The Emperor’s Beloved Ugly Girl

5. The Journey

Translator: Iris Guo

“How is NingGuTa like? It is a piece of barren land where the prisoners are condemned to exile. Bones of the dead are everywhere, but souls are nowhere to be seen. The place is bitterly cold all the year round. Not even a blade of grass or corn grows, and even the rats are not willing to inhabit there, let alone human beings! I heard that most exiles couldn’t bear it and committed suicide before they got there. Even for those who had arrived there, few of them could survive a year! ”

“Ah!” A’Chou sighed and whispered “damn” several times in her heart.

Day: The third day of the third lunar month, the 32nd year of Jiasheng Reign

Location: The capital

According to the tradition, on the third day of the third lunar month, people were supposed to pay respects to ancestors. However, on such a nice day, Miss Duan Rulan got into the carriage to NingGuTa weeping and wailing. She did not have a ready-made wedding gown. Fortunately, Mrs. Duan still got her old wedding dress, and she helped her daughter put on it anyhow. A’Chou also wore a new dress. Although her dress was made of coarse linen, it was still much better than what she wore before.

There were two Imperial Guards escorting Duan Rulan to NingGuTa. One had dark skin, and the other was pale. Duan Chenghong scraped together ten liang of silver ingots[1] to give them. He also repeatedly begged them to take good care of his daughter along the way.

The pale guard took the ingots and grinned dully at Duan Chenghong. Then, he got on the carriage with his companion. With a whip, the horse ran at full speed towards the city gate.

In the carriage, Duan Rulan choked with sobs. A’Chou didn’t know how to comfort her, so she took out a handkerchief from the front part of her robe and gave it to Duan Rulan, but Duan Rulan cried even louder. Perhaps the guards got impatient with her, so they shouted a curse. Duan Rulan’s body trembled, and all of a sudden she covered her own mouth. The cry became weaker, but the tears still kept falling off her face.

While Duan Rulan was sobbing, A’Chou drew the curtains and looked out of the window. Serried liquor stores and restaurants, as well as signboards and joyous red lanterns hanging in front of them heaved into sight. It was the prosperity that she had never seen. A’Chou became an Imperial Maid when she was 4 years old, and she was always a maid for the next 12 years. The wall of the Imperial Palace isolated her from the whole world outside. At present, she finally stepped out of that wall, but she had to travel over land and water to a horrible place.

A’Chou gazed at a stall selling various candied haws on sticks. The haws were brilliant red, and the marshmallow gave off its original sweet smell. They were so tempting, and A’Chou never had a taste before.

She peered at a little boy who raised his head in front of the stall to pick the favorite, and her eyes were full of envy.

A’Chou kept staring at him until she could not see him when the carriage made a turn. Then she put down the curtains.

Duan Rulan was still crying, and she filled the crowdy space with her sadness and despair. It was so depressing that A’Chou got out of breath. It would take at least two months to arrive at NingGuTa, and A’Chou didn’t know how to get over it.

Day: The fifth day of the fourth lunar month, the 32nd year of Jiasheng Reign

Location: Tongliao

After a month of ride, they arrived at Tongliao on the Qingming Festival. Spring came when they first hit the road. However, the local weather was even colder than that of the capital one month ago. A’Chou found a cloak from their luggage and put it on Duan Rulan’s shoulder, while she just randomly dug out a shabby blanket to wrap herself.

They booked three rooms in a courier hostel, one for the guards, one for Duan Rulan, and one for A’Chou. From a formally rich and powerful family, Miss Duan had lived in a big house since she was a kid. Although her family was in straitened circumstances, she became even prouder. There was no chance that she would crowd into one room with others, not to mention with A’Chou, who was such an inferior maid.