The Woman In The Palace

The New Prince

I felt something popped, then something inside me suddenly burst spilling cloudy water down my legs that quickly spread on my back soaking on the bed. My water broke and I knew it was time for me to have the baby.

My panicked eyes wandered into Yuan but he had already read my mind, he knew the baby was coming, turning the heel as to fetch the imperial physician on standby outside the door and rushed him inside.

It was the same man who visited numerous times a long time ago, back when I first arrived in the palace. The one who kept prescribing me medicinal herbs for my stress and phantom sickness and I had assumed he'd been promoted as one of the top imperial physicians since Yuan practically fired every member of his imperial ministry of health.

His familiar face coaxed me into calmness.

"Having a baby?" He asked as he rushed inside.

I heave lungful of anxious breathes, wanting to yell at him for asking the obvious. "Yes!"

He yanked the sheets that Yuan had neatly place over me without considering the emperor who stood and towered just behind him. A heavy hand landed on his shoulder to pull him back, it wasn't Yuan's but it was his behemoth guardsman.

The physicians already enormous eyes blew a few times bigger out of fright, and whimpered. For a moment I thought he would pee his pants, but Yuan waved his hand asking his guardsman to let go.

The physician inclined himself into a deep bow. "I beg your pardon, your highness. But I must ask for the privacy of the patient and the privacy of the room."

Yuan stared at him undeterred, I imagined the emperor didn't like being told what to do even if it's a matter of emergency.

"I need to be able to perform my job without the notion of being threatened. It is for the sake of the future crown prince's health. Please, I need my steady hands comes time when I pull the baby out and having a threatening man behind me will prevent all that."

Yuan loosened his shoulders, he waved for his guardsman to leave but he made it known he was there to stay.

The physician thanked the emperor for his consideration before asking for his assistants to come in.

The labor took an exhausting half a day, ten hours passed, after my entire body swelled as it prepared itself for childbirth. I was already wearing out when my baby finally decided he was ready for the world.

I never knew what an angel sounded like until I heard the cries of my own child. My son was born and for a moment, the world stopped as he made everything alright. All my worries and my fear went away knowing I just brought a precious life into this world.

Though this feeling of security and happiness will not last, because I will not be able to hold my own child when he was given to the emperor to hold right away.

Yuan was a picture-perfect father. The impression of a ruthless man had all vanished and disappeared as he held my son into his arms, he smiled his rare gentle smile and lifted his eyes to me. Yuan walked over with the baby cradled protectively and planted his soft kiss over the sweat coated skin of my forehead.

"He's precious, Jas." He said and withdrew away.

The world spun taking me spinning with it. My eyelids grew heavy as my senses weakened, I was exhausted and the next natural thing to happen was for me to fall asleep.

I woke up in a room different than what I'm used to. This was not the same chamber as the emperor housed me in. My eyes wandered around as I took in the unfamiliar setting when I heard the groan of a man I'm so intent of hating.

Yuan was there, he sat on the edge of the bed as he watched me and I wondered how long had he sat there with his eyes on me. I felt a ripple of disgust swallowed me. He leaned and hovered over with his long hair, smooth and shiny as a raven's feather. It dangled and curtained my face. If I didn't hate him I would have given this moment a chance to be romantic, but I hated him.

I refused to look at him, I refused his dark manipulative eyes from penetrating mine. Yuan brought his hand to my face and stoke the softness of my cheek with his idle finger. Something about the way he dragged his fingers so slow made my skin crawl.

"Are you upset with me, Jasmine?" He asked silently.

"Where is my son?!" I asked in a soft snarl.

"Don't worry about Hoon."

Hoon? He named my baby after his dead brother, after my dead husband.

"Hoon?" I moaned, drifting my eyes to him, betraying myself for even looking at him.

He smiled tenderly, "I knew you would like that name."

I would be lying if I say I didn't.

"Where's Hoon?" I asked again.

"Don't worry about Hoon, he's surrounded by a team of expert people taking care of him right now. Our son is healthy and safe."

I almost spat at his face when he said our son.

"Ru Shi took him away." I said sharply but Yuan just continued staring at me as if he hadn't heard me said anything. "Did you hear me Yuan? Ru Shi took Hoon away!"

He loosened a sharp exhale. His soft face disappeared as he leaned away. Yuan was suddenly ready to leave again and I panicked trying to stop him. "Wait, where are you going?"

"Rest, Jasmine. I'm afraid I must return to my duties."

"Don't leave yet, I want to see Hoon, I have the right to my son."

Yuan slipped his robes back on his shoulders smooth and easy with calculated casualness. "Relax, you'll see Hoon soon enough. I'm not so evil that I will prevent my son from seeing his own mother."

He turned around and walked back to me, he kissed my cheek before heading over the heavy metal doors with heavily arm guards guarding it.

By the time I finished taking in the condition of my new room. The hard-thick walls, the lack of widows, the stone floor, I realized I was being held in one of the royal prison chamber built for nobles and royal prisoners. Yuan moved me to a fancy prison inside the palace.