Capítulo 1: PROLOGUE
The day Jun Huailang died, Chang'an rained.
By noon, deep puddles had collected on the limestone ground, yet the rain did not stop. The cold rain sweeping through the autumn wind could only fall down.
All three hundred and fifty-six members of the Jun family knelt outside of Xuanwu Gate[1] as dense as stalks in a field of flax, waiting for their execution.
Jun Huailang knelt in first place at the execution grounds, hair and clothes soaked and lips pale. Rain fell on his face but he seemed not to feel it. His ears were full of the sound of women weeping and the crowd gossiping.
No need to listen, he already knew what they were saying.
The Jun family was a founding family of Great Yong. Two hundred years ago the forefather of the Jun family had fought alongside the first Emperor of Yong. After establishing the country he was granted the title Duke Yongning[2] and this noble title had been passed down through many generations.
The first Emperor of Yong was a mistrustful man. Most of the ministers who helped found the new dynasty were killed once they had served their purpose.[3] No one was allowed a peaceful death. Only the Jun family had been honored for two hundred years, until today.
To execute that family and seize all their property would not be possible in any court or dynasty. But it was also not strange for things to come to this point.
After all, the ruler of the vassal state Yunnan had rebelled, and soldiers almost attacked Chang'an a month ago. Great Yong was thoroughly thrown into disorder by a single person.
This person was not the traitor who incited armed rebellion, rather he was the traitor slaughtering Prince Qin, Xue Yan.
At the time the King of Yunnan raised his army, Xue Yan was in the north poised for battle against the invading Tujue.[4] In a little more than a month's time, he effortlessly defeated the 200,000 strong Tujue army and even recaptured the Yan Prefecture which had been occupied by them for many years.
After crushing the Tujue he immediately rushed south with the army, arriving as the Yunnan troops surrounded Chang'an. These past few months the Yunnan King had triumphed in every battle, but unexpectedly his armored cavalry was easily eliminated. With a single sword swing, the Yunnan King who had been half a step away from becoming emperor was beheaded, and left hanging outside Xuanwu Gate.
The blood from the Yunnan King's neck stained the gray bricks. With this everyone thought peace would return to Chang'an. No one expected that from this day forward, Chang'an would no longer have peace.
After Prince Qin killed the Yunnan King, he stormed the Imperial City with his army. With one thrust, he stabbed the Emperor to death upon the Dragon Throne.
Immediately after, Prince Qin murdered each and every one of his own brothers by his own hand. Only the three year-old Eighth Prince was spared. Xue Yan wrapped the three year-old in a dragon robe and pushed him onto the throne, with himself as Regent.
All of society was shaken. Naturally officials opposed him one after another. Some opposed him because of the patricide and regicide, some because their own interests suffered. They tried to use laws and ancestral etiquette to drive this illegitimate ruler away.
They clearly did not understand Xue Yan at all.
From the Imperial Palace, he pointed his sword at the court. The former Emperor had been killed and the new Emperor was a child. All he needed was a single word or glance and countless court officials were, without warning, ferreted out by the Intelligence Bureau. Without even a conviction, they were already dragged to Xuanwu Gate and beheaded.
The court was awash with blood for a month. Afterwards, not a single person dared make a sound against him.
The Jun family had not provoked him at all. Yet suddenly, the tyrannical Regent ordered the whole family executed without a single exception, save one person.
That person was also the one Jun Huailang worried about the most.
Several years ago, his father committed a crime and was killed. His mother followed a few days later. His younger brother Jun Xiaowu died a month ago, while protecting Chang'an from the Yunnan king's invasion. Of Jun Huailang's remaining kin, the only one left was her.
His sister, Jun Linghuan.
The King of Yunnan happened to rebel exactly when the Tujue invaded, and the previous Emperor had also fallen extremely ill. The court was besieged by troubles both at home and abroad. The Astrology Bureau[5] invited a Taoist master from who knows where, who divined for the court and said that Great Yong was in imminent danger. Only a daughter of the Jun family could bring peace to the country.
Jun Huailang's paternal aunt, who had originally entered the Emperor's palace as a concubine, had passed away a year ago. Of the entire family, the only marriageable woman left was Jun Linghuan.
But she was only fourteen. She had not yet reached marrying age.
Naturally Jun Huailang resisted the imperial decree, remonstrating the previous Emperor with all his might. Since he was both the Yongning heir and also ranked third in the imperial exams, he was an extremely valuable official of the imperial court, one the emperor would rely on heavily in the future. The previous Emperor was forced to promote Jun Linghuan to Empress and promised to never touch her. Once the country stabilized, she would be allowed to return home and choose her own marriage.
The words sounded good, but who would dare marry a woman who had been married to the Emperor?
Jun Huailang knew this was the best outcome he could've gotten, but he detested himself for not being able to protect his younger sister and could not sleep soundly for the past three months. Who could've known that it was this absurd edict that ultimately saved his sister's life?
But just thinking of this Regent who wanted to exterminate the Jun family made Jun Huailang's blood run cold.
He met the Regent once.
Jun Huailang had been kneeling in front of Yonghe Palace to protest the imperial edict for his sister. At that time Xue Yan was about to lead troops into battle, and came to bid the former Emperor farewell. He was wearing thick black armor, his tall and straight figure walking in the solemnly beautiful palace. His scarlet cape, untainted by even a speck of dust, fluttered as he passed by Jun Huailang's side in a gust of wind.
Jun Huailang looked up.
At the same moment, Xue Yan cast a glance down upon Jun Huailang.
Xue Yan was extremely good looking. His birth mother was a beauty sent by the Tujue to cement relations with Great Yong, so his blood was half Tujue. His eyes were a bit deeper than the average Han person, with a nose tall and straight as a sharp blade. His facial structures were sharp and profound. Under thick eyelashes, his eyes were a pale amber color.
His gloomy and cold eyes seemed as if they were stained with blood. With that one glance, Jun Huailang had chills all over his body.
Jun Huailang was not surprised that such a dangerous and tyrannical person would murder according to his own whims. He also knew that the more honorable the members of the Jun family were, the more they would stand on the cusp of the storm. It was not uncommon for new rulers to kill large influential families to establish prestige and solidify their position.
But with him would die Jun Linghuan's last relative. She'd be all alone in the palace, the new Empress Dowager to a young Emperor. Clashing with the Regent would be inevitable.
Jun Huailang raised his head, and countless drops of rain fell from the ashen sky.
She's not even fifteen, Jun Huailang thought to himself.
At that moment, the inspector issued the order for execution. The sound of rain was indistinct as it splashed against the edge of the executioner's blade, already raised high. A bright white light slashed down as if cutting a gap through the endless gray, and suddenly light leaked through.
Hot blood fell into the icy rainwater.
The sound of rain seemed to be covered by a layer of fog far away in the horizon, as if it were not there.
Jun Huailang opened his eyes and found himself in an endless void. There was nothing around him, only the rainwater dripping off him pitifully.
Could this be the world people go to after they die?
Jun Huailang looked all around. At that moment, there was a slight noise near his feet. He lowered his head and saw a strangely bound book at his feet. Cold rain dripped from his robe down on its cover.
The Seven Nights the Evil Regent Abused His Favorite.
The handwriting on this cover was a bit strange. Although it was clearly Chinese characters, many strokes were missing. After Jun Huailang deciphered the contents of the cover, he stooped and picked up the book.
He turned to the first page of the book. Immediately afterwards, his pupils shrank and his fingers tightened unconsciously.
This book was written from a third person point-of-view, and the protagonist was Jun Linghuan.
The book began with the day the entire Jun family was beheaded. He struggled with the strange characters as he read. In the book, Jun Linghuan was alone under house arrest in the resplendent Empress Dowager's palace, sobbing and trembling against the autumn rain pouring outside the window.
Although separated by words, his sister was as familiar to him as his own blood. The veins on the back of his hand bulged.
Jun Linghuan was the only daughter in the family, and everyone treasured her since she was young. Even as the family fell into ruin, Jun Huailang had protected her. The worst grievance she had suffered was being a nominal Empress.
Thinking of how no one would protect her anymore, Jun Huailang's heart ached. The Imperial Palace was full of tigers and wolves. This barely-of-age little girl, how could she survive all alone?
His hands shook, and unable to stand it, Jun Huailang flipped through the book. He thought in his heart, this must be a favor from an immortal. They understood that he could not let go of this one mortal concern and gave him this strange book, so he could see his sister's fate and rest easy.
But immediately after, the expression on his face stiffened. He came across a name that, although unfamiliar, was deeply etched into his mind.
Xue Yan.
On the second page, he saw Xue Yan striding into his little sister's bedroom. His eyes were like a millenium of ice. Xue Yan ruthlessly seized his sister's chin, and forced the hoarsely weeping girl to face the window.
"Xuanwu Gate is over there," Xue Yan's lips curled in a cold arc. "It just passed noon,[6] your elder brother must have died."
Through the curtain of rain, Jun Linghuan could only see layers and layers of the palace's red walls and green tiles. Her eyes were full of despair, and tears kept falling.
Jun Huailang's icy fingertips trembled with anger and wrinkled the pages.
His sister was the precious Empress Dowager and Xue Yan, despite being some usurper, had to address her as Mother. Since Jun Huailang was already dead, even if Xue Yan had a deep animosity against the Jun family it should've been finished in one stroke. Why did he still bully a weak[7] little girl!
This Xue Yan wasn't human!
Jun Huailang had been taught to be gentle and polite since he was young, but at this moment he could not help gnashing his teeth in anger. He used the few swear words he knew to curse Xue Yan over and over.
Inhuman, inhuman!
But immediately after, he couldn't even get the curses out. He looked helplessly at the aftermath.
That scoundrel, Xue Yan, trampled all over normal human relationships. He pressed his sister on the couch facing Xuanwu Gate and severely violated her.
… While violating her, he also coldly called her mother.[8]
Jun Huailang's smooth nails dug into the pages of the book.
In the book, Xue Yan seemed to have some unclear personal grudge against his sister. He only said a few words about how his sister should not have given him charity like a pitiful stray dog, and then betrayed him.
Jun Huailang flipped to the end of the book. Most of this thick book was about that bastard Xue Yan humiliating his sister over and over. Seeing that, Jun Huailang's eyes reddened. He immediately wanted to turn into a malicious ghost and kill that beast. What made him more desperate was that two-thirds of the way through, his sister actually became attached to this brute. She hated him, feared him, but couldn't live without him.
In the end, Xue Yan actually married her as his Empress despite the world's ridicule and they became infamous, tied together in the history books for thousands of years.
Jun Huailang's hands and teeth trembled. He lost control of his hand and the heavy book landed at his feet with a bang.
That beast… that beast!
When Jun Huailang saw him in the corridor of Yonghe Palace, he should've drawn that beast's own sword and stabbed him to death with it!
At that moment, a voice came from the void. "Huh? What's that sound?"
Immediately after, the voice of an immortal sounded above Jun Huailang's head.
"Heibai Wuchang,[9] how could you be so careless? This soul was supposed to be collected at noon, why is it here?"
Hurried footsteps sounded, and two people explained anxiously, talking over one another.
"Fu Jun,[10] please quell your anger! Now that Polis[11] has descended, there are too many deceased souls right now. The two of us are honestly too overwhelmed, we left one out by accident…"
Suddenly an inescapable force pulled at Jun Huailang's soul. He was indifferent to it, and only stared at the book on the ground.
Xue Yan… good Xue Yan! As long as I exist, I, Jun Huailang, will repay your wrongdoings a hundredfold!
The force pulled at Jun Huailang and he disappeared into the void.
Afterwards, the immortal that had been addressed as "Fu Jun" sauntered out and inspected all around.
"Huh?" He made a sound of suspicion and picked up the book. "This is the fanfiction that Mingge Xing Jun[12] wrote in his spare time, why was it left here?"
On the other side, Heibai Wuchang once again burst into a flurry of confusion. "Ah! It's wrong! You pulled that soul in the wrong direction!"
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
dyosagardo387
dyosagardo387 [1] 宣武门 The southwest gate of Beijing. This direction corresponds with the Death Gate in the Eight Trigrams, so Xuanwu Gate is also called the door of death.
[2] 永宁公 lit. forever peaceful
[3] 鸟尽弓藏 lit. cast aside the bow once the birds are all killed.
[4] 突厥 Turkic ethnic group.
[5] 钦天监 seems to be the head astrologer position but I don’t know enough about the various government agencies and the translating conventions for them.
[6] 午时 11am – 1pm
[7] 手无缚鸡之力 lit. lacking the strength even to truss a chicken.
[8] 母后 queen mother
[9] 黑白无常 two deities in Chinese folk religion in charge of escorting the spirits of the dead to the underworld. They are dressed in black and white.
[10] 府君 Lord of the Underworld
[11] 七杀星 lit. Seven Killings Star, a destructive martial star that signifies conquest and victory.
[12] 命格星君 loosely means Lord of Star-Crossed Destiny. I don’t know if this is a real deity or not.
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