The Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 1: The Splitting of the Coffin

    The Story of Yanxi Palace《延禧攻略》Yanxi Gonglue

   The Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 1: The Splitting of the Coffin

   The door of the Yizhuang Building opened and a papier maché lantern poked in from outside.

   The lantern brought in a pair of feet.

   Look closely at the bowed shoes, curved like three inches, with white soles embroidered with lotuses, walking and stopping in front of one coffin after another and finally stopping in front of a thin coffin.

   “Look at all the people here.” A choked sob said, “Strangers who died in a foreign land, poor people who could not afford to be buried, prostitutes who died horribly ... Sister, how can you and I meet again in such a place?”

   Life is as thin as paper, so when you die you don't even have a thicker coffin.

   Inside the Yizhuang Building, which is in a state of disrepair, is a thin, airy coffin but it is better than nothing, it is better than a straw mat and it is not a meal for the rats before the burial.

   “They all say that you are not qualified to be buried in your ancestral tomb and are only worthy to lie in the same place as this group of people.” A miserable white hand fell on the coffin, gently groped for a moment and finally murmured, “I don't believe their words, sister, I want you to tell me the truth yourself ...”

   “Boom!”

   The sound of chaotic footsteps approached from afar, followed by the door of the Yizhuang Building being violently thrown open.

   Crashing into their eyes was a raised axe.

   “Yingluo! Stop!” A middle-aged man shrieked.

   “Boom!”

   The axe fell with righteousness and split the coffin in front of him.

   “You, what are you doing?” The middle-aged man flinched for a while before he said with trembling lips, “This is your sister's coffin ...”

   A woman in white turned her back on him and turned her back on the crowd.

   The axe in her hand was casually dropped as she bent down and carefully lifted the man in the coffin.

   “One moment you all say to me that my sister died of illness and the next you tell me that she killed herself because she had done something scandalous in the palace and was ashamed to face others ... Look.” She turned her head slowly and smiled slyly at the crowd.

   Woman in coffin leaning on her shoulder, a pair of black butterflies vaguely around her neck.

   A closer look reveals the bruises left by two large hands, open like two black wings, that speak of a death called murder.

   “Did you all see that?” The woman in white--that is, Wei Yingluo--put her arm around the woman in the coffin and smiled to the crowd as if she had finally found the truth and could not wait to tell it to the whole world--could not wait to sink her injustice at once for the whole world to hear, “Look at the handprints on her neck, tell me, how does one strangle oneself to death?”

   No one could answer her question.

   No one even dared to look them both in the face.

   Nearly identical faces.

   Wei Yingluo, Wei Yingning, is known as the Lady Wei family of juxtaposition because of its beautiful color and clear air like a lotus.

   The one in the coffin, who did not know what elixir she had taken in life, actually retained seven shades of color after her death, wearing the clothes she wore when she left the palace, softly leaning on her sister's shoulder, that seemingly smiling look just like a living person.

   The one who was alive, on the contrary, had eyes like a dead man, with black and white pupils, staring straight at the crowd with chills.

   “Could it be that a wrongful spirit has claimed her sister's life and possessed her?” More than one person thought so.

   “Father...” Wei Yingluo swept her eyes over the crowd, finally settling on the middle-aged man's face, gathered up her smile and said, “Who is Sister's killer?”

   “Yes ...” The middle-aged man seemed to want to say something but after a slight hesitation, he finally gritted his teeth and said, “There's no such thing as a murderer, she just killed herself!”

   The rest of the group came back to their senses at this point and rushed to speak.

   “Yes, she was a suicide.”

   “If a woman who has been expelled from the palace and is unchaste and unclean does not kill herself, will she not ask our whole clan to accompany her in disgrace?”

   “Good death, good death!”

   “If the elder sister is not of good character, the sister is no better, she has done something like splitting a coffin. Wei Qingtai you have really taught them well.”

   The middle-aged man--Wei Qingtai--stiffened at the words and hurried forward a few steps to Wei Yingluo's face, flinging his hand in front of her and slapping her.

   “It's all my fault, it's my incompetent discipline!” After smacking, he humbly ingratiated himself with the crowd while slapping his hand on the back of Wei Yingluo's head and saying, “Why don't you kneel down and kowtow to all the uncles and aunts to thank them.”

   Seeing no response, he heaved again and said, “Get down on your knees!”

   But Wei Yingluo was like a bamboo, refusing to bend or even kneel, just standing straight in place.

   “Kneel down!” In front of everyone, Wei Qingtai felt that he was losing face and, in his anger, he kicked her in the knee and said, “Can't you hear me?”

   Wei Yingluo was kicked by him and fell to her knees but quickly got up again.

   “Father, you will only make me kneel...” She propped herself up on the ground with one hand and her sister with the other and slowly rose from the ground, her dark sideburns hanging down the sides of her face, hiding her expression at the moment, only her voice as cold as a winter spring saying, “But you know what? I knelt down to Wei Ruhua and she still took the hairpin my mother had left me before she died, I knelt down to Wei Xuedong and he still made a pass at me, despite the fact that we were cousins ... It was my sister who helped me get the hairpin back and it was my sister who fought off Wei Xuedong ...”

   “... Isn't it just a hairpin?” Wei Qingtai said with a frown, “It's gold plated, not worth a few dollars, no need to hurt your cousins' feelings over it and Xuedong ... He was just joking with you; it was your sister who took it too seriously and broke someone's head.”

   “... So, you know all about it.” Wei Yingluo turned her face sideways, only to see a face like a hibiscus of water, wet with a pair of teary eyes, teardrops about to drip, like the tips of flowers hanging dew, beautiful, said, “You know everything and you want me and my sister to kneel down and apologize to them.”

   She was the one who was robbed and she was the one who ended up kowtowing to someone and apologizing.

   She was the one who was molested and she was the one who ended up kowtowing to someone and apologizing.

   “I'm doing this all for your own good.” Wei Qingtai said stiffly, “Does it have to be a little thing ...”

   Little thing?

   “No, the only one who has been good to me is my sister!” Wei Yingluo interrupted him with a cold laugh and said, “To tell you the truth, I have been waiting for my sister to come back, she told me before she went to the palace that she would definitely come back and would take me away from this the Wei family, away from you, to a new place, to start a new life and never let me kneel to anyone for no reason again ...”

   “The palace is a place where you can kneel down anytime and anywhere!” This time it was Wei Qingtai's turn to interrupt her words.

   The Palace.

   Once you enter the palace gate, it is as deep as the sea, just as there are high and low mountains and deep and shallow water, so the women in the palace are divided into those who stand and those who kneel.

   The Wei family is not a big family but a Bond Servant, so even though she is a beautiful woman, she can only start by serving people, in other words, by kowtowing to them.

   “To whom one kowtows is not kowtowing, it is better to choose someone and kowtow to him alone.”

   This him, is it him, or is it her?

   Two worlds inside and outside the palace, Wei Yingluo doesn't know how her sister is faring in the palace, or who she has sought out to kowtow to, only that she goes in when the flowers are warm in the spring and comes back cold.

   Brought back with her, along with the black handprint on her neck.

   The owner of this handprint ... Who exactly is it?

   “... I'm going to the palace.” Wei Yingluo closed her eyes and when she opened them again, she said with a forward look in her eyes, “If you don't tell me who the murderer is, then fine, I'll go to the palace and I'll find out the truth myself!”

   “Nonsense!” Wei Qingtai was so angry that his beard was shaking and said, “Must you follow in your sister's footsteps?”

   Wei Yingluo reflexively glanced at her sister leaning over her shoulder.

   Growing up, my sister was smarter, more resourceful and more courageous than her.

   In contrast, she is just a little follower who cowered behind her sister at all times and needed her protection.

   Even my sister couldn't survive the palace, what about her? Would she have survived to the end and found out the truth ...? and then avenge her sister?

   “... That's enough, let's call it a day.” Wei Qingtai eased his tone a little and put his hand up to Wei Yingning, who was leaning on Wei Yingluo's shoulder and said, “Let your sister rest in peace.”

   Rest in peace?

   As Wei Qingtai's hand was about to touch Wei Yingning, a scream suddenly rang out from inside the Yizhuang Building, a harsh and biting scream, as if someone had plunged a knife into his chest and plucked it out.

   “Ah--”

   Several Wei Clansmen’s heads went numb and they couldn't help but raise their hands to cover their ears, only to feel that if they didn't do so, blood would be poured into their ears along with the screams.

   Wei Qingtai, who was the closest, took a few steps back in shock, then stared at Wei Yingluo, who was letting out a long scream and asked with a slight stammer, “You, what's wrong with you again?”

   “Rest in peace? There's no rest ...” Wei Yingluo held her sister's cold, even faintly corpse smelling body, her voice hoarse from screaming and cried, “Sister can't rest in peace and neither can I ...”

   In full view of the crowd, she cried and screamed and only kept repeating one phrase.

   “I will enter the palace...” Wei Yingluo cried out, “I must take revenge and let you rest in peace ... Let me rest in peace.”

   Since they are lotus flowers that are joined together, they naturally live and die together.

   Since you have passed away, even if I were still alive, I would be nothing more than a rotting corpse.

   Only if I let you rest in peace, can I rest with you.

   “Crazy talk, all crazy talk! Instead of allowing you to enter the palace so madly and bring great misfortune to the clan, ...” An old Lady Wei man came up to Wei Qingtai, covered his lips with his hand and whispered something to him.

   Wei Qingtai's eyes were complicated and when he heard the end, he finally nodded with a soft sigh.

   Immediately afterwards several figures came to Wei Yingluo.

   She looked up at them a little blankly and said, “What do you want?”

   Several large hands came together towards her.

   A few days later, a wine flag was unfurled in the wind, white wine was put into a new cup and a few plates of small dishes were served alongside it.

   A few drinkers, half leaning on the railing, looked down the street from above, only to see a large red bridal procession in the long street, moving slowly forward to the crackling of firecrackers.

   On a high horse, a groom's son springing to life.

   Behind him, followed by a small palanquin.

   The wind rose and the curtain moved and one of the drinkers gave a giggle and raised his hand to wipe his eyes.

   “What's the matter, the wind got in your eyes?” The guest next to him asked.

   “Perhaps I've had too much to drink and my eyes are blurred.” The drinker put down his hand and said, somewhat confused, “Just now the curtain blew open a little and I saw the bride ... tied up in knots.”

  

   The Story of Yanxi Palace《延禧攻略》CHAPTERS