.
His uncle publicly claimed him as an adopted son and gave him the name Luo Yuan.
His uncle was strict to the point of cruelty. The young him had to wake up before dawn to practice martial arts, regardless of the scorching heat or bitter cold. Luo Yuan knew that such severity was not out of paternal love for him to become a dragon, but out of the eager desire to hone a sharp weapon. His uncle's eyes were filled with undisguised ambition.
Luo Yuan also disliked his cousin, Luo Qianqiu. She was his uncle's only daughter, a spoiled, arrogant, and domineering brat. People were often deceived by her beautiful appearance, but Luo Yuan knew her ambition was as great as her father's.
"Remember, you belong to me alone," she declared, lifting her proud head and asserting her ownership.
He never retorted. He was always polite and courteous to her, not wanting to provoke the unreasonable girl. He knew that to this father and daughter, he was merely a stepping stone to power and wealth, and at present, he lacked the strength to escape.
He had been waiting for that woman, but she never reappeared.
At first, he was furious. He thought the woman was a liar; she had lied about returning soon, and she had stolen his most precious possession. Later, he stopped being angry. He no longer secretly ran to that valley. The monk at the small temple in the valley had promised to inform him if the woman returned. He never received any news from that monk. The woman would surely return; she must have been delayed by something very important. Her most precious possession was still with him, wasn't it?
Later, he lost her most precious possession. He madly returned to the battlefield, attempting to retrieve that necklace. People said that at the young age of fifteen, he possessed inhuman courage and strategy, to charge back into the enemy camp alone. But only he knew that he simply wanted to find what he loved most.
After that, the memories of being eight years old seemed as distant as a strange dream he had once had. His life seemed to consist only of seizing the throne and avenging his father and mother. He dedicated himself wholeheartedly to this world-altering endeavor. He did exceptionally well; everything seemed effortless for him. Despite gaining the envy and admiration of the world, his heart seemed never to have rippled. Had his heart died? Or had everything become tasteless to him after that extraordinary encounter?
Did the woman with the halo truly exist in his life?