“Sima Yi, who always believed dreams foretold destiny, spent his life chasing after the fulfillment of those dreams, never realizing that his entire life was but a dream itself.”
“In the court hall, I clung tightly to the little emperor before me, only to see an armored skeleton with two banners on its back—‘No Path for the Surviving,’ and ‘Defeat Like a Landslide.’ Gripping a hundred iron spears, it charged at me. In an instant, I was torn limb from limb. Yet before death, I saw a giant phoenix rise from the earth, its fiery wings blocking out the sky and illuminating the entire night.”
This is a dream I used to have frequently. Everything in the dream was beyond imagination. I even wished for it to become reality. Surely, it would be interesting. Every time I woke from this dream, I felt bolder. With every move I made in life, it felt as if I was drawing closer to making that dream a reality.
—Until tonight, when I faced Xiao Meng in the secret room. His actions were even more unimaginable than my dream. Seeing him tied to the chair, weak and exhausted, his soft, slightly curled hair drooping as his head bowed, he looked more delicate and pitiful than ever. Yet every word he spoke shocked, frightened, and repulsed me—because everything he said was true.
Xiao Meng had changed, or perhaps, as he said, he had simply woken up.
When Lü Bu appeared before my eyes, I knew immediately who had brought about Xiao Meng’s transformation. As LiaoYuan Fire and Lü Bu fought furiously, I was still thinking about getting Xiao Meng out of the secret room and handing him over to Cao Cao—all my men had been killed by Lü Bu; if I didn’t quickly trade Xiao Meng in for rewards, I would lose everything! And if LiaoYuan Fire and Lü Bu destroyed each other, I could claim even more credit! That way, I’d recoup all my losses.
Yet in the end, I was overthrown by the one who had always been most obedient to me. I want to cry, but I can’t—because both my eyes have been gouged out by his fingers.
Impossible! Was this really Xiao Meng? Did he truly have such ruthless means?
We had been together for years; he was always the gentlest, kindest among the remnant soldiers, especially good with children. The little ones of the Sima family always clamored to play with “Sister Meng”...
Xiao Meng seemed to sense my shock. I felt him lean close and whisper in my ear: “Young master, there’s no need for disbelief. If I weren’t ruthless enough, how could I have become your killing tool?” There was even a trace of pity in his tone.
Then, a sudden sharp pain in my throat—his fingers had crushed my windpipe.
And then… there was nothing. Xiao Meng, Lü Bu, LiaoYuan Fire—I would never know where they went.
Ah… now I remember, this did not happen tonight. It happened a long, long time ago—so long ago that it’s faded from memory.
All I recall is that, just like tonight, it was a moonlit night with the bright moon high in the sky.
After that night, I and my family quietly faded into the river of time. The world had nothing to do with me anymore. Now, the only thing I can do, and the only thing I want to do, is to find out one thing: What did those dreams I used to have really mean to me?
—After I conquered the world, LiaoYuan Fire would come to kill me. Wasn’t that dream simply a sign of the fate I had to bear?
Or… was it someone else’s future, that entered my dream?
I look up at the moonlight tonight. I hope… that here in the Sima mansion, I can keep thinking… and thinking, until the day I finally understand…
As for the affairs of the world: that which is long united must divide, and that which is long divided must unite.
Many years later, a great ruler would finally end the age of warring lords and unify the Central Plains. By then, the Sima mansion in Yewang City, Henei, had long since fallen into ruin, with crumbling walls and overgrown weeds, nearly swallowed by nature.
Anything of value in the mansion had been stolen away years before.
And those who once came to steal from the Sima mansion could all tell the same ghost story: On a moonlit night, if you entered the house, you would easily see a handsome young lord standing alone in the desolate garden, looking up in a daze at the moon above, lost in thought.
But, as the Sima family’s treasures were all stolen away, this once popular ghost story in Yewang City… was gradually forgotten.
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End of Chapter 9
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Copyright Notice:
Chapter 9 “A Dream of the Southern Bough” from "The Chronicle of Burning Dreams" was originally written by Jing Xixian (Vampire L).22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6H3voLTuP5
All rights reserved. Without the author’s written permission, please do not reproduce, print, adapt, transmit, translate, or use for commercial purposes in any form.
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