Chapter 506: Recognizing Her at First Glance

The light spread inch by inch to the right.

Among several azure dresses, sat a noble lady dressed in a Chest-High Short-coat Dress, her hair done up in a Cloud Flowing Hairbun, typical of an unmarried girl, adorned with a Hairpin Flower and a Step Shake, sitting upright and playing the zither—after a brief silence, the crisp and clean sound of the zither flowed in every corner of the hall.

Bo Yanching had just lit a cigarette.

He sat in the front row on the right, had greeted the reporters early, and nobody who valued their eyes would dare to take his picture.

But it was a public place after all, and Yaen Chi quietly reminded, “Brother Yan, bear with it.

Should I go out and smoke with you?”

Bo Yanching didn’t look at him.

Yaen Chi glanced at his watch, “Wasn’t it said that Chu Yao and Jiaojiao are in the same program?

Why is it only her?

Let me ask someone?”

Bo Yanching swallowed and said, “Don’t distract me.”

His eyes were solely on the stunning beauty playing the zither.

Yaen Chi was momentarily puzzled, looked at Bo Yanching, and then back at the stage— he recognized Chu Yao, but the other lady…

She wore a half-concealing mask, the Tassel veiled the lower half of her face, making it semi-visible.

Her features were unclear, only her eyes clean and pure, untouched by the mundane world, complemented by the music, vaguely suggesting the shyness of a bride-to-be.

And Chu Yao, still standing on the battlefield that looked like ruins, under the dim light, she gazed longingly toward the direction from which the zither music emanated.

“Is that, Jiaojiao?”

Just as Yaen Chi spoke, a segment of ash fell onto his trousers.

Bo Yanching had not smoked since lighting his cigarette, the ash had simply fallen off by itself.

He had never seen Bo Yanching so intensely focused.

He was absolutely unblinking.

“Don’t distract me.” Bo Yanching spoke in a low voice, pinched out the cigarette, and crossed his hands, fingers awkwardly touching each other.

Even behind a mask, Bo Yanching still recognized her.

At that moment, she was understated yet so dazzling.

Suddenly, the sound of the zither became frantic.

Chu Yao’s environment was no longer a battlefield; she was bestowed a marriage but defied the decree, and her whole family was taken to the execution ground.

Chu Yao, riding a fierce horse, rescued her family from the executioner.

At that time, she, with her hair in a married woman’s bun, cast off her dress, confronted the imperial envoy with furious words.

She refused to marry, preferring to don armor and fight in her father’s stead on the battlefield, pleading only for the emperor to spare her now destitute royal family.

Chu Yao drank a bowl of wine, which was to honor the Great Envoy, but before he could touch it, she drank it all by herself, smashed the bowl, took up a long spear, and galloped away.

Unfortunately, unfortunately, fate was unjust.

In the last battle, Chu Yao repelled the enemy but never saw the reinforcements arrive; she became an abandoned piece of the imperial court, becoming a prisoner of the enemy.

At the end, at the very end.

She endured until she faced the leader of the enemy’s remnants, spat in his face, and then took her life with her own spear.

Dressed in red, she lay on the yellow sand, her blood seeping into the sand, the light dimming layer by layer, from fiery brightness to complete darkness.

In the vast heaven and earth, only the tragically dead Female General remained.

The sound of the zither ceased, the last note snapping a string.

The venue was deathly silent.

For a long time, no one clapped, fearing even a slight noise might disturb the woman who died under the weight of national righteousness.

She should have had a carefree life, but because her father was a renowned Great General in his youth and there were no males in her family, only she, a daughter, a decree forcing her marriage separated her from the one she loved.

Unwilling to marry another, she was forced from a maiden into a Female General donned in armor, blocking the last wave of the enemy forces with her own body, and even her corpse was blown up with the enemy due to the bound explosives.