Chapter 15 — Once reborn, I will no longer marry the wrong person

The moment the palanquin was lifted, I stood in front of the gate of Thoi's palace and suddenly remembered my past life. In her previous life, her cousin married Chu Minh Vien, a loving husband and wife, with white hair and long teeth. In this life, she had to take a big detour, get caught up in a plot that didn't belong to her, endured two years of suffering, and finally returned to that person. Like a river that has to bend around a large rock, then eventually merges back into its original flow. In the winter of the sixteenth year of Vinh Xuong, the Eighth Prince Ly Thua Trach died in the palace where he was under house arrest. The cause was listed as death. In the medical court's case, there were only eight words written: "The pain is in the heart, the illness cannot be cured for a long time." When he died, there were only two old eunuchs beside him. There were no relatives, no former subordinates, and not a single person shed tears for him. When his body was discovered, his arm was still reaching toward the bedside cabinet. In that drawer, there is a painting whose edges have been rolled up for a long time. In the painting is a young woman standing under a pear tree, with a slim body and a gentle and graceful appearance. Below the painting is the title: Spring of the thirteenth year of Vinh Xuong. That year, Tham Uyen Thanh had just turned fourteen years old. One time when she went to Tu An pagoda to offer incense, she stood for a long time under a pear tree. The flower petals were blown away by the wind and fell all over her shoulder, but she did not know that at that moment, she had caught the eye of a prince who happened to pass by the temple. That girl became a thorn forever stuck in his heart. Also becomes a blade. Ultimately destroying himself. When I received that news, I was admiring the apricot blossoms in the royal garden with Tham Uyen Thanh. After getting married, her life was very happy. Luc Tri Hanh loved her like a treasure, the couple even bought a small house in the alley behind Han Lam Institute, and planted a pear tree in the yard. She said, when the pear flowers bloom in the spring, she will invite me to come and see them. The eunuch bowed slightly and whispered the news of the Eighth Prince's death. At that time, Tham Uyen Thanh was breaking an apricot branch, her hand only paused for a moment and then continued to break the branch, as if she had never heard anything.

"Sister." She gave me the apricot branch she just broke and smiled. "This branch is blooming beautifully. Please bring it home and put it in a vase."

I took the apricot branch and looked into her clear eyes. She didn't know anything, didn't know that there was once a prince who plotted half his life for her, didn't know that the painting under the pear tree had been caressed countless times, and didn't know that even when he died, Ly Thua Trach was still calling her name. The only thing she knows is that her sister took me out of the heavenly monastery, found me a good relationship, so that from then on I no longer have to live in caution. That's enough. In the end, that painting was ordered to be burned by Ly Thua Quan. He stood next to the charcoal pot, watching the pear blossoms and the young woman in the painting gradually curl under the fire, burn black and then turn into ash. From beginning to end, his expression remained as calm as every time he sat down to review a chapter.

"Even until death, the Eighth Emperor still doesn't understand one thing." He said softly.

"What's going on?"

"He always thinks that he is competing for the Emperor's throne because of Tham Uyen Thanh." Ly Thua Quan used a copper stick to gently remove the ash layer in the charcoal pot.

"But that brother What I really want is never Tham Uyen Thanh, but the shadow in my own imagination, the person who will always stand under the pear tree waiting for him. What he was fighting for was never a person, but just an obsession."

The last spark in the charcoal pot also completely extinguished. The ash was blown up by the wind and melted into the winter air, like a snowfall so small that it was almost invisible. In the spring of the seventeenth year of Vinh Xuong, I became pregnant. The day the Thai physician diagnosed the vein, Ly Thua Quan was holding court. After returning to the harem, on the way he was told good news by the eunuch. It is said that after listening, his steps only stopped for a moment and then continued to walk forward, his pace still calm as usual. But when I walked through the main hall door, I saw his hand hidden in his sleeve, clenched into a fist. He walked up to me, stood still for a long time, then slowly reached out and gently placed his hand on my stomach. His fingertips were a bit cold, separated by a layer of clothing, I could still feel the slight trembling.

"Ly Thua Quan." I raised my head to look at him. "His hands are shaking."

"No." He replied.