EXTRA 5: Xiao Wangye And His Younger Brother.

Xiao Wangye felt that he had been living a miserable life until now. He was born in a country ruled by women, and from an early age, he had been oppressed by his talented sisters. As a result of this, he had to stay humble from a young age.

Later, when the regime in the Western Shu Kingdom was divided, they had to bear with the wolf-like Southern Yan Kingdom in the front, while also having the unreasonable barbarians in the back. In that circumstance, he was pushed onto the throne, because there was no one else willing to clean up such a mess.

Xiao Wangye didn’t know how to command the troops, nor did he know how to control the political power in his hands.

Due to this, in order to preserve the Western Shu Kingdom, he reduced his power as a Wang, and presented himself as willing to pay tribute to the Southern Yan Kingdom year after year. He just asked for the Western Shu Kingdom not to be taken away from him.

Even though it was a cowardly thing to do, and completely in vain….

What else could he do?

Xiao Wangye was determined to go from the Western Shu Kingdom to the Southern Yan Kingdom, in order to curry favor with Emperor Yan HeQing.

When Yan HeQing heard his name, he was eager to meet with Xiao Wangye. But as soon as Yan HeQing met Xiao Wangye, Yan HeQing left with a cold expression on his face. After that, Yan HeQing never looked at Xiao Wangye again.

Submerged in desperation, Xiao Wangye decided to use poison.

After succeeding in his plan, Xiao Wangye hesitated at the last second.

Xiao Wangye thought to himself….

‘I’m the Emperor of the Western Shu Kingdom.’

‘So how can I live so cowardly?’

‘What’s the point of having such a miserable life?’

Then, Xiao Wangye drank the poison.

It’s said that after death, you’ll see Hei Bai and Wu Chang, floating lanterns, chains embedded into your bones. That you’ll hear weeping on the road to the Yellow Springs.

However, Xiao Wangye didn’t see those deities, nor did he see those lanterns. He didn’t even see the cold road to the Yellow Springs.

But he did see a carousel lantern in the distance.

It was like a warm stream, flowing slowly in front of his eyes.

However, the person depicted on the carousel lantern was someone who was also called Xiao YuAn. He even looked exactly the same as Xiao Wangye.

Of course, that man wasn’t Xiao Wangye.

The boy on the lantern was abandoned by his father from an early age. Even though he lived with mother and his physically disabled younger brother….

The hardships he had to endure didn’t wear away his optimism and strength.

In order to lighten his mother’s burden, the boy would take care of his younger brother.

But when he was six years old, his mother commited suicide by overdosing herself with pills.

The six-year-old boy huddled in a corner, hugging his younger brother as he cried. As if to vent all of his anxiety through tears.

When the boy grew up, and was finally able to become independent, the first thing he did was to look for his younger brother.

But, when he found him, his younger brother had already developed mental problems. The younger brother had manic episodes and was irritable. As soon as the younger brother saw the boy, he yelled at the boy, telling him to go die.

To make it worse, the boy then found out that he had a terminal illness.

…

When Xiao Wangye slowly opened his eyes, he felt a burst of unreal vertigo consuming him.

But he didn’t understand why he was waking up.

Next to him, there was a girl dressed in white. As she looked at him, the girl exclaimed: “Mr. Xiao is awake!”

Xiao Wangye inclined his head to look around, as he searched through his memory. Thanks to the memories given by the lantern, he was able to understand that this girl was a nurse, whose job was to take care of patients.

Although he was awake, Mr. Xiao couldn’t speak or move. He was injured after falling from a building, and if he wasn’t careful, he might suffer from internal bleeding.

Xiao Wangye laid in the hospital bed for two months.

He would go to sleep with the strong smell of medicine and disinfectant, every single day.

One day, he found a diary next to his hospital bed.

Although he was barely able to adapt to this new world, thanks to the memories given by the lantern, he still didn’t know much about this world. Hoping that the diary would help him a bit, Xiao Wangye opened it, finding that it was written by Xiao YuAn right after he found his younger brother.

The first page of the diary was written with so much excitement and thrill….

Xiao YuAn wrote: ‘I’ll be able to see my brother soon. I want to take good care of him for the rest of my life. I don’t want him to suffer any more grievances.’

But, the second page of the diary only had a few words: ‘He said he hated me, and that he wanted me to die.’

The third page of the diary said: ‘I’m going to send him to the best nursing home in the country. This way, he will definitely forgive me one day.’

After that, the diary was filled purely with his younger brother’s daily medication records. Not a single day was missing, and everything was written very meticulously.

Every once in a while, there would be two or three sentences after the medication records. Talking about Xiao YuAn’s visits to his younger brother, how he was received with beatings and scoldings every single time. Even though he experienced such aggravating things, these sentences would alway end with….

‘Today, my brother looked very energetic and happy.’

‘The nurse said that my brother had a good meal today, and that he was very happy as well.’

‘Today, my brother’s illness seems to be better. He also looks happier.’

Then, there was the last page….

The font was distorted, as if the pencil had trembled in Xiao YuAn’s hand. Probably because Xiao YuAn was afraid of what he was about to write.

He wrote: ‘I’m terminally ill, and I won’t be able to stay with my brother anymore. What should I do? What should I do? How can I be this useless? I couldn’t save my mother, and I won’t be able to help cure my brother. Besides, my brother still hates me….’

After that, Xiao YuAn didn’t write again.

But every word he wrote revealed the desperation and devastation he felt.

It was as if Xiao Wangye could see himself….

His self-loathing and worthlessness.

After reading the last words in the diary, the doctor suddenly pushed open the door. As he walked in, the doctor excitedly said: “Mr. Xiao, there’s a drug for your illness from abroad that has just entered the fourth phase in clinical trials! Would you like to try it?”

Xiao Wangye looked at the diary in his hand, meditated for a long time, and finally said: “I’ll try it.”

Six months later, a man walked into the nursing home on the outskirts of the city.

That man walked into a clean and luxurious ward, where he saw a man sitting in a wheelchair.

Before Xiao YuAn decided to die, he had handled everything for the future, so that his younger brother would never have to worry about food and clothing. Even giving him the chance of having a comfortable life. When the younger brother raised his head and saw the man in front of him, his eyes suddenly turned red. Then he sneered: “Weren’t you supposed to be dead?”

Xiao Wangye looked at him and quietly said: “I’m not dead, and I would like to try….”

The younger brother asked: “Try what?”

Xiao Wangye didn’t reply.

But he did say it inside his mind.

‘I want to use this rare opportunity of rebirth to try and live a much less miserable life.’