MM 1 – The Fallen Prince
“Gua….” The plangent sound of a crow woke Mo Wuji up and as soon as he raised his head, he saw a single lonely crow flying above him, disappearing quickly together with its shrill cries without a trace.
“Where am I?” Mo Wuji felt strange all of a sudden. He seems to be sitting on a newly piled up tomb surrounded by seven to eight children kneeling in front of him. Among them, a young girl wearing a floral blue skirt was holding a bamboo basket beside him.
While Mo Wuji was still confused about the situation, the young girl whispered with a gentle voice, “Everyone behaved well today however there no more sweets left so let us call it a day and come back tomorrow to continue playing.”
“Were these games played in the previous emperor’s dynasty? Why does this scene feels so familiar?”
Mo Wuji was shocked because this scene resembles the last scene of the novel in which Mu Rongfu was in. Mu Rongfu went crazy for his country, his beautiful cousin and childhood sweetheart, Wang Yuyan, left him for another guy. In the end, all he has left was a servant named Abi by his side. This present scene is the scene after Mu Rongfu went crazy because of his lost country and Abi gathered a few children to play with him.
“Long live my King, goodbye my King. We will be back for more sweets tomorrow…” The children dispersed after chanting these words in a non-orderly manner.
Mo Wuji eyes’ were all over the place and he noticed a few young men and women from not far away walking by. When his eyes rested on a lady wearing a purple skirt among them, he completely forgot about the situation he’s currently in and was just simply in awe of her beauty.
The lady in the purple skirt exchanged looks with Mo Wuji, looking confused, sympathetic and almost disappointed with him. The other young and attractive men and women seem to be discussing and laughing about him as they passed by.
“Can’t be…”
All of a sudden, Mo Wuji thought of a horrible scenario. “Could it be after my death, I am reborn into Mu Rongfu’s body? Did our souls really transverse to other bodies in this world?”
“And why would my soul transverse? What was I doing before this?”
At this point, Mo Wuji’s head started to hurt very badly. He finally recalled that after he successfully extracted and refined the solution, the lover he was willing to die for, Xia Ruoyin, stabbed him from behind. At the thought of this backstab, Mo Wuji’s entire spirit was overwhelmed with sadness…
A throbbing headache made Mo Wuji unable to continue his train of thoughts as there was way too many information flooding into his head. Only after a full two hours, Mo Wuji finally understood what is actually happening.
This is neither the Song dynasty nor was he reborn into Mu Rongfu’s body.
This is not even Earth, he is currently located at Cheng Yu State; national capital of the Rao Province. He is actually a prince of Northern Qin Region, named Mo Xinghe. His father named him Mo Xinghe because his father was a Lord under the XingHan Empire and Mo Xinghe is named after the Empire.
Mo Xinghe could not recall exactly how big this piece of territory is but he knows that XingHan Empire is not the only empire. Every individual Empire has many states and every individual state has its own regional Lord.
He originally belonged to Northern Qin Dynasty under the Lord of Cheng Yu, and Cheng Yu State belonged to XingHan Empire.
Nineteen years ago, Northern Qin Dynasty’s lord, Mo Xinghe’s grandfather, Mo Tiancheng, arrived at Cheng Yu state, and lost contact forever. The Northern Qin Dynasty naturally must have a Lord but a regional state needed a feudal lord to lead a sovereign state to conduct this state affair.
If not for Mo Tiancheng’s sudden disappearance, he could have passed the throne directly to his children and then report to the other feudal lords about it. However Mo Tiancheng is now missing without passing the throne officially. Hence the throne successor must now personally head to the main country to take over the throne in front of all the other lords.
For two simple reasons, Mo Xinghe’s parents brought the newly born Mo Xinghe to the Rao province. Firstly, it was to locate Mo Tiancheng. Secondly Mo Xinghe’s father, Mo Guangyuan had always wanted to gain recognition from all the other feudal lords so as to succeed his father’s throne.
Originally, succeeding of the throne is a simple matter. However, nobody expected it to turn out to be filled with so many different obstacles. Mo Xinghe’s parents have spent countless amounts money and ran around for more than a decade, but was still unable to succeed the throne.
Mo Xinghe’s parents died of illness and Mo Xinghe inherited his father, Mo Guangyuan’s obsession to succeed the throne of the Northern Qin Region. With the death of Mo Xinghe’s parents, Mo’s family in the Rao exhausted all their inheritance. Mo Xinghe was then on the move for several years without doing anything fruitful. When he found out that Northern Qin region has been taken over by Cheng Yu’s lord, Mo Xinghe went completely crazy and was then reborn as Mo Wuji.
Mo Wuji also managed to recall who the lady in purple skirt was. Her name is Wen Manzhu and her father was very close friends with Mo Xinghe’s parents as when the Mo family first arrived in Cheng Yu of a certain status. Mo Xinghe and Wen Manzhu were therefore childhood sweethearts and even though they were not in any betrothal, everyone agreed that both of them will grow up and be together.
Ever since the Mo family’s opportunity to succeed the throne disappeared, Mo Xinghe’s parents dying of illness and Mo Xinghe going crazy, the Wen family slowly forgot about Mo XInghe. As Wen Manzhu grew up, she grew apart from Mo Xinghe and went closer with the prince from another more influential family.
Two drops of tears fell on the back of the hand on the knee of Mo Wuji, Mo Wuji raised his head and saw a sad face with a scar. The girl seems to be younger than the body he is in now.
This girl’s name was not Abi but called Yan’Er. Yan’Er was the only person who stayed by him throughout despite being his servant. If not for Yan’Er, Mo Wuji would never have been reborn and no one will know how long the original Mo XInghe would have died for.
Other than the scar on Yan’Er’s face, her face was pale and her hair were all scoured, lacking the energy of a young lady. She is obviously suffering from malnutrition.
“It still doesn’t make sense…” Mo Wuji shivered. The Mo’s family is still part of the royal family. Even if Mo Xinghe’s father did not manage to succeed the throne, he still should not have died poor due to illness in this rich country. “Was it not possible for him to leave and return as early as possible? Or was it there weren’t any Northern Qin dynasty’s escort or money given to the Mo’s family?”
“There is certainly something wrong here…”
Mo Wuji looked up and saw Yan’Er wiping her slightly reddish eyes as she said in hergentle voice, “My Lord, can we return now?”
Mo Wuji bowed his head and sighed not only for Yan’Er but also his current state and body. Even while playing such a childish game, Yan’Er still has to be so polite and ask for permissions as if really in an empire state.
However, Mo Wuji got over this very quickly and feels he should be upset by himself the most. He was not sure whether he should be grateful that he is not dead, or deeply sorrowed by the fact that his beloved lover was the one who plotted against him or be aggrieved by the fact that he could no longer return to Earth.
As Mo Wuji hasn’t spoken in a long while, the ever-cautious Yan’Er spoke again, “My Lord, the sky is getting darker…”
Mo Wuji looked at the tree from the distance down to the setting sun, unsure of whether it is because he thought of Mo Xinghe, or just lamenting about his own destiny. He sighed and said, “Let’s go back…”
He saw Yan’Er’s surprised look on her face, not feeling the need to explain further, he sighed and said, “Let’s go back to the dynasty…”
Having said that, he wanted to stand up, pat off the soil on his legs and leave. However, as he crossed his leg for a long time, his legs were numb. Fortunately, Yan’Er was there to help him up.
As Yan’Er helped him out of the sparse forest, Mo Wuji was busy rearranging the thoughts that still remained in his mind.
“What kind of world is this…?” The two quietly walked for a few minutes and Mo Wuji mumbled this to himself.
“My Lord, what did you just say?” Yan’Er asked as she did not quite understand what Mo Wuji said earlier.
Mo Wuji shook his head, “Yan’Er, please do not call my Lord anymore, address me by my name.”
As both Mo Wuji and Yan’Er have to live together in the future, there’s still some explaining to do.
“Young master, are you feeling better?” Carrying the bamboo basket, Yan’Er asked as her trembling hands and teary eyes expressed how excited and touched she was.
Mo Wuji said with a slightly hesitant smile, “Perhaps I have not completely recovered or remembered everything but I won’t act and dream like an idiot like before anymore.”
Mo Wuji was afraid he would let the cat out of the bag hence simply said he has not completely recovered.
“Then…” Yan’Er seems like she wants to say something yet do not dare to.
Mo Wuji knew Yan’Er wanted to ask if he still wanted to play with these children tomorrow but was afraid that playing these games would remind him of the previous dynasty’s incident and make him go crazy again.
Patting Yan’Er’s back, Mo Wuji laughed and said,” I have lived the Emperor’s life before and I am now sick of it already, let’s not come tomorrow and think about how to carry on living tomorrow instead.”
Yan’Er dropped the bamboo basket she was holding, tears rolling down her cheeks, with her knees on the floor and she can’t seem to stop mumbling to herself…