Dreaming With My Dragon Lover - Chapter 137

The two of them got dressed and drove into town.

It has snowed during the night and everywhere is covered in white. The red walls and yellow tiles look quite beautiful against the backdrop of white snow, bringing the city back to its original old charm.

Yuan Ge points to the empty streets and says, “It’s only at this time of year that Beijing feels like what it used to be, because all the out towners have gone back home for the Chinese New Year. I don’t have anything against the out towners in particular, but the city is really too crowded on a normal day. It’s only during these days that we can take advantage of the relatively small number of people and can slow down and really experience the leisurely pace of the old Beijingers of yesteryear, the way they carried their birdcages and chatted with their friends.”

“Indeed, although the Imperial City was the capital of the Empire in my time, back then it was still a small city with fewer people compared to today. As the poem says, things are here but people are not; a hundred years of vicissitudes, a snap of the fingers; everything is like a spring dream, vanishing without a trace.”

Seeing that Rong Qiuchen has become emotional again, Yuan Ge hurriedly says, “Don’t you give me ‘tears flow before words are spoken'[1] line! I know a place that has stayed pretty much the same as before, even though everywhere else has changed dramatically over the years. Would you like to go and see it together?”

“Where does Gege refer to? Is it the Rong Mansion? That was the only place I have seen that remained largely the same as before, but all the furnishings of the mansion were long gone, making it feel so empty and bleak.”

“You’ve been hanging out in the Rong Mansion for so long and you probably already know the place like the back of your hand. Will I be so uncreative as to take you to a place you know so well on the first day of the New Year? Let me find a parking spot first. It will be much easier for us to walk around in town.”

Feeling the rare tranquillity of the New Year and the fresh spring air, the two get out of the car and walk on the thin snow on the ground towards the grandest building complex in the heart of the old town.

It is only when Rong Qiuchen sees the nine horizontal and nine vertical nails on the majestic vermillion gates of the Imperial City that it dawns on him, “Is the unchanging place that Gege is talking about the Forbidden City?”

Yuan Ge has a very pleased look on his face, “Yes! If you want to get nostalgic, isn’t that the best place to do it?”

Ignoring Rong Qiu Chen’s frightened look and his attempts to retreat, Yuan Ge pulls him along and walks leisurely with him into the Forbidden City.

Rong Qiuchen has never experienced what it is like to enter the Forbidden City through the Meridian Gate. He walks as if in a trance along the path leading to the three main palaces, trembling all over yet feeling all stiff. It is not until he has reached the Hall of Supreme Harmony that he raises his head and looks up. Seeing the snow-covered eaves of the hipped halls standing solemnly, the flying dragons on the imperial path and the bronze tortoises carved on the stone slopes, evoking the nostalgia for the old days and telling of the changes in history, he suddenly falls to his knees and bows down towards the tall palace to pay his respect formally.

“Don’t be like that! You have long hair and now you’re kneeling down like this, people would really think you’re an old codger from a feudal dynasty!”

Yuan Ge knows that his words will fall on deaf ears, so he hurries to help Rong Qiuchen fasten his hat tightly to cover his long hair. Although it is early in the morning on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and the weather is cold, and the Forbidden City is sparsely populated with visitors, it still looks odd for Rong Qiuchen to be kneeling like this.

“Friends and family are gone, leaving me alone in this world.

The past is set in the past, and everything has been buried.

The Hall of Supreme Harmony stands as it has always been,

Carrying the sorrows of the world in vain …”

Rong Qiuchen has tried very hard to hold back his tears, but still cannot help but tear up, “In the past, every time I was summoned to sing in the palace, I was led by eunuchs, watched over by imperial guards, and entered through the corner gate to the inner palace. Not only did I never have the chance to see the majesty of the first three main halls, even when I walked around in the garden of the inner palace, I had to be respectful and solemn, not daring to overstep the mark in terms of etiquette and demeanour, lest the slightest slip might bring death to people in the Jinyu Troupe. Who would have thought that even ordinary people would be allowed to enter this place now? And there are no more emperors or the empress dowagers? I feel every day that I am in a dream of some kind. Everything is simply too unbelievable.”

Hearing him say that, Yuan Ge pretends to be a little displeased, “You’ve been with me for so many days already and you still treat everything as a daydream, huh?”

Rong Qiuchen turns back and looks at him solemnly, “I dare not forget for a moment the kindness of Gege in rescuing me and taking me in. You are my only link to this world. Without you, I would not be able to survive in this world alone.”

When Yuan Ge hears him say this, he hurriedly replies, “You don’t have to say it so seriously. You and I … are kindred spirits who have hit it off at first sight, so talking about saving lives and so on sounds too artificial. You’ve been inspiring my art too, so there’s no need for us to be so polite and formal with each other.”

Rong Qiuchen shakes his head gently, turns back to face the palace, bows again towards the hipped hall with its thousand flying eaves, and then clasps his hands together, as if praying silently for something in his heart.

Seeing how solemn he appears, Yuan Ge doesn’t want to disturb him and quietly waits aside for him to get up before saying, “Come on, let’s continue our stroll. Let me take you to the Palace of Gathered Elegance to see where your idol Empress Dowager Cixi started out, as well as the Studio of Unimpeded Sound and the theatre at the Changchun Palace, which are definitely more nostalgic.” Suddenly he lets out a sigh, “Ever since I was a child, every time I’ve been here I’ve thought the Forbidden City was amazing. If only ‘Qingqing’ could rent the venue here for filming… Ahem, Actually I’m the one who is daydreaming!”

“Why do you say that, Gege? If all the common people are now allowed to enter the Forbidden City, why are they not allowed to build a stage to sing?”

“Tourists are not a problem, but film crews using it as a filming location can cause a lot of damage to the monuments and will definitely affect tourism. There used to be the film The Last Emperor, and the TV series Legendary Qianlong, which did use the Forbidden City as a filming location. But after that, all filming had to use fake sets made in the film city, and no more crews were granted that privilege by the Forbidden City.”

Yuan Ge looks at the red walls and yellow tiles of the Forbidden City that have been through the ages and mutters to himself, “King Guan Entertainment’s new film is about the Embroidered Uniform Guards and has quite a few scenes in the palaces and their inner courts. I wonder if they have the means to go into the Forbidden City for filming…”

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[1]  “Things are there but people are not”; “A hundred years of vicissitudes, a snap of the fingers”; “Everything is like a spring dream, vanishing without a trace” and “Tears flow before words are spoken” are all lines from famous Chinese poems.