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I am Ji Zhao.
Zhou Wang Ji Zhao.
I wasnât originally Zhou Wang. After my older brother died, I became Zhou Wang.
However, I would rather not be Wang. I only wanted my older brother to once again stroke my head and say âZhaoâer is so goodâ.
I wanted to be his younger brother for the rest of my life. Just so long as he lived, Iâd no longer continue to selfishly ask him to stay with me.
But I was the one who built his tomb and I was the one who carried his ice-cold body into the tomb. And I-I watched as the tomb slowly closed.
I knew he would not awaken.
My older brother was no longer in this world. And just like Zhaoâer no longer existed in this world, I was only Ji Zhao. Zhou Wang Ji Zhao.
Older Brother didnât know that I actually hated Mother. But I knew that Older Brother adored Mother, so I never told him. Mother, she was very selfish. It was because of her that Older Brother stayed in this palace. I knew Older Brother promised her that he would become Wang of the Great Zhou.
That had been Motherâs familyâs dream for many generations. Even as the whole family was wiped out, this dream only grew more and more intense until it was finally realized.
Her dream was achieved, and my older brother became the Wang of the Great Zhou at the cost of my older brotherâs life.
However, I knew that my older brother didnât regret it because, for my older brother, he wouldnât hesitate even if it cost him his life.
When Older Brother died, his son, Ji Xia was only five. Xia understood that he was now alone, without support, and reliant on anotherâs charity. Every time he saw me, he was exceptionally affectionate.
I smiled and called him Xiaâer, but in my heart I loathed this child beyond all reckoning. I hadnât forgotten that this child was my older brotherâs, born of my older brother and that woman.
And because of this, this child was no better than his mother.
That woman, every time she saw me, her bearing became aloof. Her eyes held ridicule, which made me want to kill her.
âI am his just and proper wife. I can undertake any action in his name and the people would say that my love for him was bottomless. And he and I have a son. All of this will forever be out of your reach.â
Yes, she was right. She could declare her love for my older brother to all the world under heaven, but I could not.
I saw that woman for the last time very late one night.
She was very thin and pallid.
I knew that she indeed was in love with my older brother.
This woman was very strong. Perhaps she was neither the most beautiful nor the most intelligent, but still I envied her. I knew that Older Brother held this woman in his heart.
She entrusted me with her and Older Brotherâs son.
The next day, I received news that sheâd killed herself.
âVery good,â I sighed, âvery niceâ. She would go and be with Older Brother but I couldnât. I still had the Great Zhou, the only thing left to me by Older Brother.
Older brother, just how heartless were you? Leaving this ice-cold country and making me, alone, bear this endless emptiness.
I knew that Feng Hongming wasnât trustworthy. Older Brother, you warned that I shouldnât believe him. Only. Only if thereâs the slightest bit of hope, I absolutely wouldnât give up.
He put forward a secret Guifang spell that would make you and me reincarnate together from life to life.
I admit, I was tempted.
I did as he said. I built your tomb, dug open Fatherâs tomb and took the ghost shark egg.
Feng Hongming said that there must be six strange snakes protecting the tomb.
Thus, I lead soldiers to go and catch strange snakes. In these six military campaigns, my Great Zhou took great losses. But I didnât care at all. In comparison to my older brother, it wasnât even worth mentioning.
Mingshe wanted precious jade and stones and those things that we were unable to get without great price (gold and silver). I dispatched a large number of Zhou people to dig three chi <sup>1</sup> deep into the earth all over the Great Zhou to find it these things.
I squandered the entirety of the Great Zhouâs vitality, but this didnât matter. In the end, it was the Great Zhou that killed my older brother, and it was the Great Zhou that ruined my love.
I, for my older brother, built a tomb that contained all the vitality and fortune of the Great Zhou. The Great Zhou owed us this.
Feng Hongming was immeasurably self-satisfied, under the impression that hadnât taken his measure. But this also didnât matter. I kidnapped Feng Hongming and waged a war against the Guifang.
Ahead was the Shura field <sup>2</sup> , but I raised my head to look at the sky. This sky, back then, had Older Brother also gazed into this same distance? I bowed my head and looked at the ground. This earth, at that time, had Older Brother also tread on it? I drank the water from the rivers here, I ate foraged greens here, I hunted animals here. Back then, had Older Brother done the same? I brandished my sword and decapitated enemies. I felt pleased at the fear and hatred in the eyes of the Guifang. Older Brother, since it was the ghost shark egg of the Guifang that took away your life, Iâll have all the Guifang buried along with you!
The Guifang people, none were spared.
I, in front of Feng Hongming, decapitated each and every Guifang man. I made Feng Hongming witness it with his own two eyes. It was he, this Guifang tribute, this man alone who knew how to use the ghost shark egg, who watched. The Guifang met an unfortunate end, killed because of him.
âMadman, you madman!â
Yes, Iâm a madman. The moment that my older brother closed his eyes, I went mad!
Since Ji Kang wasnât in this world, what was the point of Ji Zhaoâs existence?
But soon, Older Brother, by the time I finish constructing your tomb, by the time the corpses of the Guifang are placed under your tomb, I will then be able to go, and we, we will be able to be together from life to life and from age to age.
Finally, I chopped off Feng Hongmingâs head and placed his head at the very top of the pile of human heads. I found an amazing medicine that allowed me to draw breath as long as I had blood in my body. Iâve kept in mind, Older Brother, that youâve tasked me with guarding the Great Zhou, and I promised you that Iâd act as the Wang of the Great Zhou and not commit suicide.
The tomb slowly closed, and my fingernails viciously cut into my palms. It was only this stab of pain that checked my impulse to run into the tomb. The last step was to refine the vipers that would be placed inside the boundary. I looked back for a final time and then resolutely left.
I was a bachelor throughout my life. The chancellors who advised me to take a wife I all had flogged to death. As time passed, no one dared speak about having me take a wife to have children.
Ji Xia slowly grew up. I frequently gazed at him, lost in thought. More and more, he resembled Older Brother.
But in the end, he wasnât Older Brother.
I conferred the title Crown Prince Xia to him. Perhaps becoming Zhou Wang was Ji Xiaâs only use.
But to my surprise, Ji Xia knew my feelings for Older Brother. In an utterly farcical act, he actually stripped naked and lay in my bed.
I looked indifferently at Ji Xiaâs fully aroused body lying on the bed. His entire countenance fully resembled Older Brother, and he was alike him in height. But even if he had been a carbon copy of Older Brother, he still wasnât Older Brother.
The corners of my mouth slowly hooked up. So he liked men? That was very easy. I beckoned ten Imperial bodyguards over and had them all serve the crown prince at once.
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I stood by the window and heard his voice begging for forgiveness behind me, but I didnât turn around. I recalled the seven days back in that year when I stood by my motherâs grave. Older Brother knelt outside Fatherâs palace, crying and screaming for Father to see Mother one last time. Father stayed behind the shut doors of the palace the entire time. Later, Older Brother was thrown out by his lackeys.
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I looked down on the bitterly crying Ji Xia, as one looked down on crickets and ants <sup>3</sup> . Ji Xia, who do you think you are? If your father wasnât my older brother, do you think youâd be the Crown Prince of the Great Zhou? Do you think youâd become the Wang of the Great Zhou?
You donât need to do anything as long as you remain calm and quiet. When I go, the Great Zhou will be yours. But before that, you had better not appear before me.
I fear that, when seeing your face, I wonât be able to keep myself from killing you.
When I close my eyes, I think the days living without Older Brother wonât be too difficult to bear.
I decreed that, after my death, Older Brotherâs tomb will be opened and Older Brother and I would be buried as husband and wife. Iâd thought that but I forgot this: when I die, am I still in control of the Great Zhou?
Ji Xia overruled my command and had me buried beside my father.
I became aware of all this when I reincarnated.
However this didnât change my determination to find Older Brother. I was going to, I was sure to find Older Brother and then he and I would be together. Now without the Great Zhou between us, without shared blood, we would surely be together.
But how unfortunate that this world was too large. I couldnât find Older Brother.
Still, I absolutely wouldnât give up. I searched everywhere under the sun without finding Older Brother, but I found a way to perfect the secret spell.
I would bring the last remnant of the Guifang with me, go to Older Brotherâs tomb, kill the last of the Guifang and bring them below the tomb. Then Iâd spend all the blood in my body. When I reincarnated again, we would be together.
It took me a long, long time to find the last of the Guifang. I rejoiced then that some of the Guifang had escaped my massacre. If they hadnât, what would I do now?
I made a great announcement, fully aware that, as I was now, I couldnât enter the old tomb. After all, nobody was more familiar with that old tomb than I was. Although I could avoid those vipers, I still needed people to serve as distractions. However, the first round of people were too weak, and I once again had to wait for a more suitable opportunity.
Even though the things from outside werenât as attractive to me as my older brother, I had no choice but to admit that this world really had transformed a lot. But this was also good since they could stay inside the boundary for an even longer time, giving me more time to hurry to my older brotherâs tomb.
The newest group didnât disappoint me but, since they came to steal from my older brotherâs tomb, they had no other choice but to forfeit their lives.
I selected a man called Feng Yuan as the offering.
Finally, in the end, I reached the old tomb without a hitch.
To my considerable anger, someone had already entered the old tomb! However, this was entirely forgotten when I saw my older brother.
Older Brother! My older brother! How are you here?! I looked for you and couldnât find you. Was it because of this? Damn Feng Hongming! In the end he still tricked me?
"
"
But it wasnât too late, I succeeded in staying in this old tomb.
Older Brother, it doesnât matter if thereâs no way to reincarnate. It doesnât matter that thereâs no way to leave here, just as long as you are by my side. Still, Iâm very sorry that I canât bring you to see other places. Iâm very sorry that you canât experience the temperature of a human body. Iâm very sorry that I made you wait here for so many millenia.
But Iâm very happy that finally I can be together with you.
The days continue uneventfully. Thinking of eternity together with Older Brother makes me very happy.
Oh, thatâs right. Older Brother has a friend here, a human who became a snake and who is known as Yin Xiaoxiao. The one called Yin Xiaoxiao has given birth to many young snakes.
Each time he comes here, he complains that there are too many children, but I can see that he is actually very happy to have so many children. But his partner, Mo Laoda, appears not to like children.
I turn my head to look at Older Brother and can see the smile in his eyes. I know that Older Brother has always been fond of children.
Domineeringly, I embrace Older Brother from behind. Older Brother, you were destined to be mine. Donât delude yourself into thinking that youâll ever have children.
We will be like Yin Xiaoxiao and Mo Laoda, together from life to life and age to age, eternally inseparable.
Like this, eternally happy.
T/N: One last extra to go.
Footnotes
<ol>0.693 meters or 2.2736 feet; since this story is set in at the end of the Zhou, Iâm going to use the E. Zhou measurement. 1 chi = 0.2310 meters or 0.757874 feet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_units_of_measurement 俎ç˝ćĺş: thereâs two layers to this phrase. Originally, it was used to describe a battlefield because Shura/Asura were warlike demigods who fought the Jade Emperor in Chinese Buddhism. These days, itâs used to describe complicated emotional relationships between people. In this case, Ji Zhao is both on a literal battlefield and is experiencing the modern version of âShura fieldâ https://www.wikiwand.com/zh-cn/%E4%BF%AE%E7%BD%97%E5%9C%BA čźč: idiom used to describe people without power</ol>