Chapter 48: Su Liyue’s Heart and Body Had Long Been Shattered, Yet She Could Not Escape Fate
Su Liyue was like a tiny pebble, her heart and body long shattered by relentless blows, yet still unable to escape destiny, suddenly swept into the tidal wave of the era.
She could not comprehend why Da Sheng Guo Du had fallen into ruin and destruction, just as she realized her powerlessness to change anything.
Humans are ultimately drowned by their own helplessness and sorrow. In her former life, she was a citizen of Sheng Kingdom; in her latter life, she became the Empress of the Qi-Sheng Empire. Yet the former subjects of Sheng Kingdom viewed her as a traitorous enchantress, while the people of Qi State scorned her as a cunning sorceress who had bewitched Chu Xingchen with potions.
Not a single soul from either Qi or Sheng held anything but contempt and disdain for her in their hearts. In this world, Su Liyue had done nothing wrong, yet she could never step beyond the Qi-Sheng palace walls again.
For even if she left, the remnants who still clung to their faith in Da Sheng Guo Du would seek to eliminate the traitorous queen, while the fanatical political factions of Qi State, long dissatisfied with Chu Xingchen’s decision to establish the capital on the former site of Sheng Kingdom’s palace, desired to behead the enchantress Su Liyue.
Across the vast territories of the mighty Qi-Sheng Empire, there remained not a single patch of land beyond a tiny corner where she could find refuge.
Despite all this, the final Su Liyue spent her days in perpetual melancholy.
Years into her marriage, she was tormented day and night by nightmares—recurring visions of her father pierced by countless arrows, her mother hanging lifeless in the palace, their souls condemned to eternal damnation as wandering ghosts, their spectral forms invading her dreams to hoarsely demand why she had married the very man who caused Sheng Kingdom’s downfall.
Day after day of haunting nightmares, compounded by the grief of her fallen homeland, finally led this woman to one winter night. As the icy wind blew, she gazed upon the bustling flower-adorned streets of the Qi-Sheng Empire from the Starview Tower, seemingly seeing her mother beckoning beyond the tower, reaching out to call her home.
Step by step, Su Liyue walked toward the mother in her vision, until from the lofty Starview Tower she fell like a shattered feather once exquisitely crafted, descending from cloud-piercing heights to the mortal realm—like a leaf returning to its roots, her fragrance fading as her spirit returned to the ancient capital.
In that moment of descent, her flesh and blood fell into the garden Chu Xingchen had personally filled with peonies for her, becoming fallen crimson that nourished the flowers, staining red this beloved homeland of Su Liyue.
Throughout her life, Su Liyue had always loved wearing white garments. She resembled the pure moonlight of the heavens, the pristine frost upon mountain peaks, flawless jade of breathtaking beauty. She remained beautiful her entire life, pure and kind-hearted, just like her spotless white robes.
Thus, on the day she departed this earthly realm, she wore red for the first and only time. Her blood, vivid as crimson maple leaves, slowly dyed that white garment inch by inch, eventually seeping into the soil to become flower fertilizer that would nourish the peonies in this homeland come spring.
Scattered into mud, crushed to dust, only her fragrance remains as before.
Year after year the peonies bloom in rival splendor, yet alas, while the Qi-Sheng palace remains adorned with vibrant blossoms and verdant leaves, the woman who once admired flowers and gazed at the stars from the Starview Tower is no more.
“Elder Sister, is there dirt on Chu Xingchen’s face? Why do you keep looking at Xing Chen?”
Chu Xingchen noticed Su Yingxue’s probing gaze. Her eyes held a maturity, calmness, concern, and pity that did not match her current age. She watched him quietly, like an outsider, as if she did not belong to this world, her gaze as lofty as her status.
Chu Xingchen disliked such a gaze. He could not see through it, nor could he decipher Su Yingxue.
Once, her gaze was easy to read—filled with naked malice and scheming, sharpness and arrogance.
But now, Su Yingxue’s eyes sometimes held the sincere goodness of clear water, sometimes a silent gentleness and tranquility, and sometimes carried repentance and pity.
In short, he could not decipher her current gaze.
And he did not like it.
“Your Highness, what are you thinking about?” Qiushuang, seeing that she had not responded, gently reminded her with a smile. She had been secretly observing Su Yingxue’s gaze toward Chu Xingchen—so focused, so quietly staring at his figure in a daze. Ah, Her Highness is truly deeply in love with Chu Huangzi.
Su Yingxue’s thoughts were interrupted by Qiushuang’s smiling reminder. She suddenly recalled the ending from the original work: Chu Xingchen, witnessing Su Liyue leap from the Star-Gazing Tower, the cold moonlight falling upon her shattered body on the ground, was overcome with immense grief.
Like a trapped beast, he clung to her broken remains, tears streaming down his face, howling in sorrow and despair toward the moon.
He roared her name over and over with a hoarse voice, but received no response. Once a celestial fairy like the moon in the sky, she ultimately fell into the dust and vanished into nothingness.
When Zhang Susu read this part, she truly wanted to reach through the phone screen and ask the author why such an ending had to be written.
But now, Zhang Susu had become Su Yingxue, a part of this world.
Since even the deep-seated contempt and hatred Chu Xingchen once held for Su Yingxue in the original work could be slightly shaken,
did that also mean that Zhang Susu, now transformed into Su Yingxue, could, through her own efforts, alter the emotional trajectory between Chu Xingchen and Su Liyue—the genuine antagonist male lead and the white moonlight female lead—and ultimately give Chu Xingchen and Su Liyue a perfect ending?
Perhaps it was possible.
Without trying, how would she know if Zhang Susu could not change Su Yingxue’s fate? Without trying, how would she know if Zhang Susu could not alter the destinies of Chu Xingchen and Su Liyue?
If, starting now, Chu Xingchen could receive education in the Da Sheng Kingdom, learn etiquette, and study the governance of a wise ruler, might he abandon his past and become a gentleman of humility and virtue as described in the book?
He could be noble and pure, courteous and refined, gentle as jade, and accomplished in both literary and martial arts. He could understand the principles of governance, manage wealth and military affairs, excel in court politics, know how to be a wise ruler, comprehend the hardships of the people, and understand the goodness, love, and sincerity in the world.
Perhaps such a Chu Xingchen, upon seizing the throne of the Da Qi Kingdom in the future, if he felt gratitude for the education and teachings of Da Sheng Guo Du and no longer harbored the intense hatred and hostility toward the Da Sheng Kingdom and its people, might one day seek to marry Su Liyue with the proper rites between nations. The two countries would then be spared the turmoil of war, making it a beautiful outcome.
Even if he could not unify the two kingdoms, being able to grow old with his beloved might also be a beautiful thing.
In an instant, Su Yingxue found direction for the path ahead.
She would ensure Chu Xingchen received the finest education and nurturing in the Da Sheng Kingdom, molding him into a refined gentleman who practiced self-restraint, upheld propriety, possessed a radiant and noble character, and was deeply learned and erudite.
She would cultivate a wise ruler for the future realm, then spare no effort to arrange favorable circumstances between him and the female lead, fostering their affection. She would make Chu Xingchen realize that the human world was not merely about suffering and humiliation—that love also existed, using Su Liyue’s love to redeem Chu Xingchen.
Su Yingxue smiled—this was truly a brilliant idea!