Our Infinite Fates

MY SECRET SWEETHEART AND I strolled down Imperial Boulevard, our hands brushing but never touching. We were two boys of seventeen, something sweet and heady blossoming between us like the pear trees that lined the banks of the Bian River. I was the son of the emperor’s favourite concubine, and Sun Tao was a sword-swallower famous far beyond the entertainment quarter, and we were so delicious and so scandalous and so right .

‘Do you want to be emperor some day?’ asked Sun Tao, biting wetly into an overripe peach he had plucked from a tree.

‘No. I do not have the stomach for it.’ I let my palm drift idly over the black fence running along the bank of the river, fighting the urge to lace my fingers through Sun Tao’s. ‘I would rather set a snake loose in my chaofu than dole out a punishment.’

Ahead of us was the Xuande Gate, painted a stark blood red and adorned with golden tacks. Its walls were decorated with phoenixes and floating clouds; two glazed dragons bit down on each end of the rooftop ridge, tails arched into the dusky sky. The Imperial Corridors lined either side of the river, merchants hawking their wares from makeshift shops notched into the corridors. Bolts of silk spilled into the street, and I longed to examine each one in detail, to imagine the luxurious garments they could be stitched into.