(Taken from the memoirs of the last Empress of China)
To the man whom I truly love:
This letter was written many years back and locked away in a small, simple jewelry box, away from all curious eyes. It contains all the memories, thoughts, and feelings that I want to forget… that is until the day I decide that my duty has been fulfilled.
I want to tell you all the things I’ve never said to you for fear that I would lose my sense of purpose. For the first time in my life though, I don’t know where to start this letter.
Maybe a good beginning would be the day I left you.
We were young, ignorant, headstrong - I more so than you. My heart was filled with revenge and ambition. Yet without you beside me, I was left all alone in the vicious world of the Forbidden Palace. With no one to turn to, no one to trust, I learnt to harden my heart. But that came with a price.
I lost bits of myself with every passing day – a shell whose sole purpose was to bring peace and freedom to my people. Gone was the person who made me Zetian. To me back then, death was my only reprieve, for there was nothing to be lost if I had nothing in my hands to start with.
I plotted. I betrayed. I accused. I killed.
I killed even those of my own flesh and blood. Because those who share blood, will eventually spill blood.
I can’t say I regret what I did. But my hands will be forever stained, my soul tainted. That I cannot change but I believe… I hope… that everything I did was all for the greater good of my country.
I never thought of what you were doing, what life you were living. I figured you would go back to a slow, idyllic life. Never would I imagine that I would see you again.
Our circumstances of meeting were not ideal. Constantly on the run, it was a struggle of life and death. Yet, during that time, something else blossomed. Something I had forgotten existed in me.
Love.
Those few days I spent with you were worth more than decades of my life. We could have died at any time but I would die to relive those moments again.
I had a choice at the time – to be a wilting flower, or one that is made of paper. To embrace my emotions and live with the consequences, or embrace my duty and fulfil my goals.
You asked me then whether I regretted it. I told you I didn’t.
I still don’t.
What I regret is my decision to create the laws regarding soulmates all those years ago. I’m abolishing that effective immediately. I don’t know how many men and women suffered because of me, how many marriages of convenience and for business were made because of my laws. But I hope to change all that.
Han Ge… I owe her a lot. She taught me that love should not shackle a person. Love may not last forever, but that does not mean it is impure. Love can change, a person can change.
I have changed.
If I had not been soulmates with the emperor for my own cunning schemes, we would not have needed to part ways so drastically.
Love exiled me long ago but I know no other desolation than when I left you once again.
Twice, I chose to leave you. Twice, I broke your heart.
In the next life, please break mine instead.
From your little pig.
(Excerpt from an ancient history log about Empress Wu Zetian )
After 39 years on the throne, Empress Wu Zetian was succeeded by her nephew, Princess Yu Mire’s son. By that time, the Empress had rooted out all dissident elements in the Forbidden Palace, starting with ex-Prime Minister Lu Bei whose traitorous dealings had been exposed by Minister He Wen. Rebuilding the cabinet of ministers from the ground up, she established a system of meritocracy that promoted young educated men and women into high statuses.
After almost a decade of war, she established a longstanding peace treaty with the Tufan. She also abolished the soulmate laws that she herself had put in place and set up a new set of domestic laws that empowered the social status of women across China.
Towards the end of her reign, the Empress...
TO BE CONTINUED!
Author's Note: If you're keen to find out what happens between the Empress Dowager and Li Wai (do they get together in the end??), check out the newly edited Shackles on Kindle, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and Kobo! Links are given below.
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