All was quiet except for the crunching snow beneath Ye An's feet. With each step, her boots sunk two feet deep into the pristine snow. Ye An huffed breathlessly as she planted her feet in front of her, each step an effort, her breath puffing into billows of white smoke that disappeared into the night. She could feel the skin on her feet wrinkling from the water that had melted from the snow that entered her boots. Ye An tugged the fur coat that was draped over her body closer to the core of her body heat.
Small clumps of snow started flittering down gently and landed on Ye An's hair. She stopped and gazed up upon the night sky. The crescent moon was hiding behind fluffy snow clouds, half of its beauty hidden away. But the other half that was on display illuminated Ye An's rosy cheeks. Ye An couldn't help but feel a sudden wave of loneliness. One hand twitched at her side, itching for her guzheng back at the Imperial Palace. It had been a long time since she felt this way.
She was past the stage of anger, beyond the point of crying. All Ye An felt was a hollowness in her chest. Her eyes dropped down to the bare branches of the trees around her that were reaching out to each other and encasing her in their suffocating embrace, pushing down onto her until she was on her knees. Ye An couldn't breathe. The frigid air that she was frantically pulling into her lungs cut into her throat like daggers.
Breathe.
Ye An started. Who was that?
Breathe.
Was that.. Was that Xi Chen?
Keep going, Ye An. Keep your head up and follow the path.
Was she hallucinating? Ye An shook her head to get a grip on herself but it only made her feel dizzy. The whites and the shades of grey and black of the wintry forest whorled into an unrecognizable vision.
And then all was black.
*******
Ye An jolted awake. It was still night. She whirled her head frantically at the unfamiliar surroundings and immediately regretted it as another bout of dizziness hit her. When her eyes managed to focus and adjust to the low light, she realized that she was in a simple room.
The size of the room was somewhere between Xi Chen's quarters at the barracks and Ye An's chambers back in the Imperial Palace, but everything was made out of bamboo. The walls, the windows that were somehow opened in the dead winter, the floors, and even the bed frame were made out of bamboo. Ye An could even discern the shape of what she guessed as bamboo tables with a couple of bamboo chairs in the far corner of the room even though they were shrouded by shadows.
The winter breeze traveled through the opened window by Ye An's bed and caressed her cheeks. She shivered from the cold and naturally went to pull the fur coat that was over her shoulders and realized that it wasn't there anymore. Ye An searched around her and found the coat neatly folded at the foot of the bed. She then realized that she had a thick blanket over her and a soft mattress underneath her. It wasn't as thick as the ones in the Imperial Palace, but it was thick enough for one to sleep somewhat comfortably.
Ye An jumped when the door suddenly creaked open, its sound amplified in contrast to the quietness of the night.
"Oh! Sorry, miss! I didn't mean to frighten you! I didn't know you were awake." An elderly woman with a kind face fussed and apologized. She held a lantern in one hand which illuminated her face. On the other hand, she tucked a basin of water at her side.
Ye An remained guarded, the muscles in her shoulders knotted into a tight bundle across her back.
The elderly woman seemed to notice Ye An's wariness and smiled sadly. She padded in regardless. "I was just going to give you a wipe-down. You have.. Blood on you. A lot of blood."
YOU ARE READING
THE DAY EMPEROR: 阳明王 【The Night Emperor Book 2】
Historical Fiction"There are enough bad things in life, hold on to whatever it is that gives you joy." In the months after Ye An had ascended to the throne, she has learned about all the secrets that were kept from her. Secrets that had spanned generations. But is th...
